Twenty-Three: Sticks & Stones.

12x05 | The Anti-Terror Squad.

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Julia stifled a yawn as the rest of the team gathered in the BAU room. The last people entering the room being Luke and Garcia. Garcia took a big sigh as she walks towards the screen.

"The Bergstrom family was killed in their home in Winona, Minnesota, last night. Mother, Father, and little boy, all shot execution style." Garcia informed. "Any suspects?" JJ asked as she flips through the file.

"Therein lies the mystery," Garcia said. "The Bergstrom family was as low-risk as they come."

"What about murder-suicide?" Reid asked next. "That was ruled out," Emily spoke up. "There was no murder weapon found at the scene, and both Bridget and Scott Bergstrom were shot in their bed."

"But there was a survivor," Rossi reveals. "A teenage daughter."

Garcia nods, zooming in on the daughter's face in the photo. "Seventeen-year-old, Amanda. She was out past her curfew at the time of the murders." JJ concludes, "And she's the one that found the bodies." Garcia nods at this sadly

"It almost seems like a hit man scenario." Spencer tells. "Maybe a mafia retaliation kill? But that doesn't seem likely in Winona, Minnesota." Luke points out. "But it does seem like it's a revenge killing. This seems... personal." Julia adds.

"If the unsub expected to wipe out the entire family, he screwed up by leaving Amanda alive." Rossi stated. "Unless she had something to do with it." Spencer suggests but Garcia shakes her head. "That's a question mark, but according to the M.E.'s preliminary report, she can't be the shooter, based on alibi and time of deaths."

"On the surface, they were a well-liked family, living a low-risk lifestyle." Rossi told. "The daughter, Amanda, where is she?" Spencer asks. "Protective custody, in case the unsub sees her as unfinished business." Garcia informs.

Rossi looks around the room. "We good?" He asks and everyone in the room nods. "We fly." He decides.

After the presentation of the case, the team heads on the jet soon enough, begins to debrief over the case with Garcia on the monitor before them. Julia sits next to Rossi on the jet as he starts, "Bridget and Scott Bergstrom grew up in Winona and have deep ties to the community."

"Scott was a local distributor of farm equipment. Bridget cut hair at a salon in the mall." JJ informed, looking down at her tablet. "Yet they were murdered by a family annihilator." Emily points out.

"Sad but true," Garcia starts. "The Bergstrom family had their share of dirty laundry. Though who of us does not?" Julia nods at this. "Everyone has secrets."

"Scott developed a Vicodin habit a few years back after a skiing accident." Reid said. "So he could have been in over his head with his dealer." Emily  shrugged at the possibility.

      "And Garcia, was Bridget having an affair?" Julia asks and Garcia hastily nods at the doctor's words.
     "Yeah, sure enough, sweet angel. I looked at their financials. She's got a credit card secret just in her name, with charges to a motel just outside of town, and nothing else." She tells.

"She might have cut things off, causing him to go off the deep end." Rossi suggested. "Can you get us a name?" Garcia nods, "Yeah, I'm already into it. You'll have lover boy's ID ASAP."

"What about Amanda, the sole survivor? Any motive there?" Reid asks.
Garcia sighs, "Deep sigh. I hate that you're asking that. And deep sigh again, I am bound by duty to report the facts. There's a modest insurance policy. Seventeen-year-old Amanda is the beneficiary."

"$100,000." Emily reads aloud and Julia's eyes widen at this. "That would seem like all the money in the world to a teenager."
"If I had that kind of money as a teenager, I would've been long gone from my parents' place after that." Julia comments.

"People have been killed for a lot less. That's an unlikely motive for the daughter, but we can't rule her out." Rossi tells. "Whatever set this unsub off, he made the whole family pay for it." Reid stated.

"Okay. JJ, Spencer, Emily, you go directly to the crime scene." Rossi decides. "Luke, Cortez, you're with me. We'll set up HQ at the local PD." Julia looks at Luke as she nods to him and looks back down at her file for the work.

     Soon enough, they land and Julia had followed with Luke and Rossi at the PD. The sheriff took them in, explaining how Amanda was handling the current situation after Julia has asked how she'd been doing after the whole thing.

      "Poor kid was so distraught, we took her to the ER. They ended up sedating her. She'll be coming around soon. I've got a deputy stationed outside her room over at County General." He informed.
       "It's probably for the best," Julia comments. "After everything she's been through in the past 24 hours, she could use the rest."

     "And it's good she has the protection," Rossi added. "If the unsub wanted to wipe out the entire family, she could be in danger."

       The four walk into a room as Julia asks a follow-up question. "We also heard that the wife, Bridget, was having an affair?"
      The sheriff nods, "Yeah, that was an open secret. She was seeing Ron Ferguson. They met at the gym. He was a trainer."
     "Was?" Luke asked. "What happened?"

      "Sticky fingers," The sheriff told. "Ronnie got caught stealing personal items from lockers. They called us over, but nobody pressed charges. Just sent him packing."

      "So, he's a perv and he was a homewrecker," Julia stated. "Ferguson sounds like trouble." Julia crosses her arms. "He's no altar boy," The sheriff continues. "Couple of DUIs and a few assault convictions. Bar fights, mostly. But nothing like this. You don't think he's involved in this, do you?"

      "The guy's got a temper and he likes to drink. That's not a good combo." Luke tells and Julia nods, "I'll say."
      "Where is he now?" Rossi asks the sheriff.
      "Living off unemployment, just outside town out by I-90." The man informs.

Rossi looks at Luke and Julia, "You guys go and talk to him." Both the agents nod to one another and take one of the SUVs to head outside town after getting where their destination would be on a map.

        Luke had offered to drive and since it hadn't been very far, Julia let him. She never really liked driving anyways. They had finally arrived at the complex where Ron Ferguson lived.

        Julia closes the car door as she decides to ask, "So, knocking on doors remind you of fugitive hunting?"

Luke shrugs at this, "Yeah, a little bit. That was a... that was a one-man show, though."
       "Well, this is a team-sport." Julia tells.
       "Yeah." Luke said. "Well, what about you? You joined the team not that long ago, right?"

         Julia nodded, "Yeah, a little over a year and a half now. But before then, I was just a forensic specialist slash medical examiner cooped up in a lab all day and night with no one to talk to. For some people, that's lonely. But hey, be a lone wolf all you want but this is a team sport. From what I've gathered, it doesn't get any better than this."

       Luke chuckles with Julia as they finally approach the front door to Ron Ferguson's home. "This is it." Julia says, looking around. She pulls out her badge from her pocket as she opens the gate. "Ronald Ferguson?" She calls.

       The man is standing in front of his window as she shows her badge and draws his attention to the two. "FBI. We'd like to ask you a few questions?"

       The man tries to make a run for it, causing Julia to groan, "Why do they always run?" But Luke catches Julia by surprise as he runs towards the open door and knocks the wind out of Ron Ferguson and holds him down as Julia points her gun towards Ron.

      "Where do you think you're going? Huh?" Luke questions and turns towards Julia as he pulls his handcuffs out. "This takes me back." He pants. "Nice." Julia comments.

      As soon as Ron is put in handcuffs, Luke grabbed him and sat him up on the couch. "I didn't do nothin'." Ron tells.

     "We want to know about Bridget Bergstrom." Luke told the man and he shakes his head. "I don't know, it was messed up. But I didn't have nothin' to do with it. Bridget and me broke up a while ago."

     "Where were you last night?" Julia questioned as she crossed her arms. "Out at the CC club... in town. My buddy, Steve got in a fight, got cut, so I took him to the hospital." Ron gave out his alibi.

      "What about afterward?" Luke asked. "I was there all night. Waited with him while he got stitched up. I didn't get home till almost 6am. And there were security cameras in the waiting area. You can check."

     "We will." Julia nods.
     "That's the truth. No matter what that little liar says." Ron told.

      Julia furrows her brows as well as Luke and they exchange a small glance at this. "Who are you talking about?" Luke questions.

     "Amanda, Bridget's kid." Ron told. Julia then gathers the info in her head. "Wait, Amanda knew that you were having an affair with her mother?" She asked, trying to get the details correct.

      Ron nods, "Yeah. And she blackmailed me for almost a year. Threatened to tell her dad all the time. Amanda acts all innocent, but she's always working some angle."

      "Harsh for a seventeen year old, don't you think?" Julia comments as Ron shrugs with his answer, "It's true."

      Julia and Luke look at one another again but it seems like his story is straight. But only the evidence they had would be able to prove if he was actually the unsub or not.

After Emily and JJ had questioned Amanda after what Luke and Julia were told by Ron Ferguson, the team gathered up again.

Emily and JJ had discovered from Amanda that when her dad, Scott developed his addiction to Vicodin, he'd gotten aggressive with his family and this started the affair between Bridget and Ron. When Scott started getting clean and had gotten a six-month chip, Bridget called off the affair and Amanda thought her family was doing better.

Rossi walked into the room with Luke as Emily, JJ and Julia sat in the conference room. "Just got off the phone with Garcia. Ferguson's alibi checks out." Rossi informed the group.

"I can't even begin to imagine it," Emily spoke. "Her whole family gone in the blink of an eye." Julia shakes her head, "That poor girl," She comments. "She's devastated."

"Ferguson seems to think that Amanda was some kind of conniving shrew." Luke stated. "Well, Amanda may well have been hostile towards him, but for good reason." Emily figured. "She wanted her parents to stay together. Typical kid. She was candid about what went on. She was genuinely baffled by who would do this and why." JJ tells.

Emily nods, "Agreed. That last text from her mom, that one's gonna haunt her." Julia frowns at that.

"What's gonna happen to her now?" Rossi asks. "She has an aunt and uncle in Seattle. They flew in today. So it sounds like she'll be going home with them." Emily informs. Julia shrugs, "Well, at least she has someone."

"We know Ferguson's way too disorganized to pull this off, so where does that leave us?" Luke questions. "The family had their problems, but they were getting back on track." JJ said. "And yet someone wanted this family dead." Rossi added.

"But it doesn't make sense that they'd be targeted by a family annihilator." Julia spoke. "What if it's not about this family? What if it's just about families?" Rossi queries.

"So the Bergstroms could be surrogates." JJ tells. "Meaning our unsub will probably strike again." Emily adds.

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The team had been informed of a 911 call made by a teenager hiding in the closet while the rest of his family was found dead in the house. JJ and Luke questioned him but the boy was traumatized by what had happened. He'd barely spoken.

And after delivering their profile, Garcia had found some information and called the team about it.

"What's up, Garcia?" Rossi started as soon as she'd called. "Do you have any idea how many selfies the average teenager posts on social media on any given day?" Garcia asks and Julia looks over at Reid, who she's sitting next to on the couch and he has his mouth open to say something but Garcia stops him before he can. "I'm gonna tell you before you say anything. So many. And like the guys, too." Julia chuckles as she sees him frown.

Reid stands up from his seat. "Actually, some studies indicate that men take twice as many selfies as women 'cause it's considered to be an acceptable form of male vanity." He explains.

"How many pictures of yourself do you really need? And they're basically making the same expression— oh my God. Am I officially... not young?" Julia smiles to herself once because it sounds like Garcia's freaking out about being called 'old', she can't even say it.

"You, my dear, are the portrait of everlasting youth." Rossi assures and Julia can tell Garcia is smiling at this answer. "I'm timeless, right. Good answer."

"And even if you were old, Garcia," Julia starts as she pops a gummy in her mouth. "You still look pretty damn good."
"Ditto back to you, Jules," Garcia spoke. "Although, you are the youngest on the team as of now. So either way, you're also everlasting youth." Julia smirks at this.

"But... back to my point. I have been drilling into the social media footprint of both of our adolescent survivors." Garcia tells.
      "Any connection between Amanda and Matt?" Rossi asks.
"Yeah. Stay with me while I go around here for a second. So, basically, both of their Facebook pages are just an outpouring of love and support from their peers. And it's touching, really, and it's very reassuring for the hope of our species." Garcia explains.

"What did you mean, 'basically'?" Emily asks. "In between all the wonderfulness, there's a tiny tributary of nasty comments from some of their peers, saying that Matt and Amanda got what they deserved."

Julia's eyes widen, "Well, that's disturbing and mean." Rossi nodded, "Well, they're kids. Kids can be cruel and thoughtless."

"Right," Garcia continues. "But we all know that cruelty is sometimes inspired by previous action, which made me wonder what Matt and Amanda might have done to provoke some of their peers to saying some of these things on their Facebooks. So I looked into their school records, and both Matt and Amanda have complaints against them for 'harassing behavior.'" Garcia explains.

"They're bullies." Emily concludes.

"Were they disciplined, Garcia?" Julia asks. "No," Garcia informs. "To paraphrase the Violent Femmes song, nothing went down on their permanent record."

"So the victims were also victimizers." Reid tells. "If the unsub was bullied himself as a teenager, that could be the original narcissistic wound that's fueling his present day rage." Emily explains. "Turning his surrogate victimizers into victims is the point for our unsub."

"Bullying leaves lasting scars," Reid speaks up. "Our unsub could be a teacher or staff member at the school who seems himself as an avenger of students who are current victims of bullying. Someone who punishes the bullies when no one else does." He explains.

"From the unsub's point of view, the bullies themselves are responsible for the violence, he's perpetrating against their families." Emily stated.

Julia furrows her brows and thinks to herself. There was something about the profile that was off. And she looks up at the board, hoping to find something that could connect it but she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"Something on your mind, Cortez?" Rossi asks, breaking her from her focal point on the board. "Something about the profile. Nothing in particular, I just... there's something off and I just can't put my finger on it."

"Why don't we dig into the backgrounds of the teachers and staff of Pillsbury High and identify anyone who was bullied as a kid?" Rossi tells Garcia, who continues, "Already got digital shovels already throwin' up dirt."

"We also need a list of any other known bullies at the school so that we can warn and protect their families." Emily adds.

"Oh, here's something." Garcia speaks up. "There is a school counselor there named Eric Bakken. Not only is he the school administrator who's in charge of handling bullying complaints from the students, but when he was fifteen, he was charged with assault. He was arrested. He claimed he was provoked by a long-time bully, but the charges were dropped."

"Let's get him in here." Emily decides.

      After talking to the counselor, they concluded that he had nothing to do with the murders. While JJ and Luke sent five families into protective custody so they wouldn't be targeted, they had arrived to find one of the bullies murdered in his own home.

       Reid and Julia had joined JJ and Luke as they investigated the scene with fresh eyes. Julia had just gotten off the phone with the ME and walked into the house where JJ, Luke and Spencer were looking over the crime scene. "That was the ME. Preliminary time of death confirms that we couldn't have missed him by more than a few minutes."

      "There's extreme overkill here." Reid stated, looking down at the scene. "Victim was shot six times and then bludgeoned. He's decompensating."

      "Or evolving." Luke added. "Yeah, he doesn't care about the family anymore. He's going straight for the bully." JJ tells. "By the overkill and the rage, I'd say Austin was his target all along." Julia stated, looking at the blood on the carpet.

      "Hey, guys." Reid called from across the hall. The three headed on over to Austin's bedroom, looking around the deshelved room, ripped posters, pillows and blanket cut open, blood on a trophy of his on the bed. "Austin's room." Reid said and Julia looked around.

     "The other murders, the unsub left the homes undisturbed." JJ tells. "Well, it certainly looks like this is what he bludgeoned the victim with." Luke pointed to the trophy. "He could have left it in the living room with the body, but instead he brought it back in here and destroyed Austin's other sports trophies." Reid tells.

      "I think I know what the profile was missing now," Julia spoke as she looked around as Reid, JJ and Luke listened intently. "Everything about this crime scene, the overkill, the trashing the room, going after Austin's prizes, it-it's fighting against our profile of mission-oriented organization and impulse control. This isn't organized, this isn't well-thought out. No, this is juvenile. Tantrum-like." She explained away.

     "So, this means that—" Luke cuts himself off as Reid knows what's she's saying. "Our unsub isn't an adult, he's a child."

      With that, the four headed back to the PD after informing Rossi and Emily what they found.

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"Garcia, we need the records of every student at Pillsbury who filed a bullying complaint against Amanda Bergstrom, Matt Doherty, and Austin Settergren." Rossi tells and Emily adds on, "Also, anyone who received counseling for being bullied by those students."

      "Wow. This is a really big pool. I've got twenty-seven names." Garcia tells. "Any of those students bullied by all three?" JJ asks. "No." Garcia tells.

      "Like Bakken said, most victims never come forward." Rossi stated. "So I'm seeing the tip of a really big iceberg." Garcia nods. "Nobody wants to be a snitch." Luke adds.

     "Also, bullying is often so widespread, it's normalized." Emily nods. "It would only amplify the unsub's feeling of powerlessness." JJ adds.

     "The pool of suspects is still too big." Rossi sighs. "That's kind of disturbing when you really think about it." Julia comments.

"Garcia, can you cross-check the names you pulled with any mentions on social media of bullying?" Luke asks. "Oh, there's a boss idea. I'm gonna do that right now, and... oh, this is interesting. I pulled up six names from my list, and they all belong to a private chat group." Garcia nods.

     "Some kind of bullying support group?" JJ asks. "It's called the Anti-Terror Squad, but, yeah, that's exactly what it is." Garcia answers.

     "It's an apt analogy," Emily tells. "Ongoing bullying would feel like terrorism to those experiencing it."

     "They warn each other about which stairwells and bathrooms to avoid on any given day. They walk each other to and from school. That kind of thing." Garcia tells. "They're protective of one another. Could be a bond that's hard to break." Julia stated.
     "I tell Henry school's a safe place, but for these kids it's anything but." JJ sighs.

     "Are there any mentions of retribution or payback, planning?" Emily asks but Garcia shakes her head. "No. But there's a lot of content here. I'll do a keyboard search. It'll take a while."

     "Okay, so these kids took back some of their power by banding together. They call themselves the Anti-Terror Squad, so they see themselves as righteous." Emily explains to the team and Rossi adds on, "The unsub may be one or all six of these kids."

       "Garcia, is there any way you can locate their cell phones?" Julia asks.
       "Sure. Um..." Garcia pauses. "They're all in the exact same place. All six of them are in a classroom at Pillsbury High."

         In the end, Emily, Luke and Rossi were sent over to the high school and their unsub was a kid named Kyle Eckland. He was an only child, his mother left him, his dad was an alcoholic and he was bullied by a lot of kids. They'd assumed the main trigger was him being duct-taped to a basketball hoop and the kids involved in this incident happened to be the children whose families were killed. He was left there taped to that hoop all night with a red face from basketballs being thrown at him and broken glasses. And since nothing happened to those kids, he'd took matters into his own hands.

As they flew back home on the jet, Reid had been seated in front of Julia, who was seemingly more focused — or rather, unfocused — as she'd zoned out. (It seemed as if she was gazing at his hands, or perhaps, the book he was reading?)

He'd waited until her gaze went back out in the middle of the clouds outside the window. "Hey," He spoke softly and Julia turns to him. "Are you okay?"

Julia smiles politely towards him and shrugs, "It's nothing, it's just..." She pauses and her legs are pulled to her chest as she continues to speak with him. "I was thinking about when I was in school. Kids were... terrible, to say the least."

          Back then, Julia was an overweight kid and the bullies would often call her "ugly" because she was "fat". It's bruised her internally since she was a kid. And well, the words had been engraved in her for so long that well — the words didn't seem to hurt her anymore. She'd often tell bullies as she got older to come up with a better insult, in fact. 

           "I don't think it would ever draw me to kill anybody, though." Julia stated. Reid shrugs at this, "Kyle Eckland didn't exactly have an easy life with an absent mom in the picture and an alcoholic father to add onto that. Somehow, he just... snapped. He was never praised as a kid and he figured the best way to gain that kind of praise was to protect those kids from the bullies that picked on him and his friends. Of course, not everyone is going to react like that with having been through something like that. He was an angry kid." He explains.

           "And trust me when I say I was also got picked on a lot as a kid and I turned out fine." Reid said and Julia shakes her head as she leans forward, looking at him, "How could anyone pick on you?"

         Reid continues as he looks down at his book, seemingly uncomfortable with the stares now. "How could anyone not? It's not like I make it easy for myself, what with my rambling and my 'nerdiness' as Morgan called it or the fact that JJ walks away every time I go into detail about certain things."

          "Well, you should feel good about it because those are the things I like about you." Julia smiles at him, causing him to crook a smile right back at her. He couldn't help it, something about her just made him want to smile. "Well, I can't even imagine anybody picking on you. You're... you're amazing." Reid told.

          "Aw, thank you, Reid but," Julia shrugs, "Kids are cruel," Julia continued. "Back in fifth grade, they came up with this... this nickname, wasn't even clever."
           Reid furrows his brows, "Do you remember what it was?"
           
           Julia scoffs as she thinks to herself and wonders if she should even tell him at all. She shakes her head as she reveals — "Chew-lia." Reid looks at the girl, confused. "You know, because I was a bigger girl and ate everything in sight." Reid looks down with furrowed brows. "I know, not clever, right?"

"Certainly not clever," Reid nods with a frown. "That's mean." Julia shrugs again, "Sticks and stones, Reid. I've got thick skin." She smiles, assuringly at him.

Of course, there was a time where she was once hurt by those words, by that name, but she got over it and realized it was a dumb nickname and that that didn't define her anymore.

"If we were in the same school, I wonder if we'd be friends." Reid stated and Julia nods at that thought, "Yeah, we could've been the best of friends. I so would've been your hype-woman." She chuckles as she sits back in her seat with a smile.

"Not really, I was twelve in a Las Vegas public high school." Reid clarified.

"I was fifteen," Julia stated. "I would've thought you were cool either way."

hey lovelies!!
i hope you enjoyed that chapter
or that moment between julia and reid 🤭
thank you all for reading!
i unfortunately got a lil lazy with it oops
and also thank you for 20k reads!!
i love you all
-mya <333