AN: have another one✨ why not? treat yourself🫶

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"there's nothing more intimate in life than simply being understood." - brad meltzer

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Delilah, Hotch, Derek and Emily gathered outside of the house shortly after checking out the crime scene, moving to form a small huddle to shield the other detectives on scene from hearing them talk.

Delilah was barely listening, her thoughts jumping quickly from idea to idea as she tried to figure out why she had this weird feeling and what exactly she was missing here.

"So, let's work this out. What does the new behavior tell us?" Hotch said quietly.

"That there was only one unsub this time?" Emily said. "Uh, Raphael? Alone?"

"Not if he's the psychotic. He wouldn't be capable of operating this efficiently. Someone was here who could control himself, make sure no evidence was left behind," Hotch said.

"At the first crime, unsub one called the police, right? This time it was Raphael. Why? It's like the phone call is necessary. It's part of the signature," Derek said.

Delilah shook her head.

"This doesn't make sense. They wouldn't switch roles the way the caller and Raphael seem to be. It's wrong," Delilah said.

"Have we ever seen this in case history?" Hotch asked.

"A mixture of extreme psychosis in a controlled individual? No. One of the most common indicators of extreme psychosis is solitude," Derek said.

"They don't exactly play well with others," Emily said.

Delilah's face dropped slightly, starting to pace up and down as she twisted her rings around her fingers.

They don't play well with others. The role reversal was practically unheard of. Extreme psychosis was indicated by solitude, so, typically, nobody else would be involved with the murders except one unsub, presumably Raphael, but Raphael wasn't controlled enough to do this.

But there couldn't be two.

"Was Garcia able to find anything on a Raphael in the records?" Gideon walked over to them.

"Not yet," Derek said.

"So, why is he naming himself? Twice? Certainly not worried about us getting that name. In fact, he wants us to know it," Gideon said.

"An alias?" Emily said.

"Or Raphael doesn't actually exist," Gideon said.

"So, we're not looking for a team?" Emily asked.

"Raphael's the name of one of the archangels," Gideon said.

"Meaning?" Emily asked.

"Meaning," Delilah said, turning to look at them. "There's only one unsub," she said.

"But there were two voices," Emily said.

"I think he's suffering from a delusion that he's actually an archangel. The behaviours don't fit their personalities, so, there can't be two. There's only one. Psychosis can manifest in so many different ways, like delusions and hallucinations. There's one unsub," Delilah said.

"What about the third voice?" Emily asked.

Delilah shrugged.

"Not sure," Delilah said.

"If Mrs. Douglas is Jezebel, there is an especially unpleasant death in her future," Hotch said.

Delilah grimaced.

Jezebel was eaten by dogs. Delilah was not looking forward to that crime scene.

•

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Delilah and the team walked back into the police station after driving back from the crime scene, Delilah twisting her rings as she thought about the third voice on the phone.

If unsub two was actually number one, could unsub three be number one, too?

"Garcia's running voice analysis on the first 911 call to see if there are actually two voices. She's also going to peel the third voice off the videotape and see if that gets anything," Derek said.

"We should have a copy of that latest call brought over here within the hour," the officer from the scene said.

"Thanks," Hotch said.

"Hotchner," Franks said, waving them over. "Your tech from Quantico is on the phone."

They moved over to the phone, Hotch putting it on speaker.

"Garcia," Hotch said.

"Jeez, don't you people answer your cell phones anymore?" Penelope huffed.

"We were driving back to Atlanta through the countryside. Spotty cell signal," Hotch said.

"If you think that first video went viral fast, the second one's going through the stratosphere," Penelope said.

"Second video?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, there's a new video from our psycho. I'm downloading it myself right now. Some of these upload sites get more than a million hits a day," Penelope said.

"Get it on the monitor here as soon as you can," Hotch said.

"Right," Penelope said, ending the call.

Delilah sighed and sat down, waiting for the computer screen to change. It did after a few minutes, the video coming on the screen.

The woman, Mrs. Douglass, was chained and gagged in what could be a barn, while a man with his hood covering his face read aloud the passage about Jezebel's death from the bible. Dogs in the background barked loudly, making Mrs. Douglass shriek through her gag.

The dogs came onto camera and descended on the woman, Delilah staring blankly as the woman was torn apart by the beasts, her screams ricocheting around Delilah's mind.

"Jezebel's death," Gideon muttered.

"My god," Emily said grimly.

"You can turn it off," Hotch said.

"Oh, wait," the officer from the second scene said, leaning forward towards the video with a frown.

"You hadn't seen enough?" Derek scowled, looking at him.

"Those dogs. Those three dogs attacked someone a couple of months ago. I would have had them impounded, but the victim knew the owner. A neighbor. He didn't want to press charges," the officer said.

"You sure?" Hotch asked.

"As god is my witness. Three mangy mixes. I knew those dogs looked sick. I called animal control, I don't know if they ever followed up on it. Here it is," the officer said, flicking through his notebook quickly.

"You have the owner's name?" Hotch asked.

"Hankel," the officer said.

"Hankel?" Delilah repeated, her stomach sinking down.

"Tobias Hankel," the officer nodded.

Delilah didn't even wait for instructions from Hotch. She was halfway out of the station when the others snapped out of their shock and followed blindly, Hotch explaining that JJ and Spencer had gone to speak to a Tobias Hankel earlier about a prowler called into the PD.

"Lilah!"

Delilah turned, catching the keys to the SUV that Hotch threw at her. She got into the driver's side of one of the SUVs, Derek and Emily getting in with her. Delilah turned the engine on, pulling out after Hotch without bothering with her seatbelt.

"JJ and Reid are there?" Emily asked.

"Yeah," Delilah muttered. "Fuck, it's so obvious."

"What is?" Derek asked.

"If Hankel is our unsub, why would he have called in a prowler at the Kyles house before the murder? To know how long the police would take to respond to the scene. He's the unsub. JJ and Spencer are walking right into a murderer's house," Delilah said.

"I'm gonna call-" Derek started.

"No point," Delilah muttered. "Rural Georgia. No cell service. Welcome to small towns, Derek."

She put her foot down, speeding onto the interstate to start the hour long drive towards the Hankel house.

"They'll be okay, Lilah," Derek said, though he didn't sound so sure.

"Our unsub is a delusional psychopath who literally just fed a woman to his dogs for their dinner. Forgive me if I'm concerned for our friends," Delilah snapped.

Derek didn't say anything. He just leaned back in the backseat, pulling his seatbelt on as Delilah picked up her speed again, her fingers tapping rapidly against the side of the steering wheel.

All she could think about was the fact that JJ and Spencer were in trouble. She'd had a bad feeling about this, and she'd still not figured it out fast enough, and now they were in danger.

It was like Dylan all over again.

The night Dylan disappeared, Delilah had a bad feeling. She'd been unable to sleep. And, when she woke up in the morning to her father shaking her awake, telling her that the cops wanted to talk to her because Dylan didn't make it home the day before and she was the last person who saw him before she left him to hang out with another friend while he walked home alone.

Delilah had swore to herself that she and JJ didn't have to end like she and Dylan did. JJ and Delilah might not be speaking right now, but JJ was still Delilah's best friend. Delilah couldn't let anything bad happen to her, and she wasn't going to let anything happen to Spencer. He was one of her best friends in the world. She needed him to survive. She needed both of them to survive.

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Delilah slammed on the breaks once they got to the Hankel house, the sirens ringing through the quiet night as she got out of the SUV, pulling her gun out of her holster and flicking her torch on.

"There's a barn round the back," one of the officers said.

Delilah took off towards the barn, Emily, Derek and an officer coming with her. Delilah pushed the door open gingerly, sweeping the barn with her torch before stepping further inside.

Blood was pooled on the floor in the straw, with the dogs lying dead around the space. One of the dogs was near a blood soaked mattress, which was the same mattress Mrs Douglass had been murdered on.

"Shit," Derek muttered.

"FBI!"

Delilah turned at the sound of JJ's voice her torch shining onto JJ stood in the gaps, blood staining her clothes and face, eyes panicked and face pale.

"JJ!" Emily started.

"Don't move!" JJ said, moving her gun between Derek and Emily.

"Lilah, a little help here?" Derek muttered.

Delilah put her gun in her holster, shining her torch at JJ as she stepped closer.

"Jayje-" she started.

JJ pointed the gun at her, not recognising Delilah. Delilah couldn't blame her, to be honest. JJ wasn't a trained field agent and shouldn't have had to see all of this. The dogs had probably tried to attack her and she'd been forced to kill them to protect herself.

Delilah moved forward slowly.

"Don't move!" JJ said.

"Mio sole, it's me. Delilah," Delilah said, creeping forward until JJ's gun was in arm's reach, watching JJ blink at her as Delilah tugged her gun out of her hand.

"Lilah?" JJ whispered, tears building quickly in her eyes.

"Hey," Delilah forced a weak smile. "Are you hurt?" she asked.

"Tobias Hankel is the unsub," JJ said quickly.

"I know," Delilah nodded, switching the safety on JJ's gun and handing it behind her to Emily. "Are you hurt?" Delilah asked.

"We thought he was just a witness," JJ said.

Delilah gently lifted her hand, pulling JJ's eyelids up and moving her torch quickly in front of her eyes, watching JJ's pupils follow it.

"She doesn't seem to have a concussion. Just shock, I think. Call an ambulance, anyway, okay?" Delilah said, looking over her shoulder at Derek, who nodded.

"I had to kill them," JJ whispered, looking at the dogs on the floor.

"JJ, where's Reid?" Emily walked over.

"They just completely tore her apart. There's nothing even left-" JJ started.

"JJ, look at me. Look at me. Where's Reid?" Emily asked.

"We split up. He said he was going to go in the back," JJ said.

Emily and Delilah shared a look.

"I'll tell the others about Reid," Emily said.

"I've got JJ," Delilah said, taking JJ's hand and tugging her out of the barn towards the SUV's. "You're safe," Delilah said, looking at JJ.

"I'm safe," JJ repeated.

"Yeah. You're safe," Delilah squeezed her hand.

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Delilah stood beside the ambulance ten minutes later, watching JJ get checked by the paramedic. The police officer was beside Delilah, looking at the agents walking in and out of the barn. Emily walked over.

"Any sign of him, yet?" Emily asked.

"We got every one of our units on the road. He won't make it far," the officer said, walking off with a nod.

"You can't find Reid?" JJ asked.

"Not yet," Emily said.

"Prentiss. Lilah," Derek called, waving them over away from JJ.

They walked over, Delilah glancing back at JJ as she walked over to Derek.

"I think Reid followed him into the cornfield. It looks like somebody got dragged," Derek said.

Delilah rubbed her face.

"Fuck," she muttered.

"Yeah. You sure? We're on our way now," the officer said on the phone.

"Hey, what's going on?" Emily looked over at him.

"The sheriff two towns over. He just gave directions to a man who fit Hankel's description. It's to a motor lodge in Fort Bend," the officer said.

"Let's get Hotch and Gideon," Derek said.

He and Emily set off towards the house, Delilah glancing back at JJ before following them.

JJ was safe and alive and okay. Now they had to focus on Spencer.

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Delilah sat in the dining room of the Hankel house the next morning, Emily, JJ, Derek and Gideon helping her work through the diaries they'd found. The door opened and Delilah looked up, watching Hotch step in and usher Penelope in behind him.

"Welcome to our nightmare," JJ said, noticing the panicked look on Penelope's face.

"His computer is an extension of his brain. I need you to dissect it," Gideon told Penelope, who nodded.

"I'll get you set up. Come on," Derek said, leading Penelope towards the computer room.

"So, nothing new since I left?" Hotch asked.

He'd gone to pick Penelope up from the airport two hours ago. Delilah had left to find some real coffee and buy breakfast for the team, taking the time to phone Liv and tell her they were all okay and would hopefully be home soon, even if that was basically a big fat lie.

She'd wanted to bring JJ with her, but she didn't even know what to say, and they'd gone back to their awkward staring at each other when they thought the other one wasn't looking. It was like last night hadn't even happened, if you could ignore the tension between the whole BAU team.

Delilah couldn't leave town to get away from the suffocation that JJ's presence was causing, but she could leave the house to find coffee.

"Well, the good thing is, the guy documented practically every second of his life. The bad news is, we're still unpiling," Emily said.

"From the looks of it, he hasn't left this place in years," JJ said.

"He knew he could pretend to be looking for a motel and throw us off his trail," Emily said.

"No, no, no. It's more than that. Sheriff's office, 911 calls. Every time he engages the police and gets away with it... He reassures himself god's on his side, not ours," Gideon said grimly.

Delilah stood up, running her hands through her hair as she left the room, heading into the computer room where Derek and Penelope were.

"Right out of the gate, the guy's self-taught. His mainframe is totally idiosyncratic, but it's pretty brilliant," Penelope said, glancing over her shoulder at Delilah.

"Talk to me about what this son of a bitch watches online. What the hell is all of this?" Derek asked, motioning to the large number of computers Penelope was commanding.

"It's tame stuff- video games, software, sports. Seriously, if I had to guess whose system this belongs to, I would say a crazy smart high-school kid," Penelope said.

"Garcia, that doesn't make any sense," Derek said.

"Well, that's what I've got," Penelope shrugged.

"A mission-based killer like Hankel would need constant reassurance- religious manifesto, violent images, something," Derek said.

"Nothing, baby. Nothing," Penelope said.

"Maybe Hankel doesn't need them," Delilah said.

"What do you mean?" Derek asked.

"Well, he's got different personalities, right? The delusions of Raphael? Maybe Tobias doesn't need these things, but Raphael does. They wouldn't be under Tobias' computer data because it's not Tobias," Delilah said.

"But Raphael doesn't exist," Derek said.

"Then we need to find out who the third personality is. It'll be him that has the violent shit," Delilah said.

"What about the mpegs of the murders he posted online? Does he sit and watch those over and over?" Derek asked.

Penelope typed on the computer.

"Ok, that's weird," Penelope said.

"What? Talk to me," Derek said.

"They're not even here. All I have is a site he set up once he commandeered people's webcams, and he keeps a running clock, and at a certain point, each one is bookmarked with a different heading," Penelope said, bringing up the webcams.

"Adulterer, liar, thief. This guy sits here for days and just watches these people, and he waits for them to commit a sin," Derek said, reading the bookmark titles.

"Yeah, but Reid's completely innocent," Penelope said.

"If you dig deep enough on any of us, we all have our sins, including Reid," Derek said.

Delilah twisted her rings around her fingers, looking at the computers for a few more seconds before sighing.

"Okay. I'm gonna try and see if there's anything in his diaries that might tell us who the third personality is," Delilah said, leaving the room.

•

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Delilah walked down the hallway towards the bathroom later that night, scraping her hair up into a ponytail as she looked around for JJ. She'd disappeared a while ago and still hadn't come back, which wasn't good considering her current mental state after last night's trauma.

Delilah pushed open the bathroom door, watching JJ look into the mirror and meet her eyes. She spun around quickly, pulling her gun up and pointing it at Delilah.

"Just me, bambina," Delilah said, leaning casually against the doorframe. "You're good."

JJ stared at her for a few seconds before she sighed, putting the gun in her holster.

"Sorry. I scared you," Delilah said. "Should've knocked."

"What's up?" JJ asked.

"Just came to check on you," Delilah said.

"Why?" JJ said.

Delilah almost flinched back. She kept her face neutral, pushing off the doorframe and turning around. Emily was stood there, holding up a piece of paper.

"What's that?" Delilah asked.

"A number for a guy who knew Hankel from narcotics anonymous. I'm talking to him tomorrow morning," Emily said.

"Ah," Delilah said, jaw clenching as she thought about the fact that Spencer was alone with a drug addict who had multiple personalities, one of which was a sadistic murderer acting in the name of God.

"Why don't you come with me, get out of the house?" Emily asked JJ.

"Yeah," JJ nodded.

"Ok. Great," Emily said.

"Emily," JJ said.

"Yeah?" Emily asked.

"How come none of this gets to you?" JJ asked quietly.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked.

"You came off a desk job. Now, suddenly you're in the field surrounded by mutilated bodies, and... You don't even flinch," JJ said slowly.

Delilah turned to look at Emily, studying how she straightened her back and forced a nonchalant shrug that seemed anything but nonchalant to Delilah's trained eye.

She was going to lie.

"She's right. You've never blinked," Hotch stepped over to them, a frown on his face.

"I... guess... Maybe I compartmentalize better than most people," Emily said.

Delilah couldn't help the small smile that tugged at her lips. Emily sounded just like her.

"Hey, guys! I think I got something!" Derek yelled from outside.

The four of them hurried out, seeing Derek lifting a wooden trap door up from in the dirt. Delilah pulled out her gun and flashlight, following Derek down the stairs slowly.

They descended into what looked like an underground cellar, rounding the corner of the stairs into a long room. There were blocks of ice everywhere, giving the room a biting chill, and there were animals half skinned hanging from the ceilings.

There was a man sat against the ice at the end of the room, wearing all black clothing with black hair, head tilted down.

"Tobias Hankel," Derek said, the two of them creeping closer.

Delilah winced when she caught a glimpse of the man's face.

"Cold and dead," Delilah muttered, staring at the bulging yet frozen eyes, the mouth frozen half open.

"I think we just found Hankel's father," Derek said into the radio, grimacing as he moved closer with Delilah. "You think this was the first victim?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Delilah said. "Depending on how long ago he died, this could be the stressor for the murders," she said.

"You might be right," Derek sighed.

"I'm always right. Doesn't help us find Reid, though," Delilah muttered, turning to leave the room.

She headed up out of the base, watching Hotch hurry down the stairs with Gideon. JJ had gone back inside, leaving Emily waiting near the trap door alone.

"His father," Emily said.

"Cold and dead," Delilah said.

"Shit," Emily sighed.

They started walking back towards the house in silence. Emily stopped halfway, glancing at Delilah.

"You don't blink," she said.

"What?" Delilah looked at her.

"JJ said I don't blink. I know you've been on the team for a while, but... This is a bad case. Spencer's missing. You haven't so much as blinked," Emily said.

Delilah stared at her for a few seconds, glancing around to check they were alone and way out of earshot of anyone.

"You didn't come off a desk job," Delilah said.

"What?" Emily asked.

"You can only compartmentalise as well as you are right now because you've been trained to do that. You've fooled Hotch and the team with your desk job story, but you need experience to be as good as you are. You don't get that with your ass in a chair," Delilah said.

Emily didn't say anything.

"I'm not gonna tell them. None of my business what you did or didn't do before the team," Delilah shrugged.

"Thanks," Emily said. "You... You've been trained to compartmentalise, too," Emily said. "You do the same as I do."

They stared at each other for a few seconds, tension in the air as Delilah studied Emily.

They both knew why they were good at compartmentalizing. Spies were trained to be, and Delilah had been a spy. Emily was saying they were the same. Emily had been a spy, too.

"Come on," Delilah said, turning back towards the house. "We've got to find Reid."

"Okay," Emily said, following Delilah again.

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