—

JJ, Garcia and I huddled around Reid's desk as he was gonna show us a trick he was perfecting.

"Nothing's happening." I said, staring at the can.

"Shh! Watch." The cap was sizzling. Then it shot up in the air.

"Ah!" We all yelled.

"Ooh. Ah!" Emily yelps as she got hit with it. We tried not to laugh, covering our smiles and giggles with our hands. "What-"

"I'm so sorry, Emily." Spencer laughs.

"What was that?" She looks up and around.

"Don't you recognize a rocket when you see one?" Garcia laughs.

"I- I was merely demonstrating a physics law I- I-I didn't meant to hit-"

"Oh,show me!" Emily walks up to us.

"All right. Uh... well, turn around, please." He tells us. We all groaned.

"Turn around?"

"Yeah, he's not gonna show you... how it's done." The three of us turned our backs.

"A magician doesn't reveal his secrets."

"But I thought you said it was physics?" Emily caught him.

"Physics...magic." He mumbles.

"Trust me. It will not do you any good to argue with him."

"All right, all right, turn back and observe." We turned back. And then it shot up again. Making us up. We saw were it landed. Our smiles turned into jaw dropping.

"Physics magic." Hotch picks up the can. We all turned around and pretended to do something, knowing Hotch, oh man.

"Yes, sir."

"Reid, we talked about this."

"I'm sorry, sir."

"Really starting to get some distance on those." I turned around and saw him smile. I walked up with Emily.

"So he does have a sense of humor." I stared at him as he walked into Gideons office.

"Sometimes."

"Hey, where's Morgan." Emily searches for him.

"In Chicago. He goes there every year for his mother's birthday." We all nodded. Good for him. Nice to go home when you have the chance, no matter what.

—

I got call from work saying to meet at the jet. I gathered up my go bag and carpool with JJ and Emily.

"You know where we heading?" I asked as we got on the jet.

"Derek is being held with homicide." Everyone went silent. Derek would never do that. That cant be. Its Derek for crying out loud.

"In Chicago?" My head snapped up. Chicago? I clenched my fist. Its been awhile.

—

"Special agent hotchner, FBI. I'm looking for detective...Gordinski." Aaron announces as we stepped foot into the precinct.

"I got this, Chuck. How you guys doing? Wally Dennison, cpd." The man got up from his desk, walking up to us.

"Where's agent Morgan?"

"Detective Gordinski's in with the suspect now." Just him saying that Derek is a suspect just boils my blood.

"I need to see him."

"When my partner's finished talking to him."

"I have your superintendent's personal cell number, and in the interest of not running roughshod over another police agency. I've resisted calling him so far. I need to see agent Morgan now." Hotch went off without a blink.

"I'll get Gordinski. He's the, uh, primary." He walks away.

"I don't like them calling him a suspect." I growled as I crossed my arms.

"Me neither."  We waited for Gordinski to come, then I saw him wobbling down.

"Detective Gordinski, cpb." Him and Aaron shook hands.

"You think an FBI agent, a bau profiler committed a homicide."

"Actually, three homicides at least, over 15 years."

"You-you think he's a serial killer." JJ scuffs.

"This is ridiculous." Reid chimes in.

"Has he been charged with anything?"

"I got 72 hours for that."

"I'd like to see him."

"Be my guest. This way." Aaron went ahead and went to see Morgan. Gordinski turns and looks at Gideon. "Agent gideon, right." He sticks out his hand.

"Yes." Gideon sounded confused.

"I owe you a big thank you. I had no suspects at all until you looked over my case for me and sent me this profile." He walks over and showed us his profile. "Everything in it points to that son of a bitch, Derek Morgan." We all looked at each other. Theres no way. Gideon? Profiled Derek? No. Gideon looks through the casefile.

"I profiled him."

"It's all right there." He points at the file.

"Detective, a profile's just a guide." I told him.

"Yeah, this one guided me to him." He has a very punchable face right now.

"They're really more useful in the elimination of suspects rather than the inclusion."

"That's not the way you presented it to me."

"Well, if I confused you, I'm sorry."

"I'm not confused at all." Im going to wipe that smirk off his face.

"Look, whatever it is in here that made you consider agent Morgan a suspect has to be coincidence. You can't rely solely on this." Gideon tells him as he walked up to him.

"You're right, I'm not." Ooo Emily, hold me back. "15 years ago, I was a new detective. One of my first cases was a black kid 12 or 13 years old, found strangled in a vacant lot near here." He gave a file to Gideon.

"Boy was a john doe, right?"

"Still unidentified to this day."

"Wait, a 12-year-old kid that no one reported missing." Theres no way. Somebody had to, a 12 year old? Come on. Someone had to be missing their kid.

"Ever. Four years ago, another body turns up, same M O. Worked that case just as hard, came up with just as much nothing. Nobody in the area had ever seen the kid before."

"No one's looking for these kids?" Thats absolutely sad.

"Then a few months back, I attended a seminar that you taught at cpd headquarters. I told you about my case, you said to send you the files and you'd look 'em over. This is the profile you worked up. There are about 3 million people in Chicago." and he went on about the profile he built. Okay mister Profiler. I rolled my eyes.

"Can't be just visiting the victim. There has to be more than that."

"Sure. You said the unsub might try to inject himself into the investigation to keep tabs on it. Morgan has called our headquarters many times since he joined the bureau. Always about this case."

"So, wait, he talked to you about it?"

"Headquarters. He'd never call me. After I got your profile, I checked airline records. Turns out Derek had just left Chicago when the other body turned up." Oh come on, it has to be a coincidence. We went to a room, showing us the photos of our latest and oldest victims. "Then yesterday another kid ends up dead and the last person he was with was Derek Morgan. In the boy's pocket we found one of his FBI business cards, his cell number written on the back of it. In fact, every time Morgan's in town, he hangs out with kids."

"This is all just coincidence." I blurted out.

"A hell of a lot of coincidences."

"It's purely circumstantial."

"So's a fingerprint. Did I mention that Morgan found the body in 1991. Hidden way back in a vacant lot. Now, don't you teach that when a body is hard to find, the person finding it is always a suspect."

"There are key pieces of the profile that don't fit, detective. Uh, the age, 25 to 35, Morgan was 15 or so at the time." Reid corrects him.

"Also says that age is the hardest to predict, and I should never exclude someone simply because of a discrepancy with the age."

"What about the speculation that since he didn't managed to leave any evidence at the scene of the crime and he most likely has a criminal record or previous law enforcement knowledge. Derek wasn't even in the bureau yet when the first body was found."

"He may not have had a knowledge of law enforcement but Derek Morgan definitely had a criminal record" we all were shocked. Theres no way.  The five of us went out and talked.

"A desperate detective here." Gideon said as we huddled around. "Three dead boys, no evidence at all, so he applies the profile directly to someone he already suspected. It's easy to get tunnel vision that way."

"One begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts. That's, uh, one of sherlock holmes's favorite quotes."

"We need to figure out who really killed these boys before they decide to charge Morgan."

"Whats the plan?" I asked him.

"Last victim was someone Morgan was seen with. Conveniently, Morgan was already a suspect in the other two."

"Someone set him up?"

"We should consider Morgan a victim. Prentiss, you and reid talk to his family, learn about him- especially around the time of the first murder." He orders.

"Do we have the address?"

"I can take you." Oh great, baldly over here volunteering himself.

"Oh, that's ok." Emily insisted

"No. Actually, that's not a bad idea." Now why would you say the Gideon?

"Right. Okey-doke, lead the way, detective." And off they went. Now it was just me, JJ, Gideon and Hotch. JJ and I went to reading the files.

"Get garcia into Morgan's life." He hands me a file.

"Sure." I nodded and went to a private room and called her. 

"I feel terrible looking into his life like this." Garcia sighs from the other line.

"I know, just remember we're trying to help him."

"Right, ok. Graduated with honors from northwestern law. Did you know he was a star football player."

"Surprisingly, I don't know anything about him." I felt bad. All the talks that we have, playing around, I never really thought about it.

"Quarterback. That's the guy who throws the ball, right?"

"Yes." I didnt really know a lot about football, I'm not a big fan.

"Ha. That's what he was." she laughs. "Full ride athletic scholarship. Sophomore year he severely injured his left knee and he never played again."

"Ok, garcia, look further back, ok. Before college."

"Right. Where are we. Ok, um... wait. He was mentioned in the Chicago register as... Body of a ch-child in a vacant lot in 1991." I closed my eyes.

"That's our first victim."

"He never told me about this."

"He never told any of us." I wrote what we said down, pinching my nose. "Is there any criminal history?" I asked.

"Criminal?" One of the detectives stood by me, I decided to move away.

"Garcia, is there a criminal history."sounded so bad.

"Hazel there's not gonna be a-" she stops. "There's a sealed file."

"Unseal it."

"But it's a sealed file."

"Garcia, helping him." I reminded her.

"Ah. Right. Helping him, helping him... That's a juvenile criminal record. It was expunged and sealed by a judge esposito after presentation of a letter and testimonial from a local youth center director Finest young man I've ever known, criminal record could jeopardize potential scholarship offers... Stake my personal and professional reputation...He was definitely a fan of our boy."

"Do we have a name?"

"Hang on a second-"

"I'm Carl Buford." I turned around to see a man and woman.

"Buford." Garcia says. I stopped.

"Did you just say Buford?" I said perplexed. After the call with Garcia, I sat out, looking at Buford. I turned to the investigation room where Morgan was being held. I quickly stood up and made my way there. I opened the door and Morgan turned around.

"Hazel." He came to me for a hug. I hugged him back so tightly.

"Derek.." I whispered.

"What is it? Did you find anything?"

"Whos Carl Buford?" He straighten up. I touched a nerve.

"Stop looking into my life Santos."

"We're trying to help you Derek. Who is he?" I softly said to him. He didnt say anything. "Derek."

"Stop looking."

"If you tell me-"

"Santos!" He raised his voice, making me jump. "Let it go!"

"You can trust me. Derek."

"We have our secrets Santos, just like your mystery man that you dont want to talk about. Im warning you, dont push it." He turns away. I bit my lip, I didn't want to push it. I headed out and went back to the desk, thinking about him.

"Find anything out about Morgan?" Gideon and Hotch came up to me. I snapped out of it.

"The record wasn't picked up in his background check because everything in it was expunged and the file sealed by a judge." I told them.

"Forgiving judge."

"It was based on the recommendation of an upstanding member of the community who took personal responsibility for Morgan." I gave Hotch my notes and articles that Garcia sent me.

"That sounds like somebody we should talk to for more background."

"Should be easy, he's right over there." I pointed at him, them turning around. I saw them talking with Gordinski, already looking at us. They went up to him. I had a weird vibe from this Buford guy, they way he mentored Derek, Derek not wanting to say anything about him. I packed up my stuff and went to the other room. I looked at my phone, stared at it. Should I call her? No, not what after she done, embarrassing you infront of Luke, choosing some man over her children, not even proud of you for being in the BAU. I just laughed to myself. Why would I.

"Hey!" I heard someone yell. I peeked out the door way. "What, did we turn him loose?" Gordinski checks and comes back.

"You let him escape?" We all looked confused. We checked the interrogation room. Derek wasnt there. I charged up to Gordinski as he was done making his phone call.

"You have to tell your officers that Morgan's not a threat." I growled.

"Like hell I will."

"But this-"

"Lady." He cuts me off. Ooo. I made a fist. "As far as I'm concerned, he is a threat, ok."

"My name is SSA Hazel Santos, not lady. You should respect me the same way you do to your men." He just walks away. "Theyre not listening." I shrugged my shoulder as I made my way back to the team. "We have to find him first."

"Any ideas?"

"His mother said that Buford practically raised him after his father died, he mentored him, took him on trips, spent all of his time with him. Basically became a surrogate father."

"Jason, I think I know what he was afraid we'd find. Detective, we may know where he's heading." Hotch turns around. We headed out to the youth center. Surrounding every inch. I heard everything that Derek said, everything that Carl Buford did to him. I closed my eyes. Poor Derek. The way Buford say that all that Derek could've said was no. It honestly disgusts me. As they took Buford away, Derek didnt even say a word.

—

Emily was driving down to the jet. I put on my sunglasses on and my feet on the dashboard.

"So, I heard that you used to live here in Chicago." Emily chatted.

"Long time ago." I didnt move.

"Your mom used to live here, right?"

"Yep." I popped the p at the end.

"Dont you want to see her?"

"We had a falling out a long time ago."I opened my eyes, it looked familiar. My old neighborhood. "She wont see me. She told me if I joined the BAU, I don't live here." As she drove away, I saw my old home. The memories hit. I silently cried.

"Im sorry." The house looked empty, like no color, as if nobody cared about it. "Hazel are you okay?"

"Just go Emily." I sniffed. How can a mother do that to her child? The one you're supposed to love.