Twenty: Back In Business.

12x01 | The Crimson King.

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It was a well-deserved vacation. Julia had taken thirty days off as pre-planned before the whole thing with the thirteen serial killers getting out of prison had happened. She almost didn't leave, wanting to stay behind and help but the team insisted they'd be okay without her and she deserved the vacation.

        And now it was her first day back at work. She pressed the button to the elevator and waited for it as she took a sip of her coffee. She'd had a big smile on her face. She was excited to see her team again. The elevator doors opened and Julia's eyes widened in surprise when she saw who was inside.

"Hiya, sweetie pie!" Julia smiled.
"Hello." Reid greets with a smile on his face.

"Oh, I thought you were coming back tomorrow!" Julia says, greeting him with a small side hug. Reid had been the only other person that decided to take thirty days off to go and spend time with his mother in Paris. The tickets were non-refundable — Julia remembered that groan in his tone when he found that out. "We came back a day early." Reid told. "How was your vacation?" He asked.

Julia smiles to herself as she looks back on it all. She'd still gone to Disneyland with her brother and his family as planned before, but eventually got burnt out of them within a week. She had decided to book a ticket to Hawaii for another week and man, oh, man she missed it and wanted to go back so bad. (And while she was out there, she sent postcards that Garcia had collected in her lair!). But nonetheless, she had to go back to real life sometime soon.

"Oh, it was so so good. I'm glad to be back in business, though." Julia told and the elevator dinged when they got to their location. Reid being the gentleman he was let Julia go first out of the elevator and he also opened the door of the bullpen for her to walk through first and the first person to see them is JJ and she greets the both of them in hugs and questions about their vacations.

        Julia discusses with JJ that she'd soon be sharing about details with her, Garcia and Tara soon at a girls' night. She figured Reid wouldn't want to hear details when he had so much to tell about his mom. And she lets him go ahead and tell JJ.

       "Then, we visited the Louvres and the Eiffel tower, and the best part of all was that on the flight back Mom walked me through every moment of it. I didn't have to prompt her." Reid explains and JJ smiles fondly, "Oh, Spence, that's so great."

       "The latest research shows that diets high in omega-3 fatty acids help combat dementia, which we gorged on in Paris. I mean, honestly, if she hadn't been clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I'd just think she was a little absent-minded." Reid explains away and Julia smiles, "That's so good to hear about your mom."

      "So are you gonna keep her in the same facility?" JJ asks. Reid nods, "Yeah, she really likes it there." Rossi begins to walk over to the two agents, "Welcome back, you two. We missed you both." He greeted.

     "What did we miss while we were gone?" Reid asks and Julia then nods, "Ooh! Tell us about the new agent! Alvez, right?" Rossi nods at Julia and JJ looks at Rossi as she gathers the info in her head, "Uh, well, um, let's see, he bounced between different divisions before joining the fugitive task force."

"Former army ranger, right?" Reid asked. "Covered most of Iraq's worst hellholes. He's a first in, last out kind of guy." Rossi told and Julia smirked, "He'll fit right in." She joked.

"What does Garcia think about him?" Reid decides to ask and JJ and Rossi exchange a look and begin to talk over one another. "She, uh, she's..." It's funny because they can't seem to find a word for what she thinks about him. "She's... adjusting." JJ finally finds a word.

Reid raises a brow, "Adjusting?" He asks.
"That's a first. She welcomed me and Tara with open arms." Julia commented.
"Like JJ said, adjusting." Rossi comments.

"Huh, well speaking of which, I'm gonna go see my girl." Julia comments as she exits the bullpen to go see the woman in her lair.

Of course, Julia doesn't stay for very long, considering Garcia had just walked in through the lair doors and had announced to her that they'd had a case. Tara and Hotch were currently down in Tempe, Arizona investigating and it turns out, the case had something to do with one of their serial killers that had gotten out.

Luckily, with Luke Alvez on the team and with his man-hunting skills, they'd caught eight of the thirteen serial killers around the coast. (Julia would later ask Garcia of why she seemingly hates the man when she hardly knows him).

Julia entered the bullpen once more and walked towards the conference room to gather for the case. Up there, she found Reid and a man she didn't recognize in the middle of a conversation.

"After I heard how he broke out in May, I wanted to be the one to put him away again." Ah, so this was Luke Alvez. "There might be a flag on that play but let's hope we get somewhere with a man hunter, such as you, in this." Julia smiles and the man turns behind him and spots the woman.

"You must be Luke, I'm Julia Cortez." Julia holds a hand out, to which Luke takes. "Julia... right." The man can't help but gawk as she smiles at him. "I've, uh, heard a lot." He tells.

Julia looked at the man. Broad shoulders, beard, Hispanic, a man her mother would definitely be into — even at her age now. He was attractive, she wouldn't lie about that.

       Suddenly, Luke's gaze is interrupted when Rossi and JJ walk into the conference room. "Go ahead, Hotch, we're all here." Rossi starts, pressing a button on the phone on the table.

"The details of the Cullen case are all the same except for one." Hotch started. "The cuts on the latest victim are shallow and show definite hesitation marks." Tara added.

"It doesn't make sense. From his first victim, Cullen inflicted as much pain as possible." JJ continued. "And prison would have made him meaner, not nicer." Luke agreed.

"Brian Phillips doesn't match Cullen's previous injustice collector victimology, and the message at this time is 'BAU' when we had nothing to do with his initial arrest three years ago. So, look, maybe he met someone in prison and told them all about us, but more likely..."

"This isn't Daniel Cullen." Reid followed as Tara explained. "So, it's a very sophisticated copycat?" Julia suggested.

"Agent Alvez, this isn't the case you signed up for, but your history with it will still be an asset." Hotch told the man in the room. "If someone's out there copying Cullen, it could still lead us to him, and I want in on that." Luke told.

"I need everyone to look for any other discrepancies between the copycat and Cullen. Tara's gonna interview the latest victim and see what he remembers." Hotch ordered.

And after Tara had interviewed Brian, she'd discovered that Brian had inhaled some type of smoke when he was tortured. And the smoke smelt like bubblegum and the team had connected the dots on who it could possibly be and that it wasn't Daniel Cullen.

       So, with that news, the rest of the team was now heading to Tempe, Arizona. Julia was seated on the couch while JJ and Luke were seated together as well as Rossi and Reid.

      "Off of bubble gum? For real?" Luke asked, in disbelief. "We've seen the use of aerosolized drսg before," Reid began to explain. "One called scopolamine puts you in a catatonic state. The other, sevoflurane, is used during dental surgery. It puts you in a suggestible, almost hypnotic trance." He waves his fingers around so sillily and Julia smiles at that. "Isn't he so smart?" She says, proudly with a teasing smile.

      "And because it's used in dental surgery, it tastes and smells like bubble gum." JJ said. "And that's why we think the unsub is this guy." Rossi tells, handing Luke a photo of Peter Lewis. Julia had heard about the man, he'd tortured people in the past. One of the victims being her very own unit chief, Aaron Hotchner.

      "Mr. Scratch, Peter Lewis. He was one of the key players in the breakout." Luke stated.

      "Looks like you get to hunt a fugitive after all, just not the one you thought." Rossi comments. "But I'm bumping on two things. Number one... Peter Lewis should be doing everything he can to stay hidden. And number two... If he's going to surface again, why would he copy another guy's style?" Luke questions.

      "That's also what I'm wondering. I wasn't a part of the Peter Lewis case, so bear with me here on details but... he didn't torture his victims physically, just psychologically, right?" Julia questions.

      "He obviously has some agenda that's not clear to us yet. But we need to consider a more pressing problem. Peter Lewis is a math genius. Which means he plans for every variable." Reid explains to both Luke and Julia.

     "Why is that more pressing? Every serial killer thinks that." Rossi tells. "Yeah, but most of them operate out of compulsion and he doesn't. He would stress test all permutations of his plan before reappearing, most likely on other victims." Reid continued.

      "You think we're missing someone." JJ told. "He wouldn't release Brian unless he knew we couldn't catch him." Reid says.

       Suddenly, Garcia appears on the screen monitors in the jet. "Here I am, the paragon of professionalism." She starts and JJ and Julia exchange a look at that, both joining in a small shrug.

       "Garcia, have there been any suspicious murders in the Tempe-Phoenix area after Brian?" Rossi questioned. "Outside of the usual drug and domestic abuse violence, no." Garcia answered.

       "Check 911 records, any missing persons reports, psychotic episodes, delusions." JJ lists and Garcia shakes her head, "Mm-mmm. I'm gonna check the prank phone call bin to be sure—" She interrupts herself as she looks at her screen with furrowed brows.

      "What is it?" Reid asks.
      "I've got a call here about a Jennifer Jareau and a Julia Cortez —" Julia's ears perk up when she hears her name and both her and JJ are confused. "That caller listed the address as 54321 Rossi Avenue."

        "What the hell?" Julia questions. "Wow, this guy is really baiting us, isn't he?" JJ adds onto that.

      "Okay, it came from a burner phone, but they left the GPS on. I'm sending you the address now." Garcia told. "No," Rossi shakes his head. "Send it to Hotch and Tara. But let them know that Peter Lewis left the breadcrumbs on purpose. They could be walking into a trap."

        Julia found it disturbing that Peter Lewis seemed to know who she was when she hadn't even been a part of the case in the past. This indicated that he was watching them for a while and he had to have known she was on the team now. It made her stomach churn, especially after she'd seen the damage he'd inflicted on his victims in the past. Her own unit chief, stoic as ever, was even terrified of him at a point. She'd hoped by the end of this case, they'd catch him and they wouldn't have to deal with his insanity again after.

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The team had arrived to Tempe and walked over to their conference room that they were set up in. Julia spots her boss as he just gets off the phone. "That was Chelsea Carter's psychologist. He confirmed that for the past 15 years she suffered from dissociative identity disorder." Hotch explained.

"D.I.D.? You're talking split personality." Luke stated. "Technically, it's an updated diagnosis for multiple personality disorder." Reid told.

"Both of our victims shared the same diagnosis, and Brian has it, too. That's a small victimology pool." JJ said. "One that's localized here," Reid informed. "The University of Tempe has a summer camp that helps kids with dissociative disorders."

"And Garcia's contacting all the doctors and administrators. It's got to be where he's finding his victims." Hotch said. Rossi chimes in, "Yeah, but what does D.I.D. get him?"

Julia shrugs, "Maybe he wants to manipulate their identities in a way and he wants to create a violent one?" She suggests. "That means Peter Lewis is not the copycat. It's someone with D.I.D. who he dosed." JJ stated. "So he's telling this alternate to cut his victims like the Crimson King, and he would need to keep dosing him to maintain the illusion."

"Peter Lewis never liked to kill," Rossi said. "He always got others to do his dirty work for him."
"Here's the thing. D.I.D. is a difficult disorder to treat, but it's even more difficult for a third party to control. To succeed with this kind of experimentation, he would have had multiple failures." Reid explains.

"We are seeing that. Brian survived the torture, and Chelsea's mind snapped from it." JJ said and Luke looks at the team, "It begs the question, though... Why didn't Brian go crazy?"
"That is the million dollar question." Julia told.

Later on, after the team got comfortable at the PD, Tara had come back and informed them of what Brian had told her about the DID. Hotch gathered everyone up soon afterwards because Luke had had an opinion on the profile and suggested that maybe he should put his input out there.

       "You can't analyze a fugitive's actions on the outside without taking into account what he did on the inside." Luke started. "So what did Peter Lewis do on the inside?"

       "Nothing," Reid told. "He was a model prisoner." Luke shakes his head, "No, it goes further than that. He had no contact with other convicts. He didn't join or get pressured into a gang. When he gets out, he picks up as if no time had passed." He lists.

      "So he had the resources in place before we arrested him." JJ said. "A safe house to stay in, backup supplies of his drսg." Rossi continued.

      "He could have gone anywhere in the country. I mean, anywhere in the world, probably. Then he came here. To Tempe, Arizona?" Luke said and Julia began to understand what he was saying as Reid chimes in, "He had the highest concentration of targets with D.I.D. here."

        Julia then turns to Reid, "Wait, you said he wouldn't reveal himself until his plan was foolproof, right?" Reid nods at the girl as Julia continues, "This isn't foolproof. Alvez has a point. Brian and Chelsea have both been failures."

        Luke nods at the woman, glad she's seeing where he's coming from with this. "But what part of his plan has worked?" He asks and looks around the room as he sees the team come to a realization. "Us." Julia nodded and Luke looks around, "You see where I'm going with this?"

      "Most fugitives, they do everything they can to stay on the DL. He's courted our attention from the beginning. Where I keep hitting a wall is why." Luke explains.

      "Especially if he already has a list of all the kids that went to that camp." Tara reasons. "Maybe we need to re-evaluate our presumptions. When Peter Lewis needed information before, he hacked Quantico." Hotch began and JJ shakes her head, "Well, he can't do that again."

       "So maybe he's going to get his information from us." Hotch suggests. "And we're compiling the very list he would want." Rossi tells and Julia looks over at Tara and the look on her face is unreadable.

      "We know all his tricks. We're not gonna give him the list." JJ said. "The police aren't. How is he gonna get it?" Rossi questions.

       "Brian," Tara answers. "I asked Officer Dewey to go over the list with him once Garcia had something. Oh, god, Hotch, I'm so sorry." A look of regret washes over Tara and Julia looks at the woman assuringly. "You didn't know, it's okay."

        Hotch is quick to call Garcia. "Yes, sir." The woman begins. "Garcia, don't distribute the list." Hotch ordered. There's a pause on Garcia's end. "But... I just hit send."

Oh, no.

Brian had gotten away from the hospital, killing Officer Dewey in the process. Carving the word, 'bye' on his forehead. Luke had gone to the evidence room with Rossi, checking out the arm spreader Brian was found wearing on his arms when he was found. They had discovered that Scratch had ordered the arm spreader at a BDSM shop.

       After Garcia sent over the list, Reid, Julia and Luke drove to one of the shops they found the arm spreader was ordered from. They entered the shop and immediately asked the associate some questions after flashing their badges. She had a questionable look on her face as the three asked questions. But the only person that seemed to get on with the associate was Julia.

Julia had questioned the woman on if she'd seen Peter Lewis in the store, showing her a photo of the man for her to look over to see if she'd recognize him. "Uh, yeah. This guy ordered this arm spreader. Um, two of them, actually." She revealed.

"Two of them?" Luke asked. "So then where's the other one?" Julia asked, looking in between the two men.

The woman had looked over at Reid and furrowed her brows as she spoke up towards him. "Um... could I see your badge again?" She asked. Reid nods, pulling it out of his pocket for her to glance over again. "Yeah. Is there a problem?"

"Um..." The woman nods. "Yeah, okay, the guy who ordered them, the name he left on the invoice was Dr. Spencer Reid." Julia furrowed her brows at that. "What the hell?"

"Did he pay with my credit card also?" Reid asked as he puts his badge back in his pocket. "Cash," the woman said. "I knew he was sketchy. Guys like him give S&M a bad rap. Which is why I did ask for a copy of Dr. Reid's driver's license, which he gave me happily."

"We'll need to see that right now." Luke told and the woman nods. Luke looks over at Reid and Julia as she gathers that. "And we're sure it's him?"

"Yeah, either him or Dr. Reid here has a couple of kinks that he's not hiding very well." Julia commented and Reid furrowed his brows in confusion and Julia holds her hands up in surrender. "Hey, I'm not judging."

        After that, they sent info to Garcia and got back into the SUV with Reid and Luke sitting in front seat and Julia sitting in the back as Garcia called the three up. "He was all up in your business, boy wonder. He used your social security number to do a change of address and everything, but, speaking of addresses, we have a local one for him." Garcia told.

       "Good," Reid nods. "Get that information to the rest of the team and the police, please. We need to assume he has the same level of personal information for the entire BAU." He says.

        "He's taunting us. First, the crank call and now this?" Julia questions. "He must have the same amount of information on Daniel Cullen." Luke told, gripping the wheel tightly.

        Reid and Julia exchange a look. "But we ruled out his involvement." Julia spoke up. "Now I'm not so sure," Luke stated. "Peter Lewis copied a specific detail of Cullen's arm spreader, one that wasn't in a public record. The only way he could have gotten it is if the real Crimson King has been a part of this all along."

        "And you're 100% sure about this?" Julia asks. Luke doesn't look her way, instead he nods and goes, "It's him, I know it is." Julia and Reid exchange a look and Julia leans back in her seat.

Rossi had called the three soon after. They're all ready in their FBI vests as Luke continues to drive. "Reid, Cortez, Luke, the police are ten minutes out." He informed.

     "That could be a problem. If the police try to convince Brian he's not the Crimson King, he could get unstable." Reid said.

      "Guys, we might have a solution." JJ speaks up. "Try to keep Brian calm. We're on our way." Tara added.

       In under five minutes, Luke gets them to their destination. Julia hops out of the car with Luke and Reid, guns in their hands and they approach the house and enter.

       When they enter, they find Brian, standing next to Daniel Cullen, hovering over him with a knife in his hands. "FBI! Drop the weapon!" Reid shouts as Julia cocks her gun with her team members.

       Once Brian moves, they see that Brian is carving the word 'IMPOSTER' into his stomach. He's only gotten to 'IMPOST'. Brain holds the knife to Cullen's neck. "Help me." Cullen mumbles.

      "The Crimson King doesn't kill. He doesn't have to. Remember?" Reid reminds Brian. Luke nods, "That's right. You kill and it's over. But if you let him go, he has to live the rest of his life as a failure. Isn't that what you really want?"

"Brian, just put the gun down and we can talk about this." Julia encourages but Brian shakes his head. Clearly, he's been manipulated into doing this and Julia can see it in his eyes. "No. That's not good enough."

Behind them, Tara and JJ enter quietly with their weapons in their hands. "No one is gonna hurt you like that ever again." Tara spoke, approaching closer. Brian holds the weapon up to Tara. "Back off! I mean it!" He threatens the woman.

     "We can't do that," Tara shakes her head. "Okay? Someone told you to do this. But this isn't who you are, is it? We know that." JJ then speaks up and repeats the words. "No one is going to hurt you like that ever again."

    Brian looks at the team in front of him. "Nobody hurt me, I hurt them." He tells.

"Yes, they did hurt you. They cut you when you were little. And then right here on this very table, you saw your own blood and you didn't know what to do, so you became the Crimson King to protect yourself. No one is gonna hurt you like that ever again." Tara tells, trying to get him to stand off. "No one is gonna hurt you like that ever again." JJ adds.

     "Do you remember Eliza?" Brian's head perks up and he looks at Tara, like he's remembering something. "Angelica? What they used to say to you at the foster home to calm you down? No one is going to hurt you like that ever again."

      Behind them, they hear sirens approaching and Brian looks down at the ground and immediately drops the knife and looks at the team with fear in his eyes as he holds his hands up in surrender. "Do you promise?" He asks. Tara puts her gun in her holster and she begins to put Brian in handcuffs. "Yeah. I promise."

Julia then approaches Cullen so she can help him out of the straps he was put in as Tara and JJ lead Brian out of the house.

      Reid had also helped Julia with Cullen and eventually took over as he put him in handcuffs, since he was responsible for his own doings. "Thank you, all of you." Cullen mutters.

Luke shakes his head as he gets in Cullen's face. "No, don't thank us. You're under arrest."

     Cullen has a drugged expression and he looks at the man in confusion. "Okay. Uh, for what? What did I do?" Reid peeks over his shoulder towards Julia and Luke.

"Must have dosed him to make him lose his memory so we couldn't get any answers out of him." He tells.
     "No, we've met. Three years ago. Hmm? What's my name? What's my partner's name?" Luke interrogates. Cullen shakes his head. "I don't know."

     "You're faking it." Luke mutters under his breath. "Luke." Reid tries. "You're faking it. What's your name? What's your name? Say it." Luke pressures and finally, Julia tries to pull Luke away. "Alvez, stop." She warns.

     Cullen shakes his head at the man. "I don't know. Tell me. Please." Julia looks at Luke, who is still glaring at him. "He's clearly drugged." Julia turns her head towards Reid as she tosses her head over. "Get him out of here before he goes ballistic."

       With that, Reid takes Cullen out of the house and Luke huffs, following behind the two as Julia puts her gun in her holster and sighs.

The work here was done but at what cost? Sure, they'd crossed another serial killer that escaped off their list but Peter Lewis was still out there and he'd done enough damage as it was. Julia half-worried that maybe they wouldn't be able to catch him, considering Reid having the statistics on him being super-duper smart at Math. He'd had a variable for every step he'd take. Julia had to hope that maybe just maybe they'd find him and take him down and she'd had her hopes, but still. He'd known so much about them. And even had their information. They'd see soon just how much damage he'd cause to the BAU.

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Julia had finished her paperwork, ready to go home to the cats and to wash this damn case off. She'd been packing her bag when she'd come across Tara, JJ and Garcia in the bullpen, all getting ready to leave as well.

They'd been chatting with one another and Tara had spoke up, "Hey, Cortez. I didn't get a chance to ask. How was your vacation?" She asked.

"It was fun," Julia said. "After Disneyland, I went to Hawaii. I sat in the sun, danced on breezy nights and... uh," She looks around before she continues. "I re-met a guy."

"Re-met?" JJ asks, her face confused at that.
"A guy?" Garcia asks after a sharp gasp.
"What?" Tara asks.

Julia giggles, "I had this boyfriend in high school. We broke it off when we graduated because of the distance and there sitting on a barstool with a beer in his hand was Thomas Beauregard." This was true. They'd run into each other and chatted and caught up, had a few laughs and it was like the chemistry had never left. She'd taken his number and boom! They'd been talking ever since.

"Thomas Beauregard," Garcia smirks. "Sounds rich." Julia nods, "He is. And he moved here after he graduated college, so..."

"Wait... are you guys like—?" JJ starts to ask and Julia continues for her. "Going steady? Kinda." She smiles and Garcia chuckles with her, "Ooh, this is exciting!"

"Wait, you have a boyfriend?" Julia turns around and sees that Reid is standing right behind her at this news. His hand twiddling with the strap of his brown leather satchel. "Uh, I guess?" Julia says, looking at the man. "Oh, that's... that's awesome. I'm... I'm really happy for you." He says, plastering on an obviously fake smile.

Julia frowns as she goes to ruffle his hair, "Oh, don't worry, handsome. I won't forget you. You're still my favorite person."
"Ahem!" Garcia clears her throat.
"Oh, well, second-favorite." Julia corrects as Reid smiles a little at her.

"If you are anyone's favorite, you are mine. And I am claiming that because there is no way that newb can claim that!" Garcia had started making it a habit to call Luke "the newb". Julia didn't know whether to feel bad or join in on the teasing.

As they made their way over to the elevator, Reid sadly followed behind. What did he expect? Julia was great, who wouldn't want to be with her? (He was just foolish to think someone would want to be with him). He saw this coming from a mile ahead but he really liked Julia. He didn't realize just how much, but she was an amazing person. He knew there was no use to be upset over it. It really wasn't that big of a deal anyways. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be.

hey lovelies!
FIRST EPISODE OF SEASON 12 DOWN!
i'm excited but i'm also SCARED for what i have planned 😭

y'all are gonna probably kill me for the angst i'm going to write lmao
also peep the new gif! 🤭
thank you all for reading!
i love you all!
-mya <333