the girl who i love(d)

going further

|chapter tws: mentions of suicide, mentions of murder/death, mentions of SA/rape|

Hotch and Elle were in the car, sunglasses covering their eyes and assisting with the light that the bright sun was radiating. Elle sat in the passenger seat, head looking down at the file in her lap as she read over it for the 15th time since they got into the vehicle.

Hotch was sat in the driver's seat, making sure to drive carefully down the roads all the way to the Virginia Police Department, a little over half an hour away from their work building. Cars wasn't the BAU's typical way of travel, but with cases like this, they had to save the 10 minute flight and just drive the way there.

A bit of time passed with calm silence, yet the conversation that was promised earlier had to happen eventually, and eventually came sooner than either of the two would've liked.

"Why are you here right now?" Aaron suddenly asked.

"Hm?" The woman hummed, not taking her eyes off of the paper she was reading but pausing it to actually listen.

"You weren't supposed to be back until next week," he said, choosing not to repeat his previous statement. "You're not cleared for the field yet."

"I understand." She finally looked away from the paper and started looking around at the cars they were driving by, since it was the only thing unfamiliar about the area. "But I was cleared from the hospital. I have been out of work for four months, and I want to help. This case- it's my specialty." He opened his mouth to argue against what she was saying, and although she saw that, she just proceeded to speak.

"You don't have to.. yell at me, or give me a lecture about being here. I know that I might not be all the way ready physically, but I know when I am mentally. And I am. I swear. I wouldn't have come if I knew it would be a waste of space. The last thing I want to do is slow you down; I want to boost you. And my mind, it's clear. The only thing that fills it now is the case. I'm not going to deflect my emotions, or my problems, and it won't affect my overall work because I am nowhere near thinking about it. Am I-" she finally showed a bit of hesitation through her words, breaking the confidence in seconds.

"Am I clear here, Hotch?"

Her tone throughout the entire explanation was stern, as she wanted to get her point across. She almost sounded like the boss of him. Each sentence had been carried out carefully, like a game where she had to make the right moves in order to win. Keeping that metaphor in mind; she may have won miraculously.

"You are," he replied to her final question, glancing at her carefully with a small smile forming at his lips. "Thank you."

----

"-yes, a place where we could set up, that'd be great." Hotch spoke to a police officer on the side and started walking back over to his group of agents. "Where's JJ?" He said after realizing that at first glance, there was a person missing from the team.

"Organizing our board and catching everybody up," Gideon quickly explained.

"Alright, everyone, the office down the hall is ours. Call Garcia, check on the background she ran on each of the women. Start up the official profile. I'll go assist with informing the officers on what we'll be needing." Aaron told the group strictly, seeing as now was an urgent time for work and nothing else.

Everybody nodded, "That's exactly what I was thinking." The other authoritive figure, Jason Gideon, said. He, Morgan, Elle, and Reid made their way to the office, while Hotch handled the extra stuff that he'd have to set up.

Once the agents were in the office, they started looking over the separate files they had and laid it all out on the table. Everyone remained seated while Gideon stood, starting to summarize what they've-- or at least, what he-- got so far.

"Unsub first murdered 9 months ago; it was a first time, they may have been in shock from it or trying to determine how it felt. Why it didn't feel as bad as they'd imagined it would. They're most likely a male, either a local or someone asking for our attention."

"Local. The surrounding cities suggest it, and I would've agreed with an attention-seeker, but Kassidy Huxley was too specific." Morgan let the team know his opinion on it.

"Alright, local. But just because I say it's a male, you guys should all know that with something like this, we have to rule out all of the possibilities."

Gideon continued, "Judging by the victimology, the unsub's probably an average-sized or under-average male. He needs to be able to take over the women without any complications for it to work. Morgan, have you talked to Garcia, heard what she has for the backgrounds of the victims?"

"Sir, I don't think we need it." Elle said from her seat, where she was now positioned perfectly upwards, and her body language suggested how eager she was to show what she's got. She was given a small nod from Gideon, so she raised her voice louder and started with her explanation.

"All of the similarities I found perfectly match up with the profile. The women are all young enough that their brains haven't fully developed."

"Yeah, the pre-frontal cortex, or our brain's main control center, doesn't fully grow until the age of 25. There, it stops and slowly, your fast-reflexes start to fade away due to the lack of growth." Reid confirmed, using his eidetic memory and memorized facts that he retained to back up the point.

"Yeah," Greenaway agreed with a smile and turned to her team once again. "Not to mention, they all live at their homes, and that's probably why the dump-site seems sort of like a ritual."

"That's good. Unsub must work somewhere within the radius, they don't care about being seen so they might be seen peacefully walking down a street; greeting people that they pass. And the suicides, I haven't come to a conclusion there."

Everybody mutually agreed that this was all they had so far, and that they'd need time to think of more before starting to get suspects. They seperated into their own little worlds in the room, and instantly started off with the work they needed to be done.