magnetic ◊ criminal minds

liv.

liv. valhalla
( season six, episode seventeen )

ERIK stayed the night with his daughter at her apartment, making sure she was alright and would not make any bad decisions. He desperately wanted her to be okay, but deep down they both realized that was not possible. It had not been in decades, not since Genosha's fall. The moment her mutant abilities manifested, those chances were ruined because humanity could not accept difference.

Hours later, Lyra found herself at work, another case on their hands. "Two DC homes torched. Two DC families on the same night, last night," Garcia stated.

"I'm surprised it still hasn't hit the news," Morgan said. "It's already midday."

"Yeah, all anyone's talking about is this storm that may or may not hit," Garcia said. "I managed to find an online article about the fires written by this guy Jeff Hastings, but no one's running with it," she continued.

That was different, Lyra thought. Normally the media thrived on reporting things like this. It was always a much better story than a potential storm. It was why so often they had to fight to keep information about serial killers out of the hands of reporters.

"Strange. They usually thrive on tragedy," Rossi said, voicing the thoughts Lyra shared aloud.

"Yeah, and it gets weirder," Garcia said, putting up pictures on the screen.

"Ron and Lauren Cosenza and their ten-year-old son were found in the master bedroom of their home, each shot through the forehead. The gun belonged to the father," Hotch said.

"But it's not murder-suicide, is it?" Lyra signed, but she already knew the answer.

"Murder-suicide?" Seaver guessed, speaking before Lyra could even finish signing her thought.

"Well, it looks like Metro PD's investigation is going that way, but it's still the first forty-eight. They want our help," Morgan said.

"Kerry and Frank Fagen, like the Cosenza's, were found in their master bedroom, from a suspected gas leak," Reid said.

"It had to be massive to cause that," Rossi said. "How does the news miss a house explosion?"

"Any connections between the families?" Seaver asked.

"Only one. A continent. Kerry Fagen was born in Germany. Ron Cosenza was from Italy," Garcia stated.

"So two of the five victims are from Europe. How does that help?" Morgan questioned.

"It doesn't. I'm just stating the facts and the facts happen to be-"

"Guys, I'm sorry I'm late," Prentiss interrupted, finally walking in.

"You okay?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, it's just one of those weeks, I guess."

"I feel that," Lyra signed, nodding sympathetically.

"I'm sorry. What did I miss? Arsonist?" Prentiss said.

"One appears to be murder-suicide, the other freak accident," Morgan told her.

"So why are we looking at it?"

"House fires are rare. Add to that a few miles apart, within the same hour... Kinda tips the scale of coincidence," Rossi said.

"Yeah, if somebody did this, they're highly motivated and organized," Reid said.

"And if he wants to strike again, he's got seventy-two hours before the storm shuts the city down," Hotch said.