Criminal Minds - Chaos or Calm

Chapter 1- Goodbye

*Hotch’s Point of View*

After all that my team has been through, they do not need this. I stare at the sheet of paper in my hand. I have reread it several times but I still couldn’t fully comprehend it. It was simple and straight forward.

Hotch,

Sorry I cannot do this job anymore. It's just too much. Goodbye.

Alex Blake

Beside the note laid her badge and gun. Out of any team members leaving, I would never think that it would be Blake. She always seemed so strong and almost resilient to all the horror that went on around us.

“Hotch, we have a case. We are meeting in five minutes for a briefing”, Garcia said at the doorway to my office. She leaves before I look up.

First Greenaway left, then Gideon, JJ and Prentiss each for a while and then Emily left permanently. I really don’t think the team can handle another one leaving. But they will have too.

I sit there staring at the letter until it is time to assemble for the briefing.

*JJ’s Point of View*

I walk into the Briefing Room with a massive headache. I’ve been up with Henry all night almost every night. Henry has been really sick for almost a week now. He has had a high fever and is constantly tired, but cannot sleep. Not to mention he has been pale and has lost a lot of weight. Will and I took him to the doctor the other day, but we are still waiting on the results. I was planning to stay home today, but Will convinced me that everything was fine and to go to work.

As I take a seat on the round table I notice that everyone is here except Blake.

Odd normally she’s on time, I think to myself.

Hotch on the other hand looks distracted. I am about to ask if he is okay when Garcia begins to brief us on the case.

“Hello my crime fighting posse” Garcia announced, as bubbly as always. “Wait, where is Blake?”

Hotch looks up and slowly stands up.

“Blake resigned today. I found a note on my desk this morning. Despite this we need to focus all our attention onto this case as we are now one agent short.”

I lift my gaze up and look around for Spence. He gives me a look as if to ask if I knew anything about it. I shook my head to tell him no. Garcia looks shocked but continues to go over the case.

“You guys are going to the lovely and scary woods of Oregon.”

Woods, great, just what I needed today.

There have been two murders and a kidnapping of a young boy over three days. They were both found my hikers. The first, Carson McIntyre, 37 was found buried in a shallow grave on Friday night. The second, and here is where it started to get sketchy, his ex-wife, Mary McIntyre, 35 was found dead in a creek around four miles from where Carson was found. She was found less than two hours ago and her body was still warm when they found her. Now, her son who was supposed to be with her when she was killed is missing.”

She clicks the remote to show a picture of the boy.

My heart stops at the sight of missing boy. He has long blond hair a lot like Henry’s. He is small and looks about Henry’s size but at the same time older than him.

“He never showed up for school today and has been MIA. He is 6 years old and his name is Jamie McIntyre. He has no known relatives in the area apart from his deceased parents.”

“So it is probably the same unsub that killed his parents that took him.” Derek said, glancing around the round table at everyone.

“Well, around 49% of kidnapped children are abducted by a close friend of the family or relative. 74% are killed in the first three hours and 89% are killed in the first 24 hours and around 47% of….” Spence said, stating statistics as always.

“So we really do not have much time to find Jamie.” Rossi put in, cutting Spencer off.

“Wheels up in twenty. I want all of your focus on finding this boy not on anything else.” Hotch said strictly.