❝ you guys will get through this. ❞

         OLIVIA WAS WELCOMED back to work after spending quite some time by herself and with oliver and rosie. and as much as she enjoyed her time with them, she needed to come back to work. since no one would be at home to watch the twins while olivia is away on a case, she had to hire a nanny to watch over them and pick them up from school when needed to. she had her worries with leaving the twins with someone other than her, or someone on the team, but the nanny was the next best option and spencer and jj even helped her look for one. maybe it was just her new maternal instincts settling in that made her overthink about the twins. because the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes that she's technically now a parent, or at least a legal guardian for the twins.

currently, olivia, garcia, and jj were gathered around emily, sitting at her desk with spencer sitting across from her at his own desk, looking through a file. "a row house in dupont circle, wow." olivia commented.

emily sighed, "i can't believe i'm doing it." the dark haired woman was sharing information about a house she was interested in, but is now having second thoughts. "i mean, it's probably not gonna work out anyway, right? there are five other sealed bids, and i offered way below what the owners are asking."

emily and spencer both got up from their seats, spencer's gaze not moving from the file he was so concentrated on. however, his hand managed to found its way to olivia's, holding onto it nonchalantly as them and the other female agents started walking to the conference room, where hotch, morgan, and rossi were waiting. "uh-huh. sounds to me like someone's hoping they don't get it." jj remarked.

"orthophobia -- fear of owning personal property." spencer chimed in.

"no, i don't have a fear of owning stuff." emily protested as the group was nearing the conference room. "turn me loose in a shoe store, i'll prove that. my fear is personal property that weighs 300 tons."

         "actually, depending on materials used, square footage, and horizontal versus vertical construction, the average house weighs about 60 tons." spencer stated, his eyes still focused on the file as olivia turned her head towards the three women, sharing a look.

         "well thanks for that, reid. i feel light as a bird already." emily spoke, sarcastically.

         morgan handed penelope's remote to her, "what have we got, babygirl?"

         "thank you sir. we have a killing in enid, oklahoma. and not the capital punishment one you are thinking of right now. i'm talking about a woman named cara smith, who was murdered in her apartment minutes after the execution of rodney garrett." penelope voiced. "neighbors saw her front door open and discovered the body." hotch said.

         rossi commented, "look familiar?"

          the profilers looked at the screen where pictures of the lifeless body of cara smith were displayed. "young, pretty, short blonde hair." olivia stated. "and stabbed directly through the heart." rossi continued.

         "that's exactly the way garrett killed his victims." spencer told. "so are we looking at a copycat?" morgan questioned. "or someone creating doubt the right person was executed." jj suggested.

         "in garrett's case, there was no doubt. his guilt was the slam dunk of all slam dunks. prints, DNA, a confession." rossi responded. "he even led the police to where he buried two of his victims." spencer informed.

         emily spoke up, "garrett killed 25 women before he was caught. if this new unsub is a copycat, the body count's just started."

         "which is why we can't waste time. wheels up in 30."

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

olivia and spencer were at the house of the second victim, jodie armstrong. her landlord led them to her bedroom, where her body was found on the bed. the crime scene unit was there too, looking around the room with spencer as olivia examined the body.

with blue, latex gloves worn on her hands, she turned jodie's head, finding that her hair was cut unevenly. "hey, spence. look at this." liv called out.

spencer put down the object he was looking at, "what is it?" he walked over towards olivia, crouching down to look at the body.

"jodie obviously cares about her appearance. i mean, she's fit, her nails are perfectly done, but look at her hair. it's uneven." she noted, taking out the victim's phone from her pocket.

"could it maybe be a fashion statement, you know, bad on purpose?" he asked as olivia unlocked her phone and went into jodie's camera roll.

"well, look at this." liv moved the phone so her and spencer could see the screen. she zoomed in on the date the most recent picture was taken. "this was taken last night. the unsub cut her hair."

as the two examined the body even more, olivia's phone started buzzing in her pocket. she looked at the caller ID, excusing herself to a corner of the room where not many people were. spencer glanced to her from time to time, admiring the courageous woman standing a few feet away from him. olivia just experienced one of the most traumatic events in her life and started raising two children by herself -- with the occasional help of members of the team -- and here she was, back to work in the span of a month.

afterwards, the team met up back at the local precinct. emily, jj, olivia, and rossi were reading through the letters that were sent to rodney garrett during his time in prison. they figured the unsub must've written one to him. emily found a letter that caught her attention and towards the rest of the team, "get a load of this one." she began reading the message, "dear mr. garrett: it took a lot of courage to do what you did. most people are cowards and don't do what they feel inside them. you are an inspiration and i applaud you." emily scoffed, shaking her head, "i applaud you."

         rossi remarked, "these are supposed to be the non-wacko letters."

         the computer placed next to morgan beeped, penelope garcia appearing on the screen. "hey, guess what. liv's genius has struck again. that hunch about the hair was right. i'm sending you an ATM image of cara smith. she's the first victim, and this was taken 10 hours before her murder. check it."

         the team along with the lead detective of the case watched the images of cara smith appear on the screen next to penelope's window one by one. "the unsub cut her hair, too." the detective noted.

         spencer spoke, "you know, there could be a sexual element involved. trichophilia is a fetish where one becomes aroused by the removal of hair."

         "well, either way, it's starting to look less like a copycat. the unsub's deviating too much from garrett's MO. garrett never took trophies." morgan thought.

         "he's also choosing low-risk victims. garrett stayed with high-risk targets — prostitutes, runaways." spencer added.

          "garrett also got sloppy and left behind clues that eventually nailed him. this guy's careful and meticulous." olivia told.

"he's not that careful." detective childers disagreed. "he leaves doors open, teapots boiling."

"i think it's intentional." hotch voiced. "he wants the bodies found so we know when and where he's killing."

a third victim was found and rossi and emily made progress with the letters. the team had delivered the profile to the officers in the police station, as well as a safety precaution for single women. currently, olivia and derek were driving around the neighborhoods, looking for any suspicious activity now that the police chief has suggested a citywide curfew.

"there's nothing like a serial killer on the loose to cut down on traffic." derek commented, looking at the empty roads and the nighttime scenery.

"the problem is, as far as we know, the unsub strikes from inside the house, not out in the open." olivia stated.

"we have to hope he's not already in place lying in wait."

a red light came upon the two, causing derek to stop the car for a moment. morgan turned his head to olivia as he noticed she was fairly quiet and looking out the car window more than usual. he couldn't blame her, considering this was her first case back ever since the events of her abduction and torture. "how are you and the twins?" he asked her.

"we're doing good."

olivia turned her head, being met with derek's gaze. a look on his face suggesting that he knows she's telling half the truth, which she was. she caved in and told him, "well, it's getting difficult without anna, but i'm managing. and obviously, we miss her, but i think the twins will be okay."

"they're strong kids. you guys will get through this." morgan encouraged her, leaving a comfortable moment of silence.

that was until someone on the end of the police radio spoke, "all units, report of an abduction in the vicinity of canwood and harbart. suspect fled in a car. no description of the vehicle."

         "canwood? that's two blocks from here." olivia said. at the same time, a car drove by the two, at a quick pace causing their attention. morgan started tailing the vehicle, screeching noises coming from both the SUV and the suspect's car. olivia spoke into the radio, "we've got a dark-colored, four-door sedan moving at a high rate speed north on van buren. we're in pursuit."

as other vehicles got in the way, morgan swerved passed them, getting distracted by the slowly increasing amount of cars passing by. after almost running into a different car, derek and olivia were able to cut off the suspect, stopping his car. the two agents exited their SUV, their weapons pointed at the suspect. "get out of the car! put your hands where i can see them!" derek demanded.

the suspect followed the orders, "no, it's just- i, i was just trying to go after him. i was trying to follow. somebody took her." the man explained, blood running down his face. he told liv and derek what had happened as they went to the abduction scene, police officers and the crime scene unit showing up minutes after they did.

"griffins, the unsub must have broken in, saw nobody was home and then waited." morgan told her.

"well, he didn't expect the victim to have a companion. by putting a warning out, we messed up his plans. he had to improvise." olivia dialed garcia on her phone. "penelope? penelope. hey, are you awake?"

"oh my god, i'm so awake. it's 2:30 in the morning. this is when i hit my stride. i'm awake right now. i'm lying, i fell asleep. what do you need, angel?" she muttered as olivia moved away to a spot that had less commotion.

"emily sisk." liv said. "she lives on the opposite end of the city from the first 3 victims. so since it's not a shared neighborhood anymore, is there anything else that connects all of these women?"

"are you familiar with the term, the six degrees of separation? i am currently up to. . . 15 degrees of separation and i cannot find any connection with the victims. but i am going to drink more maté and keep trying." penelope told her, olivia thanking her after ending the call.

as the bright blue and red flashing lights and loud high pitched noises from police sirens surrounded olivia, she noticed something down the street. she pulled out her flashlight when walking towards it, finding the body of emily sisk. she pulled out her phone to make a call, but to hotch this time. "hotch, i think i found her."

"you're on speaker, griffins." he informed as she continued.

"the unsub must've circled back. he dumped her just outside the perimeter of the abduction site."

jj spoke up, "same MO?"

olivia squatted next to the body, examining it further, "no. she's got stab wounds all over her torso, it's bad. and hotch, this time he removed her scalp."

"overkill. he must be enraged he wasn't able to carry the murder out as planned." jj commented.

"so now we may have another problem. if our unsub's blueprint is out the window, this may transition him into a spree killer." rossi expressed.

≻───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────≺

once again, everyone was back in the precinct, trying to make any conclusions about this unsub. everyone sat around as spencer laid down on the wooden bench in the side of the room. it was 9:44 in the morning and barely anyone got any sleep. "i never could do that." rossi remarked, his eyes on spencer who had his eyes shut while laying on the bench.

emily followed his gaze, "do what?"

"take a nap. never felt natural."

"i'm actually wide awake. but for future reference, polyphasic sleep is completely natural, quite common in the animal world, and highly beneficial." spencer sat up.

"all right, 6:00's way come and gone. if our guy's killed again, he's not leaving the front door open anymore." jj said aloud.

"or he could just be taking a breather. i mean, even the unsub has to realize that he can't keep up this pace indefinitely." morgan responded.

"maybe the last murder completed some sort of cycle. a day and night have passed. the sun rises for the first time in a world without rod garrett." rossi suggested. "there could also be a more mundane reason. our guy's got a job and yesterday was his day off." emily replied.

          hotch's eyes were focused on the map in front of him, labeled with the victims' locations. "he killed his first three victims in their homes, but the last victim, emily sisk, he tried to but couldn't. so he abducted her, took her somewhere else, and then brought her all the way back to dump her body in front of her apartment building."

         "that's incredibly risky given the increased police presence." olivia observed.

          "there's gotta be a geographic component to the unsub's design." hotch pondered.

          spencer stood up from the bench, walking towards the map, "let's connect the dots, literally." he pulled out a red marker from his pocket, connecting each location the victims' bodies were found. the outcome formed an upside down triangle shape, but with the straight line portion going inwards.

         "a tip of a spear." emily blurted out what the shape reminded her of.

          "or maybe it's an arrow pointing south?" morgan took a closer look. "could it be steering us to his next victim?"

         "it's a quadrilateral, but there's nothing particularly symbolic about a 4-sided concave polygon." olivia commented.

         "or maybe there is." jj said, walking towards the map. "hey, spence, may i?" she asked for the marker that was in his hand continuing his drawing. "see what happens when you add a curve to the lines?"

         "a heart." emily remarked.

         "well, garrett and the unsub both killed their victims using stab wounds through the heart." morgan replied.

         "and garrett was executed by a shot through the heart." rossi added.

         hotch grabbed a different copy of the same map, but had a transparent background, and pinned it over the first one. the location on the transparent map matched to the middle of the first map with the victims on it. "helen garrett." emily said.

         "it's all about her."

        jj, hotch, and rossi had drove to helen garrett's home, only to find nobody there. however, jj did find a collection of wigs in her room. they had just missed her at the prison, so hotch ordered the rest of the team go there. they had come to the conclusion that the prison shuttle driver is the unsub and is in love with helen. jj, rossi, and hotch met up with the other four at the prison.

"so, nobody saw what happened, but helen's car is still in the parking lot." jj told them.

         "he's got her." hotch commented.

         "the driver's name is dylan kohler. he lives at 4488 harmony court." the warden of the prison informed the team.

         hotch asked him, "did he work yesterday, warden?"

         "no, he arranged for someone else to take his shift." he answered.

         "i'll have garcia check into kohler, but now that he's tipped his hand, i doubt if he's going back home." rossi thought.

         derek, spencer, olivia, and emily went to dylan's house, but just as they suspected, neither dylan or helen were present. hotch, jj, and rossi took the liberty of going to a different property garcia has found that they thought dylan kept helen in. the three successfully found them and were able to arrest dylan kohler without helen being harmed. traumatized, probably, but unharmed.

         exhausted, the team was scattered around the jet. most of them had their eyes shut, trying to enjoy the moment of peace and rest they had. the computer in the jet beeped, revealing once again, penelope garcia, who was just as tired as they were and was putting eye drops in her eyes. "oh, hey, guys. hey, i just wanted to see what was going on. hi, hello."

         "this better be important, garcia." emily commented.

         "oh, it's nothing. it's just that a messenger came by the office today with some papers from escrow!" she exclaimed, emily's face perking up a little. "no!"

         "oh, yes. the house in dupont circle, you got it! whoo!" penelope cheered, throwing ripped up pieces of colorful scrap paper at the screen to substitute confetti.

         a smile grew on emily's face as hotch congratulated her. soon after, her facial expression fell, leading rossi to glance at his watch and speak up, "6 seconds. fastest case of buyer's remorse ever." spencer, olivia, and morgan walked up to the back of the jet where everyone else was.

         "well, i say the moment we land, we all head over to ziggy's and clear out the champagne inventory." morgan suggested. olivia added on, "and talk prentiss down off the ledge."

         "oh, my stomach doesn't feel so hot." emily admitted, erupting a few snickers from morgan, jj, and olivia.

         "i was in the middle of the best dream." jj told, "i dreamt that i was at this exclusive salon getting my hair done." her hands played with her blonde locks.

         "ah, the psychotherapeutic benefits of dreams -- purging unpleasant images and replacing them with good ones." reid said.

         "unpleasant is putting it mildly. if someone put a bloody wig on my head, i would've ripped that thing off and kept it off." jj replied.

         "right. you'd think instinct would take over." derek agreed.

         jj spoke up again, "oh, hey, rossi, i meant to ask you, what did helen mean at the end when she said daddy was right?" he sighed, "he once told her that she was a divining rod for the evil in men. that she could sniff it out when nobody else could."

         "there was definitely something a little strange about her." emily piped up.

         "it's curious, one woman at the center of two serial killers." hotch shared.

         "yeah, what are the odds of that?" olivia questioned. "astronomical," spencer answered. "removing from the calculations serial killer groupies-" he was cut off by hotch tapping his arm, indicating that now's not the time for a statistic.

         "you know, whether she knew it or not, maybe helen garrett did give dylan something." morgan started. "i mean, someone once said that every seed, even malignant ones, they won't grow unless they eat water from some place."

ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎︎
only two more chapters and then an
epilogue 💔💔
BUT ALSO THIS FIC HAS 10K READS🤨⁉️⁉️ that's insane, THANK YOU SM
I LOVE YOU ALL AND YOU ALL DESERVE
THE WORLD LOL
okay love you bye 🏃‍♀️