𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓪 𝓳𝓪𝓷𝓮 ➢ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝓉𝓌𝑒𝓃𝓉𝓎-𝒻𝑜𝓊𝓇

"Aimee Lynch, eight years old, was taken an hour ago from a winter festival in Ashburn." Garcia presented the case as JJ passed out the personal files, keeping one for herself.

"Any witnesses?" Emily asked.

"Her mom Barbara was right next to her when she vanished." Garcia answered.

"There must have been hundreds of people there," Morgan said. "No one saw anything?"

"It's a temporary gathering," Hotch said. "With little to no secuirty."

"All right, Reid, Tate, and I are going to head to the family's house," Hotch said. "Everyone else, work here with Garcia. We need to look at every local abduction or attempted one in the past year, see if there's any overlap. Good new is that we're barely into the second house."

"Yeah, well, odds are we've only got twenty-two hours to find Aimee alive." Morgan replied.

"Aimee Lynch of Ashburn was last seen at the winter festival this morning at ten," Garcia said. "She's four foot eight, had blonde hair and green eyes."

"With temperatures dropping tonight, we need to find her."

Anderon, a BAU field agent came in, eyes falling on JJ. "Agent Jareau, Sarah Hillridge is here to see you."

JJ sighed and stood up. "I'll be there in a second."

Reid's eyebrows furrowed. "Sarah Hillridge?"

"She lost her son, Charlie, eight years ago. She comes in every time a child around his age goes missing." JJ answered.

"She thinks her son is still alive?"

JJ nodded as Hotch looked over at Mrs. Hillridge. "I remember her. She stays for the first twenty-four hours, right?"

Mara hadn't lifted her eyes from the file until Morgan set a hand on her shoulder. The damn skirt wasn't helping. Finding the note, being reminded of her brother who she missed every day, reminded of what that man had done to her life.

"You alright, MJ?" Morgan asked her, the new nickname slipping from his lips.

She flinched at the nickname. "What did you call me?"

"Sorry, I've never had a knack for nicknames, I thought it was cute," Morgan chuckled, smile dropping when she watched her eyes fill with tears. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she breathed. "My brother used to call me that."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"No, no, it's okay," she chuckled. "I don't mind."

"Mara, come on, we don't have a lot of time." Hotch said from the doorway.

Morgan squeezed her shoulder before she headed out the conference room and followed Reid and Hotch down to the parking garage.