"Woman"
Chapter One:What The Heart Wants
05x05:Craddle to the Grave

*Trigger warning*

The date was tonight and after anxiously pacing around her room. Eden didn't know what to do. She tried to think of excuses as to why she shouldn't go. But to be completely honest, there wasn't any reason for her not to go. She liked Derek a lot and maybe it was just her nerves talking but she felt like something bad might happen tonight. But if she told that to Derek, he would think she was making up excuses and the only time she felt this her day was met with her sticking her hand in a bomb. After a few more pep talks and a phone call with Meredith who told her to suck it up. She left the house dressed in a scandalous number that she picked out from her closet. Hair filled with perfect waves and makeup brushed lightly on her face. She drove her car to the restaurant as there was a rainstorm happening.

Derek waved in her direction and she walked past the hostess and to the table. She sat down at the table in front of Derek wringing her hands under the table. He kissed her cheek and after several glasses of wine, she was giggling like a schoolgirl at Derek's jokes. Her cheeks hurt from all the smiling and laughing.

They were flushed from the alcohol she consumed and she didn't mind. It was getting extremely late and they didn't know what tomorrow would entail. Derek insisted on driving Eden's rust bucket of a car. He didn't drive to the restaurant in case he decided to drink too much. Eden never took her car to get work done. She didn't feel the need to.

Duct tape could fix literally anything she thought and besides her check engine light always popped on every time she turned the car on and it still ran so what could a mechanic do that duct tape couldn't? Derek always told her that all these yellow warning lights were important and she needed to take her car into a shop, she explained that the lights went away after a while and she wasn't shelling out her hard-earned money to scam artists like mechanics. The drive was a little tense, the storm hadn't let up if anything it got worse everything seemed to be going okay until it wasn't, and before they knew it the two were stuck in a deep trench in the woods. Derek tried to move the tires again, but nothing happened, they just squealed under the sound mud and he humphed, hitting his hands on the wheel.

Eden groaned; she was nervous all the PTSD she had about being stuck in the woods due to the literal fact that she was stranded in a forest for almost a week was coming at her rather quickly. She pulled at her necklaces so that all the beads popped off flying all around the car Derek looked in her direction, his eyes laced with worry. She needed air and this car and Derek's gaze was suffocating.

"Why don't we see if there's a place to crash nearby til the storm lets up? I have a go bag and first aid kit in my trunk." Derek simply nodded in response and they gathered what they could from Eden's car.

Both of them took a deep breath before running full force into the storm. They walked through the small forest, the rain being the sound that was heard, and came upon a small little cabin/barn house huddling inside she shook off the water the best she could as Derek looked around. The house looks abandoned, almost like a vacation spot. Dust covered the house like a blanket and Eden rummaged through the closet and cabinets while Derek found some clothes in the drawers.

There weren't many men's shirts mostly, socks, underwear, and a few pairs of plaid pants and flannels. He grabbed what he could and two towels as Eden was starting the kettle in the kitchen, or at least trying to she had to light the stove herself and while she may have looked like she knew what she was doing, she didn't but somehow she got the thing lit without catching the entire house on fire and after a few short minutes, the eye was heating up the kettle and Morgan emerged from the room with a towel in his hand.

She gave him a dumbfounded look, surprised that he had already changed into different clothes. He handed her the towel and she changed in the room, the door was cracked and if one was looking one would notice the scars on her back and arms. They were subtle. One would have to be really looking except for the scar on her abdomen that had keloid where she was stabbed and the other on her inner thigh where she was also stabbed by two different attackers.

She traced over the gunshot wound on her shoulder and the other on the lower hip she thought back to the times the first time she attacked her in her house, the other attacked Elle's house he shot Elle first while Eden was in the kitchen making tea and then she surprised him and shot her rather quickly. It was all a blur from there. Eden didn't even remember dialing 911 but she did and she also managed to stop the bleeding and patch up Elle to the best of her abilities before she passed out. She remembered only part of that incident differently than her colleagues had explained to her and she kept it in the back of her mind when she left for Seattle.

She hadn't remembered what it felt like to pick up a scalpel in so long. Alex did call her to Seattle for a special case and after everyone in the room misdiagnosed the poor patient she was able to find the real cause and scrub in with Bailey and Arizona.

The rush she felt after that 19-hour surgery was something she didn't realize she had missed. She still didn't understand how Arizona worked with kid patients all the times she used to hate babies, not like hate with a fiery passion, but babies scared her, it was the fact that they came into this world screaming for one and two that one wrong move could fuck up the course in which they developed, mentally and physically, after hanging out with Addison Shephard on the Peds ward one too many times, she grew a liking to children, now she was Doctor in general medicine and surgeon, with a fellow in neonatal and plastics of course, Eden could see herself running that entire hospital floor if it wasnt for Mark's Death.

She was a literal Plastics Goddess, it dripped from her veins, and it wasn't just Plastics, she was good at just about every field she was in, it was her communication that was the problem, she didn't take shit from anyone and maybe that's why she was written up by her superiors one too many times, it was either that or the fact that she had a terrible fucking mouth, she had run off so many damn surgical residents in the first few months of her first year that Richard had no choice but to pair her with Bailey, she seemed like she was the only one who could talk sense into the blonde, she thought to herself that maybe she wanted to get into trouble so she'd have no choice but to work alongside her half-sister. Soon before she knew it life caught up to her and she wasn't this hot-tempered small woman, but a powerful, bad bitch goddess of a surgeon, who literally would stop time the minute she walked into any OR.

The strawberry blonde patted into the living room where Derek sat looking at his phone. There was no service, probably due to the storm, it was terribly windy here and she figured when the storm would let up that they would have service here soon and could call for reinforcements if needed to get her junk off a car unstuck. But for now, all they could do was keep each other occupied and that's exactly what they did. They talked about anything and everything. The world was at their fingertips and they could literally say and do whatever the hell they pleased.

"So what did you do?"

"I did what any self-respecting surgeon would do and I grabbed the panties from the bulletin board and claimed they were mine." Derek only shook his head and chuckled.

"Unbelievable, You are something else woman."

"Hey, my family is important to me and while I loved Addy a lot, I loved my sister more, plus they technically were my panties. I let my sister borrow one pair that night in hopes of her getting lucky and that was the turning of the events." Derek just laughed at the woman next to him as they continued talking more as Derek found a few decks of cards the pair decided to play a round of Bullshit but this time the loser had to tell stories or answer questions or take a dare from the cup of written dares and questions.

"Wait, You fought your commanding training officer at the academy?" Derek seemed surprised by this info.

"He was being a perv and I didn't fight him. I simply gave him a wager and he lost." She folded her arms over her chest as Derek laughed.

Their other game ended and he drew from the cup. What did you want to be if you weren't an FBI agent? He read Eden's scribbled writing and thought for a moment.

"A teacher, honestly I never thought about it being a cop is in my blood, my dad was a cop, and his before." He chuckled, turning to the redhead on the floor in front of him. If it wasn't for the small table in front of them he would brush that loose curled strand out of her face.

"And you" he nodded in her direction.

"A surgeon, a general surgeon."

"No I mean if you weren't a surgeon or an FBI agent then what?"

She put her finger to her chin and looked around and then at him, "How well can he keep a secret?" she leans closer over the small table as a snap of thunder whips wildly in the sky.

"I've been told I keep them pretty well," he smirks as she nods scooting on her boot closer to the table.

"Before I even decided I wanted to go to med school I used to live in Los Angeles, the city of hopes and dreams. A few of my friends and I frequented this bar that was known for very good karaoke music and killer margaritas, but they were also known to have lots of firefighters and I fell head over heels in love with a blonde hair blue eyed guy with a birthmark over his brow and his deathly smile. We hit it off for a while before he soon stopped calling and texting and I didn't take it too seriously. One night my roommate Melissa and I were dancing at the club when a fight broke out and this guy was brandishing a knife, apparently, he found his girlfriend there with another man and decided that we show up drunker than a skunk at a bar with a knife needless to say it ended the way you would imagine badly and instead of watching I found myself kneeling by this man's side and tying off his wound with what little supplies I could until the paramedics showed up it was then that I saw the blonde guy, Evan, and his firefighter team help this man and I knew what I wanted to be, I wanted to help people just like they were. I signed up to be a paramedic and after taking a few classes and passing with flying colors I was ready for it until I found out the real truth about my family from my sister. I left Los Angeles without even saying goodbye and went back home. My sister and I confronted my dad and he explained everything I knew then what I had to do, I had to follow in my half-mom's footsteps. I needed to prove to him and everyone else wrong that I could do it. To this day no one ever knew about me being a paramedic besides my family, who took that to the grave literally, and well now you."

Derek was stunned there were no words, he knew Eden was amazing but he never understood her origin story. What made her the way she was and finding out this new information only made him like her more. She was daring, and even though she didn't know how to save that guy, she didn't give up.

The games continued and before each of them knew it, it was morning time. They were curled up on the small couch together Derek looked at the small women on top of him, their mugs of tea sat on the table next to the messy pile of cards and stakes of questions and dares. He was careful not to wake her as he placed a pillow under her head and checked his phone seeing he had service. He called a tow truck for Eden's car and checked on their clothes seeing that they had dried and got changed. He didn't want to walk the woman who seemed as though she had barely gotten any rest so, he didn't after getting her car unstuck and grabbing some breakfast, he returned to see her just now waking up. She stretched as he kicked the door closed with his foot sitting down all the various bags on the counter.

She looked at her phone and they hadn't got called in for a case. In fact, the opposite she had a text from Hotch explaining that due to the storm, they were allowed a few days off to get their affairs in order and things of that nature. After the two ate and Eden put on her dry clothes from last night they decided to make the most of their new free time by hanging out more so they drove to her place and after making a stop at Derek's to grab some clothes for a few days just in case and a go bag just in case. She opened the door being greeted by Nutmeg, she let him go potty out back before checking to see if he pooped and walked back inside.

Derek had not been to her new house yet, he had helped her move but he hadn't seen it all set up. He walked around the living room seeing pictures of all her family, she saw a lot of pictures of her and a brownish-blonde guy and took that to be Mark. His favorite photo was the one of Eden, her shoulders shrugged as she smiled in a baseball uniform. She was standing in between a black curly-haired woman and a blonde woman. She had two black lines drawn under her eyes, her hair in a braid that flopped over her shoulder, the rest tucked under a blue baseball cap. The three women looked way too happy and were covered in dirt. Her cheeks were red one might think she was drunk when this photo was taken, which little did he know she most certainly was.

Her laugh was massive in the photo. He could almost hear it just by looking at the picture and after staring at it for a while the image was not embedded into his brain. He wasn't complaining this was the happiest he'd ever seen her and it was by far the best photo he'd ever seen in his entire life. It should be hung in a museum and admired because of its beauty. This picture made the world seem so much better than it was right now. He loved it so much he wanted to ask the blonde if he could take a photocopy of it.

Eden stepped out of the shower and dried her hair walking into the living room in a low-cut crop top and shirt shorts and a gray cardigan. She watched Morgan who was staring intently at the photos she had on her mantel above her fireplace. He was so lost in thought he hadn't noticed her presence and maybe it was a good thing, cause the minute he saw her the wind got knocked out of him. Her face was free of makeup, she looked at the photo in her hands not taking note of his gaze on her.

"Ahh, I see you found my high school graduation photo." She laughed at young Eden with her tongue out in the photo her hand formed into bunny ears behind her friend Melissa's head who hadn't noticed.

"Uhh yeah, I really like this one though" He puts down the photo he had and walks over to the bookshelf, and picks up the photo of Eden, Meredith, and Christina at the Seattle Grace baseball game.

"Oh gosh, yeah that one is uh, not my best moment. See we were playing against another hospital and Mark at the time was dating this god-awful nurse with giant tits and they had been making out the entire game, trying to make me jealous I don't know, but I got so mad that when it came up to my turn to pitch I threw the ball right at her chest. Meredith, the blonde, Christina, and I had been drinking the whole game and immediately we all fell over laughing. We couldn't stop and after a while, Owen, Christina's boyfriend, was tired of us slacking and tried to reprimand us it didn't work. We only laughed harder and he snapped this photo as payback. I remember joking and laughing so hard that night I think I grew abs." she smiled at the memory of the photo and Derek smiled at the thought of her. She was truly breathtaking.

"You want to see more photos? I have a ton in this box somewhere." Derek nodded furiously and she told him it would take a while to find the box and so he decided to take a shower and change into comfy clothes. Eden started a pot of coffee and made a platter with different cheeses, meats, and other fun foods as she sat it down on the table in her living room. She located the box in no time and we stepped on her tiptoes to reach it when a large hand grabbed it for her. She looked over to see Morgan in comfy clothes. He handed her the box and she thanked him, closing the small door to the closet and placing it down on the coffee table. After getting himself a cup of coffee and one for Eden of course with a little bit of her help with telling him where to find things, he patted over to the couch and sat her mug down on the table. She had stacks of folders and pictures in her lap.

"This is one of my favorite photos." She smiled and handed it to him, he dusted off his hands from the food he was eating and picked up the photo.

It was Eden in a kitchen with a beautiful Cake with white frosting and Blue and pink letters on it in front of her. She was wearing a green long-sleeved shirt and a brown apron. Her hair was pulled into a bun with chopsticks in it. Her bangs hang at either end of her forehead. She had frosting all over her face and hands, her eyes were squished together and her smile was so big. He could feel her laugh through the photo just like the other one.

"Callie and Arizona were good friends of Mark and I's and Callie struggled with her sexuality for a bit before she met Ari and slept with Mark this way before we even decided to be a couple but we were pondering it, fighting it really pretending we didn't like each other. And after a one-night stand with Sloan a few months later she found out she was pregnant obviously it was weird at first but Mark was so happy and seeing him happy made me happy so we decided to co-parent and I ended up being forced to make a baby shower cake. I didn't mind at all because I loved baking and Ari and Allie were my favorite people in the world. So I baked the cake after several failed attempts or at least what I considered failed. I was so tense about this cake I wanted it to be perfect. I remember lashing out at Mark so many times that day and we ended up having a complete fight with the leftover frosting I laughed so hard, Mark couldn't stand seeing me so hard on myself and after I frosted the cake, he insisted on taking a photo and I didn't want him too, but he tickled me so hard and snapped the photo and I couldn't help but laugh harder." She hadn't realized she was crying until A soft calloused thumb swiped a few tears from her eyes.

After reaching behind the couch for the tissue box she wiped dried her eyes and smiled at the man next to her.

Hours had passed and it was now nighttime. Derek and Eden had talked all day. She showed him more pictures from her past life and he listened to the stories she told. Telling some of his own. He loved the playful banter they had going on and after ordering some steak and a few salads with potatoes Eden grabbed a fresh bottle of white wine and popped it open they had made it to the table eating and talking. Before clearing off the coffee table and deciding to play a game of Scramble.

It was then that the games began tense when Eden pulled out the tequila and decided to play Strip Poker of course Derek wasn't passing up the opportunity to see Eden naked, and Eden wasn't about to pass up seeing, The Derek Morgan embarrassed and nude. Derek Morgan was easy on the eyes, that man put sculptures to shame. Or at least she'd been told she hadn't seen him naked shirtless yes but naked no and she wasn't about to let this wonderful opportunity go to waste.

It was not Eight pm and Eden was covering her chest with a throw pillow she was left with her underwear and socks as was Derek. The two had found themselves tipsy and horny. Which one would say is not the best combination? Before they knew it Derek Morgan had lost which meant all that was left was obvious, that's not what happened though. One minute they were both showing their cards the next they were making out. Intensely making out that they could barely make it up the stairs to her room. They made it to the nearest room they could the downstairs guest room and he placed her down on the bed. Admiring her figure beneath him, her cheeks flushed red she was nervous she hadn't slept with anyone since Mark.

"Listen, I haven't slept with anyone since Mark and I-I my body it's, I have scars from the trauma, I've been through a lot and.."

"Hey, hey," He lifts her chin with his finger making her look at him. "You are a perfect baby girl and nothing in this world will stop me from thinking otherwise." she nods and they continue what they were doing.

After three hours of endless euphoric orgasms and the duo ended up laying down next to each other in bed. Their chest rose and fell quickly and shaky. Eden was struggling to catch her breath at first before it settled down the two turned to one another Derek propped himself up with his elbow the blanket covering their extremities. He admired the woman next to him before maneuvering himself on top of her. She squealed and laughed giggling like a schoolgirl. The night had ended with Eden wearing Derek's shirt and snuggling up close to him. She hadn't slept this well since yesterday, maybe she should be sleeping with Derek every night in order to get a good night's rest. She hadn't realized she fell asleep until she heard Derek whine and looked over seeing them not cuddling anymore. She couldn't help but smile as he pulled her back into his side protectively nuzzling his chin into her hair. All was right with the world at least at this moment.

Six months later...

The thing about life is that sometimes it can get messy and when it does, that's when you ask yourself if it's worth it. All the pain and suffering, all the fighting and worrying. Life was meant to live, but we as people dont understand how, is there really a true definition of how life is supposed to live or is it just a thing we are supposed to figure out in the span of other things we are supposed to figure out? For the Behavioural Analysis Unit life was endless nights of none sleeping, being pushed through a glass window, being shot in your own home, taking a month off of work, being hunted down by a murderer known as the Reaper, losing sight of who you are, fighting for the person you love, being challenged by the obstacles of your job, questioning your superiors and your sanity, getting shot in the knee, putting your family in witness protection, and lastly hiring a potentially good relationship because they are worried it won't work out. Life for the team of profilers seemed to keep going, they seemed to be fighting hard. Thats the thing about life, you are the person who gets to choose whether you live or whether you die as for Eden Hunters, Derek Morgan, Emily Prentiss, David Rossi, Spencer Reid, Aaron Hotchner, Jennifer Jareau, and Penelope Garcia, they were choosing to live and fight, to kick life in the balls and do whatever it took to stay alive and that people was the way it was meant to be.

Like every morning for the past six months Eden came some from sparring at the gym, after everything that went down in Canada and The reaper, Derek was more overprotective of the small woman. She couldnt blame him, I mean he did throw her through a window, which in all honesty wasnt her brightest moment. Eden was a warrior, that woman had officially cheated death more times than a trickster. She was amazed that the universe still wanted her here after all the insanely crazy situations she put herself in, sticking her hand in a body cavity with a bomb, tackling a guy who was wielding an axe, carrying around a penis in a cooler, having sex in the storage room closet, go on a ride along with a couple of paramedics and tackling a suspect to the ground, performing surgery with a gun to her sister's head, jumping into a lake when it was below 40 in the middle of winter to save her sister, helping her friend pull an LVAD wire, pulling a stranger from under a moving bus just to find out it was her friend, drinking way too much tequila, surviving a plane crash, watching the love of her life die, The list goes on.

She survived through so much that she was beginning to think she was a vampire and life really fucking sucked when you were a vampire even if you were insanely hot like Damon Salvatore. Eden knew one thing for sure she was in love and when she arrived in the bullpen that day to see that she had beaten Derek Morgan to work a big smile crept on her face. The roles were reserved this time. She put her lunch in the fridge, and placed her bags down at her desk, before planting a kiss on Reid's cheek she placed a muffin from the pan on her desk in front of him as he blushed a small smile on his face, finally looking up from his computer since he got there.

"Hey, where's my kiss?" Emily chastised stirring her coffee with a sly smirk.

Eden said nothing, grabbing one of the homemade blueberry muffins from the pan and walking over planting a small peck on the women's lips who fanned herself with her hand dramatically.

"Did it get hot in here or is it just you?" She teased as Eden smiled big like a kid and handed her a muffin.

"She bakes too, Oh man." She moans taking a bite from the muffin as the strawberry blonde laughs

"No your definitely the hottest babe in here." She touched her finger to Emily's shoulder making a sizzling noise before pulling it back quickly. She could hear the raven-haired woman laugh from behind her before she walked back to her desk grabbing the tray of homemade muffins. She placed them down in front of each seat on the round table before taking the rest of them and placing them on the break room table for others to dig into.

She took two and walked down the hall to see her favorite tech wizard who wasnt there. She must've been in the bathroom. Placing two muffins on her desk and leaving a cute note, before walking off and making coffee for she and Derek a tradition that was usually done by Derek but now was being done by her. She then had no choice but to wait, sitting on the edge of his desk and thumbing through her phone. The familiar ding of the elevator sounded and she looked up to see Derek who looked confused, his phone beeping from the clip he had on his belt loop. She couldnt help but melt, when she saw him wearing her favorite purple collared shirt, biting her lip a little not wanting the others to see her practically drooling over her boyfriend. He flipped it open and sat his bag down on his desk. He hadn't noticed the beautiful woman sitting on the edge of his it until after his bag hit the desk, he looked away from his phone as she smirked handing him his coffee in his favorite mug. He took a sipp humming at the taste of the liquid, before looking down at her with sex eyes as she hid her blush in her mug taking a sip from it. The things he wanted to do to her in this moment, but he couldn't, not without alerting his fellow team members who hadn't quite known of their relationship just yet. His phone beeps again and he hates to tear his eyes from the literal masterpiece in front of him but the beeping was annoying him. He flips it open again turning to Reid.

"Reid, what did I miss?"

" Oh, man, you're not gonna believe this. Some moron just posted a blog called "what would carl sagan do?" Reid babbles with a mouth full of blueberry muffin, Eden giggles at him walking over to her desk.

"No, Reid, the case. What's the case?"

"What are you talking about?"

" These emails from Hotch. "take a look at this, " "new case to review."" Derek reads off from his phone.

"Emails from Hotch?" Boy wonder clicks on his computer a few times. " I didn't get any emails from Hotch."

He looks over at his girlfriend who starts checking her computer to see if she too got the emails that Derek was talking about.

"Nothing." She watches as her boyfriend looks at them confused before walking up the stairs and into Hotch's office which had his door open. Eden and Reid look at each other shrugging as JJ walks up to them telling them there's a case. They both stand up closing out their computers and meeting Emily and Rossi at the round table. He smiles already eating the muffin that was in front of him.

"You have got to give me this recipe?"

"Porterò quella ricetta nella tomba prima di dartela" (I will take it to my grave before I give up that recipe.) she says in Italian as Rossi chuckles.

"Touche" The old Italian replies before the rest of the team walk in. JJ starts clicking through the images and starts the debriefing.

"Kristie Taylor, runaway, drug addict, Reported missing from Farmington, New Mexico 3 years ago. Yesterday, she turned up off a freeway Outside of Rio rancho." Everyone looks between the files and the pictures, Hotch was standing behind Eden looking at his file.

"Sexual assault combined with ligature marks on her wrists and ankles. She was asphyxiated."

" 3 victims in 5 years. All the women are connected by marks. He likes chains." JJ clicks through the photos showing the bruises from the chains on the body.

"Definite sexual sadist. He sticks to his type. 16- to 19-year-old girls, all blond." Emily looks up from the file

" Hangs on to them for a while, too. Look at this. Average of 2 years Between abducting them and killing them. "

"Low body count, long time frame. This guy's in control of his urges."

" Too controlled. Sadists need new victims, and new ways to torture. There are a lot of guys out there who like chains. Are we sure this is the same unsub?" The old Italian man comments eating the last of his muffin, Eden cringed at the fact that not even pictures of a dead body could waiver the man's appetite.

" Kristie Taylor's autopsy report Also indicates a second connection between these victims."

" She was pregnant." Spencer reads from his file as everyone gives each other looks around the room.

" She'd given birth. Very soon after, the unsub killed her."

"How soon after?"

"Minutes," JJ explains as Derek pinches the bridge of his nose shaking his head at the information.

"This unsub isn't your typical sexual sadist. Captivity and assault we've seen before. What we haven't seen is this signature-- The role he forces these women to fulfill before he kills them. Motherhood." Their Stoic leader speaks up behind them. He says his famous "Wheels up in 30" as everyone goes to get ready for the case.

Eden can't help but think back to the time when she was pregnant,

"That's our baby" Mark stares at the screen in awe, as the doctor moves the scope around Eden's belly. She giggled at the look on his face. He was light a kid in a candy store, excitement bursting from the seams,

"Yes, would you like to know the sex?" the doctor smiles in their direction as the two widely nod.

"It's a beautiful baby girl, congrats" she clicks print on the ultrasound machine as the photo spits out of the printer as she wipes off the scope with a clean towel, she hands the photo to Mark while she wipes the ultrasound jelly off of Eden's stomach.

"Hi, you sweet angel." Mark smiles at the photo in his hands helping his pregnant girlfriend off down from the examination bed. He kisses her passionately and grips her hand. The two walk out of the room happier than when they walk in as he tucks the photo in his pocket as the couple put their labcoats back on and returns to their separate hospital wings. Mark makes a note to put the photo in a frame as soon as he gets home.

It was two nights later that they lost their sweet angel baby. Two nights later when Eden feels pain in her side and finds herself crying over the toilet knowing what was happening, she screamed so loud the neighbors came to check on her. She was happy two days ago life was so good two days ago. One minute they are buying clothes and making a baby registry and the next they are mourning, crying, and never leaving her bed. It wasnt until Eden held her head under the water too long in the bath and felt the life leave her lungs, waking up and seeing a panicked Mark infront of her she knew just how much it would hurt if he lost her right there. All from the look in his eyes, it was from then on that they grew closer, it was like they were conjoined at the hip, tethered by their hearts. Their love was so powerful. It radiated off of them, like a good perfume or cologne. Life was just beginning to have meaning for the couple, little did they know that it was going to end a few years later. That mark was going to Die and their love would go with it.

journalist William D. Tammeus wrote, "you don't really understand human nature "unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round" will wave at his parents every time around And why his parents will always wave back."

"So why would a sexual sadist make women carry his children?" Emily pulls her hair back from behind her adjusting herself in the leather seat.

" Gary Heidnik kept a harem in a dungeon. His goal was to create a large family As a replacement for his own broken home." Reid sits next to Emily on one of the tables stretching out his knee.

"Josef Fritzl kept his daughter in a cell in his own house, And they had several kids together." Derek grips his coffee mug in his hand, wearing a lighter shade purple, sweater material shirt, Eden almost wanted to pout at the fact that he had changed out of his dress shirt. But didn't because he still looked hot either way.

Derek stood in the small entrance where the coffee maker and drinks were held as Rossi squeezes past him with a water bottle in his hand. "Squalid conditions are part of a control fantasy these men had." Rossi takes a sit down in front of Eden who smiles looking up from the file in her hand. As Hotch comes from the back of the Jet, his phone pressed to his ear and file tucked under his arm.

" If he's keeping these women in a similar location, He'd need a lot of privacy."

"He probably built it himself. Makes him good with his hands."

" Why blondes, and what significance do they have to him?" Hotch gets off his phone taking a seat infront of Emily.

" Maybe, uh, the woman who rejected him Or the woman who wouldn't bear his children?"

"If that were true, he'd be the same age as these girls-- Late teens. This unsub is too skilled for that." Rossi explains.

" His own mother, then? She could be a runaway, just like these victims."

"Which makes his compulsion psych 101-- Killing his mother over and over again for giving birth to him." Derek grips the mug in his hand a bit tighter taking a sip.

"Yeah, but then why wait until after she gives birth? Now he has a body and a baby to get rid of."

" That troubles me, too. We found the mothers but not the infants." Hotch says.

" Uh, I hate to say this, But what if the women are just a means to an end? What if the babies are really the ones he's exploiting?" Eden finally speaks up closing the file with one finger holding the place on the page where she was so she doesn't forget where she was.

"If Kristie Taylor just surfaced, It means he has her baby right now."

" Jj and Eden, check with the parents. See if there are any similarities In the runaways' patterns, and where the unsubs find them. Reid and Prentiss, go to the latest dump site." Hotch then looks to Morgan. "We need to look at victimology. How he treats these women in the final moments of their lives Might tell us what he's doing to the children."

Everyone was assigned their task before they began chatting in their own groups. As Eden sighed, this was going to a tough case and she was really wanted to be in her bed with the covers over her head and cry the minute she heard the word baby. But she couldn't those women and babies needed her to solve this case and she was going to do everything in her power to solve it. Emily was chatting with JJ about what they were doing for girls' night this weekend the duo earned an amused look for Derek when they mentioned what happened at the last girls' night. They talked about how they went out to a bar and this guy was hitting on Eden bragging about how strong he was and how much he bench-pressed. It wasnt until JJ explained how Eden challenged the man to an arm wrestling contest and won three times, that Hotch looked up from his file invested in the story as well.

"Hey, I won that fair and Square, besides we got free tequila shots all night." The strawberry blonde smirked as Emily and JJ laughed.

The men of the B.A.U weren't at all surprised by the woman's actions. She always had a thing for making men feel smaller than they were and while most men may think it was a bad quality those men, her men, didn't not in the slightest. They went on about how good of a bakery Eden was and her kiss with Emily this morning which, made Spencer squirm a bit in his spot and blush, and Eden winked at Emily, mouthing a "call me" as everyone laughed even Hotch.

They landed and went to their assigned task. The Leader, The old Italian, and Eden's boyfriend went to talk to the coroner about the latest victim and all the others. The Raven-haired woman and Boy genius were at the crime scene, there wasnt really much there and Emily was doing all the looks considering he was still recovering from being shot in the knee a few cases ago. They did however discover a potential reason as to why the unsub was doing what they were doing. This left Eden and JJ The two blondes finished talking with the latest victim's parents when Hotch called and told one of them to go with Rossi to CPS. when JJ got back from CPS she found out that they could track down the babies by possibly getting Placenta tissue from all the victims since the unsub kills them right after they give birth. after nothing comes back from the second and Third victims. They have no choice but to talk with the parents of the first victim and ask them if they could dig up the first Victim Monica and test her for Placenta Tissue. This was becoming overwhelming for Eden and she tried her best to push the bile down in her throat. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball in the corner, or snuggle up with Derek in bed and just forget about the world for a while. Derek goes to the morgue to see what the coroner finds on Monica and comes back explaining how he found the umbilical cord and that the baby would be four by now and Eden's heart sings further into her stomach. They were all gathered around a table in the middle of the precinct. While Garcia talks to them over the phone on speaker.

"Ok, know this-- Most adoption folk are like the nicest, most dedicated people in the world. There are, however, one or two skeezy ones."

"How skeezy?" Reid presses his fish into his cheek leaning on his elbow.

" Super skeezy. I've got a spreadsheet from one of them Expecting compensation for the baby I'm having."

" Something you want to tell me, Garcia?" Derek walks up with two mugs of coffee in his hand, a case file tucked under his arm.

"Oh, that's the sad part, my prince. The genetically perfect offspring Of Penelope Garcia and Derek Morgan Wouldn't fetch top dollar. However, one might pay big bucks for the offspring of Eden Hunters and Derek Morgan. That baby would be edible." Derek hands Eden a mug of Coffee as she simply smirks and hides her face with her case file and hair trying not to show how red her face was.

"Who does?" JJ presses her lips into a thin line while Derek sits back on the desk behind them and Emily walks up with an Incredulous look at the phone in front of the group at the table.

" White babies are in higher demand Than minorities. Boys are more popular than girls, At least this year, anyway. And then there's the Swedish supermodel rule."

" The what?" Emily furrows her brows in confusion leaning a bit into Eden's chair as Hotch walks up to the group.

"If I were to deliver a blond-haired, blue-eyed bundle of joy, I'd be set for life. I would."

" Garcia, did the baby's DNA Turn up in new Mexico's adoption records?"

"No. there are no hits on her profile. And it is her, by the way."

" This unsub could still be selling babies, Just not through the system," Eden says sipping on her coffee.

"That's gonna make him a lot harder to catch. all right. it's late. Let's get some rest. We'll hit this fresh in the morning." Hotch sighs as everyone gets up from the table gathering their coats, jackets, and bags.

"Garcia out"

The team heads back to the hotel where they will be staying for the remainder of the case. The women were bunking together and leaving the men to figure out who they wanted, Reid and Morgan in one room Rossi and Hotch in the other. JJ, Emily, and Eden all decided they would share a room and two of them would share one of the queen beds in the room alternating each night between which two took one bed until everyone had a turn to sleep by themselves. They were watching a having a Vampire Diaries marathon using Derek's Netflix account of course. When Eden, decided she would go get snacks from the small convenience store next to the motel. The two women just waved her off not even bothering to take their eyes off of the shirtless Stefan Salvatore infront of them she chuckled, not actually going to get snacks but to meet up with Derek, Reid had passed out the minute he got into bed and if anyone knew Reid he slept like a rock, everyone knew that nothing could wake him unless you physically shook him or hit him, or you were his alarm which he slept with right next to his ear.

She used their secret knock as Derek opened the door and they padded quickly to the bathroom, everything was going well Eden had to force herself to kiss Derek in order to stop herself from Moaning which worked until it didn't, she gripped onto the shower wall tightly, feeling the euphoric wave of pleasure wash over her body after a few more strokes, Derek must've felt it too because they both were panting, the water wasnt the only thing steamy. She pulled on her clothes quickly and ran to the store grabbing whatever was in the first row and heading back to her room. Plopping down on the bed next to JJ who had a towel twisted on the top of her head with her hair drying in it. The woman looked back at her to see what snacks she grabbed before digging in not even taking note that she left with perfectly dry hair 15 minutes ago. They were too distracted by the Salvatore brothers to notice which made Eden smile shoving some popcorn in her mouth. That night her dreams were flooded with thoughts of the Explicit content that she and Derek did in the hotel shower

Another day, nowhere close to finding the unsub. After getting a good night's rest the B.A.U team was back at it again. Reid and Eden were paired up together and since the good Doctor was on crutches they were convinced in the Police precinct looking things over. Garcia had managed to find Monica the first victim's baby, she was adopted in Arizona that's why they couldnt find her in any of the records at CPS. the little girl goes by Lisa now.

"So all the mothers were abducted and dumped in New Mexico, But he keeps the babies in Arizona." Reid points to a map behind Him and Eden. As the others stand infront of them.

"He knows the police with stop looking at the state line."

"The adoption agency's gonna be our best lead to the unsub. Who handled the case?" Hotch looks up from the file in his hand.

" That's bombshell number 2. She didn't go through an agency. She has dropped off anonymously at a church."

" Hospitals and churches are safe havens. You can drop a baby off, no questions asked."

" Child protection services would look for the closest relative."

" Another search that ends at the state line." Reid wets his lips sitting up in his chair.

" And if cps doesn't find one, the baby will go into foster care, Which is what happened to Lisa. She was lucky. The adoption process Happened within a month."

" So, this unsub had the opportunity To make money off this infant. He doesn't, drops it off at a church Because he knows the state will take good care of it."

"That's awfully considerate." Eden snorts unattractively as the other gives her bewildered looks before continuing.

"Outside the murders, nothing about this unsub's Behavior profiles like a sexual sadist... As I wrote." Derek rubs his neck as Hotch gives him a narrowed look behind him.

" Yeah, Morgan's right. It's the actions of a caretaker, a mother."

"Could our unsub be a woman?"

" Uh, only a man would torture his victims this much. Men get off on this kind of violence. women don't."

"Another reason why women are better than men," Eden smirks pursing her lips at the thought.

"He could be married, though, his wife being A passive participant, taking care of the moms."

" And the babies."

" All right. We need to split up. We'll give the profile to Arizona And the New Mexico state police. Rossi, Reid, Prentiss, and Eden, I want you to head to Phoenix. Morgan, you're here with me. We'll finalize the profile." Hotch orders as everyone was confused as to why he sent four people to the same place but none questioned it. Morgan rolls his tongue in his mouth, irritated with Hotch as to the fact that he asked him to rewrite a profile last night. He crossed out most of it and Morgan was becoming frustrated with the man, why was he asking him to do all this extra work if he wasnt going to like it?

While Derek and Hotch gave a revised version of the profile to New Mexico, Eden, Rossi, Reid, and Emily gave their profile in Arizona after getting an emailed copy of it from Hotch.

"Whatever the physical characteristic-- The color of the eyes, the skin type-- If the baby doesn't have it, He or she ends up in the foster care system, Wives of sexual sadists need outlets As a denial mechanism to cope with what their partners are doing.

"And motherhood, especially taking care of a helpless infant, Is this woman's way of coping."

After giving the profile Reid and Edemn start coming through all the files and evidence they were given in Arizona. Trying to find a pattern connecting the murders. Reid hops around on his crutches as Eden glares at him, she told him to sit down several times and he refused to listen.

" What's this?" Rossi asks the duo who are the way too eager to tell.

"It's the pattern I've been looking for. The unsubs hid their tracks with the mothers, But they weren't so careful with the abandoned babies."

"Did you find more children?"

" Dna-wise, no, but deductively, yes. we gathered all the records for all infants who entered into foster care In a 2-week window following each mother's death. Then we narrowed it down to babies that were abandoned at churches. This is where the guesswork begins."

"Monica's Winmar's daughter was abandoned at a presbyterian church. Let's assume the unsub, or the wife at least is presbyterian. That means all other unwanted children Are gonna be left at the same denomination, right?"

" That narrows it down to 3 babies Left at 3 different presbyterian churches All within this 20-mile radius. This is where they live." Reid begins drawing on the map behind him circling the location where the unsubs.

"These kids you deduced to-- Have you looked at their files?" Rossi asks the duo looking through the files they found.

" No. right now we've only been tracking churches. Why?" Reid furrows his brows as Rossi looks at the pair shocked.

" Because you two just uncovered another pattern." He calls Hotch who gathers up all the evidence from New Mexico along with JJ and explains how they can be in Phoenix in about two hours.

//

The B.A.U team was now together in Arizona and things were tense between Morgan and Hotch, after Eden caught them arguing in one of the conferenced rooms, she basically had to pull Derek out of the room, but JJ interrupted in time saying Garcia found something.

"Ok, so the gold star of the day goes to agent David Rossi And his short list of one disease These prenatal drugs also treat. Breast cancer. Progesterone, tamoxifen slow the spread, Metoclopramide and domperidone–"

"Are for anti-nausea if I remember correctly," Eden murmurs feeling everyone's eyes on her. She shrugs as they continue.

"If this woman has breast cancer, would she be able to get pregnant?" Hotch turns to the surgeon in the room, as does everyone else.

"She could. She'd have to be dedicated."

" How dedicated?"

"Well, she sighs leaning on the desk. ''She'd have to go off chemotherapy. She'd be in a lot of pain."

"But she'll try anyway. Her whole life is children. That's her goal."

"The first runaway, Monica Winmar, When was she abducted?"

"5 years ago."

"How many breast cancer patients in Arizona Got pregnant 5 to 6 years ago?"

"Uh, let me see. Not a lot. 7."

" How many of those patients are married to a man With a history of sexual violence?"

"Just one-- Robert and Linda Reimann." There's some keystrokes heard before the tech wiz speaks."Oh, jeez."

" What?"

"She lost the baby in month 8. She had to go through labor anyway." The blonde woman winces. Eden physically freezes at that statement.

"Well, that kind of physical and emotional trauma, there's our stressor."

"I need a minute" she murmurs quickly walking out of the building. She needed a minute to gather her thoughts. She kicks a nearby trash can earning a few looks from passerbyers before Moegan comes outside.

"You okay to finish the case?" He rubs circles on her back as she takes a big deep breath.

"Let's get these bitches." She stretches as Morgan smiles, "That's my girl." he debriefs her on the situation and explains how Prentiss and Her will go in first because children trust women more than men. They suit up driving to the unsubs location SWAT quickly opens the door with a lock pick quietly opening it for Prentiss and Eden, the two women step inside grubs drawn in front of them they clear one part of the kitchen and living room nodding at each other before continuing on they split up when they reach the dining room and the rest of the Kitchen regrouping behind the couch where a tussle of blonde hair is seen laying on the couch, Eden motions for a halt approaching the hair to see a beautiful little boy watching Cartoons they holster their guns and she approaches him.

"Hi. It's ok. It's ok. We're the police. We're the good guys. Can you come outside with me?" She guides the little boy in the direction of the door.

" Hotch, we've got one boy accounted for. He's on his way out to you, But there could still be more in the basement." Prentiss speaks into her mic as soon as Eden gets the boy to the door she hears the toilet flush, Immediately runs inside along with SWAT and the rest of their team minus Reid.

After Eden basically tosses the male unsub on his ass outside eyeing him as she shoved him in the dirt. He says nothing smirking at her. The team clears the house and saves the rest of the girls and the baby. They stayed one more day in Arizona before leaving on the jet back.

Eden was physically and emotionally exhausted tossing her keys to Derek who didn't hesitate to drive, he drove her to his house and agreed to go back to the bullpen and do her paperwork for her as long as she stay promised to be in his bed wearing his shirt when he got back. Of course, she didn't deny batting her lashes and narrowing her glasses down at the man while wearing one of his old police academy shirts. He bit his lip as she smirks.

"Woman, the things I am gonna do to you when you get back." He practically growls and she smirks again, pulling her reading glasses back up and licking her finger to grip the pages of her book better. He chuckles kissing her lips quickly before leaving to go talk with Hotch and do his lovely girlfriend's casework.