"Sometimes you can't let go of what's making you sad, because it was the only thing that made you happy"
-Unknown-

"He's been sitting at her desk for the last week. He won't even go in his office" Garcia says sadly as she looks to Derek who sits at Maya's desk doing some paperwork. Reid, Alex and Rossi stand with her and watch him from a distance.

"Well, Maya leaving is still fresh, and it was clear they cared about each other" Alex states as she tilts her head, watching Derek discreetly. "He hasn't even called me baby girl in two weeks" Garcia whines and Rossi widens his eyes jokingly, "Something must seriously be wrong".

"I wonder who'll take Maya's place" Reid questions and Garcia widens her eyes, "What? They can't do that" Garcia states while Rossi and Alex knit their eyebrows knowingly. "Uh, they kind of can" Alex states as Garcia sighs sadly before the elevator dings behind them, JJ walking out of it.

"You're back!" Garcia cheers as JJ walks up to the small group with a smile. "And ready to get to work" JJ states before the team looks to her, wondering if she's okay but too afraid to ask.

"I'm fine, guys. I love my boys, but I was starting to get a little stir crazy" JJ jokes making the group let out soft chuckles before turning their attention back to Derek who has yet to leave Maya's desk.

"Hm, why isn't Derek in his office- Oh..." JJ trails off, remembering that one week ago Maya decided to leave the BAU and go into witness protection. They never say how long someone will be in their because they don't want people to worry but it just makes people worry even more.

"Yeah, he hasn't moved yet" Rossi whispers over to JJ.

ONE WEEK AGO

"Guys, seriously, you don't have to help" Maya says as Rossi and Hotch help Maya take her suitcases to the car. The team had gathered at Maya's house so they could say goodbye. "It's no problem" Hotch says as him and Rossi exit the house. Maya stays in her room and packs up another bag while the team is in her kitchen, helping themselves to a glass of wine which Rossi brought over.

Knock Knock. Maya turns to the doorway and sees Derek and a smile immediately grows on her face as she folds one of the last couple shirts and puts it into the bag.

"Hey" Derek greets, a glass of wine in his hand. "Hi" Maya says softly, leaving silence between them before she got the courage to walk over to him.

"I hope you aren't mad" Maya says, making Derek knit his eyebrows in confusion as he sets his glass down on top of the dresser. "About what? Maya, I can't make your decisions for you" Derek states and Maya sighs before she gently pushes Derek back, "But you can tell me not to go" Maya says before Derek grabs her hand and holds them with grace before walking closer to her.

"And have you living in fear? Maya, I can't do that. I can't make you stay no matter how much I want you too" Derek declares as tears fill up in Maya's eyes and she lets them fall, not afraid to be vulnerable.

"I'll always be here when you get back" Derek says as he slides his hand across her cheek, holding the back of her head as he looks into her eyes.

"I don't expect you to wait for me, Derek. I'll be fine for- who knows" Maya states and Derek smiles slightly and shrugs, "You must not know me as well as I thought" Derek states which makes Maya chuckle as she leans her head down, not wanting to lift it back up since more tears have escaped her eyes.

Derek swiftly lifts her head up by the chin and uses his thumb to softly wipe her tears away.

Maya opened her mouth to say something but the words just didn't come out. They felt wrong to say at this moment and if Derek was really willing to wait for her, there will be another moment for Maya to admit those words. Those three words...

PRESENT DAY

"You really think someone will replace her?" Garcia asks as she looks over to Reid who brought up the question earlier. "No one can replace Maya, right?" JJ asks before the elevator dings once again and someone walks out of it. Someone they all knew. Her heels clicked on the floor as she made her way over to the team, fixing her button up and adjusting her purse on her shoulder.

"Natalie?" JJ questions, remembering her from the case in Buffalo, New York and also as Maya's sister. "Jennifer, right?" Natalie asks as she gives JJ a friendly handshake.

"Uh, yeah, you remember Reid, Rossi and Alex" JJ states, introducing everyone. "Um, um" Garcia stammers as she looks Natalie up and down, wondering why she's here.

"This is Garcia" Alex introduces, gently patting Garcia's shoulders as she looks at Natalie with sad eyes. "Why are you here?" Garcia asks, clearing her throat roughly. "Oh, Hotch called me about a job. He said that Maya left and he had an opening and wanted to bring in someone who knew what they were doing" Natalie explains and the team knits their eyebrows in confusion as they look around at each other.

"But I thought you were a detective" JJ says curiously before Natalie pulls out a detective badge and an FBI badge. "I have the credentials for both" Natalie states, slightly showing off. Reid nods his head slowly before a smile grows on his lips but he looks down so no one else notices. Too bad, Natalie already seen it.

"You guys ready?" Hotch asks as he walks over to the team who's guarding the doorway.

"Regan, nice to see you, glad you could make it" Hotch greets as he shakes Natalie's hand friendly before walking beside her as they walk to the conference room. Derek slowly rises to his feet, watching as the two of them walk past.

"What is Maya's sister doing here?" Derek asks as he walks up to JJ, Rossi, Alex, Reid and Garcia.

"Taking her job" JJ answers before she walks past Derek and starts walking to the conference room, the rest of the team shortly following behind.

The team gets in the conference room and Natalie sits right in Maya's old seat and Natalie could feel the eyes on her. "Shall I sit somewhere else?" Natalie asks before Hotch urges her to stay put and warns the team to treat her with the same respect they would treat Maya.

"Go on, Garcia" Hotch orders and Garica nods her head before reviewing the case and putting the photos up on the screen.

In Pittsburgh, two women have been thrown half-naked into ditches at the side of the road. The women were strangled, stripped but not raped, then wrapped in shower curtains. "That's a lot of rage" Natalie notices and JJ clears her throat knowingly, "Don't need to be a profiler to know that" JJ mumbles and Natalie narrows her eyes at JJ before looking down at the case file before her.

The team then wonders why no sexual assault, since the vast majority of serial killers are rapists, so they guess maybe the killer is impotent. But they can't figure why the killer would cover the bodies, which is usually a sign of remorse but if this is sexual then it wouldn't be remorse because sexual sadists don't feel remorse, not even the slightest.

The team finishes up the briefing and exits the conference room to get ready to go to the jet. Before Natalie leaves the room, she ends up dropping her file, the papers and information falling out onto the ground.

She bends down to the pick them up when she sees another pair of hands helping her. She then lifts her head up and sees its Dr. Spencer Reid.

"Thanks" Natalie says as Reid hands her all of the papers, allowing her to place them back in the right file. She then notices that they were all in their right place. "Hm, did you memorize the order?" Natalie asks and Spencer narrows his eyes at Natalie before letting out a dry laugh,

"Yeah, I always do. No one's ever noticed that before" Spencer declares and Natalie's nods her head slowly before her eyes find a way back to his.

"I have sort of a photographic memory myself" Natalie says, shrugging her shoulders as if she doesn't have a good talent. "We should put it to the test sometime" Spencer says as he says slightly, adjusting himself on his tip toes before him and Natalie walk out the conference room together.

____

On the plane, the team wonders why the killer dumped the bodies on the interstate. Could the unsub be a long-haul trucker?

"There's no major routes or dump sites like that in Pittsburgh" Natalie states and Rossi looks over at her with a questionable look before the team goes back to talking about the case at hand.

"Speaking of dump sites, looks like our recent victim was dumped 50 miles from where she was last seen" Derek notices. "It looks security cameras picked her up at a gas station but never saw who she left with" Reid declares and Natalie points to him knowingly, "That could be where he found her. Saw she was a young girl all alone and offered her a ride and maybe something more" Natalie states and JJ sighs as she nods her head.

"Yeah, and the cashier said she seen the girl for several hours asking customers for a ride" JJ states and Natalie shakes her head sadly. "She lived locally, she could've made it home in time, but she waited" Derek realizes, trying to suggest a possible but correct scenario.

"But if she's asking for a ride, she could've run away from..." Natalie trails off before Alex finishes her sentence, "... anywhere".

"That could be why the unsub chose her" JJ suggests before Garcia calls and says she found out where the shower curtain found around the victim was from. It was from a motel somewhere in Pittsburgh.

______

The team lands and Natalie was sent with Reid to go check out multiple motels to see if any of them have lost a shower curtain within 24 hours. Natalie parks in a spot before removing the keys from the engine. "You seem nervous. I can tell by the way you hold the steering wheel and play with your hair" Spencer says as him and Natalie exit the car.

"You can tell just by that?" Natalie asks as Spencer meets her on the other side of the car and nods his head.

"Wow, you might be smarter than I thought" Natalie says before Reid opens the door to the motel for her, allowing her to walk in first. They get to the desk and look to the man who's sitting down, reading a magazine. Natalie clears her throat, trying to get the employees attention but he won't lift his head from his magazine.

"It's 25 an hour, 2- hour minimum" The employee says and Natalie stammers over her words before looking back down at the employee.

"Definitely not looking to stay" Natalie mumbles as she grabs her badge and shows it to the worker, and he immediately straightens his posture and tosses his magazine to the side.

"Just want to ask a few questions" Natalie declares as she tilts her head to the side sarcastically. "We've been canvassing several motels in the area. It's possible a murder been committed in one of the rooms" Reid adds.

The worker widens his eyes and shakes his head, "I haven't seen it heard anything" The worker declares as he's about to go back to his magazine when Natalie interrupts him yet again, "Can we look at your guest log or surveillance footage?" Natalie asks and the worker states they don't have any cameras on the property and they are a cash only, no questions asked type of establishment.

Natalie sighs defeatedly before Reid pulls out the crime scene photos from multiple murders and shows them to the worker. "Do you recognize anyone?" Reid asks as the worker proceeds to go through them.

"Uh, no, never seen any of them before. You going to arrest me for that?" The worker asks defensively.

Natalie knits her eyebrows in a face of realization before laying her hands on the desk in front of her, "Are any of your rooms missing a shower curtain?" Natalie asks and the worker lifts his head knowingly and escorts the two for them to the room with the missing shower curtain where they find a used condom in the toilet so the killers are bad at getting rid of evidence, it seems, and it will probably be easy to find their fingerprints all over the place.

Knowing that sex was had but the victim wasn't raped, the immediately recognize they're looking for a team.

_____

Natalie grabs multiple files from a detective who has found more cases just like the one the team is dealing with. "Here, I'll take them" Derek says as he walks over to Natalie, insisting he take the files to the team.

"Uh, I got it" Natalie says as she starts to walk away but stops in her tracks and turns to face Derek who's about to walk as well but stops when Natalie parks in front of him, holding case files in her hand. "Excuse me" Derek says as respect as he can before Natalie continues to stand in front of him.

"Listen, I know I just got here, and the team might not like that very much, but I've done nothing wrong" Natalie states as Derek sighs and looks away from Natalie tiredly.

"I never said you did" Derek states and Natalie knits her eyebrows in confusion, "You and your friends been rude to me all day. The only person who has actually been nice to me is Spencer" Natalie states as she starts to notice Derek feeling bad for the way he's been treating her.

"I get it if this is some type of initiation or something but, I thought we were cool considering I met you guys back in New York" Natalie reminds and Derek rubs his forehead stressfully before he starts to laugh which confuses Natalie.

"What's funny?" Natalie wonders before Derek's laughter dies down. "You said initiation like we're some kind of gang, I don't know, we're not like that at all" Derek jokes, a smile of relief growing on Natalie's lips.

"I haven't been an agent in years, things could've changed" Natalie shrugs jokingly before her and Derek make their way to the team to hand them the files. Turns out, there have been ten more murders, with only four identified victims.

They started in 1994 and stopped in 2010. Why the dormancy? Reid thinks they might be married, which would keep the connection going, even if they were separated. More importantly, why have they gone from ten murders in sixteen years to one murder every night?

_____

The next day, a body is found. Reid, Derek and Natalie assume that the wife picked the new victim, since he's a different gender than the previous ones. Could that cause problems in the relationship? The other partner taking charge for the first time?

"It looks like her psychopathology is evolving quickly" Natalie notices as she looks down at the recent victim's body.

"Let's look at this from a marriage perspective" Derek states and Natalie sighs, "Compromise. That's the key to a long-term relationships' success" Natalie says and Reid and Derek look over at Natalie with concern as they see she knows a lot about marriage.

"Long story" Natalie mumbles before she changes the subject, "Anyways, what if the murder was their way of sharing responsibility?" Natalie asks and Reid widens his eyes knowingly.

"Makes sense. He let the woman chose the victim which could be problematic with the relationship" Reid realizes as Derek makes his way down to the victim. "And now that she's been given control, she might not want to let it go" Derek adds on before the victims body is slowly zipped up in a body bag.

The team later gives the profile, suggesting that the husband will be doubly insistent on getting his own way now and also they should look for other strangulation murders that happened during the dormant period, in case he'd kept committing crimes not as part of a team. Perhaps a change in MO could give them a clue about his identity...

The team sits in the conference room at the station eating the fries, burgers and drinks they ordered. Natalie notices Reid looking over at her and when she looks back, Reid looks away.

"Do you want to ask me something?" Natalie asks as she scoots her chair closer to Reid who smiles slightly at Natalie when he looks over at her. "Uh, you just- you seemed to know a lot about marriages" Reid says and Natalie nods her head slowly before she sets her cup down on the table in front of her.

"I know enough because I was married for a year " Natalie states honestly before taking a sip of her drink. "Only?" Reid asks and Natalie nods her head.

"Wasn't enough... compromise" Natalie jokes before her and Reid are left smiling at each other before the team comes up with another proposition after finding cases where women were raped, strangled, and stabbed, and think they might be related to this case, even though they're all over the state.

They also talk about how this must be the husband is keeping busy during the dormant period. The team continues talking until Alex reads a file thoroughly and finds out there was a survivor from one of the cases years ago.

_____

JJ interviews the survivor, and the victim remembers that there was a tow truck parked next to where she was attacked so the killer must be a tow-truck driver. And he had a name tag on his work suit that said Allan. The cops quickly rush to his house and arrest the wife since Allan wasn't home at the time.

Alex talks to the wife for a few minutes and get some background. She finds out she's had a hysterectomy, so why the condoms?

Turns out the husband got an STD from one of his independent rape/murders, and that's what caused the split back in 2010 and he's been careful ever since...

After awhile, the team feels as if the wife won't talk. Natalie raises her hand and looks to Hotch, "Could I talk to her?" she asks and Hotch nods his head before Natalie grabs multiple crime scene photos and heads into the interrogation room to speak to the wife.

"Oh, they brought someone new" The wife cheers, a smile growing on her face as she looks to Natalie whose demeanor isn't as tough as the other members of the team but that doesn't mean she won't get the answers she needs.

Natalie clears her throat and sets each and every crime scene photo in front of the wife. "Your husband cheated on you, and you took away the one thing that mattered most to him" Natalie states as she locks eyes with the wife who won't even look down at the photos.

"His partner in crime" Natalie concludes before she sits down in the hard metal chair, not breaking eye contact with the women.

"Do you know how he dealt with that?" Natalie asks but doesn't get a response out of the wife. Natalie leans in closer and points down at the crime scene photos, "This is how he dealt with it" Natalie says as the wife slowly brings her eyes down to look at the photos. She swallowed harshly and cracked her knuckles, proving that she didn't know these women but she knew where this was headed.

"Yeah, um, shocker, but he raped and murdered all these women... without you" Natalie declares, setting her hand on the table as she narrowed her eyes at the wife.

"Now, I know you don't know them, but considering the year he killed them, can you tell me which one you think gave him the STD?" Natalie asks and the wife immediately looks away from Natalie and crime scene photos, shaking her head in disbelief.

"You're more disgusting than I thought. Your husband raped and murdered these women and you won't even bat an eye because you don't care about the fact he murdered them" Natalie realizes as she slowly stands to her feet, "You care more about the fact he raped them because it's the cheating you can't forgive" Natalie scoffs as the wife looks up at her, wiping the single tear that fell from her eye.

"Who hurt you?" The wife asks, letting out a dry chuckle after. Natalie clears her throat and rolls her eyes, "I see. You're trying to put the spotlight on me because a wife knows. You just can't accept it" Natalie states and the wife start talking but Natalie begins to talk over her.

"You know I am telling the truth. You can't change a man that hurts women for his own amusement. He hates women and he hates you-". "He loves me!" The wife snaps and Natalie scoffs as she starts to grab the crime scene photos and pack them up.

The wife reaches over the table and grabs ahold of Natalie's hand and holds it tightly before roughly pulling her down. "When did you know your husband hurt you?" The wife asks, her breath hitting Natalie's face as she keeps pulling her closer.

"When did you know your husband was a sicko? Was that before or after you found out you were one too?" Natalie asks before she roughly pulls away from the wife and neatly places the photos in her hand before exiting the interrogation room.

"I gotta hand it to her. Judith is not budging" Rossi says and Natalie sighs as she tosses the crime scene photos on a table and stands beside Reid and Rossi.

"You're telling me, I thought for sure she would break" Natalie scoffs as she watches Judith, the wife, from the watch room and analyzes her body language.

"She's definitely committed to protecting her husband" Reid notices before Rossi recognizes the language the wife was using during her questioning as being from marriage counseling.

Reid gives Garcia a call and finds out that Allan and Judith are for sure in marriage counseling.

They decide that Allan must be feeling emasculated, and he would naturally lash out at a woman in a position of authority, even though he'd know that it would be the last thing he'd do before going to jail for the rest of his life.

_____

On the way to the therapist office, Natalie gives the therapist a call and reassures her to stay calm because they are their way.

She figures the therapist will do good considering she helps people and maybe her calm voice can keep Allan from breaking character, but the phone call gets cut and the team knows they need to get there before anything else happens.

The team soon arrives at the therapists office and Derek tackles Allan to the ground before handcuffing him. Natalie helps the therapist to her feet as she sobs uncontrollably due to being terrified.

"It's okay" Natalie reassures as she escorts the therapist out, making sure she doesn't have to see Allan again.

Back at the station, Alex offers to get a reduced sentence if she testifies against her husband. She reveals that he's continued cheating on her, raping and killing a woman to get the jewelry that he gave her a few hours earlier. Alex then escorts the wife out of the interrogation room to go see her husband and she slaps her husband across the face, showing her recent hatred towards him. He doesn't love her, and he never did.

Case Closed.

_____

Back at the BAU, Natalie was getting ready to go to her hotel that she had rented out for a while since she didn't have a home in Virginia just yet. "It's late" Reid says as he walks over to Natalie who starts walking towards the elevator, just like him.

"And you're still here" Natalie jokes as she presses down on the elevator button, waiting for it to open.

"Uh, the team will warm up soon. We all really cared about Maya" Reid assures as the elevator door opens, Reid allowing Natalie to enter first. "I sure hope so. I don't do well with people not liking me" Natalie says nervously as she hits the button to the first floor and the elevator door closes.

"I don't see how anyone couldn't" Reid says which makes Natalie smile and feel welcomed.

"Just because I don't show it. Doesn't mean I don't feel it"
-Unknown-