Liette stood at the front of one of the many lecture halls in the FBI academy. Her class was full despite it being eight o'clock on a friday night. These students were not like the ones she had sat with at Winslow university, they were engaged and involved instead of withdrawn and uninterested. These individuals wanted to be agents and they knew that there was no way to cut corners. Short cuts into the FBI just didn't exist. Although Liette had made and into the behavioural analysis much quicker than any of her students would she still knew the demands of the academy.

Compared to some of her students and her co-workers Liette didn't look much like a federal agent. Her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders, falling onto the tweed material of her fitted blazer. She fit the role of professor quite nicely but such a small girl was hardly the image of a vested FBI agent who barged through doors and interrogated the worlds most dangerous criminals. Liette didn't exactly claim to be the best field agent either. She had never been terribly good at hand to hand combat and although she had passed all her firearms test she wasn't a near perfect shot like some of the other agents. She was slender though fit underneath her fitted dress shirt and black pants. She had always been somewhat clumsy which was why she tended to not move when she was lecturing, instead she stood in the centre of the hall fidgeting with her clothing as she turned her head to look around the room.

"When I say psychopath, who do you think of?" Liette asked, watching as hands began to raise. "Shout it out." she invited, waiting for someone to take the lead to get the conversation moving. Her superiors had told her to make the lectures more interactive so that was what she was trying. In reality, Liette was far more comfortable just standing up and talking for three hours. She hadn't been great at conversing with other students when she was a student herself so now as their professor she felt even more disconnected from them.

"Hannibal Lecter."

"Ted Bundy."

"That guy from American Psycho."

"Patrick Bateman!"

"Joe Carroll!"

Other names rang out after that one but Liette froze at the mention of Joe. She should have known better than to ask such a question and not expect that answer. Her mind left the room and the shouts of students who were now competing to see how many names they could call out. Some of them clearly had little experience with studying psychopaths because their classifications were completely off. Patrick Bateman was a good example, shockingly to most Hannibal Lecter was not. Lecter couldn't be classified as a pure psychopath even though he was close. Liette had studied Lecter in her undergrad but now she was applying the same sort of logic to Joe Carroll.

Manipulative. Grandiose. Egocentric. Liar.

The traits added up and Liette's brilliant mind worked through the Psychopathy Checklist Revised as if she wasn't here to lecture but she was here to score Joe. Every trait that came up seemed to fit him perfectly and it sent shivers down her spine. She had entered university all those years ago intending to study psychopaths and instead she had befriended one without noticing it. The image of Joe standing in the place she was in right now, at the front of a lecture hall not much different than this one haunted Liette as she pictured herself in the front row. She as her younger self, brown eyes but without the dark tired circles beneath them and her hair frizzed because of the lack of effort she put into it. Joe wore one of his favorite three piece suits with a hideous plum tie that would have been distracting had he not been the most capturing lecturer. He had known how to engage a classroom, not like Liette was now but with the very flow of his words. Even this apparition had Liette hanging onto him for dear life but as she pictured him speaking his eyes changed to black pits and a sinister laugh escaped those torturous lips. The image of her past became the nightmare that still haunted her years after Joe's arrest.

"Agent Arnaut?" one of her student's beckoned her from her nightmare.

"Y-Yes?" Liette shook, startled from the sudden break from her imagination. The world came spinning back in as she pushed Joe Carroll from her mind in order to hold herself in the present. "Sorry where wa-"

"Liette, I'm afraid we have to end your lecture early." Liette had been so captured by the image of Joe in her mind that she hadn't noticed Debra Parker come into the classroom. "You're all free to go, enjoy your weekend." the class hesitated but as they watched Debra march down the lecture hall stairs they moved in the opposite direction and cleared out. The chance to have a Friday night after class was still welcomed by students even if they were dedicated to being here.

"Debra?" Liette's face distorted in confusion. Her eyes blinked violently, trying to force herself into the present moment and away from her thoughts. Liette's vivid imagination was something that had been seen as dangerous in the field, especially when she was placed in an interrogation room with a possible suspect. Her tendency to slip into a world outside of their own was not unnoticed by Debra and therefore she had learnt to give Liette the time to come out of her daydreams when needed. Unfortunately today they did not have the time. Every minute wasted here was a minute they weren't finding Mike. Joe said they had less than twenty four hours which meant they needed to move. It would take them over an hour to get back to Richmond in order to see Joe and who knew how long Joe would toy with them before giving up Mike's location.

"We have to get moving. We need you in Richmond."

Liette knew what Debra was saying without her saying it. She knew exactly who was in Richmond and he was the reason she didn't want to be there. Liette had been offered the opportunity to be on the team assigned to the case when Carroll had first escaped but she had told Debra to take Mike instead since she had classes she wanted to teach. It had been a perfectly good excuse at the time and it had dodged the real issue Liette had with going to Richmond. She had not seen Joe in almost ten years. The last time she had laid eyes upon him was at his trial. She had been a student then and she had sat at the back of the courtroom in hopes that he wouldn't see her. Liette had forced herself through the trial so she could see first hand that her professor was actually the monster that the media was making him out to be.

As a profiler, it was in Debra's nature to assess Liette's body language and movements to try and figure out what was going on in the young woman's head. Debra knew Liette was difficult to read on a regular basis. The girl's eyes shifted about the room but they never fell upon Debra or connected with her at all. She avoided all contact she she withdrew into her mind once more. Debra watched as Liette folded her arms across her chest and turned nervously to the front of the room, closing herself up completely.

"We need to go now." Debra said, attempting to summon Liette's attention back to her. She assumed Liette had figured out this was about Joe and that her nervousness was either based on not wanting to see him or just the opposite. If she was an accolade this would be her part to play in the story and if she worshipped Joe the idea of being reunited with him was probably thrilling to her. Debra had had Mitchell check the prison logs for Liette's name but it didn't appear that she had visited Joe while he was in prison. That was a good sign but it didn't rid Debra of her worries.

Debra wouldn't accuse Liette of anything, not until there was evidence. Debra felt protective over her agents, like a mother over her children, which was why she had come to Quantico alone to pick up Liette. She knew Hardy would be down Liette's throat by now to get answers from the girl but that would only make her close up. Debra had been spending the past year and a half building rapport with Liette so she figured she would be better dealing with her alone.

"Weston's been taken."

Liette whipped back around to stare at Debra, her eyes searching for a look that made this all a dream or a lie. Liette didn't have many friends in the bureau but Mike had been one of the few to give her a chance. He put up with her moments of silence and actually claimed to enjoy the logical rants she went on from time to time. Liette had joined him for drinks after work on occasion and they had begun to walk their dogs together every chance they got. Her heart sunk as she looked into Debra's eyes and saw that this wasn't a joke.

"Lets go then." Liette said, moving to grab her computer bag from the desk behind her. She swung the strap over her shoulder and then waited for Debra to lead the way out. "This is about Carroll, right?" Liette asked, careful to not say his first name and allow herself such torture as to slip into thinking of him as just Joe. He was Joe Carroll the serial killer and possible cult creator, he was not the Joe she had known. The Joe she had known had never truly existed.

Debra cast her eyes back at Liette before she started up the stairs towards the doors of the lecture hall. Her vehicle was parked just outside of the building, waiting for them to take them back to Richmond. She nodded at Liette's question but hesitated in telling her anything. Debra hated this feeling of being withdrawn with a member of her team. Unlike Liette, Debra had always been very open with the people she worked with. People knew she liked to play by the rules and that she was easy to approach when a problem came up. Debra had proved herself amongst the supervisory agents but tried to not play politics in the office because she found that it distracted her from her actual task. She had never been so quiet around Liette, especially when they had so much to talk about. On any other case the two of them would have been going through all the details but right now Debra was apprehensive about what she should actually share with Liette incase the worst possible scenario was actually true.

"So why do you need me? You have half the team up there?" Liette probed for an answer.

More hesitation. Debra's lips opened and closed without a sound. The woman let out an sigh that fell to the ground with the weight of a rock. She stopped in the hall and turned to Liette, realizing she couldn't just ignore all her questions for the next hour and a half. "Carroll has made a deal to tell us where Mike is but he wants to talk to you first."

Liette didn't move from her spot despite the fact that Debra began to start walking again. She stopped only when she realized Liette had become a frozen statue in the middle of the hall. Absolute horror flashed through Liette's eyes like a lightening bolt. Debra stepped back towards Liette to try and get her to budge but the young woman remained stationary as if she'd looked into the eyes of a gorgon and been turned to stone. Her chest hardly moved to let air into her lungs and that was because she had practically stopped breathing in her shock.

"Liette we don't have much time." Debra urged, trying to break the girl from her position in the hall.

"He asked for me specifically?" Liette asked.

"Yes, and he won't talk until you're in the room with him."

"I have to...but...I-" Liette's thoughts jumbled in her head, spinning her around like a child's top. After that day in the courtroom she had sworn to never speak to Joe again. Part of her had wanted to go to the prison to get answers but she knew nothing he could ever say would ease the hurt she felt. There had been such betrayal finding out that someone who was supposedly your friend was murdering young women just like you. Liette had been no different from any of Joe's victims, they had been young university students, vulnerable and alone.

"Liette." Debra's voice hardened slightly, knowing that she had to be firm to get them moving. "We don't have time. Mike will die if we don't do this." Liette couldn't say no, she was trapped in this situation despite her rights to refuse to be used in such a way. She would not forfeit Mike's life for a personal promise she had made herself years ago. She didn't want to sit across from the monster but she really had no choice. She stepped from her spot in the hallway, breaking free of the frozen feeling in her legs. She wanted to run in the other direction but he propelled herself forward, following Debra to the car. The next hour wouldn't last long enough, all she had to do was close her eyes and she'd be placed in a cage with the man she feared the most.