Six: Monsters & Meetings.

11x07 | Target Rich.

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It'd been a rough morning already. Julia unfortunately trusted the pink fuzzy alarm clock once more and woke up thirty minutes late. Add onto that, she stubbed her toe on the corner of her bedpost getting ready and the cats didn't have any food and it caused her to remember that she was going to buy them food last night but she'd gotten home late from work that she wasn't able to do so.

Julia turns the other cheek, though, despite the universe screaming at her to have a shitty day. She'd entered the bullpen with her coffee in hand and took a massive sigh as she approached her desk.

First time she'd ever been an hour late to work. She'd hope Hotch wouldn't give her a rough time because she was already having a rough time this morning.

"Julia, hey," Garcia's cheery voice started, approaching the woman. "Why are you late today?" She wondered and Julia knew it was more curiosity rising than scolding. Garcia was never like that.

Julia turns to see Garcia, Rossi and Reid and sighs as she places her bag in her seat. "Rough morning," she said simply. "The cats ran out of food this morning — so me being the dutiful cat mother that I am — had to stop by the store and get them food." She then noticed the blonde woman standing Garcia and realized that she recognized her from the pictures in Garcia's lair.

Jennifer Jareau was back from maternity leave.

"Oh, hello!" Julia greeted with a smile on her face. Garcia then moves backward so Jennifer can move forward towards Julia. "Jennifer Jareau, Julia Cortez. Our newbie here has already heard all about you." Garcia smiled.

"It's such a pleasure to meet you, Jennifer." Julia holds a hand out for her to shake, to which she gladly accepts. "Oh, please, just JJ." She said. "I've also heard a lot about you from Spence here." JJ turns to the man, whose cheeks are now a crimson red at the mention of his name.

"JJ—!" He whines like a boy who's just been teased.

Julia throws a playful smirk over Reid's way. "Oh, so you talk about me to your friends? How sweet." She tells and Reid looks down with a protruding smile on his face that JJ, Rossi and Garcia all seem to notice.

"Jules, Jules, please come and enjoy some Bureau approved bubbly with us! We're just celebrating JJ's welcome back!" Garcia encourages and Julia shakes her head, "Oh, I couldn't intrude—" She tells.

"Oh, you're not intruding on anything. Come on!" JJ nods at the woman and Julia shrugs, "Okay." So, Rossi pours a glass for Julia as well and they all clink their glasses together.

"Okay, since I have finally met the famous Julia Cortez, now tell me all about Tara Lewis." JJ tells the group, looking around for answers playfully and to know about the new agent.

"She is really excited to meet you. I think her exact words after reading your reports were, 'is JJ as awesome as I think she is?'" Reid recites and JJ smiles, "I like her already."

"Wow, already winning the show-off card and she's not even here!" Julia stated playfully. "She'll be happy you're back." She tells.

JJ nodded and turned her attention to the young doctor. "So, Spence here, was telling me you're were a medical examiner / forensic specialist back in Indianapolis?" She asked and Julia shrugs, "Eh, don't mean to brag, but — yes, I was. I helped the BAU with a case about a little over a year ago."

JJ snaps her fingers, "Oh, yeah, I remember that. The bomber at that coffee shop."
"And it ended up being the 'hero' that placed the bomb there in the first place." Julia nodded.
"That's right, to seek the recognition he believed he deserved." JJ finished.

"So, what made you leave?" JJ asked. "Uh, Rossi here offered me a spot. Said I was always welcome and my brain could be used elsewhere. So, a few months after, I quit at the job I was working in Indianapolis and boom — here I am." Julia explained.

"And you're how old?" JJ asked with a squint. "Twenty-five." Julia shrugged.

JJ turns to other agents, impressed. "She's incredible, isn't she?" Garcia asks.

Julia turns towards the stairs and sees Morgan and Hotch coming down to greet JJ. "Okay, you did not just have a baby." Morgan comments and JJ places her glass down to greet Morgan with a hug, as well as Hotch.

      "Seriously, talk to me. What is your secret? 'Cause you look good." Morgan tells. "Well, yeah, see these guns?" JJ teases, pointing towards her arm as she flexes it. "It's from lugging around two boys all day."

      "Oh, baby weightlifting. I would buy that DVD." Garcia comments and Julia chuckles at her friend. Rossi's cellphone begins to ring and he excuses himself from the convo to answer it.

       JJ offers cider to Hotch and Morgan to join them in the welcoming. As she's preoccupied with that, Julia finds herself nudging Reid. "So..." She smirks and Reid gulps, awkwardly. "You talk about me a lot to JJ?" She wonders with a teasing smile on her face.

       "Just—Just to fill her in on what she's... missed." Reid told, eyes widen and cheeks pink.

        Their fun had ended quickly after that. They'd been informed from Rossi's daughter, Joy, that she had gotten a call about a missing girl named Bahni Desai. She'd believed that her disappearance may have been connected to four different cases regarding missing college students. And she'd wanted the team to do some digging into it. And because they weren't invited in, they had to tread lightly.

          Hotch had sent Morgan, Reid and Julia together to investigate Bahni Desai's college campus — where Reid and Morgan were dropping the lore on Rossi discovering he had a daughter last year to Julia.

        "So, let me get this straight," Julia started, appearing through the console since she was sitting in the backseat. "Rossi's daughter was stalking him and so he thought she was a fan and she showed up at the BAU because she wanted to tell him she was his daughter and that her mother never told Rossi about her having a child?" She questioned.
         "Yeah, pretty much." Reid nodded at that.
         "It's always the older people that have the better lore." Julia commented.

         Suddenly, Morgan's cell rang and the rest of the team, including Joy, had been doing investigating and debriefing altogether.

       "Four cases in nine years. How come this hasn't been on our radar?" Morgan questioned.
       "Because the disappearances were in different states with different M.O.s." Rossi answered.

       "The first missing woman was Kathy Miller from NYU in 2006." Reid stated.
       "So what's the plan once we land on campus?" Julia asked, loud enough for the rest of the team to hear on the other side of the phone.

       "Track Bahni's movements. Campus police checked her room. She's not there. They taped it off for you." Hotch told.

      "What about her cell phone?" Reid asks. "It just pinged in her room overnight." Garcia answered. "Strange for millennials to go anywhere without a phone." JJ commented.

       "No credit card activity. I confirmed with all ticket agencies she didn't take a boat, bus, blimp, or plane last night. Oh! Dean's office just sent us her file from Judy Temple College. It looks like... oh, dear." Garcia paused.
      "Looks like what?" Rossi asked.
      "She voluntarily withdrew." Garcia revealed.

      Maybe it had something to do why she disappeared.

      Morgan, Reid and Julia all arrived at the campus and began to look through Bahni's room. Julia had looked around, the room was clean. It was a typical college student's room.

      "She definitely didn't plan on leaving town. Her clothes, shoes, and luggage are all still here." Reid pointed out as they looked around the room. "Well, it looks like she was trying on different outfits. Mini skirts, heels. She was clearly going out." Morgan added.

      "But why not take her phone? She would need to meet up with her friends." Julia told. "Unless her friends were already here." Morgan stated as he noted at the two college textbooks on the table.

      "Reid, Cortez, same textbooks, different names. She wasn't studying alone." Morgan told.
      "This 'Paddy Morris' might be the last person that saw Bahni." Julia told.

        So, as Morgan stated behind in Bahni's room to look more, Reid and Julia called Garcia and pinged Paddy Morris' phone so they could speak with her. Once they arrived at the room, Reid knocked on the door. "Paddy Morris, this is the FBI."

        They hear a groan and a woman's voice behind the door. "Very funny, Josh." Julia raised a brow as two pull out their badges as the woman opens the door. "It's too early for this--" The woman stops in her tracks as she looks at the two agents in surprise. "You're not Josh." She told.

        The agents asked to speak with her and began to explain the situation. Anything Julia thought in her head about this Paddy Morris having to do with her disappearance was out the door as Paddy expressed shocked and confused emotions to the agents in front of her.

      "I was with her last night. She was fine." Paddy sobbed. "Do you have any idea she would leave her cell phone in her room?"Julia questioned.

      "We didn't take purses, and we didn't have pockets in our skirts." The woman answered.

      "Okay, walk us through the night. You guys were studying before you went out?" Reid asked, leaning forward.

       Paddy nodded, "Yeah. Um... I knew about this party. She didn't want to go." Paddy began to explain that they'd shown up to a party and it wasn't a typical frat party like she was expecting but more so a group of nerds attempting to be cool.

      "So, it wasn't epic." Reid assumed. "It was most decidedly not... epic." Paddy shook her head. "I've been to a couple of those kinds of parties myself. I get it." Julia nodded, looking at the girl with an understanding smile.

        Reid watched Julia as she did this. She more so seemed to humanize with the victims or families of the victims instead of interrogating them like his other colleagues would. He admired her for it.

       "Did you two come back to the dorm?" Julia then asked. "No. I made her stay." Paddy told.
       "Why?" Julia wondered.
       "There was this tennis guy that I'd been trading tweets with. He said he'd show up, but he was late, and then the later it got, the more I drank." Paddy explained.

       "How much did you have?" Reid questioned. "Her, I don't know, me, a lot. Until..." Paddy's tennis guy had shown up to the party and Bahni had decided to leave soon after.

       "Did anyone walk out after her, maybe try to escort her?" Reid wondered, the possibility going over his mind. "Not that I saw." Paddy answered.

        Paddy shook her head as tears began to stream down her face. "God, it's my fault, isn't it?" She cried.
       "It's not your fault at all, Paddy. And you can still help us." Julia assured to the girl as she grabbed her hand.

       "Anything. Name it." Paddy told, looking at the two agents.
      "Where was the party?" Julia asked.

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      Paddy had told them where the party was. Garcia had mapped out all the possible routes Bahni could've taken back to her dorm and Garcia pulled the feed from video cameras at every corner and found Bahni in the video stumbling and being followed by a man in the corridor.

       The team began to coordinate with the campus police and Alexandria PD about Bahni's disappearance. Bahni's sister had talked to the press and asked the person that took her to just bring her home. And they even posted the live feed from the security footage that Garcia found.

And then about an hour later, a man showed up to the BAU, claiming he was the man in the security footage. So, Rossi had taken him into one of the interrogation rooms where Julia and JJ would be questioning him.

       After Julia had gotten the man settled in, JJ then arrived with a file in hand. "Mr. Burnett. This is Agent Jennifer Jareau. She'll be joining us." Julia informed the man.

     "Call me Sam." The man tells JJ. His eyes then linger on her chest. "Is that your birthstone?" He questions, talking about her necklace. "Uh, it's my son's." She tells.

      "It's beautiful." Burnett told. JJ nods at him, "Thank you." JJ and Julia exchange a sly look after that. "So, uh, Mr. Burnett, can you just-- just walk us through why you were on Front Street at 1am?" JJ began, changing the subject to the matter of which he was here.

      "I drive a cab. I'm Medallion 3469. And moonlight as a sober cabdriver. It's a service local bars and campuses provide to make sure kids get home safely if they've gotten stupid. Front Street's a good spot to post up and wait for fares. I was checking my phone when I saw her." The man explains to the women.

       "Bahni." Julia nodded. The man shrugs at that, "I don't know. I guess. What I noticed was how out of it she was. I went to help. Then some dude came up and walked off with her. It seemed like they knew one another." He told.

       "Can you describe him?" JJ asked. "Big. My height. He was wearing a hoodie, so I couldn't see his face. But, I mean, that's the guy you should be looking for, right?" Burnett told.

       JJ then stops him for a second. "Okay, explain something to me. Um, why did you step back into the doorway?" She questions.
       The man pauses, as if he's studying the question in his head. "What do you mean?" He asks.

      "Well, you saw Bahni coming, you stepped back to let her pass, then you followed her." JJ stated. The man looks at both of the women.

       Burnett leans forward and looks in between Julia and JJ. "Listen, I came in here because you asked. Maybe that was a mistake. After that guy went off with that girl, I got a fare, which I took. My cab has GPS. You can check it out. If you don't believe me, maybe I should get a lawyer." The man tells.

        "Sir, we're just trying to get to the bottom of this. We have a job to do and that's getting Bahni home safe and sound. There's no need to get defensive." Julia replied back and the man sat back and demanded for his lawyer.

          There was something about him that seemed off to Julia. But he was squeaky clean. And they had to let him go. The team went back to the BAU room, still trying to figure out who took Bahni that night.

         Rossi walked into the room finally and looked around. "Anyone see Joy?" He questions. "Not for a while. Why?" Garcia asks, looking up from her computer in front of her.

       "She asked about Sam's rap sheet. At the time, I didn't think it through. But she is a journalist." Rossi told, and Julia could tell he was hopelessly praying she didn't do anything stupid.
        "And Sam's a lead." Morgan stated, knowing where Rossi was going with this.

        "Pull him up, Garcia." Rossi said, looking at the woman in her seat. Julia leans backward in her seat, looking at the woman's screen as she clacks away on her keyboard. "Okay, uh, Sam Burnett. No record. Just his address and his date of birth." Garcia told.

         "He's about the same age as Joy." Hotch pointed out. "That's it. Where did he go to college?" Rossi asks.
        "He dropped out of NYU in 2006." Garcia informed. And Julia looks up at Rossi, knowing Joy went to NYU in 2006.

         "The same time Kathy Miller went missing." Reid said. "Okay, but hold up. What are we saying? Burnett did not take Bahni." Morgan stated.

        "But he could be an unsub," JJ then turns to Julia. "When he talked about Bahni's abduction, he wasn't concerned." Julia nodded along with her, "If anything, he sounded jealous."

        "We have two separate unsubs in a target rich environment." Hotch told. "And Joy's going to confront the one we know. Garcia, ping her phone." Rossi ordered and the woman nods right away.

        The purple dot on Garcia's screen concerns Julia when she sees where Joy is currently. "She's in the same alley that Bahni was last seen." Garcia told.

        Rossi sighs and then replies, "Now ping Sam's." And lo and behold, a red dot appears next to the purple one and Rossi is quick out the door and tells JJ to follow after him.

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        They'd gotten word that Sam Burnett tried to attack Joy. But Rossi and JJ had gotten there in time to put Burnett in cuffs. And Joy had gotten a voice recording of Burnett and her's interaction.
       
         And they had every intention for catching the dirtbag that nabbed Bahni when Burnett in the recording paused like he didn't want to give a clue. Rossi called Garcia, telling her to check the security footage again and to run registrations on all vehicles on or around campus after midnight.

         As Garcia had done that, Julia noticed Reid downstairs getting more coffee. That had to have been his fifth cup today. She went downstairs to follow, noticing how quiet he's been and how involved he's been in his cell phone despite being such a technophobe.

"Hey, sweetie pie," Julia smiles as she grabs a cup for herself. Reid gives her a small smile, not responding. Usually, he'd reply with a simple 'hello' or something — all she'd gotten was that tight-lipped smile and she already knew... something was off.

"You okay?" Julia asks, her teasing nature faltering as she sees something in his eyes she can't quite place. "Uh... it's—it's nothing important." He tells, beginning to walk away.

Julia, now concerned, follows after him. "Reid," She places a hand on his chest gently, feeling his heart beating under her palm for a second before she removes her hand quickly to not make him uncomfortable — although, all she wants is to just keep her hand on his chest.

"I know that I flirt with you and tease you a lot but that doesn't mean you can't come to me with things." Julia said, wholeheartedly and Reid can tell she means it. Underneath the teasing and the comments, Julia was a caring person and Reid knew that she was too sweet for him. He looks down at his mug, knowing if he'd looked in her eyes, maybe he'd fallen for her. (And maybe he already has).

"We're a team. And if I wanna be open with my team, I also wanna be open with you." Julia nudges her head forward to look Reid in the eyes after she's done. "And I completely understand if you just need space and don't wanna talk about it. I get it. But... I'm here." She tells.

          "It's just..." Reid starts softly. He picks his head up completely and sighs. "It's my mom, she's... she's not doing so well." He said simply and by how hesitant he sounded, Julia knew that's all he was gonna say on the matter. And she wasn't gonna push.

"I'm sorry to hear that, Reid." Julia says, a frown bestowed on her face. She puts a hand on his shoulder, rubbing soothingly.

Reid sniffles, "I, uh... I'm just really worried about her is all." Seeing Reid like this made Julia sad. She hated seeing him unhappy about this issue with his mom.

Part of her wondered what it was about but she wasn't gonna pry.

"Well, maybe you should go and see her. Maybe she'd like that." Julia tells and Reid shrugs, "Yeah, I think you're right. Maybe she would. JJ said I should go and see her, too."

Before Julia could reply, Morgan comes downstairs. "Hey, guys?" He calls, turning the heads of both Julia and Reid. "Garcia wants us back up here."

        Julia and Reid went back upstairs to the conference room with Morgan and the rest of the team surrounding Garcia.

       "I'm looking at the vehicles from earlier and there's nothing extraordinary about them or their owners." Garcia told. "Any of them belong to Judy Temple students?" Hotch asked.

        "Two, but we already know they went home for the weekend." Garcia answered. "Some of Sam Burnett's story is true. The unsub likely walked off with his arm around Bahni, and it's highly doubtful that he would have taken the chance to hurt her in public." Morgan told.

        "Yeah, but then they just disappeared." Garcia said. "Well, because he took her away, likely in a vehicle that fit in. Campus security should have a list of vehicles that are authorized to drive onto campus. Cross-check those against your list." Reid advises to Garcia.

        Garcia nods as she does her scheming. "Checking registrations. There's a car. It looks like it's in the neighborhood. It delivers Chinese food to campus."

       "Does Bahni order from them?" Julia questions. Garcia's eyes widen as she nods, "All the flippin' time."
       "Who's it registered to?" Reid wondered.

       "Twenty-two-year-old, Tom Larson. No criminal record." Garcia informed. "Check for juvenile offenses. He's gotta have some sort of record on him." Julia stated as she looked at the screen in the room with Hotch.

        "Oh. Bingo. Lots of misdemeanor peeping offenses in his teens. It doesn't look like it's a coincidence. And every time he got busted, he'd end up in the hospital with bruises and broken bones." Garcia told.

        "Probably an abusive father. Was child services ever called?" Hotch questioned. "Looks like the mom explained it away, until she committed suicide years ago.

        Morgan chimes in, "You want to bet that she received the brunt of his abuse?"
       "Oh, no takers on that bet. Looks like the elder Larson had a heart attack last year according to medical records, and the son is the primary caregiver." Garcia informed.

        "Caring for his own father who beat him, it was only a matter of time before he snapped." Reid informed. "Then, we don't have two monsters, we have three." Julia nodded.

       "Garcia, send the address to Rossi and JJ." Hotch ordered to the technical analyst.

       
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        In the end, JJ and Rossi successfully saved Bahni from Tom Larson. He'd beaten his father to a pulp, killing him. And Tom Larson was taken into custody and Bahni was reunited with her family.

         And since Sam Burnett was taken into questioning after what happened to Joy, it'd given the team time to look into Sam Burnett's history — as well as his apartment.

         Rossi had decided to go with JJ and Julia this time to confront the man. As soon as the door opened, Burnett rolled his eyes. "I got nothing to say until my lawyer gets here. Except, the little recording that bitch made is inadmissible. Even I know that." The man told.

         Rossi stood behind Julia and JJ as they both sat in front of him. "Maybe so, but she's my daughter. And that recording gave us probable cause for a search warrant." Rossi told.

        JJ pulled out a box in front of her with the plastic gloves covering her hands since it was evidence and just by his lack of breathing, Julia could tell. They had him.

      "We noticed that you seem to have a thing for necklaces." Julia told.
     
        JJ pulls out a necklace from the box. "See this?" She asks the man. "Kathy Miller's initials. Her grandmother gave it to her."

        Julia smirked as she saw the man's face falter at the fact that he was definitely going to jail after this. He looks at the three agents and shakes his head, "All right, let's make a deal."

        JJ closes the box and both she and Julia look up at the man.
      "Yeah... no." Julia responded.
      "Let's not." JJ added.

      They'd tied Sam Burnett with the murders of the three victims. And he'd be going away for a long time, just like Tom Larson.

      Julia had finished up her paperwork and began to pack up for the day. She'd seen JJ had finished packing up and looked her way.

     "So, how was your first case back?" Julia wondered as she puts the rest of her files in her bag. "This was... one of the good ones, definitely." JJ answered. "Anyone ever tell you you're good at what you do?" She asks Julia.

Julia shrugs, "It was my first rodeo in interrogation, so... no." She chuckles a bit. "You've got the chops to be here, trust me." JJ assured with a small smile on her face.

"You have no idea just how much I needed that." Julia nodded at JJ.

For the past few months she'd been here already, she doubted herself once in a blue moon so it was good to hear that someone else believed in her. Perhaps, she'd just needed the reminder.

They exchange a quick goodbye and Julia packs the rest of her stuff in her bag and then looks over to see Reid, his back turned to her and a phone to his ear.

"What do you think about me coming out to visit for a little while?" Reid spoke softly to the person on the other line. "I can make it out there in the morning." The other voice spoke. "I'll book a flight tonight."

He carried the conversation for a few minutes and Julia only assumes that it's his mother on the other line with the way he speaks to her. So loving and caring and kind and soft.

"I'll do that when I get home tonight, then. I'll let you go then. I love you. Bye." Reid hangs up the phone and Julia smiles and realizes she's gotten caught in staring at him — or rather his back.

         "That your mom?" Julia asks, but she already knows the answer. Reid turns around to the woman. "Yeah, yeah." He faces Julia and stuffs his hands in his pockets. "Looks like I'm gonna be gone for a while." He says.

Julia frowns, "Man, who am I gonna stare at while I pretend to do paperwork?" She jokes, putting a small smile on Reid's face. (That was her goal).

"No, you go and see your mom. I'm sure she'll enjoy your company there." Julia says. "I will." Reid nodded at the woman.

"See you later, handsome." Julia teases, booping the tip of his nose with her pointer finger before walking away. Reid smiles as he watches her walk away.

Somehow, he found himself missing her already as she walked out of the bullpen. He liked the fact that she hadn't pushed about the situation with his mom but still showed sympathy about it. And it was genuine sympathy. Not that he expected JJ or anyone else to express genuine empathy about his mom not doing so well, but Julia actually made it seem like he wasn't alone in it. Like she's been through it herself. (Spoiler alert; she hadn't). He took a deep breath as he had decided to go up to Hotch's office and inform him of the situation and that he needed time off and luckily, Hotch had granted it.

And now, it was time to face the reality of his own situation, desperately grasping to the teasing Julia had inflicted on him to make the dreading feeling lingering go away.

HEY LOVELIES!
it's my BIRTHDAY!!
HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY TO ME!! 🥳

and here i am, feeding y'all
i wouldn't have it any other way 😌
thank you guys for reading
their relationship is getting strongerrr 🤭

i love you all!
-mya <333