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𝑷 𝑶 𝑽
❝ 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚙𝚘𝚗𝚢 𝚛𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚜 ❞

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FLASHBACK ━━ Set between Season 5, Episodes 15 & 16

ㅤ𝑻𝑯𝑬 𝑻𝑬𝑨𝑴 𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑾 𝑻𝑯𝑨𝑻 𝑻𝑯𝑬𝑰𝑹 𝑼𝑵𝑺𝑼𝑩 𝑰𝑺 𝑫𝑨𝑵𝑮𝑬𝑹𝑶𝑼𝑺. Even more dangerous than usual. With Elijah Graves' penchant for hunting, the risk of getting hurt was dangerously high, even as they surrounded the house that the man has been calling his home for the past couple of weeks. The off-white outdoor walls was typical of the area, houses up and down the street sharing the same stucco finish. It was a one-storey, non-imposing, overly normal house. A place you wouldn't expect a killer to live.

Dressed in his usual get up of a long-sleeved polo underneath an FBI bulletproof vest, Hotch turned to look at his team. Before he could even open his mouth to speak, a shot rang through, and one of the officers accompanying them immediately dropped to the ground, a bullet hole lodged in his forehead.

"He's shooting people in the head now?!" Rossi exclaimed angrily, following the others as they ducked behind solid objects, while a couple of the fallen officers' co-workers dragged his body away.

"He's devolving," Hotch shook his head.

"Now is not the time to devolve," Emily complained. "What now, Hotch?"

"I don't think we're gonna get in there," he sighed, "we've already got one man down, how many more before we could actually get a chance to negotiate?"

"The guy just killed a police officer in front of FBI agents," Derek pointed out. "I think he's passed the opportunity for a negotiation."

"He's right," Spencer agreed.

"So, what do we do?" JJ asked.

With an exasperated sigh, Hotch clenched his jaw before speaking, "We wait."

PRESENT ━━

Back at the round table, Finley found herself sitting next to Emily. The black-haired woman caught her eye from the start, finding her presence somewhat relaxing, reminding her much of a woman she considers both a best friend and a sister; sometimes even a mentor.

Just before her mind could catch a glimpse of red hair she's grown admire, Penelope walked in, holding her laptop.

"Okay, there are a hundred and seven families visited by social services in the last ten years," she informed them, before finding herself a seat while placing her laptop onto the table.

"That's too many to go door to door, we're gonna have to narrow that down," Emily said.

"Well, we need to figure out why they're staying in northern Virginia," Hotch spoke, his deep voice accentuating his dominance.

"Their work could be the key," Finley offered, the others giving her nods of agreement. "They could have a child care facility on the premises as a cover."

"You know, it's most likely a single income family," Spencer added, "Someone has to be at home with the kids."

"Okay, all this helps," Penelope said as she typed furiously on her keyboard. Finley wonders if she ever broke one of them from overuse.

"They've been questioned before so we can expect a rehearsed response," Hotch nodded at them.

"How many on that list are single income?" Derek asked Penelope, who was still furiously typing, but stopped for a second, long enough to give him an answer.

"Twenty-three."

The sigh that escaped the man was loud, and his expression of disappointment was even louder. Rossi was the one who took the initiative to ask, "What's the problem?"

"We're gonna be knocking on the doors of twenty-three families and all of them have done something bad to a kid," Derek explained, "we don't have a warrant, just our profile. If we get it wrong and leave that house, they'll destroy any evidence they have, including the children."

Realizing the severity of the situation, Hotch turned towards the most empathetic of the group. "JJ, get an article of Aimee's clothing."

"What for?" Penelope asked, confused as everyone started standing up walking away.

Just before Finley walked away, she turned to the technical analyst and sighed. "It's for the dogs."

The group then separated into groups of three; Hotch, JJ, and Rossi in one, and Emily, Derek, and Finley in the other. To make sure all of those who answered their door relaxed and emotionally disarmed, the dark-skinned man made sure to have Finley be the one to knock on the door.

"You ready?" Derek asked her. "Just make sure they don't put their guard up too much."

Finley nodded, knowing how much they needed those people to talk. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for a second before a smile made its way to her lips. "Years of undercover work prepared me for this kind of thing."

Scanning her near-perfect expression that seemed as though it can disarm anyone, and the way she stood so casually despite what she's about to do, made Derek applaud her internally. He watched as she fixed up her hair, relaxing her forehead muscles. She patted down her light brown coat she put on for the cold.

"You're good," Derek commented. "Hope it's good enough for these people, Pretty Girl."

"Pretty Girl?"

"You get used to it," Emily patted her shoulder.

And then they started going door to door. Having Finley in the front helped them tremendously; the way the person who answered the door relax—as seen by how their shoulders slumped—when they saw her smile and what seemed to be kind and understanding eyes.

They didn't see the rage hidden beneath the earthy brown.

But they were disarmed. They were definitely still intimidated by Emily and Derek, who stood behind her imposingly, both dressed in black that made them seem like they were her bodyguards. And they were even more cautious, especially when they whipped out their FBI badges. But it's the only arrangement they had. And it seemed to work somehow.

Despite all of them being guilty of something, none of them rang Finley's alarms more than Roger Roycewood. His overly welcoming smile that was obviously fake, his 'calm' demeanor that he hid behind, and his apparent hearing problems irked her.

Is he stalling? Finley thought to herself, resisting the urge to drop her smile and strangle him.

"I'm sorry?" Roger asked Emily to repeat herself, pointing at his ear. This conversation gave Roger the distraction that allowed Derek and Finley to look around.

The house was pretty...normal. A little old-fashioned, with the furniture looking like antiques, and the decorations spread around the house looked several decades old. Even the way Roger dressed is old-fashioned; kind of makes you wonder about his wife.

Tuning them out, Finley muttered to Derek, "I've got a bad feeling about him."

Derek hummed in response, nodding slightly as he grabbed a displayed photo. He took that as his cue to enter Emily and Roger's conversation. "And a house full of kids."

"Yes, I do," Roger replied, crossing his arms, which the profilers immediately noticed, ignoring his chuckles in an attempt to diffuse the situation.

"It's awfully quiet," Finley commented, her tone sickly sweet as she chuckled with him, glancing at the picture frame now in Derek's hand, noticing a teenage boy that looked an awful lot like Charlie. But the fact there were only four kids in the picture made her stomach churn, and the urn sitting right next to it made her frown a little. "Are they out?"

"My wife took them out," he moved his hands to his pockets. Finley silently scoffed at the action.

"At the Winter Festival?" Emily asked.

"Winter festival?"

"In Ashburn?" Derek pushed.

"No, uh, but that's a wonderful idea," Roger nodded, still smiling. "I've mentioned that to my wife, might be nice for the kids."

"They have pony rides," Finn offered. Her face was starting to hurt from all the fake smiling that Mr Roycewood can't seem to see through. But who can blame him? She's damn good at faking a smile.

"Oh, great!"

The growing tension was palpable, and Finley knew that even Emily was also starting to suspect Roger when she asked, "So, do the kids take after your wife?"

"Some say they do," he nodded. His apparent kindness and openness only made Finley nod to herself, knowing how submissive he must be to his wife. She wouldn't doubt he loved his wife, but he himself was being manipulated.

Love makes you dumb, she thought, wetting her lips as a flash of silver appeared in her mind.

"Uh, how can I help you?" Roger finally asked, uneasiness clear in his voice.

"Well, we were actually hoping that your wife would be here," Derek answered. "You know when she'll be back?"

"Well, she's actually got the kids out on a field trip," he replied. Finley tuned out the conversation again, walking around even more. She could tell there was a basement, she could hear and feel the vibrations in the ground, which solidified her theory that the kids were more than likely underneath them right at this second. She wanted nothing more than to burst in there, but she felt as though it would just endanger them.

"I need to step outside," Emily said suddenly, walking away from everyone to do so.

Derek then walked closer to Roger as a way to intimidate him, knowing in his gut that this was their guy, so all pretenses were off the table. "Why don't you go ahead and make that phone call?"

Roger's smile dropped.

"Derek," Finley called, causing the said man to turn away and walk towards her.

"What is it?" He asked, voice low.

"I think they're here," she whispered, "the kids, and Mrs Roycewood."

"Where?"

"I think there's a basement," she gave him a pointed look, shaking her head at his questioning gaze. "The house is too quiet, and we know there's at least four kids here, counting Aimee who hasn't been here for more then twenty-four hours. That girl is scared and panicking. I don't think she'd be quiet in this situation."

"But how'd you figure they were in a basement?"

"Where else could they go?" She shook her head. "What's one room in a house you can hide as many kids as you want without them ever making a sound? And we're in northern Virginia, more than half of the houses here have basements."

Derek let out a breath, nodding. He turned to look at Roger who made the decision to call his wife out in the porch. "I'll talk to him."

As soon as he walked away, Finley let out a sigh as she tilted her head, feeling her neck click back into place as her eyes flickered amber then back to brown.

Hotch, JJ, and Rossi arrived at Mosley Lane with an entourage consisting several police offers, search dogs, even people with ground penetrating radar. There's no doubt that they all find the Roycewoods guilty; they were sure these are their unsubs. Only thing left is to find the kids safe, so they can apprehend the couple.

Finley was situated outside now, looking around at the people who've come to help. In all her years undercover, seeing this many people fighting for the greater good is something slightly foreign to her; being constantly surrounded by bad guys, and those who want to impress said bad guys, have desensitized her and turned her into a more pessimistic and generally gloomy version of herself. The constant shroud of darkness she was in almost always left her hollow.

She always felt as though she was drowning.

Turning just in time to see Derek walk inside, she was soon to follow, but not before giving Roger a death glare that he actually flinched at. Gone were the niceties, all that's left now were the real emotions she's been bottling up since the start of this case; anger was all she could feel now.

As soon as JJ came up from the basement, she gave Finley an impressed smile. "You were right, they were keeping the kids down there. Behind a secret door, no less."

Finley nodded ruefully. "The kids?"

"Not there," the blonde sighed. "There was another exit. Rossi's deploying the dogs now."

"All I want is for the kids to get back to their parents."

The two shared a look before they both went down, splitting up to cover more ground. Finley couldn't keep her expressions at bay as she grimaced at the state of the rooms the kids were kept in. Looking around, she spotted a pile of polaroid pictures on the floor. Scanning through each of them, her heart sank as she realized that they were all pictures of the kids.

"Jen," she called out, and JJ was immediately by her side. She handed the photos to her.

"Is that Aimee Lynch?" Rossi asked as he too came to scan the photos.

"They dyed her hair," JJ pointed out.

"There's no picture of Charlie," Finley informed the two. "I looked through it twice. I think he was the one that took them."

"For what?" Rossi asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

JJ paused for a moment as she connected the dots. "Proof."

"They found the kids."

The effects of JJ's words were immediate; Finley felt herself relax, as the tension dissipated from her body, the coil she's been feeling in her stomach finally faded away.

She gave a sigh of relief. "Time to arrest Roger Roycewood."

"Who gets the honors?" Rossi asked rhetorically.

Hotch turned to the officer with them. "Where is he?"

"In the bathroom."

Finley's eyes widened, reacting quickly by rushing up the stairs, the rest of the team hot on her heels. She felt bad for the poor officer who was probably shoved away by one of them. But she shook away her slight concern when she reached the bathroom door, kicking it open.

"Son of a bitch," she muttered, staring up at Roger who was hanging from the ceiling.

Though it was a job well done, she couldn't help herself from being a little bitter about not putting the Roycewoods in jail. Charlie, at least, got to avenge every kid who was ever under their care when he shot Anita, but Roger was a coward, and it was no surprise that he took the coward's way out.

Finley was disappointed she wasn't able to see him rot in jail.

But at least there's always a rainbow after the rain, like they say, and those words couldn't be more true as she watched the parents finally get the closure they've been longing for. Of course, a pang of pity coursed through her when the parents of the other children realized that what they've been dreading for years actually came true; that their children were really lost forever.

She was just standing at the sidelines alone, watching everything go down, not even noticing how Hotch moved to stand next to her.

Not wanting to scare his newest agent, he gently tapped her on the shoulder, watching as she slowly turned to face him.

"Yes, sir?"

"I just wanted to ask how you were doing," Hotch offered. "This is your first case with the team and it involved children. I could see how much it affected you."

She waved off his concerns. "It wasn't the best introduction to the BAU, that's for sure. But I can't really be picky, you know? At least," she gestured towards the parents with a jerk of her head, "they've found closure." She cleared her throat. "And, uh, I just wanted to thank you."

"For what?" He tilted his head.

"The BAU has always been regarded by many people as something like a family," she shrugged, "I was warned that I probably wouldn't fit in right away, especially with how shady my transfer into your unit was. But you've all pretty much welcomed me with open arms. So, thanks, sir."

Hotch scanned her face for a second before saying, "Call me Hotch." 

author's note: easter eggs easter eggs easter eggs easter eggs