Second Chance || Spencer Reid

Prologue

AT THREE IN the morning, the agents of the F.B.I.'s Behavioral Analysis Unit received a call to come into the office. Being called in this early was not unusual, but almost never a good sign. Within the hour, all seven agents were sitting at the round table with mugs of coffee, waiting for their information.

"Good morning, Crime-Fighters," Penelope Garcia, the technical analyst began. "Sorry to pull you out of bed so early, but we just received word of a very time-sensitive case."

She clicked the button on the remote and a picture of a newborn baby appeared on the screen. She had blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and couldn't be much older than five months.

"This is Gianna Fuller, newborn baby from outside of Cumberland. She was born in February to these parents, Melissa and John Fuller."

Garcia clicked again as a picture of the family appeared on the screen. They seemed so normal; so innocent.

"About two weeks ago, Gianna was kidnapped from her crib in the middle of the night. Her parents reported it to the local police. They launched an investigation and had search parties all over, but they couldn't find her--until four days later when her burned body was discovered in a local park."

The picture of the innocent baby's corpse flashed on the screen, bringing a sad look to all of the agents' faces.

"Why weren't we called in?" Jennifer Jareau, more commonly known as J.J., asked.

"I did receive the call, but as I went to gather files to brief you all, they had already found her body," the unit chief, Aaron Hotchner, stated.

"I remember hearing about this. They said that Gianna was severely starved but that wasn't the C.O.D.," Dr. Spencer Reid revealed.

"You're right. She hadn't been fed over the five days she was missing, but she was burned alive and that's what killed her. But the reason you're here right now is this little one," Garcia said, moving to the next picture. It was of another newborn baby girl, but this time she had blonde hair and brown eyes.

"This is four-month-old Desdemona Orson. She was reported missing just a few hours ago by her mother, Carina Maye. Just like Gianna, she was stolen from her crib in the middle of the night."

"The Cumberland Police Department has invited us into the case. If the unsub follows the same pattern, we have just under four days to find her," Hotch explained.

"We can rule out a sexual sadist. The kills look too personal for him to be getting off on them," Derek Morgan said.

"The babies might be surrogates. He probably experienced a similar loss, whether it be his own child or a sibling," added David Rossi.

"We should keep an open mind, though," said Emily Prentiss, taking a sip of her coffee. "Because the children are so young, the unsub might be a woman experiencing a loss of motherhood and wanting to take it from others."

"Well whoever it is, we have to find them before we lose Desdemona. It's a two-hour drive to Cumberland. We leave in 30," Aaron Hotchner stated, packing up his case file.

Everyone stared at the images on the board for another minute, feeling nothing but determination to bring the baby girl home.