It didn't take long for JJ, Luca, and Street to arrive at the hospital. JJ hopped out of the Charger, ready for answers. She took the lead, quickly getting them inside and to the front desk. It was way before visiting hours, but a flash of her badge was all it took to get a room number.

Minutes later, the trio was standing in front of Sherri Stevens' appointed guard. JJ told him why they were there and he briefly stepped inside to clear their entry with Sherri.

"Okay, you all can go in."

"Thank you."

Luca stopped JJ before any of them went through the door. "You're taking the lead on this, right? Neither one of us are big fans of handling victim interviews."

The blonde nodded. "That's fine. She may respond better to a woman anyway." Taking a deep breath and returning Street's small nod of encouragement, she opened the door and the three stepped in.

Sherri was sitting up in the hospital bed, bandages covering a large portion of her body. Her eyes widened, and her voice was raspy when she spoke. "You're all FBI?"

JJ gave her a soft smile. "I'm Agent Jareau. This is Officer Street and Officer Luca, they're SWAT. Actually they're the ones who found you."

Sherri turned her gaze to Street and Luca, both of them staying close to the door. "Thank you."

They nodded, and Street spoke up. "How are you feeling, Ms. Stevens?"

"I'm… okay. I'm really sore, and still a little in shock. The doctors want to keep me for a few days. Some of my family is flying in for a while."

JJ was glad to hear that. She was sure the young woman was still terrified, and after an ordeal like hers, it was good to have familiar faces nearby. "Sherri, do you mind us asking you a few questions? I know you've already been through this with DCPD, but we'd like to get a better understanding of what happened… only if you're okay with it."

She nodded. "That's fine."

"Okay." JJ took a seat beside of the bed, while Street and Luca remained standing where they were. "First, I want to ask, did you know Michael Lawrence?"

"No. I had never seen him before."

"Okay. Can you tell me what happened while you were jogging yesterday? Remember, every detail helps, even the smallest."

"Uh, everything seemed normal at first… but after I got a few roads away from my house, this van approached me, like a utility van. I had never seen it before. The driver rolled down the window, it was Michael Lawrence. I thought he was alone because there wasn't anyone in the passenger seat. He asked me if I knew how to get back on the main road, but before I could say anything, the side door slid open and someone else grabbed me and pulled me into the back." Her voice was shaky, and JJ could see the fear in her eyes.

JJ reached out and gently touched her hand. "You're safe now, Sherri. You're doing great."

The young woman nodded in appreciation before taking a deep breath to continue. "Whoever was in the back, he hit me in the head because I was unconscious for the rest of the drive. When I woke up, I was chained to the wall in a basement."

"Okay, you told DCPD you never saw the partner's face, right?"

"When he grabbed me, it all happened too quick for me to see anything. Then when I was in the basement, I was unconscious for a while. I don't even think he was there most of the time."

"When he pulled you into the van, did he say anything to you?"

Sherri shook her head.

JJ asked her a few more questions about what happened in the basement, but she didn't want to continue this for much longer. She could tell Sherri was exhausted, and she didn't want to add to her trauma. "Did you notice anything specific about the van? Could you tell me the make or model… any logos or emblems?"

"It was a dark gray… but I didn't see any writing or anything. I'm not good with vehicles so I couldn't tell you what kind it was."

"Okay, just one more question. During the past few days or weeks, did you notice anyone watching you or following you?"

Sherri thought hard for a minute. "No I don't… wait. I do remember seeing that van before. It was outside my office one day last week. I didn't think anything of it at the time, but now, I'm sure it was the same one."

JJ squeezed the woman's hand. "You did really good, Sherri. Thank you for talking to us."

A few minutes later, while they were out in the parking lot, Street stopped JJ before they could get to the Charger. "Was any of that helpful?"

"It doesn't really give us a lot to go on, but it proves this abduction was very well planned."

Luca joined the couple's conversation. "What's our next move?"

"We go talk to the rest of your team… see what they've found during the past hour and go over the case from three years ago." JJ sighed, not wanting to admit that she felt stuck. Sherri couldn't tell them much, and if the rest of 20-Squad didn't have anything, she wasn't too sure where to turn next.

…

JJ leaned against the counter, taking a deep breath. She had just called Garcia, after getting back to SWAT HQ, and was now waiting on the TA to send over the original case files.

Needing a minute before the debrief, she had stepped into the kitchen after finding it empty. The whole situation was getting to her, her guilt from three years ago ever present. Her team had been ordered to step down after so long without any leads, and she wasn't unit chief at the time, but she couldn't help feeing like she could have done more.

The victims' faces burned fresh in her memory, and though she knew it could never happen, she willed them to go away.

This wasn't the first time they haunted her. After the initial investigation went cold, for weeks JJ would lay awake at night wondering how it could have been handled differently. Sure, she had seen many horrendous cases during her time as an agent, but for some reason this one really stuck with her.

Maybe it was the way the women were left alone to bleed out, left to die a slow painful death. The thoughts of that always tore at her heart, and she was more desperate than ever to find the bastard that was responsible… Lawrence's unidentified partner.

JJ's watery eyes snapped up to the kitchen door as it opened. Street stepped in and gave her a small, knowing smile.

"I thought I'd find you here." He had been all through HQ looking for her. She'd disappeared right after they returned, but he wasn't surprised. They were only two hours in and this case was already throwing punches her way. "You okay?" He already knew the answer, but he wanted to see what she would say.

She quickly wiped her eyes. "Yeah, of course."

Street moved to where she was standing by the counter. "Jay, c'mon. Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Shut me out, pretend to be unaffected." Evasion was her defense mechanism, but he knew her all too well for it to fool him.

She stayed silent, her eyes taking on an almost dazed look.

"Look, I know this case is rough on you, but we will find this guy."

"I should have found him three years ago… him and Lawrence." Her voice was so steady and devoid of emotion, but her glistening eyes were betraying her. "Those families have waited so long for closure, for answers that they should have already been given.. And now, Natalie's family is on that same list, and Sherri is having to deal with the trauma of being abducted by a psychopath."

The fact that she was taking on her whole team's responsibility wasn't lost on Street. He knew she hadn't lead the original investigation, and the brass made the decision for the BAU to step back, but she was still blaming herself for something she couldn't have controlled.

It broke Street's heart to see her struggling so much with this. "JJ, this isn't your fault. There are some things that are just out of our control, and this was one of them. It's unfortunate that things like this happen, but the reality of it is that they do, and we can't always stop them. I'm sure you and your team did everything right. You guys were ordered to step back, and you couldn't have defied the brass."

She still wasn't looking him in the eyes, not yet convinced, so he brought his hand to her face, directing her gaze to him.

"You told me once before, you can't take on the weight of the world because it will end up burning you out. Do you remember that?" He continued only after she nodded in recognition. "Don't do this to yourself, Jay. We'll catch this guy, and make him pay. You will get to bring these families closure."

A single tear slipped down her cheek, and as he gently wiped it away, Street felt his own eyes moisten at the sight of her in so much pain.

"Thank you, Jim."

Wordlessly, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her to his chest. They stood there for a few moments, but the door was opened abruptly and Luca appeared.

"You guys good?"

The pair stepped away from each other, and JJ tried wiping away the evidence of her tears. "Yeah, Luca. All good."

He nodded, but looked unsure. "Okay, well just letting you know that Hondo and Deac are back. We're all meeting in the situation room."

"We'll be right there, Luca." Street grabbed JJ a bottle of water as Luca made his way out of the kitchen. He ran his hand up and down her back as she composed herself. "Do you need a minute?"

"No, let's head out there."

Within a few short moments, 20-Squad and JJ were all gathered in the situation room reviewing the files that Garcia had sent over, as well as everything Chris and Tan had sorted through. JJ debriefed the rest of the team, just like she had Street and Luca, adding in some info about the routes the BAU had originally taken during the investigation.

Hondo looked at JJ after scrolling through the files on one of the tablets. "I can see why the case went cold. These guys didn't leave any kind of trail to go on."

She nodded. "All we had to go on was behavior. We had created a basic profile, which Lawrence fit to the letter… and when we catch his partner, he's going to fit into the same categories. The only difference being that the partner was more of a submissive while he was working with Lawrence."

"Let's go over that profile, then we can see if that fits anything Chris and Tan found."

"Okay. The profile, factoring in the partner rather than Lawrence, is that he is a Caucasian male in his early to mid thirties. Because of the way these murders were committed, it's safe to say that he is a misogynist, and will not have a wife or kids. It's probably hard for him to conceal his hatred or urges, and that means people around him will be alarmed or put on edge by his behavior. As I said before, he would have been more of the submissive partner while working with Lawrence, but now he will not hesitate to fulfill his partner's mission."

"So he's mission-oriented?"

"Most definitely. He will not stop on his own. I'm also willing to bet that he already has more victims lined up."

Street spoke up from his position beside of JJ. "Okay, what I'm having trouble comprehending is how someone with the traits you just described could remain submissive to someone else."

The blonde nodded, understanding the confusion on that subject. "It wouldn't be easy for him with everyone, but Lawrence was someone he was very familiar and comfortable with. I would even goes as far as saying he looked up to Lawrence, and to an extent, Lawrence might have kept him in check. What I mean is that he kept the partner from giving in to all his urges… giving him a sort of outlet with the kills they committed together." Now that Lawrence was gone, the partner could be a loose cannon. JJ shuddered at the implications.

"So we need to be looking for someone that knew Lawrence for a long time, right?"

"We need to start there, yes. Like I said earlier, what worries me is the escalation, and I don't think Lawrence's death is going to slow down the murders. One more thing, Sherri Stevens' abduction was bold. I know they were stalking her, but pulling off an abduction in a neighborhood during broad daylight… there are still a lot of risks. If the partner gets too reckless, he may make a mistake. That could lead us closer to him." She glanced around at 20-Squad, all of whom were deep in thought over the new updates.

Chris grabbed one of the tablets and began pulling up a few records. "Okay, so using your profile, we may have a few matches to names associated with Lawrence. Going by people that knew him for a while, that substantially narrows down the results. From what it looks like, he didn't get close to too many people. I have a couple of names here: Darius Caldwell, listed as Lawrence's cousin. They went to school together, though Darius was two years behind Lawrence, and grew up in the same neighborhood. It looks like they've stayed in touch through the years. Darius has a pretty long record, isn't incarcerated now though."

"What were his charges?"

"Burglary, aggravated assault, petty theft… multiple counts of each."

"Did you say there was another name as well?"

She scrolled through the tablet some more. "Yeah, Noah Lambert. He also went to school with Lawrence, and it looks like they even worked together for a while. He's another one with a rap sheet. Aggravated battery, assault with a deadly weapon, and it looks like he was accused of sexual assault. The charges on that didn't go through though because there wasn't any actual evidence."

JJ pondered Chris' words for a moment, then looked over at Hondo. He seemed to be thinking the same thing… both of these men needed to be checked out, especially Lambert. "Chris, send those names over to Garcia, have her look deeper into both of them. Lambert's record would match more of what we're looking for, but we need to cover all bases."

"You got it."

JJ felt a spark of hope in her chest that she hadn't felt all morning. Maybe they were getting closer to nailing this guy, either way, she was grateful to have 20-Squad on her side.