"You'll never know how truly damaged a person is until you try to love them"
-Unknown-

"Hey, someone's tired" Derek greets before he opens the glass door for Maya. "Yeah, a call at 2am isn't a good wakeup call" Maya states before she smiles at Derek before continuing to walk ahead of him. Derek clears his throat awkwardly and walks through the glass doors before finally catching up with Maya who was already in the conference room. He took a seat next to her and Garcia began explaining the recent case.

"Okay! A few hours ago, a lone gunman shot and killed 3 people inside a downtown Chicago diner" Garcia informs stating that the lone gunman was later killed by an off-duty cop wearing plain clothes.

"Sounds like they got their guy. Why are they requesting us?" Derek wonders when Garcia answers that an ATM across the street from the diner captured an imagine of the shooter getting out of a late-model Sedan moments before the shooting.

"So, a partner" Maya declares as Garcia pulls up the photos on the screen. Turns out, the shooter was a 16-year-old who'd been missing for four years.

"So where has this kid been all this time and where did he meet his partner?" Maya wonders before Alex wonders if they have been able to ID the driver which is negative.

"We can't rule out the possibly that the driver is the person responsible for Gavin's disappearance" Hotch states and Derek sighs, "And if that's the case, chances are he's out looking for his next victim" Derek states and Maya shakes her head in disbelief.

"How does a 12-year-old runaway turn into a cold-blooded killer?" Rossi wonders as he looks around at the team who has no answer to that question.

_____

On the plane, they circle around the idea that the crime could be gang related. "I mean, Chicago has one of the largest gang populations, with over 100,000 active members" Reid informs, confirming it could be a possibility.

"Makes sense. The kid runs away from home and finds himself out on the street. Then some knucklehead gangbangers come along, recruit him, and promise him protection" Derek suggests a possible scenario.

"Well- I don't think gang members go around shooting innocent people just because they can. And besides, Gavin didn't have a prime target in that diner" Maya states and Derek shrugs his shoulders, understanding her logic before looking back down at the crime scene photos with curiosity.

_____

Maya, Reid and Derek visit the morgue, and find out that Gavin was in weirdly good health, like he'd been well-taken-care-of, and he does have mysterious burns on his temples, like he'd been given electro-shock treatments.

Reid then notices that Gavin's arms had been twisted until they'd broken around six months earlier.

After they visited the morgue, Reid walks to the car while Maya and Derek slowly walk behind him. "Hey, are you- are we okay?" Derek asks and Maya stops in her tracks as he knits her eyebrows in confusion, looking over to Derek who looks genuinely concerned.

"Um, I'd like to think we are, why?" Maya wonders, crossing her arms over her chest as she looks to Derek who is hesitant to give a reply.

"Um, nothing. We should get back to the station" Derek excuses before he walks past Maya, getting into the car. Maya scoffs with curiosity before she turned on her heels and made her way to the car, getting into the passenger seat while Derek was in the drivers seat.

Later, the three of them head back to the station and watch the video of the unidentified male dropping Gavin off and note that he immediately drove away once Gavin was out of the car.

"Maybe he sensed something was up" Derek declares and Maya shakes her head, "If your partner is going to do a job like that, you'd want to stick around and watch unless..." Maya trails off.

"Unless Gavin never planned on getting away, and the cop just saved him the effort of shooting himself" Reid finishes and Maya nods her head in agreement before looking to Derek who relaxes his face into realization. "This was a suicide mission" Derek concludes depressingly.

_____

Garcia then identifies the man in the car as Trevor and finds out he was abducted just 24 hours after Gavin. "Hey, hey" Maya greets as she rushes into the conference room at the station, interrupting the team.

"We got a hit at the APB. Trevor, the guy we're looking for, just filled up at a gas station off the interstate a half hour ago" Maya states as she motions to her phone where she got the call.

"Sounds like someone's thinking about skipping town" JJ states and Maya shakes her head, "I'm going to be honest; I think he's doing the same thing Gavin is. It's been hours after the shooting, so he could've made it across state lines by now" Maya states as slips her phone in her back pocket.

"One of my officers had just radioed for a tow truck. The kid has barricaded himself inside the car. He's at the intersection-". "Evacuate the area" Maya and Hotch states in unison to the detective giving them the information.

The detective does as he's told and has the people evacuate the area just before the car blows up the whole intersection, the kid killing himself and not caring who is around him. When Rossi gets a look at the victim's burns, he identifies them as muzzle burns, from someone firing blanks next to his head.

The explanation? He was made to rehearse his own suicide over and over again until he was ready to be unleashed.

Hotch, Rossi, and the detective on the case talk about how the cult leader has trained child soldiers at his command and they know it's time to give the profile. They profile they may be dealing with a terrorist organization with one man at the center. They also believe the children that were abducted by a preferential offender who targets prepubescent boys. The unsub is likely a male in his 40s with some type of military or law enforcement training.

_____

Garcia then turns up another pair of kids who were kidnapped at roughly the same time sixth months before the current soldiers- the twist is that they were immediately tortured to death and/or executed and dumped together.

The team figures that the cult leader got rid of them because they were too old and resistant to programming, which is why he moved on to younger kids. Then she finds another pair kidnapped just a day apart, one of whom was executed and dumped. There's still one unaccounted for- a fifteen-year-old boy, Danny, who must be the next human bomb.

Reid thinks that since he's a teenager, the best way to get to the new child soldier is by using the media. After all, the cult leader probably trusts him, and lets him watch TV and use the internet.

"Hey, I got you some coffee" Maya states as she sets the coffee down next to Derek who slides it closer to him and quietly thanks her. Maya does a double take and looks down at Derek who looks down at a case file, trying to gather more information for the case at hand.

"Did I do something wrong? You've been distancing all day" Maya asks as she quickly takes a seat next to Derek, pulling her chair closer to him.

"Um, no. Everything's good" Derek states tiredly and Maya rolls her eyes, "You're acting like a child, Derek, what's wrong?" Maya asks, looking to Derek with confusion plastered on her face.

"It's just- You kiss me one minute and then you act as if nothing happened the next. It's confusing and annoying" Derek admits, and Maya lets out a sarcastic laugh before she realizes Derek is being serious.

"Derek... Is this about when I kissed you in the car?" Maya asks and Derek sighs, nodding his head. "I kissed you because you talk- like a lot" Maya confesses and Derek scoffs before he gathers his things and starts to walk away from Maya.

"Derek-" Maya stammers as she stands up and starts to follow him. "Derek, are you seriously going to be a baby about this? We are coworkers who have had a little fun. We aren't in high school" Maya rants, tilting her head slightly as she speaks.

"A little fun? Maya, we- I-" Derek stammers before he is catching his breath.

"What?" Maya questions, crossing her arms over her chest. "Nothing, you're right. We're just two coworkers who've had a little fun" Derek surrender as he backs away from Maya before completely turning his back to her and walking away.

"You've got to be kidding" Maya mumbles to herself as she shakes her head in complete and utter shock.

_____

Danny's mother goes on the news to talk about how she wants her son back, and how he's a victim and in an amazing coincidence, the kid is listening to the radio in his suicide car and is so touched by hearing his mother's voice that he calls the police on his phone, which the unsub leader let him have.

The mother is waiting to try and talk him out of mass murder, but Danny doesn't say a word, but luckily Garcia traces the cell phone. He's at a park where a fair is currently going on.

Maya, Derek, and other cops and detectives arrive at the fair looking for the kid. Maya keeps her sunglasses on her face and looks around for the kid. She spots him walking quite fast and lets the other people know over the mic.

Maya starts running, jumping over a few chairs as she chases the kid down along with Derek.

They corner Danny in an alley way and he stops, unable to do anything. Maya and Derek quickly pull out their guns and point them at Danny, "Hands where we can see them!" Maya orders, looking the kid dead in his eyes and seeing barley any life in them.

He's been controlled for so long; he doesn't even look like himself anymore.

"Drop the book bag and put your hands up" Derek demands as him and Maya slowly step towards the kid. Maya then realizes this is what Daniel wants. He wants the cops to pull the trigger because that's what he's trained for. He's trained to say nothing and do his job.

Maya and Derek look to each other worriedly, despite their argument earlier and both put their guns away, proving Daniel that they aren't a threat even if he doesn't believe it.

"I'm sure you've been given orders but what about it your mother?" Maya questions, her and Derek raising their hands in surrender as the cops on the other end of the alley keep their guns fixated on Danny.

"All she wants is for her son to come. Daniel, she's been waiting for you for a long time" Derek informs reassuringly, slowly making his way closer to Danny.

There speech works and Daniel hands over his book bag while the others cops proceed to arrest him and get ready to take him to the station. Maya walks next to Derek, shifting uncomfortably before he unzips the bag, revealing a large bomb placed in the bag that would've killed Daniel and anyone around him.

______

Derek tries to interview him, but he'll only give name, rank, and serial number, which tellingly just has five digits.

What could that mean?

The mother goes in to talk to her son, and talks about how much she's missed him, and suggests that he'd like to see his grandma again. This works well enough, and the team know he'll crack soon enough.

The team is now trying to figure out victimology. What could be the unsubs focus? And Derek comes up with a theory: the first killer, Gavin, didn't start shooting until a cop came into the diner, the car bomber, Trevor, didn't blow up his car until the cops started clearing people away from it, and the last human bomb, Daniel, 'got a funny look in his eyes' when he saw cops cornering him in the alley.

Could the target be Chicago PD?

The team starts to wonder how the killer knew a cop was going to turn up at the diner, and then assume that because it's a diner near a police station, it was inevitable. Meanwhile, Reid notices that Chicago police badges have five digits, just like Daniel's serial number which he states over and over.

Could that be significant?

The unsub, who is also known as Wayne Gulino, gave the kids his own badge number to recite if caught. It comes to the team's attention that Gulino was fired from being an officer after beating false confessions out of people.

While they're busy trying to figure out where the cult leader is holed up, Gulino has sent his actual final weapon- teenaged girl- into a police station, wearing a bomb vest.

"I'm looking for detective Mark Reyas" The girl asks and the whole station including Maya, Derek and JJ pull out their guns on the girl and circle around her. The detective Reyas steps forward, identifying himself.

"Officer Gulino has a message for you" She states, and Maya narrows her eyes at her as she analyzes the bomb from a far but keeping her gun fixated on her as well.

"You don't want to do this" Maya declares as the girl raises her hand with the button that could explode the bomb. "You shoot me this whole place goes up" The girl states and Maya nods her head in agreement, "That's true, but deep down, you don't want to do this. You don't want to kill your self and us" Maya states demandingly, trying to get a rise out of the girl while JJ sneaks closer to the girl but not to close to draw attention.

"Come on, what's your name?" JJ asks and the girl states her name as Stephanie Lawford, she's a solider and her number is 53699. "Yeah, yeah. You are Stephanie Lawford, and you were abducted at a young age and suffer from Stockholm syndrome" Maya rants, trying to get under the girl's skin and it seems to be working as the girl's face gets red with anger, and he eyes fill with tears... she's afraid and she doesn't want to go out like this. Not when she's barley lived.

"Officer Gulino manipulated you into thinking you're a solider but you're not. You're a child, a teenager. This isn't your life, and it doesn't have to be" Maya continues as Stephanie shakes her head.

"I'm sorry, but- I have my orders" Stephanie says genuinely before she gets ready to pull her finger off of the button, but Derek shoots her in the shoulder and JJ quickly grabs the Deadman's switch to keep them from all being blown up.

With Stephanie being rushed to hospital, there's no lead on where Gulino might be hiding. Except they remember that the girl Stephanie talked about the dead partner who was fired along with him, and also that the kidnappings started in earnest right after the partner died.

Gulino drives out to his partner's house, and the team is already there waiting for him. Also, he had another kid in the trunk of his car. One he had recently kidnapped...

Case closed.

_____

Back at Quantico, Maya gets ready to leave and Derek walks right past her. Not a word. No goodbye, no smile, no glance, nothing. Maya scoffs and follows Derek out until he stops at the elevator, waiting for it to open. "Are you really that upset about a kiss?" Maya asks, standing next to Derek who won't even make eye contact with Maya.

"Oh my gosh, it's not about the kiss Maya. It's about the fact you act like you don't even know me after we have 'fun'" Derek argues and Maya rolls her eyes annoyingly.

"We work together, Derek. I see you every day so it's kind of hard to act as if I don't know you" Maya defends and Derek laughs sarcastically, "Well, you sure manage to do it" Derek mumbles and Maya shakes her head in disbelief.

"Derek, please don't do this. Don't be this guy" Maya begs, Derek finally locking eyes with her. The look was betrayal and sadness.

"You've made me this guy, Maya but- were just coworkers so, no biggie" Derek states sarcastically before the elevator door dings as it slides it open. "Goodnight, Agent Regan" Derek states as he's about to walk in the elevator before Maya swiftly grabs his arm.

"Agent Regan? Derek, you can't be serious-". "We're just coworkers, right?" Derek asks and Maya stammers over her words before Derek gently releases his arm from Maya's hold.

"My point exactly. When you come to terms with how you really feel, please, Agent Regan, let me know" Derek states harshly before the door closes in between them.

Maya backs away from the elevator feeling heartbroken and hurt. She's felt this many times before, but this time was different. She cared about Derek, but she knew it could never work out if she wasn't true about how she felt.

Maybe deep down, Derek deserved better... it just took this moment for them both to realize it. For Maya to realize it...

"I'm not saying that I think if you constantly, but each time my mind wanders, it always finds some way back to you"
-SD-