Criminal Minds 1. Prologue

**Attachments**

Forming attachments on a case is always dangerous, but Emily takes it to a new level when she ends up adopting the team's most recent vic. Together, the two mix up quite a storm in the BAU, but who cares? Family OC fic. WARNINGS for a mother's love later in the story.

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><p><em>Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession... (incomplete) <em>- Elie Wiesel

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><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

**Time: ? **

**Place: ?**

Alyssa ran her hands through her hair, brushing through the knots that had accumulated. Holding her brother around his shoulder, she walked around trying to find a way out. She tried prying open the windows but they were sealed tight. The doors were locked with various brands and styles of locks, most of which she didn't recognise so she was having trouble trying to pick the locks. Gently, she stroked his head and hummed a quiet song. The child clung to her shirt, looking around the room as well.

On the far wall there was a television set. DVDs lined the sides and two large speakers sat beside the TV stand. In a circular fashion was a couch set that was comfortable to sit in. A glass table sat in the middle of it all making it look eerily like a living room. If it weren't for the fact that there were bars all around the windows and large, heavy _locked_ doors keeping them in.

Alyssa bit the inside of her mouth and led her brother back to the couch, lying down and pulling him into her arms. As soon as they had settled down he began crying.

"Shh, it's gonna be okay," she whispered. "You've just gotta be my strong boy, okay?" she said, kissing his forehead.

"Will Eric and Jean get us out of this?" he asked meekly. His older sister swallowed.

"Maybe, but maybe not," she said. They cringed when, somewhere in the distance, a door banged open. Letting out a soft cry, the boy clung to his sister tightly, holding on to his only lifeline.

The door in front of them swung open. A man dressed in jeans and a blue shirt stepped in, putting down a box on the table. He moved to kneel before them and he held out his hand.

"Come on," he said. "I'm not gonna hurt you."

She bit her lip and buried her brother's face into her chest, cradling the boy as close to her body as she could.

He sighed and withdrew his wand. "I brought you both some clothes," he offered, pulling the box closer to them. He pushed it in front of the pair and stepped back.

Slowly, not letting go of her brother, she peered into the box. It was filled with bundles of clothes, both hers and her brothers. Using one hand, she pulled out a tee-shirt, one of her favourites, and a pair of jeans. She did the same for her brother.

The man smiled. "I'll let you change," he whispered, but before he left, he knelt before her again and touched her face, ignoring the way she flinched at the contact. "I promise, I won't let them hurt you ever again," he whispered, pressing his lips to her forehead.

Wisely, she didn't move or say anything until he pulled away.

"I'll go get dinner," he said quietly. As he left, she distinctly heard the lock clicking, trapping the two inside.

(&(&%&%&)&)

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><p>Well, i've been obsessed with Criminal Minds and a while ago i saw the episode where Emily volunteered to adopt that girl that had been a victim in one of their cases so that got me thinking. What if...?<p>

And for me my 'what if's normally become stories so, enjoy!

And, to any of my other readers who also read Twihaze (chk my page) do not worry, i have like half of the next chapter typed up and should be coming by the end of this week if exams go well. As for this story, i have up to chapter three typed up and ready to go so this _should_ have a fairly regular update schedule. (but i do tend to lapse and get lazy in updating)

Review and tell me what you think so far. I know it doesnt give you much to deal with and chapter one will be coming up real soon but i just wanna know how its going so far?

So, review please and you get cookies (even if you dont have an account, anonymous review is up so still leave a comment)


	2. Chapter 1

**Attachments**

Forming attachments on a case is always dangerous, but Emily takes it to a new level when she ends up adopting the team's most recent vic. Together, the two mix up quite a storm in the BAU, but who cares? Family OC fic. WARNINGS for a mother's love later in the story.

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><p><em>Information is the oxygen of the modern age. It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across electrical borders.<em>

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><p><strong>Chapter 1<strong>

**Time: 11:45am**

**Place: FBI Private Jet, Destination - Oklahoma**

"Hey… hey kid," a voice said, cutting through the haze. Something poked his cheek. "Kid wake up, we're almost there." Slowly, the young genius opened his eyes and came face to face with none other than the man who loved to torture him, Derek Morgan.

Reid just blinked at him.

"Kid you okay?" Derek asked. Reid sat up and ran his hand through his hair.

"Yeah, just a little dazed," he replied, rubbing his eyes. "Where are we again?"

"Jettin' to Oklahoma. Serial Kidnapper," Derek informed. "Now up and at em'. We're going over this briefing one more time for your sake."

"Nice to see you're up, Spence," Agent Jennifer Jareau aka JJ said. Reid gave her a half smile slash grimace before accepting the case file.

"So what have we got?" he asked.

"Well, my little boy wonder," Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia said from the laptop which was currently streaming her face. "Our little serial kidnapper has been quite the busy bee taking 6 teenage girls in the past two months."

"Six? That's a lot of work for two months," he said, flipping open the file. "How do we know it's all him?"

"The MO and Victimology's all the same," Agent Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner stated.

"The girls were all taken when they were walking home," Agent David Rossi stated. "White, residents of the area, Grade A students, nice, didn't cause any trouble and had a lot of friends, plus, it was normal for them to walk home after school or clubs so for two or three hours nobody wondered where they were. It was when they didn't get home at night that their parents got worried and put in a missing person's report."

"And the MO?"

"They were all found in public areas," Prentiss began. "Two were found in parks, three were found 'waiting' at bus stops and the last one was found _back_ in her homes when the parents returned home from work."

"There were no signs of torture," Rossi put in. "As a matter of fact, from the autopsy reports it looks like all the unsub did was kidnap then and keep them for a week before killing them and dumping the bodies."

"So we're looking at a sexual sadist?" Reid asked.

"Honestly, I don't think so," Hotch said. "The quick kidnaps in such a short span, the quick killings and dumping the bodies so soon after leaves very little time for the killer to be able to fully enjoy his killing."

"It can't be to leave a message either. The way and places where the bodies were dumped don't have much of a connection other than being public areas," Reid noted.

"Either this killer is killing for the fun of it, or he's just killing to see how long he can get away with it by leaving the largest body trail he can," Rossi said.

"And if he's devolving, then he should have already taken his next victim," Reid said, looking up from his paper. As if on cue, JJ's phone rang. Everyone shared the same look of grim expectation as she answered the phone.

"Hello? Yes, this is Agent Jareau. I see. Yes, we'll be briefed when we land," and with that she hung up the phone.

"That was the local Chief of Police," she said.

"And?" Morgan pressed.

"There's been another kidnapping."

(&(&%&%&)&)

**Time: 12:30pm**

**Place: Silverwater, Oklahoma**

When the team landed, they decided to split up.

"Reid, I want you and Prentiss to talk to the vic's family," Hotch said. "Morgan, Gideon and I will set up a base at the Police Office and JJ will be in charge of getting the media aware of our preliminary profile."

"Roger," the team replied.

As the black SUV that Reid and Prentiss were in pulled off, Prentiss' phone rang.

"Hello?" she answered. "Yeah, hang on, I'll put you on speaker." She took the phone away from her ear and pressed a button. "It's Garcia," she informed Reid.

"Can you guys hear me?" Garcia's voice said.

"Loud and clear," Prentiss replied.

"Okay, as you know with abduction cases we don't have a lot of time to play with," she began. "So for now I'm just filling you in on our recent vics and I think you're gonna find this very interesting."

"Okay, shoot," Prentiss said, pausing at a traffic light.

"First thing that varies from your other kidnappings is that it's two of them missing now," Garcia said. "16 year old Alyssa Farrway and 9 year old Michael Farrway."

"Two? He's gotten bold," Prentiss commented.

"Not only that, but your entire victimology is different. All your other vics were white teens, Alyssa's black," Garcia said. They heard typing and beeping in the background. "Um, she was born in the Caribbean, a country called Guyana, and she lived there for most of her life except for a few times when she had to travel with her mom. She was born out of wedlock and her parents never got married. Her dad did marry someone else, however, but he and his wife were killed in a car accident when she was 14. After that Alyssa's mom got married to an Eric Farrway and they moved out of Guyana to Silverwater. They've been living in America as residents for 2 years now."

"Okay, that's Vic#1, Alyssa. What about or Vic#2?" Prentiss queried.

"Coming to that," Garcia replied. "Our second victim is Michael Farrway, Eric Farrway's son from his previous marriage. He's lived with his dad all of his life. Likes soccer and art from what I got here. The report says the parents noticed they were missing when Alyssa didn't come home from picking him up after his usual soccer practice."

Reid and Prentiss exchanged a look. "Well, we'll talk to the parents and see what's what," Emily said.

(&(&%&%&)&)

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><p>Well, that's the first chapter and since im in such a good mood im updating!<p>

Reading it back i realised that the first part was kind of Reid centric and i totaly didnt mean for that to happen considering this is an Emily story... :/... That plus i don't think the quote at the top really matches what's going on in the chappy... hmm... i'm just not in it today.

Well, hope you enjoyed!

Leave a Review!


	3. Chapter 2

**Attachments**

Forming attachments on a case is always dangerous, but Emily takes it to a new level when she ends up adopting the team's most recent vic. Together, the two mix up quite a storm in the BAU, but who cares? Family OC fic. WARNINGS for a mother's love later in the story.

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><p><em>The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.<em>

-Oscar Wilde

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><p><strong>Chapter 2<strong>

**Place: Farrway Home **

"What?" Mrs. Farrway asked weakly, sagging against the doorway of her Victorian style home.

"We believe your daughter may have been a victim of a serial kidnapper that's been using this town as his hunting ground," Reid repeated. Mrs. Farrway hid her face in her hands and took a shuddering breath.

"Ma'am, maybe we should go in-?"

"No!" she said forcefully, cutting Prentiss off. "We'll stay out here."

She stepped out of the house and closed the door firmly behind her. "Now, who did you say you were?" she asked, rubbing her eyes which appeared to be very red.

"My name is Spencer Reid," Reid said.

"And I'm Emily Prentiss, we're with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit," Prentiss said.

"Behavioral what?" she asked, her face looking very skeptical.

"Behavioral Analysis Unit, we work on building psychological profiles of criminals using clues left at the scene of the crime," Reid said.

"Sounds like guess work to me," Mrs. Farrway muttered.

Reid and Prentiss shared a look. "A lot of people say that," Prentiss said.

"You know my son's missing too," Mrs. Farrway said suddenly. "Or, Eric's son I should say," she corrected. Prentiss and Reid shared a look before nodding.

"Yes, we know," Reid said. "And, if you would let us we would like to look through their rooms," he asked.

Mrs. Farrway posture tensed. "What for?" she demanded.

"We do this sort of thing to build up something we call victimology," Prentiss explained. "It tells us why your children were chosen and how we might be able to get them back."

Narrowing her eyes at them, she looked both of them up and down carefully before stepping back and opening the front door. "Follow me," she said, turning her back to them.

Again, the two exchanged a look before following the woman into her home. The inside of the old fashioned home was artfully decorated with paintings and pieces of furniture that seemed expensive but tasteful. The warm colours on the wall brought out the dark colours of the picture frames which hung there. Each set of frames hung in their own patterns ranging from diamonds to squares to shapes that Emily didn't recognize.

"You have a beautiful home," she commented. Mrs. Farrway glanced back over her shoulder as she led them through a hallway.

"Thank you," she said. "But Eric's past wife was the one who decorated it. We only made some minor changes," she said, pointing to the frames hanging along the walls. Each showed pictures of, who they supposed to be, Alyssa, a dark skinned, curly haired teen with and athletic build wearing glasses, and Michael, a young boy with tanned skin, freckles and blonde hair that hung past his shoulders even though it was in a low ponytail.

Prentiss and Reid took in everything as they followed Mrs. Farrway up a winding flight of steps. On the second floor she led them to the first room as they stepped away from the steps.

"This is Alyssa's room," she said with a sniff. "We haven't been in it since she disappeared." She wiped her eyes. "She always gets angry if she finds out we've been in her room so if she gets back we don't want the first thing she does is get mad." Prentiss nodded and started walking around the room.

"Reid, you go with Mrs. Farrway to Michael's room," she said. "I'm just gonna look around in here."

"Sure," Reid replied. Mrs. Farrway nodded and led Reid out of the room.

Prentiss waited until Reid and Mrs. Farrway had gone until she began looking through Alyssa's room. Honestly, to the normal eye the room looked like it belonged to a normal teenager. The walls were painted lavender with dark purple stripes running along the walls in criss-cross patterns leaving diamonds of lavender the size of postcards showing. Most of the diamonds held little paintings or quotes painted on with a fine brush however, quite a few were still empty. Her bed was neatly made and her comforter, a darker shade of purple, had evidence of being either sat on or having objects placed on it.

The bookshelf was full of novels, textbooks and guides on subjects and topics ranging from Alchemy to the Percy Jackson series. When she checked, Prentiss found notebooks that were jammed behind the other books in a makeshift hiding place. When she flicked through them they contained stories that seemed to be written by the teen. Each were dated and beside the dates she had either scribbled 'Finished', 'Unfinished' or 'To be finished'. Placing the book back into its hiding spot she, moved on the computer desk and workspace.

The workspace was just as jumbled. Pages were strewn across the surface of the desk and textbooks lay open and closed on top of each other. Notebooks were half scribbled in before either being thrown off the table or just being closed and shoved to one corner. A small back MP3 lay in one corner, facedown, its orange earphones dangling of the edge. A large green mug stood at the corner of the desk. It was empty.

The area around the computer was neat, however, everything had their place. CDs were in their racks, there were hooks for her various flash drives, notebooks lined up neatly at the bottom and a footstool was nestled comfortably under the desk. And ACER notebook lay centred perfectly at the middle of everything a small red light blinking every ten seconds or so to indicate that it was still on and waiting to be opened.

Sighing, Emily turned away from the desk, walking to the vanity, the barest part of the room. Other than the top drawer being slightly open, the rest of the surface was neat and clean. The surface of the wooden vanity was almost bare except for the hair supplies which were lined up against the back of the frame. Two photos, both showing Alyssa and Michael, one at a soccer game and the other beside a pool, were placed on opposite ends of the vanity and were placed so that they were facing each other. The large gilded mirror stared back at Emily, reflecting the room behind her. To her it seemed to taunt her with the fact that there should be a teenager in its reflection instead of an FBI agent. Walking around the room, listening to music and not having to worry about anything but if the boy she liked would ask her out or not.

Prentiss sighed and closed her eyes, imagining Alyssa walking around the room, probably chatting on her phone which wasn't currently in the girl's possession. She closed her eyes and touched the mirror, biting the inside of her mouth. Whoever took this girl… they were going down.

In Michael's room, Reid himself was battling with some emotions as he looked at the pictures of Michael and his older sister which lined the pale blue walls. Posters of famous football players caught in mid-kick were arranged above his headboard. The shelves were full of books and toys, a few of which lay scattered on the floor. He pulled open the bedside drawer and took a look at its contents. There were no toys but bottles, some empty some full, of pills accompanied by smaller notebooks. Reid made a note of the name of the drug mentally and shut the drawer again.

Making a face and ignoring Mrs. Farrway who was standing in the doorway watching him move through Michael's room, Reid poked around his book case which seemed to be the focal point of all the clutter in the room and something caught his eye.

On one of the shelves, amidst the varying titles of comic books, novels and story books, there was one that stood out. A leather bound journal, brown with gold ribbons running along the spine, sat almost all the way at the back, almost totally hidden by the comics covering it. Glancing back at Mrs. Farrway behind him, he debated as to whether or not he should take it out and read it but at that moment he heard a car pulling up in the driveway.

"Excuse me, that's probably Eric," Mrs. Farrway said, stepping out of the door. Reid waited until he heard her footsteps vanish out the door before quickly pulling the book out and flipping through its contents.

Inside were diary entries, some stating events such as his first goal or his last loose tooth, but others were more… graphic. He quickly snapped the book shut and stuffed it back into its original hiding spot just as Mr. and Mrs. Farrway and Prentiss stepped in to the room.

"Hi, you're from the FBI right?" he asked, shaking Reid's hand. "Your partner told me you were in here. She said she was done in Alyssa's room."

Reid and Prentiss exchanged a look and Prentiss gave him a short nod.

"And I think I'm done here," Reid said, stepping outside of Michael's room.

"If there's anything we can do-"

"As a matter of fact there is," Prentiss said, cutting Mr. Farrway off. "We would just like to know if either Alyssa or Michael ever told you about someone they didn't know approaching them in a way they didn't like."

The parents looked at each other before shaking their heads.

"Really? Nobody approached them after school, or while they were at clubs?" Prentiss asked, frowning.

"And this routine is normal for them, right?" Reid asked. They nodded.

"Alyssa never told us about anyone strange but, then again, I don't think she would have," Mrs. Farrway said.

"And why's that?" Reid asked. Mrs. Farrway bit her lip and glanced at her husband before speaking.

"Alyssa and I haven't had the best relationship since her father died," she said. "She doesn't speak to me, she always locks herself in her room and she barely goes out."

"Really? Now that's strange for a 16 year old girl," Prentiss noted. Reid nodded in agreement.

"Alyssa always was a weird child," Mrs. Farrway said, chuckling. "But that's what made her unique."

Mr. Farrway patted her on the back and she straightened up.

"Well, if there's anything we can do to help your investigation, please let us know," Mr. Farrway said, following Prentiss and Reid out. "We'd be happy help the FBI."

"Thank you for your time," Prentiss said, shaking his hand before she and Reid made their way to the black SUV.

"That was weird," Reid commented as soon as she pulled away.

"The rooms or the parents?" Prentiss asked, stopping at a traffic light.

"Both," he replied. He frowned as he remembered the contents of the diary. "There's definitely a lot more going on in that house that they don't want us to know about."

(&(&%&%&)&)

**Time: ?**

**Place: ?**

Alyssa eyed the boy sitting next to her on the couch warily. Originally, he had tried to sit next to her but she had backed away as far away as the couch allowed leaving a large gap between them.

"Come on Alyssa don't run away from me," he begged.

"Let us go," she said firmly. He looked downcast.

"You know I can't," he said. "I made a promise to you. I said I would always protect you."

"But Malcolm-"

"What's going on here?" another voice demanded. Alyssa jumped and curled herself around Michael as another male walked in, slamming the door shut.

"N-nothing," Malcolm said, tripping over the word. The newcomer eyed them over before grabbing Alyssa by her arm and pulling her up to face him.

"You feeling okay?" he asked sounding genuinely concerned even though the grip on her arm was like steel.

"Michael needs his medicine," she choked out. "Please," she begged. "He won't last long without it. Please Raphael."

Raphael observed her closely for a little while. "If he gets his medicine," he began. "You promise you'll stay with us," he asked. "And be a good girl?"

Alyssa swallowed and nodded. "And my wife?" he continued. Ay that statement Alyssa froze.

"Yay! That means she'll be my mommy!" Malcolm cheered from behind her. Alyssa closed her eyes for a moment, focusing only on the weak little boy she was protecting now. _As long as Michael is alive…_ she thought.

Slowly, she let out a long breath and locked eyes with Raphael. "Yes."

(&(&%&%&)&)

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><p>Well, I've been wanting to get that chapter out for a while but i swore i wasnt going to put it up until i had finished typing chapter 4. Yes, i know i said chapter 4 but i prefer to be a little ahead of the chapters i already have up here or else i won't ever complete them.<p>

So, for this chapter i just want to ask my readers (and i know you're out there. I regularly check my traffic for this story and it is HUGE) a few questions:

1) What do you think Alyssa's personality is like?

2) What do you think Michael's personality is like?

3) what do you think their relationship with their parents is like?

and...4) what sort of relationship do you think Alyssa previously had with her kidnappers.

You don't have to answer in a review, but I'll let you know that if you do answer these questions correctly you'll just be that much closer to figuring out how this story arc ends. (note i said arc, not story itself.)

HINT: In each of their rooms in a common factor that hints at their bond and personalities.


	4. Chapter 3

**I am so sorry for not updating sooner. In all actuality, this chapter was finished last week and I had uploaded it and evrything for publishing, but somehow I felt it wasn't right so I didn't post it, not to mention i had a case of writer's block for the past month. Then, while i was sleeping, i found inspiration and i deleted the last half of the chapter and retyped it. The fourth chapter is halfway done and should be out by this upcoming weekend if i don't get lazy and decide not to type it up this afternoon. Cross your fingers.**

**OH! i hope you enjoy this chapter and shout out to Alice Smith14 for her review last chapter and to every one else who like this story enough to alert it and favorite author me! **

**Attachments**

Forming attachments on a case is always dangerous, but Emily takes it to a new level when she ends up adopting the team's most recent vic. Together, the two mix up quite a storm in the BAU, but who cares? Family OC fic. WARNINGS for a mother's love later in the story.

_A good deal of tyranny goes by the name of protection - _Crystal Eastman

**Chapter 3**

**Time: 12:45**

**Place: Silverwater Police Station**

"Good afternoon, I'm Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner, this is SSA Morgan, SSA Gideon and our Media Liason, Jennifer Jareau," Hotch introduced, pointing each member of the team out as the Chief shook hands with each one of them.

"Gary Fields," he said, introducing himself. "We're really happy you could take on our case so if there's anything you need just ask."

"Actually we'd like two whiteboards and a victim board, we'd like to get started on our profiling right away," Gideon said, not waiting for Hotch to say anything. The Chief nodded.

"You can use this room," he said, leading them further back into a room that looked like it had been cleared just for them. Three whiteboards stood ready and a large board showing all the victims had already been set up.

"Thanks," Morgan said, he and Gideon already moving to the board to start their analysing. Before Hotch could join them however, Chief Gary tapped his shoulder and pointed him outside.

Frowning and more than slightly curious, Hotch followed.

"Is there something wrong?" Hotch asked.

"Um, kinda," Chief said. "Look, I wanna tell you the other reason we were so keen on inviting the FBI to look into this case."

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Look, Alyssa's a nice girl, so's Michael, but I can't say the same about the parents," he began. "For as long as they've lived here we could tell there's been something going on in that household but Alyssa and Michael both have their lips shut."

"If you're suspecting abuse then shouldn't the case have been taken to a judge already?" Hotch asked.

"And it has, but whenever the trial's supposed to come around we get a notice from the judges calling the case off," Chief said, sounding desperate. "Eric's got a lot of money to play around with, buying off a few judges isn't that hard to do for him," he said. "We were hoping that during this search for Alyssa, you could use some of the time to do some digging to help us get her and Michael out of there."

Hotch looked around the station and realised that there was more than one officer looking at his conversation with the Chief.

"We'll do what we can," he said finally, walking back inside.

"That's all we ask," was what he heard as the door closed.

"What was that about?" Morgan asked the instant Hotch walked in.

"A bit of the favour that the Chief is asking for," Hotch replied.

"What kind of favour?" Gideon asked, looking away from the victim's board.

"He wants us to check out any signs of abuse going on in the Farrway household, he suspects that there's something not right going on in there," he said.

Morgan and Gideon exchanged a look. "So what's the order?"

"For now, we focus on what we have so far on our victims," Hotch said. "We can start our abuse case when Spencer and Emily come back from the Farrway house."

Morgan and Gideon nodded their agreement and they turned back to the board.

"So what have we got so far?" Hotch asked.

"Elizabeth Moore, 16, was the first victim; she attended Silverwater High, the town's local high school and has lived here for all her life. She was in the town's local swim club and was abducted after one of her club sessions," Gideon said.

"Mandy Lewis, 16, was next, she was a local athlete as well but she was a runner, a part of the school's track team. She disappeared after a late session as well," Morgan said.

"Shania Morales, _17_, she was a year older than his first two victims and was the first deviant," Gideon pointed out. "Unlike the other two she wasn't in any sort of athletic club, she was a member of journalism club the school had recently started."

"Alicia Cook, back to 16, she attended Silverwater as well and was a part of the same track team as Mandy Lewis. Disappeared after a track session but not a late one like Lewis'." Morgan and Gideon were hitting their stride now.

"Juliet Rogers, 16, was a soccer coach for the local middle school's junior soccer team. Disappeared after a practice while she was walking home."

"Then there was Lily Homer, 16, another deviant. She wasn't a part of any athletic clubs or extra-curricular activities. She used to walk home after school and that was when she was abducted."

"Then finally," Gideon said. "We have our double kidnapping, Alyssa and Michael Farrway."

"And that's where the M.O takes a complete turn," Morgan put in. "He changes from white to black, from single to double abductions and from only female to one male victim."

"The big question is, 'why?'" Hotch said, crossing his arms.

"And how come we're not treating this abduction as a separate case?" Morgan asked. "The victimology's so different that it points to another unsub entirely."

Gideon shook his head. "This unsub is precise with his timing for the abductions. All the kidnappings take place at exact timed intervals, including the Farrway kids. If this was another kidnapper, then why aren't we hearing about a third victim? Wouldn't our original unsub have let the guy take Alyssa and Michael then take his own pray during his usual hunting time?" Gideon shook his head again. "No, this is definitely the same unsub."

"Alright then," Morgan said. "If this _is_ the same unsub, then why does he change his entire victimlogy after 6 abductions? I mean, the guy clearly had a type."

"Maybe not," Hotch said softly, looking at the victim's board.

"Whaddya mean, Hotch?" Morgan asked.

"All seven girls went to the same high school right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Morgan replied.

"Where they had constant interaction with each other," Hotch stated.

Gideon sat up. "What are you thinking?"

"A theory," Hotch said. "I'm thinking about what Morgan said about the drastic change in victimology. What if-"

"Hotch?" Reid cut in (totally not on purpose though) as he and Emily walked in.

"Good, you're back," Hotch said. "I have a special case for you two."

Reid and Emily looked confused.

"Local P.D's asking our help in investigating some abuse charges in the Farrway home," Morgan said.

"Well that certainly would explain a lot of things we saw at the Farrway home," Prentiss said.

"Meaning," Hotch asked.

"During our visit Mrs Farrway was very… closed off," Prentiss started. "She didn't want us in the house and only let us in when it became necessary for us to come in to continue the investigation."

"Not to mention when Mr. Farrway got home she was looking to him as a sort of…." Reid paused, looking for the right word.

"Guide," Prentiss finished. "Not to mention he didn't even look too disturbed about the fact that his children were missing."

"Well that definitely arouses suspicion on their part," Morgan said.

"Just to be certain we called Garcia to look up on some information for us," Prentiss said. "Hope we're not jumping the gun."

Hotch shook his head. "No, from now on you and Reid will be responsible for the abuse case, the rest of us should be able to handle this case on our own."

"We'll let you know if we find anything that corresponds to the abductions," Prentiss promised.

Just then the phone rang. Hotch pressed one of the buttons and the ever chirpy voice of Garcia, although not so chirpy at the moment, hopefully bearing news.

"Baby girl, tell me you've got something for Reid and Prentiss here." (okay, if you don't recognise this as Morgan then you don't know Criminal Minds."

"Do I sense doubt?" she replied.

"None from our end," Prentiss said. "Now give us what'cha got."

"Okay, I did the digging you asked me too Emily baby, and let me tell you it is not pretty," Garcia said. "I pulled up both of those kid's medical records and, baby, it was bad."

"How bad?" Morgan asked.

"Let's put it this way, Alyssa alone made more trips to the emergency room than Wile. E. Coyote," Garcie replied. "And Michael was another regular to the emergency room too."

"All those trips to the emergency room?" Gideon stated, appalled. "Social Services should have investigated those ages ago."

"Yeah, well apparently, money talks," Garcia said, sounding disgusted. "According to the records I got from Social Services-"

"Which I'll assume you got in a completely legal way," Hotch interrupted sternly.

"Do you want my genius or not?" Garcia asked.

"Continue."

"Now, as I was saying, according to the records I got from Social Services, whenever an investigation got launched they would receive a _generous_ donation from Mr. Farrway and would call the investigation off," Garcia said. "Bastard!" she added venomously.

"He buys off anyone who tries to invade his territory or take away his property," Morgan said.

"Typical alpha male behaviour," Reid said.

"Now here's some juicy info," Garcia said. "I ran some checks on Eric Farrway as well and he's been making trips to the E.R as well and all of these trips started about a month after Alyssa and her mom moved here."

"She's been fighting back," Gideon commented.

"Also, when his trips to the E.R started Michael's stopped," Garcia said. "That's also when he joined soccer club."

"She diverted his attention away from Michael to her by fighting back," Prentiss said. "Then she kept Michael away even more by making him join clubs that would keep him away from home."

"She was his protector," Gideon said.

"And probably another Alpha figure," Reid said. All heads turned to him. "Well think about it, naturally when two Alpha's meet one Alpha instantly tries to take control of the pack. Alyssa's pack was made up of her mother and Eric's pack was Michael. When the two met up Jean transferred loyalty to Eric and Alyssa took Michael. This would most likely be the reason for most of their fights. Two Alphas trying to assert dominance over the other."

"And by the looks of the records here failing miserably," Prentiss said. "Alyssa was tough and she refused to back down. Now that she's gone Eric probably won't care much about her either." She clenched her fist and took a deep breath. Under her breath she muttered something in another language but Reid, who was close enough to her, could tell it wasn't anything too nice.

"Now that we've got that over I also took the liberty of trying to dig up any connections between the victims," Garcia said.

"You saved us some time baby girl we were about to ask you to do that," Morgan said.

"The Oracle sees all, my chocolate god," Garcia said, chuckling slightly. "Now, silence as you take in the information your goddess has obtained."

"Garcia," Hotch said, trying to hurry her up.

"Okay okay, in my digging and making links guess what I found."

"All the vics were connected," Morgan said.

"Close but not entirely, the vics weren't all connected to each other," she said. "They were all connected to Alyssa."

"Pardon?" Reid asked.

"You heard me right baby genius," Garcia said. "All of our vics, with the exception of Shania Morales and Lily Homer, were connected to Alyssa in some way or form. Elizabeth Moore used to be on the same swim team as Alyssa but Alyssa quit after a few months after some reports of bullying done by Miss Moore. Mandy Lewis and Alicia Cook come next when Alyssa joined track team afterwards. Unfortunately she jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire here, the bullying just got worse."

"What about Juliet Roberts?" Prentiss asked.

"Easy there girl, getting to that," Garcia said. Clicking could be heard in the back ground. "Okay, Julia Roberts, Michael's soccer coach. Not a lot of activity going on there but there is this one incident on police records where she and Alyssa got into a fight on the field. They had to be separated by off-duty cops."

"That's four vics with ties to our last girl," Morgan said. "Come on baby girl, tell me you got something on the other two."

"I'm sorry darling, but no luck," was the reply. Morgan sighed and Prentiss rubbed her eyes.

Hotch turned to Emily and Spencer. "You two were at their house. Did anything… stand out? Anything the slightest bit significant?"

The two thought for a moment, running their sweep of the children's rooms over in their head.

Finally Emily shook her head. "Nope, nothing stood out," she said. "Just an ordinary teenager's room."

"Absolutely nothing?" Morgan asked.

Emily nodded. "Yeah. And her parents said they never entered the room after she was kidnapped. Heck, her laptop was still on."

"Wait, what?" Everyone turned their eyes to the phone as Garcia perked up. "Did you say her laptop was still on?"

"Yeah, why?" Everyonbe leant forward.

"What brand was it?" Garcia asked.

"Baby girl what's on your mind?"

"Hush Morgan, Emily what was the brand?"

Emily's eyes widened. Not every day did you hear Garcia telling Morgan to be quiet. She racked her brains for the brand. "Um… Acer, one of those little mini notebooks."

"Huh…"

"Baby G, what's with the 'huh'?" Morgan asked, sounding anxious.

"That laptop shouldn't be on," Garcia said.

"What?" Hotch asked confused.

"That laptop shouldn't be on," Garcia repeated. "Acer laptops have a feature in them that automatically turns the computer off if it hasn't been used after a specific length of time. As far as I know, the normal size Acer laptops have a timer of 8 hours. The notebooks have a timer of four."

"Match the power off time to when Alyssa may have last used the computer," Reid started.

"Which, the latest should have been yesterday morning, she vanished. That should be a combined time of about…hmm… about 16 hours," Emily put in.

"Then, unless someone used the computer…"

"It should have powered off a long time ago," Garcia ended.

"Someone tampered with it," Morgan stated.

"Her parents?" Gideon suggested. "After all, they could think that the laptop might have had some clues as to where she could have been."

"Then why lie to us and say that they hadn't bothered with it since she disappeared?" Spencer asked.

"Besides, Eric Farrway is a classic narcissist, he wouldn't care about any of Alyssa's property unless it concerned him and most, if not, all teenagers' laptops have little to nothing on it concerning their parents," Emily said. "It had to be someone else."

"Emily, describe her room for me," Garcia asked. "I'm no detective like you guys, but I think I can tell you if something's wrong with her room."

Emily paused for a moment just to make sure she remembered everything before starting. "The computer area was clean. Everything had a place and nothing was out of order. No signs of liquids or any food ever having even _touched_ the surface."

"That laptop's her baby," Garcia noted.

"The desk next to it wasn't as neat though," Emily said. "It had stuff scattered all over it… as if someone had gone through it in a rush."

"That's weird," Garcia said. "That's another place close to the desk, she wouldn't allow there to be disorganised when it was so close to the laptop." Hotch frowned. "What else?"

"Her vanity. The top was clean but the top drawer was open, just a bit though."

"Other than the drawer being open that sounds okay. What about a bookshelf?" Garcia asked. "If I'm right about my little theory then that should be one place that spick and span."

"No," Emily said. "The bookshelf was a mess. It looked like a hurricane had hit it."

"Okay, major on the weird alert," Garcia said. "Bookshelf should be second to computer space in neatness. That's major wierdne-AH-HAH!"

Everyone in the room jumped at Garcia's sudden explosion over the phone.

"You found something baby G?" Morgan asked.

"Yes!" she said victoriously. "I was doing a tad more digging on Alyssa and you won't believe what I just found in the CIA database."

"The what?"

"Hotch we'll talk about that later."

"Yes we will."

"What did you find Garcia," Emily asked, feeling edgy.

"Guess which one of our vics is currently on the CIA watch list for hacking into restricted files from the FBI and CIA," Garcia said. "Here's a hint, it's not the 9 year old who failed Computer Sciences last semester."

"Whoah." Emily suddenly felt the ridiculous urge to laugh. This girl was amazing her more and more as the case progressed. Standing up to an Alpha figure who was definitely bigger than she was, playing shield for a child that most definitely wasn't hers and now… she was on a watch list for hacking into high profile government agencies. Talk about getting into trouble in you spare time.

Vaguely she wondered how one Mr. Farrway had taken it when CIA agents had probably come knocking on his door asking for his new step-daughter.

"Wait, but that still doesn't tell us anything about where she is," Morgan said.

"Geez, am I the profiler now?" Garcia asked, sounding annoyed. "Look, I'm telling you this with absolute certainty now. Someone was in her room."

"And how do you know that?" Hotch asked.

"Simple," she replied. "Absolutely no self respecting hacker will have their personal space in a mess. We're just OCD like that."

"Alright then," Hotch said. "Reid, I want you to head back to the Farrway home, see if anything else is out of the ordinary."

"And ask the parent is anything's missing," Emily put in, picking up her case file.

"You're not coming with me?" Reid asked.

"I want to interview her friends," she said, halfway out the door. "Call me if you find anything back at her room," and before anyone could say anything she was gone.

**Time: 1: 55 pm**

**Place: Farrway Home**

"But you were just here a while ago," Mrs Farrway protested.

"Yes, but I need to look through their room again in light of some new evidence," Reid explained anxiously. Mrs. Farrway looked as if she was about to say something when her husband stopped her.

"Come in," he said, allowing him to walk past.

"Thank you," Reid said, already climbing the steps. "This'll just take a mo-"

Thud.

The three froze in their places as something heavy sounded seemed to have dropped in one of the rooms upstairs.

Reid frowned as the soft sounds of, what could have been, cursing met his ears. Someone was up there. Quickly he drew his gun and quietly moved up the steps. In a few seconds he was joined by Mr. Farrway who was holding a gun of his own.

"This is my house, now way I'm gonna let some thief ransack it," he said after seeing Reid's pointed look at the gun.

Quickly, but as quietly as possible, the two made their way upstairs. When they reached the second floor they traced the sounds to Michael's room. They quickly took positions on both sides of the door.

Reid sighed mentally. Kicking in doors wasn't his thing. Maybe he should have asked Morgan to come along instead of letting him go with Emily.

Sending his hesitancy, Mr. Farrway nodded to the door questioningly. Reid nodded and, after only a moment's pause, Mr. Farrway kicked in the door and in an instant both guns were pointed inside.

Inside, a man jumped but before shots of any kind could be fired, the pair's eyes widened as the lamp hurtled towards their heads.

**And that's chapter 3. I suck at cliff hangers as you can probably tell but i hope you enjoyed it. The real action starts next chapter which, in case you didnt read the top, _should_ be out by this weekend. **


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Criminal Minds, Crime, Family