Wheels Up

Just Like Fire

"JJ, what are you doing here?" Rossi asked, as Garcia and Emily lowered her into a chair in the conference room. "You're supposed to be resting."

"I am resting." JJ said.

"At home." Rossi clarified.

"I can rest here." She said simply.

"You can't rest if you're working." Rossi answered.

"Don't bother fighting her on it Rossi, we tried." Said Emily, sitting down herself. Rossi shook his head, but dropped the issue.

Derek and Hotch came into the room to catch the end of this conversation.

"Reid's on his way, we'll catch him up in a minute. Garcia?" Hotch said.

"So, my loves, today's case we can work from right here in Virginia." She began. "There have been 5 fires in the past 3 weeks, all within a 10 mile radius."

"Other than the location, anything else linking the fires?" Morgan asked.

"Derek Morgan, you know I love you dearly, but it's incredibly rude to interrupt a genius, especially to ask stupid questions. Yes, if some people would let me continue, there is another link, victimology. Each fire was at a family home of 4, mum, dad and two children, and each fire killed one person, which is where it gets really icky. This douche is targeting children." Garcia said.

"Is it the same child? Like is it always the oldest child or something?" Emily asked.

"Nope. I'm just gonna give you the files on the victims because I don't wanna have to see their charred bodies again." Garcia shuddered, and sent them all the file on the tablets, which they quickly flicked through.

"Okay so we've got, two oldest daughters and an oldest son, then one youngest son and one youngest daughter." Rossi said. "Different ages, 3 different schools between them, no extracurriculars that link them. There doesn't seem to be any apparent link, so are we thinking a surrogate?"

"But for a surrogate, wouldn't they all be the same? Say, for example, his stressor was something to do with a younger sister, he'd always go for the youngest daughter surely, so why the variety?" Asked Derek.

"Speaking of youngest daughter, Daisy Pierce, the latest vic was only 5. Why was she home alone anyway?" JJ asked, then when everyone gave her a look. "Not that I'm working or anything. Just... concern for a little girl."

"Right, Prentiss and Morgan, go to the latest crime scene, Rossi, take Reid to the police station to go through the statements, I'll stay here with Garcia and dig deeper into victimology. JJ, you are going to stay here and rest." Hotch commanded everyone, and they nodded and got up to move, JJ rolling her eyes but settling herself onto the sofa.

"Yeah it was all good, I'm cleared for active duty." Reid said, as him and Rossi walked into the station.

"That's great, kid." Rossi replied, then turned to introduce himself to the officer. "I'm SSA Rossi and this is Dr Reid, we're from the BAU."

"Yes of course, nice to meet you, thank you so much for coming in. Right this way." The officer led them into a conference room with boxes on the table. "All yours, let me know if we can help at all."

"Thank you." Reid said, and settled himself down at the table, and began reading through the statements.

"Alright so, our two oldest victims were 16 and 14 respectively, reasonable for them to left home alone, Maya was 16, her parents were out for dinner and her little sister was at a friends. Ellie was 14, dad was at work, mum and little brother were at the dentist. Next is James, he was 11, his brother and parents were at a hotel because his brother had a tournament at 8am the next morning, his grandma was on her way to stay with him for the evening, but her car broke down so she was running late. Lucas was 8, dad was working a night shift, mum had to go and get his older sister because she'd been sick staying at a friends. Then the youngest, 5 year old Daisy. A combination of really unfortunate circumstances. Older sister passed out at school, mum got into an accident trying to drive to the school, and dad had a heart attack 3 days ago." Reid said, after reading through all the statements.