9

It suddenly hit her that morning, as she stood in Saga's dressing room tying on an apron.

"So how's the boyfriend?" Lili had chirped, teasingly, and Jenny bantered back, "Geez, he's not my boyfriend, Lili."

Then it hit her.

He's not my boyfriend. Is he?

She and Spencer were pretty past the "I like you but I don't know if you like me" stage, but they were also definitely not settled into whatever stage came after that. Sure, they went out for coffee and movies and dinner and obscure theatrical re-enactments of widely unknown historical conspiracies (it's more romantic than it sounds), but neither of them had ever explicitly called it dating. Should she just call him up and ask him or something? But when do you find the right timing for that? Jenny had never dated someone for so long without actually…dating them. Or whatever that means.

Ugh. This was too confusing.

Jenny slammed her locker door shut—she'd think about it later—and Lili just raised an eyebrow.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Careful kid, if you keeping smiling like that your face might get stuck forever," Rossi smirked, walking briskly by Reid, who sat at his desk with a very lonely stack of unaddressed paperwork.

"Ah leave him be," Derek called out, "you know our boy's too whipped to pay attention." Derek snickered, and then snickered some more when Reid didn't even bother snapping back at him. Man this boy really was in serious love…

"We've got a case." JJ's voice rang out through the bullpen with authority, and everyone—even daydreaming Reid—dashed out of their seats. They were professionals, and it was business time.

Once everyone was settled at the table and case files distributed, Penelope began briefing everyone on the case. "Three days ago, the Fredericksburg Police discovered the bodies of two university students on a remote hillside 4 miles north of here." Garcia pulled up the pictures of the victims: one set of the bodies, one set of their student ID pictures. "23 year-old Jacob Gretel, and 24 year-old Neil Rogers. They were roommates, out-of-state students, and avid travelers. The cause of death for both men was a single stab to the heart with a not yet identified but indubitably horrific weapon. I mean, really guys, this is not something you want anywhere near your heart." Garcia shivered at the thought.

JJ surveyed the information in front of him as Garcia talked. "The stab was quick and fatal, but it says here they both sustained serious dehydration and malnutrition prior to death."

"The skin around their knuckles, toes, and knees look raw and rubbed off," Spencer slipped in, a tone of confusion and shock in his voice. "Based off the skin condition and injury pattern, it's as if the unsub forced the victims to kneel down for sustained periods of time on some sort of coarse flooring."

"The unsub also left dozens of gashes on the bodies," Rossi added. "The report says the gashes varied from 3 to 6 days old."

Derek almost snarled. "This psycho freak tortured these guys for days."

"Yes," Garcia confirmed, disturbed, "but unfortunately, this isn't the first time. About a month ago, 23 year-old university student Anna Kiguchi was found in West Fredericksburg, in a remote field, and killed by the same M.O."

"Alright," Hotch cut in, "since this case is local, we'll stay here. Garcia, work with the Fredericksburg authorities and see if they can trace down any other cases with a similar M.O., and then pull up missing persons files within the area for people ages 18 through 30—we know our unsub's after young college-age students."

"Yes sir,"Garcia answered before rushing to her tech room.

"Reid, you and Rossi go to the Coroner's office and see what else you can find out about Jacob, Neil, and Anna," Hotch continued as Reid and Rossi dashed out.

"JJ, contact Detective Moore and set up a meeting with him, and try to get in touch with the families." She nodded. "Morgan, you and I will go investigate the unsub's disposal sites."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"You can just call her, you know," Rossi looked over at Reid, who was fidgeting restlessly in the passenger's seat as they drove to the Coroner's office.

"What?" Reid sputtered.

"Call Jenny," he enunciated. "I know you're worried, so stop fidgeting and call her."

Spencer fumbled for his phone. He was awfully dumb when he got too worried.

"Hello? Jenny?"

"Hey Spencer!" the voice across the line echoed joyfully.

"Hey," he smiled, calming down. "We, uh, we got another case…"

"Oh, so that's why you're not here for lunch," she answered, a little bummed but very understanding of the situation. "You usually just text me though, what made you give me a call?" she wondered aloud. "Not that I mind of course!"

Reid spared a glance at Rossi, steeling himself. "Well you see, Jenny…"

"Yeah?"

"Well the case is local, so I'll be staying in Quantico…"

"Oh that's great," she chimed.

"Yes, it is. But the thing is, Jenny, this unsub's been targeting young students in the 20's. In this area." Apprehension filled his voice, and Jenny was silent, letting the ramifications of that statement sink in.

"Shit," she muttered breathily. "So I could be in danger?"

Spencer ran a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry."

"No no no, it's not your fault, Spence. It's just…shit that's scary."

"Just be careful, okay?"

Sensing Spencer's beyond worried tone, Jenny avidly agreed. "Of course. I'll tell Lili and we'll stick together and get back home before dark and everything."

"Great," Spencer heaved a sigh of relief.

"Don't worry too much, Spencer." Jenny chuckled, "Hey, did I ever tell you I took karate in middle school? I was pretty good at it too."

Laughing, Reid wondered why Jenny was so good at calming him down. "No, but I'm glad to hear that. Hey, can you call me when you get home?"

"Of course." Reid could tell she was smiling on the other end of the line. "Good luck on your case—and be careful too."

"I will. Bye."

"Bye."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

The BAU team had met up in their conference room just an hour ago to consolidate the information they'd gathered throughout a day of investigation. It was now 2 in the morning, but it didn't matter to the agents—in fact, nothing seemed to matter except catching the unsub, whose ways had proven far more despicable than the team could've imagined. (With a job like this, that was saying a lot.)

After visiting the two locations where the bodies were discovered, Hotch and Derek concluded that the unsub's penchant for deserted dump sites wasn't so much an effort to hide his crimes as it was a symbol for the unsub's disdain for the victims. Based off the position the victims were found in, and the fact that the unsub did nothing to conceal the bodies, it was clear that the unsub saw his victims as trash—and that really pissed Morgan off.

JJ explained to the team that Detective Moore would be coming in tomorrow (or technically, later that morning). Unfortunately, all three students were out-of-state students, so they had no relatives in the area that could be called in for questioning. JJ was, however, able to get a hold on the parents of Neil and Jacob, and both couples were adamant to fly out to Quantico as soon as possible. Anna's parents were in Japan, and, despite the fact that Anna had been murdered over a month ago, authorities still couldn't find them. All JJ could say for Anna was that she was working on it…

While inspecting the victims' bodies at the Coroner's office with Rossi, Reid had discovered a slight cut on the roof of Neil's mouth and, finding it similar to a bad paper cut, eventually discovered that a small piece of paper had been shoved down Neil's throat prior to his death. Further investigation revealed similar paper cards from Jacob and Anna, and all three had badly damaged and currently untranslated Japanese characters written on them. No doubt these were priceless clues; Reid was almost bursting with anxiety as he waited for deciphered copies of the papers.

The worst news, however, came from a visibly disturbed Garcia. Thankfully, between Anna's and Jacob and Neil's discovery, there didn't seem to be any another related murders. Before that, however, this unsub proved to be a psychotic, disgustingly prolific serial killer. Within a 5 month time span prior to the death of Anna, Garcia discovered, there were 10 other cases spread throughout the nearby Virginia area of victims killed by the same or a very similar M.O. This psycho had killed one person every two weeks for five months, and gotten away it—until now. But how the hell had authorities missed this for so long? And why was there a sudden gap between Anna and Jacob and Neil? All Garcia could do was pass her questions on to the rest of the BAU team and hope for answers. And fast, because, though no one wanted to hear it, Garcia had discovered a missing persons report for one Gillian Chen. 22 year-old. Out of state student. Hopefully still breathing.

When all was said, Derek fumed. "We've got to catch this sick bastard now," he cursed, and everyone in the room silently agreed.

"Even death has a heart."

― Markus Zusak