Monday-Quantico, Virginia

"Whoa, what is all this?" Prentiss exclaimed as she stepped into Rossi's office. Rossi and JJ were watching in amazement as Garcia laid out baked goodies on the table next to Rossi's desk. Morgan was playfully batting a roll of ribbon with Reid, who was sitting on the floor next to him.

Garcia turned around with a crazed and delighted look on her face. " Hotch comes back today. So I decided to bake in celebration."

"Penn, baking a cake is for celebration," Prentiss stated as she approached the table. She counted two basket of muffins and three trays of cupcakes. " This is just- what were you baking on speed or something?"

"No, it was Garcia in full badass mode," joked JJ. She looked over to Rossi, who was stifling a laugh. "Hey, I bake in times of goodness and happiness. It was one of those days!" the technical analyst exclaimed. " Plus, if Hotch doesn't eat them, you all will. I saw you steal two cupcakes already, Rossi."

Rossi leaned back in his chair and gave her an innocent look. " I do not know what you speak of, but if I did, I would say that they were excellent, especially the cinnamon. "

"Ooh, cinnamon?" Reid asked. He looked up to the table and eyed a large cupcake with blue frosting. " I want one!"

"No, my boy wonder, not until Hotch gets here. "

"Hey, this can make up for when I got shot and you didn't bake me anything," Reid quirked as he pushed himself off the wall toward the cupcake. He grabbed it and landed back on his butt and bit into the cupcake.

"Kid, how is it?" Morgan asked. He tossed the ribbon into the air while Reid swallowed. " It's actually really good. Besides cinnamon, what's in it?"

"The magician never reveals her secret," Garcia answered. She put her hands in a position to catch the ribbon from Morgan, but heard a voice say, "Hey." She turned around quickly to see Hotch standing at the door with a black backpack over his shoulder.

"Hey, you. You're here," Garcia squealed. She walked over to Hotch and gave him a warm hug. He smiled and whispered, " Thanks, Penn."

JJ gave him a welcoming smile. " Welcome back, Hotch."

"Thank you. Thanks to all of you. It feels good to be back."

Prentiss smiled. " Good to have you back."

The Next Morning

White male, educated, probably grew up in an abusive home…Hotch read while leaning forward in his chair. He heard a giggle come from the desk across from him, which was Prentiss'. Reid and she was huddled over Reid's desk, giggling. Hotch stood up and walked over to them.

"That wouldn't work, Spence. We would have to go down the emergency escape-"

Hotch interrupted, " What are you two doing?"

"Huh? Oh hey, Hotch," Reid answered. He half expected Hotch to reprimand him even though he was no longer in charge.

"What's that?" Hotch asked, keeping an eye on the paper under Reid's hand.

"It's nothing- it's a little doodle that I made." Reid pushed the paper towards Hotch, who picked it up and eyed it. A relaxed expression came onto his face as he asked, " You guys are making an escape route out of here? Did you do this when I was the Unit Chief?"

"No, not escape routes persay….but you know- on those long days where we would do endless paperwork, we would doodle or do puzzles for breaks. Sorry."

"I'm not mad." Hotch gave the paper another quick glance before saying, " Emily is right, Spencer. You would have to take the emergency route, which would get you spotted by security cameras in a heartbeat."

"Ha! I told you!" Prentiss exclaimed as she leaned on her desk and looked to Hotch. " We never procrastinated or acted irresponsibly, Aaron. It's just….you know."

She narrowed her eyes and asked cautiously, " So…..what do you think we should do with our escape route- I say take the backroom stairs by Garcia's office." She half expected him to not responded, but he stated, " Believe it or not, I had my fun moments before I became Unit Chief. Strauss takes lunch around 2 every day so that would be the only time that one could take the back door without getting caught by her."

Prentiss laughed and exclaimed, " I like it. I have to say there is whole other side of you that I'm beginning to like." Suddenly they heard Rossi approach and say, " We have a case."

Reid looked up in surprise. " Seriously? "

"Yep, we have a case in Hazelwood, Missouri. All the other squads are away on cases so that means we're are up," Rossi stated, " They have a serial sniper that is on a rampage against working women. The police want us there as soon as possible so we will be briefed on the plane. Wheels up in thirty."

Andrews Air Base

Hotch sat down in the chair across from Prentiss and glanced out the window. As the rest of the team boarded the jet, he felt his mind wander back to the last time that he had been on the jet many months ago.

"Hotch?" Prentiss called out, crossing her legs and giving him a cheerful smile. "You alright?"

"Yeah- I'm ok," he answered softly. He returned a smile as Rossi sat down and put on his seatbelt. The new Unit Chief looked back to the old Unit Chief and asked, " Ready?"

Hotch nodded and answered, " I'm ready. I'd like to go over the case right now, if that's alright with you." No need in being overly nostalgic- it's been awhile and I-we need to get down to business.

"Alright," Garcia via webcam said, " So we have a spur of killings around the area where working women are being shot down via sniper rifle, specifically, a Barett M82. Police found that these women all work in higher up jobs like one woman owned her own company, another was the manager of the best clothing store in town, by the way- Jay and Emily, you should really check out the store if you get a chance-"

"Baby girl!" Morgan called out.

"Oh, sorry, Baby boo, pretty clothes distract me. Anyway, he does it in bright daylight in heavy populated areas where no one can see him."

"I'm thinking a male feeling emasculated since these women are all powerful professionals . Also, to know what these women do, he has to be able to watch them, stalk them even, so probably unemployed," Reid stated.

"He might be married-a man with sniper training like that, may be a veteran that isn't adjusting to coming home jobless with a wife that has more power than him," Hotch added. He narrowed his eyes in annoyance when everyone smiled at him as if he were a child and thought, I know I was gone for a bit, but I'm not rusty!

"That makes sense; he's calculated when he does these attacks. It's like he sees this as an actual military mission," Rossi stated, catching Hotch's annoyance.

"So something made him lose control. With the amount of veterans coming home with PTSD, that's going to be hard to match a profile."

"Well, the population of Hazelwood is less than 30,000 if that helps. Anything else my pretties, besides of course looking at all of the veterans in that town?" Garcia piped.

"No, dear. Thanks," Rossi thanked.

"Alright, come back home safe and happy, my pretties. Garcia, over and out."

Lambert-St Louis Airport- 6 miles from Hazelwood, Missouri

"Aaron?" Rossi called as the two men approached the two FBI issued SUVs sitting on the tarmac. Hotch turned and responded, "Yes?"

"Don't mind everyone- I think they're being super cautious and super giddy about your first case back. I have a feeling people are going to put you on a learning curve for awhile including the Hazelwood police department. Somehow, people know of what happened so just be prepared for anything."

"I understand," Hotch responded, " The last time I was on a case, it didn't end well. But Dave, can you please talk to them about the-"

"Puppy dog eyes? Yeah, I saw it too and I'll talk to them about it." Rossi opened the driver's side of the SUV and jumped in. Hotch entered as well and said, " I wonder if they think I haven't noticed it."

"Probably not." Both man smiled before following the SUV with the rest of the team towards the police station.