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"sleep is death enjoyed." - christian friedrich hebbel

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Delilah stood at the front of the hall for the talk with the Ozona kids with Derek and JJ, hands in her pockets as she leaned against the stage.

"It's something we call the buddy system. That means you always go everywhere with a friend," JJ said.

"That's right, because bad men and women are more likely to talk to us only when we're by ourselves," Derek said.

"We don't know what these guys look like yet. Might be someone you know," Delilah said.

"Yes sweetheart, you got a question?" Derek looked at a little girl with her hand up.

"There was this little girl once on the news, who just got grabbed. Right in front of her house. Could that happen to us?" the little girl said.

"Nothing's gonna happen to any of you, as long as you remember this buddy system, okay?" Derek said calmly.

The kids all nodded.

•

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Delilah leaned against a desk in the police department, watching Spencer and Derek go over the geographical profile.

"Just wait for me up front. No wandering," the guidance counsellor pulled his ginger son into the bullpen.

"Okay, dad!" the kid huffed, yanking his arm free and stomping off.

Delilah raised her eyebrows as Gideon walked in.

"It's too scary to let him out of your sight!" the guidance counsellor said to Gideon.

"I know," Gideon said. "Can I have your attention, please? Good afternoon. We want to make something clear. Due to the velocity of change, we predict this offender could try to strike again anytime His confidence builds with every attack," he said.

The police officers in the room nodded, listening to the profile.

"Look for someone physically fit, shy. Kind disposition, someone you may trust with your own child. Because the killer targets kids, he may be small himself. I know we keep referring to this Unsub as he, do not rule out a woman," Derek said.

"Excuse me!" a voice said.

"Chief! You're gonna want to hear this," an officer pulled a pregnant woman and a little boy over gently.

"My son Matthew never came home today," the pregnant woman said quietly.

"Here we go," Derek muttered.

"Where was he last seen?" Gideon asked.

"His teacher saw him in the parking lot after school," the mom said.

"Search team," the sheriff said.

Officers started moving, Delilah walking to the geographical profile to help Derek and Spencer.

"Okay, Reid. School is on Willow road," Derek said.

"The boy was abducted. This area would be the most secluded nearby," Spencer said, circling an area with his finger.

"So, Jones could route his guys to the gas station, we could cover territories, more ground, find the kid faster," Delilah said.

"Yeah," Derek said. "Let's get some backup on Willow road," he said.

"It's Fennigan's place," the chief said loudly.

"Who's Fennigan?" Delilah turned around with a frown.

"This old guy who is in the house. Forever kind of a local legend. Ghost story," the sheriff said.

"About?" Spencer asked.

"He supposably watches the kids from his window, Hunts them, skins them, eats them. Standard," the chief shrugged.

Delilah winced, but he was right. Every small town had a local legend or a ghost story. This town's was Old Man Fennigan. Delilah's town was the Highland Hunter.

"Folks have been telling that story since I was a kid," the guidance counsellor said.

"Why haven't we heard about that? Fables are often sparked by an ounce of truth. We should exhaust every possibility," Derek said.

•

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Delilah looked around Fennigan's house, shining her torch around the empty corners. The house was empty, their lead dead unless they found any evidence.

"Fennigan's not here," the sheriff walked into the room Derek and Delilah were stood in.

"And neither is the missing boy," Derek said.

"Electricity's out," the sheriff said.

"I know," Derek said.

"Maybe he's been away," the sheriff said.

"No, this paper was delivered today," Delilah grabbed a paper off the table, eyeing today's date.

"So Fennigan was here earlier," the sheriff said.

"Yeah, question is, where is he now?" Derek said.

Delilah left the room, shining her torch up the stairs. She sighed, then started heading up there. She stopped at the top of the stairs, staring out of the large window at the cliff edge beneath the house.

Delilah shivered when she saw the masses of trees around them, rubbing her eyes a few times. She opened them again, flinching back when black balloons floated up into the sky. Delilah blinked, then looked out of the window, again.

No black balloons.

Delilah groaned, rubbing her face a few times as she turned around. She moved her hands off her face, a small yelp falling from her lips as she came face to face with Derek Morgan.

"Dude!" Delilah said, shoving him in the arm. "Why the fuck are you creeping up on me? We're in a murder house!" she said.

"Dude, why are you so jumpy?" Derek blinked. "Is it the woods?" he said. "Or the dark?"

"It's nothing. It's just freaky. Come on," Delilah said, pushing past him to go downstairs.

Derek followed, the two of them walking into the room where Spencer was. He jumped when their torches shone on his face, looking at them with wide eyes.

"You really are afraid of the dark," Derek said.

"I'm working on that," Spencer said.

"You should work a little harder," Derek said.

Delilah turned when the sheriff walked into the room.

"My deputy got the boy home safe. Turns out the poor kid got spooked by a tree branch," he said.

"This whole town's on edge," Delilah said.

"Maybe that's why Fennigan's in the wind," Derek said.

Gideon poked his head out of a room, waving them over. They all followed, shining their torches on a gun rack.

"That's interesting," Delilah said.

She turned, looking around the rest of the room. She spotted a coffee table near a sofa and moved around, kneeling to see backpacks on the ground.

"The Unsub didn't use a gun. And he knows every trail in Ozona. Fennigan's an avid hunter. Why didn't he use," Gideon trailed off as Delilah held up a backpack.

"Robbie Davis. First victim," Delilah said, reading the name on the backpack.

She held up a pink lunchbox.

"Sarah P," Delilah said.

"Sarah Peterson right?" Gideon said, taking the backpack.

"I guess Fennigan brought the kids back here first before baiting them into the woods," Derek said.

"But why wouldn't he get rid of the evidence?" the sheriff said.

"Considers them trophies," Spencer said.

"When this is all said and done, I'd like to hang his head on my wall," Derek muttered.

•

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Delilah flicked through a book on the sofa in the Fennigan house in the woods the next morning, Derek flicking through books on the shelf while Spencer read the file on the other sofa.

"Here's a question: if a tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound if there's nobody there to hear it?" Spencer said.

"Are the stars still above you if you don't look at them?" Delilah said.

"Yes," Spencer said.

"Then there's your answer," Delilah said.

"What the hell are you reading over there?" Derek said.

"Just thinking," Spencer said.

"The Unsub found Fennigan's corpse in a lightly traveled part of the woods and no one else knew. So, he was able to use his house and no one was the wizer," Derek said, sitting on the sofa.

"Actually, I was referring to Fennigan's wife," Spencer said.

"What are you talking about?" Derek said.

"She was rumoured missing, perhaps killed, almost 50 years ago. When, in actuality, she left Fennigan for another man. He writes about it in his journals. How he would look out the window on a daily basis to see if she would come home, she never did. He never recovered, he ended up turning into a recluse that people in town misunderstood," Spencer said.

"Found something. C'mere," Gideon said, poking his head out of a door.

They all followed him into the kitchen where they saw boxes of food on the kitchen island.

"Provisions. Delivered by the church to every elder's doorstep. Each one dated after Fennigan died," Gideon said.

"So the Unsub ate everything," Derek said.

"Almost everything. Unopened bowls of cream spinach thrown into the trash. Each one wrapped with ducttape. One with each tray," Gideon said.

"So we're looking for a guy who really really hates spinach," Derek said.

"Who doesn't?" Spencer frowned.

"Ritualized, meticulous, organized," Gideon said.

"He would eat with the same particulars," Spencer said.

"Pull prints, have Garcia run them for a match," Gideon said.

His phone rang and he pulled it out.

"Hotch," Gideon muttered, walking out of the room.

Delilah pulled out her own phone to text Penelope about prints coming in shortly.

"It's about Elle, isn't it?" Spencer said.

"I don't know," Derek said.

"You know, I talked to her in Ohio," Spencer said. Delilah looked up from her phone.

"Reid, we all talked to her," Derek said.

"No, I talked to her before... I went to her room one night, and... She was drinking," Spencer said.

"She almost died. I'd be drinking too," Derek said, walking out of the room.

Delilah looked back down at her phone.

"Lilah?" Spencer said.

"I talked to her before we got on the jet. I told her she could talk to me if she needed to. Guess she didn't," Delilah said, pushing off the side. "We need prints. C'mon."

•

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"About the woods, JJ. Your fear. You said it was of the woods," Derek said.

Delilah looked up from where she was sat in the corner of the couch in the local police office, JJ beside her with Spencer on JJ's other side, Derek sat opposite them. The four of them were having coffee while waiting for anything back about the prints.

"I used to be a camp counselor, when I was a teenager. In the woods up in Vermont, at the night shift, tucked the girls in, turned off the lights. The typical drill. Everything seemed fine, all the kids were asleep. You know, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until... I noticed there was some blood, on the hallway floor. So I... followed the blood trail out to the camp director's cabin, walked up to his bed and... He was just lying there, underneath his covers. Dead. Someone stabbed him," JJ said.

Delilah bit back a smirk. She knew JJ was lying, purely because of the way her thumb twitched over the sleeve on the coffee cup when she talked. But it was funny to see the look of concern on Spencer and Derek's faces.

"I ran out of there so fast, out the door, down the hall, I just remember it, being really dark. Once I got to the door, there was another counselor there, I guess she heard me scream. They caught the caretaker on his way to town, I guess he still had the knife on him. Anyway, I guess that's probably when I decided I didn't like the woods," JJ said.

"You're serious?" Derek asked.

"No! No! Come on. I don't know why I'm afraid of the woods, I just I am, why is he still afraid of the dark?" JJ laughed, making Derek start laughing as she pointed at Spencer.

"Yeah, Reid, why are you still afraid of the dark?" Derek said.

"Because of the inherent absence of light!" Spencer said. "Back me up here, Lilah," he said.

"I'm not scared of the dark anymore," Delilah laughed.

"JJ, that was pretty good, just know that paybacks are a bitch," Derek chuckled.

"I'm shaking," JJ teased.

Derek's phone rang and he picked it up, putting it to his ear.

"Yeah. Hey girl, you got something good for me? Two? But which one of the victims? Why don't you coordinate with the Ozona coroner's office for a match? Yeah he's local guidance counselor helping us on this case! I know exactly how to find him, Garcia, thanks," Derek hung up the phone. "Call Gideon, we just found our Unsub," he said.

The four of them stood up, heading towards the door to leave while Delilah pulled her phone out to call Gideon.

•

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"Sure about this? Charles?" the sheriff asked as he reached their unsub's house where the team was gathered.

"Born and raised in Ozona, knows the territory, works with children," Spencer said.

"Highly organized, slight in stature, injected himself into the investigation," Derek said.

"What do you think happened the last six months that would have changed his life?" Gideon asked.

"His wife walked out on him and his kid," the sheriff muttered.

"There's your stressor," Gideon said.

"Guys, he's on the move," JJ said, looking over at the house.

They hurried over, Delilah following Derek towards the wall and jumping over it.

"Mr Charles!" Derek yelled.

The man looked up from his car, twitching as he looked to his left.

"Don't do it!" Derek yelled.

Charles took off running. Delilah cursed, following Derek after him. They chased him around the side of the house, Gideon and Spencer blocking his exit from the other side. Derek tackled Charles, knocking him to the ground.

"Why are you running? Give me this," Derek said, grabbing the bag out of his hands. He unzipped it, pulling out a red hat. "What's this? What's this? What's so important about the hat?" he yelled at Charles.

"Nicholas Faye was wearing it when he was murdered," Gideon said, staring at the hat.

Delilah looked at the man, jaw clenching. His poor kid, growing up with a dad killing kids his age. Was the kid the father's ultimate target?

•

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Delilah swung her feet, sat on the same desk as Spencer as he fiddled with handcuffs. JJ was stood in the doorway of the small office, looking down at her phone.

"You know, it's bad enough his mother left, and now his father's in custody and we've got to take the poor kid into child services," JJ said.

"It's the law," Spencer said.

"So is jaywalking. I don't like it," JJ said, putting the phone to her ear. "Good afternoon, this is agent Jareau, with the FBI, we're gonna be picking up Jeffrey Charles in about 20 minutes, if..." JJ trailed off. " Okay, I see. Thank you," JJ said.

She ended the call, looking at Spencer and Delilah.

"What is it?" Spencer said.

"Let me guess, the kid didn't go to school," Delilah said.

JJ nodded, hurrying out of the room. Delilah and Spencer followed her to Gideon's desk, Gideon looking up at them.

"Jeffrey never was at school today. His father said he was sick," JJ said.

Gideon nodded, picking up the phone.

"Go to the Charles house, do a sweep of anything that proves James Charles did this, or anything that tells us where Jeffrey is," Gideon said.

The three of them nodded, hurrying off to drive over there.

•

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Delilah looked around the Charles house kitchen, frowning at the pile of dirty dishes in the sink.

"He could've cleaned up for us," Delilah muttered.

"What is that?" the sheriff said.

Delilah turned, seeing Spencer and the sheriff near the table, holding up a yellow and white tube.

"It's an EpiPen. Weird," Spencer mumbled.

He moved over to the fridge and opened it, revealing any and all dairy products sealed with duct tape. Spencer pulled out his phone and pressed call, putting it to his ear.

"Think I just found something. An EpiPen, and a refrigerator that's filled with dairy products that have been sealed with ducttape," Spencer said.

"Hey, I don't want to be weird, but, don't you think it's strange that James is a grown ass man and can't resist dairy enough that he has to ducttape the dairy products to stop himself eating them?" Delilah said. "Unless it's not him that's got to resist dairy. Maybe it's the kid," she said.

"You think Jeffrey Charles is capable of doing this?" the sheriff said.

"I think kids can do a lot of evil things," Delilah said.

"You seen worse than this?" the sheriff asked.

"Yeah," Delilah sighed, turning around. "Let's go back."

•

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Delilah got out of the SUV with the rest of the team at the last known site of Tracy, the missing little girl. It was a road through a heavily wooded area.

"You know, after his mom left, Jeffrey probably resented the fact that his dad spends more time at work with other kids than with his own," Derek said.

"He took out that rage on any kid he viewed, as having what he didn't," Gideon said.

"So, Tracey's mom said the bus would have dropped her off here after school, she was supposed to walk home with a neighbor," JJ said.

"It's most likely when Jeffrey approached, but where he'd taken her?" Spencer asked.

"Such heavy patrolling in this town. How did he managed to take a little girl without being seen?" JJ asked.

"Because we taught him. Nobody's gonna think anything of two kids walking together. The buddy system, remember? In the process of educating the public, we educated a killer," Derek said.

"When it's off season from baseball, where would a 12 year old kid hang out?" JJ asked.

"A park," Gideon said, eyes resting behind them.

"Surrounded by woods," JJ muttered.

"Let's go," Gideon said.

They all took off towards the woods, Delilah behind Gideon with Spencer as they looked around. They ran through the park, something purple lying in the leaves not far from the trees. Spencer knelt over and grabbed the backpack.

"Tracey Belle's," he read the name off it.

"He's got her in these woods. Split up!" Gideon said grimly.

He took off into the woods in one direction, Delilah heading in another while the others split off, too. Delilah looked through the trees as she ran, trying to spot any disturbances in the leaves as she went.

She heard metal smash against a tree a few seconds later, a grunt coming from not too far away. Delilah spun around, wincing when she heard a little girl scream.

She took off south through the trees, running down a hill towards a ginger boy holding a metal baseball bat above his head, towering over a blonde girl on the floor. He swung it at the girl, the girl shuffling back.

Delilah got closer, seeing JJ and Spencer running through the trees opposite her towards the scene.

"Jeffrey!" Gideon yelled from behind Delilah.

Delilah got close enough to grab the boy, wrapping one arm around his neck from behind and kneeing him in the back of his knees. His legs weakened and Delilah pried the bat from his hands, handing it over to Derek as she tightened her grip on the struggling murderer in her arms. She looked down at him, then back at Gideon.

Gideon quickly grabbed the boy's shoulder, taking over restraining him for Delilah. Delilah pulled away, wiping her hands on her jeans as she looked over her shoulder. JJ was holding Tracy in a hug as the little girl cried, but she wasn't hurt. Delilah looked back at the boy, watching how he glared up at her defiantly.

Delilah just kept her face blank as she stared at him. His glare dropped as he kept struggling, the realisation that he was in trouble flashing across his face. Delilah allowed herself a small smile, then.

Good. He deserved to be in trouble, no matter what in his brain caused him to act this way.

•

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"Hey, we're home. Wake up," Delilah nudged JJ awake as she pulled her car into the apartment parking lot.

JJ groaned from the passenger seat, moving to get out of the car. Delilah got out, locking the car, and lead the way in the building and up in the elevator. She unlocked the front door, letting JJ in as the sound of Golden Girls played through the apartment.

"Hey, you're back! I just got home an hour ago. Pizza was delivered literally ten minutes ago if you're hungry," Liv called from the living room.

Delilah and JJ kicked off their coats and shoes, heading to the living room and flopping on the other couch to Liv, taking the box she held out to them.

"How was the case?" Liv asked.

"Kid killing kids. How was surgery?" Delilah said.

"Brain bleeds from car accidents. All survived," Liv said, taking a bite of her own pizza.

"Rough day for all of us," JJ sighed, taking a bite of her slice.

"Yeah. You wanna watch something else?" Liv said.

"No, this is good. We'll be going to bed, soon," Delilah yawned.

"I'm half asleep," JJ mumbled, head dropping back against the couch.

"Did you eat on the jet?" Liv said.

"We slept," Delilah said.

"What was the case like?" Liv said.

"Difficult," Delilah sighed. "There was some murder house that the kid was hiding the other kid's backpacks in. No electricity and we went at night. I was freaked out. There were trees everywhere outside and Derek snuck up on me and made me lose my shit," Delilah said.

"That's a dick move," Liv said.

"He doesn't know why I was freaked out," Delilah said.

"Was it the dark or the trees?" Liv said.

Delilah looked at JJ, who had nodded off, pizza still in her hand.

"I thought I saw balloons in the sky. Black ones. I didn't," Delilah muttered, rubbing her face. "I was tired. Exhausted. I was creeped out about the woods and spiralled in that house. Reminded me of the cabin," Delilah mumbled.

"Have you made a therapy appointment?" Liv asked.

"I'm gonna call in the morning," Delilah said.

"And we're sure this wasn't real?" Liv asked.

"Different town, Liv. We would've noticed if there were any other psychos running around town," Delilah said.

"Okay," Liv nodded. "Are you feeling okay?" she asked.

"Yeah. Glad to be home," Delilah said.

"Have you told dad?" Liv said.

"No. Don't you tell him, either. He'll try and come and visit and then he'll drop in to see Gideon and Hotch and everyone will find out who he is and accuse me of nepotism and it's not nepotism. I'm good at my job," Delilah said.

"I know," Liv said. "But he should know," she said.

"No. Zip it," Delilah pointed at her. "I'm fine. It's fine."

"Okay," Liv held up her hands.

Delilah threw the crust of her pizza in the box and took JJ's out of her hand, nudging her as she stood up.

"Hey, bed, lazy ass," she said.

"So tired," JJ groaned, getting to her feet and disappearing down the hallway.

"She's still staying here a lot. Any update on your plan to get over her?" Liv said quietly, taking a bite of her pizza.

"Suffering in silence. And, what, you want me to start crashing at her place with her, instead?" Delilah said.

"Just don't get why you torture yourself by having her stay here," Liv said.

"I sleep better with her," Delilah said. "So, drop whatever issue you've got. I know what I'm doing," Delilah said.

"You do. You've always known how to break your own heart," Liv said.

Delilah rolled her eyes.

"I'm too tired to even deal with you, right now. Goodnight, Olivia," Delilah said, walking down the hallway to her room.

"Don't hate me 'cause I tell you the truth! One day, you'll thank me!" Liv called after her.

Delilah closed her bedroom door with a sigh, heading to the bathroom to get changed. She brushed her hair, washed her face, then brushed her teeth, and headed back into the bedroom, climbing into the bed beside JJ.

"What was Liv shouting about?" JJ yawned, moving into Delilah's side.

"Nothing important. Don't worry about it, okay?" Delilah said.

"If you say so," JJ mumbled.

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