her fathers daughter - criminal minds

Chapter 17: get used to it

the next day, the team were in Texas trying to solve their arsonist case. Considering this was jessica's first case back she was excited and ready to finally be on a case again however it wasn't going exactly how she thought it would.

The entire time from the moment they landed in Texas it felt like jess was being coddled by the whole team. She didn't leave the police station once. She was always asked to stay for one reason or another, at least  usually someone was also with her each time the others went off somewhere. Jessica decided to let go for now and just try to appreciate that she is finally back at work.

"So this unsub has been setting fires killing more people each time, all over Texas, never going back to the same city more than once, except Dallas? Why?" Head of the police department asked looking at the notes on the board.

"He most likely grew up there, we already know he's from Texas" Emily explained to him.

"Hey guys, I think I know how we can figure out where he's going next" jessica said slowly connecting the dots looking at the map with pins showing all the places the unsub has hit"

"Where?" Hotch asked.

"There's a pattern look he kills in Dallas every other weekend" she started.

"So?" Ethan asked.

"So, what would bring you back to your home town every other weekend if you traveled for work?" She said and the others started to realise where she was going with it."

"A custody agreement. He has a child" hotch said sighing like they should've realised it sooner.

"And the last time he killed in Dallas was 2 weeks ago and it's Friday today" jessica added. "Meaning we have less than 72 hours before he starts another fire... and kills more people"

"So what does that have to do with where he's going to go next?" Ethan asked. Jessica already hated Ethan even if it was just over a stupid coffee, she's stubborn. but for the sake of the team and the BAU she tried telling herself she's gonna rise above and while she was trying to do that, it was very hard considering that even the sound of his voice irritated her.

"Knowing that he has a kid changes everything." Jessica said plainly.

"It does?" Jessica stared at Ethan for a second thinking he must be stupid or something.

She rolls her eyes at him "of course it does, having a child changes how you think, what you do, how you act. He will be willing to do anything to protect his child, to keep them safe. Not to mention the fact that If there was a messy custody battle then that's more than likely our stressor and the crime scenes in Dallas have a meaning to him and his old family." the irritation in her tone was very apparent as she failed to hide it.

"Hey babygirl we need you to see if any of our suspects had a messy custody battle in the past year, we're thinking it's our stressor" Morgan said putting Garcia on speaker for everyone to hear, she started tapping away and there was a moment of silence among the team while they waited for her response.

"Boom, one hit on a guy by the name of Dylan mcgregor. He's 27 His wife divorced him and they had to fight for custody of their 4 year old daughter Amy 7 months ago. The mother is also still trying to fight for sole custody of her."

"Can you find out how often he gets to see his daughter now?" Hotch asked.

"All ready on it sir..." she tapped her keyboard more "looks like he only gets to see her every other weekend. Is that any help with finding our unsub?" She asked hopefully.

"Matches perfectly actually penelope thank you. Can you sen-"

"His address? Already on it" she cuts him off quickly.