Shattered Secrets

Chapter 22: Somethings never change

[6 months later]

I have never gotten tired of waking up in his arms. It had been almost five months of living together and not once did I regret it. I loved every second we spent together. Getting to know Jack has been one of the best parts of the whole thing. I never particularly envisioned myself as a mother or a step-mother but Jack was the best kid. He was so smart, funny, and always made me smile after a hard day. I was so lucky I got to be a part of his life. Arron and I were worried at first if me moving in would have been too much but Jack was just as excited as we are. He calls it a permeant sleepover. I still missed my apartment sometimes but we knew it would be best for me to move into Arrons place. He was closer to work plus jack's school and friends were all near by. The only thing we both missed was the view but, nothing will ever be better than being able to come home with Arron every single day. However, serial killers never take a break regardless of how many good things were happening in our lives. We had caught twelve of them in the past 6 months. Based on my phone quietly buzzing on the kitchen table made me think it was about to be thirteen.
"Hey JJ what's up?" I answer the phone, shocked that it wasn't Penelope letting me know we had a case.
"Medusa's back, we're all meeting at the plane, Hotch said wheels up in 30" she hesitated for a second "Are you going to be okay?" She asked.
"I'll see you in thirty minutes." I hung up the phone and ran to the bathroom. My stomach emptied itself into the toilet and I sat down on the bathroom floor. Arron had taken Jack to school and headed to the office early this morning so I was alone. I wiped the tears off my face and got ready to leave. I would not let this unsub get away again.

As I drove to the hanger I flashed back to the original case. The way we scoured every single possibility only to come up with nothing. The way that I felt having to go to the morgue and see the victims after being covered in snakes for who knows how long. The argument Arron and I had in the police station. To this day I don't know what it was about this case that had upset me so much. Maybe it was everything going on outside of work, maybe it was how much I hated snakes, maybe it was just the fact we couldn't solve it. When I pulled into the parking lot I saw Arron leaning up against an SUV, no doubt waiting for me. I put the car into park and stopped for a second before getting out, trying to remind myself to take deep breaths. When I got out I practically threw myself into him. I felt his arms wrap around me holding me tight.
"Are you okay?" He whispered into my ear.
"No, but I will be once this case is over." I had stopped hiding my true feelings from him months ago. He could always tell if I was lying anyway.
"I've got you, you'll get through this I promise." He ran his hand up and down my back slowly.
"I feel so stupid." I said as I pulled away from his hug.
"Hey, you are not stupid. We all have cases that hit us harder than others. Are you going to be able to do this? If not you can stay here, go back to the office and help Penelope."
"No, I want to go. I want to end this once and for all. Just promise me that I can lean on you?" I felt so ridiculous asking him for his support when I knew I didn't have to.
"You can always lean on me, August. We have to go. You ready?" He reached down grabbing a hold of my hand. I just nodded because I knew if I opened my mouth I wouldn't be able to lie and say yes.

I couldn't focus the entire time we were debriefing on the plane. Arron kept his hand on my thigh the whole time just to reassure me he was there. All I could do was replay every single moment from the original case. Remembering where we went wrong, what things we had all ready thought of, what we needed to differently this time. I listened carefully as Arron was giving out assignments making sure he wasn't benching me. I was still a valuable asset to the team and I needed to show that.
"And August and I will head to local PD look at our notes from seven months ago and see what we missed." He announced to the group. Keeping him and I together didn't shock me and I knew I could be helpful at the police station. I wanted to talk to the two new victims families, if I could find the original victims ones them too. When we landed we all went our separate ways. Derek and Tilula to the medical examiner, JJ and Emily to the newest crime scene, Spencer and Dave to reinterview anywhere the unsub could be getting all of the snakes. Sadly the original police officer who the gun was stolen from had died in the past few months so we were truly back to square one. I refused to let go of the possibility our unsub was a woman, I thought it seven months ago and I was definitely still thinking it now.

The hardest part of the job was always, and had always been, talking to the families. I was good at it no doubt but I couldn't stand it. It was practically what I did the most of when I was communications liaison. It's always been my least favorite. The newest victim gave us a lead though, something we could definitely use. His ex-wife said that he had been "working to clean up his act" so I had Penelope look into exactly what that meant. Finally we found that all of our victims had some sort of locked or expunged court case. Long behold all of them were for something to do with inappropriate behavior towards children. Our unsub was acting as a vigilante probably due to something that happened in her own childhood. We believed that the snakes were being used to symbolize Medusa specifically the fact she is a symbol to sexual assault survivors. It took us almost eight months but we were finally ready to deliver our profile. We were looking for a redhead woman in her early to mid thirties. She's criminally sophisticated so she or someone close to her could have law enforcement or military training. She has some sort of childhood trauma probably sexual assault or abuse by an older male in her life. She feeds off of attention from the media as well as evading law enforcement. I couldn't help but feel like something about this case was familiar. Not just because we had worked it months ago but something about this felt personal. That's when it all clicked suddenly. I pulled Tilula into a back office, I needed her to tell me this was crazy. I felt like I was losing my mind.
"August what's wrong? You look like you're going to pass out."
"Lu when was the last time you heard from Phoebe?"