*Trigger warning*
Chapter Two: Redemption Era
05x11: Retaliation

The past few months had taken everything out of the team. Hotch was currently on a leave of absence after the reaper came and killed Hailee. He had first stopped at Eden's house and gunned her down while she was in the shower. Luckily for her, she put up a good fight, after she called Garcia and told her what happened the reaper then went after Hailee. Only Hotch didn't make it enough time. He did kill the man. Eden recovered from her injuries and after the funeral, Hotch decided to take some time to be with his son. Derek and Rossi had been taking the lead on things until he was ready to come back. This was his first case back and the team of behaviorists already solved it within three days. Right now they were running after an unsub in the woods who Kidnapped his daughter and Killed a woman named Sarah Ryan. it was pitch black outside as they chased the man through the woods. Eden ran up to him, as Derek finally tackled him to the ground. The two men wrestle around for a bit. As she holsters her weapon Derek yelps. The group was currently in Lockport New, york.

"Aah! You son of a bitch!" Derek punches Dale in the face as Eden controls her breathing from the running they just did.

" Did he bite you?"

" Yeah. All right, don't move."

"Dale Schrader, you're under arrest For the murder of Stacy Ryan And the kidnapping of your daughter Jenny." Eden reads him rights as Derek cuffs him. They pull the man up to his feet and walk him out of the woods. To see an agent talking with Jenny who is sitting on the front porch of the Cabin they found Dale in.

"Let me say goodbye to her."

" You lost that right the minute you took her."

"She's my daughter. Jenny." he tries to step toward her as Eden pushes the man back, Jenny looks panicked by his presence.

"Jenny. I'm sorry." Eden keeps her hand on his chest pushing him back as Morgan walks over to Jenny. Two agents collect Dale and put him in the back of the car as Eden calls Hotch to inform him of what is going on.

"Hey. Morgan's gonna wait for the ambulance. Bunting and I are taking him in. Yeah--no, the cabin's empty. He just left..."

Dale watches the agents from the far while they talk on their phones, updating everyone on their conditions. Eden and Bunting finally get into the car and start driving. As Dale rested his head on the headrest in the back seat. Bunting of course being the typical alpha male insisted on driving.

10:20 PM

"Killed a random woman and kidnapped his kid. Used the same truck. Not the brightest bulb."

"He's been locked up for 11 years. He's out of practice."

"Don't they say these guys come out better criminals?"

" Smart ones do."

" You saying I'm dumb?" Dale utters from the back seat as Eden rolls her eyes snapping her head in the man's direction

" You're impatient, angry. You took your kid just to get back at your ex."

" You got it all figured out."

"Well, your ex-wife said–" Dale speaks up over the blonde, giving her a narrow look.

"She was a liar. And I should have killed her."

" Like you killed Stacy Ryan. Why did you do it?" Eden asks.

" You wouldn't understand."

"Try me." she tilts her head.

" Here's what I don't get about this guy."

"What's that?" Bunting asks.

The agents bicker with Dale back and forth for a while, Eden's words cold and sharp. She didn't like him, his cocky ego, and the fact that he kept lingering his eyes on her every time he thought she wasn't looking. Maybe it was the way her blonde hair sat curled into a tight bun with two chopsticks sticking out of it. Or maybe it was the fact that she didn't treat him at all with respect. Dale starts acting like he's sicking, hunching over, and pulling his cuffs in front of him instead of behind.

"Hey, what was that? Sit up." She orders seeing him hunched over.

" Oh, I'm gonna be sick."

" What's going on?" Bunting asks.

" I don't know."

" I'm gonna pull over."Bunting pulls the car to the side of the road while Dale groans, murmuring over and over again about how he's gonna be sick. He keeps groaning and muttering "am I still boring?" referring to the previous conversations just minutes before when Eden called him boring.

Eden furrowed her brows in confusion at his statement.

" Am I boring?!" he yells as she draws her weapon from her holster. Something was wrong. She had that feeling in the pit of her stomach. As she aims the gun at Dale the car gets hit by something. She can feel it rolling down a hill and she sits up as she hears Bunting struggling next to her, seeing Dale choking Bunting with his cuffs is now embedded in her brain. She tries to think as he grabs at her body.

"Where are the keys?" He continues searching all over her not hesitating to feel her up in the matter. She does what she only could do at this moment and bites him. Snapping his arm a bit until she hears a crunch. He groans as lights are seen above and a man is sliding down the hill towards the car. She blinks a bit, a cool liquid getting in her eyes. Realizing now she was bleeding she calls out to the person.

" Oh, wait! I'm a federal agent! I have a prisoner in here who's just killed this officer!"

The man pulls Dale out of the car uncuffing him "I knew it. You are one committed son of a bitch."

" Ohh! Oh, my arm!"

"No, no, that's the prisoner! What are you doing?" Eden warns as he slams Dale against the side of the car.

"Give me the gun."

" What? What's wrong with you? You killed a cop?" Eden squints at the man as she listens to the men argue. She reaches on the floor for her gun.

"Give me the gun."

" She's fed. Look, she knows there are two of us now. You're gonna need stitches."

" I'm not going to the hospital."

" There's a lot of blood. Put pressure on it. You're gonna be alright." he turns to Eden as she tries to reach under the seat for her fallen service weapon.

They argue more before he pulls Dale up the hill and tells him to get into the truck Eden unbuckles her seat belt and finally grips her gun. Kicking out the busted windshield, she grips the steering wheel and climbs out the window and onto the hood of the car shooting at the truck, she tries to focus her vision and she stumbles up the hill firing off a few more shots. She rests at the top of the hill as the truck drives away. Taking a few shaky breaths as she lays out partly on the road and partly in the dirt assessing her injuries with her hand. She feels soreness shoot through her arm and grips the shoulder counting to three before popping it back in. screaming from the pain before crawling towards the road. She sees bright lights approaching and squints

"Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit Because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure." Tacitus.

She can't see but she can feel her vision swirling as a car door slams in front of her.

"Eden." She recognizes her boyfriend's voice anywhere she sighs in relief putting her gun down."What the hell happened? Are you all right?" she could already tell he had a murderous look in his eyes. Waving his gun in every direction as he checks on her.

" Bunting's down there. He's dead."

" Where's Schrader?"

He's gone. It was a--a big..." the blonde falls back a bit as Morgan grabs her. She shakes her head, getting herself back together. " Truck, New York tags, Uh, Victor Alpha 73078. They went northbound about 10 minutes ago."

" Son of a bitch got away."

"He's got a partner." She pants as Derek helps her stand up in the dirt.

"I'm fine." the blonde shrugs off her boyfriend only to collapse immediately after. He grabs her under her knees and carries her into the ambulance. Where she is awake again as the paramedic works on her. He calls JJ and tells her what's going on and what hospital they are headed to as Eden snaps at the paramedics telling them how to do their job. She ends up shoving them off and wrapping the gauze around her arm. They put a brace around her neck as she waves them off

"I don't need this, I don't have a spinal injury, I have a concussion, a laceration on my right arm, tenderness from a dislocated shoulder, and a cut on my scalp."

The paramedic looks at Derek with an Incredulous look as they pull up into the hospital. At this point Eden is angry. Her brows knitted in a scowl as they wheel her onto the gurney. She pulls the neck brace off. Now clad in just her work clothes and hair messily sprawled over her shoulder. She clutches an ice pack to her head. Spitting venom at Derek's way this time.

"No, we gotta find Schrader." Eden says.

" The team's got it covered."

" Don't make me stay here. I'm fine, honestly. Pull this thing over." she begins looking around.

"Den, you can't even focus. You have a concussion."

She gulps. " I saw the guy."

"White, 40s, I know."

She tries to sit up. "Ok, so give me a cognitive interview."

"Your adrenaline's pumping."

She nods. " Exactly."

"Den, you're in shock."

She gulps thickly, panic setting in. "It just happened. It'll never be clearer."

" How many shots did you fire?"

" 3." She answers quickly

" You emptied your clip." He looks into her eyes which are harsh and wild.

"No... I did?" her eyes are soft now, maybe she was really out of it, she could've sworn she fired only three. Morgan continued to help the doctors wheel Eden into the room she was assigned before going to check on Jenny and her mom. All Eden did was argue with all the doctors until they were done examining her. She knew what was wrong with her, where things needed to be placed, and what areas needed to be treated. She was a surgeon and renewed her license every chance the moment came up.

After a few hours, the nurse explained the reasons why it wasn't a good idea for Eden to walk and she didn't care but sat down in the wheelchair after the older woman suggested she would call in reinforcements. Pushing her out of the room and down the hall towards the Reception desk she sees Morgan up ahead.

"I can take her from here. Thanks."

"Thank you." She says to the older woman named Maryelle. " I can walk."

"Sit. I like pushing you around." She only chuckles as he takes control of the wheelchair now. She sits back groaning at every move the chair makes. "Does it hurt?"

"If by "it" you mean my entire body, then yes. Did Jenny see anything?" She sighs, groaning.

"She never saw the partner."

"Oh, what the hell?" She throws her head back at the thought.

"They found a truck ditched a few miles from the accident. Plates were missing but the front end hit your car." he continues wheeling her down the hall

"Ok, so the partner saw everything in the woods, He ran away and stole a truck? Who is this guy?"

"He knew you were taking that road back to the station. He waited for you and he crashed into you. This whole thing feels meticulous." He says as Eden nods, closing her eyes as a wave of nausea comes over her.

" Ok, so he needs the partner for something else."

"For what, though?"

" Well, I don't know. I mean, he was locked up all this time. He planned the whole day. He should have had backup plans for his backup plans." she takes a deep breath trying her best not to hurl.

" His ex shouldn't have been home for a few hours, So he had enough time To get across the border with Jenny until we showed up."

" But he stayed local, holed up in that cabin. He had what he wanted. He could have just run."

" There's gotta be something else keeping him in Lockport." she stays silent trapped in her thoughts " I couldn't stop him from choking Bunting."

"Den, don't do that.

She shakes her head" He was right there."

The two pile into the car as Derek helps her into the passenger seat.

"You know, I could use a kiss for the pain right now." Derek chuckles as he closes the car door behind him leaning over the console and pulling his girlfriend into a kiss. She smiles into the kiss as they pull apart. "And suddenly I'm cured." Derek lets out a laugh starting the car as Eden's phone rings. Garcia was calling and she knew the minute she picked up the phone she would be reprimanded, and consoled all in one breath by the quirky tech analyst.

12:08 AM

The couple arrives at the Police station as Garcia continues to talk Eden's ear clean off. Derek has a hand on the small of her back as they approach the rest of their team.

" Hey." Reid is the first to spot Eden and Morgan as everyone else turns around.

" Hey."

" How are you?" Emily walks towards her reading her expression.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck."

" Here, sit." JJ pulls out a chair next to her as Eden takes a seat.

" Thanks. Uh, Garcia, tell everyone what you just told me."

"I have unearthed more of Schrader's past. Now, what we do know is that he robbed 15 banks In the state of New York in the nineties. However, what your resident glamour-puss smarty-pants just found out Was that most of that money was never recovered."

"Where is it?"

"My best guess-- only he knows."

" Good reason to stick around Lockport." Rossi nods, shoving his hands in his pockets.

" The last robbery, the one that put him away, Should have been routine, right? So what happened?"

" Maybe someone turned him in." Derek steps up closer to the table as Eden's phone is perched in front of them.

" He kept to himself, always worked alone. Who'd turn him in?"

"We're missing somebody." Rossi shakes his head.

" Garcia."

"Yes, checking, sir, Ok. Records leading up to Schrader's arrest Show this other bank robber Named Dan Otey. And he was looking at copious amounts of time, Then he strikes a deal and all of a sudden Schrader is arrested."

" It can't be a coincidence," Emily says.

"You know, it's not uncommon for criminals to buy jobs Off one another. Maybe that's what Schrader did, But Dan Otey sold him out for a lesser sentence." Reid sits up from his leaning position.

" It doesn't make sense. Otey was a rat and now he's the partner?"

"Yeah, you're right. Schrader wouldn't trust him. If anything, he'd want him dead."Reid explains.

"Probably, but he'd use him first. He'd tell Otey that he owes him one And that he might save his life if he helps him get out of this jam." Derek folds his arm over his chest looking between his team and girlfriend every five minutes.

" Where's he now, Garcia?"

" Uh, Dan Otey is a local. He lives off of route 7."

1:20 AM

The team got a call about a murder that took place and even though everyone told her to stay back Eden didn't listen she interviewed the wife. She watched as she sobbed while she talked with a lit cigarette in her hand. Taking notes in her notebook as the women talked. She was standing near the window smoking

2:15 AM

Eden was exhausted; she found herself sitting in the chair next to Morgan, trying her hardest to stay awake. She shook her head a bit, blinking a few times, trying to get rid of the heavy feeling. They were back at the police station. Hotch was practically glaring at the evidence board in front of them.

"Schrader gets off on power. That and money are what motivate him."

" And revenge. 11 years away, he comes out a murderer." Derek continues.

" Who needs a partner, somebody as bold as him."

" And where'd they meet?" Reid turns to look at Eden who is dazed and quiet. He squeezes her hand as she turns in his direction.

" Schrader was away and patient. The minute he got out, he hooked up with his partner first, And then he killed Stacy Ryan On his way to kidnap his daughter."

" What's missing from his day?" Derek asks.

" The money."

" He took his daughter but left the money. That doesn't make any sense." He brainstorms.

"Did he have another plan on how to support himself in Canada?" Hotch scowls over the group. It was only the men talking bouncing words back and forth.

"He's only known a life of crime. He's incapable of change. Time away proved that."

" Well, Otey's wife said that the partner locked them away Like he didn't want them to get hurt." Eden looks up at everyone, she is lost in her thoughts trying to piece everything together like a puzzle.

" He was protective. That's weird, right?" JJ asks.

" They're both dominant personalities, But they sound like they played good cop/bad cop."

" Well, it's been four hours since the accident. You still think I'm in shock?" She turns to her boyfriend whose brown eyes stare into her green ones.

"There's one way to find out." He says as the two leave, to find a private place to go.

"All right, take a deep breath. Den. "

" Let's just do this." she starts getting short with him.

" All right. Tell me what you saw. Was it dark?"

"Yeah. You were there. You know it was." Eden comments as Derek scolds her.

"Come on, now." She straightens up. " Ok. What did it smell like inside the car?"

" Sweat."

" So you were hot?"

She nods. "Yeah. I--I opened the window a little bit. It's really quiet."

" Are there any other cars on the road?"

" There's one coming." she looks forward.

"What color is it?"

" I... It's too bright." she squints her eyes while they are closed.

"Ok, but you looked at it. You saw it."

" It's a 4-door hybrid, black," she answers.

"Where was Schrader?"

She thinks back. " He's looking out the window."

"Was he waiting for something?"

She shakes her head. " Here comes another car."

" A car or the truck?"

Eden sucks in a breath. " It's truck. Schrader sees it. That's when it happens. He's... Out of his seatbelt. He's hunched over. And he gets his cuffs out in front of him."

"Ok, then what?"

She looks to her left. " Uh, Bunting pulled over, And--and Schrader put his seatbelt back on."

"He knew it was coming. Where did the truck come from?"

She looks behind her. "Uh, behind us. Uh, no-- Uh... It was in front of us." She turns her eyes open, picturing everything happening.

" Who was driving, Den?" Derek asks as she groans, breathing quickly. He grips her hand as she calms down.

She shuts her eyes tightly. "I don't know. I can't see."

" Ok. It's alright, it's all right. You're sure it was the truck?"

She nods. "Yeah. It's a big truck."

" Think. Who was driving? Who was driving?"

She nods again. " A white male, 40s."

" All right, now your car stops rolling."

" Yeah. Um... I'm pinned. My seatbelt is jammed. I can't breathe. I can't see anything. I can hear-- Oh, god, he's killing Bunting." She begins to panic a bit.

"But the partner's not there yet?"

She shakes her head. " No."

"Where is he?"

She looked behind herself again. , reliving everything. " He's running towards us."

"What's he wearing?"

She thinks for a moment. " Jeans. Boots. He's freaked out that Bunting's dead."

"Why would he care?"

She shakes her head again. " I don't know. But he won't let him kill me And he keeps telling him to... Wait. He was talking to me. There's a lot He knew we were on that road. He was upset that Bunting was dead. He wouldn't let Schrader kill me. He kept telling me to put pressure on it. And he was calm like he's done this before." she gets up from the chair walking over to the group surrounding the table. " He was helping me."

"He took Dan Otey's family upstairs, Protected them from Schrader."

" Do we think a good guy hooked up With a criminal like Dale Schrader?" Derek asks.

6:30 AM

They had managed to at least change their clothes. Morgan, Eden, and Rossi stood at the small coffee section in the police station. He hands her a go cup of coffee and she takes it sighing in satisfaction at how he always manages to get her coffee perfect.

"So how did Schrader get this guy to sign on?" Eden asks.

"Good people do bad things. I'm just saying, it happens."

" Right. But this partner wouldn't let me die. He protected Otey's family. On the same day, he helped a convicted felon escape custody. His loyalties are all over the place." she continues.

" The guy sounds desperate. Maybe he needs some money. I mean, Schrader's got a lot of it still out there. He could have promised him a cut."

" Ah, I don't know. He's an accomplice To 3 murders and a kidnapping. Is there enough money out there For you to sign on to something like that?" Eden points to Derek who purses his lips.

"So it's something bigger than the money," Rossi asks

"Um, maybe Schrader's threatening him. "

"Leverage?" Rossi quirks a brow at the red-haired woman.

" It would have to be big."

"We caught Schrader because he kidnapped his daughter. He was emotional and his guard was down. Family means more to him than we thought." Hotch speaks up from behind the trio. They turn to face him.

"Schrader's ex-wife forced him to give up custody of Jenny. Maybe he wants this guy to know what it feels like to lose his family, too." Eden nods before sipping her coffee, the rings around her eyes more prominent in the light. Anyone could tell from looking at her that she was tired, they all were.

"It sounds like revenge to me."

" Maybe it is," Emily speaks up.

8:17 AM

JJ walks in with Reid hobbling behind her with his cane. He was still a bit wonky from being shot in the knee. Eden stands in front of the evidence board, combing through all the evidence in front of her again. She blinked the sleep from her eyes as all the other team members huddled around the small table in the station. Case files sprawled all over the place. Garcia was on the phone waiting for someone to speak again.

"Anything on Schrader's case?" JJ asks

" The usual suspects-- judges, lawyers."

"They're all accounted for this morning" Derek speaks up.

" If it's revenge, then it's gotta be someone who put him away." Reid sits down in a chair next to Derek who is massaging his temples.

"Well, it's not the officers who arrested him Or the judge who sentenced him."

" Then who is it?" Eden sighs irritated, from the lack of sleep, the car accident, and the fact that it was taking so long to find him.

"Garcia, I need the names of every law enforcement agent Involved in the Schrader case."

" You know everybody."

" Yeah, but I want every single employee the year that he was arrested," Hotch says.

"Ok, give me a minute."

"A whole minute? Come on, Pretty lady, what, Are you losing your touch?" Eden teases causing the technical analyst to smirk

" Oh, watch your pretty mouth. Personnel records come at you now."

The printer starts printing out pages and Reid grabs them all up looking through them.

"Who's still active?" Hotch asks

" Most."

" Would he risk using an active officer?" Jj asks.

" Depends on how much he hates them. Has anyone retired?"

" Yeah, two of them. Let's see- Matt Massey, Jeff Messick. Both married with kids, white, in their 50s." Reid reads off.

"Wait, can I see those pictures?" Eden asks as Reid hands them to her she looks at the pictures

" No. No. Ohh. Why wouldn't he go after one of the officers Who arrested him? It makes the most sense for revenge."

" Hey, wait a minute, guys. Listen to this. There was a witness who never testified on Schrader's behalf." Derek hands the file over to Hotch.

" Schrader could see that as a betrayal. He gets out of prison and uses him to get what he wants. Garcia, I want you to run a history on a witness from the Schrader case, Joey Short."

" Joey Short. Was born in '66 in NYC. Didn't hold a lot of jobs except for construction. In and out of rehab."

" Where is he now?" Derek asks.

" His last known address was 10 years ago."

"Did he do time?" Rossi asks.

" Mm-mmm. No."

" Come on, Garcia. People don't just disappear. This guy's got a history with a lot of holes in it. He went to rehab. You know, maybe this guy had to walk the walk." Derek suggests leaning back in the chair.

"He was undercover."

"That makes sense. Those guys are up for anything, And they take big risks, professionally and personally." Emily says.

" It explains his behavior, too. A good guy doing bad things."

" Garcia, can you get us Joey Short's real name?" Derek speaks up

" It's not here."

" Well, if Schrader can find it, so can we. The guy needed to be Schrader's friend, So they're probably around the same age. Look for academy graduates in the early nineties." Derek suggests.

" Ok."

" Did any of them not go into police work?" he asks.

" Baby, I don't follow you."

"If he went undercover, then anything tied to the academy Would have to be severed. I mean, the guy graduated, He had to immediately start working his history as joey short. He went into construction, Made his contacts in the bank robbery world, And then he met Schrader, Earned Schrader's trust, And then turned him in and got out of the game." Derek explains.

" Ok. Here's a couple of guys who look like they dropped out"

. "You got any pictures?" he asks.

" Sending them your way now."

The laptop in front of them dings and a picture pops up Eden nods. "That is the guy. That picture is 10 years old, but that's him."

"That is Joe Muller. He has a wife and 2 kids."

Eden nods. " That's the guy. Where is he now?"

"Ok, thanks. Muller's not at home. No one is. His wife didn't show up at work. The kids weren't at school yesterday or today." JJ closes her phone

"Schrader probably has them, hostage."

"Yeah, but where?" Emily asks.

" What could Joe Muller do for him?" Eden paces back and forth thinking.

"The only thing that's left. He can get him the money."

"Well, no one even knows where it is," Hotch says.

"Schrader knows."

"Where do these guys hide money?" JJ asks.

"Someplace safe." Reid looks up thinking for a minute.

"Would he be bold enough to hide it in a safe deposit box?"

Reid nods. " A thief using a bank? Yeah, maybe."

"Schrader can't walk into a bank. His face is everywhere. No one would think twice if Muller walked in."

"He'd have to have a key.

" Where's the physical evidence from the Schrader case?" Eden asks

" We don't have it."

" Well, if we can figure out where Schrader hid the money, We'll know where he's going," Emily says.

Eden and Derek decided to go to the evidence room and see if they can look over the evidence. When they get downstairs the woman at the evidence desk tells them that Joe Mueller just left two minutes before they got there. The couple runs outside getting into a standoff with Schrader who is holding a gun to Joe's head. They shoot Schrader as Joe loses it, gets out of the car, and walks up to Eden, he begins screaming in her face as she aims the gun at him, he grabs her by both of her arms and shoves her as Derek picks him up and tackles him onto the hood of a nearby car in the parking lot. Before cuffing him, he turns to Eden inspecting her for injuries; she shakes him off and he doesn't listen, checking her face.

"I'm okay." He cups her face in both of his hands and fights the urge to kiss her as the rest of the team comes out, Hotch asks people to start processing the scene and they bring Mueller inside.

"I will take you out of the cuffs as long as you don't attack Eden again." He warns the man who nods before taking him out of the cuffs JJ offers him coffee and he explains the entire reason he went to help Schrader.

"The only person who knew where my family was And now he's dead. I had every chance to kill him. But I couldn't. Because he had my family. 2 days. Somewhere."

" And this photograph is the only proof of life?" Eden holds up the photograph, Derek practically forced her to sit on the farthest end of the table as far away from Mueller as possible. He was standing close to Mueller, arms crossed over his chest as Mueller paced.

"Where's my phone?" Derek and Reid point to the man's phone on the table and he plays a message from his wife.

"I'm gonna get Garcia to trace this."

" Unknown name, unknown number," he says.

" She might be able to help." Derek takes the phone and walks away not before looking at Eden who nods insisting for the umpteenth time that she was indeed fine.

"There was only one phone call?" Emily asks.

" I tried to get him to let me talk to them again, but he wouldn't."

" There must not be anyone there watching them," Rossi says.

" So he hid a family where no one hears them call for help"

"Someplace remote. That cabin?"

"No. The locals tore it apart. There's no one there."

" Where are they?" He paces back and forth again

" You saw Schrader since he's had your family. You saw something or heard it. There's got to be some clue."

"When was the last time you saw your family?" Prentiss asks as Mueller starts to think of the last time he saw her.

"You notice any cars on the street?"

"Nothing. Our routine's the same every day. The kids have to be at school by 8:15, then Molly heads to work."

" She didn't make it to either yesterday. What was her route?" Reid turns in his chair to face Mueller who is still pacing but stops to think when they ask questions.

" Uh, north on route 7, east on 22."

" Is that route isolated during the morning commute?"

" No. If he was watching, there's a good chance she never left the driveway." Eden thinks about the entire situation looking at the photo of his wife and kids in her hand.

" I drove out first. I just left them there."

"Where did he find you?"

" At the hardware store. He told me how for 11 years He'd been trying to figure out how he got locked up. He knew Otey had ratted him out for the robbery, But that wasn't enough to put him away. He said I was the piece that didn't fit. He figured out I was a cop."

" And he took your family. Did you ever see this woman?" Rossi holds up a picture of a short blonde woman as Mueller nods

"Yeah. I think she's some junkie. I saw her right after he told me.." Mueller stays quiet thinking for a moment while the team also thinks gears turning in everyone's head. He begins talking about the events that took place after how Schrader stabbed the woman and made him drive away from the alley where he met her to dispose of her body. They all pieced together that he probably was holding Mueller's family Hostage in the building next to that Alley. Mueller takes the, there and they search the building finding his wife first. Derek finds one little boy curled up in a ball in the corner of one of the abandoned rooms and calls for Mueller to come and talk with his son. A toddler tetters over in nothing but a diaper and Eden walks over causing the toddler to smile and coo she picks him up as he squeals from excitement. As they take them back to the mom upstairs. She hugs her babies close thanking the team who watch as they hug and kiss.

"Washington Irving said, "There is a sacredness in tears. "they are not the mark of weakness, but of power. "They are messengers of overwhelming grief And unspeakable love."

Eden sits down on Derek's couch in his office, she needed to get this paperwork done and after a few minutes, she falls asleep in comfortable silence. When Hotch left Derek got his own office down the Hall from Garcia's it was big but not too big. They told him it would be his for as long as he wanted even after Hotch returned. Eden woke up to Hotch and Derek talking as They both looked over at the woman who was stretching.

"I was just resting my eyes, I promise I will be done with my report in ten minutes." She murmurs sleepily, laying her head against her hand. The two men chuckle when they see her nodding off again, Hotch thanks Derek for everything he's done and tells him to keep an eye on Eden who was sleeping sitting up with her chin in hand-light snores coming from her mouth. The team leader leaves as Derek sighs at the sight of his girlfriend taking the paperwork from In front of her and finishing it. He goes to turn it in and comes back tapping the woman lightly on her shoulder. Who jolts awake looking around.

"Did I finish?" she looks around before meeting her boyfriend's eyes who had his coat and bag on."Uh, I fell asleep again didn't I?" He nods and she groans as she holds her coat out for her to put on which she does and he guides her towards the door where she slowly trudges sleepily.

He sighs and scoops her up bridal style as Rossi and Emily join him standing in front of the elevator.

They smile at the sight of the red-haired woman passed out in Derek Morgan's arms. Rossi takes out his phone and takes a photo and Emily insists he sends that to her while Derek chuckles. The team didn't know they were dating and hadn't picked up on it yet, Derek and Eden did not act any differently than they usually did with each other, only spending more time in his office than usual. If those walls could talk, the number of times they had sex in that room alone was mind-blowing. It was sexier having sex in places you weren't supposed to than anything else.

He takes her back to her apartment and helps her get dressed for the night, she was too tired to shower and mumbled out an apology saying she knew how gross she was and he stopped her saying she needed sleep more than anything else right now, before putting on one of his FBI tee shirts and climbing into bed, hoping to sleep for a week.

Word count: 6050