Author's Note: Okay, here it is! The first original chapter of the story. This took forever to write. Without a canon to follow, it gets a little difficult. Hopefully, this chapter works well enough for you readers. This chapter is solely meant to introduce a potential new team member. Who? You'll just have to read to find out.

Thanks so much being such great readers so far! I looked at the views on the previous chapter this morining and they truly skyrocketed. You guys are seriously awesome. I'm going to feel absolutely awful about making you guys wait so long between chapters while I finish the rest of this story. But thanks for being such great readers! And don't worry, I'll post them as soon as I can!

A quick note: This is my first completely original chapter and also my first case fic. I apologize in advance if it sucks.

One other thing: I understand that there was some disappointment about there not being any romance last chapter. I wrote that chapter with the idea of drama in mind and to give JJ a better look at the tragedy Reid had suffered. Unfortunately, the next few chapters won't include much romance either. But it will be back eventually. I promise that.

Anyway, this takes place a few weeks after Strauss's death and the team's success of defeating John Curtis.

Remember to review and enjoy the story!

June 12th, 2013: Quantico, VA

It was the first case in three weeks. The BAU went on mandatory stand down as everyone tried to cope with the events that took place recently. They had lost Erin Strauss to the now-deceased John Curtis, a.k.a. the Replicator. Curtis was dead, but that hardly made up for losing Erin. Rossi was hit the hardest. They were together for about a year, so it was easy to understand.

It was a hard year for most of the team. Rossi losing Erin to the Replicator, Spencer losing Maeve to her stalker, Morgan's past coming back to haunt him. They had gotten through it but it still hurt.

But they had to focus now. They had a murder/stalker case in the local D.C. area. They would be working with a highly-recommended FBI cadet on the case. Who, they didn't know. All they knew is that this cadet was being highly considered to be assigned to the BAU and join the team.

The victim was a high school teacher named Janice Reynolds. She was one of two choir teachers at a local high school. Meanwhile, evidence had been found that members of one of the choirs were being stalked. Reid, JJ, and Morgan all showed up at the murder scene while Hotch, Rossi, and Blake checked with the detectives at the station.

When Reid, JJ, and Morgan showed up at the scene, the FBI cadet was already there checking out the scene. He turned around and both Reid and JJ got a good look at him.

"Danny Johnson?" Reid asked.

"Dr. Reid," said Cadet Daniel Johnson. "Good to see you again. You too, JJ. You must be Agent Morgan, correct?" He stuck out his hand. "Daniel Johnson. Danny, if you don't mind."

Morgan was stunned for a second. He shook Danny's hand and asked, "How do know you us?"

"I met Dr. Reid and JJ at a football game almost eight years ago," Danny explained.

Morgan turned to Reid. "The infamous secret Redskins game date?"

"Morgan, don't start," Reid said.

"Then I met Dr. Reid again in a bar last year. Really bummed about something. Got really drunk. You haven't done that again, have you? I was afraid to let you go near anything flammable."

"Jesus, kid." Morgan started to laugh. "That's too much even for me."

"Then he said something about JJ getting married and a little kid…" Spencer immediately gestured for Danny to stop talking. Danny got the hint it wasn't a good idea to mention it.

"Anyway, back to the case."

"Wait," Reid said. "You're the cadet?"

"Yeah. Remember, I was majoring in criminology and psychology. I did excellent at the Academy. They might send me to you guys after this case. Anyway, let's focus."

"Right," Reid said. "So what do we got here?"

Danny took a breath. "Janice Reynolds. Choir teacher, 35 years old. Shot in the back five times outside her apartment building. No adult enemies; mainly interacts with the teenagers in her school."

"What choir did she direct?" Reid asked.

"The one that's being stalked. The varsity choir."

"How do you know they're being stalked?" Morgan asked.

Danny rose his eyebrows, then he realized they hadn't seen the other crime scene. "There's something you should see."

He drove the trio to the local high school and into the choir room. Inside, on the wall were photos of thirty teenagers surrounded by a painted circle that apparently was blood.

"Not as bad as it looks. Blood's fake, but the threat is real," Danny said.

"What have got so far on an idea for a profile?" JJ asked.

"Right now, my best guess is an angry high school student. Angry at a teacher who most likely rejected him numerous times. Angry enough to kill her and then target the members of the choir."

"Okay, now to narrow it down."

"We could look through the past three or four years' yearbooks. This group is photographed every year. They have audition forms for the students. All we need to do is look through the audition forms for the past 3 or 4 years, find out which names recur the most, then check the yearbooks for the names that don't appear."

Spencer stared at him for a moment. "Brilliant." He realized how hot it was and rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt. "Is there something wrong with the AC system in the school."

Danny turned to him and said, "There shouldn't be. They just finished fixing the AC system a few days ago. I'll make sure someone knows that there's an issue with AC system. Anyway, we should get to work."

The four searched files on the the choir audition forms, but they found nothing. It was soon nearing midnight.

"Guys," Danny said. "We should probably get some shut-eye. We're gonna need all of our energy tomorrow."

Morgan and JJ headed home while Spencer stayed behind with Danny. While Danny sat there, he pulled out a copy of The Catcher in the Ryeby J.D. Salinger.

"The Catcher in the Rye, huh?" Spencer asked.

"Yeah," Danny said, looking up from the book. "I had a banned books project in high school and I chose this. It's definitely an interesting book. It's cultural history is pretty immpresive as well. Mark David Chapman had the novel with him when he shot John Lennon. He quoted Chapter 22, page 224."

"'Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around – nobody big, I mean – except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff – I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all,'" Spencer recited. "I know."

"Right. I forgot that you're a genius."

Spencer laughed a little bit. Just then, Danny's cell phone rang.

"Johnson," he answered. "What? Son of a bitch. We'll be there ASAP." He hung up the phone. "We got another murder."

Spencer and Danny drove over to the new crime scene. A man in his fifties, another choir teacher, was shot in the head, execution style, in his home.

Upon investigating the crime scene, they found no evidence of forced entry. "This guy is really damn good at covering his tracks. We have nothing but an incomplete profile," Danny said.

"Luckily, that's all we need," Spencer said. "Let's talk with the principal; we might find some evidence of who the UnSub is."

Danny and Spencer went to visit the school principal. "I don't why anyone would do this," he said. "They were almost universally loved. They were like celebrities here."

Danny suddenly had a realization. "Did you just say that they were like celebrities?"

"Yes," the principal answered. "Why?"

"That's all we need right now. Thank you sir." Danny started to walk out before turning around to say, "By the way, the AC system isn't working right. Just thought you should know." Danny quickly lead Spencer out of the office. "Come on. We need to meet with the rest of the team. I might have a better idea of what's going on. I think I found out this guy's MO."

They drove back to the station and gathered the team to reveal Danny's discovery. "This guy is replicating celebrity murders. It occured to me after meeting with the principal and him saying the choir kids were practically celebrities. Reid and I were talking about The Catcher in the Rye last night and I mentioned its connection with John Lennon's murder. Our first victim was killed in a similar place the same way. Our second victim is a replication of the murders committed by Maggie Lowe during a stalker case you guys worked 7 years ago. Unfortunately, now that his two easier victims are dead, he might escalate to a new MO in order to take out the choir."

"Which is?" Rossi asked.

"I don't know," Danny answered. "Though I might have an idea as to where we can find the audition forms we were searching for."

Danny rode back to the first crime scene along with JJ and Reid. It was just as he had suspected: the audition forms were hidden inside the victim's apartment. They searched through the years and narrowed down the list to two suspects: James Roth and David Morris. They rounded up the choir kids in one area to talk to them.

"All right," Hotch started. "We have two possible suspects; they are James Roth and David Morris. Do either names ring a bell?"

"David Morris?" One of the kids in the front aksed. "That guy is insane. He's a jerk. Yeah, he didn't like Ms. Reynolds, but he wouldn't kill her, would he? I don't think he hated her enough to kill her."

Spencer pulled out his phone and called Garcia. "Garcia, I need you find information on David Morris. School records, any arrests, anything you can find."

"On it, boy genius," Garcia replied. "Got it. Morris was suspended three times for fights involving both teachers and students, including our victims. He's been expelled from previous schools for similar incidents. My God, he's even been to court on charges of assault."

"Can you find anything else?"

"Let's see... he was accused of making a bomb threat when he brought a fake one in a package to the school. The bomb squad said it looked realistic enough and almost weren't sure it was a fake."

"A kid with a violent history and has the knowledge to build a bomb?"

Danny heard Spencer's response to Garcia and flashed back to Reid talking about the AC system. The only thing that would cause a problem with it is if something was blocking it. Then he stiffened.

"Doc, we need to check the vent system. I think there's a danger we don't realize." The found a maintenance man the principal called and had him check the vent system, only to find out that there was indeed blocking the vents. It was a wired system of explosives.

"We gotta get everyone out of here," Danny said as he ran to where the rest of the team and the choir kids were.

"We need to get out of the building right now. He's wired the place with bombs," he told Hotch. Hotch and the others got the students out with no problem. They were safe. But something was wrong. Danny did a quick head count in his mind. Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Blake, Reid, myself, Garcia's back in Quantico... wait a minute.

"Where's JJ?" Danny asked.

They did a quick sweep around and noticed that they were a blonde short. Reid ran back in the building.

"Wait!" Danny called out as Reid ran. "Damn it!" He grabbed his gun and ran after him into the building.

They searched the whole building but they couldn't find JJ. They continued searching until they reached the top floor of the school and found a figure standing with his back to them. They entered the room.

"FBI!" Danny yelled. "Turn around so we can see your face."

The figure did so and along with turning around he pulled a blonde woman, who he had at gunpoint, with him.

"JJ," Reid said. "Let her go Morris."

Morris just chuckled. "Afraid not. I'm not letting this woman go. You took away my chance at revenge, so I'm going to take away something of yours." He slid a trigger out of his sleeve. "Any last words before I blow this place to Hell?"

"Don't do this, Morris," Danny yelled. "I get that your life's hard. I know what that's like." Spencer had filled him in on Morris's past. His mother had left him with his father and his father could've cared less about the boy. He constantly teased and picked on, which normally led to physical confrontations. "I grew up wtihout my mom, too. People always picked on me about it. I get that it hurts. But this isn't the right thing to do. That woman has a little boy at home. Do you really want to put him through the same thing you went through; being bullied for not having a mom to take care of him." Morris started to tear up a little. "Just let her go. You don't want to hurt her. Put the gun down and everything will be okay."

Morris contemplated for a moment, then he dropped his gun to the floor and released JJ from his grasp. She immediately ran into Spencer's arms. Danny knew it wasn't over just yet.

"David, it's over. Put the trigger down."

Morris rose his head. "I can't go back to my life. I won't." His thumb lingered over the trigger.

"Run!" Danny yelled as he headed for the nearest window. He pulled out his gun and shot it, weakening it. "Through the window!" he yelled to Spencer and JJ, who were not far behind him. The three broke through the remaining glass as they jumped out of the building. As they did, the building blew up behind them, taking young David Morris in the explosion.

Danny landed directly on his arm, causing him to cry out in pain. Reid and JJ both landed on their backs. It hurt them both, but they were okay. They pulled Danny to stand up, who clutched his arm once he was upright. The three looked at the school, now in flames.

"Poor kid," was all Danny could say about the result of what had happened.


They returned to the front of the school. Danny was taken to the hospital to check up on his arm after the impact of the fall while Reid and JJ explained what happened in the building leading up to the explosion.

Danny was lucky. His arm wasn't broken. It was slightly fractured but nothing to keep him out of the field.

Spencer walked up to him as he finished signing out. "Good job today, Danny."

"Thanks, Doc. It was nothing."

"Actually, it was something. You not only discovered the UnSub's plans, you managed to save a group of students from blowing up, saved two federal agents from the same explosion, and also managed to talk down the UnSub."

"The UnSub who killed himself in the explosion."

"Doesn't matter. You still attempted to save another life. Your skills managed to save thirty-seven lives tonight, seven of which were FBI agents."

"Well, thanks away."

"I'm not just here to praise your work on this case, though."

"What else are you here for?"

Spencer took a deep breath as he prepared to explain what had been decided. "The Director of the FBI, Jack Fickler, would like to thank you for your accomplishments on the case as a rookie agent and he has officially decided to assign you to a section at the FBI."

Danny's eyes widened slightly. "Which section?"

Spencer looked at Danny and held out his hand. "Welcome to the BAU, Agent Daniel Johnson."

And that's all for the first completely original chapter of the story. What did you think? Good, bad, terrible, etc.? Please tell me. I apologize if it wasn't exactly the best, but I figured that this is only so I could officially make Danny a significant part of the story. Speaking of which, what do you think about Danny being a part of the team? Good or bad? Leave your thoughts in a review.

A little fact: all the information wirtten in this story involving the death of John Lennon is true. Mark David Chapman did carry the book with him when he killed Lennon. The quote Spencer recites is the exact quote Chapman said after shooting Lennon. His copy also had a written note: "This is my statement. - Holden Caulfield"

Anyway, on a different note, here's the preview for the next chapter:

Danny finds himself confronting his tragic past on his first case with the BAU.

What is this tragic past? Could it have something to do with the bad memory he refused to talk about all the way back in Chapter 1? Or maybe something to do with the fact he grew up without his mother? Check in next time to find out! See you next time!

-D.C. al Coda