Grave Digger

𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐆𝐆𝐄𝐑

     
GRAVE DIGGER
criminal minds, aaron hotchner
hoteldenouement
______________________

 

     The Grave Digger digs. Rebecca Adler dies. That's just how the story goes. That's just how the story was always going to end.

2009. Virginia. Rebecca Adler stands peacefully in a lecture hall, the hopeful faces of new FBI recruits staring back at her. She pretends she's happy, that this is the life she wants for herself, that she doesn't still dream of the field, of the cases she once worked. Aaron Hotchner approaches her after class, and asks her for one final favour. One final profile. A ghost from her past has returned, and the FBI needs her expertise to bring him down. She knows him better than anyone, after all. She'd survived him, once. If there was anyone that could get into his head, anyone that could figure out how to catch him — it was her.

The Grave Digger carves another hole into the ground. There's no body to fill it yet. Still, the Grave Digger digs. The Grave Digger digs. The body will come. The body will always come.

2003. New England. Rebecca Adler makes a gamble. It doesn't pay off. With the blood of a half dozen agents staining her hands, she throws herself into her work. She studies. She profiles. She gains a reputation for being one of the best out there. None of it is enough. None of it will ever be enough. None of it will ever clean the blood that stains her soul; none of it will ever purify her.

      But she's one of the best — and when a string of murders begin occurring, it's only natural the police turn to her. They turn to the BAU. They had to — the murders make no sense. There's no consistent victimology. No consistent motive. No consistent manner of capture. Nothing consistent at all — except for cause of death.

      All the victims were buried alive.

      The Grave Digger digs another grave. They give it a pretty headstone. They carve a name upon the wood, and lay fresh flowers before it. There's no body yet, but it'll come. The body always comes.

2006. Vermont. Rebecca Adler is found barefoot, wandering through a frozen forest. Jason Gideon pretends he doesn't know the details of how she ended up there. She pretends to be grateful. The FBI pretend she isn't suspect number one in one of the worst serial killer investigations America has ever seen. She retires from field work, becomes a lecturer in the Academy, and tells everyone that asks that she barely remembers the last two years of her life. Her brain must have blocked the trauma out. It's amazing, what a brain will do to survive.

      It's amazing, how accustomed Rebecca becomes to the lies.

      The Grave Digger's graves line the clearing. Too many to count. Headstones before each. Flowers, too. Some fresh. Some completely withered. Still, there were flowers. Before all of them, there were flowers. The Grave Digger falls silent, and the graves are exhumed. The deceased are returned to their families. Closure is offered, at long last.

2009. Brooklyn. Rebecca Adler lies in a hospital bed, unconscious and slowly slipping away. Aaron Hotchner pretends he doesn't blame himself. Pretends he wasn't the reason she was there, wasn't the reason she's dying. His team pretend she isn't — that she'll survive this, even with all the doctors saying there is barely any chance.