"𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝘀 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱, 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝘆 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗻 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝘀"
-𝗘𝗿𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗛𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘄𝗮𝘆

-----

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗲𝗻 - 𝗩𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆

Spencer, Gideon, Derek, Valentina and the daughter was now on the BAU's private jet to Baltimore, Maryland.

"We're landing already?" Spencer asked, walking over to where Gideon, Derek and Valentina sat.

"Twenty five minute flight" Gideon said, not even looking away from the window when he spoke.

"I never knew twenty five minutes could feel so long" Derek commented as he looked to his right to see Val still asleep and her head resting on his shoulder. He knew she hadn't been getting much sleep, the eye bags under her eyes told him that so when her head fell onto his shoulder he didn't dare move it. He wanted her to get as much sleep as possible even if was only a short flight. Yet she never slouched.

When the plane had landed, Derek was very gentle when touching her and his movements were slow to not startle her like he did last time. Which resulted in him getting his own coworkers gun pointed at him.

"Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to fall asleep on your shoulder" Valentina blushed slightly in embarrassment.

Derek smiled "Late night?"

"Yeah, you could say that" She shrugged, standing up from her seat and putting on her jacket but Derek was still staring at her, his eyes going from her face to the scars on her arms "Hope your not profiling me Special Agent Morgan"

Snapping out of his trance, he chuckled as he too got up from his seat with his hands in the air "Wouldn't dream of it, mama"

-----

"Why are they just standing around?" Natalya asked, looking at Gideon and Reid through her living room window.

"Natalya, that's the head of the local office out there. It wouldn't do us any good to go running around without any information" Derek explained, as him and Valentina were profiling the place. The job they were here to do.

"What kind of information do you need?" She asked, turning around to face Derek. She was slightly intrigued.

While they were having a conversation, Valentina had excused herself into another room because her phone had started to ring. It was Captain James, telling her that their three month Afghanistan tour has now turned into six months.

"What do you mean six months Charlie? It was supposed to be a three month tour to help build schools for the local and poorer communities, escort the medical vehicles and provide security and now your helping the Afghan Armed Forces with the capture of Rahim Malik" Val ranted into the phone as she started to pace.

"I know this is hard for you Val but I'm only doing what I've been told" James sighed "And lets not forget I shouldn't even be telling you this-" He started to snap before Val cut him off.

"Because it's classified I know, but this is the same terrorist who fucking killed Miles! Do you understand that? One of our men who was in my charge got lured into a trap and killed just like that" Anger was laced in her tone as she spoke "Like he was just a bit of dirt on the bottom of their fucking shoe when we were there to help their people! Charlie this mission is suicide and you know it"

"I know Val, I know" He whispered through the phone "But hey, you need to be working and I'm not helping by telling you all this shit"

Valentina sighed knowing he was right. They didn't have a choice if they wanted to do the mission or not because a solider always serves their country first and they're ready to sacrifice their life for the people they don't even know.

Just like Private Miles Pearce.

"God the world has gone upside down" She paused "Just be safe okay? All of you"

"Don't even worry about us or anything else. You just go and catch some criminals" He chuckled a bit and Val smiled slightly.

"How I can not worry about you all, you're all like my kids, it's my job" It was the both of them that laughed this time before the mood dropped once again "Especially when your there"

James didn't want to say anything else knowing if he did, he'd probably break. He knew this mission was suicide the second he got briefed and that's why he had to ring Valentina because she was always there to comfort him on tour. Just hearing her on the other side of the phone, brought him some comfort.

It was silent for a couple minutes before James whispered "Love you Val"

"Love you too Charlie" She bit her lip as they both hung up at the same time before she heard commotion outside.

"How do you know he has your father?" Derek asked Natalya just as Val walked outside. All eyes glanced over at her for a second as she walked to stand next to Nat.

"He's responsible for all this. Why everyone's afraid. Him and his animals" She cried.

The conversation went on for a bit more before the man started to speak in Russian to Natalya and Val wished for Emily or a translator to be here right now.

"Hey, what did he say?" Valentina asked the woman who looked to be in some sort of trance "Did he threaten you because if so, we need to know to help your father"

"He said I made the wrong decision. I hope I didn't" She gritted her teeth in silent fury before walking off into her house.

The two agents went back inside and called out her name only to find Natalya pacing in the living room  "You alright?" Val asked even though she knew it was a stupid question.

"In two hours, if we don't send someone money we don't have, my father will be mutilated again. So, no, I'm not really all right" Yep, that's the answer she was expecting.

"We're working on it" Derek told her.

"You're working on it?" She scoffed "You're standing right here with me and she was on some phone call" Natalya glanced over at Val "And the rest of you are standing in front of the house. What exactly are you doing?"

Valentina didn't know what to say because Natalya was right. She was here to work as an FBI Agent not a marine. And sometimes she forgets that.

"We're here to collect details" Derek started to explain "The things that people might not even realise but they help tell us who we're looking for. I look around. I see no family pictures after your brothers died. No pictures of you at all after that day.  You had to graduate high school here, yeah? There's nothing to commemorate it. Anywhere. You don't have a family room, so this should be the centre of your home. But look at your furniture, yeah they may be old antiques but they look new. They're hardly ever used, nobody sits here"

"You have chairs at your dining table but only three people live here meaning you don't eat together" Valentina continued and Natalya's eyes went over to her "And your shoes, they make look like Prada but they're knockoffs. Your bag, it's a fake designer bag"

Natalya looked at the bag on the table knowing they were right "Now I mean no disrespect Natalya when I say this, but you're trying to look like something you aren't which tells us you have no money and you just don't want anyone to know" The woman sighed, holding her tears back.

"Why do you need to know all of this?"

"It's what we call victimology, and it's very important because we need to know why these people chose your family to victimise" Derek clarified and she just gave him a small nod in response.

-----

Derek was now looking upstairs while Valentina was sat on the couch looking through some books for anything that could help them "Erm, are you hungry?" Natalya came into the room "I've already asked Agent Morgan but I can make you something if you are"

"Thank you, really but I'm fine" She sent the woman a comforting smile and it wasn't long before she took a seat next to Valentina.

"I guess I'm like my mother. When she's upset, she cooks" Val chuckled, putting the book down she had in her hands "Oh and I'm sorry about snapping earlier. You could've been on the phone to your boss or anyone really, and it wasn't right of me to say any of that"

She shook her head "No, don't worry about it. You were totally right anyway"

Natalya nodded before Val spoke again "My, erm, dad's like your mother" She referred to the conversation just moments ago "He could cook literally anything. Guess it's a guy thing too" Val smiled, she missed him.

"Where is your father?"

Val subconsciously grabbed her dog tags between her fingers "New York. Where I was born and raised" She half lied.

"I'm from Dolgoprudry. Just north of Moscow" Val smiled, she liked that Natalya was opening up to her a bit more. She opened her mouth to ask her something when someone knocked on the door and you didn't have to be a profiler to know Nat wasn't counting on someone coming today "You expecting anyone?"

"No"

"Morgan" Val whispered quietly, walking up to the door with her hand resting on her gun. She moved the net curtain that was covering the door window to reveal a boy. Maybe ten, eleven.

"It's Uri. He lives down the street" Natalya confirmed and Val moved out the way "Open it" And Nat did where she got given a small box.

"A man said to give this to you" He said before he said something in Russian. She frowned and watched as Nat opened it only to see a bloody ear at the bottom of the box causing Nat to scream and drop the box in Val's hands.

"Get in the house, get in the house now" She made sure the little boy was in too before rushing down the steps and drawing her gun, her eyes darting everywhere and it wasn't long before Derek had joined her outside after hearing Natalya scream.

"You okay?" Derek asked her, already feeling bad for not hearing her call the first time. However, he was upstairs and Val was trying to be quiet because she didn't want to alert whoever was at the door.

Valentina nodded, calming him down slightly "No sign of whoever brought that package" Her hand was still gripping her gun tightly as she looked at Derek "We gotta call it in"