B for Beck

by Assbitch67

Beck has had her life planned for her whether she liked it or not... But for some reason it all just keeps going to shit. Maybe it has something to do with her ability to kill a full grown man with a paperclip and snipe a grape inside a shot glass from nearly 6 miles away. But, hey, the cute Doctor at the BAU that doesn't know how to carry his Revolver seems to tolerate her.

7. Befriended

Befriended

•••

"Enemies are either defeated, befriended, or bypassed." - Stewart Stafford.

—

That conniving fucking bitch.

It was coming up on seven in the morning at Quantico and it was, by all means, way too early for Beck to even be awake let alone be storming through the halls of the FBI Headquarters right now. Yet, here she was.

That evil, manipulative little whore.

Her boots made a loud thump for every measured stride she took through the empty hallways leading up towards a particular office. When she reached the lobby of said office, she didn't even bother stopping when her stupid little secretary she'd met the first time- and last time- she'd been there protested.

"She has a meeting in twenty minutes-!"

"Fuck off," Beck spat as she turned the corner and shoved the door open to the office.

Erin Strauss jumped at the loud bang the door made upon slamming into the wall behind it. Beck was openly glaring at the woman as she approached.

"What is this about?" Strauss demanded as she threw down the files in her hand she'd been reading.

"You know exactly what this is about," Beck grit out of her clenched teeth.

Strauss frowned up at the agent. "Actually, I don't, seeing as the only contact you ever make with me are your entry reports, Agent Ryder," she replied in a calm voice. "Which- we need to discuss. If this arrangement is to continue, I will not be tolerating one sentence entries such as... he was his usual dickish self."

"Well, pardon me, I had a long day at work that day and spared you the gory details of it all, Your Majesty," she bit back a retort. "But this isn't exclusively about my entries. This is about the fact that you're allowing a former retired BAU agent and renowned author back onto the team without notifying me. What the hell are you thinking?"

"Watch your tone, Agent," Strauss scowled.

"Watch your subordinates, Section Chief," Beck shot back. "Do you realize what you're doing by allowing this man back on?"

The blonde Section Chief turned away, her eyes closing in exasperation. "It's already a done deal, Ryder. SSA Rossi will be back on the team in a subordinate position by the end of the day. The meeting today is just customary."

Beck turned away, a humorless grin playing at her lips as she scoffed through her teeth. "You're fucking up your end of the deal and making it harder for me to get mine done by doing this, you know that, right?" Beck prompted, turning back to her. "Tell him you changed your mind. Tell him 'no.' Reassign him to another unit- I don't know. But I can't get this assignment finished with him in my way."

"I'm afraid it's not that simple," Strauss exclaimed. "The Director already approved. David Rossi was a great agent before he retired, the Director believes he'll continue to strive with the BAU now that he's returned... It's out of my hands."

Beck threw her head back. When it fell back down again, she ran a hand down her face in frustration. "You realize you just made both of our jobs that much harder by letting him on?"

"I'm sorry," she apologized sincerely. "But the arrangement remains."

"And what happens when I eventually get Hotchner to step down, huh?" Beck prompted the woman. "You really think renowned author and arrogant Agent David Rossi is going to set his ego aside to allow me to take over the team? Yeah, right." Beck was on her way back out of the office when Strauss called after her.

"Rebecca!" She paused at the door and glared at the Section Chief from over her shoulder. "Your job remains intact so long as you uphold regular entries- complete entries and continue your previous assignment. Promotion to Unit Chief or not, your job still remains expendable if you fail to do as I initially tasked you to do within this Unit."

Beck tilted her head slightly. "Are you... blackmailing me with my position?"

"Call it what you will," Strauss bit back. "But officially, you were never supposed to be an agent in the first place. Where you are now on the team is a privilege I allowed under my circumstances. I gave that job to you, I can take it away just as easily. So I'd show some restraint next time you feel like slamming my doors and storming in here, speaking to me as though I owe you anything, Agent Ryder."

Fucking cunt.

Beck bit her tongue.

"You're dismissed."

Beck spun on her heel, her nails biting into the skin of her palm as she clenched her fists so tightly at her side, she was afraid she'd draw blood.

"Have a great rest of your day," her little secretary called to her departing figure.

"Fuck off."

—

Beck did not in fact have a great rest of her day. In fact, the rest of her morning was spent anxiously pacing around the BAU office as she counted by the hours until that 'customary meeting' Strauss was having with David Rossi that afternoon.

David Rossi...

Beck had been notified of the development not too long ago by none other than the BAU's Technical Analyst, Penelope Garcia, when she'd let it slip during their brief time together on the elevator the day following Beck's return from Texas.

"Oh, you're back- great!" She'd beamed upon entering the elevator that morning. "You're not going to believe what's happening this week."

Beck chuckled at her enthusiasm. Was it too early for some people to be this excited and... bright? "What? Does the BAU have dodgeball tournaments I don't know about yet?"

"No, but a couple of our agents go up against the Narcotics guys on floor three twice every year in a dodgeball tournament if that's something you're interested in," she gushed.

Beck shook her head almost immediately. "I'd rather eat glass," she answered truthfully. A dodgeball game with a bunch of overzealous jocks that didn't make the cut for athletic scholarships in college now reliving the glory days of high school at a dodgeball tournament for FBI agents? Hard pass.

"Oh," the blonde deflated a bit at her bluntness, but took it in stride as the elevator doors opened. She followed after the brunette, still gushing about whatever it was she had initially been saying before. "Well, anyway, I was snooping through emails- like I normally do-" Beck chuckled as she made her way to the vending machine nearby. "-when I happened along a scheduled meeting to discuss a team member rejoining the team... Guess who was CC'd on the email?"

Garcia had Beck's full attention now. "Who?"

"Section Chief Strauss," she answered.

"So... wait, someone is rejoining the team?"

"Yeah, some retired agent that helped found the BAU years ago," Garcia answered. "Long before I was here, but apparently him and Hotch were close. Oh- and apparently, he's a famous author."

Beck really didn't care about details as she punched in her numbers on the machine. 4B, 8J. "You don't say..." Beck muttered idly. "What was the guy's name again?"

"David Rossi."

After that, Beck was spending a lot of time at home, a dozen tabs open all on special Bureau reports on cases Rossi was involved with, local cases with his name in there somewhere, news articles with his face plastered on the front, and all the copies of every single one of his books.

Through all the reading and research and gathering of information, Beck was able to put together a the base structure of all that David Rossi was: a paranoid egotistical prat that was about to make her life about ten times harder than it already was.

And to make matters worse, Strauss was now blackmailing her... Beck groaned as she slathered the last of the cream cheese onto her plain bagel she'd just toasted in the office microwave.

She was just putting down her utensils when she heard-

"Boo!"

Beck whipped her head around to find a large gray, wrinkled face suddenly in her peripheral view. She didn't hesitate to act on instinct and just as soon as the word had left her attacker's mouth, her fist flew directly into his nose with a direct punch.

"Ow!"

There was a cry from beneath the... the mask? The mask being worn by a relatively skinny figure with boney wrists wearing a... grey and black polka dot sweater over a white dotted button up with an orange tie- Oh God...

"Dr. Reid?" Beck gasped as her fist unclenched and her defensive stance melted away. She took a tentative step towards the Doctor who clutched his nose through the plastic mask, his body hunched over in pain. She carefully reached out to pull the mask off his face. "Oh my God. Are you okay?"

Reid winced, his hand held up to his nose and his face scrunched up in pain. "Er... you can really punch," he groaned. "I... I think I'm bleeding. Did you break my nose?"

"Here- let me see." She carefully pushed his hand away from his face to reveal a bulging red spot on his nose. "Tilt your head up," she instructed. She used the tips of her fingers to hold his chin back as she examined his nostrils. No blood. No snot. She tilted his face back down to examine around the nose. No swelling that indicated a broken nose, but the red was... prominent. She grimaced.

"Is it bad?" Reid asked.

"Does it hurt?" She answered with a question of her own.

She watched as he scrunched his face, moving his nose slightly, touching it gently with his fingers once more and wincing momentarily from the pain. "Uh, a little."

"Well, it's not broken, but let me get you some ice," she replied. She left him there for a brief moment, rushing over to the fridge nearby and pulling out one of the many ice packs at hand- the perks of working in a building full of jocks that had habits of hurting themselves on the job. "Here," she handed him the ice pack, watching him gently place it against the red bump on his nose. He winced, and in turn, so did she. "I'm... so sorry. I- I just... Old habits die hard. I didn't mean to-"

"What? No, no, no, no," Reid shook his head frantically. "I shouldn't have snuck up on a former CIA agent in a Halloween mask. Lesson learned the hard way, I guess."

"No- no," Beck grimaced. "I should've known better than to just... act. I've just been really on edge this morning."

"Because of what happened with Susan Jacobs?" he pressed. Beck blinked, unsure of how to answer. "Sorry," he grimaced. "Inappropriate to ask-"

"No, you're right," she relented. "I guess... I've got a lot to work on. Not everything can be solved with bullets and punches-" she cringed. "Sorry."

Surprising her, he laughed at the ill-wording. "It's fine. Hey, maybe you could teach me how to throw a proper punch sometime."

"What? You never went through training?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Eh, not exactly," he shrugged. "Special circumstances and all... It's not like I got into the FBI because of my brawn, and Gideon saw potential when it came to my brains. So, he sort of waived the physical aspect of my training to keep me on the team."

Beck raised an eyebrow, perplexed. "And Hotchner let this continue?"

"Well, yeah, it was kind of a unanimous decision between the two," Reid chuckled, thinking nothing of the look Beck was wearing as she took a mental note of that little fact.

"Hm," she hummed. "Maybe you are overdue for some Punching for Dummies course work. Maybe some blocking, too..." Beck winced as Reid continuously lifted the ice pack to reveal his red nose. "Shit. I'm really sorry, Reid-"

"Ooh- wait." Beck managed to catch the ice pack he threw to her with ease, a little caught off guard by how quickly he pulled the mask back over his head and bent down to pick up his bag of candy and fake noose he'd dropped earlier. "I'm gonna go get Morgan. Hopefully he won't hit as hard as you."

"I-" she had started to try to defend herself from his jab when she realized he was only joking.

Beck watched skeptically as the masked Doctor jogged up behind the desks to jump scare Agent Morgan, who was leaning in his chair reading some kind of file with his feet propped up on his desk. When Reid made a goofy noise behind him, Morgan turned and jumped in his chair slightly, his fists not moving.

Beck deflated. Of course, she'd have a more aggressive reaction than the jock of the team...

"Reid," she heard Morgan scold the Doctor, Prentiss turning to have a laugh at the sight across the aisle from her. Beck dragged her feet, discarding her bagel in the trash and carrying along the ice pack as she made her way towards the desk.

"Happy All Hallows Eve, folks," she heard Dr. Reid exclaim from beneath his mask as he maneuvered his way to his own desk across from hers. "It's a paraphrase from Celtic Mythology," he explained as he lifted the mask from his face, revealing the large splotch of red on his nose. "Tomorrow night all order is suspended, and the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily- remoooooved!" He dramatically hooted as he yanked a fake dismembered head from his bag and tossed it across the barrier of his desk at Prentiss.

"See, that right there is why Halloween creeps me out," Morgan frowned. "But it's not as creepy as that mark on your face- Reid, who the hell sucker punched you?"

Beck frowned as she stepped forward, the ice pack in hand. "That would by my handiwork," she admitted, holding up the iced pack to Reid. "Here. Keep it, please."

Reid made that half-grimaced thing he did with his puffed-out cheeks, taking the pack from her and placing it on his nose again. "I kind of caught her off guard with the mask..."

"See-" Morgan exclaimed. "Reason why Halloween creeps me out: people in masks. I don't like folks in disguises. And apparently, neither does Ryder," he chuckled. Beck grimaced.

"That's the best thing about Halloween," Reid argued. "You can be anyone you want to be." Beck bit back a snort when she watched Reid use his free hand to toss a piece of candy to Morgan's desk.

"Nah, I'm pretty good just being me," Morgan replied with a shake of his head.

Prentiss grinned, glancing between the two men. "Yeah, why is it that neither of those points of view surprise me?" She chuckled. "How about you, Ryder? Ever celebrate Halloween as a kid?"

Beck opened her mouth, narrowing her eyes as she attempted to form an answer. Truth be told, she'd never paid much thought to any holidays outside of the Chinese New Year, Fiesta, and Christmas... maybe getting a little tipsy during New Years, but it wasn't like training with the CIA gave her ample time to be a kid, and the CTU's hours were unpredictable enough as it was even after her training. But she did have a few good memories.

"Uh, I remember the year before I left home to join the CTU, my older brother and I had helped make my little sister a Supergirl costume," she recalled. "Yeah- it was a fun night until my brother and I got a little too drunk and ended up using her cape as a trash bag to carry our throw-up back to the house..."

Prentiss threw her head back in laughter, Reid and Morgan chuckling at her expense as well.

"You know what, though?" Morgan chimed in. "On the flip side, Halloween does provide a pretty good reason to cozy up with a scary flick and a little Halloween Honey." He turned and clicked his tongue, winking at Prentiss jokingly.

"Ew," she cringed, as did Beck. "Halloween Honey. That's- now I'm creeped out."

Beck snorted, turning to back to Reid, noticing he'd dropped the ice pack from his face. She was about to scold him when she realized he had dropped it out of awe, his pupils dilated as his eyes trailed after something behind her. "Guys," he breathed out. "He's here."

He?

Beck, Morgan, and Prentiss all turned, following his gaze to find none other than the Wicked Bitch of the West- Erin Strauss- strutting into the BAU office. Beck had only ever seen her in here once before, which was the first time she had been there as well on the day she escorted her to Hotchner's office.

And that's when Beck spotted him.

David Rossi was a stiff man. That was the first thing she noted about him. He walked in wearing a well-tailored beige dress coat with a red tie and blue dress pants. It was an interesting color scheme, but Beck wasn't the one throwing cash at tailors to make her look less like a pretentious douchebag.

He had darker skin... not Latino, but from the last name she inferred Italian. His hair was a darker brown, but she could clearly see the spots of lighter color in areas near his sharp side burns. And if the wrinkles didn't give away the guy's age, his silver goatee sure did.

As he approached, Reid immediately yanked off the mask still dangling from the back of his head, clearing his throat to try and cover his embarrassment. Beck had to purse her lips to keep from snorting at the way his hair was skewed at all angles atop his head.

As Rossi and Strauss passed, Reid's eyes remained glued to the older former agent, but while he was awestruck by a man with history within the Bureau, Beck was glared at the side of Erin Strauss's head. They'd only just had their little discussion about this new development a few hours ago, but it seemed as though she wasn't bluffing... David Rossi joining the team was in fact a done deal.

That bitch.

"I'm gonna go get coffee," Beck announced as she started to turn away from the sight of Strauss leading Rossi into Hotchner's office like she had done for her some time ago. The word 'expendable' had slithered it's way into the crevices of her skull and lodged itself into the front of her brain.

Reid turned to her, his eyebrows furrowed. "You don't drink coffee," he observed.

She met his gaze and noticed his red nose and the fact that he'd dropped the ice pack at the edge of his desk again. She frowned, plucking the ice pack from the desk and pushing it into his hands.

"It's not for me." She pointed to the ice in his hand, her eyes narrowing as she ordered, "Keep that on your nose."

She didn't stick around for him to argue as she veered herself in the direction to the communal coffee pot. Reid was right, she didn't drink coffee unless she was severely on edge and just wanted something hot to burn away at her throat and nerves. But she had punched him in the face. God- she was a fucking idiot. Why did she always just act?

And his excuse for her was that he caught her off guard and he didn't blame her because she was the team's 'former CIA agent' as if anything she did was from her time at the CTU. Which... wasn't completely true seeing as she was always an oddball within the CTU and her normal behavior was never quite what anyone else would consider CIA 'normal' by any means.

So, no, she hadn't accidentally punched him because it was in her nature to always be on. She punched him because after her tense meeting with Strauss, subconsciously, she'd been waiting for something to lash out at... And unfortunately, Reid had stumbled into her line of fire directly where she didn't want him.

If it had been Hotchner, she wouldn't have even bothered giving him ice. But since it was someone she'd regarded as somewhat of an ally, she felt guilty enough to get him ice... and even brew him some coffee in an attempt to say 'shit- please forgive me?' even if the Doctor wouldn't accept that she was at fault.

It took a decent amount of time for the coffee to brew, so Beck used her time waiting by the pot idly watching whatever interactions were happening up in Hotchner's office. She could see the silhouettes of two men embracing... Hotchner and Rossi were old friends. Beck fought the urge to break the glass mug clutched in her hands. Had she mentioned to Strauss how she was making this job ten times harder for her? She stood incorrect- it was now twenty times harder with Rossi as an ally to Hotchner.

Speaking of the Devil in Prada, Beck watched her with that perpetual scowl on her face as she exited the office and strutted her way out the same way she had entered, just with one less man behind her. As she passed, Strauss sent Beck a look that almost read 'don't say I told you so,' but Beck could only take all the anger festering in her veins and put it into a single glare that she hoped conveyed the message she silently sent through her eyes: 'fuck you.'

Following Strauss's departure, Beck continued her initial task of prepping coffee for Dr. Reid. She noticed his aversion to straight black caffeine, so she was nice enough to chock the mug full of creamer and about four Splendas- hoping the color of the concoction matched what she'd usually seen him with. Upon finishing it with a stir, she made her way back to the desks parallel to one another.

She had almost gotten to her desk when she looked up and noticed the other three agents had gathered around Rossi and Hotchner that had just come down from the office for an introduction.

"SSA David Rossi, this is SSA Emily Prentiss," Hotchner began, gesturing to the brunette now standing tall before him as if he were some kind of war hero... Well, technically he was, Beck had taken a look into his file and found out he was decorated Marine that served in Vietnam. Beck had to wonder if maybe he... no. No, he definitely hadn't served with Hawks or Gideon. And he definitely didn't know about who she was.

"Sir," Prentiss greeted him with an eager handshake and bright smile.

"SSA Derek Morgan."

Morgan extended his hand for a firm, less eager of a shake. He was clearly suspicious of Rossi's intentions, just as Beck was so there was less excitement in his voice as he greeted, "It's an honor, Agent Rossi."

"Please, just Dave," he insisted as he released Morgan's hand.

Then Hotchner turned to Beck just as she approached with her coffee in hand- which gave a phenomenal excuse not to shake any hands. "SSA Rebecca Ryder."

She fought the urge to wince as she nodded to Agent David Rossi. "It's just Beck," she idly corrected. "Nice to put a face to the file," she quoted what Penelope Garcia had said to her verbatim the first time they'd met, setting off that implication that she'd already looked into him and wasn't about to kiss up to someone she knew clearly had ulterior motives for rejoining. Selfish motives. Whether it be glory or spite or just more material for his new books, he was here for a reason and she was intent on finding out what it was because the quicker she got him out of the way, the quicker she could get back to focusing on getting Hotchner out of the way, and in turn, the quicker she would get Erin Strauss's foot off her neck.

If anyone else picked up the hidden message behind her words, they didn't show it.

"And Dr. Spencer Reid," Hotchner finally turned to the man beside her.

He'd fixed his hair and hidden away all his spooky accessories beneath his desk while she was away getting his coffee, but the remnants of her punch still shined bright red at the tip of his nose. She could see Hotchner and Rossi noticed it just as much as she did still as he went off on an excited tangent.

"Sir, if I could talk to you later about your work with the Scarsdale Skinner-" Beck drew a face. "Psycho-linguistics is an incredibly dynamic field, and the fact that your profile of his reading habits ultimately led to his capture-" Huh, so Rossi wasn't just another pretty face in the eyes of the Good Doctor. Nice to know. "-is something I find so incredibly intriguing-"

"Reid," Hotchner cut in soft, but firmly. They all turned to him. "Reid, slow down. Uh, he'll be here for a while." Beck wanted to break the mug in her fist... Great. "You can catch up with him later."

Reid winced apologetically, "Sorry." Beck wasn't sure why he was apologizing, she was actually really curious to know more about what made Rossi so special if even the Good Doctor was fangirling over him. She'd read all the reports and the paper files and the profiles and the books and the history, but... what was so historical about the guy other than the fact that he had founded the unit?

Rossi smiled politely, "No problem, Doctor."

"Maybe you guys can talk on the jet," Hotchner supplied.

"The jet?" Rossi turned to him, his expression showing that he hadn't yet been notified of it- almost mirroring the way she'd first reacted upon hearing about the way the BAU traveled.

"We have a jet now," Hotchner confirmed with a smirk and a nod.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah," he chuckled. "It comes in pretty handy."

Huh... Beck noted how relaxed Hotchner was with Rossi. Less stiff and stand-offish the way he had been when she'd first joined. Perhaps it was the history- of course, it was the history. They had history that was the issue. They'd be wound tight and it's yet another person Beck was going to have trouble slithering through to get to the already hard-wired Aaron Hotchner. God, she wanted to string Erin Strauss up by her toes and dangle her from off the wing of the jet- that bitch.

"Come on," Hotchner beckoned for everyone to follow as they started towards the Bullpen. "JJ's waiting." Apparently, with a new case. Fun. This day probably couldn't get any worse.

The four agents parted the walkway for Hotchner to lead Rossi up first, Prentiss following after and Morgan shoving Reid's head slightly as he passed, giving Beck a view of his bright red nose again and- "Where's the ice?" She asked before he could make his way past her.

"Uh..." he looked around his desk before holding up the pack he'd left discarded on his keyboard.

Beck frowned, taking it and firmly pressing it to his face despite his wince of pain. "Keep that there," she instructed, holding out the mug of coffee for him. "Drink this."

He took the coffee and the ice pack, furrowing his eyebrows at her as she started towards the Bullpen like everyone else. He fell into step with her as they made their to the stairs up to the walkway.

"Are you mothering me?" he asked, an underlying tone of amusement lacing his uncertain voice. "Is this your way of dealing with your guilt about punching me? Ryder, I told you it wasn't your fault-"

"I'm not mothering you," she cut him off swiftly as they made their way onto the walkway. "I'm making sure the swelling goes down. The coffee is an added apology because there's no excuse for me... lashing out at you."

"You weren't lashing out at me-"

Beck halted in her tracks, he stopped talking the minute she rounded on her heel to glare up at him. "You want the coffee or not?"

His grip tightened on the mug. "I'm keeping the coffee."

"Then stop questioning everything I do and just take the gesture as it is," she stated.

He gave her a slight nod, indicating he understood.

"And for fuck's sake, keep the ice on your nose-" she took the time to press his hand gripping the packet back onto his face after he'd loosened his hold. "I doubt you want to go as Rudolph for Halloween this year." Satisfied with the pressure he was maintaining with the ice pack, Beck released his hand and turned on her heel to continue on into the Bullpen.

She shouldn't have been surprised when Reid continued the conversation where she had left off.

"I actually don't dress up for Halloween," he told her matter-of-factly.

She gave him a side-long glance from over her shoulder. "Could've fooled me," she chuckled humorlessly.

"The mask was just a prank," Reid chuckled from through the ice pack. "I'm actually going to a screening of the 1925 silent version of the Phantom of the Opera. I have an extra ticket if you want to come along."

For a second, she pondered it. It didn't sound horrible. She wasn't exactly the world's biggest horror fan- she preferred old mobster movies, historical animes, Jane Austen film adaptations, and slasher films... but older horror? Wasn't as appealing. But, for some reason, Beck was still considering the invitation as if she didn't have a million other things better to do with her time.

Like, for instance, focus on getting through this case with not only having to deal with Hotchner, but now their newest addition... David Rossi.

"Carrollton, Texas, is a suburb just outside of Dallas," JJ said, not wasting a second to get started on the briefing as each manila folder filled with individual information for each of them slapped against the table with a resounding smack.

Beck took a seat at the far end of the table so she had a good angle of both the screens and the two middle-aged male agents seated across from her.

"Four days ago, Michelle Colucci found this flier on her front door." The blonde pressed the remote to project the image of a blonde woman smiling at something unseen, her face had been cropped and the background was white- but the peculiar part wasn't the poor photoshop, it was the words plastered in big bold letters at the top: HAVE YOU SEEN ME?

"She found it?" Morgan asked the question they'd all been thinking as he took seat at the other end of the table beside Prentiss.

"Meaning she wasn't actually missing," the brunette beside him noted.

"Yet," JJ corrected as Beck wasted no time in starting to sift through the file place in front of her. "She took the flier to a friend's husband, Detective Yarbrough at the Carrollton PD."

Beck frowned. "I don't see a police report anywhere in here," she remarked.

"That's because he didn't file one," JJ explained. "He told her it was probably just a Halloween prank, and he sent her home."

"Well, I don't blame him," Morgan chimed in. "Halloween brings out the fool in everyone." He turned to eye the Doctor seated to Beck's right, he turned his eyes away from the agent across the table, but he couldn't hide behind the ice pack still pressed against his nose.

"Still," JJ cut in. "He stopped by Michelle's house later to check on her. The door was open, and when he went inside, he found this." The single HAVE YOU SEEN ME poster was erased, replaced on the screen by pictures of various of the same poster plastered all along walls in a room. "He still thought maybe it could be some kind of a prank, until yesterday."

Beck mentally braced herself for whatever horrors were about to be projected on the screen, and in-turn, seared into her brain. The blood, the torture, the bruises, the broken bones and black eyes... She remembered it all. Now it was time to sear yet another less than favorable image into her brain.

This time it was a black and white still of a limp body, laid face-first into a body of dirty water, the clothing on the back torn, exposing the pale skin.

"Michelle was found floating in a small creek just outside of Carrollton," JJ said, projecting another image, this time of the legs half-hidden beneath brush and water as well.

Okay... Beck could live with that one. Nothing too horrible

"She had been sexually assaulted... and her face had been removed."

Beck's eyes immediately withdrew from the screen as JJ clicked the button, but it was too late... The image was stuck in her brain like all the rest of them now. A human head with hair and ears intact... but the face was ripped at the seams as though someone had taken a doll and scraped off the smiling face with a scalpel... only... bloodier... more morbid.

Great... That one was gonna stick with her. She opened her eyes again, staring at the faceless image of Michelle Colucci's body because... it was already in her head- no point in hiding from it now.

"Removed?" Rossi asked skeptically from the end of the table. "Wasn't animals or fish?" What kind of animal could do that? Oh, right... the Unsub.

"The Dallas County ME said that the edges of the wounds were smooth, not torn," JJ explained. "A very sharp instrument had been used. He also found water in her lungs."

Beck cleared her throat. "Yeah, from the looks of it, it wasn't anyone fairly good with a scalpel or a knife... the cuts are too jagged. Meticulous, but not professional," she noted, her eyes trailing along the miniaturized version of the image on the screen that had been placed inside the manila folder in front of her earlier.

"You recognize professional face removing procedures?" Rossi prompted her.

"I recognize work as someone who knows how to properly use a blade," Beck immediately retorted, the response coming out a bit sharper than he'd probably expected from her. "And this-" she pointed to the image on the screen. "While it is a very fucked up and carefully executed... procedure... is not any kind of technique that a professional would use. He's not in the medical field nor does he have any kind of experience with this sort of thing, so we can rule that out."

Everyone in the room didn't speak following her spiel on knives and how to properly remove a face... The unspoken question about how she knew that was left lingering in the air until the door to the Bullpen swung open.

"Oh my God!"

The agents in the room all turned to find a bright splash of color standing in the doorway.

"What is that?" Penelope Garcia winced, a manila file she was holding in her hand coming up to guard her eyes from the image displayed on the screen. Beck wondered if she too had the curse of a photographic memory... or maybe she was normal and just couldn't stomach looking at things like these like everyone else in the room could...

Yet another mysterious clue that hinted at how she probably got this job involuntarily.

"Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia," Hotchner introduced the woman still shielding her eyes to a very confused and bored looking Rossi. "This is SSA David Rossi."

But, Garcia still hadn't taken the folder from off her face. "Is it gone, JJ?" She called to the blonde.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah-" She assured the other blonde- well, technically, blonde with pink streaks in her hair. Had she just done that while she was away? Interesting. But, then again, she was just an entire bubble of weird and interesting. Like an odd, out of place disco ball in a unit full of... well, frankly, planks of wood and hard-covered books.

"You're safe," JJ exclaimed as she changed the image away from the faceless corpse as if the image. Beck wished the image could be erased from her mind just as quickly as it had been from the screen and how it would eventually be for the rest of the team.

"Okay," Garcia let out a heavy sigh of relief, lowering the folder from her eyes. "Just to, um... Carrollton, Texas, has nearly a hundred and seventeen thousand residents, a diverse population..." she trailed off as she handed the file to Hotchner who took it eagerly, tearing through the contents quickly. "It's all... in there... I'm sorry." Beck snickered.

Then, like a switch, her shaken demeanor suddenly vaporized as she turned to extend her hand to Rossi seated directly in front of her. "Very happy to meet you, sir." Beck watched as he smiled a bit and politely shook her hand. Garcia then pulled away and gave everyone else in the room an awkward sort of smile. "I'll be in my office," she explained in a jumble of words before starting out, pausing after she made it a couple feet, and rushing to shut the door behind her, parting with an awkward little wave and a half-hearted apology, "Sorry!"

And just like that, the splash of color in the dark room was gone again.

"She's different," Rossi mused.

Hotchner smirked and shook his head slightly. "You have no idea." It almost sounded like fondness in his tone.

"Uh, so..." Prentiss cuts in, bringing everyone back to the case at hand. "The Unsub tells her she's going to go missing to psychologically torture her, then tortures her physically. Text book sadist," she concludes.

"A sophisticated one," Hotchner agrees with her conclusion, his eyes trailing up the screen where the missing files were hoisted up on the walls of Michelle Colucci's home. "That's elaborate."

Beck narrows her eyes when she notices something about the scene... in the middle of the room was a desk, tacked with even more missing fliers on there... and a single white mask tilted upwards towards the camera. The word 'one' was written in blotchy... almost bloody red letters on the forehead.

"Number one..." Morgan mused, his eyes on the photo from his file.

"That particular mask is known as a false face," Reid piped up. "It's most commonly worn during Halloween and Mardi Gras." At the mention of masks and Hallows Eve, Beck turned to see Reid didn't have the ice pack to his nose and the red on his face lit up the room brighter than Penelope's hair streaks had.

She winced and turned away just as Morgan replied to the Doctor's explanation: "Creepy. I rest my case."

"False face..." Hotchner repeated Reid's explanation.

"Maybe symbolizing what he did to her face?" Beck supplied.

"He mocks her face then destroys it?" Prentiss prompted, her tone laced with confusion. Nothing was really making sense about this guy other than the fact that he was clearly obsessed with faces... but didn't want his to be seen.

"Or," Beck reiterated her first stance. "He obsesses over her face, plasters it everywhere... then rips it off and replaces it with a faceless mask to symbolize himself. Unseen." She turns to everyone around the table expectantly. "Does that... sound right?"

"It's a pretty decent base profile," Rossi nodded, a smirk on his lips. Beck had to fight the urge to smile back.

This was the first form of any kind of validation she'd received from the team... aside from Morgan and Dr. Reid... But she was thinking more in the terms of Hotchner and how easy it was to agree with everyone, but her. She thought maybe it was because she was knew and he suspected she had ulterior motives, but then in walks in SSA David Rossi, new and with ulterior motives. And yet... smiles and fresh greetings all around.

Then Beck had to remind herself she wasn't here for Hotchner's- or anyone else's- validation. She was here to hunt down killers. Hotchner was just in her way of staying on this team now... And in turn, so was David Rossi.

"Oh, and Hotch-" JJ cuts herself off with a frustrated groan. "Local media has the story. It broke big."

"Tell Carrollton we'll be there first thing in the morning," he instructed the blonde before addressing the rest of the group as he stood from the table. "Let's stop this thing at one."

"Yes, sir," JJ muttered as the rest of the team followed his lead, finishing any final notes, gathering up what was left of the paper files and shoving them in the manila folders before standing and heading out.

"If you wanna get situated, maybe start on the next case?" Beck heard Hotchner suggest to Rossi as she had stood from her chair, tucking away the file to her chest, watching and listening from a distance.

She watched Rossi shake his head. "I'm not back to get situated, Hotch, I'm here to work," the agent replied to the Unit Chief. If he weren't such a pain in her ass in the Strauss department, Rossi probably would've been a cool guy in her eyes. But he was a thorn in her side now that Strauss was holding her to a higher standard than before, and blackmailing her no less for what she wanted: Hotchner gone. Which made David Rossi an obstacle she needed to bypass if she was going to keep this job.

"Everybody get your things together," Hotchner instructed as they all began to file out. "We're going to Texas."

"Twice in a week for you, Ryder," Morgan chuckled as he held the door open for her, Reid close behind her, his ice pack in his hand and not pressed against his face.

Beck wanted to wince at the mention of her lapse in strength after what had happened with Richard and Susan Jacobs a couple days ago, but instead she brushed it off with a shrug. "No harm in two trips to the Lone Star State," she joked.

As the group was filing out of the office, each of them probably mentally preparing for when they left tomorrow morning, Hotchner paused in the middle of the walkway, watching as Beck approached. She saw him standing, waiting idly for her to get close enough to pounce on her.

They hadn't spoken about her leaving to Texas after the last case since it happened... partly because she had been trying her best to avoid him and the topic as a whole, but apparently not well enough seeing as he'd managed to trap her.

"Ryder," he greeted her in his signature monotone voice that she couldn't tell if he was pissed, frustrated, disappointed, or constipated.

"Hotchner," she replied in a cheeky fashion. Maybe if she made light-hearted jokes he would give her shit about what happened. As if she wasn't punishing herself enough for her leaving so abruptly.

Hotchner's eyes narrowed.

Okay, not in the mood for joking... Not even for Agent Rossi's sake.

"My office," was all he said before starting off the rest of the way down the catwalk. Beck sighed, her eyes scanning the rest of the team to see if they would be witness to her walking in and getting her head bitten off. First Strauss, now Hotchner... Today was not being kind to her.

Beck didn't waste any time, speed-walking down the walkway to follow Hotchner into his office just as she watched the rest of the team take their seats at their desks like that had moments ago. None of them seemed to notice the pair of agents break off from the group, but they'd probably piece it together when she came out of the office either without a head or with Hotchner's head in her hands.

When she walked in, Hotchner was already standing with his arms crossed beside his desk, waiting for her. "Shut the door, please."

Great... she was totally fired.

Reluctantly, Beck shut the office door behind her. Despite the fact she was facing termination, her heartrate was steady. Maybe she knew deep down that Hotchner wasn't going to fire her.

Strauss might've been a bitch and as much as the Section Chief hated Beck, she hated Hotchner more and would keep her little chess piece in play. Beck's skin crawled at the thought of being her chess piece, but she had to remember she had things to gain from this as well... the Unit Chief spot was out of the question, but her spot on this team was still something she cherished and wasn't willing to give up just yet.

"This is about my... unauthorized leave to Texas a few days ago, isn't it?" Beck asked before he even had the chance to address the situation.

"Yes, it is," he answered truthfully. "But it's mostly about why you felt the need to leave before a victim was recovered. You can't just abandon your team during a case the way you did, and I know you're fully aware of that. What I want to know is why you went anyway." Beck shifted on her feet as the Unit Chief leaned idly against the edge of his desk, his arms crossed firmly across his chest as he stared her down.

She swallowed hard.

"Well, I'd be lying if I told you that the interrogation session I had with Susan Jacobs didn't get to me," she explained. "It was a momentary lapse. It won't happen again- I can guarantee that."

"Can you?" He prompted her.

She tilted her head slightly, gauging his tone of voice and just how pissed he was. "Yes," she reiterated. "I sorted it out with myself. I'm fine."

"Is that why Dr. Reid has a shiner on his face right now?"

"I-" she stopped the words coming out of her mouth as she grew defensive. Her eyes glancing out of the office window to catch a glimpse of Reid outside with an ice pack on his cheek. She turned back to Hotch. "That was an accident and has nothing to do with why I left."

"You're on edge. It's why you reacted so rashly and punched a fellow team member," Hotchner retorted. "So if it's not about Texas or Susan Jacobs, what is it about?"

Beck clenched her jaw. "Nothing."

"We'll never get anywhere if you continue to lie to me and your teammates," Hotchner chastised her. Beck fought the urge to roll her eyes at the Unit Chief. "Now, I can't help you if you don't tell me what it is that's upsetting you."

Beck took a deep breath in, closing her eyes and trying to find an appropriate way to get him off her back. Eventually, when she opened her eyes again, her expression was hard and her walls were back up where they belonged. "Nothing is wrong. And I don't need your help," she replied in a calm and collected voice. "Now are we done here? I have to pack my go-bag for Texas... again."

Hotchner's expression hardened as if he was planning on saying something, but he ultimately let the subject drop. "Yes," he relented. "We're done here. But I expect you to have a level head when we leave tomorrow morning and I'd prefer it if you refrain from violence against one of my best agents." Ah, he has favorites- she made a mental note. And of course Dr. Reid would be one of his favorites- he violated protocol and waived his basic training to be on the team. Yet another note she'd be sure to add to her growing list of evidence against Hotchner.

Beck simply nodded. "Yes, sir." And with that, she left the office, and made her way back to her desk. She threw herself back into her seat, the heel of her boot idly kicking in the broken bottom drawer of her desk that didn't shut properly while she went through her messages on her phone.

The Wicked Witch of the West: Behave

Beck rolled her eyes. Delete.

The Captain: heard you went to visit mom and dad the other day. Colleen's been bugging me about when you're coming out for a surprise visit here. she loves you, but she would like an RSVP so she can take off work. something about a girl's night... God help me.

Beck chuckled.

The Agent: tell the love of my life and your little bundle of joy I'll try to make it out when I can. visit to mom and dad was spur of the moment, but if I ever head out to LA (God help ME) she has a five to ten hour window of warning time. over and out.

She hit send and continued her scrolling.

[Unknown Number]: Heard you took a job with the FBI- Behavioral Analysis Unit? Seriously? What the hell are you trying to prove? And to who?

The agent sighed. The text was from an unknown number, but from the bitchy undertones and the fact that she'd read it all in that condescending voice she'd always gotten tired of back at CTU, if Beck were to bet money she'd win big on the assumption that Gina Sanchez was texting her.

[Unknown Number]: We should talk.

This was from a week ago. Beck had been putting off looking at it because she'd immediately assumed it was from someone from the CTU so, of course, she tried to ignore it.

[Unknown Number]: Seriously? The Silent Treatment? Don't make me get Spruce in here to hack into your mainframe and fuck with your systems so you have no choice but to talk with me.

A few days ago.

[Unknown Number]: Okay, your mainframe is pretty solid, but now you know I'm not bluffing when it comes to threats. Hurry the hell up and get back to me. I'm serious.

That was from just today... Beck mentally debated replying to Sanchez's request, but the more rational part of her that already had enough on her plate figured that bitch could wait while she dealt with the newest bitch in her life: Erin Strauss.

Ryder: leave me the hell alone. lose this number. and when I'm ready to talk with you, I'll get in touch.

Ryder: and tell Spruce to keep his grimy hands off of the FBI mainframe before I have my tech turn your system into a cinder block... and you know how I handle my threats in comparison to how you handle yours.

Beck leaned back in her seat, waiting for a response.

"Who are you texting?"

The agent turned to her right and found herself face-to-face with Dr. Reid, his ice pack still pressed on his nose where she'd punched him earlier.

"Uh... sister-in-law," she lied with ease. "Pain in my ass. Wants me to come visit soon."

Dr. Reid seemed to buy it as he brought his lips up in a sort of pout, shrugging before going back to what looked like the New York Times crossword puzzle. Earlier, when she'd first sat down, Beck had noticed he only had four words solved, now it looked like he only had four words left. Beck chuckled to herself. Nerd.

Her phone buzzed in her hand.

[Unknown Number]: Noted.

The agent smirked to herself. Checkmate, Sanchez.

"So," Beck glanced back to the Good Doctor seated across from her. "When can I take the ice off my nose?"

"Impatient much?" Beck joked as she set her phone aside and kicked herself out of her chair to march across the aisle towards Reid's desk.

Upon her close proximity, he leaned back in his chair slightly- just like he had on their first official case together where their faces had come a bit too close and he'd immediately backed away. But, Beck made sure he couldn't get too far as she pulled his shoulders forward, bending down to perch herself between his knees as she attempted to examine his nose beneath the ice pack.

"Hm," she hummed.

"What?" the Doctor immediately grew anxious.

"Bad news, Doc," she frowned, leaning back and taking the ice pack from his hands to set it in his lap. She feigned a serious expression as she tried not to laugh at Reid's growing concern. She lightly patted the ice pack in his lap as she told him, "You'll never walk again."

Reid sagged in relief and Beck couldn't help but laugh at his expense.

She pulled herself up from where she had been perched before him and juggled the ice pack from one hand to the next. "You'll live, but you should probably put a bandage on the bridge. You don't need any more swelling, but other than that, your nose is fine."

"Thank you, Doctor Ryder," he replied with a genuine smile. When he glanced up at her, however, a brief glimpse of shock seemed to overtake the woman standing in front of him, almost as if he'd hit a nerve. But... how could he have? He just thanked her and made a joke about her skills. Huh. Dr. Ryder. Reid wondered if that name had any significance to her. "Everything alright?"

She immediately snapped out of her trance. "Yeah. Yeah. Just... out of it, like I said earlier. Sorry again about your nose," she grimaced before turning on her heel and heading back to her desk to grab her helmet, keys and the rest of her belongings.

"Hey, where are you going?" Reid prompted her. Beck didn't have to glance up from her locked computer screen to hear his chair creak as he stood up.

Sure enough, as she turned to the side to throw her bag over her shoulder, she spotted him walking over. She recognized the concern in his eyes when he glanced between her and the bag on her shoulder. Ah, he was worried about her leaving again.

She held up the hand that was holding her keys. "Relax. I'm not bolting again, I'm just headed back to my apartment," she explained. "I spent three days in Texas on back-to-back babysitting shifts and dishwashing duty directly after a case. Don't report me to the Chief for wanting to get in just a few good hours of shut-eye before I have to head back out there."

Dr. Reid seemed to calm at her explanation, despite the slight glint of suspicion that loomed in his eyes as he watched her twirl her keys into her pocket and start on her way around the edge of her desk to head out. "A-Alright," he stammered.

"See you at the airport tomorrow morning," she called over her shoulder, loud enough for Prentiss, Morgan, and JJ to hear as well from where they stood gathered around the coffee pot a few yards away near the make-shift office kitchen. As she passed by them, she threw a small wave before ducking out the glass doors. While she walked towards the elevator, her phone buzzed.

Beck hit the Ground button and pulled her phone out as the metal doors shut.

Colleen: five to ten hours?! i should strangle you!

She smirked, biting back a laugh at her sister-in-law's antics before typing out a reply.

Beck: careful. I hunt serial killers now- i could have you in federal prison in just that same amount of time.

She hit send just as the metal doors opened again.

Beck had just kicked her feet over the side of her bike when her phone buzzed once more. She pulled it out to see.

Colleen: cheeky bitch.

Beck: love you, too.

—

Beck made good on her word and showed up to the hangar about twenty minutes earlier than the rest of the team. Her go-bag idly sat at her feet until she saw the black SUVs approaching from the South of the air strip.

She kicked off her bike and threw her bag over her shoulder before making her trek across the empty hangar where her baby would (hopefully) stay safe until she got back towards the parked BAU jet where the rest of the team was heading as well.

"Nice of you to join us," Morgan chuckled, smiling down at her with his sunglasses perched at the tip of his nose. "A little early, even for you. Sure you don't want that coffee right about now?"

It was true, it was pretty early for her. Granted, she'd spent days without sleep before and her and sleep deprivation were good friends, but that didn't mean she didn't absolutely despise waking up any earlier than noon on days where she wasn't actively on assignment.

Beck rolled her eyes at the man towering over her just beside the stair ladder up to the door of the jet. She had to bite back any retort she had about her being irritable and ready to kick his ass because just over his shoulder was both Hotchner and Rossi.

She remembered Strauss's deleted text message from the day before.

Behave.

Beck bit the side of her cheek. "I'll be fine," she replied to the agent. He stood aside, gesturing for her to climb up the steps onto the jet first. "The anxiety from the plane ride should wake me up before we make it to Texas." She heard a series of chuckles from behind her as she ducked through the jet entrance. Climbing in, she wasted no time in throwing down her go-bag near the front cubby and walking through the cabin to secure her place at one of the four seats near the center with seatbelts.

The minute her head hit the back of the cushiony seat, she almost considered taking a brief nap after buckling in. But... then she heard the sounds of the engines firing up for take off and all the bad memories attached to them followed. Beck knew she wouldn't be getting any more sleep anytime soon.

It didn't take long for the rest of the team to file into the jet cabin.

Beck was anxiously tapping her finger on her thigh, her eyes overlooking one of the wings just outside the window beside her head when Prentiss, Reid and Morgan all joined her at the other three seats around her. Prentiss, surprisingly, taking the seat closest to her on her right, Morgan adjacent to Prentiss, and Reid across from Beck.

She took notice of the bandage on Reid's nose and the lighter shade of red that it had numbed down to. He'd taken her medical advice.

"Your nose looks better," she told him.

Reid smiled politely at her, his head ducking as if he were bashful in his exclamation, "Yeah... I only got stared at a few dozen times walking to the pharmacy to get bandages for it."

Beck frowned. "Sorry."

Beside Reid, Morgan glanced between the agent and the mark on the Doctor's nose. He raised his eyebrows, mildly impressed. "You pack a hell of a punch, Ryder."

While Beck wanted to disappear into her seat, Prentiss chuckled beside her, "Oh- you could say that. You should've seen her the other day with the Narcotics guys down in the gym." Oh, now Beck definitely wanted to disappear into the cushions when she saw both Dr. Reid and Agent Morgan's eyebrows raise, perplexed.

Don't get her wrong; she enjoyed beating the shit out of those mildly misogynistic 'Roid Heads down in Narcotics, but hearing her new teammates brag about the way she mopped the floor with them made her skin crawl. If it had been Spruce, Sanchez, or anyone else in the CTU- she would've hyped herself up. But this was the BAU, she didn't want people to be afraid of her, she just wanted them to trust her.

If you didn't want them to be afraid of you, maybe next time try not punching their most valuable asset.

Beck inwardly groaned.

Her urge to disappear from her seat was only amplified when the jet jolted forward and started down the air strip.

"Whoo," Beck blew out in a huff as her hands gripped both sides of her seat, her head pressed into the cushion as she stared up at the jet ceiling as if her glare would halt the shaking or even just the plummeting feeling in the pit of her stomach as she felt the plane leave the ground.

After about thirty minutes or so, most everyone had relaxed. Seatbelts were removed, legs were strewn across seats, people were getting up for coffee... and Beck was still gripping the edge of the table as if it would somehow protect her if the jet fell from the sky.

And, as always, the only person who seemed to notice just how on edge she was, was the Doctor seated across from her.

"Two hours, twenty-eight minutes, and fifty-seven seconds left before we land," he muttered during a period of time where both Morgan and Prentiss had gotten up to grab caffeine leaving the pair alone. He'd said it over the edge of the file he had his nose in, not bothering to look up at her as he said it.

Beck, however, did look back at him from across the table, her eyes falling from the jet ceiling to land on his red nose. A ping of guilt arose once more.

Slowly, she moved her hand from beneath the table where she had clutched it to the surface. Her finger lightly tapping.

Tap-hold. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Pause. Tap. Tap-hold. Pause. Tap-hold. Tap. Pause. Tap-hold. Tap. Tap-hold. Pause. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Without missing a beat, he replied, "You're welcome."

After a few minutes of silence that passed between the two, Prentiss and Morgan rejoined them. JJ did too, as she took a seat at a chair nearby across the aisle, but turned it to face the group. Hotchner, just a few feet beside her leaning on the edge of the couch arm. And Beck couldn't quite see where Rossi was, but from deduction and the way Hotchner kept throwing glances over to his right, she assumed he was in the far back corner somewhere over Reid's seat.

The plane jolted and Beck hissed.

She was relieved when she heard Hotchner declare for the entire team to hear, "Let's go over victimology... Would you like to join us, Dave?" Beck pulled her file in front of her, not bothering to pay attention as Rossi made his way over to take a seat on the couch just beside Hotchner. "Reid, what have you got?" When Beck glanced up to listen to the Doctor speak, she noticed the looks being casted over to the newest member of the team... JJ, Reid, Prentiss... they all looked star-struck by Rossi. Huh.

"Uh, Michelle Colucci was single, lived alone, no boyfriend, and no ex-husband," Reid read off his base profile report file in his hands, his eyes tearing away from the older agent to get back to the task at hand.

"Dating?" Prentiss prompted as Beck took note of the sound of a ball point pen clicking. She glanced around the brunette beside her to catch a glimpse of what seemed to be a notebook in Agent Rossi's lap... he was jotting down notes. Similar to what Beck did, but Beck did it for a certain reason and she certainly didn't do it while she was brain storming, it distracted her from actual thoughts and ideas being bounced between the team. The entire dynamic itself was what enticed her in the first place... So why was Rossi taking notes? Why the hell was Rossi even there? What was his end goal?

"There's nothing in the reports," Morgan answered Prentiss's question, drawing Beck back to the present.

"She was an architect," JJ interjected, reading from her own file. "Friends and co-workers say she's a classic workaholic. Basically a loner who barely went out of the house." Beck took the time to pull the images from the file she had been given on Michelle Colucci. She had a nice jawline, pearly white teeth, sharp cheekbones, beautiful beaming eyes, a charming smile, luxurious blonde locks, and just... seemed to be a happy and content person just from the photo that had been plastered to this disgusting poster.

"So, she's extremely low risk," Prentiss deduced.

Then, on the other hand, was the second image of a corpse. The blonde locks askew and almost three shades darker from the bloodstains and mud streaks tangled in with vines and branches, skin now blue and grey, and the face completely peeled from the skull... no more smile, jawline, cheekbones, pretty eyes, or smiling complexion. This Unsub had taken and shown off a reclusive young woman with a life and future she had been working towards and tore her down to this... leaving her in a lake to be found.

"Which made her an easy target," Beck concluded herself, not taking her eyes off the bloody image before her.

"If it wasn't someone she knew personally, it's possible she was being stalked," Reid chimed in. 'By who' was now the question that needed to be answered.

"I doubt this-" Beck gestured to the missing poster. "Was anything but your classic case of stalker. Clearly, this was taken from a distance, off-guard. And it was reported that Michelle Colucci went to the police after she'd seen it- she knew someone had taken that photo of her without her being aware. That was apart of the taunt, wasn't it? 'Have you seen me?' Clearly, he sees her."

There was a beat of silence as the team let her words sink in.

"Interesting," a low mutter came from the other side of the aisle that had everyone turning their heads.

"What's that?" Reid called out.

Rossi's head shot up from where it had been hanging low, his eyes glued to the pen and paper in his lap. "Oh, I'm just thinking out loud," he brushed off.

"Something to add?" Hotchner prompted the agent. Yeah, Beck mentally challenged, add something, Old-Timer. Let's see what you got cooking in that head of yours. What are you jotting down there?

"No," he shook his head. "Sorry to interrupt." Beck couldn't help but soften her glare when she realized he looked genuinely apologetic when he turned to glance at her from around Prentiss. Huh.

"Well, she's pretty," Morgan didn't waste any time to move away from that awkward interruption to add onto what Beck had originally been discussing. "It could be that the Unsub met her casually and... made her part of some kind of fantasy."

"...And he tries to act on it and she rejects him," Hotchner finished his theory.

"So he tortures her... out of anger?" Prentiss asked out loud to no one in particular.

"Directed towards her?" Beck added onto the question. "The overkill on the face and the mutilation and assault of the body and Michelle Colucci herself pre-mortem would make sense, but... if he takes out all his rage on her physically, what is the reason behind leaving the mask? He wanted someone to find it, but what does it mean?" It just wasn't making sense to her. There were so many aspects and layers to this Unsub's kill that the pieces just weren't fitting together.

"Masks often represent a state of mind," Reid chimed in, going off of her rant. "This one's blank, expressionless. Doesn't really coincide with anger." He held up the photo of the blank mask labeled 'One' in the bloody letters. Beck had to bite back a retort on how if masks represented a state of mind then why in the hell had he worn that creepy one around her?

"Reid," Morgan began from where he sat diagonally from her, and beside the Doctor. "It's hard to believe he did this out of anything less than rage," he exclaimed, holding of the bloody image of Michelle Colucci's faceless corpse.

Just then, the computer screen beeped to life on the screen between Reid and Beck. Out of pure instinct, Beck reached across the table and plucked the image from Morgan's hand and slapped it against the table just as Penelope Garcia's face lit up the screen.

"Hey, guys," she greeted the group with a beaming smile.

Beck had remembered when she had been able to smile as bright as Garcia was able to now. She didn't want that to be ruined. Especially not after she'd seen the way the blonde had reacted to seeing the photo back in the Bullpen. Just because the rest of the team could handle it, didn't mean she had to be able to.

Morgan, who had took note of Beck's actions, glanced between her and the blonde on the screen. Beck returned his curious glance with a pointed stare. He didn't press the subject.

"What's up?" Morgan prompted the Technical Analyst. "You got something for us?"

She nodded. "A list of Michelle Colucci's clients," she explained just as a small tab along the side of her camera appeared alongside her in a column. A list of companies and corporations were listed off. "She designed office space. Mostly big corporate remodeling plans."

"She interacted with hundreds of people daily then," Beck frowned. "Any one person from any of these companies could be our Unsub."

Hotchner frowned, also realizing what she had come to deduce: that their job just got a little more difficult. "No private clients, one-on-one contact?"

Penelope shook her head. "Doesn't look like it, no." Dammit.

"Thanks, Baby Girl," Morgan called to her before hanging up the call. Beck had to refrain from frowning to deeply as the blonde's face vanished from the screen once more.

"It's someone from one of those corporations Michelle Colucci worked at- it has to be," Beck exclaimed. "Someone who has enough tech background in order to create a poster this way, have enough resources to print that much paper, and have enough patience and physical control of their fingers in order to do this-" Beck picked the faceless corpse picture up again. "It has to be someone sitting in a cubicle at one of those corporations."

"That's gonna take a lot of deducing to figure out who out of the thousands of employees at each one to figure out who could've done this," Morgan frowned.

"Well, that's kind of our job, isn't it?" Beck chuckled from across from him.

"I expect you all to perform well then," Hotchner exclaimed. Beck couldn't help but catch the more direct meaning and tone behind his words as his eyes found hers from across the aisle. She wanted to bite his head off then and there, screaming that 'of course, I have my shit under control- get your old friend in check instead of focusing on me!'

Because from the looks of it, Rossi and his little journal and new aversion to working as a unit within the team was already proving to be a little aggravating.

Hm, maybe taking him down was going to be easier than she'd originally thought. Nice.

—

When the team landed in Northern Dallas, they wasted no time with pleasantries like the rest of the people that had arrived at the airport. Immediately upon hopping off the plane, they all filed into the black SUVs that were waiting for them on the air strip and started towards Carrollton a few minutes away.

The Carrollton Police Department was a crowded, bustling office space that had little to no natural light and the shade of their walls that correlated with the dark-colored carpet made Beck's skin itch. But, thankfully, if she did her job right, they wouldn't be here very long.

JJ and Hotchner led the way through the office after being led through by an officer, they all stopped just short of the printer where a tall, older man wearing a plaid shirt with a blazer over it was standing. Plaid with a blazer- if that wasn't the most Texas thing ever... Beck chuckled to herself.

"Detective Yarbrough?" JJ greeted the man.

"FBI?" They all nodded in confirmation. "We got another flier- this time Metro Dallas," he explained waving what seemed to be yet another terribly edited picture of a different woman's face beneath the big bold letters 'HAVE YOU SEEN ME?'

Number Two...

"Enid White." The detective started to walk away, making his explanation as he walked towards what Beck assumed to be their temporary workspace at this office. "Her roommate called Dallas PD this morning. Enid never came home after walking her dog last night."

"So she is missing," Reid chimed in from where he'd taken his seat at one of the seats just in front of where the Detective was standing before them.

The Detective nodded. "Well, he wallpapered the neighborhood for two blocks around their apartment."

Beck, along with several other of the members raised their eyebrows at that new change. "Outside," Morgan put her thoughts to words. "That's different."

"And risky," she agreed from beside him. "Two blocks? How'd he manage that without anyone seeing him?"

"Dallas PD is still canvassing, but nothing so far." The Detective turned to Hotchner. "They're waiting for you on the new scene," he explained, almost as though he were giving him permission to take it from there.

Hotchner, who had picked up the flier, gestured to it in his hands, "Mind if I keep this?" Beck wondered what for, there would be two blocks worth at the new scene waiting for him when he got there.

None the less, the Detective shook his head, "Not at all."

"Morgan," Hotchner immediately turned on his 'Unit Chief' mode on as he started throwing out orders. "You and Prentiss go to Michelle Colucci's house." The pair of agents nodded. "JJ and I will talk to Enid's roommate." JJ peered up at Hotchner, but didn't argue as he turned to the newest BAU member on the otherside of him. "Dave, do you mind walking the disposal site with the Detective, Reid, and Ryder?"

Beck clenched her jaw in irritation... of course, he'd be polite enough to ask legendary Agent David Rossi his permission on where he'd like to go. All Beck got was a harsh order that she would be glued to his side the entire time. Though, this was a nice change of pace as well. Maybe with Hotchner's energy directed towards Rossi, he'd be less inclined to keep his eyes glued to her 24/7.

"Whatever you need," Rossi replied to Hotchner's question, his tone neutral. Huh. He was playing the subordinate well, but how long before that façade fell apart, Beck wondered.

Hotchner turned back to the rest of the team. "We'll regroup in an hour."

Beck turned to Detective Yarbrough first. "How far is the dump site?"

She saw a flash of something close to... guilt in his eyes as his expression turned grim. Beck then realized that maybe using the word 'dump' probably wasn't the best way to go when it came to the Detective, considering his close relationship with the victim and the fact that he'd been one of the last people to see Michelle alive. "A few miles North West of here," he answered, not meeting her eyes. "I can drive you there."

"Thank you." She tried to sound apologetic.

The Detective led her, Rossi, and Reid towards a dark navy cruiser car at the front of the station. Since there were only two SUVs the team had been loaned by the Bureau in Texas, the three agents were going to have to slum it for a trip out into the woods, it seemed.

When they got to the car, Beck didn't bother to spare Agent Rossi the privilege of riding shot gun. She actually kind of smirked when she looked through the rearview mirror and watched him awkwardly slide in beside Reid in the back seat.

Detective Yarbrough climbed in shortly after Beck had strapped in, and she was pleasantly surprised that when he turned the key into the ignition that the familiar sounds of a heavy drums and smooth electric guitar started to blast from the car speakers.

"Sorry," the Detective immediately moved to turn the volume dial down.

"No, no, no-" Beck protested. "Leave it. I love this song."

The Detective glanced sidelong at the agent before slowly turning the dial back up just enough for the rest of the car to hear, but not loud enough to where they couldn't hear the sounds of breeze blowing in through the lowered windows and the loud traffic of outer Dallas as they pulled out of the PD parking lot onto the main road.

As they drove further out North, the less traffic there was and the more open and brisk the air felt. Beck always loved the countryside of Texas, she couldn't help but resting her eyes just a little as she leaned her head on her shoulder, basking in the open air, the smell of Texas, and the sounds of Aerosmith from the radio.

"So," the Detective began, pulling Beck back to the present within the car. "Which part of Texas are you from?"

Beck couldn't help the small smirk that graced her lips. "How'd you know?"

"You look at peace over there. Like you've been here before," he remarked. "Seen that look before."

"Oh yeah? On who?" She prompted.

"Me," he chuckled in response. "This place... grows on ya, doesn't it? I imagine you travel a lot with your line of work, but can't ever find a place quite like Texas. Am I right?"

Beck nodded. "Ya got that right," she replied, her own little accent she'd picked up from her Dad peeking out in her words. The Detective laughed upon hearing it.

"So, where are you from? You've got an Arlington look about you, but if I were a betting man, I'd even put money on Paris or Amarillo."

Beck shook her head. "Not even close, Detective," she replied. "How about this- I tell you which sports teams I rep and you can make your guess on that." He nodded, accepting the challenge. "Cowboys and Spurs."

"Ha!" The Detective huffed as he slapped a calloused hand against the steering wheel. "San Antonio... Military City. Damn, me and that city have history."

"Lemme guess," she pointed to him. "Fort Worth born and raised?"

She watched as his eyebrows rose up to his hairline, impressed. "I think you just sold me on that profiling of yours."

She laughed. "No, just call it recognition in the accent. My Dad's from Fort Worth. Born and raised, too."

"Ah, a whole Texas family," the Detective mused. "He the one that got you into the classics?" He gestured to the radio that had transitioned from 'Dream On' into the mellow start of 'Simple Man.'

Beck shrugged. "Eh, not really. That was an acquired taste." And by 'acquired' she really meant 'taken up from her old boss-slash-father-figure that ended being an enemy of the state that used her as his own personal weapon,' but Detective Yarbrough didn't need to know that. And neither did the two other agents in the backseat that she'd forgotten were there up until now. "He was more into Country than Classic Rock."

"Ah, a man after my wife's heart," the Detective smiled.

The mood in the car from the beginning of the trip had drastically changed from the way it was now. It was what Beck had been aiming for, to at least cheer the guy up a little, get him to open up about what he knew about Michelle Colucci so it sounded less like an interrogation when she eventually asked him about it and more like a reminiscing of old memories. So now that she got him on the topic of his wife, it was time to B-Line to what she really was digging for.

"She from Texas, too?" Beck prompted.

The Detective shook his head. "Nope. A Kentucky woman." Beck nodded as if she understood what 'Kentucky women' were like. "She actually met Michelle out there. They graduated from Kent State together. Were roommates all the way up until they moved out here to pursue their careers... Wherever Molly was, Michelle wasn't too far behind. They were like two peas in a pod, those two."

Beck glanced up into the rearview mirror to see if either Rossi or Reid were paying attention to the information they were getting from the Detective. They were both sitting up a little straighter, Rossi even threw her a look through the reflection of the rearview.

"Do you think your wife has any idea about who could've done this to Michelle?" Reid prompted from where he sat behind Beck. "Anyone Michelle knew from work? Or talked about an individual incident that annoyed or bothered Michelle?"

Detective Yarbrough shook his head, his frown deepening. "No," his voice cracked and he cleared his throat. "No. Molly couldn't recall anything. Truthfully, Michelle kind of keeps to herself. There was a time where Michelle had gotten a parking ticket and she didn't even so much as bat an eye; something about not wanting to bother anyone with the small issues in her life. I was almost shocked when she showed up at the station that day with the flier... Maybe I should've known to trust her gut. She wouldn't have come in unless she was truly scared and I-" he cut himself off.

Beck frowned, glanced over at the Detective and seeing that same guilt in his eyes that she'd seen at the station. He thought he was to blame.

Just then, the Detective pulled the car over into a dirt lot. There were tire tracks all over and small orange flags marking a way through the brush just a few yards away towards a trail that was blocked off by yellow police tape.

As the Detective put the car into park, he explained, "It's a little bit a of a walk uphill. Hope you Feds wore your hiking shoes."

Beck pulled herself out of the car and frowned down at her combat boots. Not exactly hiking material, but she'd done worse tasks in riskier shoes before. This would be a walk in the park... with a twist.

Detective Yarbrough took the lead down the marked path in the brush, Rossi and Beck following a good distance away with Reid just behind them.

"Subtle interrogation there, Agent Ryder." Beck looked to her left to find Rossi walking just beside her up a few tree roots. "Pretty impressive tactic."

Beck shrugged. "Learned from the best," she answered truthfully.

"You've been with the BAU for some time now then?" He prompted. Beck almost laughed.

Reid took that moment to interject. "Agent Ryder just transferred a couple months ago from the Counterterrorism Unit with the CIA," he explained matter-of-factly.

Beck inwardly cringed. She threw a look over her right shoulder to the Doctor. Thanks for telling him a big chunk of information about me that he could've lived without, Doctor.

On her other side, Rossi raised his eyebrows. "CIA? Interesting." He seemed to use that phrase a lot. And like clock-work, he refused to get into it as he pushed forward up the hill as they approached the dump site.

As Rossi moved further away, Beck fell further back until she was beside Reid. He had his head bowed, carefully watching his steps through the brush when Beck elbowed him.

"Ow," he hissed, rubbing where she'd hit him. It wasn't anything too hard like her punch had been. "What was that for?"

She gave him a pointed look. "Why'd you tell him I was with the CIA?" she countered.

Reid blinked, taken aback. "Everyone else knows. It's not exactly a secret."

"But that doesn't mean you get to advertise that to just anyone, Reid," she retorted. "Especially not Mr. Hm Interesting. He files away that information, just like he has been doing this entire case. And you just gave him a very big chunk of information he just filed away on me."

"Ryder, not everyone is a potential enemy." Oh, if only he knew. "He's not going to profile you."

"David Rossi is the original profiler. You don't think he's been profiling every person on this team since he's been back?" she prompted. "The little sidelong glances, the way he distances himself from everyone, the way he's taking a backseat and not contributing anything to discussions. He's analyzing everyone. Building a profile on the team he just rejoined after how many years of retirement?"

She could practically see the gears turning in the Doctor's head as he furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would he do that? What does he have to gain?"

"I don't know. Why would he come back out of retirement after this long? Why now? Why a subordinate position? What's he playing at?" She prompted. "I'd love some answers. But until we get them, stop sharing information that pertains to anything about me or anyone else on the team. And stop with the googly eyes you make at the guy every ten minutes."

"Googly eyes?" Reid asked, his head whipping towards her as they grew closer. "I don't look at him with googly eyes... Do I?"

"You do," she confirmed. "I think... I think I even caught you drooling a couple of times, too." She tried to bite back the smirk as she touched her index finger to the edge of her mouth.

He cast her an irritated look. "Ha ha, funny."

She let a small laugh escape this time. After she sobered up, she continued. "No, but, seriously- stop making doe eyes at the guy. It's getting weird. I mean, what's so special about the guy anyway? He founded the Unit- big whoop. He started doing this stuff and you and the rest of the team perfected it. Why do you all look at him like he's some kind of legend?"

"You've read what he's done, haven't you?"

"Yeah... I read all his books, cover to cover, and nothing incredible or show-stopping ever really popped out at me," she answered truthfully. "Everything he wrote about just seems to be a cash grab if anything. He wrote about basic serial killers you guys see all the time now. The only difference between you and him is that he decided to write a book about what he did. I'm sure you could write a pretty decent series that would sell well if I could guarantee you wouldn't dedicate entire pages to overly extensive footnotes every other paragraph."

Reid let out a disbelieving laugh at that. "You think I could write a book?"

"You read enough of them," she shrugged. When he turned to her, asking the silent question of how she knew he was avid reader, Beck shrugged. "In the short amount of time I've known you so far, you've quoted about forty-seven different books, texts, and articles. Also, I read all the little post-it notes on your desk. It wasn't too hard to figure out you're a bookworm, Doctor Reid."

All of this was true. It was also apart of the reason he made her curious- he was beyond intelligent, probably the smartest person she'd ever met... so what made him want to become an FBI profiler? What drew him to hunting down serial killers? There was a story there, and truthfully, she'd wished he'd write a book so she could be able to read what that story was.

"You two alright back there?" Rossi called over his shoulder to them, Detective Yarbrough even faltering in his trek up the hill.

"Yeah!" Beck called back. "Dr. Reid is just a little clumsy when it comes to physical exertion and I didn't exactly wear the proper attire for hiking," she lied with a smile. They seemed to buy it as the pair of men turned back to walking. "Come on," she muttered to Reid as she picked up her pace again, the Doctor not far behind her.

By the time the pair had caught up, Detective Yarbrough was already talking with Rossi about the case, so she had to assume they were getting closer to the scene. "We went over this area pretty thoroughly. There's no evidence left," he explained as he led them through an opening in the brush.

"I just want to stand where she was," Rossi requested. Detective Yarbrough didn't reply as he pushed onward. "Dr. Reid," Rossi called over his shoulder was they grew closer. "Do we still keep all the old files in the fourth floor storeroom?"

Reid immediately turned to look at Beck- the pair sharing the same thoughts: why was he asking about old files?

Eventually, he answered the question, "I think some are up there... You know, most of our information's on computer now."

"Right," he muttered, detached.

"Have you had a chance to go through our data since you've been back?" Reid prompted.

"He's only been back a day, Reid," Beck replied to his question.

"Right," he chuckled awkwardly. "Well, you'll be amazed when you do. The original team- I mean... You-" Beck rolled her eyes. "-Interviewed something like, uh, forty-five serial killers, right?" He asked as the group climbed their way through thick tree branches and over large roots to make their way around a small pond of sorts hidden behind the brush. It wasn't too deep, shallow enough just to see the bottom.

"Something like," Rossi answered, once again sounding uninterested in whatever it was Reid was explaining to him. Truthfully, Beck didn't blame him at this point. In the time she'd known him, he didn't cease to amaze her with how fast he was able to speak and how he was just as quickly able to ramble down a rabbit hole. Just like he was now as they examined the dump site.

"Today we have interviewed over a thousand offenders; serial killers, child abductors, sex offenders- I'll go through it with you sometime if you life, answer any questions-"

"Sounds good..." Rossi muttered, brushing him off as he stepped closer to the water and away from the Detective and the two agents, his eyes glued to the pond.

Once his back was turned to them, Beck turned towards the Doctor. He glanced down at her and she mouthed to him 'googly eyes,' her index and middle finger pointing to her eyes and then his. He grimaced.

"Michelle's body was found right here," Detective Yarbrough explained, his eyes narrowed at a particular spot in the shallow marsh just a few feet down from them. Rossi stalked around the edge as he examined the dumpsite. "I really thought it was a prank," he said, his tone laced with guilt and regret.

Beck turned to the Detective and frowned. There was no doubt now that he faulted himself for what happened to his wife's best friend. "You can't really blame yourself for that," Beck heard Reid tell the Detective in a soft tone, comforting the man.

Beck nodded in agreement. "You couldn't have known what would've happened after that, there's no use in blaming yourself."

Without looking at the two agents, the Detective continued, "She made herself dinner."

Both Beck and Reid furrowed their eyebrows in confusion at his words. "Excuse me?"

"She had time to make herself dinner," Detective Yarbrough clarified, his eyes still glued to the spot where he'd found Michelle's body. "I mean, she was home for a while before he..." he trailed off, his eyes growing darker at the thoughts of what might've occurred in the last few hours of Michelle's life that ended just here at this small pond. "There was time to help her."

Reid didn't reply, unsure of what to say.

But Beck decided to tell him the truth.

"You're right. There was time to help her." She could feel Reid's burning eyes on her as if silently asking her what she was doing and why she was telling him this, but she kept going. "Maybe Michelle would still be alive had you or your men taken her fear and concern seriously. Went to check on her sooner, even had her stay the night with you and Molly." Even Detective Yarbrough's eyes were wide at her words and insinuations.

She wasn't finished.

"But then there's always the possibilities. Possibilities that if you'd checked on her sooner, the killer would've waited for you to leave before making his move. If you'd had her stay with Molly, he would've gotten both her and your wife. Or he just would've waited a day, a week, a month before striking. But we'll never know," she explained. "What we do know is that there's a sadistic killer out there who wants you to feel pain and guilt in knowing you could've saved her. He already feels pride in knowing what he's done to Michelle, don't let him hold that power over you, too, Detective."

He sniffled a bit, even blinking away a bit of tears from his eyes before clenching his jaw. He turned to her, a glint of a newfound strength and gratefulness flickering in his eyes as he nodded firmly.

Good, she thought to herself, no more feeling guilty so we can focus on the case.

"Water." No one needed to tell Rossi twice as he was already circling the little pond and going over what he thought were clues, ignoring whatever conversations were going on behind him. "Obliterates a body... destroys evidence." Beck watched him carefully as he pulled himself onto a branch just above the water, his hand holding onto the trunk of the tree beside him as he glanced directly over where Beck recognized the body of Michelle Colucci had been found.

She imagined he was probably trying to picture what had happened here just like she had been. The screams, the gurgling of water being inhaled into her lungs, the splashes from all the thrashing around, the cries for help, the pleas for her life before the silence. All they heard for a few moments were the soft sounds of crickets and the light trickle of water from the pond. Beck imagined this exact silence was what the Unsub heard after he killed Michelle here.

"But you weren't in the water that long, were you, Michelle?" Rossi asked out loud. He must've been recalling the images they'd been given of the crime scene. He was right, Michelle hadn't been in the water long. Of course, it was long enough to wash away in traces of DNA that the Unsub could've left behind, but not enough to completely decay the body.

"She had rocks tied to her to weigh her down," Detective Yarbrough remarked.

"The Unsub sexually assaulted her and probably took his time mutilating her face, his DNA would be all over her," Beck explained. "He undoubtedly left her in there as a forensic counter-measure."

"But she floated to the surface before there was any other damage," Reid added.

"A man that meticulously removed a woman's face from her head, but fails to weigh down the body correctly..." Beck furrowed her eyebrows as she glared down at the water once more. When she glanced up, she noted Rossi jotting something down in that stupid little journal. She could practically hear the 'hm, interesting' humming inside his head.

Detective Yarbrough frowned. "But just what was done to her already..." He probably tried not to think about it.

"The salient point is that it was the first thing the Unsub wasn't good at," Reid explained to the Detective while Beck watched Rossi carefully put his notepad back into his jacket pocket.

There was beat of silence before he spoke up again. "Green River dumped most of the bodies in the water." Beck did her best to refrain from rolling her eyes. Great, another serial killer nerd. "But they weren't weighed down."

"Yeah. We know now it's 'cause he didn't care if they were found," Reid chimed in, adorably unaware that Rossi was most definitely just thinking out loud and his words weren't meant to illicit a response.

Beck thought it was amusing he gave one anyway. "And why was that?" she egged the Doctor on.

There was a pause. Beside her, Beck could practically hear the gears working in his brain before he came to his conclusion. "He had no connection to them."

"And the reason this Unsub weighed Michelle down, or at least tried to, was because he wanted every trace of himself to be washed away," Beck piped up. "Because somewhere along the way in Michelle's life, she more than just briefly crossed paths with this man... He probably knew her and could be connected to her someway."

"That's good, right?" Detective Yarbrough asked as Agent Rossi began the trek back from the edge of the marsh.

"Very," Rossi answered gruffly.

—

Writing.

That's all Agent Rossi had been doing since the minute they'd gotten back to the precinct. Just sitting to the side, jotting down whatever that was so interesting in his head onto that notepad.

Now, Beck wasn't one to be hypocrite, she knew she'd written down things in her notepad as well. But she wrote things down for a different reason. She wrote them down to remember everything. Every image, every physical list she's ever seen, every scene of a movie, every beautiful sunset, every gruesome crime scene- it was all seared into her brain from the minute she laid her eyes onto it. That was why she wrote things down.

Rossi just seemed to be doing it to hoard what he knew.

Like a little information goblin scooping it what everyone is putting down and collecting it in a metaphorical cave that was his notepad. He wanted to crack the case himself. He wanted to become victor.

That was why he'd returned.

He was a retired agent making a living for the past couple of years writing books. Beck would get pretty bored, too. But Rossi came back not just because he was bored, but because he wanted the glory.

Prick.

"You're doing it again."

Beck broke away from her thoughts to turn to her right, finding Reid standing beside her where she stood at the vending machine just outside the bustling office.

"Doing what?" She prompted, turning from where she'd been looking inside the precinct to the machine she'd been in putting her money into.

"Staring at Agent Rossi," Reid replied. "You've been dong it a lot since he's first gotten here."

Beck threw a wry grin over her shoulder at the Doctor as she punched in the digits on the machine. "I don't give Agent Rossi googly eyes."

"No, you just glare at him," he remarked. "It's like he's done something wrong before he's even started." Beck sighed, going back to fishing out the gummy worms that dropped from the machine before sliding in another couple bucks into the slot. "I get that you're suspicious of everyone-"

"I'm not suspicious of you," Beck retorted, turning back to the Doctor. She saw him blink in surprise at her omission. Which, normally, she would've been lying to get him off her back, but she was actually truthful in her words this time. She wasn't suspicious of Dr. Reid, really. He was probably one of the most trustworthy people in the BAU.

It's why she'd left him that little note about Paris the Bonsai and even mentioned the plane crash to him. She'd never told anyone about the crash outside of her immediate family that already knew. Dr. Reid was the first person she'd ever willingly told outside of Hawks. And the reason for that was solely because he was nothing like Hawks or anyone else she'd ever known before, so of course she trusted him... With aspects of things.

She might've trusted him with small tidbits of information about herself, but she'd probably never tell anyone everything about herself, her past, what she was doing... It had always been that way since before she could remember. There were always aspects of herself hidden from people, and she was fully intent on taking everything she'd ever done, everything she ever remembered, experienced, worked towards would go into the grave with her and no one would ever get the full piece of the puzzle that was Rebecca Ryder.

Bruno Hawks was the person to come the closest, but Beck didn't have a choice not to tell him everything... he just knew most of the time it all came flowing after that.

But Dr. Reid... perhaps he could be trusted with enough to suffice.

"You're not suspicious of me, but you are suspicious of everyone else?" Reid prompted her.

Beck shrugged. "Habit," she answered. "In my life, my line of work... it's a little hard to trust people with things. They've all had ulterior motives. And the one person I thought was the exception turned out not to be, so I guess it's just better to be suspicious of everyone rather than be shocked when they betray you."

"But you don't think that way about me?" He asked, genuinely curious.

Beck shook her head. "To an extent, I guess I trust you enough not to backstab me in any kind of way," she admit as she pressed a couple more buttons.

Reid furrowed his eyebrows slightly, the start of an amused expression gracing his face as he asked, "You trust me?"

Beck rolled her eyes playfully as she dug the bag of pretzels she'd punched in from the bottom of the machine out and tossed it up into the Doctor's hands. "Don't let it get to your head," she told him before walking back into the office.

Reid wasn't too far behind her as they re-entered the office space side-by-side.

Just in time, too. It looked as thought Hotchner and JJ had just returned as well. Beck noticed the way Hotchner took in her and Reid's presence and immediately turned to look down and find Agent Rossi seated, his little notepad in his lap and his focus on whatever he was jotting down that he clearly wasn't sharing with the rest of the class.

Hotchner looked irritated. Now he knew how she felt.

"We got anything?" He prompted to the group, more specifically to Rossi.

Reid didn't get that hint. "Uh, Agent Rossi pointed out that-that since the victims were weighted down, it suggest the Unsub didn't want them found," he explained to the pair of agents that just arrived, Beck pursing her lips beside him, letting him have the floor. "Which suggests some sort of connection between them."

Hotchner turned to look past the two. "Detective," he addressed the man seated at the desk across from Agent Rossi. "How long was Michelle missing?"

"She was found on the fourth day," he answered. No signs of residual guilt in his voice. It seemed as though her little pep-talk to the Detective had done it's job well.

"So if she wasn't in the water long, then he held her for three," Hotchner deduced as he pulled his ringing phone from his back pocket. Beck watched him look at the caller ID and almost immediately put the phone for the rest of the group to hear. "Garcia?" He prompted into the cell receiver.

"I've been running all of Enid White's credit cards," the sultry voice of the bubbly blonde rang out from the phone.

"You find anything interesting?" Beck asked, intrigued by what was in store for them when it came to the Technical Analyst.

"Oh, you bet I do, Sugar Baby," Beck drew a face at the nickname. Kind of like how Morgan called her 'Babygirl.' Penelope Garcia was something else. "She made a purchase at 9 AM this morning at a sporting goods store in Dallas."

Everyone collectively raised their eyebrows at that tidbit of info.

"This morning?" Hotchner asked in confusion. If she had been kidnapped, how was she able to make a purchase? Unless... the Unsub didn't have her.

"What did she buy?" Both Beck and Reid asked in unison. They turned to glance at each other over their shoulder. Reid in mild amusement and slight embarrassment and Beck in mild irritation. "Get out of my head," she mouthed to the Doctor.

"A shotgun," Garcia answered on the other line.

A chill went around the room. Enid White wasn't fucking around it seemed.

"Thanks..." Hotchner hung up the phone call, leaving the group in silence, wondering how and why Enid had bought a shotgun prior to the fliers being hung up.

Beck frowned as she set down her bag of snacks. "Well... we know the Unsub doesn't have her," she muttered.

"He couldn't have just stolen her credit card and bought it in her name?" JJ asked.

"Not exactly," Detective Yarbrough replied. "You have to show some ID in order to buy a gun. Not all sellers require a permit, but identification is pretty important out here."

"Meaning she had to go out herself and buy the gun, which points to the fact that she probably saw the fliers, got away, bought the gun, and is getting ready to defend herself if the Unsub tries anything," Beck deduced.

Hotchner's eyebrows furrowed. "She can buy a gun that easily?"

"This is Texas," Detective Yarbrough shrugged. Beck shrugging along with him. Texans did like their guns. She knew she sure did.

"There's no license or waiting period for most rifles or shotguns," Agent Rossi chimed in at last.

"Is there video surveillance of gun sales in sporting good stores?"

Detective Yarbrough shrugged once more. "There's supposed to be," he answered.

"But not a lot of people are real strict about fire arms out here," Beck explained. "I'm guessing if they didn't require the permit or license and just let her walk out with just a quick ID flash, they probably aren't too worried about surveillance."

"It's worth a shot," Hotchner brushed her off. Beck bit the side of her lip to keep from saying something she'd regret as the Unit Chief instructed JJ to call the store anyway.

Beck was keen on letting her irritation about Hotchner's actions towards her fester before an officer approached just as JJ had walked out. "Detective Yarbrough. There's an urgent call from a woman on 1," the officer explained in a rush of words.

Everyone immediately turned to the Detective who wasted no time in reaching out across his desk to press down on the number 1 on his phone dial. "Detective Yarbrough," he answered the line. Beck held her breath, hoping that this wasn't a ransom call and that it was actually Enid White. Free and away from the Unsub.

"My name is Enid White," a shaky voice replied on the other end. Beck let out breath of air she'd been holding in, but didn't unclench her jaw just yet.

Detective Yarbrough leaned forward, "Where are you, Enid?"

There was a brief pause before she spoke again. "The news reports said that the police didn't believe that other woman when she saw the missing fliers." Beck could hear the fear in Enid White's voice. She imagine the woman holed up in some hiding place, her dog by her side, a gun in her hand, waiting for someone to either rescue her or kill her. The poor woman was all alone and now after hearing what had happened with Michelle Colucci, she probably thought she was far from saving as well.

That wasn't just fear in her voice. That was terror and desperation.

Detective Yarbrough frowned at the mention of what he'd done wrong with Michelle. "That was a mistake, Enid," he told her truthfully.

"I have a gun," she explained matter-of-factly. Beck glanced up at Hotchner as if to say 'told you so.' "I don't think I can stay awake very much longer." The poor woman was tired, terrified, desperate, sleep deprived, and quite possibly starving... This was exactly what the Unsub wanted, wasn't it? For his effect on these women to drive them to brink of nearly dying just from fear of what he'd do to them alone? That's what got him off. Not just the chase, but the feeling of being feared. Beck wondered if perhaps he was someone that didn't get that too often.

Her mind immediately traveled to some small guy, never noticeable, perhaps taken advantage of a lot in his professional life.

Huh, she was getting the hang of this profiling thing fairly quickly.

"Enid," Hotchner spoke up to the phone this time. "This is Agent Hotchner of the FBI. We believe you, and we want to help you. Can you tell us where you are?"

There wasn't a beat missed as the woman answered, "El Royale Motel. In Dallas. It's Room 6." Beck immediately moved around Detective Yarbrough to type in the address into the search bar on his desk. "I saw the fliers," Enid continued. "Hurry, please. He's gonna kill me."

"Don't move, Enid. We're on our way," Detective Yarbrough assured her just as the results on the computer appeared.

El Royale Motel. Dallas. Room 6. "She's thirty minutes away," Beck explained as she stood straight and away from the screen. She spotted the SUV keys in Reid's hand and snatched them up, spinning to turn to Hotchner. "I can make the trip in fifteen."

He didn't bother arguing with her. "Go," he nodded.

Beck jogged off, the rest of the team on her trail as she pushed through the office doors, down some stairs, and out towards the parking lot. She didn't waste a second climbing into the driver's seat, Hotchner climbing in beside her with Reid and Rossi jumping in the backseat.

"Might wanna buckle up," Beck threw the remark over her shoulder before shifting the gear into drive on the side of the wheel that was a little too big for her. She could see Detective Yarbrough and a few other cops and sheriffs running out to their cars, but they could catch up later. She heard a 'hmph' from the backseat as she slammed her foot onto the gas pedal and jerked the car forward, maneuvering it swiftly from out of the parking lot and into the street. Upon swerving into oncoming traffic, she hit the lights and sirens on the car and pushed through.

Beck had learned how to drive at a young age. After Gideon and Hawks had brought her back to the States and Hawks had got her set up with the CIA and the Program, and she'd taken some time just to settle in at the Ryder Residence, he'd always make sly little comments about how she loved driving around. It was true, just like Detective Yarbrough had pointed out on the ride to the dumpsite, Beck felt at peace in fast moving vehicles. It felt like flying without leaving the ground and she loved it.

She would beg her Dad to take her with him when he took day trips out to the bases or even just road trips to other cities. He'd turn up the radio, teach her the ways of Johnny Cash and Billy Currington, laughing and talking her ear off while she laid her little head on the window sill, letting the wind blow through her hair and the rest of the world speed by. It wasn't long before he'd taught her how to ride a bike, a month later she had learned how to ride a dirt bike, and then that following summer she'd already become proficient in how to drive both automatic and manual. Granted, her Mom hated it when she drove so she wasn't allowed to do it too much, but Beck had taken to driving like a fish in water.

Still, her driving did seem to scare quite a few people when she forgot that not everyone was as used to going her speed through so many obstacles.

She could see Hotchner white-knuckling it through the ride as she maneuvered the large vehicle through trucks, small cars, school buses, vans, and semi-trucks going over 90 miles an hour on a small four-lane road that was only supposed to be 65 miles an hour. But, thanks to her terrifying driving, she had kept to her word and made it to the El Royale in less than fifteen minutes instead of thirty.

The minute Beck had pulled the car into the parking lot outside of Room 6 of the El Royale, she wasted no time in ripping off her seat belt and rushing out of the door, despite Hotchner's shouts about backup.

Once her feet hit the ground, she was pulling out her pistol from the back of her jeans, crouching down as she slowly walked around towards the front of the room. The windows were all sealed by blinds and curtains, she couldn't get a look inside. She didn't know what she was walking into... She mentally prepared for having to see what happened to Michelle Colucci in-person instead of on-screen and in pictures. She knew the Unsub kept the women for three days, but... she had to be prepared to find Enid White mutilated.

Carefully, Beck ran across the front of the room until she was standing to the side near the door. Reid, Rossi, and Hotchner had all rushed over, weapons in hand. They were nearing the door just as Detective Yarbrough, his officers, and another SUV Beck assumed Morgan and Prentiss had rushed over in arrived.

Beck turned to Hotchner as she held her pistol in one hand, while the other moved up towards the door. She felt the handle. "It's unlocked," Beck muttered.

"FBI!" Hotchner shouted out into the room. He turned to Beck and nodded, giving his permission for her to go in as if she needed it.

Beck pulled on the knob and shoved her way in, the minute the door was open her gun was back up. She pointed it in every which direction as she took in the room. The first thing she noticed was the pile of missing fliers scattered on the floor around the faceless mask, the word 'TWO' written in bloody letters on the forehead just like the first one. Beck pushed onward through the rest of the room. The bedroom, the kitchenette, the living area, the closets, the bathroom...

Nothing.

"Clear!" She shouted out. Beck made her way back into the front room, pissed at the fact that in less than fifteen minutes of making that call to the station, the Unsub had managed to still beat them there. He'd probably been lying in wait for her, following her, waiting for the right moment to strike... Or maybe he'd waited for her to call the police just so that they'd be able to find this... just like Detective Yarbrough had for Michelle.

Hotchner, Reid, and Rossi all looked out over the pile of missing fliers with Enid White's face plastered on them. Detective Yarbrough, Morgan, and Prentiss followed in and stared out at the scene on display for them.

"She's gone," Prentiss muttered in disbelief as they all stared at the scene.

Beck turned to the side when she heard scratching nearby. Huh. She moved carefully, raising her weapon slightly before pulling open the small cabinet off to the side. To her surprise, out jumped a little ball of fur. A fat pug. Enid White's dog.

"At least he left the dog," Beck muttered as she pocketed the weapon and bent down to pet the little slobbery bastard at her feet. "What's up, man? Where'd he take her, buddy?" The dark barked as if to answer as Beck scratched the back of his neck. "I don't speak dog. You're useless to me."

It didn't take long before they had gone from Raid-Mode to Active-Crime-Scene-Mode. Officers with white gloves and cameras came flooding in while the BAU Agents all took their leave outside with the evidence in bags that they could grab.

Beck was on her way out after making sure Enid's dog would be handled well with an officer from Carrollton that would take him back to the roommate when she spotted Detective Yarbrough pacing around the scene. She imagined he felt just as shell-shocked and discouraged now the way he felt when he first found the fliers at Michelle's house.

"You alright?" Beck asked, stupidly. Of course he wasn't alright.

He answered honestly, "No." There was no sadness in his voice, just pure anger. Oh, he was certainly pissed now. Beck followed after the Detective as he stormed out the front door of the motel to where Hotchner and Rossi were already waiting idly outside. Beck wasn't too surprised when she looked down in Rossi's hands to see he was already jotting away in his little notepad.

She hadn't touched hers once today, why did he feel the need to write down every little thing? She wondered if the little remark about her being apart of the CIA had made it in his notepad. Beck realized she'd probably have to steal it off him when he wasn't looking sometime to check and make sure that it wasn't.

"Twenty minutes," Detective Yarbrough said, throwing his hands up in exasperation. "We were here in twenty minutes-" Beck fought the urge to correct him that she'd made it in fifteen. "-I can't believe we lost her."

"We may not have lost her," Hotchner explained to the Detective in his usual calm and collected tone. "He kept Michelle for four days."

The mention of Michelle only made him even more frustrated, being reminded of his mistake with his wife's best friend. "But we got nothing!"

"We actually got quite a lot from just this crime scene. It's different from the last, it says a lot about the circumstances under which the Unsub grabbed Enid," Beck chimed in from beside him.

"What do you mean?" He asked. "There's a mask, there's fliers-"

"Yeah..." Prentiss exited the room holding up an evidence bag with a single flier inside. "But these fliers weren't tacked up, they were just thrown around the room," she explained.

The Detective furrowed his thick eyebrows. "So?"

"He left in a hurry like he knew we were coming," Hotchner answered.

"Now, if we just figure out how he knew we were coming or even how he knew where Enid was staying before we did, then we can start to narrow down the profile," Beck told the Detective in a calm tone. "I know you're pissed about this happening again, but remember what I told you the last time?"

The Detective frowned and nodded. "That the Unsub gets off on the power he holds over us, the way he makes us feel and act."

Beck nodded firmly. "You're not helping Enid by getting ticked," she leaned forward, looking up to meet his eyes as she told him, "Don't get mad, get even."

As if on cue, Morgan came filing out of the room just as Prentiss had. But instead of a bag of fliers, he had a cell phone in his hand. "Okay, this was under the bed. 972 area code."

Beck turned to the Detective. "Familiar?"

"That's Carrollton," he replied before taking the phone Morgan handed him to check the history. "The Hotline number."

"It's Enid's cell phone," Beck muttered, her eyes closing slightly in frustration and realization. "He must've..." She spun around, her eyes scanning across the rest of the parking lot as if the Unsub would still be parked there, or even hidden away in another section of the Motel somewhere.

"What does this mean?" Detective Yarbrough asked, confused.

"You can get a cell interceptor at any electronics store," Morgan explained to him.

"You can?"

"Yeah, they don't cost that much."

Beck turned back around, her hands running through her bangs. "175," she remarked off-handedly.

Prentiss turned to her like she had a few weeks ago when she'd mentioned the exact price of the cell phone jammer she had. "You have one of those, too?"

Beck shrugged. "I get nosey when it comes to the drama at Mrs. Stone's country club sometime. Apparently, someone named Shannon's son got rechecked into rehab after only two months being married to his second wife." Prentiss raised her eyebrows, intrigued. "And it gets juicier," Beck nodded.

"Ryder, Prentiss." The pair of brunette agents got back on track after being mildly scolded by Hotchner.

"The point is," Beck got back on track. "With a cell interceptor, he probably sat out here somewhere and head everything she said. Who she was calling. What room she was in. That she had a gun. That she was falling asleep."

Detective Yarbrough was still confused on certain aspects of this situation. "But if he followed her here from Dallas, why wait till she calls us to move on her?"

That was obvious. Prentiss answered, "To make sure it was the police who found the mask."

"He's trying to send a message," Beck concluded as Detective Yarbrough raised his eyebrows in realization.

Hotchner cleared his throat slightly. "We need to gather your men and give a profile." Then they were off.

Yay. The profile.

—

Beck had always detested coffee for as long as she could remember. Give her a latte, she'd be fine. Espresso shots? No biggie. Unhealthy amounts of energy drinks? Easy. It wasn't ever the caffeine or even the taste that bothered her, it was just the idea of coffee itself.

She'd remembered her first few weeks at the CTU. Bright-eyed and ready to work, Beck had wanted to make good impressions with all her new teammates. She wasn't sure what to expect in terms of team dynamic going into the CIA as one of the youngest operatives in the history of the agency, but it certainly wasn't what she was met with. It was competitive, cut-throat. It was almost as though Beck could sense the deceit in each and every single person in that shark tank of an office, and she was fresh meat to them.

For the first couple weeks, she was cat-called by older men that had since quit by the end of her time at the CTU. Every time she'd gone into the break room for coffee herself, she'd remember the men laughing it up in suits or muscle shirts telling her tiny she was and that it was better she should quit then. And then her personal favorite from Kruger Spence himself, "why don't you go grab me some coffee? It's probably going to be the only thing you're good for here anyway."

Rebecca Ryder liked to believe she'd managed to make it through so much shit in her life out of pure spite.

And since that little comment from Kruger Spence, she'd vowed she'd never touch a pot of coffee again, not even drink any from a drive-thru because of what it stood for in her mind. It was childish, but then again, she was still a teenager when she'd made the little promise to herself. And even today, as a twenty-four year old, in her mind, she was still sticking to that vow of not ever letting people see her being obedient to someone less than deserving of her time or her servitude.

Yet, here she was... Standing off to the side of a police station break room pouring hot coffee into a small stained white mug she'd raided from one of the cabinets. She'd poured a decent amount of Splenda and even a bit of cream inside, hoping it was well enough to be enjoyable. Not for her, of course, but for the Doctor she'd punched earlier in the day.

After fixing up the cup of Joe, Beck found Dr. Reid standing off to the side of the bustling open office space while the rest of the police officers filed in for the profile. She frowned slightly upon seeing him try to readjust the small white stripe above the bridge of his nose.

"Hey," she snapped at him, setting down the coffee to fix the end of the strips he'd peeled off while messing with it. She examined the wound. The swelling had gone down, but it was still red. "Stop messing with it. It's just going to get worse unless you let it heal by itself," she scolded him. "Here," she turned to pick up the coffee she'd set down moments ago to hand to him.

He glanced down at the mug of coffee she'd just handed him and furrowed his eyebrows. "Thanks," he sounded both genuine and confused as he expressed his gratitude.

"Don't mention it," she sounded almost pleading in her reply. While Reid took a big sip of his coffee, Beck busied herself by taking a look out at the sea of navy blue uniforms making their way into the crowded space.

Detective Yarbrough could be seen rallying his men to take their seats, some looking a bit defiant and unbelieving but a bit too exhausted to argue with him. She imagined most of these men probably weren't getting much sleep either with this guy on the loose.

"You know, I can get my own coffee-" Dr. Reid had began, but was swiftly cut off when Beck turned to glance at him from over her shoulder. "The profile's starting. You should finish that quickly." And with that, she moved from where he was standing to a couple of yards away, more towards where Morgan was standing.

At first, neither of them spoke as they both looked out at the office getting filled with more cops and people in uniform. She could spot Prentiss speaking with Hotchner off to the side, Detective Yarbrough still guiding people to seats or desks off to the side, JJ speaking with a crowd of taller officers that looked a little frightened at how quickly and firmly she spoke to them, and Dr. Reid off to the side wincing as he downed a large gulp of hot coffee.

"Hm," Morgan hummed just loud enough for Beck to hear.

She turned to him. "What?"

"Notice anyone missing?" He prompted.

Beck did another once-over of the room and did a mental checklist: Prentiss, Dr. Reid, Hotchner, JJ, Morgan... "Agent Rossi," she muttered in realization.

Morgan gave her a knowing glance from over his shoulder. "Missing the profile on his first case... Real professional."

"And cocky," Beck grumbled beneath her breath as she crossed her arms over her chest. "He probably thinks he has this whole case cracked wide open. Him and whatever he's got written in that little notepad of his."

Morgan let out a small, wry laugh. "And what's so different about you and your little notepad?"

She huffed, a bit put off by the fact that Morgan was trying to compare her to Rossi. "You wanna know the difference?" She asked before pulling out the small notepad from her back pocket and handing it over to him. She watched as he glanced down at the notepad then to her in confusion, an unspoken question in his facial expression: 'you sure?'

Beck nodded, holding it out towards him some more. Eventually, he took it. "Go ahead," she encouraged the agent.

He gave her one last look of suspicion before flipping through the pages. Each one was dated and each page had it's own case. But the reason it was probably confusing Morgan right about now was that there was only a list of words and phrases and questions scribbled onto each page. Nothing very detailed, everything open ended, and no strict ending. Just a list per each page dating all the way back to her first case with the CTU in '01.

"You piece things together with a list?" He asked, still very confused at what she was showing him with this notepad.

"Not exactly," she answered, taking back the pages and pocketing them once more. "The difference between Agent Rossi and I is that when I write things down, they're pieces of information I either already know or things I pick up from other people. Small tidbits and details or unanswered questions. But I don't write them down to hold onto them and hoard them away for later use, I write them down to remember."

Morgan turned to her once more. "What, you got short-term memory loss we don't know about?"

Beck couldn't help the chuckle that escaped her mouth. "Sure, you can say that," she replied sarcastically. "I have photographic memory. Everything I see, read, or watch is seared into my brain from the moment I lay eyes on it. Every picture, video, movie, file, book, word, name, date, image, pattern. It's all filed away in my head," she explained.

A series of emotions passed across Morgan's face at the new supply of information he'd just gathered about her from what she'd just told him. She could probably take a guess at what he was stuck on by the grim look in his eyes: all that death that she'd never be able to forget.

Sure enough, the first words out of his mouth were, "All those crime scene photos-"

"The names of victims, the autopsy reports, the causes of death, the videos of assassinations, the raids, the missions, the black ops shit I've seen," Beck listed off with a shrug.

Morgan furrowed his eyebrows. "All that pain and suffering all inside your head," he frowned. "You never-"

"Wish I could forget?" She finished the question for him. "Believe me... some days I wish I could take some of these victims' places, but that doesn't stop me from doing my job. 'Cause this-" she tapped the side of her temple with the edge of her notebook. "-helps more than it hinders."

"Ryder-" Morgan began, but before he could say anything in response, she held up a hand to cut him off.

"It's fine," she said firmly. "Just don't ever compare me with David Rossi. I'm nothing like him." Morgan seemed at a loss for words, so she tuned to the side and nodded her head in the direction towards the police officers that looked pretty settled in and ready for the profile about to be delivered. "Looks like you're up. Good luck."

Morgan looked less than eager to leave the conversation, but he got up anyway. "Alright," he began to address all the officers around him. "We're here to deliver our psychological profile on our suspect, or as we call him, our Unsub- short for Unknown Subject."

"What's a psychological profile?" Beck could hear a snicker from close behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed she wasn't the only one who'd heard the two snickering officers off to the side. From the suppressed annoyed look on Dr. Reid's face, he had seemed to pick up on the conversation as well.

"Hey," she called to the two men still laughing it up behind them. They turned at the sound of her voice. "You wanna catch this guy and actually contribute something in your day to day lives in this office, then you'll shut up and listen, but if you wanna continue slacking off and asking dumb questions with your thumbs up your asses and foot in your mouth, then you probably know the directions to the closest donut shop from here," she scolded the two men.

They both looked flabbergasted, an expression that then slowly morphed to mild embarrassment as they quieted down. Beck couldn't help but smirk at her effect on the men, but she was quick to turn back to the profile being delivered. As she turned to face the front, she thought she even saw Dr. Reid spare a small smile her way.

"Let's start off with a description- and you might wanna get your pens and pencils out for this," Morgan continued, most of the officers doing as advised. "He's a white male. His shoe prints have been examined and put him at about 5'11", 165."

Detective Yarbrough, along with most of the rest of his office of men, looked confused at this description. "So we've narrowed it down to anyone of average weight and height?" He snapped, still a bit frustrated from the loss of Enid White.

Morgan remained level-headed at the interruption, though. "Exactly," he replied.

"There's a sophistication and patience in what this Unsub does that suggests a level of maturity," Prentiss chimed in from across the room where she stood opposite of Beck and Morgan. "We believe this puts his age in the mid-30's to 40's range."

"Michelle Colucci was taken from the primary crime scene and disposed of at the tertiary crime scene four days later," Reid piped up just a few yards to Beck's right. "That means she was held somewhere for at least three days. You can't really just hold a victim anywhere for days on end, so he most likely has access to a house of some kind."

"And he's also fairly tech savvy," Morgan exclaimed. "The fliers were made on a computer. And it's probable that he used a device to intercept Enid White's phone call."

"He is also extremely meticulous," Beck took her turn in adding to the conversation. "The patience in which he took to carefully remove his victim's face suggests he has patience and control where it's needed. He's chosen these particular women for a reason prior to stalking them and he's probably had this planned for quite a long time before giving into his impulses." She paused for a moment. "And now that he has, there's no telling how far he'll go in order to maintain the upper hand he has over us right now."

She watched as a couple police officers around the room raised their eyebrows at her words, slightly worried about what she could mean.

"Witnesses in Enid White's neighborhood say they may have seen a white man putting up fliers, but none of them could describe him," Hotchner joined into the discussion. "Even with all the media attention this case has received."

"Great," one detective off to the side huffed, discouraged.

"Actually," Prentiss was quick to jump in. "What that tells us is that there is absolutely nothing remarkable about this man. He is exceedingly average."

"As you said, Detective Yarbrough," Morgan said, turning back to the Detective. "Average height, average build."

"Average man," Beck concluded as Reid picked up at her comment. "It extends to his professional life as well. He most likely works in a field where he doesn't stand out, doesn't really make a mark."

"Think cubicles, small office spaces, suits and ties, cabinet drawers," Beck listed off, gaining a couple of chuckles from across the room. She smirked at her own description, but dropped the smile the moment she noticed the familiar Hotchner Glare being directed at her from across the room.

"His lack of distinction is part of his psychopathy," Hotchner explained, turning back to address the rest of the people. "We have hundreds of interactions with people every day. Most of those involve someone overlooking someone else. Most of us don't pay any attention to being ignored-" He pays too much attention to people in general, Beck wanted to harp at the Unit Chief as he continued. "-but to this kind of Unsub, each oversight is intentional. Especially when it comes from his object of sexual desire. He beings to obsess over her until she's all he can think about. And the rage builds until he has to attack that person."

Beck could see Detective Yarbrough wince slightly at the wording. He was probably imagining Michelle, laughing, smiling, just being herself somewhere at work surrounded by people... and her killer. The thought of knowing that your future killer was always watching, just a few yards away, and all because you didn't acknowledge his presence. Beck couldn't imagine how Detective Yarbrough was feeling right about now. All she knew was that he was getting more furious by the second.

"So he's pissed off that nobody notices him?" The Detective snapped.

"'Have you seen me?'" Morgan quoted the words plastered on the missing fliers of Enid White and Michelle Colucci.

"Wait," the same detective from before piped up. "That's not about the women?" Oh, now he was paying attention.

"No," Prentiss shook her head. "The masks are about the women- Number One, Number Two. The fliers probably refer to him."

"Removing his victims' faces transfers his feelings of being ignored into a mission," Dr. Reid explained. "And it gives him a sense of power."

"He's also getting off on you always missing him," Beck stated, glancing out at the sea of cops, her eyes landing on a particular Detective staring back at her intently. "He's playing off your anger and frustration. He doesn't want just anyone to notice him, it's why he went after these women and why he's leaving these fliers and masks and making a show of removing the victims' faces. He knows this isn't going to be shown to the public, not the gorey details that you all get to see. He's doing it for you, the police. That's who his message is directed at."

"Which is why we believe we can get him to contact you," Hotchner added to her statement. "Hopefully, by playing on his anger..." Beck furrowed her eyebrows when she realized Hotchner had actually trailed off and that wasn't just her mind subconsciously tuning him out like it had been known to do before. Sure enough, she realized he was glaring at something off to the side. She followed his gaze and caught sight of the television screen then.

As if on cue...

Sure enough, up on the screen being broadcasted on the news was an image of a faceless mask, similar to that of the ones at the crime scenes.

"JJ," Hotchner sounded irritated. "How'd they get that?"

"Not from me," the blonde immediately answered. "I- Hotch, I called all the local police departments and I stressed withholding the mask." She sounded truthfully distraught by this, and almost just as frustrated as Hotchner was by this new predicament.

"Well, how did they get that then?" Beck asked out loud to no one in particular.

"I called them." All eyes turned towards the TV screen, more specifically, towards the man in the beige suit standing beneath the screen... that stupid notepad in his hands. Agent David Rossi... Son of a bitch.

"What?" Hotchner asked dumbly, as if he hadn't heard him correctly.

"I said the FBI thinks the masks mean he's impotent," he answered matter-of-factly.

The room was so silent, Beck was pretty sure you could hear a pen drop. Right now, all she could hear was the pumping of her blood rushing so fast from her head to the bottom of her feet as she slowly began to realize that he'd just released this information hoping the Unsub would see it while he still has Enid White... He was going to get pushed over the edge and would kill her quicker than they could find her. Shit... What did he do?

"Can I speak to you for a second?" Hotchner asked softly, a completely different tone than what he'd ever taken with Beck when he was on the brink of scolding her or dragging her off to the side to give her another one of his lectures. Even she'd never fucked up this majorly the way Rossi had, and yet... he got the Soft Hotchner treatment. What favoritism. First Reid, now Rossi...

The team, and the rest of the precinct, watched as Hotchner speed-walked to a nearby break room with Rossi on his trail. Beck stood to her feet, glaring after them as they left. She was so caught up in her thoughts and turmoil, she hadn't heard Reid approach until he was right beside her.

"Huh," he huffed.

Beck turned to her right where the Doctor was standing, his eyes glued on the room the two men had just left to. "What? Not used to seeing your Unit Chief so disarrayed the way he is when having to deal with Mr. Million Dollar Book Deal?"

Reid shrugged, his eyes still staring at the door from over her head. God, she hated being short. "Well... that," he agreed with a small nod. "And I've just gotten so used to it always being you on the receiving end of Hotch's anger. It's a nice change, don't you think?" He deadpanned and Beck nearly blanched. Dr. Reid had jokes... Huh.

She stared at him, flabbergasted and open-mouthed. Slowly, she saw him glance down at her, meeting her gaze as a small little shit-eating grin made it's way onto his face. "Dr. Reid," she let out a slow mutter. "You little shit."

He laughed softly, the shit-eating grin now just a regular beaming smile. Beck couldn't help but spare him a small smirk in response. It was then she noticed he'd drank most all of the coffee she'd poured him earlier, his mug almost empty.

"What, did you burn yourself to chug that down?" She asked, half-joking and another half genuinely concerned for his throat.

Reid glanced down at his mug then back to her, shrugging, "I was thirsty. And tired, so... thanks, again."

"No need to thank me twice," Beck brushed him off. "Seriously. It's just some coffee." She muttered, slightly bristled by the fact he kept bringing it up. This was precisely why she never wanted to be caught dead delivering hot coffee to male coworkers, it got to their head and next thing she knew, she'd be their new girl Friday.

"Mm," Reid hummed after swallowing down another large gulp. "Why don't you ever drink any?"

"Who says that I don't, and you've just never seen me?" Beck prompted cheekily.

"Because I've seen you drink coffee only twice," he replied, not sensing her joking smart-ass-antics. "The first was when the BAU was investigating you and your old unit for treason. The second was after you and Morgan came back from examining the bodies during the case a few weeks ago in Colorado. You've also expressed your preference for chai tea lattes over a solid cup of Joe, so what is it about coffee, since clearly it isn't the taste that bothers you?"

Beck crossed her arms over her chest and leaned back from her perch on the edge of the desk to glance up at him. "What have I said about there not always being a hidden meaning behind everything I do, Dr. Reid?"

"I remember what you said, but then you contradicted yourself by telling me the exact reason for why you named your Bonsai Paris," he stated, his voice raising an octave as his frustration started to boil. "So if there was a reason for that, what's the reason you despise coffee and why do you feel the need to make up for punching me this morning with it?"

Beck clenched her jaw, clearly growing more agitated by Dr. Reid and his insistence on trying to figure out the inner workings of her brain that he perceived to be some kind of riddle to solve in his down time. However, no matter how hard he pushed, she wasn't going to give an inch. She already spared him with something to hold him over, a small piece of personal information about her bike, her dad, the plane crash, and Paris the Bonsai, just like Hotchner had suggested, and yet, here he was just throwing it back in her face like the CTU members used to do. And he was overreacting about the coffee, just like the CTU team would do.

Beck screamed internally. God, how stupid she was to think the BAU would be any different than the CTU. She traded in Bruno Hawks for Erin Strauss and Aaron Hotchner, Gina Sanchez for David Rossi, Kruger Spence for Penelope Garcia, John Summers for Derek Morgan, and Olivia Hopkins for Dr. Spencer Reid.

"Hey." Beck and Reid both turned to see JJ rushing over, her phone in her hand as she looked to be heading towards the break room where Hotchner and Rossi were talking- or arguing. Beck hoped it was the latter. "Garcia found something," was all the blonde spared to the pair of agents before heading off to fetch the Unit Chief and his ward.

As soon as the blonde was out of earshot, Beck stood up, slowly turning to stand face-to-face with the Doctor... More like chest-to-face. Dammit! Did he have to be so God damn tall?

Without warning, Beck plucked the mug from Reid's hand. She maintained eye contact while chugging down the remainder of coffee inside before handing it back. Reid didn't say anything, just stared with an unreadable expression as he glanced down at her then the mug, then back to her again. "Why can't you just take the coffee and leave it alone?" She muttered, too exhausted to put up with much more of anyone's little mind games.

And with that, she sauntered off, leaving the Doctor alone with his empty cup in the middle of the precinct office as she left to join the rest of the team inside the little conference room that had been set up hours ago.

Everyone else was already gathering inside, taking their seats around the oval table inside the office space Detective Yarbrough had given them. Up on the series of white boards off to the side were all pieces of evidence, crime scene photos, and maps of the area with small scribbles of notes Beck recognized to be written by either Hotchner or Dr. Reid on either side of each.

Hotchner and Rossi joined them not long after Beck had taken her seat near the end beside JJ and across the table from Dr. Reid. She was caught off guard when the empty seat between her and Morgan was filled by Hotchner. She furrowed her eyebrows when she noticed his demeanor was strained and hunched over ever so slightly as if he were growing more frustrated by the second, and for the first time ever, it wasn't directed towards her.

Beck glanced up to see Agent Rossi had opted to stay standing up, his eyes glued to the white boards of info, his back to them.

Huh. Maybe Dr. Reid was right; it was a nice change to have Hotchner's anger directed at someone other than herself.

Not that that diminished her mission towards kicking him off his Unit Chief position, but perhaps Rossi's antics would be what drove the nail in Hotchner's leadership coffin. After all, what good was a Chief if he couldn't keep his constituents in line?

"Garcia," Morgan called out into the reeiver of the phone place on the table before him. "Talk to us."

"So," the voice of the bubbly blonde filled up the room from through the speaker. "Michelle Colucci recently drew up the plans for a remodel of three floors of a company called Techco Communications. It's a high-tech communications company in downtown Dallas." Beck could hear the slight humor in her voice. Probably some inside joke for hackers or just because she thought the name was a little uncreative. Beck thought so too.

"And Enid White?" Hotchner prompted.

"Worked there until two months ago."

Beck glanced up, meeting the eyes of the rest of the team around her. "Well," she began. "Looks like we found our Unsub's place of work. Now all we have to do is find the needle in a haystack of cubicles."

Across the table, Prentiss nodded, silently agreeing. "Thanks, Garcia." And with that, the blinking red light that indicated the presence on the other end went dead.

Like clockwork, Detective Yarbrough came rushing in. "He's on Line Two," he said without explanation.

"The Unsub?" Hotchner deduced.

The Detective nodded, "Demanded to speak to the FBI."

Simultaneously, the group all turned to glance towards the agent that had given the news that little tip about the mask. Agent Rossi slowly stepped forward towards the phone in the center of the table. His hand shot out and hit the two digit on the dial pad before stepping away again.

"This is FBI Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi," Beck wanted to roll her eyes at the way he said his title with his whole chest. Beck knew it was to intimidate the Unsub, but all she saw it as was a little display. His entire demeanor was a display of power wasn't it? The 'I know more than you- sit down' schtick. Frankly, she'd had enough of that with the CTU.

Beck's eyes involuntarily trailed across the table to glance over at the Doctor that was anxiously leaning forward in his seat, ready to hang onto every word this Unsub was about to say.

"You called me impotent," the little growl came from the phone speaker. A very different tone and voice Beck had heard earlier while the line was blinking red for Penelope Garcia.

"Did I?" Agent Rossi asked, playing on the Unsub's frustration, trying to keep him talking.

"I'm not impotent," came the response. Clearly this was a subject that dug deep to the Unsub's core, otherwise he wouldn't have risked calling the FBI that was hunting him directly to try and set the record straight. They had no clue whether he was impotent or not, it was a guess, the same way the sadism was, but Rossi had chosen a piece of information to put out into the world that he knew would drive the Unsub to the point where he just had to try and fix his image. He had to reach out to them.

Huh, Beck thought to herself. Maybe he wasn't all that shitty as a profiler after all.

"Why are you whispering?" Agent Rossi asked.

The Unsub didn't answer. "You lied," he hissed. "You lied!"

Agent Rossi raised an eyebrow, "Is someone around you? Are you at work?" Beck leaned forward in her seat. If he was at work right now, it meant he hadn't touched Enid White yet. She was probably still alive meaning they had a chance to get her out if they could just find out who it was that they were speaking to, get to his house while he was at work, and get her out before he could get back to her.

"You have to tell the news the truth," the Unsub demanded.

"I'll get you on the news, then you can correct me yourself," Agent Rossi countered. Beck wanted to scoff. Yeah, this Unsub may have been fucking crazy, but he certainly wasn't stupid. Desperate maybe, but not stupid.

Sure enough... "You- you- you correct it," he angrily stammered.

"By the way," Agent Rossi sighed, figuring he probably wasn't going to win that trick either. "I was looking at the police security tapes for the day Michelle Colucci went missing."

Beck, Dr. Reid, Morgan and Prentiss all turned to glance sidelong at the Agent. That was odd... Beck could've sworn those cameras outside were duds, she recognized the battery-powered duds anywhere. There was no way he would've gotten anything from any one of those 'cameras,' so why was he...

Beck felt her skin crawl.

He was lying to the Unsub to manipulate him. That little shit.

It seemed as though the Unsub hadn't thought of those security tapes either, seeing as his response was no longer a growl, not even a whisper, just a soft... "What?"

"You watched her long enough to know she didn't have visitors. She was a loner," Agent Rossi explained. "Yet you knew that Detective Yarbrough was coming over."

Beck glanced to the side. She'd forgotten the Detective was still there. He didn't look so guilt-ridden as he had earlier. He looked pissed.

Agent Rossi carefully maneuvered himself to sit down at the chair in front of the phone as he continued, "You must have been right here in this station... when he told her." He leaned forward, propping his arms as the table as he drove in each of his digs, hoping to gain some kind of outburst or response... Oh shit. "Now, your face is gonna be on one of those tapes, and when I find it, I'm gonna paper this city with it, just like you did with those women. Everyone will see it. They won't be able to ignore you now."

Beck couldn't sit by and watch this happen. He was trying to ilicit a response, but if they didn't get there in time, he'd slip by and kill Enid White before they could find out who he was. "She leaned forward in her seat, worriedly glancing between Agent Rossi and Hotchner. "This isn't a good idea," she spoke softly so not to let the Unsub hear, but loud enough for the group around her to.

Agent Rossi barely spared her a glance out of the corner of his eye. Hotchner held up a hand, but gave her a sympathetic glance, one that told her that he maybe agreed with her on this, but to just... wait.

That was a first.

"But... you won't inspire fear," Agent Rossi pressed on. "You'll inspire hatred and ridicule." Beck's fingernails were no longer tapping the edge of the table, they were digging into it the longer he spoke. "Because the only power someone like you has is a mask."

Please, make him stop, Beck wanted to beg, but Hotchner's hand was still held up to her. Then suddenly, it was facing towards Agent Rossi as if he were telling him to hold off.

Finally, Beck wanted to breath out a sigh of relief.

But Agent Rossi kept going. In fact, he held his own finger up to Hotchner.

"And once that mask is removed, you'll be as insignificant as you've always been! A loser!"

The room fell silent as Agent Rossi took a deep breath and sat back in his chair, waiting to see if his words had any effect on the Unsub on the other line. Beck held her breath, waiting...

"...You just signed Enid White's death warrant."

Beck wanted to choke when she heard the sounds of paper being flung followed by the ringing dead tone of the line being cut off, the red blinking light going black once more.

Down the table, Hotchner was openly glaring at Agent Rossi. Beck didn't have it in her to glare just yet, right now she was in shock.

"Did... did you just get Enid White killed?" Beck muttered.

"Ryder..." Hotchner barely turned to look towards her, but his attempt at trying to handle her was what pushed her over the edge in this situation.

"No," she spat back, pushing out of her chair to stand over the table, her own glare directed at Agent Rossi. "How could someone so experienced be so God damn idiotic?"

Agent Rossi looked taken aback, "Excuse me?"

"You lied to him!" She snapped. "You lied to him about the security footage and you've made him desperate. The exact thing that drew him to hunting and killing these women in the first place. He has Enid White and now he thinks we're about to expose him with images and footage we don't even have!"

Hotchner's eyebrows furrowed as he looked from Beck back to the Agent across from him. "Is that true?"

"He doesn't know whether we're lying or not," Agent Rossi attempted to defend himself.

"Dave, that's incredibly reckless," Hotchner scolded him.

"Hotch, he didn't weigh the body down well," he tried to explain.

Everyone around the table looked confused at his statement. "What do you mean?" Prentiss asked.

"He didn't want Michelle found so quickly, he screwed that up," he answered. "This kind of guy when he plans something, if he has the time, if he's in control, he's meticulous. You said so yourself-" he gestured to Beck. "-when looking at his mutilation of the face." Beck was uncomfortable being cited in his reasoning. "But being on the edge of the river, out in the open, he was not in control. He was in a hurry and he made a mistake."

"Or maybe it was intentional," Beck shot back. "The body was in the water long enough to wash away the evidence of his DNA, but not long enough to where Michelle Colucci would remain hidden there for another couple of weeks. He wanted to get a move on, he had an agenda, which is exactly why as soon as Michelle's body was found, he moved on to Enid White," Beck explained.

"You're going off of assumptions and taking leaps bigger than what your old-timing legs can handle. I may be new to this specific line of work, and I'm not entirely sure how it used to be done at the BAU when you ran the show, but it's no longer just about catching an Unsub, it's about making sure the people they target or might target are kept alive," she pressed on. "You came back for a reason. If it was to prove something, keep your agenda out of the job. This is about saving lives, not betting on them in hopes that our little tricks work. Keep this up, people are going to get killed!"

"Rebecca," Hotchner snapped at her. Beck maintained eye contact with Agent Rossi. Just like there was no hidden anger or malice in her tone, there was none in his eyes. He genuinely seemed to listen to what she had to say. A refreshing change from the way Hotchner always just listened and acted like he knew what she was going to say and had an immediate rebuttal for it.

"Don't worry, I'm done," Beck muttered to Hotchner, sparing him a glance as she made her way around the table, stopping briefly behind him. "If you weren't going to be tough enough to say it, someone had to."

And with that, she turned to Detective Yarbrough on her way out. "You know the way to get to Techco Communications from here?" He nodded. Beck could hear the sounds of people getting up from the table behind her as she took the SUV keys from her pocket. "Good. You drive." She handed him the keys.

He glanced at her carefully, considering the offer before taking it. He nodded, glancing past her shoulder at the rest of the team behind her. "I'll get some of my men. We'll meet you out downstairs and clear the way for you."

"Thank you," Hotchner told the Detective before they all were off through the precinct towards the parking lot downstairs.

Beck didn't bother to look behind her as she walked, too scared she would see the disappointed glances or the agitated glares she was so used to seeing while she was in the CTU. She'd just made it downstairs out the precinct doors, her hand coming up to check and make sure her pistol was in it's place behind her back, when she heard someone call her name from behind her.

"Beck." Her eyebrows furrowed at her name being used correctly. Slowly, she spun around to find Morgan running to catch up with her. Beck maintained her speed, Morgan right beside her now. "You were right back there, you know. Wasn't sure if you were looking for someone to have your back-"

"I wasn't," she swiftly cut in, refusing to meet his eye as they walked.

"Well, just know that you have someone that does," he assured her. Beck was taken aback by how genuine he sounded, she couldn't help but glance up at him as they approached one of the SUVs. He gave her a small smile, holding out his hand for her to shake.

She hesitated before taking it anyway. She gave it a firm shake.

"I'll see you out there," he told her before letting go and running around the side of the car to climb into the SUV Hotchner and Rossi were getting into.

She had people who had her back... Even after her outburst. Huh... Proven wrong even when she was right. It was starting to become a pattern with this team, wasn't it?

"Agent Ryder," Detective Yarbrough called to her from where he stood, halfway inside the SUV driver's seat. "You coming?"

She smirked. "Yes, sir." And with that she jogged her way around the other side of the car and climbed into the passenger's side seat beside the Detective. She heard another car door close behind her and turned to see Agent Prentiss and Dr. Reid had decided to join them. She expected awkward glances or heavy glares, but they only greeted her with short nods and brief smiles as they got ready to head out.

"Everybody buckled in?" Detective Yarbrough asked. Everyone collectively nodded as he pulled the car out, turned the sirens on, and hit the gas, leading the brigade of cars behind him going towards the city. "I may not be able to get there in five seconds flat like you did back there at the El Royale, but I can try my best."

Beck chuckled. "Your best is enough, Detective," she reassured him. He glanced down at her, perhaps catching her double meaning, before turning back to the road once more.

—

They managed to get to Techno Communications in less than twenty minutes (though, Beck maintained she could've made the drive in ten). As soon as they arrived to the scene, Dallas PD had already gotten the building locked down.

Police cars lined the entrances and exits, Detective Yarbrough was barely able to maneuver the large SUV through the front drive way. He had barely had time to put the car into park before Beck, Prentiss, and Dr. Reid were climbing out.

Hotchner, Rossi, and Morgan were already heading up the steps to the front entrance by the time the group caught up with them at the doors.

"Is the building sealed?" Hotchner prompted one of the officers standing off to the side of the crowded lobby area of Techno Communications. Beck was starting to get flashbacks from the last case. Katie Jacobs... An Unsub within the masses... Large crowds... Sealed buildings.

Pull yourself together, Beck.

"Top to bottom," came the response from the officer.

"Yarbrough," Hotchner called out to the Detective not far behind the group. "Make sure it stays that way." Yarbrough nodded, taking a few of his officers off to the side as they began to canvas the area.

Beck drew her eyes forward as she began to search through the crowds of people. She remembered the profile: average height, average build. A needle in a stack of needles... Nothing too hard to spot.

All around her there were men and women of average height and average build. The overly tall ones, she paid no mind. The women, of course, were out of the picture. Dear God, why was everyone at this fucking company wearing grey? Was there a uniform? It wasn't like she wore anything flashier than a maroon V-neck and black skinny jeans, but, geez, didn't these people tire of grey? Maybe if the Unsub spiced it up with a black suit, he might've actually been noticeable.

"Garcia, which floors did Michelle Colucci remodel?" Hotchner called into his phone. There was a pause. "Got it- 7, 8, 9."

Beck sighed, that woman never seized to amaze her. If only Kruger Spence was as efficient as Penelope Garcia. "I've got 9!" Beck shouted over her shoulder before jogging off.

She could vaguely hear Hotchner attempting to call after her, but what stuck with her was when she could hear him throwing out orders to another member of the team. "Reid, go with her. Morgan, take 7. Prentiss, 8. We're looking for a rank-and-file employee who made a scene in the last twenty minutes or was here and gone. Don't try to approach him, just try to get a name, maybe a picture."

Beck made a mental note to remember that as she hit the button, waiting idly for the elevator to hurry up. While the elevator took it's sweet time, Reid had time to catch up with her while Morgan and Prentiss ran over to the other elevators.

As soon as the doors opened, Beck and Reid rushed in, Reid wasting no time in hitting the number 9 before the doors shut once more.

Beck anxiously tapped her fingers against her thigh as she watched the numbers above the buttons slowly go up. 3... 4...

By the time 5 rolled around, she pulled her gun out from where she had it behind her back. She pulled out her magazine, completely full. This might've been her first job at which she didn't need to fire as many shots. The last time she'd even needed her pistol was when she was arresting Gary Manwaring a few weeks ago, and yet, she still hadn't fired any shots on that case either.

"What do you need that for?" She heard Reid prompt from beside her.

Beck shrugged before slowly pushing the magazine back into place and pushing it behind her back once more. "This Unsub is a desk-potato with average height and an average build. He's not athletic and probably less than skilled in any defensive arts. The only reasonable explanation for how he's able to get these women subdued is that he has a weapon," she explained. "That kind of power he holds... There's no way he's not gonna have it here with him at the place where he's ignored and looked over the most. We have to be prepared for anything."

8...

"Hotch told us not to approach him," Dr. Reid tried to deter her plans.

Beck shook her head.

9...

"You tell me how that works out for you, Reid," she replied.

The elevator bell rang and Beck and Reid were already out the door. Beck wasn't sure where to look first, but thankfully, someone was already waiting for them. Standing at the end of a long, sterile hallway lined with doors to different offices, was a tall, burly bald man in a dark suit with a red tie.

The moment Reid and Beck stepped out of the elevator, he was speed walking towards them. "FBI?" They both nodded. "They told me to expect you. I'm the supervisor of this floor, I oversee everyone that works on it."

"You knew Michelle Colucci?" Beck asked the man.

He nodded. "Briefly. She wasn't here long."

"Well, she was here long enough to leave an impression on our suspect," she muttered darkly, looking past him at all the cubicles behind them going out towards the other end of the hall. If there was ever a Hell, Beck thought that this would be what it looked like.

"Do you happen to know of anyone that was kind of reclusive, of average height and build, never really stood out much in either his work or social life? Always off to the side somewhere?" Reid questioned the man. "He might've just recently gone in a fit of rage out of nowhere earlier today just before they locked the building down."

Beck could practically see the light bulb going off above the bald man's head... Or maybe it was just the reflection of the bright LED lights above them reflecting off his scalp. "I know who you're talking about. Follow me." The man speed walked through aisles of cubicles, Dr. Reid was able to keep pace with him with their long legs, but Beck had to practically jog to keep up. Fuck being short.

Eventually, the man stopped just short of a cubicle a few yards away. Reid and Beck pushed through to stand right before a small three-walled cubicle square, void of any and all decorations, a computer at the forefront of the desk, a mess created by shredded notepad paper and strewn pens and pencils, and even a even a knocked over lamp.

"Who did you say this desk belonged to?" Beck asked, pretty certain that they'd just found their guy.

"His name is Max Pool," the supervisor answered. "He's a weird fellow. Don't talk with him much, but he stares a lot. Doesn't talk to anyone either, but you described him to the 'T.'"

"Beck," Reid called her name softly. She turned to see what he'd just pulled up onto the screen. There it was, staring back at her, was an edited image of Enid White plastered on yet another 'HAVE YOU SEEN ME?' flier. This was definitely their guy. "I'll call Hotch."

As he pulled his phone out to dial up the Unit Chief, Beck pulled out the many drawers on the side of his desk. The first, empty. The second, cluttered with journals and books. But the third... empty... save for a gun holster and an empty pack of bullets for an old Revolver. "Reid..." Beck held up the empty box of bullets for Reid to see, his phone not yet pressed to his ear. "We need to go- now!"

And with that, she launched herself up and out of the cubicle, dashing back towards the elevators. This time, when she hit the button to go down, she didn't have to wait. She stepped in and hit the ground floor, Reid barely having time to push through the doors before they closed.

"You call Hotch, yet?" She pressed.

"It's ringing," he replied. "He's on the line- Hotch! His name is Max Pool!" There was a pause. "Yeah- okay, okay, but Hotch- wait! He has a..." Reid cut himself off with a frown as he pulled the phone from his ear. "He hung up before I could tell him he was armed."

"Shit!" Beck cursed as she anxiously watched the numbers she had originally wished would go faster going up, go down.

5... 4...

"Come on, come on, come on..."

3... 2...

Her finger was on the open door button the minute it hit to the ground floor, but Reid didn't seem to have the patience as he used his long arms for something useful, pushing open the elevator doors and rushing out.

Beck was about to follow him out when she heard the words "Down!" being shouted by Hotchner outside the doors. She leaned forward and saw Hotchner and Rossi with their guns drawn, pointed at someone unseen to the other side of Reid. Without thinking, Beck ran forward, slamming her weight into Dr. Reid. They fell to the floor as gunshots rang out through the hallway.

"Mph!" Beck gasped as she fell on top Dr. Reid, her face hitting his for a moment before she pulled herself up onto her hands and knees, her small frame shielding his from what she could from the shootout happening around them. She turned to the right where Rossi and Hotchner had been aiming to catch sight of who she assumed to be Max Pool falling to the ground, a single red blotch of blood in the center of his chest and a small Revolver falling limp in his hand.

He was dead before he hit the ground, but she took pleasure in watching his corpse slam against the tile beneath him.

Beck let out a sigh of relief, her focus turned back to the man she'd just tackled to the ground as Hotchner and Rossi rushed towards where Max Pool's body was. Reid, beneath her, looked out of breath and shaken from his near-death experience. "You okay?" She asked him breathlessly, their faces a lot closer than they had been the time he'd shied away from her in the SUV their first real case together where she had found out he was a slight germaphobe.

Reid nodded. "I think so... ow..." he winced.

"What is it?" She asked, mildly worried that he might've gotten hit. She pushed up slightly, tying to look for any signs of blood on his body from a bullet that might've hit him before she'd had time to knock him out of the way.

"My nose..." he muttered, his hand coming up from between them to press against his once-again red nose. "I think you hit it when you fell on me."

Beck grimaced, "I swear, I'm not targeting your nose intentionally." He chuckled slightly before Beck managed to push herself off of him and onto her feet. As soon as she was up, she held out her hand to him, which he took with his free hand that wasn't holding his swollen nose. Once they were both up, she turned back to where Hotchner and Rossi were standing over Max Pool's body.

"You two alright?" Hotchner asked the pair.

"Fine," Beck answered, a little off put by how genuinely concerned he sounded for their- even just her- well-being. "How's he?" She asked, jerking her head down at the obviously dead Max Pool. She wanted confirmation.

"He's gone," Hotchner confirmed to her.

"What about Enid White?" Beck hadn't even noticed Detective Yarbrough was there until she turned to see him standing just beside her and Reid.

"We have his home address," Hotchner replied to the Detective while Beck moved her arm slightly, trying to pop her shoulder from after she'd fallen onto Reid and hit it a little hard when they'd gone down together.

"Is she there?" The Detective pressed.

"Let's hope so," he replied before getting back up to his feet.

Beck moved to follow after Hotchner and Detective Yarbrough as they moved away from Max Pool's body and headed towards the front doors of the office. As she walked by, she met the eyes of Agent Rossi standing off to the side. She was shocked to see he looked guilt-ridden for what had just played out. Good, she thought to herself before continuing on.

—

Enid White had been found at Max Pool's home address, completely fine and intact. She was a little shaken and mildly dehydrated, but according to the EMT's Beck talked to, she was going to be fine. They'd also let her in on the little fact that Detective Yarbrough had refused to leave her side since, even going as far as being with her on the entire ambulance ride to the hospital.

Beck managed to spare him a small smile and wave as he loaded in with her and the rest of the EMT's. And when she turned her attention across the yard where Reid, Prentiss, and Morgan were all handing out candy from Reid's satchel out to the local neighborhood kids, she was half-tempted to call on another EMT to check on the Good Doctor's nose. It was swollen, again, from her head slamming into it again, but she doubted it was broken. Just stuck out like a sore thumb.

It was a pleasant sight, watching the agents let loose after this horrific case and just be there with the kids. Beck kept her distance, still unsure of her standings with the group after her outburst at the station.

Rossi and Hotchner were seeing Enid White off beside the ambulance and a few yards away JJ was talking with the local media. Everyone seemed to have their place among the team, even Agent Rossi reevaluating his own beside Hotchner.

Beck wasn't really sure what to do with herself, standing in the middle of the lawn of a serial killer they'd just killed. Resigned, she pulled her phone out to check the messages she'd been ignoring.

Colleen: [image attached] Happy Halloween!

Beck clicked on the photo and smiled. It was a picture of a little pink and pale bean that she now knew as her nephew dressed up inside a little orange bundle that slightly resembled that of a pumpkin, complete with a small little green that that was supposed to be the stem. It was cute... Stupid, but cute.

The Colonel: [image attached] Happy Halloween, mija. We love you 3

Beck clicked on the next photo attached by her mother, this time outright laughing at the image her Mom had sent her. It was of her little sister, Alice, dressed as some kind of zombie cheerleader. Her hair up in pigtails and make-up on her face and arms that made it look like the scratchy cheer uniform she had on was covered in blood. Beside her was her little brother, Max, dressed as some kind of weird robot she'd swore she'd seen in movies before. And behind them was her Dad who opted for the same costume every Halloween as a running (and lazy) joke. He stood clad in khaki shorts and a Houston Texan jersey...

"Enjoying your Halloween?" Beck jumped, startled for a moment at the sudden appearance of Agent Rossi beside her. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

She cracked a stiff smile. "Don't worry, it seems to be a running theme around here."

Agent Rossi grimaced before getting right into what he wanted to say. "I just wanted to apologize." Beck raised her eyebrows. This was certainly a new sensation. A senior officer... apologizing to her? Unheard of. "I realize now that my older methods weren't the best back in my day... There's room to improve and this set of codes and rules you guys seem to go with now certainly show that. I should know better from now on not to step on anyone's feet when trying to stop these Unsubs. So, I'm sorry for putting you in danger because of my reckless actions."

Beck sighed. Great, it was gonna be hard holding a grudge against a guy that gave a Hell of an apology. Who knew Agent Rossi was actually a decent guy? "You're forgiven. Sorry for snapping at you today. It was completely unprofessional and it won't happen again."

"Oh, please," he scoffed, catching her off guard. "I hope you do yell at me more often. It's humbling." Beck actually openly laughed at that. "Really. It helps remind me that you youngsters may be onto a thing or two. I know you certainly are, Miss CIA."

Beck rolled her eyes. "Please. It's just Beck."

"So I've been told," he smirked knowingly. "Well, we should get going. I wouldn't want to keep you any longer from your family back in Texas you talk about so much... Is that a Texans jersey I'm seeing there?"

Beck glanced down at the photo still on display on her phone screen and laughed. "Oh. Yeah... It's his thing. Every year, my Dad decides to go as a 'Sports Fan With No Brains' for Halloween. It's a lazy costume, but somehow my Mom lets him get away with it," she explained with a shake of her head.

"Mm. And what would a sports fan with brains support baseball-wise?" Rossi prompted with a raised eyebrow.

Beck shrugged. "I think I may just have to stick with my Rangers on this one, Agent Rossi."

He threw his head back, pulling a face of disgust. "Oh no! We lose yet another talented Agent to defeat cheering on such scum."

"Hey! That's Texas scum to you, sir."

"Oh-ho-ho!" The pair laughed as they made their way towards the SUV across the lawn where Hotchner was already waiting.

This was nice, Beck thought to herself as she climbed into the car. This. This feeling she felt now as she looked out the SUV window at the three other agents wrapping up their Trick-Or-Treating session, children in costumes running by to wave at them as they got into their cars, the sense of victory in the air as a victim was escorted to the hospital expected to make a full recovery, with an Unsub cold in a morgue somewhere, her teammates laughing alongside her at a new inside joke.

This was the exact feeling she was chasing after leaving the CTU.

—

After passing out on the jet ride back to DC, Beck was wide-eyed the entire bike ride back to Quantico. She beat the team back to the office by fifteen minutes, yet again and found herself where she always did after every case: sitting in front of her computer staring at a blank entry for Strauss.

Beck was half-tempted to leave a little message: fuck you. But... then she remembered their new arrangement. Her job in exchange for eloquent entries about Agent Hotchner. Unit Chief position or not, if she didn't push Agent Hotchner into early retirement, she was going to be back on the unemployed list.

She hated this double-agent shit. Frankly, she'd had enough of it in terms of Hawks and the entire ordeal with John Summers. Backstabbing was her least favorite pastime. But... Hotchner was a dick, and frankly, anyone else on the team could do the job twice as good as Hotchner did, or at least she thought so. Not to mention, that feeling... The thing she was chasing back at Max Pool's house. That feeling of accomplishment and security. She only got that with this job.

And she wasn't about to lose it to Aaron Hotchner.

Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner.

Today, Agent Hotchner was faced with a new challenge that wasn't posed by an Unsub or even myself. This challenge was that of his authority being both threatened and questioned by returning Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi that has returned to the team from retirement. Agent Rossi, who is a character of his own, not only disobeyed orders from Hotchner, but blatantly acted in his own favor rather than the victim's or even just the teams. And while Agent Hotchner had no prior knowledge of Agent Rossi's intentions, he still allowed these instances to occur without further question or even so much as a slap on the wrist. The two of them together are rule breakers who continuously enable their own reckless and erratic behavior. It is in both the team's and the potential and future victims' best interest that they both be removed before further damage can be done.

Entry date- 10/31/07

Agent Rebecca Ryder

After saving, closing, and submitting her entry to Strauss- damn the bitch's wicked soul- Beck began working on her actual case report she'd have to hand in to Hotchner himself. A few points were going in about Rossi, as well as her own apology for the outburst, but nothing as brutal as what she wrote about him to Strauss.

She was half-way finished when she checked the time and remembered that the team would be back soon. Without so much as a second thought, Beck made her way across the office and put on a pot of coffee.

Sure enough, a few minutes later, the team was walking through the front doors of the office. They were chatting away at their desks, Beck trying to make herself near invisible in the back corner of the office kitchen so not to disturb the harmony and team solidification going on a few yards away. But, unfortunately, her plan to remain recluse was thwarted by a certain Doctor, yet again.

"Is that for me?"

Beck glanced over her shoulder to see Dr. Reid smiling at her, gesturing towards the mug of coffee she held in her hands. "Well, I'm sure as Hell not gonna drink it," she smirked, holding it out for him.

Reid smiled, taking the mug and taking a couple sips. This was the first time she'd seen him drink the coffee she made him without wincing.

"Did I get it right this time?" She asked.

Reid nodded, his eyebrows raised slightly as he glanced back up at her. "Yeah. It only took you a couple tries to figure out how I take my coffee. Not bad."

Beck overexaggerated a fist pump. "Yes! New record."

Reid laughed. "Now that you've memorized it, does this mean you'll stop making them for me?"

Beck turned her head slightly. "Why are you so against me giving you coffee?"

"It's not that, it's just... You keep doing things for me and other people and I can't figure out why," he explained. "I know you have reasons to do things, there's a reason for everything everyone does. It's literally our job to figure out what those reasons are. But when you tell me to stop trying to figure it out, it just frustrates me the more you do them."

Beck sighed... She hadn't thought about Reid being frustrated by these small actions. If she'd been with the CTU and had given Kruger Spence any coffee, or Gina Sanchez, or even John Summers, they'd all take the gesture greedily and only ask questions when the coffee supplying stopped. But not Reid. She had to continuously remind herself that Reid wasn't like any of them. He wasn't like anyone she'd ever known.

"I felt bad," she eventually relented. "I felt bad for punching you and this was my... stupid way of trying to repay you. With coffee because everyone loves coffee and I don't really know what other things you like, so I just... chose this."

"You know, you don't have to keep apologizing about punching me. I think your imaginary debt has been paid after you tackled me out of the way of flying bullets," he chuckled nervously, Beck sparing him a half-smile. "By the way, thanks for that."

Beck nodded in response. "I just... I don't want you to be scared of me. I want this to be different from the CTU."

"I scared you with a mask I bought from the dollar store last night," Reid laughed, Beck letting out a small involuntary laugh herself. "I don't think you're all that scary. And I definitely don't think this is going to be the same as the CTU."

"How do you know?" She prompted.

"Well, has anyone at the CTU ever invited you to go watch a screening of the 1925 Phantom of the Opera? Ooh-hoo-hoo!" He finished off with a spooky voice as he pulled out two tickets from his back pocket. "It's the least you could do for punching me, then knocking me to the ground, and then making me drink all those terrible coffees."

Beck gaped at the Doctor. "Doctor Reid- you know what? On second thought, I give your nose examination a second opinion and I say that it is broken. Looks like you'll have to sit out the next couple of cases."

"Darn," the Doctor pretended to curse. "Will I still be able to walk to the theatre a few blocks from my apartment to see these spooky new film with my fellow BAU team member?"

Beck spared the Doctor a sad smile as she nearly considered the offer, but ultimately... She just couldn't cross that line yet. "You can walk to see the movie, but... you will be walking alone." She watched the Doctor's expression fall at her exclamation. "I'm sorry," she winced slightly.

"Eh," he shrugged it off as if it were nothing. "It'll probably be boring anyway."

"I doubt that," she retorted. "Go enjoy your silent old movie, Dr. Reid. I'll see you back here tomorrow- without a mask."

"You'll certainly see me back here tomorrow," he replied. "How could you miss me with my big red nose, Doctor Ryder?"

"Oh-ho-ho," she laughed at his self-own. "And none of this doctor mess- it's Beck," she reiterated for what felt like the mllionth time.

"Well then that makes me Spencer," he smiled, gesturing to himself with his mug of coffee and two tickets still in either of his hands. Beck smirked. "Goodnight, Beck."

"Goodnight... Spencer."

It felt weird, foreign to speak a co-worker- a teammembers name. She'd never called Olivia Hopkins by her first name, or Sanchez, or Kruger Spence, or John Summers, not even Hawks or Gideon... And here she was, using Dr. Reid's- Spencer's first name like it was nothing. It was different when Hawks called her Becca or when the team knew her by Beck instead of Ryder because she never really identified with her full first name or even just her last name. But this... this was different.

And different was good, right?

—

A/N: PAPA ROSSI HAS ARRIVED. We see a little conflict between Rossi and Beck, but has it been completely resolved. Also we see both parallels and differences drawn between Rossi and Hotchner because I feel like while they were pretty similar in some aspects, they are also kind of compatible opposites, if that makes sense. Rossi is also an icon and I'm excited for more Rossi/Beck interactions.

Also, I know we're lacking in Prentiss/Beck, JJ/Beck, and Garcia/Beck interactions, but I promise there is a lot more in the future. We did, however, get LOTS of Spencer/Beck in this chapter. Thoughts on that?

A big thank you to everyone that reads, favorites, follows and reviews as well! I see and read all the comments and I love them all. I'll get to responding to them soon, but as you can see, these monsters kind of take it out of me to write so it may be a while before I have the energy or time to respond to you all. But thank you, nonetheless. :)