Smile | Aaron Hotchner

Chapter One - Aaron Hotchner

I walked towards my office, nodding briefly at Derek as I passed his desk. Him and JJ were the only other people here at the minute, seeing as we hadn't actually been called in for a case yet.

Everyone else was probably making the most of the few hours we had off shift, whereas I had been itching to get back into work. Jack was with Haley all week, and I had literally nothing to do.

It was like that a lot nowadays. I still can't decide what's worse, even after three months of being divorced from Haley. Sitting at home, alone, watching the time pass by, or fighting with Haley 24/7 about me not being there enough.

I had just sat down at my desk, when I heard a knock at my door. I didn't have to look up to know that it was JJ, but I did anyway.

"We've got a case. The rest of the team are on their way, be in the briefing room in five," she told me, and I nodded to let her know that I would be there.

I put my briefcase down by my chair, and sorted some files on my desk, before heading to the briefing room.

Everyone else was already sat around the table, so I took a seat, signalling that I was ready to start.

"Over the last month, five girls have been reported missing, four of them later found dead, in Brooklyn, New York, one every week. On the following Monday after they go missing, the girl turns up dead, and another one is taken. All of the girls are aged 18 or 19, and they all attend the same college," JJ filled us in on the case.

"What about their appearances? Do they look similar?" Emily asked, but JJ shook her head.

"Nope, in fact they all looked completely different. One was brunette, one had died red hair, one was blonde, one was ginger, and one had black hair. They all had different body types, skin tones and eye colour too. There's absolutely nothing the same with the way they look," she answered.

"Cause of death seemed to be blood loss, and M.E. says they were tortured repeatedly for days, no signs of sexual assault," she continued.

"Okay, we can look into it more on the way. Wheels up in ten," I said, standing up and heading back to my office to get my go bag.

*on the jet*

I sat down next to Spencer, pulling out my tablet to look over the details of the case.

"Okay, so Detective Sanders from the local PD has called the families of all four victims and they've agreed to meet us at the precinct. JJ and Reid, you go and talk to them. Rossi and Prentiss, you two go and talk to the M.E. and also check out the latest dump site. Morgan, you're with me, we're going to go to their college and see what we can find out," I gave everyone their orders, and they all nodded.

For the rest of the flight, we made a plan of how we were going to deal with the case, and also started a rough profile of the unsub.

*at the victim's college in Brooklyn*

"You must be the FBI Agents. I'm Mrs Williams, the principal. We can talk in my office," a woman introduced herself as soon as we got to the college, hurrying us down a corridor.

"Mrs Williams, we would like to talk to you about the four girls that have been killed from your school, and the one that is missing," I said, as we all took a seat.

"Yes, of course. It was a huge shock to everyone here, they were all such nice girls. I can't imagine anyone wanting to hurt them, let alone kill them," she told us.

"Sorry for your loss. We're going to need a list of the girls classes and professors, as well as who they hung out with," Derek requested, getting straight to the point.

"Yes, just one second," Mrs Williams said, typing something into her computer. She then got up, walking over to a printer in the corner of the room, and handed us some pages. "Here you go. It has all of their classes, along with which professors taught them. I also added who I think each of them are friends with, but I'm not sure how accurate that is. You know what teenagers are like, always falling out and making up again."

"Thank you ma'am, this may help us a lot," I said.

We made our way back out to the SUV, and started looking over the papers that we'd just been given.

"Okay, you talk to any of the professors that all of the victims were taught by, I'll talk to their friends," I said to Derek, and he agreed before heading back into the college.

I took a few seconds, before following him. I'd already checked with the principal if it was okay for me to talk to students, and she'd agreed, as well as giving me the timetables of all the victims friends so I knew where to find them.

Two hours later, Derek and I rejoined with the team at the local police station, after talking to everyone we needed to at the college.

"All of the students that I talked to said the same thing, that each of the victims dated the same guy, Ryan Lee. They said he was a bit of a creep, he enjoyed killing small animals, which he was suspended for doing on school property more than once. But he still somehow managed to get himself a lot of girlfriends. He fits the profile exactly," I filled everyone in.

"The parents all mentioned him too, none of them approved of their daughter dating him," JJ said.

"I got the same from the professors. I'll call Garcia and get an address," Morgan said, getting his phone out of his pocket. "Hey baby girl, you're on speaker. We need an address for Ryan Lee."

"Your wish is my command. Three, two, one, aaand here it is. I sent the location to your GPS," Penelope's voice came through the speaker.

"Thanks Angel," Derek replied before hanging up the phone.

"Let's go," I said, and we all rushed out to the SUVs.

*two hours later*

As we boarded the plane, I got lost in my thoughts. We'd solved the case in one day, which doesn't happen very often. Before, I used to go home to Haley and Jack after a case, even if it did usually end up in me and Haley arguing. But now, I'm going home to an empty house.