There are Stars in Your Eyes

t h i r t e e n

JJ's Point of View:

I start pulling the photos of the victims out of the boxes to put up on the boards, victim number one, Charlotte Holman. She was 26 and lived on her own in an apartment not far from the French Quarter, blonde hair and blue eyes. She was strangled with some sort of string or scarf. I then pull out the picture of the unsub's signature, the constellation. On Charlotte, the unsub punched the Hydra Constellation into her stomach with what we think is a sharp object shaped like a screw driver. The second victim, Lola Miller was 32. She lived in the Garden district and split time of her 4 year old daughter with her ex-boyfriend. She died the same way, but the unsub punched Ursa Major into her stomach. Lastly, Gabby Johnson. She was 29 and lived with her boyfriend who was out of town at the time of the murder. Gabby was marked with the Aquila constellation. 

Emily walks into the room and I look up at her,

"Hey Jayje, do you need any help setting up the board?" 

"Nope," I say pinning up the last photo

"So, how do you think this unsub is finding the victims?" Emily starts

"Well, Garcia said she didn't find too many connections between the victims, but they all do frequent different gyms and fitness centers. None of these victims go to the same gym, but that doesn't necessarily mean he isn't going there to meet people," I explain

"We can keep looking into that when the team gets back," Emily responds

A few hours later, all of the team is gathered in the room to start working on the profile.

"This unsub is most likely a male who is using these women as surrogates for who he is truly mad at. It takes a lot of strength to strangle someone and none of the victims seem to have been knocked out prior to being strangled." Hotch says

"And that begs the big question, what is the meaning behind the constellations?" Rossi says looking the the pictures. We know the answer to this question is somewhere in these photographs, we just can't seem to figure out where.

The police chief enters the room, "There has been another victim," He says

"Reid, Prentiss, and JJ, go to the new crime scene," Hotch says, "Figure out the meaning behind this unsub's signature," We all nod our heads and head towards the SUVs.

We pull up to a house in the West End, the house is not too big, perfect for one person to live in. I enter the house and the first thing I notice is the broken lamp on the floor, signs of a struggle.

"You said this victim, Maya Clark, was found by her friend in the bedroom?" Spencer asks the detective

"Yes,"

"Was there sign of a break in?" Emily asks

The detective responds, "The front window was opened, but we are not sure if that was Maya or the killer," 

"Well the unsub must have snuck up on her while she was in the living room and took her back to the bedroom where he strangled her," Spencer explains

"Why wouldn't he just strangle her here? It would have been a lot easier," I say

"I'm not sure," Spencer says. He then continues, walking through the house to the bedroom as he talks, "The unsub grabs her here, then takes here back to the bedroom where he rapes and strangles her,"

The three of us enter the bedroom where Maya is, she has ligature marks on her wrists and ankles from being tied up and raped, but whatever this unsub tied her up with, he took with him. I lift the blanket that is covering her stomach, "This is the Cygnus constellation," I say placing the blanket back over Maya. I take a step away from her bed, closing my eyes to take a deep breath. I tilt my head up toward the celling to prevent the tears from coming out, I open my eyes, but I notice something on the celling of Maya's room. 

"Em, Spence," I say, the both look over at me and I continue, "Am I going crazy or did Maya paint stars on her celling?" I pull over a near by chair and stand on it to get higher up, I examine the black dots all over Maya's celling, they are almost identical to the stars in star maps.

"No, I don't think you are going crazy," Emily says

"Did she paint these?" I ask, "This would have taken a lot of time and effort for them to be this exact, would the unsub spend this much time on it?"

"If he did spend this much time making sure each dot represents a star and almost to scale, this must be another important part to his signature." Reid suggests

"I'll call the rest of the team and see if they can go to the other crime scenes to check for the stars," Emily says stepping out of the room

"Look," Spencer says, "The victims are all laid on the bed to simulate them looking up at the stars," I get down from the chair and look back up at the dots scattered across the celling. 

Emily comes back into the room, "There were stars painted on the celling's of all the crime scenes, and Maya's sister said that she was not into astronomy so she would not have painted them."

"Why would the unsub put this much effort into this? There were dozens of stars painted on that celling, it would be risking a lot to take the time to do all this? If he did it antemortem, he would risk the victim escaping or someone coming in. If he did it postmortem, there is still a chance someone might see him."

"I'm not sure, how about we head back to the station and we can talk to the team?" Emily says grabbing the keys to the SUV.

Emily's Point of View:

We arrive back at the station and update the rest of the team on what we found at the crime scene. The team is gathered around the table studying the crime scene photos, notes, family interviews, and the victims lives but we are coming up with nothing. I look over at the time 8:00, Morgan ordered pizza and it should be getting here any minute. I notice JJ gets up to grab a cup of coffee and I follow her. 

"Jayje," I say, "You okay?"

"Yeah Em, I'm getting there," She says putting her face in her hands and taking a deep breath. I walk towards her and put my hand on her shoulder

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Its just this case, its bringing up all these memories of my sister. The stars, the victims, the place. It is just a little too much at once." JJ says

"Oh JJ," I say pulling her into a hug, "It going to be okay, we are going to catch this unsub."

"Yeah, it just feels like we are getting nowhere," She says. I pull out of the hug and put my forehead on hers

"This unsub has a deeper meaning for everything her does, as soon as we figure that out we will catch him." I say trying to reassure her

"Yeah, I guess," JJ says and heads back to the room where the rest of the team is now getting out pizza

3 hours later

"Okay guys, we have been looking at these photos for hours and are getting nowhere. I think it is best if we head back to the hotel and start fresh in the morning. The answer is somewhere in this pile of paper, but we are going to drive ourselves crazy if we don't get sleep." Hotch says

We all nod in between yawns and head back to the hotel. 

When we arrive back at the hotel, I shower first then JJ. I'm sitting in one of the beds in my pajamas reading a book when JJ get out of the shower. She has one of my oversized t-shirts on and is drying her hair with a towel. I look up at her then back down to my book to keep reading. JJ sets down the towel and walks over to me. The room has two beds, and I don't know if we are sharing or not. JJ crawls on top of me and lays her head down on my chest. Her hand is tracing circles on my collar bone. I drape one arm over her and run my other hand over her still wet hair. I kiss the top of her head and turn out the light. We sit like this for a few minutes before I realize JJ is sleeping, I finally close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

Authors Note:

i feel like i haven't updated in a while so here is the next part!! i hope you like is thank you so much for all the votes!!