A/N: Hey guys, so I just thought I'd tell you a few things about the setting of this story. So its slightly AU, there's an established JJ/Emily pairing, and Will and Henry never came into this story. Probably set somewhere around the start of season 6 but JJ won't leave and it won't have much to do with the running plot of the show, its more just where they're all at, so JJ isn't a profiler yet.

This is my first Criminal Minds story and I'm a bit new at the whole case and story thing, so I apologise for any continuity errors and such. Also sorry if the description of the guy's MO is a bit confronting or disturbing, there shouldn't be much of it in the story.

ENJOY! xx

JJ sat in her office, getting all of the team's files ready for their latest case, when she noticed Emily standing in the doorway.

"Hey you. I'm just getting the case files ready, we have a briefing in five," JJ said, enjoying the soft look Emily was giving her. That was, before the look turned bad when Emily heard the word 'briefing'.

"I just want to come in to check on my girlfriend, but somehow every time she managed to ruin it with a 'briefing in five'," Emily groaned.

JJ collected the file and stood up to walk towards Emily, giving her a sorry smile before saying, "Oh tough, Em. It's a hard life for us all," grinning and she reached up to give Emily a quick kiss.

"Oh don't give me that, JJ. You do know you're briefings are the number one cause of stress in my life right now?" she replied cheekily, earning a slight glare from JJ as she walked past her, heading to the briefing room.

"I was just kidding," she laughed as she turned around to follow her girlfriend.

"So, what do we have this time?" asked Morgan, leaning back into his chair around the table.

JJ kicked off the briefing with, "Alright, three women in their late-20's to early-30's were killed this over the last 3 weeks, Laura Hall, Jessica Benson and Olivia Giordano. Local media outlets are aptly calling this guy the 'Pressure Point Killer' or the 'PPK'."

"Why's that?" questioned Rossi.

"Well each girl was found with syringe needles inserted into major pressure points around their bodies. This guy is sick; I don't think we've seen one like this in a while. Each girl was found sat upright in a chair, each had had been stabbed through a pressure point found in between the thumb and the forefinger on each hand with small hunting knives. Now these chairs all had arms," she clicked over onto a new slide on the screen, "so he could basically nail them to the chair."

Each team member shuddered as they looked at the photos. There were knives stabbed through both the girls' hands and straight through the arm of the chair, keeping them incapacitated.

"He also did the same to pressure points to the outside of their feet and into the floor. And that's not even the half of it. He drags a knife over their throats, not hard enough to kill them but enough to draw a considerable amount of blood. Then the bastard stick needles into other main pressure points, like one in each knee, one on either side of the neck just behind the collarbone and one right through the middle of the neck. Finally, what the ME considers to be the main killing point, he puts one through each temple. Now this guy has to have some extensive knowledge of the human anatomy, because he pushes each needle in just far enough to cause considerable pain and blood loss, but not far enough to kill them instantly."

"How the hell does he manage to keep these girls from screaming or running away?" Emily asked, horrified at the case being laid out in front of her.

"Each girl was found with trace amounts of a neuromuscular blocking agent in her system. The guy injected them with it before torturing them to keep them paralysed but conscious and feeling pain while he does it. There's no sexual aspect to it."

JJ had to stop, close her eyes and take a deep breath before continuing.

"This is gonna be a tough one guys. This guy is ruthless. He's one of the most sadistic men we have ever gone after and the only thing he wants is to cause immense pain to these girls. We have to find a way to stop him before anyone else suffers this way. Three girls are already too many. I only wish I'd picked this case before it got this far."

All team members nodded in agreement. They all knew they had to stop this guy, and they also knew how the burden of choosing which cases to take weighed on JJ.

Rossi was the first to break the silence that followed JJ's speech by asking, "What I don't get is how these needles kill the girls so painfully. I mean, don't people do this kind of stuff all the time with acupuncture?"

It was Reid who piped up for the first time to answer Rossi's question. "Well you see usually in acupuncture, the thickness of the needles are actually a couple times less than a single hair, and significantly less than a syringe needle. Also the design of the acupuncture needle is different from other forms of needles: For example, syringes have a cutting edge, whereas acupuncture needles are like a wire with a handle to slide in and out of the skin with no resistance and no damage. So the thickness of the needles he used significantly damaged the girls' bodies, and the needles to their temples are what actually lead to their slow, painful deaths."

Everyone looked at Reid quizzically, wondering why he'd read about the thickness of acupuncture needles.

Hotch finally spoke when he asked, "So where exactly is the jet taking us today?"

"Well we're actually not taking the jet today," replied JJ.

"What?" Morgan asked, confused. "Why?"

"We're not taking the jet because these killings only took place just outside of the Quantico area here in Virginia."

A/N: Hey guys, i hope you enjoyed the first chapter, sorry its a bit slow and a bit short but I promise that'll all change in the next few chapters. Reviews are very much appreciated :)