magnetic ◊ criminal minds

xlv.

xlv. safe haven
( season six, episode five )

"I tried to stop her," Lyra signed. Following the events with Graydon Creed and Mystique, she had a bit of explaining to do. So, the following day, when she finally saw the team again, Hotch pulled her into his office. "Then she shot him and took us down. I wasn't used to having my powers back yet. I was shot."

Hotch sighed. "Because I know you, and I know you didn't shoot him, I'll let this go. But Lehnsherr?" he said. Lyra raised an eyebrow in question. "Try not to sound so happy about someone's death next time."

"No promises." When it came to people who wanted to hurt her, all because she was a mutant, she had no sympathy. Hell, their deaths were a blessing. She knew when she thought things like that, she sounded like her father. At the rate things were happening, she was not so sure that was as bad a thing as humans thought it to be.

Hotch stood. "Come on. We have a case," he told her.

In the briefing room, Garcia presented the information, filling in for JJ. Not completely, after she tried and it was too much for her, but she was handling the work at the office. "Last night, all four members of the Bennett family were killed in their home in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Jake and Sandra Bennett were the parents of Sammy, eleven, and Kayla, nine," Garcia said, her voice quiet. She was pointedly avoiding looking at the pictures she was putting up on the screen beside her.

"Agent Beeks in the Omaha Field Office called me. The previous night, the other family, the Archers, were killed just across the state line in Nebraska," Hotch stated. "He thinks it's the same offender."

"The MO is consistent. Both mothers died due to severe blunt-force trauma, and the fathers suffered multiple stab wounds," Morgan noted.

"The children were all strangled. Violence only in the kids' rooms, but no sexual abuse on any of the children. That's odd," Rossi said.

"Odd comes up right now, because the Bennett father was not just stabbed, he was also..." Garcia did not say. She took the pictures off the screen. "And those pictures are in your personal files 'cause I didn't think they needed the help of 1080p," she said.

"His chest was opened, organs disturbed, intestines removed," Rossi said, looking at the pictures.

"That's awesome. Could we please leave the gross part of the conversation for the plane?" Garcia requested.

"What, not a fan?" Lyra signed teasingly.

"You keep this up and I'll forward all your high school photos to the team."

Lyra put her hands up in surrender, not exactly sure if those were findable but did not want to take that risk either way.

"The father of the Archer family had multiple stab wounds, but no dissections," Reid said.

"So, he went from picquerism to this overnight?" Prentiss said.

"Two families in two days. He's on a spree," Rossi said.

"Wheels up in thirty," Hotch said.

Everyone went to leave, but Prentiss stopped when she saw someone outside the briefing room window.

Lyra took notice as well. "Is that..."

Prentiss nodded. "Hey, Morgan," she called. He came up to the window, and upon seeing Ellie Spicer waving at him, his jaw dropped.

♢

On the plane, Morgan decided to discuss this runaway situation with Hotch. Lyra did not bother to listen, deciding it was none of her business. She was instead talking with Prentiss and Reid.