Criminal Minds Series Rewirte: Season Five

The Fight: Part One

"I have found the paradox that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love." - Mother Teresa

"Anything on your mind?" Melissa asks when you're in your morning session.

"Something weird happened on Friday with my parents." It's Monday so you haven't been to work to ask the girls about it. "I don't think my friends like my parents."

"Why do you say that?"

"Okay, so, my friends agreed to come with me and meet them even though they couldn't stay long. I'd have my boyfriend there but he and my dad don't exactly get along. When they met my friends, I immediately felt uncomfortable. It was coming from them like they didn't feel comfortable around them. My parents were super nice so I'm not sure why they felt like that. They even lied to them about why they had to leave so suddenly."

"Did you ask them about it?"

"I didn't want to embarrass them. I'll ask them when I go to work today."

"Why doesn't Spencer like your dad?"

You sigh and shift in your seat.

"He thinks they're criminals." You see the look on her face and immediately explain. "Not like that. I guess I mean that he thinks they have ulterior motives. They're foster parents and have always been foster parents. Spencer thinks they're doing something dangerous on the side. I don't know. I don't want to talk to him about that."

"Why is that?"

"I guess I don't want to see my parents being anything other than my parents. They're loving, of course, but they can be scary. My dad, mostly."

"Do you fear them?"

"I never did and never have. My dad has scary qualities, for sure, but I never thought my life was in danger because of them. He's a very stressed man. He has young kids to take care of on top of his job."

"What does he do?"

"He's an independent contractor. He gets odd jobs here and there but it's enough to pay the bills, and it allows my mom to stay at home with the kids."

"Well, if nothing is wrong, then maybe you're allowing that fear you had from prison to project  onto your friends and family."

"Yeah, maybe," you sigh.

"Speaking of, how are you feeling about prison?"

"I feel like a weight has been lifted from my chest. Remember that friend I told you about? The one that was falsely accused? I got her released. I worked with my team on a case that just so happened to be hers. We gathered evidence that got her released."

"How does that make you feel?"

"Like my old self again," you smile sheepishly.

"How is the IRT coming along?"

"Believe it or not, I'm not having nightmares as much as before. The only nightmares are mainly about the rape and the birth."

"That's to be expected coming from such a young age. Trauma like that doesn't go away overnight."

"Apparently, it doesn't go away after sixteen years either."

Melissa closes her notebook with a smile.

"I do have to say, I'm impressed with your progress. You look better."

"I feel better," you smile.

After your session, you head straight to the airport where the jet is waiting. Hotch got in contact with an old friend with a case in San Francisco. The Red Cell as they like to call themselves are a group of FBI agents, and they've been tracking a case that is three years old. Two years ago, a dead man turned up in Presidio Park with a massive amount of blunt-force trauma, defensive wounds, and a single gunshot wound to the back of the head. Over the next three days after that, three more victims with the same MO turned up. After that, nothing.