A/N: I'm not in a good mood. College is sucking right now, and I had wanted to have this chapter up a week ago. Unfortunately I had both a five page paper and an exam due in the same week, one day after another. Which meant I couldn't write to destress. I hope you can forgive me, this one is short and it's been about two weeks since I posted the last chapter. I'll try to be quicker about posting chapter 3, and hopefully it'll be longer too. Enjoy!
Chapter 2- Profiles And Past Demons
June 17th, 1997.
Chicago, IL.
Rossi tried to focus on the movie and found he couldn't, the case and his family being in close proximity to the unsub was bothering him. Rossi was grateful Angie wasn't able to pick up on the fact he was worried. She was smiling and spearing syrup-covered pieces of pancake with her fork as the sequence through Halloweentown eventually led to the unveiling of Jack Skellington.
"So when are you going to build the profile?" said Angie.
"Today," said Rossi.
Angie smiled and ate another piece of pancake. Rossi wished more than anything at this moment he wasn't on a case. He knew the minute he and Hotch left the house to look at the parts of the three separate bombs that Katherine would say something uncalled for just because she could. She hadn't always been like that. She had once been very loving, a devoted cop's wife who had wanted a large family but the doctors had had to give Katherine a hysterectomy when she had almost bled out while giving birth to Angie.
The change in Katherine had been almost instantaneous. She had gone from being the perfect mother at first to becoming so overprotective that Rossi was sure if the woman didn't change her ways she would drive Angie away when the girl hit her teen years.
CRIMINAL MINDS
"Who's the new guy?" said Angie.
As if on cue, Hotch walked into the TV room.
"Those smell good," said Hotch. "Who made them?"
"I did," said Rossi. "Plenty left for you before we go to the precinct to look at the pieces of the bombs."
Hotch warily looked at the pancakes and bottle of syrup in the kitchen. He wasn't sure how good of a cook Rossi was. What if he got food poisoning?
That was when he heard laughter. The source was a young girl with brown hair and hazel eyes. Hotch remembered the photo of Angie and realized it was the same girl.
"What's so funny?" said Hotch.
"You're about to catch someone similar to Timothy McVeigh and you're worried about getting food poisoning?" said Angie.
Hotch and Rossi had an idea.
"Do you know what McVeigh was convicted of?" said Hotch.
"Oklahoma City Bombing," said Angie.
"Did he act alone?" said Rossi.
"No," said Angie. "Hey! School's out, no quizzes allowed!"
"Too late," said Hotch.
"Don't worry, you passed," said Rossi.
"Who's your friend?" said Angie.
Rossi introduced Hotch and Angie and couldn't help but notice how they were sizing each other up.
"What did you do before?" said Angie.
"I was a prosecutor," said Hotch.
The three of them talked and finished their breakfast before Rossi and Hotch had to go to the precinct with Michael.
"We'll be back later," said Michael.
After they left Angie went back to bed. She didn't want her mother spoiling the good mood she was in.
CRIMINAL MINDS
Rossi and Hotch looked at all three reassembled bombs, watching as Lou put some final pieces together. Michael and Bobby stood nearby observing. Both detectives looked like they had aged ten years overnight. Lou simply had a grim look on his face.
"Is this even helping?" said Lou.
"Everything helps," said Rossi.
"How is a profile supposed to help us catch this guy? I'm not skeptical, I just haven't been a detective that long," said Bobby.
"It's the only way to catch him now," said Michael. "Whoever this guy is, he won't stop until he's dead."
CRIMINAL MINDS
Rossi and Hotch never thought they'd be standing in front of the entire Chicago police department and giving a profile, but they were.
Rossi also noticed that Michael was the only one who looked confident in him. Then again, it had always been like that for the brothers.
FLASHBACK
July 4th, 1973.
Commack, Long Island, NY.
Rossi and Michael walked through a cemetery, lit sparklers in their hands.
"Where's Emma?" said Michael.
"I left her with Ray," said Rossi.
"Speak of the devil. Did you see that girl he had with him? Had to be a hooker," said Michael.
The brothers laughed and dueled with the sparklers.
"I heard Mom yelling at you this morning. Did you really join the marines?" said Michael.
"Yeah," said Rossi. "I start basic training in a week."
"Don't worry, I'm confident you'll survive being a marine," said Michael. "However, if you do die can I have your car?"
The brothers put the sparklers down and play-fought in the cemetery.
END FLASHBACK
Rossi stared at the detectives before him. Lou looked unsure, and Bobby was simply staring at them.
Michael nodded at the agents, as if he was silently saying he had faith in the profile.
"We're looking for a man between the ages of 35 and 50 with experience that involves explosives," said Rossi. "He's blue collar, probably a construction worker or has military experience."
"C-4 and TNT were components in each bomb, look at reports over the past two months of any of those explosives reported missing, our unsub needed time to plan this," said Hotch.
"He's going after restaurants in the South Side that have liquor licenses and teens as about half to two-thirds of their customer base," said Rossi. "Our unsub most likely lost someone to an alcohol-related death."
"Look up anything and everything in your files where the cause of death was directly related to or directly caused by alcohol served to a minor at a restaurant," said Hotch. "Narrow the fatalities to anyone under 18, this unsub was their next of kin and possibly a parent as well. Narrow it even further to where a sole male relative claimed the body of the victim, that relative is possibly the unsub."
"The first two bombs were elaborate, the third was haphazardly thrown together," said Rossi. "He either has or had a partner, with a scientific background. The partner is female, between the ages of 24 and 29."
"I don't mean to sound skeptical, but how do we know the partner is a woman?" said Bobby.
"A woman wouldn't want to inflict harm on children, the third bombing did just that," said Rossi. "She was affected just like our unsub, they possibly had a relationship that rose up from a similar tragedy occurring in her own life."
"They possibly met at a support group for grieving family members," said Hotch. "We find out how our unsub tried to cope with his loss, we can find the partner and bring her in, if she knows he's killing people we can try getting her to cooperate with us."
"Something made this unsub go from blowing up empty restaurants to blowing them up when they were filled to capacity," said Rossi. "The partner either leaving him or something else happening to her is more than likely a second stressor."
"Look for deaths of women fitting that description occurring between the dates the second and third restaurants were bombed, or women who left Chicago in that same timeframe," said Hotch.
CRIMINAL MINDS
June 18th, 1997.
Chicago, IL.
The unsub quickly began working on his fourth creation. He couldn't wait to start the fifth one.
After all, the fifth one was going to be his biggest and would hopefully kill the most people…
CRIMINAL MINDS
Katherine looked for Angie and noticed her daughter was swimming in the pool Michael had had installed years ago. Katherine went outside.
"You need to come inside before you turn into a prune," said Katherine.
"Five more minutes," said Angie.
"It's almost dinnertime sweetie," said Katherine.
She knew even before she was finished saying the words that that plea was fruitless. The heat wave hadn't let up yet, and Michael and the others were still at the precinct. She heard the door open and saw Rossi.
"Where's Michael?" said Katherine.
"He had something to do," said Rossi.
CRIMINAL MINDS
Michael walked until he found the gravestone of his former partner.
Benjamin Morgan
1956-1986
Beloved Father, Husband, and Police Officer
Michael knelt down in front of the stone, remembering how his days in patrol had once been. Benjamin had been a good cop and an even better man. They were rarely made like that in Chicago anymore.
FLASHBACK
September 13th, 1986
Michael and Benjamin were driving around with Benjamin's son Derek in the back.
"So you guys always drive around like this?" said Derek.
"Yeah," said Benjamin.
A call came over about a robbery in progress at a convenience store. Michael immediately sped towards the location to track the robber down.
"You gonna catch him?" said Derek.
"Course we are, your Uncle Michael is the fastest driver on the force," said Benjamin.
"Kid, I can drive faster than the Batman," said Michael.
They managed to catch up with the robber, who was trying to flee on foot. Seeing that he was cornered, the robber emptied his gun at Benjamin and Michael before running away.
The last thing Michael could remember doing before everything went black was making an 'Officer Down' call on his radio, and Derek kneeling over his father's body.
END FLASHBACK
Michael didn't remember much after that. He knew that Katherine had told him Ben had died from a single gunshot wound to the head, and that he had almost died himself.
Michael still felt guilt ridden about being unable to save his partner. He had taken the detective exam shortly after getting out of the hospital and had aced it with flying colors, effectively ending his days on patrol.
As he left the cemetery and headed home where his wife, daughter, and even his brother were, a homeless woman jumped in front of his car. He slammed on the brakes and the woman began banging his car with her cane. He carefully stepped out, hoping to diffuse the situation. The woman immediately turned around and stared at him.
"Three days!" the woman rasped. "Three days time you will be judged before god!"
She cackled madly and hobbled away.
Did anyone pick up on the mention of a certain BAU character and his past in this chapter? I'd like to hear if anyone got it.