"It's possible, but it doesn't quite fit his M.O." Rossi says, scratching his chin. The whole team is gathered around the small conference table in the closet sized office that the Boston PD set them up in.
"I dunno Rossi, it has been about 10 years. He's definitely a lot older now, so things would be a hell of a lot harder than it used to be." JJ pipes up while slightly swaying back and forth in the office chair she's reclined in.
They all sit in silence, mulling over everything they've just heard in the past 20 minutes. The only sounds are the shuffling of paper and the gentle typing clicks of Garcia on her laptop. Suddenly, Hotch pushes back his chair and makes his way over to the crime board that's resting along the back of the room. Curious eyes follow him, but no one speaks up scared they'll break whatever hunch their leader is following.
"Why would he incapacitate her first?" Hotch mutters, staring at the pictures from the crime scene.
"You're right. 10 years older, so he's probably not as strong as he used to be, so he would go for Evan first." Emily stands up, walking up to the board next to him, she turns towards the rest of the team sitting at the round conference table. "It's the side of a dimly lit road. I'm the Reaper, and I stumble across a disabled car on the side of the road. It's late at night, no one around. The perfect crime scene."
Rossi sees where she's going and joins in. "I keep my lights on their car, purposefully blinding them. I get out of the car just enough so they can see the outline of my body and ask if they want any help. Evan says yes, and I say that I have tools in my car, to hold on a second."
"Evan goes back to trying to change the tire, when BOOM!" Hotch turns to the rest of the team as he finishes. "Knocking Evan out with a tire iron before noticing the girl in the car."
JJ mutters from her chair, looking disgusted at the board. "Where he then can take his time with her." She lets out a shudder. "This is too cold and calculated for it to be a copy cat, or not the same guy. It's definitely the same guy."
"So, what are we missing?" Rossi runs his hands over his tired face before looking more intensely at the files on the table in front of him. Before anyone can answer, the conference room door slams open with a younger officer panting, out of breath.
"We found two more bodies."
Hotch has to physically restrain himself from punching the crime board as he watches half of his team leave for the crime scene. Rossi is the only one still left in the room, sees the flexed fist and sighs.
"Maybe we should have sent you to the scene instead of Prentiss and Morgan."
The Unit Chief stiffens. "What?"
"Maybe getting some fresh air would do you some good." Rossi gestures to the small stuffy room. "Get out of your head in here and maybe see something that you feel like you're missing."
Sighing, Hotch turns back towards the crime scene pictures. "I am missing something. It's right under my nose, I feel it."
"You know what? No. I bet we can still catch them in the parking lot. You, my friend, are joining your team out in the field and not holed up in this office. Reid will hang back with me, JJ and Garcia." Rossi looks straight at his oldest friend and his boss, raising an eyebrow he finishes his demand. "And I will not take no for an answer."
Without letting the younger man respond, Rossi opens the creaky wooden door and extends out his hand following his verbal demand. Hotch, fully chastised, rolls his eyes before following the silent demand and walks, albeit a little slowly, towards the parking lot and the still parked SUVs. Rossi, to his credit, saves his smirk until after Hotchs back is to him and turns towards where Penelope Garcia is returning from the restroom.
"Hotch will be joining the others at the crime scene, Reid and I will take point here with you to make sense of what we're missing." He continues to hold the door open for the wide eyed technical analyst, before following her into the room. Not without taking one last glance outside where he sees Hotch shaking his head and getting into the backseat of the SUV, clearly having lost the argument with Morgan about driving.
Hours have passed, the whole team now sitting in the lobby bar in their hotel. No one up for conversation, all frustrated by their lack of leads. Even after canvassing the new crime scene as well as getting all of the information from the ME, they're still at a loss.
Emily has her head resting on Hotch's shoulder as she nurses her water, the water that she asked the bartender to make look like a cocktail. It would turn heads if they realized it was water, and in their current state neither Emily nor Aaron wanted to share the news yet.
Penelope and Derek were in a similar state, though they were whispering to each other, what, the rest of the team couldn't hear, but the little smirks on their faces made them not want to know.
Dave stared into his beer like it had all of the answers to the universe. One glance across the table shows their Unit Chief doing the same.
JJ had her head deep in her phone, with the amount of quiet dings coming out of the device the rest of the team deduces that she's texting Will, about Henry most likely.
Reid was the only one still actively thinking about the case. Every couple of minutes he would mutter something, with a puzzled look on his face. Clearly trying to connect the dots that they have been completely unsuccessful with in the last couple days.
All of their musings are startled when the shrill of a phone ringing breaks into their little group. All eyes turn towards Hotch, as he answers his phone.
"Hello?"
The quiet surrounding the group made what was said on the other line sound crystal clear.
"You should have made the deal." Came the gruff, clearly voice altered, voice of the man on the other line.
"I don't make deals with serial killers." Hotch's jaw was set tight, he sat up straighter back into Agent mode.
Across the table, Rossi gestured to Garcia to start tracking the phone call, something she waved off because she was already on it, pulling her laptop that was in its case near her feet onto the drink filled table.
She whispers as quietly as she can to Hotch. "Just a little bit more, keep him talking."
"I didn't want to have to do this. You leave me no choice. Their lives are on your hands, Agent Hotchner." The Reaper taunts before hanging up the phone.
They all sit there in a tense silence, the tapping of Garcias fingers on her keyboard the only thing breaking through.
"Baby girl please tell me you got something." Morgan tries to look at her screen, lost at what she's seeing.
"Come on, come on." Garcia's eyes scan the screen really fast, in hopes that something will jump on the screen.
"Anything?" Rossi asks after a few quiet seconds.
"No. He was on a burner phone so that was a dead end, he's moving because the signal kept jumping from tower to tower. I got a slight location though!" She looks up and sees 6 pairs of eyes expectantly waiting for an answer. "He was bouncing around near Harbor Street."
As soon as she finished her sentence, the team jumped up racing their way back to the station. Without turning his head, Hotch talks to Garcia. "Find out what's near there! We need to know what he was up to."'
"You got it bossman." She says, with a little shakiness to her voice.
Derek hangs back for a second. He looks her in the eyes. "You can do this Penelope." Before turning and quickly catching back up to the rest of the team.
The BAU was a sight to behold rushing into the precinct. A bunch of the local PDs startled at the sight of the, slightly disheveled, FBI agents. Before any of the locals could ask any questions, Rossi pipes up from the front of the group.
"Has anything been called in?"
Wide eyes glance at each other, some clearly concerned for the FBI's mental state, knowing that they probably haven't rested in days. The police Chief looks them all over before stating. "No, what makes you think something happened?"
"He called me." Was all Hotch said before marching into the small conference room the team has been set up in for the last week.
Murmuring was heard throughout the office as the rest of the team trails in behind their leader. A flurry of movement happened within the precinct. The BAU tuned them out, focusing on the crime board while Hotch dials Garcia.
"I'm so sorry sir, I haven't found anything yet." Garcia rambles out as soon as she answers the line. The rest of the team can hear the hurried typing as she gets out more information. "The closest thing that I can see near there is either the harbor itself, or the Silver line bus route."
"Do you think he got on the bus?" Morgan asks, a puzzled expression on his face.
"That's completely possible." Hotch mutters over to Morgan before speaking louder to Garcia. "Garcia, check the bus route, see where its stops are and if there was a stop around the time he called."
"Checking now sir."
"And Garcia?"
"Yes sir?"
"Good work." Hotch grunts out before turning and exiting the conference room to confer with the Chief of police.
Emily smiles to herself as she watches her husband leave the room. Clearly their little chat in the car has opened his eyes.
"Reid, you go back into the precinct. Work with Garcia and Rossi to see what we've been missing, and work with JJ because she's going to release a statement soon. I'll join them to the crime scene." Hotch says, coming up behind the younger agent as he was about to climb into the back of the black SUV.
"Alright Hotch." Reid sighs as he shuts the door and waves to the other agents before making his way inside.
Hotch makes his way up a couple more feet to see his wife sitting in the passenger seat already.
"Are you sure you want to go?" Emily asks her husband, seeing the tense look on his face.
"No, but Gramps gave me no choice." He says back before he could stop himself getting a chuckle from the other agents in the car.
"Well, welcome to the fun Hotch." Morgan says as he turns on the car. "But it looks like you got the back seat."
Hotch just shakes his head, not going to argue and opens up the back door and gets in.
They ride in a comfortable silence for a few minutes before Emily turns to Derek.
"Hey Derek, what is about to be said in this car does not go past this car, okay?" Derek turns his head towards her for a moment before looking back at the road, a retort stopped in his throat when he sees the look on her face.
"Sure thing Princess." But before he could stop himself, he adds. "Should I put in ear plugs?" He chuckles to himself as she lightly swats at him before she turns her attention to the brooding man in the backseat.
"Hey, honey?" She asks, gaining his attention. She waits until he looks up from the back of her seat before continuing. "Look, I know this case is personal to you. Hell, I'd think you were crazy it wasn't based on what you said about Shaunessy. But you have got to calm down. You're starting to bite everyone's heads off, I think mine is the only one you haven't, but if you did you know you'd be sleeping on the couch for the next month." She sees a small smile break his lips. "You're also starting to scare Garcia. And she's a tough cookie."
Before she can finish her thought Derek pipes in. "Hell yeah she is."
Emily rolls her eyes fondly at her partner before turning serious again at her husband. "We will solve this. We won't let him go free. What happened 10 years ago happened. Should it have? No, but now we're dealing with it. We're not going to walk away, we're in this too deep. So just, go easier on everyone, okay?" She tries to reach back to stroke his cheek, but their positions in the car makes that nearly impossible. He meets her halfway, leaning forward and grabbing her hand before bringing it to his face to kiss it.
"Okay, I'll try." He whispers against her skin, before clearing his throat and leaning back in his seat.
"Uh oh." The sound of Garcia breaks Emily out of her reverie. She blinks a couple of times to get her bearings back before seeing the chaos start to unfold.
"What is it Garcia?" JJ asks, standing up from her chair where she was revising the press statements. Before Garcia could answer, Hotch comes storming back into the room. The team can hear the cacophonous sound of phones ringing and panicked voices.
"You were right about the bus. Everyone lets go, this one is bad." Hotch grabs his suit jacket that he had tossed on the back of a chair and the keys to one of the SUVs. The rest of the team flounders out behind him.
"Garcia, precinct now!" Hotch calls out, knowing that she's still on speaker phone.
"Already on my way." The technical analysts voice rings out before the call drops.
Hotch jumps into one of the SUVs with Prentiss and Rossi not far behind. Morgan starts the other car with JJ and Reid barely making it into the car before they both pull away.
The sight of the bloodied bus was going to stick with them for a long time. Swallowing down the pain of losing more innocent lives, Hotch makes his way over to the crime scene.
"What have we got?"
"7 dead, and something scrawled on the side of the bus in blood. We can't quite decipher what it means." The leading officer tells Hotch as the rest of the team takes in the crime scene.
"He definitely escalated." Rossi quips, taking in the carnage in front of him. "Morgan, get Garcia on the numbers on the side of the bus so we can figure out what it means."
"Already on it." Morgan calls out, with his phone up to his ear.
Hotch just stands there staring at the bus, fists clenched at his sides. Emily comes up next to him and places her hand on his wrist, to try to get him to open up his hand to hers.
"You are not at fault for this." She whispers, already knowing what he was thinking.
"It's because I didn't take the deal. They're all dead because of me." He says through gritted teeth, his hand gripping hers tightly.
"No, listen to me. They aren't dead because of you, honey. They are dead because of a sick son of a bitch who killed them. You didn't pull the trigger." He breaks away from her to get closer to the bus, something about what was written on it seems vaguely familiar. But before taking a step away, he turns back to her.
"No, but I might as well have."
Rossi steps up next to her, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "No one will get through to him today. Not after this. Take a deep breath and separate yourself. You did everything you could, Bella."
She shrugs his hand off her shoulder and looks at him sadly. "I know."
Reid breaks their small little heart to heart by jumping forward and running towards Morgan.
"They're addresses!" Panting out of breath he looks expectantly at Morgan to tell Garcia. "THEY'RE ADDRESSES!"
As soon as Hotch heard to scream of realization from Reid, he connected the dots and figured out what it means. Why it seemed so familiar. He looks up at the rest of his team with wide eyes.
"He's going after George Foyet."
Hello, hi. It's been a while I know. But hey, it ~hasn't~ been a year between chapters so I have that going for me, right? ha, anyway, I seriously hope you enjoy this chapter. I had a rush of inspiration, and I now know where I want to take this story, so expect a lot more updates in the next coming weeks. I also sped up the timeline a smidge, because I was kinda sick of them still being in Boston. The next chapter will the be last one of them in Boston and then back home with more family Hotchniss and fluff, before the drama starts back up again. Anyway, hope there's still people here and you're not too mad at my disappearance again. Lovely to see you all and I'll see you in the next one!
