A/N Thank you so much to my Beta, GoodGodHenry, for helping me iron out the plot and for encouraging me to put up my first story. She's been a tremendous help, so thank you. You should check out her story, Foundation.

This is my first story so please review and let me know what you think. This is a Hotch and Prentiss romance, with the added twist of a de-aged Reid and JJ.

There is no Will and Henry, and JJ never left.

The team was gathered at the police station, staring at the evidence board, searching for any clue that would help them catch the unsub. They had been on the case for two days, and they still had nothing. No motive, no connection, no cause of death.

Nothing.

They were all tired, and the tension in the room was running high. They needed to catch a break.

Eventually Morgan threw his pen down in frustration "What the hell is this guy doing?". The unsub had abducted and killed three couples in as many weeks. Strauss was breathing down their necks, watching them for any signs of a mistake. Their team had attracted a lot of attention from the higher ups in the last six months, with the Foyet attack, Ian Doyle's death, and Emily's return. So it was no secret that after the year the BAU had been through, Strauss was eager to get rid of most of them, if not all of them. Now they all felt as if they were under a microscope.

If it had been any other time, Morgan knew the team could handle it. They would have stood as a unit, and come out stronger. Right now though, they were barely holding it together. Each of them was broken in some way, and even by putting them together, they didn't have enough solid pieces to hold the structure up. They were crumbling. Reid was not talking to JJ, taking out all his frustrations on her, and holding her responsible. A part of him wanted to say something to Reid to get him to back off, he knew it wasn't fair to JJ. Morgan could see it was killing the young blonde, she wasn't nearly as confident as she was before, she had lost her spark. But, a larger part of him agreed with the young Doctor, he felt just as betrayed. Sure, he could understand why they did it, but JJ should have known the ramifications a lie that big would have on the team, especially on Reid. The kid already had abandonment issues.

He would have been mad at Hotch too, but after all he'd been through the guy deserved some slack. Morgan had seen Hotch try and talk to Reid, but that hadn't worked. Why?, because Hotch was just a shell of the man he had once been. Hotch used to be the unshakeable foundation they could lean on. But now, he was a man fighting off his own emotional demons, and as much as he tried, he just couldn't take on anyone else's. Morgan didn't blame him, not in the least. All he could do was offer Hotch his unwavering support, and help him come out on the other side.

"Let's go back to the beginning." Rossi suggested, in the hope that they would pick up on something they had missed before.

"Okay" Emily quickly agreed, shooting Morgan a look to prevent from protesting. They had been through the case a hundred times already, but she knew it was better than sitting around and waiting. Besides, there wasn't anything else they could do, and they needed to do something. Not just to solve the case, but to keep their minds off of the dark thoughts that were looming in the back of their heads.

Shit! It had been a hard few months. "We know he is abducting couples."

"He keeps them for a few days before killing them." JJ said continuing on from Emily. "I just got off the phone with Garcia, and she is still going through the videos that were sent to the families. She hasn't gotten a voice match." JJ added unsurely, looking as if it were her fault she didn't have better news. She felt like she was failing at her job, letting her team down, the victims, and their families. JJ half expected someone to snap at her, and she wouldn't blame them.

Emily's heart broke for her. JJ was in this situation because she had tried to protect her. She knew JJ had the tendency to internalise everyone else's emotions in an attempt to lessen their pain, and when she couldn't, JJ would beat herself up over it. Emily wished that for once JJ would see that she didn't need to carry the world on her shoulders. If she was honest with herself, Emily would admit that she was a little mad at Reid and Morgan. They never once had considered how hard it must have been for JJ, all those months with no-one to confide in, and now she was being ostracised. But no, Emily wouldn't admit that, because she understood where they were coming from too.

"What's the point of the video?" Morgan asked, ignoring JJ's uncertainty, and bringing Emily out of her thoughts. "I mean, he's not demanding anything. All he says is 'Look, look what you've done!"

"He tortures the couple's, records it, and then sends the videos to the parents? If you ask me it's definitely a message to the parents. He must be blaming them for something." Rossi murmured

"Maybe they are the real targets?" JJ asked, so softly they nearly missed it, before looking around the room, waiting for the snap.

Hotch, who had been quiet up until then felt he needed to speak up. At the very least to ease some of JJ's uncertainty. He shook his head slowly, "Yes, but it's more than that. It's his way of maximising the suffering, and spreading it out beyond just the victims. The fact that he sends the parents a video everyday shows he's more interested in the psychological pain he inflicts."

Hotch knew that pain. The feeling of complete helplessness, knowing that there is nothing you can do to save your child.

The pain of knowing your child is scared, asking for you, hoping for you to save them, begging you to make it stop, but there is not a damn thing you can do about it. Worse than that, if there could be worse, was knowing that it was all your fault.

Hotch felt his chest tighten, the pain was still there, it had never left.

It was his fault Jack was dead. His actions killed his son.

He took a deep breath trying to shake the thoughts from his mind. He needed to keep focused. It was too late for him, but he could prevent someone else from having to live through it.

Emily was the only one who noticed the quick flash of pain in Hotch's eyes, and the way he was clenching his fists under the table. She was tempted to reach out and grab his hand in attempt to comfort him. But just as quickly as it came, it was gone. He had put his walls up, and slipped back into agent mode.

"Guys, all the videos have something in common." Reid commented, without glancing up from his files as he moved towards the evidence board. "Each of the victims is apologising for something."

"Yeah, so? We know he perceives them as having faults." Morgan added dryly

Reid vigorously shook his head, "No, there is something else, it' more than just that. It's what they are apologising for that's interesting. They are all apologising for faults that they have, but they are not faults that society normally demands an apology for."

The rest of the team stared at Reid. Confusion written on all of their faces, as they waited for him to explain what he meant.

Reid sighed before continuing animatedly, "They are apologising for feelings such as, depression, failure, guilt, unworthiness, 'not caring enough', and a feeling of being responsible for a situation that they couldn't possibly change." Reid said writing down a list of the 'failing' each victim confessed to in the videos.

"These are not things that they can change about themselves. What I'm getting at is, all the things they apologise for having, are out of their control."

"Reid, how does that help us?" Rossi sighed, exasperated at the kids rambling.

"The victims wouldn't have these emotional responses unless they were taught to. The parameters of what good and bad emotions are, are normally conditioned into us as children. The unsub is blaming the parents for creating the feelings of inadequacies that the victims admit to having. I think the unsub sees himself as freeing the victims from their negative emotions, while punishing those that he feels put the emotions in place."

The room was silent as everyone tried to absorb what Reid had just said. The theory was crazy, it wasn't at all logical, but they all knew that it only needed to make sense to the unsub. It wasn't their job to rationalise it, it was their job to stop him.

Emily was the quickest to recover. "Okay, but getting that much insight into their feelings must have taken weeks of stalking. Maybe even months. You don't learn those things about people easily." The team nodded. They had all known each other for a long time, and despite that, they still didn't know all of each other's deeply hidden insecurities. Those feelings tended to want to remain buried. People didn't just open up, they were all guilty of that.

"That could explain how he abducted them." Rossi nodded in agreement. "They could have been in some sort of therapy, and opened up to a therapist. We should have Garcia look into any therapists they might have been seeing"

"If he knew them before it explains how he abducted them. There was no struggle at any of the homes, and nobody reported anything strange at the places they worked or frequented. It also explains the missing car, they probably drove to the therapist." Morgan threw in.

Everyone nodded in consent, at last they were getting somewhere. Just then there was a knock at the door, and an officer walked in handing the M.E report to Reid. He read through the report quickly, furrowing his brow more and more until he finished.

"What is it, kid?" Morgan asked. He got no response.

"Reid!" He called louder, trying to get his attention.

Reid looked up at the team, with a confused expression on his face. "I think our unsub was trying to perform some type of experiment"

"I hope this is not an evil scientist theory" Rossi said rolling his eyes, only half joking, causing Emily and Morgan to grin.

Reid continued as if he hadn't even heard Rossi, "They all died from an overdose of an unknown combination of drugs, the report says the lab is unable to identify them. What's strange is that the women had higher levels of the drugs, and multiple puncture wounds in the stomach, suggesting the drug was administered weeks before they were abducted. Maybe even consentingly at first, but the last shot was into the neck. The men all died from just one dose injected only into the neck, but only had half the dosage in their system."

"What's the point of this experiment?" Morgan asked, confused and almost challengingly.

"And why would the women have more of the drugs in there system?" JJ added baffled.

"I don't know." Reid responded to both questions, just as puzzled as them.

The answer dawned on Hotch so suddenly he almost had to brace himself against the pain. The urge to be sick was overwhelming, almost violent. He could feel his breathing quicken and become more laboured. He felt dizzy. He waited for it to ease up before sharing his thoughts.

"They were trying to get pregnant," he said when he finally managed to speak. The team continued to look at him, and he was forced to continue. "They were going for fertility treatment. That is why the women had more drugs in their system, and it also explains why the track marks were on the stomach". Hotch felt his breath hitch as he strained to get the next part out, "Haley and I…". He took a deep breath, and ignored the blood pounding in his head, "We had to do intensive therapy before we could begin treatment. We were ready to try anything, and willing to listen to anyone in order to get pregnant. Haley wouldn't give up until we found out about Jack.". Jack's name came out strangled, even to his own ears. He felt a sickening pain, worse than being stabbed, and he knew he had to get out of the room.

"That would explain his motive. He didn't think they were fit to be parents. They would damage their children in the same way their parents damaged them" Morgan agreed.

Hotch merely nodded, and he left the room, but not before his eyes met Emily's.

A/N Heavy on the angst, but I hope you liked it.