My Beautiful Doll

Warning: Nothing! It's a safe chapter!

A/N: Hey guys! Hope y'all had a good week because mine was a rollercoaster. It's been pretty standard up until yesterday where my tooth that I broke a while ago and got it fixed temporarily decided to make itself known AGAIN and now I'm in miserable pain. My face has completely swollen up, it's completely affected my ear and head and I can't eat anything, which has been real swell (pun intended). Thankfully, I pre-write a shit ton of chapters so you guys still get your weekly updates even with this pain. Anyways, that's all from me and have a nice day!


Ian felt like he just got sucker punched in the gut at Charlie's statement. They all had their suspicions at the odd Agent, but to hear the truth come up from Charlie, it almost didn't seem real. Every single loose bit of information clicked into place, creating a horrifying picture.

They were all staring at the phone when suddenly, the door burst open. Everyone except Ian jumped at the sudden sound, whirling around to see who it was. Megan, Colby, and David had come back, worry written over their faces. "Whose that?" Megan asked, raising her chin at the open cellphone on the table.

"It's me," Charlie replied.

"Charlie?!" She looked relieved. "Are you okay?"

"We're fine, just a bit of smoke inhalation."

That caused all of them to blink in confusion. "Alright backup," Colby said, "Megan, David, and I just got here so we missed a whole chunk of conversation. What the hell is going on?"

Charlie sighed before he told what happened, regaling the story in vivid detail. Ian could feel his stomach churn a bit at the ring and judging by everyone's horrified expression, neither could they. Charlie continued to tell them about Baker's odd mannerisms, his confession and admission that while he did know that Don didn't love him like that now, he knew he'll be able to change the man's mind. Ian's blood ran cold as he heard that, imagining the cool calculating tone that the man had as he made Don choose between himself and his family, knowing exactly what he would say.

"That's what the ring was for," Ian breathed out, realization hitting him harder than a bullet.

"What?" Billy glared, his blue eyes now as sharp as ice.

Ian stiffened before telling his story, disappointment mounting with each word he spoke. As soon as he was done, Billy grabbed him and shoved him harshly to a table. "WHY THE HELL DIDN'T YOU STOP HIM?!"

"WE HAD NO EVIDENCE!" Ian shouted back, clenching his fists. "All we had were suspicions, none of it was enough for us to fucking detain him."

"Well ya could've done something!" Billy snarled, poking him hard in the chest. "You could've asked him to stay, ask more questions - HELL! Even get into more arguments with him!"

"He wasn't even a suspect up until now," Ian replied, trying to keep his cool. His glare was so harsh it would've stopped a stampede of elephants in its tracks. "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a damn psychic Cooper."

"Well you should've been," Billy said, "Because now we've lost him. Your mistake cost Don his freedom."

Ian growled before throwing Billy against the wall. "FUCK YOU!" He shouted, "You can't blame all of this shit on me just because you felt like we failed to look out for him."

Billy was about to snipe back before Megan stepped in, her heels clanking harshly against the tiles as she tried to keep her expression neutral. "ALRIGHT THAT'S ENOUGH!" She ordered, frowning at the both of them. "None of this is anyone's fault! We did the best we could with the information we had and that's that." She crossed her arms as she looked at everyone in the room, "Now that we know everything, we're going to double down our efforts to find this son of a bitch, okay?"

They all nodded in agreement, determination written on every single one of their faces. Ian and Billy were still scowling at each other though, furious at the implications that they've thrown. Megan stepped between the both of them and glared. "I'll give you guys two choices," she said sharply. "One, you put aside your little petty rivalry and help us track Baker down so that we can free Don faster or two, you guys stay out of the investigation and have your little fistfight somewhere else." She leaned against the whiteboard which had Don's handwriting, his hard work on full display. "While that last one might help your egos, it won't help Don and then you both would really hate yourselves." She raised her chin in a challenging manner. "So? What's your choice?"

They both glared at each other once more before slumping, sighing in defeat. "You play dirty Reeves," Ian remarked, knowing that despite their animosity, they both would make the same choice.

"When it comes to stubborn people with anger issues who are always butting heads with each other, I need all the advantages I could get," she replied, easing up.

They both straightened their back with Ian making the first move as he stepped closer and put his hand out for a shake. "Truce?"

Billy shook his head in amusement, probably realizing the absurdity of the situation. "Truce." he agreed, shaking Ian's hand.

"I don't mean to cut this little manly heartwarming moment short" Charlie spoke up from the phone, "But I hope you're not forgetting that I'm a brother SHORT so I would appreciate it if we could get back to the matter at hand which is you know…SAVING MY BROTHER."

"Of course we didn't forget, Charlie," David replied calmly, trying to appease the anxious professor. "We just need to make sure that everyone is on the same page before we start."

Charlie let out a noise of suspicion before sighing. "Wait Ian," Charlie said, "didn't you say that Baker went by the FBI office to get his things?"

"Yes…?" he trailed off, not sure where this was going.

"Well he also had to put both me and dad in the barn right?"

"Where are you going with this Charlie?" Megan asked.

Amita's eyes lit up in recognition. "I see," she said, snapping her fingers, "you want to calculate a possible radius of his location judging by how long it took for him to get around, right?"

"Huh? Can you explain that a bit more?" Colby replied, looking confused.

"Say it takes around one minute for you to get from the living room to any other adjacent room," Charlie started, his lecture mode on. "One day, while you were standing in the living room, I called from the dining room and asked for you to get me some food. You came into the dining room five minutes later. Since we know where your starting point is, we can determine the possible areas that you went to that are within five minutes. It's the same process here. Our starting point is my house and the end point is their location. Once we know how far it is to get from my house to the barn and then from either the FBI office or their location, we can get a general area of where he could possibly be." Charlie ended the entire lecture with enthusiasm, most likely happy due to the fact that they're possibly making progress.

"But that's if you're assuming that he's still in LA," David replied.

"I'm positive that he's still in LA" Megan said, looking over the board with all the letters stuck on it. "Everything about him screams cocky and arrogant. He thinks he's one step ahead of us. That's why he likes to taunt us" then she turned towards them, "and what's better than to have Don still be in LA, still be near us but hiding him so well that we can't find him."

"Ahhh…the old human hubris, the downfall of man," Larry mused. "You think that his ego would override his intelligence?"

Megan nodded. "I'm almost certain of this. Having Don around is throwing him off, making him more reckless than he would've been. He's bound to make mistakes and keeping Don in LA is one of them."

"Ian, can you give me the timeframe of when Baker came around and when he left? I want to create a timeline so that I can see whether he dropped us off first or Don."

"Does it make a difference?" Billy asked.

"It makes a significant difference," Charlie replied.

Ian shrugged. "Alright, I'll text you the detai-" he didn't even manage to finish the sentence before there was a knock on the door. Looking towards it, they were surprised to find someone at the door, a box in hand.

"Hello Agent Jenkins, why are you here?" Megan asked, greeting her.

The blonde agent smiled. "Hi! I just wanted to drop this parcel off that your colleague handed over a few minutes ago."

Megan blinked in confusion. "I'm sorry…colleague?"

"Yeah. Tall, messy brown hair, green eyes, muscu-" the agent didn't even have time to finish before they all rushed out the door, screaming at everyone to close down all exits because they have a serial killer on the premises. Supervisors ordered their available team members to help canvas the area for any sign of Baker. Ian rushed to one of the windows and managed to spot the man walking out calmly, like there wasn't an army of angry FBI agents ready to rush him. He could only stand there as Baker turned around and gave him a chilling smile, holding his hand up that had the ring before giving him a two fingered salute as he walked away, disappearing around the bend.

A few seconds later, armed agents ran out, following the trail that Baker had taken. But, judging by the disappointed looks and their empty hands as they got back, Ian guessed that their search was unsuccessful.

"DAMNIT!" he snarled, punching the window. Once again, they were so close yet so far. Getting back to the war room, it seemed like the rest of the team heard the disappointing news.

"Well, at least we're a hundred percent sure that he's still in LA. This could help us determine his area even better" Charlie said, trying to cheer them up.

Ian shook his head as he braced his arms on the table. Looking at the parcel, he could see the singular bullet tied to it, one that was similar to what they found on both Don and the crime scene at Charlie's house. "Have we checked that for explosives?" he asked.

Megan nodded. "When everyone ran out, I called the techs so everything was also processed. It's safe to touch."

Billy pulled out a pocket knife from his back pocket, "well then, let's open it" he said before ripping the package open. Inside was a camera, one that looked like it was used. David disappeared for a second, only to come back with some rubber gloves. He handed them towards Ian and Ian took them, putting them on his hands. He opened up the compartment and found that the memory card was inside and still intact. Taking it out, he inserted it into the nearest laptop and opened up the file. As soon as he did, he cursed up a storm.

Everyone ran to his side to look at what he was looking at. As soon as he did, they started cursing as well. Inside were hundreds of pictures of Don, all taken at different locations and without his knowledge.

"What, what is it?" Charlie asked.

"Baker just sent us his pictures of Don. It seems like he's been stalking Don for a while," David said.

"Wait, that's not the only thing," Amita said, "looks like there's one video here." Then she pointed towards the singular video. Clicking on it, the thumbnail was someone holding up the sign 'watch me', most likely Baker judging from the tanned skin on the hands. They all looked at each other in apprehension, worried about its possible contents.

"Don't watch it without me." Charlie's voice was firm.

"Charlie, this could mean anything. I don't think you should watch it." Megan's voice was soft, as if she was hoping that it would deter him.

"Megan, this is my brother we're talking about. I can't leave him." Charlie's voice broke a bit, his true feelings shining through. "Please, let me in on this so I can help him. I…I don't want him to be alone."

They all looked at each other before sighing. "Alright Charlie, we'll wait until you're both here," she relented.

"I'll be working on pinpointing Baker's location while I'm on my way."

"Alright, just make sure you're a hundred percent sure about everything. Don't let your feelings cloud your math," Ian said, looking at the abundance of photos, all clearly taken with love. "Because I'm not sure Don can afford another mistake."


A/N: Well shit, I wonder what the video is all about?