𝐢 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐡𝐞 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐬; 𝚜. 𝚛𝚎𝚒𝚍

1 - OLD ACQUAINTANCES

"Agent Hotchner. Detective Foreman. Call me J.T. Not the most cushy arrangement, but it'll keep your team close to the crime scene for now." 

A young, darker skinned woman walks up to the FBI agent, causing him to stop in his place and introduce himself. "Agent Hotchner." He says, sticking his hand out to greet the woman. She smiles at him and raises her hand to meet his. "Agent Stephanie Morgan, i'm from the Houston office."

 The man simply nods his head. "Follow me." The two walk through a sheet of transparent plastic, it felt like tarp like material as she pushed her hand through. Just as she walks in, her ears are greeted with someone talking. "You know, based on the parasites on the most recent kill, the unsub killed as recently as a month ago, which means he's still active." Stephanie's eyes are met with the man who just spoke. He was wearing a button up shirt with a sweater vest on top. "Agent Stephanie Morgan." She once again reaches her hand out to greet him but is only met with air. Agent Hotchner cautioned, "He doesn't shake hands." She simply muttered an "Oh." Before continuing, "How did you figure out the timeline so quickly? " She asks. 

The man in the sweater vest quickly glances at Stephanie, earning the smallest smirk- only seen by the trained eye. "Dr. Spencer Reid." He introduces himself, his hands quite fidgety. "Well- uh- By reverse engineering Mother Nature. Each year, sand and sediment cover up the remains, creating layers on the ocean floor." He finishes. 

That earned a tight lipped smile from Stephanie. "That makes sense, actually." 

Agent Hotchner adds, "The deeper the pump dug, the older the remains."

Spencer explained, "Nine victims in nine years means that he's in control of his urges."

"Any sense of victimology?" Agent Hotchner questions. "He seems to like variety." Stephanie claimed. Spencer glances at her then adds, "Pelvic bone width indicates that he kills both men and woman, and skull structure says he crosses racial lines as well."

The trio gets interrupted by Detective Foreman. "Agent Hotchner, excuse me. We found three more remains."

Agent Hotchner turns to the group again. "If he's been dumping this long, it's not just out of convenience. There's got to be an emotional tie as well." Spencer shoves one hand in his pocket and adds, "He'll change his M.O. Because he has to, but he won't be happy about it."

Stephanie expressed, "Then he'll have the entire Atlantic to choose from."

Stephanie follows Detective Foreman out of the enclosed space and makes her way over to meet an old acquaintance of hers. "Is that Ashley Seaver that I see with my own eyes?" She jokes, earning a wide smile from the blonde. She wraps the woman in a hug. "It is! It's been what, 5 years?" The brown haired woman chuckled. "About that, yes!" The two share a laugh, before Ashley speaks up again. "Let's go talk to your brother." The two women follow the detective to where Stephanie's older brother is. 

Once Derek caught sight of his younger sister- it was as though the world had stopped turning. "Steph! What are you doing here?" He shouted happily. He engulfs his sister in a tight hug. "I haven't seen you in a while. How's mom? Sarah and Desiree?" Stephanie smiles. "All good. I haven't seen them, but I talked to Sarah on the phone and she seems pretty good." The older brother turns his head slightly. "Wait, what are you doing here?" The girl sighed. "Aunt Yvonne called me up here. She wanted to have her-" She places her fingers in the air and makes a quotation sign. "Two FBI agents" -"Find out what happened." 

Derek nodded his head. "Well. Let's get started then. As you know, that site is known for record catches of yellow mouth, so the unsub was smart enough to dump during the off season and avoid fishermen." 

"Then he's a local." Stephanie concluded. 

"I'm afraid to ask- Could this be one of my guys? We run interdiction exercises around that spot." Detective Foreman questioned the trio. 

Stephanie shook her head no. "No, it's most likely another fisherman."

"Well, how could you know?" The detective asks again. 

"Let me show you." Derek says, pressuring the already nervous detective to follow him. The group follows Derek to a white table with bones covering it. Derek swiftly grabs a napkin, then the bone on the table. "See, he disarticulates the bodies at the joints." "It helps them sink." Stephanie adds. Derek glances at his younger sister before continuing. "Now, that's a skill that only an experienced butcher or fisherman would have."

Stephanie quickly puts a glove on her hand before pointing at the bone. "The bone nicks indicate this guy inflicted a lot of pain on his victims, which means he's a sadist." She suggested. 

"Wow." Was all the Detective could say before being dragged away again by a co-worker of his. 

Ashley walks away as Derek holds his pointer finger up- making sure Stephanie stays quiet as he pulls out his phone and calls someone. "Enchantress of all things possible. Use your imagination." A voice says, coming from the phone. Stephanie stifles a laugh. With no reaction from Derek, he continues. "Can you enchant me with a list of boat owners in Jacksonville?" "You know I can, baby. Okay, in Duvall County, we're looking at 31,047 registered boats." The voice quickly responded after the quick tapping of a keyboard. 

Stephanie grabs Derek's hand and brings the phone close to her mouth. "Can you limit that to the boats that can only be operated by one person?" She quickly asks. 

The other end of the line goes quiet fast. "Who am I speaking with?" The voice squeaked. "Agent Stephanie Morgan. AKA, Derek's little sister." Stephanie introduces. The voice quickly comes back. "I'm Penelope Garcia! Okay- Okay, I'm gonna need a lot more than this to do that. Sorry, sweetie. It's still looking like a list that makes War and Peace read like a comic book." Stephanie replies with a quick thanks before turning back to the table to examine the bones. 

From behind her she can hear Derek and Penelope having a conversation. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. I'll keep you posted." "Aye, aye, Captain." Then, the call ends. "Why wouldn't you be okay?" Stephanie turns around and looks up at her brother. "It's just in cases like these where there's only pieces, it's tough. The best we can do is catalog them and wait for the unsub to screw up somewhere else." Stephanie did not believe her brother at all. She knew him better than himself. But, she decided not to press. "You think he's moved on?" She asks. 

Derek responds immediately. "If he's smart he has. And so far, this guy seems very smart."

❦----SAVINGHARRINGTON SPEAKS !

this is kind of a random place to start, but i think this episode will really show you derek and stephanie's relationship well. i apologize that this chapter is short- its late rn and i wanted to publish something!