Stay with me

Stay With Me Chapter 1

Why did it always have to be a Sunday? Couldn't serial killers be a bit more respectful of their rare days off? That same thought was going through each of the teams minds as they were awakened by the shrill of their cell phones at 4:45am with a chirpy Garcia telling them they had a case.

The first person she called was Hotch because he would tell Garcia what he wanted her to do regarding the case and the urgency of calling the rest of the team. But Garcia had a nasty feeling about this case and Hotch's response to her call only confirmed her suspicions: "Get the rest of the team to the office ASAP. We can't waste any more time."

So Garcia began calling in the rest of the troops; first she called JJ because she knew her blue-eyed angel usually took the longest to get ready in the morning and she'd want to say goodbye to Will and little Henry before she left.

Next she called her chocolate Adonis, because he too took an unusually long time getting ready- she imagined it was because of the time he spent doing his sit ups and ab-workout, he had the most perfect abs, like a chiselled statue of rock hard- "Garcia! Are you still there?"

"Yes yes, see you soon my pretty." Chimed Garcia as she awkwardly ended the call.

Third to be awakened was the boy wonder. While his morning routine only consisted of a quick shower and putting on clothes (which he'd already set out for himself the night before), the genius was an unbelievably slow driver- which he defends as a way of avoiding being one of the 3,064 people killed or seriously injured in speed related motor vehicle accidents per year. Who were they to argue?

Following her phone call with Reid, Garcia called the newest member of the team, Dr Alex Blake. Despite their initial scepticism, Blake had fit in beautifully- she did crosswords and discussed books with Reid, talked linguistics and travelling with Emily, enjoyed a good scotch with Rossi and even the occasional girls night much to Garcia's delight. They didn't know much about her personal life (other than the fact she was married), she was similar to Emily in that respect- she played things close to the vest. But she was quite a maternal figure within the group, and had a very calming nature that was comforting to them, especially with their troublesome line of work. She was an asset not only to the team, but to their family, and Garcia liked her very much.

Emily was next on the list to be called, but when she rang, Garcia found that her raven haired beauty was already awake. "Rise and shine my-"

"Hey P, got a case yeah?" Emily stated, practically answering her own question. This took Garcia aback slightly; usually when she called Emily this early in the morning she'd get some expletives thrown at her in various different languages and a lot of angry grumbling, but today there was none of that. What she could hear was some shuffling in the background and what she could've sworn was a man's voice...Was her mysterious little phoenix having a secret midnight rendezvous?

"Uhm, yeah we do. Boss man wants everyone in pronto." Garcia informed her, with an ever growing smile on her face.

"Okay, see you soon." and with that Emily hung up. Garcia was very intrigued, and made a note to quiz Emily on her night-time escapades when she saw her.

Last to be awakened was the Italian stallion himself, David Rossi. Despite taking his sweet time with his own beauty regime, Rossi lived much closer to the office than the rest of the team, so his wake up call could wait 'til the end.

It was 5:20am by the time the whole team was seated at the round table, all of them looking exhausted with large bags under their eyes and even larger cups of coffee under their noses. Garcia put the first set of photos on the screen as the team opened up the tablets and began to swipe.

"It's a home game this time folks. Two nights ago a gas attack put four people in hospital. Six people were placed out on K street at 8pm on Friday night and four were taken to hospital shortly after that with symptoms of dizziness, ataxia, blurred vision, confusion, random erratic behaviour, delusions, hallucinations and heat stroke the last of which eventually led to hyperthermia and death in two of the victims." Everyone was at a loss for words, these symptoms were brutal, which meant that the unsub was one evil son of a bitch, and this was going to be a difficult case to crack. Reid shifted in his seat feeling particularly uncomfortable as it reminded him of the anthrax case they worked on three years ago- that was a seriously close call for him, and none of them wanted a repeat of what happened then.

"Wait Garcia, you said six people were outside K street, but only four were hospitalized?" Morgan asked quizzically.

"Ahh yes, this is the more disturbing part-"

"More disturbing than that?" Scoffed JJ in disbelief, pointing at the case report on the screen.

"Unfortunately so my lovely. Danielle Richards, 34 and Boris Fryer, 45 both lived alone and so they had nobody with them to call for an ambulance when their symptoms became more severe. Both were found in their homes at around 2:30 this morning by Metro PD when they were identified on the street security cameras in the same area as the other victims. Danielle died of a stab wound to the abdomen and Boris appeared to have scratched his own eye balls out and" Garcia had to pause to hold back a dry heave, "tried to swallow them but choked and suffocated." Garcia's face had turned a pale shade of green at the sight of the crime scene photos, as did JJ's.

"Do we know what gas was used yet Garcia?" Rossi chimed in.

"Not yet sir, nor do we know how it was transferred."

The team fell silent, not really sure what to do next with the minimal information they had.

"Right so we have a lot of questions and not many answers, we'll be working from here and coordinating with DC police as and when we need." Commanded Hotch, "Garcia, I want you sifting through each of the victims lives, finding what else connects them other than this attack. Reid, I want you here researching any and every gas you can think of that presents with these symptoms, coordinate with the hospital if you have to- I want to know what we're dealing with sooner rather than later. Blake and Rossi, morgue. Morgan and Prentiss, crime scenes- both homes and K street, but make sure it's safe before you go anywhere near there, I don't want anyone getting infected. JJ, you and I will go to the hospital. Everyone clear?" Everyone nodded, "Good, let's go."