𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙾𝚍𝚍𝚜 | 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚍

It's the Babysitter

Three Years Later.

The morning was normal as usual. Each member of the BAU woke up with the hopes that today would be their day off. Each of them had made plans already with the confidence that this Saturday would be the Saturday they'd been waiting for. At noon, Saturday turned out to be just like any other Saturday. JJ called them in with an urgent case.

"Yesterday night, two local detectives went missing," she presented the profile pictures of two male detectives on the screen behind her. "This morning—" JJ switched screens to show the corpses of the same two men, "—their bodies were found in their respective neighborhood streets."

"Well that speaks to heavy bravery," Morgan said as he studied the corpses on the screen. "The Unsub left each corpse on their street?"

"Means they were stalked too," Spencer noted. "To know where each victim lived and to know at what times to leave the corpses means the Unsub had to have taken at least a few days to stalk them."

"There was no sign of torture whatsoever, just one straight bullet to the head," JJ said as she clicked through the next series of photos.

"Why are we just being informed of this right now?" asked Rossi.

JJ's expression indicated they wouldn't like the next thing she said. "Because as of one hour ago, another detective has gone missing."

"In broad daylight?" Emily raised an eyebrow.

"In the middle of his shift," JJ clarified, making it even worse. The screen behind her switched again to show them the profile picture of their latest victim. "Detective Howard Jones was on his way to the precinct after coming back with a lead on a case when he disappeared."

"Was that case related to this?"

"Not that anyone can see," JJ shrugged.

"Detectives usually work with partners," Morgan started to say when JJ nodded.

"Detective Jones' partner ran late today. By the time he got around, Jones was already gone."

"This is a direct attack on the local precinct," Hotch said as he rose from his seat. "The Captain's already waiting for us. This Unsub isn't leaving a big time lapse between kills which means we need to hurry."

Everyone else agreed. As they started filing out of the room, Hotch purposely lingered behind to get a word with JJ while she "gathered the paperwork" off the table.

"Strauss has made it clear," she spoke quietly in case any other ears lingered by the doorway.

"I'm sorry," Hotch said and felt terrible that it was all he could say.

JJ met his guilt-riddened face and smiled lightly. "It's not your fault. I don't even think it's Strauss' fault. When the Pentagon wants something, it gets it. In this case, it gets me." She hated the reality of it but she wasn't going to kick and thrash to keep her job at the BAU. She needed to be smarter about things but it never meant that she was giving up.

"I will try my best to keep you here, but..." Hotch didn't want to give her false hope. He too was very puzzled why the Pentagon took such a huge interest in JJ in the first place. He had no doubt that JJ was capable of big things but the Pentagon insisted that JJ was the sole woman for the job they needed her for.

"I know," JJ said. All she could do was be thankful that he would still try to fight for her position one more time but if she was being honest she didn't have a lot of hope that it would work.

~ 0 ~

As the team entered the precinct, one older man emerged from an office—presumably the Captain—while a younger man trailed behind him. Judging by the young man's grim expression, the team quickly deduced that he had to be the tardy partner.