𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐖𝐀𝐘. ( 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧 )

chapter twenty

TW: child abduction, stalking, mention of abortion, angst if you squint, police prescence, mild violence

truth comes out, part one of two.

"i'll love you forever. i'll like you for always. as long as i'm living, my baby you'll be. " - robert munsch.

-

"Garcia, drop it," Genevieve said firmly as the elevator doors dinged and the two women strode out of the elevator. It was early - around six in the morning, and the team was meant to be enjoying a day off, but a report of a child abduction had been brought to JJ's desk, so she had called everyone in. Garcia had run to hop into the elevator with Genevieve, then, had tactfully seized the opportunity to harass her brunette friend about her schoolgirl crush on Derek.

"Only when you tell me what you're planning to do about your feelings for Derek," The blonde said ecstatically.

"Nothing. I'm going to do nothing, and I can't believe Emily told you," She said, rolling her eyes at the betrayal of her other friend.

"Actually, Emily told JJ, who told me," Garcia corrected, causing Genevieve to stop in her tracks and turn around to face Garcia, a horrified look on her face. "JJ knows? We may as well tell the whole team now!"

Before Garcia could respond, the Hotch walked up to them, a stressed expression on his face.

"Roundtable, now. This is a bad one," He said, causing the two women to exchange worried looks, before hurrying over to the conference room.

"Okay guys, we have a missing child report from here in Virginia," JJ said, clicking on the remote to turn on the flat screen. Genevieve paled as she saw the image that popped up on the TV. "This is five-year-old Annike Taylor Moore, her parents reported her as missing at five-thirty this morning. They put her to bed at seven-thirty last night and were leaving for a beach house so went to wake her up and found her bed empty. No signs of forced entry, and the house's security cameras were disabled, and Annike's father forgot to arm the security system,"

Genevieve's hand started shaking violently as she stared at the case file that her coworker set in front of her, and her breath got caught in her throat. Garcia's eyes widened as she too recognised the name and image of the young girl that popped up - she had long, chocolate brown hair, and hazel eyes. She had a light dusting of freckles on her nose and cheeks, and sharp features. This was the girl that Genevieve had asked her to dig up information on.

"Gen? You good?" Rossi asked, eyeing the woman's wobbling hands. Rossi - or David Rossi, was a legend in the BAU. He and Gideon had founded it in the seventies. Gideon had left the team after the Joe Smith case - they hadn't heard back from him, so Spencer had taken a trip up to the profiler's cabin, where he found his gun and badge, and a letter stating that he was done dealing with the horrors that they saw on the daily. Upon hearing Rossi had called a meeting with Strauss and come out of retirement to fill Gideon's place in the BAU. He'd spent his retirement making millions from the books that he wrote about his time as a profiler.

"Y-yeah," She lied, flashing him a brief smile as everybody's eyes flickered to her. She sat on her hands. "Just the coffee jitters. I'm fine, don't worry about it,"

No one seemed to buy her lie, but turned away from her and back to the flatscreen.

"Anything else we should know about?" Derek asked JJ.

"Yeah. Annike's adopted. It was a sealed adoption, but the locals are working on unsealing the files to try and find her birth parents, see if they're viable suspects," JJ said, causing Genevieve to bite her lip.