FRIENDLY FIRE: A 9-1-1 fanfiction

Part Twenty-Three: Walk Me Home

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ATHENA

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"Coffee?" I held up a tray in my hand with a number of paper coffee cups on them, "Looks like we're gonna need it."

"You're a life saver," Emily Prentiss rushed over, her face betraying her exhaustion from the days work, "thank you." She took one of the cups from me, taking a sip before motioning to the office the whole unit was working in. "Would you like to join us? A fresh set of eyes on the evidence might notice something we've missed."

"Happy to," I nodded, passing the tray over to Luke Alvez who distributed to the drinks to everyone else. "What have you got so far?"

Emily guided me over to their files and crime board, "So the ME report for Laura Cooper came back and, as suspected, the cause of death was dehydration."

"And I'm guessing that once again, she had no family nearby, had some minor offences and worked unsociable hours?" I raised a brow, sipping my own coffee, the liquid hot and leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.

"Correct," Emily nodded, "she worked as a rideshare driver and was picked up for multiple speeding offences over the years. She came here from Maryland."

"Well," I sighed, setting my coffee down on a desk, "he's nothing if not consistent. We need him to make a mistake, to show he's becoming impatient."

"Actually," Spencer Reid spoke up, raising his hand slightly, "there is evidence to suggest that the unsub is digressing slowly."

"Oh?" I crossed my arms over my chest, waiting for him to continue.

Spencer stepped out to hand me a closed coroner's report. "For the last two victims, the unsub waited for the victims to dehydrate naturally. But for Laura Cooper, there were signs that indicated she'd been kept in an unnaturally warm environment that helped speed up the process."

"So he's getting bored?" I asked,

"More like he's becoming more experienced," Tara Lewis spoke up, "he may be preparing to aim for the subject of his anger now."

"So we're running out of time?" I frowned, standing up straighter and dropping my arms to my sides, my heart beating faster in my chest.

"Let's deliver the profile first," JJ rushed to speak, "hopefully with people out looking for the unsub, it'll stall him."

"What is the profile?" I questioned carefully.

"The unsub is most likely a white male in his mid-thirties to his mid-forties. He's a submissive killer, not overly confident in his own abilities so he doesn't kill them himself, he waits for them to die. There's a chance he's aroused by the suffering and gradual decline of his victims but this also suggests he's seeking revenge." Emily started to explain.

"There's a good chance this unsub spent his entire life being undermined by strong women, but one particular woman pushed him over the edge and now he wants to prove he isn't weak," Rossi continued. "This could be his mother or partner, even a daughter."

"He's randomly selecting victims of opportunity because he doesn't have the skills to stalk or hunt women, suggesting he's socially inept," JJ continued. "There was evidence of blunt force trauma in all the victims, suggesting he attacked them from behind and then transported them."

"His final target will be the woman who he feels overshadowed by so look for men who are recently divorced or may have lost custody of their children, something like that," Rossi added at the end.