My Beautiful Doll

Warning: Continuous creepy vibes from the resident serial killer in the form of a letter and Don making more poor life decisions

A/N: Hey! So I know that I said I'll update this on Saturday in my last fanfic "A Sniper's Sketchbook", but it turns out that the writing Gods have shined on me today because they let me bust out this chapter today. That and I realized that I kinda screwed up my own schedule. I thought I'd be busy this week, but it turns out the real work will come after today until sometime in the middle of next week because I have three essays due by then (I'm fine, I'm definitely not crying inside at all). So heads up, I'll either be posting a new chapter next Sunday or I won't post anything at all depending on how tired I am after I finished my homework (essays are a bitch, especially if you're writing about heavier topics). But don't worry, I will be back on my regular schedule the week after next week. As always, reviews and suggestions are greatly welcomed as I don't really have a set outline on this story so things can change. Have a nice day!

"Agent Eppes, are you sure about this? That would be unwise" a nurse said, exasperated. Don ignored her as he put on his jacket, wincing as the fabric touched the sore spots on his neck and shoulder. "Agent Eppes!" she shouted a bit.

Don turned around and gave her his most charming smile, "I'm quite sure about this Miss…" he squinted as he looked at her nametag, "Stacy".

She looked at him with a worried expression on her face. "But it says here that you have a concussion, those at least need to be monitored for 48 hours, not to mention the fact that human bites can get infected if not careful. It's best if you stay here for at least two more days."

"Ma'am, I appreciate the fact that you're doing your job, but I am fully capable of doing all of that at home."

The nurse let out an exasperated sigh, "Do you at least have someone there to monitor you?"

Don was about to open his mouth to reply when a sudden familiar voice spoke from behind him. "Don't worry ma'am, I'll make sure that he stays out of trouble".

Turning around, he grinned when he saw Gary standing there, hand on his hip with an expression reminiscent of his father's when he caught Don sneaking out at night. "Gary! I thought you left to go chase down some gang activity".

Gary grinned back, "Why would I need to chase after a two-bit ruffian when I can chase after a wayward agent instead?"

Don rolled his eyes and shoved the older man gently. He could see that through the teasing grin, Gary was a little tense. Something must've happened, he thought. "Sure, use me as an excuse to get out of your duties. I see you."

"And here I thought I was sneaky," Gary shot back. Turning towards the nurse, he said, "Ma'am, just give him the discharge papers. Trust me when I say that you will never win against this man when it comes to his own health. He is more stubborn than a bull, and about as tactful as one as well…" he muttered that last one.

Don let out an outraged, "Hey!" but Gary ignored him.

The nurse looked from one man to another before sighing. "Alright, I can't really keep you here any longer if you don't want to". She then directed them towards the seating area. "Stay here while I get your discharge papers" and then she left.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Don said, "And you thought I would never call you for help" he grinned.

Gary rolled his eyes, "We both know that if I hadn't found you, you wouldn't even breathe about this to anyone."

Don looked at him curiously, "speaking of that, how did you find me so quickly?"

Gary tensed. "I received an anonymous phone call an hour before we went to your location. The guy on the phone was talking about how I was the first one to admire his work and then told me that he had a gift waiting for me at that location. He had information, one that the public doesn't know about. That's why I thought he was the killer and that I would take his word for it". Gary paused to take a deep breath. Clearly what he saw had rattled the senior officer. "When we got there, there was another dead body. I thought that that was the gift, but one of my men found a letter in front of a door, telling us that behind this door is the gift". Gary looked at Don sympathetically, "Clearly the gift was you. He wanted us to see you like that, to show us that he has staked a claim on you."

Don suppressed a shudder. He could still feel phantom hands on him sometimes. He placed a hand on his chest where the mark was. He was told that the injury would scar, meaning that he would have the killer's brand on him forever. A part of him wanted to grab a knife and slice the skin off. The thought of him being branded as someone's property almost made him lose what little food he had in his stomach. But he managed to clamp down on that urge. Now the most important thing for him to do is to catch this bastard. "Well tough luck" Don hissed, "I don't belong to anyone."

Gary gave him a proud smile. "Figured you wouldn't back down". Then his face turned serious, "Now I know that you will refuse protection so how about a compromise?"

"What?"

"I will be sticking with you every step of the way".

"Don't you have other cases to work on?" Don protested.

"I can just pass them over to my boys". Gary gave him the patented exasperated 'Dad' look, one that Don has seen on Alan's face far too many times. "I can tell that you're not even going to go home, Eppes, so there isn't really a reason for you to refuse". Gary then looked at him suspiciously, "unless of course you're going to try and be all macho and face the man yourself."

Don almost winced at that. That plan did cross his mind for a second there before getting promptly thrown out because even he thought that it was a supremely stupid idea. "Of course not," he snorted.

Gary narrowed his eyes, unconvinced.

Don twitched. He knows that there is no way out of this. Gary could be just as stubborn as he was when it came to the safety of others. He ran a hand through his hair in frustration before he sighed, "Alright fine!" he said, throwing his hands up in defeat.

Gary leaned back, a satisfied smile on face. "I knew you'd see reason one day".

Don glared. Suddenly there were footsteps coming up behind them. Looking back, Don could see that the nurse had returned with papers.

"Here are your discharge papers. All you have to do is fill these in and you're all set".

Don nodded and gave her a smile, "Thank you". The nurse still looked concerned, but she smiled back and left. Don quickly signed all the papers, placed them on the desk, and then turned to Gary. "Please tell me you have a car for us."

Gary nodded and then pulled out his car keys. "I had one of my men drive it here earlier". Then they both walked out of the hospital together, looking around in suspicion just in case someone was following them.

They both got to the car. Once inside, Don inspected the interior before he closed the door, just in case the Artist decided to rig this car as well. Once he was satisfied, he closed the door. Looking up, he could see Gary look at him with concern.

"What? It doesn't hurt to be cautious"

Gary shook his head, "There is a thin line between caution and paranoia."

"Well, I'll stop being so cautious once we have this man in prison".

"Well I can't disagree with that" Gary muttered before driving them out of the hospital. On their way there, Gary asked, "Do you think he's following you?"

Don shrugged. "He knew about my relationship with Ian, but he didn't say a word about Billy which means that he probably didn't know". Don leaned back, placing a hand on his chin, "If he was stalking me, I'd say that it was a more recent thing."

"Something on your mind?"

"Something about this bothers me. I mean, how did he find out about my relationship with Ian but not with Coop? If he found out through rumours, then it would've had both of them. Same thing goes for if he looked through my messages"

Gary hummed, "You're right. You would think that he would find out about both of them at the same time."

Don suddenly froze, an earlier conversation played in his mind.

"Good. Now I gotta go. This fugitive is smarter than I expected. I love you."

Don smiled softly, "Love you too".

"Shit…" he muttered.

"What's wrong?"

Don looked at him, "I think the killer was in the FBI building."

Gary looked surprised, "You're kidding, why would you think that?"

Don ran a hand through his hair, "I had a call with Ian in the basement parking lot. I told him that I loved him. If him coming to LA was as recent as we thought, then the only way for him to know that I was in a relationship was when I had that call. Although later on, someone else overheard me and I told them that it was from my dad…" Don trailed off.

"But he would've known that you had the call" Gary continued, "When he had you, he probably looked into your most recent calls and realized that you were calling someone else and not your Dad."

"Which would explain why he only knew about Ian but not Coop," Don said, snapping his fingers. "If he was in the FBI building, we should have a record of him coming in". Then he winced, "Although, with the amount of people coming in and out, it could be a long list".

"A long list of possible suspects is better than no list" Gary replied.

"Tell that to our coffee supply," Don muttered. With possible ideas forming in their heads, they got to the FBI building and ran inside, eager to start on the fresh new trail. As soon as he got there though, people were giving him odd expressions.

Looking around, Don noticed that Baker was already in the office. Walking over to him, he asked, "What's wrong? Why is everyone acting strange?"

Baker turned around, a surprised look on his face. "Don! Where were you?"

Don shrugged, "I'll tell you once we're alone, but can you please tell me why everyone is looking at me weirdly?"

Baker grinned, "I knew you were charming, I just didn't realize you were that charming. What did you do to impress her?"

Don blinked in confusion. "Who?"

Baker pointed towards Don's desk. Looking at it, Don was shocked to find one of the biggest floral bouquets he's ever seen sitting right on the desk. "That just came in this morning. The delivery guy was looking for you but I told them that you weren't here so they just placed it on the desk". Baker then gave him a good natured shove, "You lucky dog."

Don was still confused. He hadn't met anyone else to warrant such a gift. It could possibly be from the Stewarts, but he didn't think that it was their style. Suddenly, Gary grabbed both of them and dragged them away from the desk. "Did anyone else touch that bouquet?" he asked.

Baker shook his head. "Nah, I don't think anyone went near that thing."

"Don, we should check it before we do anything else"

"Why's that?" Don asked.

"Because I recognize those flowers. They're the exact same type that was found on the body of our second victim."

Instantly all the humour left Baker's face, now replaced with a serious expression. "You're saying that the Artist has attacked again?"

"We just found the body a few hours ago," Gary replied. Then he turned to Don, "You think it's from him?"

Don nodded, "knowing that crazy son of a bitch? Anything is possible".

"I'll get the techs on it before we do anything else, stay right here" Baker ordered before walking away.

Don looked at Gary, "I think we should go get the security camera footage, maybe they caught something". But before Don could even move, a loud voice boomed throughout the office.

"Eppes! My office, now!" Merrick shouted.

Don flinched. "Shit…looks like he found out".

Gary patted his shoulder in mock sympathy. "Good luck. I'll go find that footage for you". Then he looked at Merricks office before looking back at Don, "That is, if you're still alive after that."

"Thanks" Don muttered sarcastically. Then he slowly made his way to Merrick's office.

Once inside, he could tell that the AD was pretty unhappy judging from his expression. "You wanted to see me boss?"

Merrick glared at him, "Didn't I tell you to take these two weeks off work?"

"Yes you did."

"Then why the hell are you here?!"

"I was initially called in to consult on this recent serial killer case because I worked on it in the past."

Merrick raised one eyebrow, "I sense a but here."

"But it turns out that the serial killer is also obsessed with someone and we believe that he's planning on kidnapping this person and keeping them alive so that he could force them to be in a relationship with him."

"That still doesn't explain why you're still here Eppes"

Don winced, "Well…we recently just found out who this target was". He took a deep breath before he managed to force the words out, "the target was me".

"Why do you believe he's targeting you?"

Don touched the mark on his chest before recounting the story. Once he was done, Merrick looked less angry, but still annoyed.

"First question is, are you alright Eppes?"

Don nodded, "About as fine as I can be in this situation" he answered truthfully.

"So this man managed to kidnap you and then decided to let you go?"

"Well Gary and I suspect that it was a power play more than anything. He wanted to show everyone that no one can hide from him, not even an agent. He also wanted to show off that I was his by putting his mark on me and then letting everyone see it". Don fought down a shudder when he felt those phantom hands on him again, the faint touch of lips still lingered on his neck and shoulder.

"Why do you think you should stay on the case?"

"I believe he might try something dangerous if I didn't. He likes getting attention from law enforcement, but he likes getting attention from me even more. If you pull me out of the case, he is crazy enough to try something drastic to make sure I'm back on."

"And what's stopping him from kidnapping you again?"

Don sighed. "Not much, but I have a feeling that I'll be relatively safe if I work under a specific timeframe."

"Go on."

"The killer usually kills five victims per-city with the fifth victim being the first one dead but the last one found. Not only that, he always turns his fifth victim into some sort of doll, a "recreation of the perfect human" if you will. While he's intelligent, he is also very theatrical. We know that he's been trying to create something that he thinks is perfect. With me being his inspiration, it would make sense for him to kidnap me sometime after the fourth victim is found. I have a feeling that he will need me to be there to inspire him when he starts working on his final victim. This means that I still have a window of safety until the fourth victim is discovered. Unless of course we catch him before that."

"Are you sure about this Eppes?"

Don nodded, "I'm positive Sir."

"Do you think that protection is needed?"

"No, it's too risky. There are too many unknown factors. We don't want him to escalate any further".

Merrick sighed. "Do you want to bring your team in on this?"

Don shook his head. "No, I don't think that's a good idea. We don't know how he's going to react by having the team around. He might come after them for being a hurdle. I could be putting them in unnecessary danger". Don ran a hand through his hair, "there's just too many unpredictable variables in this equation that could affect the outcome. One plus one doesn't always equal two this time" and wow didn't he sound a bit like Chuck there.

"Fine, I won't call them for now. But that doesn't mean that I'll put them in the dark. Once they're back, you'll fill them in, understand?"

"Perfectly"

"Alright, you can go back to work."

Don nodded and turned around to walk back out.

"Eppes" Merrick called out as soon as Don had his hand on the door handle. He looked around and saw Merrick's determined expression. "Be careful and give him hell."

Don grinned, "I will sir" before walking out.

As soon as he got out, he saw one of the techs wave at him before leaving his desk. Baker then came up to him, a box of latex gloves in hand. "We checked, everything is clear. Do you want to do the honours?" he asked, gesturing towards the bouquet.

Don took a deep breath as he made his way to his desk. Once there, he looked down at the seemingly innocuous flower arrangement. He couldn't really name these flowers by heart, but they were certainly colourful if the cool blues, purples, and pinks were any indication. He grabbed the gloves from Baker and then put them on before inspecting the flowers. The only thing of importance that he saw was a card that rested in between the stems. Picking it up, he sucked in a sharp breath. Written on it was the line:

To My Beautiful Doll and his colleagues.

Well, then this was certainly addressed to me. Don opened it up, his heart hammering loudly in his chest.

It's only been hours since I last saw you but I missed you already. Unfortunately I couldn't keep you, not yet at least. I still have work to do. But don't worry, you will soon be where you belong. I hope you remembered your lesson. Now while I would love to talk with you some more, I have come here with a warning to your friend in law enforcement.

Don't stay in my way. Anyone who tries to stop me from my goals will be eliminated. That includes keeping you away from me. Remember this, I will find you no matter what. You can try to hide from me, my pretty little doll, but I will always find you.

Nothing in this world will stop me from having you. This is the inevitable truth. You can take this time to talk to your friends and family to say your goodbyes. Also don't forget to break up with that Edgerton man, lest I force you. You don't want that do you?

I love you so much and I'll see you soon.

Forever yours,

Your future husband

It took everything in Don's willpower not to rip the card apart and throw it out the window. This bastard is fucking crazy he almost laughed hysterically. Suddenly the area around him morphed and he found himself back at that hellhouse, cuffed and helpless. He could feel the weight of the man on him, feel the anger, lust, and obsession in his gaze. He couldn't breath, those hands had grabbed his throat in an attempt to force him into submission. God, make it stop, he wanted to scream out.

"EPPES!" a voice shouted. A pair of very real hands grabbed his shoulders. "Are you alright?"

Blinking, he realized that he was back in the FBI office, safe and sound. Gary was now looking at him with a concerned expression on his face. "You spaced out on us," he said.

"Sorry" Don said sheepishly. "It's just that this letter" he shuddered, "I don't want to remember any more than I have to."

"Understandable" Gary nodded before grabbing the card from Don's hand with his own gloves.

"Will someone tell me what the hell is going on?" Baker asked, looking between the two.

Don sighed, "A lot of things happened between Monday and today". He gestured towards the break room, "Why don't I make us coffee and we can discuss this. Gary and I might have a lead on this so I hope to run it by you".

"Sure, no problem."

Gary still looked a bit unconvinced. "You sure you're good to go?"

Don nodded, "I'll be fine. All I need to do is focus on the case now. Whatever happens, I'll deal with it later". He just hoped that he'll be able to survive the fallout after this.

A/N: Man, this dude is really crankin up the creep factor. Don is going to have a handful of problems (and trauma) once this is all over. How much do you guys wanna bet that A. Don is NOT surviving this once everyone finds out. B. That everyone will give him huge amounts of shit for his poor life choices. and C. That everyone will follow him wherever he goes, no matter what. Oh well, we'll just have to wait and see. :)