sweet honey | aaron hotchner

38 - sweet creature

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"That was the hospital, Bart Gregor didn't make it." JJ informed the team.

The team took the news in sadly and carried on working the case harder than before.

"It doesn't make sense." Morgan said as he surveilled the pictures of the bodies. "All four of these men have been basically mutilated. But their kid is left untouched. In fact the unsub fed them and kept them warm."

"Right." Olivia caught on to his train of thought. "A male unsub wouldn't care about the children in that way. It's almost as if our unsub has maternal instincts." She mused.

"Our unsubs a female." Rossi confirmed. "It makes sense. She's torturing the fathers, but keeping the children safe. Almost as if she's seeing herself in the children and her father or father figure in the victims."

"Has anyone spoken to the kids yet? In Mr Gregors initial statement, he told us he had seen a brown haired lady with red lipstick. We assumed he was just babbling but maybe he was talking about the unsub." Reid's mind was racing.

"Mr Gregor's son hasn't said a word yet. The other kids are all with their mothers, we haven't questioned them yet. We just got here." Morgan told him.

Rossi nodded, "so we talk to the kids. Ambrosia, want to join?"

"Sure thing." She said and followed him out of the room.

Prentiss looked worried, "hopefully they come up with something."

The pair came back an hour later after questioning all the kids.

"Harry Gregor. Janice Stevens. Mary-Anne Kochlear. Frederick Barnes. The kids of our four victims." Rossi added their pictures to the board. "They all claim to have been cared for by a brown haired woman, dressed in red. She also requested for them to call her 'Mrs Smith'."

"Mrs Smith?" Moran furrowed his brows. "That's an extremely generic name. There's a very slim chance we actually get a hit."

"One more thing. Mary-Anne said she heard kids screaming." Rossi said.

"Maybe she's a teacher? Or she lives near a playground?" Reid questioned.

"The bodies were found near a playground." Prentiss pointed out. "I'll call Garcia, see whether she can find anyone who owns any property under the name Smith."

A few hours later Garcia got back to them. "Okay so I did not find anyone under the name of Smith in the area, but I did cross check your description with home owners and I found eight brunettes in the immediate area."

"Okay thank you babygirl." Morgan replied.

"They've been sent to your tablets already." She said. "Garcia out."

"Okay, we have Maddison Vale, Georgina Samson, Priya Vratham, Janette Hillary, Caylee Brown, Hope Jones, Mia Gordhan and Nina Markov." Olivia read out the list of names. "Let's get these pictures in front of the kids and see whether they can identify them.

"Hey Mary-Anne, it's me, Olivia." She smiled as she saw the little girl sitting patiently on a chair.

The girl smiled.

"I need you to take a look at some pictures at me to see whether you can recognize the lady who took you. Can you do that?" Olivia asked gently.

"I don't know." The little girl squeaked. "She wore a mask. All you could see were her eyes and her mouth."

"Could you look anyway?" The little girl nodded and Olivia placed a row of pictures in front of her. She stared at it for a moment and shook her head.

"I don't know. She was wearing a mask." The girl cried.

Olivia rushed to her side and rubbed her back. "Shh, it's okay if you don't see her. You've helped us so much."

Mary-Anne lifted her head up. "Really?"

Olivia smiled, "you betcha."

She stood up and left the girl with her mom and went to meet the team. "No luck, she said the unsub wore a mask and all you could see were her eyes and mouth."

"Same here." Rossi walked in.

"So we're nowhere right now." Morgan was frustrated.

The next morning, the team got in bright and early and was going over the files when Garcia called.

"Guys, I may have got something. Caylee Brown was engaged to a man by the name of Jesse Smith. The uh engagement was broken off a week before the wedding because the grooms father allegedly raped the bride. There was a police report filed but nothing came off it." She said.

"When was this?" Reid questioned.

"A month and a half ago." Garcia replied.

"Around the time the killings started." Morgan breathed. "She's our unsub. The address is in the file, let's go." He said and they sprung into action.

They apprehended the unsub as quickly as they found her. The team had just landed in Virginia and were exhausted as they entered the BAU.

"You have a visitor." Rossi approached Olivia.

She looked up and saw Jack speed towards her and crash into her arms. She laughed and hugged him tightly.

"Hey buddy."

"Hello Livia." He gave her a toothy grin.

"He heard you were back." Aaron said and gave her a kiss.

"Eww." She heard Jack and another voice say.

She looked up so see Spencer next to Jack with the same disgusted face on both of them. They gave each other a high five and Olivia laughed.

"You almost done here?" He asked her.

"Just have to collect my paperwork and we can go." She replied and started with gathering it.

He waited patiently for her whilst Spencer entertained Jack. After a few minutes she was ready to go.

The drive back to his place was quiet. There was soft music playing in the background and Jack was quietly playing with his teddies in the back seat. Once they got home, Jack ran to his room and Olivia settled on the couch with Aaron.

"You guys wrapped up that case pretty fast." He said as she rested her head on his shoulder.

She hummed. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Sure. Well what do you want to talk about?"

"How fast we can get into bed." She said tiredly. She felt his eyes on her and she snorted. "To sleep."

"Ah. Well," he said and stood up and scooped her up in his arms. "I think now would be appropriate."

She smiled lazily up at him. "Good thinking." She mumbled.

He placed her down on his bed and she quickly got under the covers. He placed a kiss on her head, "I'm going to go check on Jack." He said and left the room.

She could hear Jack speaking excitedly as he tucked him into bed. It was nearing nine in the evening, way past Jack's bedtime.

"Okay." He walked into the room and joined her under the covers, "He's going to sleep now." He pulled her close to him and she relaxed into his chest. She always felt calm when he was around. "Goodnight Liv." He mumbled.

"Night honey." She was drifting off to sleep and didn't even register the pet name she had just called him. Him on the other hand, just smiled and held her tight.