♥

SEASON SIX
EPISODE FIVE.

♥

"Good afternoon, Spencer!"

Hearing Rosa, the doctor turned to her with a cheery smile. "Hi, Rosa," he greeted, falling into step with her. "Are you joining us on this case?"

"I did get the call," said Rosa.

"That's great," Spencer told her before realising his mistake. "I mean... not for the victims, of course, but great for me — for us — to have you with us."

Rosa smiled as he stuttered over his words. "I know what you mean, Spence."

"How is Lissie?" Spencer asked as Rosa sensed he was eager to change the conversation.

"Oh, she's becoming a chatterbox, like me, I suppose," Rosa said with a laugh. "I can't believe she's gonna be two soon. Time goes too fast."

"Two?" Spencer exclaimed in shock as Rosa nodded in agreement.

"I know! She's become so independent and her little personality is just adorable. I don't know who she's more like at the moment, but I can defiantly see Lillian—" Rosa froze in her ramble, finding her sister's name suffocating. Then, she cleared her throat with a nervous chuckle as Spencer's head turned, eyes falling on her in concern. "Anyway, I'm thinking about having a little party for her, so you're invited, by the way. That's if you want to come."

"I'd love to come," Spencer replied.

"Great," Rosa smiled, but the regret was there, blossoming from her fear.

Inviting Spencer meant letting the BAU more into her life and Rosa was terrified that they would get to the dark truth about her life. After that, they would never look at Rosa the same, so she wasn't sure if she was ready.

"Oh, do I hear a party?" Emily joined them.

"For Lissie," explained Rosa, smiling in amusement at the sight of Emily's excited expression. "Sorry, Em, not that kind of party."

"Little Lissie's two already?" Emily sighed in disbelief. "I'll be there for sure. But I want to catch you for a drink at some point when work isn't taking over our lives."

"I don't think you want to see me after a couple of drinks..." Rosa tried putting her off.

Though, the words lacked Rosa's usual warmth, too ashamed to admit that Rosa had trouble with drinking in the past. She was almost three years sober, but she really wasn't ready to confess that to anyone yet.

"I defiantly do now," Emily told her with a grin. "Spencer, you up for a night out?"

Spencer chuckled. "Oh, I don't know about that."

"It'll be fun," Rosa said, gently tapping her elbow against his arm. "I haven't been dancing in ages!"

"You like dancing?" Spencer questioned.

"Who doesn't?" Ross replied, smiling happily.

While she wouldn't be drinking, Rosa was up for dancing.

The three ended up heading into the conference room as Rosa spied Derek on his phone and David already sat down at the table.

"Hey, good news," Derek told them. "Ellie just got placed with a foster family so, fingers crossed."

"That's great," said Emily as the four sat down at the table. "I'm happy for her."

"Yeah, that's a positive start," Rosa added.

"We got a case in Akron, Ohio," Aaron informed his team as he entered, handing the case file that Rosa was quick to open with her pink pen already in hand, ready for notes. "Two couples killed in two weeks."

"One a week?" Emily questioned. "That's not much of a cooling-off period."

"Scott and Kathy Hartway," Aaron introduced as Rosa's eyes fell on the screen, seeing the two bodies. Already, her eyes scanned every detail as she put the scene together herself. "Found in their car in an isolated spot."

"The Son of Sam had a short cooling-off period," Spencer stated. "He also attacked couples in cars."

"Yeah, but the first couple were killed in their house," continued Aaron, replacing the pictures on screen with the first victims. "Robert and Allison Keppler. In both cases, the husbands were killed with a silenced 9-millimetre, the wife was stabbed multiple times."

"He crosses racial lines," David noticed.

"And socio-economic ones," added Aaron. "The Keppler's lived in an upscale neighbourhood, the Hartway's were blue collar."

"That's a big change in crime scenes, car versus house," Derek noticed. "Two radically different MOs."

"Not to mention he subdues two people," said David. "That takes a lot of skill."

"There's no indication of how he overwhelms them," Spencer said. "There's no antemortem bruising. He doesn't use a blitz attack."

"Does he need to attack when he has a weapon?" Rosa questioned. "All he has to do is point his gun at one of them, then he has them both hostage."

"How about signs of forced entry to the car or the house?" Derek asked.

"No," Aaron answered. "But Akron P.D. did find this."

Rosa's eyes fell on the screen, letting out a sigh of understanding as she realised how the couples were detained. The woman was held at gunpoint and the men were handcuffed.

"Handcuffs," Derek realised. "So he restrains the men and saves the real savagery for the wife."

"Is this right?" David questioned. "They found a used condom on both the husbands?"

"Huh," Rosa continued reading. "They both had Viagra in their systems despite neither having a prescription."

"So the unsub gives the men Viagra and then forces them to have sex before he kills them," Emily realised.

"And given the timetable, he's gonna strike again soon," Aaron concluded. "We fly to Akron tonight. Wheels up in three hours."

♥

Darkness had fallen as the team started boarding the jet. Rosa found herself sitting next to Spencer again (something they kept doing without admitting to). They were going over the case together as Rosa was getting a plan together, noting what the local ME had already done, and what Rosa needed to do upon arriving.

"I'm just waiting on a few last-minute details," Aaron told them. "Let's go ahead and get started."

"I keep bumping on the fact that he makes a married couple have sex before he kills them," David started. "What is he accomplishing with that?"

"The stabbing of the wives is almost certainly piqueristic," said Spencer. "The unsub gets sexual gratification from penetration with a knife. Most piquerists are impotent, men like Albert Fish, Iain Scoular, Andrei Chikatilo. So for him, it could be a substitute for sex."

"The unsub could also be playing a mind game," Emily suggested. "Neither shot to the husband is clean, so they have to watch what he's doing to their wives as they're dying."

"It's a power move," Rosa realised.

"So this guy challenges their manhood by forcing them to have sex," Derek continued, having joined them on the jet. "And then mocks them with the overkill. That kind of psychological torture makes him a sexual sadist."

"It would explain the amount of control he exhibits over the crime scene," Spencer said. "The handcuffs, the condoms, the silenced weapon. He plans out every detail."

"If he's that precise, then he would be just as precise in his victimology," said David. "But he's all over the map in terms of class and race."

"Well, there must be something else about the couples that attracts him," Emily suggested. "Something that he couldn't learn by stalking them anonymously. Maybe the couples met the unsub before."

"Rossi and Reid, will you handle the family interviews?" Aaron instructed his team. "Morgan and Prentiss, go to the latest crime scene. Gomez to the morgue. We need to learn as much as we can about him, so let's really pin down the MO."

The toilet door then opened as the team turned around, eyes falling on Penelope. Rosa found her face brightening with a smile, trying to be enthusiastic about Penelope's new look despite it not being anything like her. The only trace of colour was Penelope's red hair, where everything else had been replaced with a dull grey.

"Woah," said Rosa, trying to stay positive in support. "You look incredible, Penelope!"

"Well, look at you, look at you," Derek added.

Penelope smiled. "Meet your new communications liaison. Trial communications liaison."

"Garcia, I don't get to say this often, but I had no idea there was this side of you."

"Well, I figured since I'm gonna have to interact with the mass populace, I should dress in the traditional costume of a mere mortal."

However, her eye started twitching as if she was in pain.

"What's wrong?" Derek asked.

"It's my contact," said Penelope, blinking as her finger kept touching the edges of her eyes, trying to help herself. "It keeps getting weird and... There it goes. No. Yes. No."

"They'll take some getting used to," Rosa told her. "When I first started wearing mine, I was told to move my eyes in a circular motion like this..."

Rosa tried showing Penelope from where she sat, making sure her irises darted to every corner as Penelope tried repeating the action. They probably both looked a little odd, but Penelope smiled, finding that the advice helped.

Then, once they had landed, Rosa spent her first day on the case analysing the bodies for herself before sending her report to the rest of the team. It was defiantly a violent crime; one of power with the unsub likely feeling powerless both sexually and socially.

Come the evening, she was exhausted since she hadn't slept on the jet on the way over. The team had rooms at a local hotel for them to use that Rosa headed to. Before sleeping, she continued working, sorting through analysis reports.

There was a knock on the door as Rosa opened it, having not expected Emily to be standing on the other end. Rosa noticed that Emily had changed, wearing joggers as she clutched her night bag in her hand.

"I thought," said Emily. "You could do with a friend?"

Rosa's heart squeezed. "Emily, I really appreciate the offer, but I'm not the best company to have at night."

"I know, Rosa, but you didn't sleep on the jet over."

Of course, Emily knew. The team were too observant, and they were creeping closer to the truth but were still trying not to overstep. Rosa wasn't sure how to let someone close when it came to her past as for so long it had been a problem for just herself and her parents to deal with.

"I don't know..."

"I won't question the nightmares," Emily promised. "Nor am I here as a profiler. I'm here as your friend, Rosa. I don't want you to be alone."

"Okay," Rosa agreed. "I don't want to be alone either."

"You're never alone," Emily reassured her.

"And the light stays on?"

"It never has to turn off."

♥

Though, with Emily staying, Rosa still hadn't been able to get much sleep. The company had provided a brief fuzziness of light from the darkness, but it had not stopped the nightmares, only giving Rosa someone who was there in support.

When Rosa had woken from a fright, she knew it had woken Emily, but neither spoke about it the next day when the call for the next bodies came in.

"Morning, you two," greeted Rosa as she accompanied the victim's body from the house with her medical bag on her shoulder. "It's a shame to see you both like this."

"Hey, Rosa," said Spencer, focused on the case. "Can you hold on a moment?"

"Sure thing, doc," Rosa told him as she paused with the paramedics pausing with the gurney.

"He had offensive and defensive wounds all over his body," Spencer said, pulling back the white sheet to see for himself.

"He was cuffed behind his back," David read from the quick report Rosa had put together when she was called in during the early hours. "He still put up a hell of a fight."

"That's because he knew how," Spencer told them. "The wounds extend from his knees to the soles of his feet."

"That's full contact training," David said.

Rosa moved the sheet back over the victim. "It's a shame it wasn't enough."

"Now, where would you learn something like that?" David questioned.

"My assumption would be a mixed martial arts gym," Spencer said. "MMA has skyrocketed among men, who want the most intense fighting possible."

"Which our unsub would," said David. "Could be where he's finding his victims."

"I'll follow up with the families."

"If I find anything," Rosa added. "I'll let you guys know."

It was a sad case as Rosa stood in the morgue, staring at the two latest bodies. The pressure was on for the team, knowing that the unsub could strike again that night, and Rosa really didn't want to be woken up to another murder.

As Rosa continued to study the case and the bodies, all she could think about was how similar they were, and how important it was that the ritual was a part of the murders. The similarity between the victims ended up being that they were Swingers

But if that ritual was broken, then who knew what would happen?

The next call came before Rosa had even thought about turning in for the night. With a case like this, there would be no sleeping.

Still, Rosa was horrified at the number of bodies at the new crime scene as she started working, taking charge of the crime scene. The unsub had opened up on a swingers gathering, targeting the men.

"This was the last victim," Rosa ran David and Spencer through the scene. "The unsub came from the living room into here, but this is also the room the hostess locked herself inside."

"It didn't seem to slow him down," David commented.

"This is a deadbolt," said Spencer, analysing the door. "The unsub could've easily shot his way through."

"He picked the lock?" David questioned.

"He'd only do that out of habit," Spencer said.

"The deadbolt's designed for security," said David. "It takes expertise to get past that."

Rosa continued to snap pictures of the dead body, finding the crime scene came to life in her mind. She frowned, hoping they would catch the killer soon as Spencer and David left with a possible lead to follow.

But Rosa was relieved that there were no more bodies that night. The killer had been caught thanks to Emily, where Rosa simply had to finish up at the morgue before transferring the case back to the morgue.

♥

EPISODE SIX.

♥

"Last night, all four members of the Bennett family were killed in their home in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Jake and Sandra Bennett were the parents of Sammy, eleven and Kayla, nine."

Rosa stared at the picture of Kayla, knowing she was only a year older than Lillian had been. It was a nasty brutal case that left Rosa uneasy and they were only just starting.

"Agent Beeks in the Omaha Field Office called me," Aaron told them. "The previous night, the other family, the Archers, were killed just across the state line in Nebraska. He thinks it's the same offender."

"The MO is consistent," Derek noticed. "Both mothers died due to severe blunt-force trauma, and the fathers suffered multiple stab wounds."

"The children were all strangled," David continued as Rosa analysed the report, knowing just from the crime scene that it was the same unsub. "Violence only in the kid's rooms, but no sexual abuse on any of the children. That's odd."

"Odd comes up right now," said Penelope. "Because the Bennett father was not just stabbed, he was also... and those pictures are in your personal files, 'cause I didn't think they needed the help of 1080p."

"Oh this is horrible," Rosa said as she studied the pictures, feeling the prickle of tears that she wouldn't let fall. "Jake's chest was opened with his organs shuffled around and intestines removed."

"That's awesome," Penelope commented, unhappily. "Can we please leave the gross part of the conversation to the plane?"

"Sorry, Pen," said Rosa. "It's just... this is horrible."

"The father of the Archer family had multiple stab wounds, but no dissection," Spencer noticed.

"So, he went from piquerism to this overnight?" Emily questioned.

"It's a crazy jump," Rosa commented.

"Two families in two days," David said. "He's on a spree."

"Wheels up in thirty," Aaron decided.

That told them how serious the case was, but they all knew it. Even with everyone starting to leave to prepare themselves, Rosa remained seated, still reading over the case file as she analysed the photos as best as she could.

Emily called Derek's attention as Rosa finally forced herself to stand, where she still read while leaving the conference room. However, Derek left too as her head rose, spotting Ellie in the open space.

Next to Ellie, Lillian stood in her white night dress with her large hooded eyes staring at Rosa, full of betrayal. In Rosa's hands, the pictures of the strangled children seemed brighter with the pages suddenly heavy, along with Rosa's lungs.

Stepping backwards, Rosa's body collided with someone.

"Sorry," the word was barely a whisper.

As hands steadied her, Rosa turned to see that it was Spencer leaving the conference room. The doctor said something, but Rosa's ears were ringing. Her mouth suddenly felt dry, unable to produce any words as if she was a child who had been silenced again.

Whatever Spencer was saying, Rosa tried to answer with a smile.

Spencer's hand was still on Rosa's arm, but she was pulling away. In her mind, she thought of the words about getting ready to go, but no words strung together to form sentences. Clutching onto the case file, Rosa pulled herself away from the concerned doctor, heading towards her lab as quickly as her small feet would let her.

The cool air of the lab welcomed Rosa. Gasping, Rosa closed her eyes as she banged her head back against the door, unbothered by the slight flare of pain.

But, as she opened her eyes, Lillian appeared again causing the woman to jump.

"Please," Rosa pleaded, stepping towards her little sister. "Not today, Lillian."

Rosa's little sister remained frozen, forever waiting for her case to be solved.

A knock on the opened door echoed. "Hey, Rosa?"

Pressing her lips together, Rosa braced herself to face Spencer. When she did, he had already stepped into the lab with his irises locked on Rosa, full of apprehension.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Rosa told him, trying to find a slither of truth to the words.

"No, you're not," Spencer said as Rosa frowned. "That's okay, you know. Whatever is wrong, you have us — your team. Is there anything I can do?"

"I'll be okay," Rosa reassured him. "It's just the case, Spence."

Spencer didn't seem to believe Rosa, so she turned away from him, unknowing how to stop the profilers from reading her so openly. Though, for her sake, Spencer never mentioned it again as he helped Rosa carry her belongings to the jet.

On the plane, Rosa sat on the seat that Spencer had saved for her, where he offered her a small smile. Rosa returned it, knowing she wasn't alone.

"Check this out," David caught everyone's attention during the flight as he walked towards where Derek and Aaron were sat. "No forced entry at either house. Both dinner tables are set for five people, not four."

"Maybe they knew him and invited him to dinner," Derek suggested.

"Both families live in different states," said Spencer, who stood next to Rosa. "But only eight miles apart. Is it possible they knew each other?"

"Garcia," Aaron turned on the video call from his laptop. "Did you find any overlap between the Bennett and Archer families?"

"Zip," Penelope told them. "They didn't work, shop, eat, or worship in any of the same places."

"Worship?" Derek questioned.

"Both families religious?" Aaron added.

"And then some," said Penelope. "Pretty much all their social lives revolved around some kind of church activities."

"Maybe he forced the families to make dinner as part of a ritual, like Karl Arnold," Emily suggested.

"The Fox was a classic family annihilator who target patriarchs," Spencer informed them.

"The dissection of the last dad makes me think the unsub was focused on male parents as well," Derek said.

"I'm not so sure," David debated. "There's a lot of overkill on the mothers."

"It's hard to say who the main focus is," said Rosa. "Perhaps it's the family in general."

"All right," Aaron started. "When we land, Morgan, Prentiss and I will go get set up at the field office with Agent Beeks. Dave, you, and Reid drive to Council Bluffs while the crime scene's still fresh. Gomez, what'll help you? The crime scene or the victims?"

"The victims," Rosa decided. "But I'd appreciate you guys giving me a call while at the scene, then we could compare our findings."

♥

As Rosa studied the bodies, she hated to report that the mothers died in a lot of pain. The killer was not skilled, but he seemed to have no remorse. From the bodies, all Rosa could summarise was that the mothers were the main focus.

But, it was early in the morning when Rosa was called onto the next scene. Before leaving, she had woken Emily, letting her colleague know before she was heading out to get a head start.

It was a relief for the night to be over; the nightmares had lingered, ghosts threatening to drown Rosa, so she couldn't bring herself to look at Emily. Though, she knew her friend wouldn't mention the nightmares unless Rosa was ready to talk about them.

And Rosa never would be ready.

"Moring, Agent Beeks," Rosa greeted the man from the area, who was already on the scene, ready to welcome Rosa. "I do wish we were meeting under better circumstances."

"Thanks for coming so quickly," the man said.

Rosa nodded at that before she got to work, finding the dead man. But, the victim was not alone: close by to him, Lillian's ghost remained, watching Rosa in wonder as if her murder might be solved too.

"I'm so sorry this happened to you," Rosa told the victim, who was in his car.

And then she ignored her little sister, focusing on her work.

"Hey, guys," Rosa greeted David and Spencer as they joined her on the scene perhaps an hour later. "This is Louis Hannaum, forty-one years old and a well-known local reverend. I've been told that he closed the church after a canned food drive at 6:00 pm, told the other volunteers he was taking the donations to the Salvation Army three miles northeast on Route 6."

"Did he leave with anyone?" David asked.

"He left alone," said Rosa. "But the team are looking into it further."

"Before now, he's attacked families in their homes," Spencer said while analysing the crime scene. "Now just one victim on the side of the road? It doesn't...it doesn't fit his victimology."

"Well, it's definitely our unsub," Rosa told them, moving forwards to show them what she had discovered. "The unsub stabbed our victim while he was driving and then the truck crashed down here. He pushed him over, and tried to drive away, but the truck was stuck."

"His rage was so blinding, he takes out the driver while in motion," David said. "He's lucky he didn't crash into oncoming traffic."

"Then he immediately calms down and dissects the victim's arm?" Spencer questioned.

"I think he has some kind of ADD," Rosa told them. "The unsub has wild mood swings and is acting impulsively."

"Young adults are inherently nonthreatening," Spencer said.

"Parents would allow him to be alone with their children because he's the same age," David said.

"He's prepubescent," Spencer continued. "That would also explain why there's no sexual experimentations on the victims."

"He opens up human bodies out of curiosity," said David. "The same way I used to open up radios and TV sets when I was thirteen."

"And he's not going to slow down," Rosa told them, warning them that they needed to figure out where this unsub was before someone else died.

♥

Fortunately, the unsub had been found and arrested, where it had been a close call. Not only had an innocent family been targeted, but Jeremy (the unsub) had targeted his own mother and sister, almost killing them too.

"Nancy Riverton got out of surgery," Spencer confirmed for them on the plane home after. "She's gonna make it."

"Oh, thank God for that," Rosa said.

"She's lucky," David said.

"She managed to control him long enough to save her children," Aaron told them. "She's impressive."

"Mrs Sayer asked that she and her daughter be notified if and when Jeremy is released," Emily said.

"BAU should keep his file handy, too," David added.

"Excuse me," said Aaron, leaving where the group had sat to speak with Derek, who sat alone at the back of the plane.

Rosa pulled out her phone, bringing up a recent video of Lissie that had been sent by her mother. In the video, Lisse was saying goodnight, telling Rosa that she loved her.

"You're smiling again," Spencer noticed.

"I always am for Lissie," Rosa confirmed before she looked up at everyone, knowing she needed to start letting them into her life. "That reminds me, though: Lissie's turning two, so everyone's invited to a small party I'm throwing for her."

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to let the BAU completely into her life.

After all, she had Emily now, who was a flashlight in the dark.

And then there was Spencer, who always noticed when something was wrong, but never pressured Rosa.

♥

Look at that, a new chapter! First time I've actually written properly for this story in a long time, but I'm so excited to get back into it!