White Lies ✓

23 - Homecoming

You awoke groggily to the sound of someone knocking on the office door. You checked the clock, 7:30 am, before scrambling off of the pull-out couch and opening the door.

"Good morning, Y/N," Hotch said, standing in the doorway. 

"Er, hey." You wrapped your arms around your torso, feeling extremely underdressed in your pajamas compared to his suit.

"We're getting an early start today, you can leave your things in here, but I'll need you to collapse the bed and get dressed."

"Sure thing," you said as he turned and started back down the hall. 

You closed the door and pulled your wrinkled work clothes from your duffle bag. You dressed in a fitted cream turtleneck, a brown tweed skirt, and tights. The only shoes you had were your tall black mary jane heels from the night before, which weren't really work appropriate, but you pulled them on anyways before transforming the bed back into the couch and rushing out of Hotch's office. You walked down to the kitchen, grabbing a cup of coffee before heading up to the conference room. In the kitchen, stands Prentiss, JJ, and Morgan, looking just as tired as you. 

"Good morning guys," you said as you filled your mug.

Prentiss shook her head. "Bad morning. I need more than five hours of sleep to function. And Hotch," she shot a hardened glare towards your boss, "made the executive decision to deny me of that." 

You laughed quietly at her comical anger as the four of you walked back to the conference room, joining with Hotch, Rossi, and Garcia. 

"Good morning everyone," Hotch said solemnly. "There's been another murder."

"God damn it," you said loudly, slamming your hands on the table. 

"Y/N..." JJ reached towards you, but you pulled away.

"No, he's killing people because of me. These girls are dying because I didn't answer this asshole's phone calls." You turned towards your boss. "Did she look like me?" He hesitated. "Hotch. Did she look like me?" 

He nodded once and clicked the button on the remote. A photo of another young woman flashed across the screen, and again, she looks eerily like you. He clicked again, and the crime scene photos appeared. Morgan let out a low whistle, and Garcia cringed away from the screen. Again, she was stabbed and strangled, with no blood at the scene. Angry tears pricked the corners of your eyes as Hotch continued with the case overview. You could feel yourself folding inwards as you watched the aftermath of your one stupid date displayed across the screen. 

---------------

In the lamest terms, the next week was the worst in your life. Each day, a new body was found, and the team was no closer to finding Julius as they were when the body was found. It seemed as if Julius had quite literally fallen off the face of the planet. His apartment had been abandoned, his car left in a cameraless parking lot downtown, his job hadn't seen him since the night before the first body was found, Julius was nowhere to be found. Quantico, Virginia was in a frenzy as the bodies of young women were being found nightly. JJ tried her best to keep the story out of the press, but an officer in Quantico's police department tipped off the local newspapers, strengthening the pressure on the members of the BAU to find Julius Castro and give his now eight victims the justice they deserve. It was a Friday night, a full week since the first body was found when there was a break in the case. 

"We knew he was getting sloppier with each kill, but this is pretty bad, right? With how organized he's keeping his routine, why would he kill this victim at the scene, instead of taking her to a secondary location?" Morgan said. The team was stationed at Quantico PD's local precinct, you and Garcia were set up in the conference room at the BAU, talking to the team over the phone.