Hello again! Wow! So happy with the reviews that I got on the first chapter! Makes me super happy! haha So thank you to all those who reviewed, put it on alert, or already added it to favorites! This chapter I switch from Emily's POV to just, well regular writing I guess. I will be doing that throughout the story because somethings that I want to get across are much better told from her view. Hope you enjoy! I will try and get another chapter posted later this week!

Chapter Two

The Partner in the Details

We were the first two in the conference room and I could feel his eyes on me; in fact they hadn't left me since we'd gone from his office together. I tried to keep my cool and not let the growing tension inside me show on the surface.

To any normal person, I'd appear fine, as if it were just another day. But I did not work with normal people; I worked with a team of trained behavioral specialists that took the phrase 'the devils in the details' to a whole new level.

We took details and the slightest of behaviors and hashed them up into even more minute details. And then we formed them all together to create a profile.

So I knew he could see it; the way I couldn't stop the nervousness of my hands as I picked at another nail, the way I kept biting my lip every time I looked at him. To him, and soon to the rest of the team as well, these tiny gestures would be like billboard signs that something was off.

"Emily, if you feel you aren't up for the case, I understand. But…" Hotch searched for the right words. I could tell by the way he stopped talking, the short intake of breathe.

"But, if this UnSub is anything like his partner, he may already know about me, and by being on the case I could throw him off his game."

"And if he is off his game, we can catch him faster."

"This isn't my first rodeo, Hotch. I know how this game works." Maybe my words were harsher than needed, but I knew he would understand and wouldn't take it personally.

After all, considering he just basically just told me I would be on the case as, for lack of a better word, bait, I do believe I handled it well, considering the circumstances.

When my thoughts stopped swirling, I lifted my head to meet his gaze. "You're sure you're okay with this? I want the truth."

I bit my lip and looked at my raw, teeth bitten nails, God I needed to stop that. "Am I sure? Hell no. Would I say no...Not a chance."

I watched as a smile pulled at the corner of his mouth. My word choice wasn't exactly professional, but he knew that was the truth; that that was what he had asked for.

"There's a partner?" Morgan's words expressed the look on every ones face as they sat around the conference room.

"This guy must be good. He waited over a month after Chandler's death before he struck again, and knew enough to not cross our paths when we were there." JJ looked at the pictures on the screen; a woman lay on gray pavement, badly beaten with gunshot wound to the chest, her eyes still open but no longer holding the look of life.

"But what if he did cross our path? He could have been part of the investigation and we may not have known."

"Reid, come on? A room full of profilers and we didn't notice?" Morgan raised his eyebrows.

Prentiss looked up; speaking for the first time since they had announced to the team what was going on. "Not necessarily. We didn't even factor in a possibility of a partner, why would we even have been looking for one?"

Rossi looked quizzically at the file in his hands. "What if this guy isn't a partner? Both Reid and Morgan are right; you'd think we would have seen something and that he would have put himself into the investigation."

"What are you saying?" Hotch asked.

"Maybe he didn't decide to do these killings till just recently. He may not have even had contact with Chandler before; why not consider a copycat?"

Reid looked up, his thoughts turning, "Yeah but a copycat wouldn't know all of these details. How the gunshot wound is exactly in the middle of the chest just below the rib cage, how each woman was posed after death with her hands directly at her sides. Those details weren't released to the press."

Garcia shook her head, "So not a copycat and not a partner. Then who is he?"

Prentiss looked up at the screen; the twenty-something brunette woman stared back her. A smiling happy picture next to it, making the picture of her cold and lifeless body all the more gruesome and real. "He's family."

"That would explain how he knew details we didn't release. But we only talked to Chandler's dad. All other close family is deceased." Morgan said.

"Back up there, baby cakes, there was a brief period that Chandler spent in foster care, just after his mother died. Could he have bonded with someone there?" Garcia pulled up the foster care information on the screen behind her as she spoke.

Rossi nodded. "Even if he did inject himself to the case we wouldn't have known; completely different last name and why would we have thought to look into a time when he was 12 years old and in a group home. We had no reason."

"We do now. Wheels up in twenty." Hotch rose to his feet but caught Prentiss' eye as he did. She nodded in answer to his unspoken question.

All she needed to do was say the word when and if it all became too much. After everything with Doyle, Hotch had watched out for her. Not watching like he waiting for her to crack, but watching for when she just needed someone to talk to.

After his ordeal with Foyet, he knew a thing or two about returning to reality from the cold shadows of living in fear. He knew what it was like to be held captive by the torment of another man.

Sadly, he knew it all too well.

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