It doesn't matter how strong someone is, everyone's heart is still fragile"
-Bridgett Devoue-

"Let me- Let me out- please, let me out" Natalie begs as she kicks the wooden door in front of her, but it doesn't even budge. Suddenly, another sword quickly pierces through the box, catching Natalie off guard and causing her to move to the side, only to have her upper arm more expose which causes the sword to slice the side of her arm, and rip the material of her arm sleeve.

Natalie holds onto her arm where the scar still leaves a mark on her skin and looks out the window as Rossi arrives at the recent motel murder in Seattle, Washington. "Hey, we're here" Rossi states, taking the keys out of the ignition before he exits his side of the vehicle.

Natalie shakes the horrid thoughts out of her head before exiting the car and showing her badge to the two officers guarding the yellow caution tape that's blocking off the entrance to the upper level of the motel where there has been a murder.

The officers let them through and Natalie slips her badge back into her pocket before she and Rossi make their way up the steps of the upper level. "What do you think these detectives will say this case is?" Rossi asks, making Natalie scoffs jokingly, "An OD- definitely not a murder, too much paperwork. I would know because I did the same thing sometimes" Natalie says softly before her and Rossi quietly approach the crime scene, instantly smelling meth that was being cooked up in the room.

They overhear the detectives talking and give it a minute before the enter. "Wow, this is new, but given the range of OCD behaviors of your average meth addict/manufacturer. This isn't the craziest" One of the detectives announces as he walks towards the dead body, kneeling to get a better look. "This junkie OD'd on his own supply. Case closed" The detective states and Natalie narrows her eyes at Rossi before both enter the room.

"Actually... this is a murder" Natalie answers as the detective rises to his feet, looking her and Rossi up and down. "Who the hell are you?" The detective asks and Rossi introduces them as Federal Agents, which grabs both of the detectives attention, knowing that there whole conversation was heard.

"Your captain might've told you we were coming by" Rossi says as he pulls out his cellphone. "He might have. Isn't there supposed to be a whole team of you?" The detective wonders and Natalie sighs, "Yes, but we're a little short handed right now" Natalie answers as Rossi holds up a photo and compares it to the fresh dead body in front of him.

"What's that?" The other detective who has kept quiet the entire time wonders. "That's our unknown subjects first kill from two days ago in Albany, New York" Natalie answers as the detective realizes it's the same face paint and this is no coincidence.

Natalie and Rossi head out into the hallway, the two detectives following after them. Soon, they meet up with Maya and Derek in the hallway as they are looking for any evidence outside the room where the murder happened.

"This is his" Derek announces as Maya holds up the needle with her hand, which is covered with a surgical glove. "How do you know? There's needles everywhere and this place is crack head central" One of the detectives asks, thinking that the BAU are just people who state the absolute obvious without providing actual information.

Maya scoffs as she looks to Derek, who looks over to the women witness who called in the crime and asks her would she use the needle that is in Maya's hand. The women smiles brightly, her gums showing more than her teeth as she scratches parts of her body eagerly. "No. That would blow out my delicate varicose veins" The women answers and Maya smirks knowingly as she turns to the detective who doubted her.

"Anybody knows that this needle is far to big to shoot up with. The unsub definitely left it behind" Maya answers as the detective wonders how they will catch the guy whose done these two murders.

"That's the thing, you don't. He most likely has already left the state and onto the next, looking for his next victim" Natalie answers as the other detective furrows his eyebrows in confusion, "Then who does?"

_____

They immediately fly back to Quantico for a meeting- they acknowledge that they're two profilers down, so this will be harder than usual. JJ is out on maternity leave because she recently had her second baby and Kate has officially left the BAU to take care of her baby as well. For good reasons, but the team will have to work extra hard since Natalie is just joining back after her kidnapping last year.

"Is it the same unsub?" Reid asks as he enters the room, looking over at Natalie before pulling her in for a hug, happy to see that she's back working with them again. "Yeah, same guy. Two kills on two coasts in two days" Natalie answers as she pulls away from the hug with Reid, who rest his hand on her lower back longer than he intended, but it was obvious Natalie didn't mind at all.

"This guy is on a mission. He's not gonna rest until he completes it" Derek announces as Hotch raises his head, "Then neither will we" Hotch states confidently as each member of the team takes a seat at the round table and looks through the case files intensely, trying to piece anything together and find out why the unsub is doing this.

At the table, the team discusses the deaths of the two victims so far. "It's clear victim 1 was bound and gagged, but victim 2 wasn't" Derek announces before Maya shows a picture from the crime scene of both windows in the rooms the victims were found in, "Both of the windows in the residences were tampered with" Maya speaks up before Reid indicates that the unsub must know how to get in and out undetected.

"That's impressive, because aluminum foil is super crinkly" Garcia voices to which Natalie stops twisting the pen in her hand and furrows her eyebrows in Garcia's direction, wondering why she said what she said. "What?" Natalie questions, a soft chuckle leaving her mouth as she does before Garcia shakes her head in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I'm not a profiler, I'm doing my best" Garcia states, knowing she should be in her own officer with all her technology, but since the team is slightly short staffed and she didn't want to be alone when she knew the whole team was close by, she decided to sit and help.

"Cause of death?" Hotch wonders, "Cardiac arrest, but Dr. Mertz in the crime lab can't pin down how" Derek states when Maya points to the picture of the victims' face, which is on the screen.

"What if it has something to do with the face paint?" Maya wonders as Hotch nods his head in agreement.

"That could be it. We were already assuming the painting was apart of some ritual, but it could be a forensic countermeasure" Hotch agrees before the team goes over what they know about the face paint. Reid then offers some comments about Commedia Del'Arta, the famous Italian clown theatre discipline, and says that the mask could resemble the Harpo-style trickster figure! Could the killer be playing tricks on people who tricked him in life?

This leads Hotch to suggest that they're dealing with a guy on a vendetta, rather than one who's compelled to kill.

_____

Later, Maya stays at the round table while the rest of the team scatters to get coffee or something to eat. She organizes the crime scene photos and looks through the files multiple times to see if there is anything they missed. "You've read that file 5 times in the last 3 minutes and 43 seconds" Reid voices from the door, making Natalie whip her head in his direction and let out a sigh of relief once she knows it's him.

"How are you feeling?" Reid asks, his hands resting in his pockets as he slowly enters the room. "Uh, I'm fine- I'm great, uh, yeah, yeah" Natalie stammers over her words before she gracefully placed the file back onto the table, "Sorry, ever since what happened, I get all weird when someone asks me that because I never know the answer" Natalie admits as Reid steps closer, nodding his head slowly.

"That's normal because what you went through wasn't. When someone asks if we're okay, we usually say fine or okay, even if we don't know because we just don't want to talk about what is truly going on because if we do... then we'll breakdown and ask ourselves if we'll truly ever be okay" Reid explains as he stands next to Natalie, who looks up at him with a sincere look.

"Or... we can ask the people around us if we'll ever be okay because sometimes we just never know" Natalie retorts before Reid raises his hand, up until it touches Natalie's cheek and grazes it softly, making Natalie's breath hitch. "You're going to be okay" Reid says softly, a smile growing on Natalie's lips before she sniffles in her tears and slowly turns her head to look at the photos and files lying on the round table.

Meanwhile, Maya was pouring herself a cup of coffee when Derek came up behind her and placed a kiss on her cheek. "Someone's happy" Maya says as she sets the coffee pot back on the tray and looks at Derek as she takes a sip of her coffee.

"I just wanted to know, if you would come to the ME with me?" Derek wonders, making Maya chuckle, "You didn't have to give me a kiss to say yes" Maya admits as Derek slightly raises one of his eyebrows, "Oh, really? What would I have to give you?" Derek asks as he slowly steps towards Maya, who tosses her empty coffee cup in the trash and backs away with a smile on her face.

"I don't know, maybe, if this case goes by a little faster, you'll find out tonight" Maya whispers as she turns on her heel and grabs Derek's hand and walks with him to the elevator, both of them walking straight past the large group of applicants lining up for a job.

_____

They arrive at the ME, who explains that the men were killed when someone injected Ensure into their veins, causing a blockage that gave them an aneurysm. The unsub did it into their necks to make sure that it was fatal. Apparently, the injection marks were under the neck paint, but said paint obviously wasn't intended as a forensic countermeasure, as someone suggested, because the autopsy picked it up immediately.

Derek and Maya soon realize that not many need nutritional supplements besides senior citizens or people who have trouble eating solid foods... that's it.

_____

When the team gets back to the round table, Reid has deduced that the unsub must have a feeding tube in his stomach, judging by the information given to him by Derek and Maya, who went to look at the ME report on both victims. "Well, Reid, you said that the mask he draws on his victims is because he isn't able to speak so..." Maya trials off.

"If he can't speak, what is he trying to say through this face paint?" Natalie finishes when Derek sits up in his seat, shocked at what he's hearing. "Okay, let's work our way back to that base on what we know. We know he travels thousand of miles in two days so, he probably doesn't sleep. He's able to sneak into a suburban house or a drug den undetected" Derek starts to explain.

"He then overwhelms his victims silently and then injects them and leaves them laying there dying over the course of an hour" Maya adds, the words sounding worse in her head. "He just sits over them and- and-" Natalie mumbles to herself as she fidgets with her fingers, which rest on the table in front of her.

Natalie widens her eyes as she backs herself into the wall, not knowing where to go as the man slowly strides towards her in no rush because he knows she has no where to go. He knows she's trapped and deep down Natalie knows it too.

Reid reaches beside him and gently touches Natalie's back, rubbing it comforting and reassuringly. "Natalie, do you need a minute?" Hotch asks and Natalie sniffles in her tears and keeps her tears from falling as she shakes her head, "No, I'm good, uh, let's just continue" Natalie says as he hands fall onto her thighs which shake, due to her legs bouncing up and down repeatedly as the horrid memories cloud her mind.

Suddenly, Natalie feels a hand wrap around hers and when she looks down she notices it's Reid's. Her legs slowly comes to a halt once Reid's thumb sweetly rubs across her knuckles, letting her know it's going to be okay.

The team goes back to the topic at hand, knowing that the victims would start seizing as they head into cardiac arrest. "But the guy didn't miss a burns stroke. In fact, he was very precise" Derek notes and that's when Maya's eyes sparkle with realization, "This guy is in a drug cartel or some type of powerful gang like association" Maya breathes out.

"That makes so much sense. Cutting the tongues out of snitches and the hands off of thieves" Reid recalls, Hotch nodding his hand in agreement. "He's a contract killer."

_____

There's been another murder and when Hotch arrives at the new victims' home, where he was murdered, and finds out that the victim recently spent forty thousand dollars, meaning he must have fired a hitman. And the killer is murdering the people who hired him, presumably because one of them set him up to be killed.

They give the profile and state that the unsub they are looking for is a contract killer who is doubling back to kill his former customers. The man is highly skilled and well trained. They also state because he is a contract killer, who needs to be paid, they should look for similar meaningless escrow payments that could point to a soon-to-be-victim. The team then explains that the face painting is a message about how one of his clients betrayed him. But it seems to be a message just for him, and so he can attract attention to himself, the way all good professional killers do...

"This case is taking forever!" Maya groans as she looks to Derek, who rests his hands on her waist. "You would think because this guy is a hitman, I would know how to catch him" Maya states, motioning to herself since she used to be a hit-women for a large drug cartel.

"Maybe, that's it" Derek voices, snapping his fingers knowingly, "Put yourself in his shoes. Think back to the time when you did this kind of stuff and maybe we can track his next move" Derek explains and Maya stands up straight, thinking that's not a bad idea.

"Well, we already know he gets paid and it has to be some kind of transaction. The last victims was easy to find, so if we look for anyone who put exactly 40K into escrow over the past year, but wasn't affiliated with a reputable corporation, we could find out who he's going to next" Maya explains before Derek pulls her close and places his lips onto hers, "And that is why I love you" Derek states, making heat rise to Maya's cheeks instantly before they rush to Garcia to have her look into the information.

Garcia then searches for anyone who put exactly 40K into escrow over the past year, but wasn't affiliated with a reputable corporation. She comes up with 16 names, and Derek says to refine it further- the clients pay twice, two payments of 20K each, and only one of the escrow accounts looks like that and the man is right in Baltimore.

"We've gotta get there first" Maya says as she pats Garcia on the back for placing a kiss on her cheek, "Great job, baby girl" Derek cheers as he also places a kiss on her cheek. Once Maya and Derek leave, Garcia is left with her hands on her cheeks as she smiles brightly from all the affection she was receiving.

Now the team was in a race to see who would make it to Baltimore first... the unsub or the FBI?

_____

The team arrives to discover that the killer has super-glued a grenade to his hands. "Oh, god" Natalie mumbles to herself as she places her gun in her holster and slowly walks towards the guy. "It's a grenade!" Derek shouts and that's when Reid orders everyone to put their weapons down whilst following Maya towards the man.

"He-His hands are glued to it" Natalie voices as she gets a good look at the man's hands. "Okay, okay. What did he use? Super glue?" Maya asks as she looks around the warehouse until she sees industrial acrylic glue which keeps car parts together.

"Bomb squad is ten minutes out" One of the swat team members announce before the team sends the swat guys to secure the area in case the killer is still close by, then try to figure out a way to get the glue off the guy's hands before his hands get so tired that he lets go of the spook and kills himself.

Reid wants to go in another direction - dip the man's hands in acid that's slightly more effective on glue than it is on human skin. "What? That'll burn my skin right off, no!" The man cries out, "Then we all walk out of here and wait for your hand to move off that button" Natalie states harshly, the man breathing heavily as he looks at everyone in the room, knowing he has no other choice.

Moments later, the team gathers around and proceeds to try and get the grenade out of the man's hand. Reid counts down from 3 before pouring the acid onto the hands of the victim, causing the victim to scream out in excruciating pain.

As for the grenade, it comes free, but the acid eats the metal too.

"Run!" Rossi shouts before he throws the grenade and the rest of the team runs. Natalie rushes the victim and Reid out of the warehouse while Derek rushes out Maya. Right before they exit the warehouse, the grenade explodes and Maya ducks her head before her and Derek jump over the car and land onto the ground, using the police car as a shield from the shattering glass, ash, and fiery bits of flames.

"Is everyone okay?" Maya asks, catching her breath as she slowly rises to her feet, and helping Derek to his. The mechanic, who is also the victim, looks around before he lets out a few gags and rushes away to throw up in peace, "Yeah... he's fine" Rossi sighs.

The mechanic admits that everything was his fault. He hired the guy to kill his fiancée, and after the job was done, he thought the guy was keeping tabs on him, so he sent a goon to kill him. He pretended to be a new customer and paid the guy 20K to show up in Atlantic City for a job, then had the goon ambush him.

The killer got shot in the face but escaped. This lets the team find out who the killer is since he had to go to the hospital to get his face patched up, and he's a known criminal with a long record.

The team decides that tracing the guy through the internet won't work and the clue they're looking for is in his dramatic shift in MO- why go from syringes to grenades?

The team assumes that the killer must have a mole in the local police department that tipped them off, since he only got the text after the SWAT team was on the way.

The unsub is killing people all over the country, and it's not like he'd be informing the local cops when he was in town, working a job. And the team didn't tell the local cops who they were looking for, because they didn't know- they just sent the SWAT team to a location. It turns out that they're right, though - the chauffeur is actually the SWAT commander's wife.

They presume this must mean that the SWAT commander hired him to kill someone, and now he's a possible target.

_____

Some members of the team, head to the SWAT commanders' home and find his wife there. Rossi asks the wife where the hitman is, to which the wife admits to hiring the hitman, and her husband has just been trying to save her. They call the husband on his phone, and the unsub lets him answer it, because the caller ID says 'home', and then ask him if the destination he's driving the killer to is entered into his phone, and it is.

Now they know where the killer is going, so they can set up an ambush!

The killer's car is driving into the kill zone, but the killer wants to make sure it's not an ambush, so he calls the last number dialed. Hotch, from the house, calls Aisha, the wife, over to get on the phone. The wife is an actress, and she's able to get her husband to sympathize with her by mimicking his wife's movements, tone of voice, and speech rhythms- which makes her the perfect person to trick the unsub now.

She tells him to duck so that the cops can shoot the killer, but the killer flees, and the cop puts his extra gun to his own head, somehow thinking that killing himself will solve anything. He tries to claim it was all him, and Reid responds that they already know it was both of them.

Meanwhile, Derek and Maya are unable to catch up with the unsub, but they aren't that far behind. So, Maya raises her gun and shoots the unsub right in the leg, watching as he falls to the ground before Derek rushes over, tightly placing the handcuffs around his wrist.

Case Closed.

_____

Back at Quantico, Hotch hires a woman, named Tara Lewis, to join the team and she is beyond excited, as is the rest of the team to get to know her and make her a part of their very own family.

Meanwhile, Derek goes to check on the murderer, who he arrested, and Maya tags along. Derek talks to the hitman unsub and says that he's mad the hitman tried to kill him, and explains that he plans to use the hitman to track down all of the other hitmen contracting out online.

As the conversation continues, Derek gives the guy a pad of paper to write a note. He writes that 'The Dirty Dozen' are their next targets, and then tears the stitches out of his mouth so he can say that they'll never stop 'us'. The machine starts to beep constantly, and Maya whips her head towards the door once she hears Derek yelling for help.

"Derek, what the hell happened?! Nurse!" Maya shouts as she rushes into the room, seeing the man bleeding profusely from his mouth, due to his stitches being ripped out. "I-I didn't do anything" Derek explains as a nurse rushes in and pushes past Maya and Derek to help the patient, whilst calling for backup.

"What did you do?!" The nurse shouts, making Maya knits her eyebrows in confusion. "I didn't do it! I didn't do anything!" Derek shouts as he lunges towards the man, grabbing ahold of his hospital gown and slamming him back down, saying he'll pay for this.

"Derek, Derek, come on" Maya begs as she grabs onto Derek's shoulder and proceeds to pull him back into the hallway.

"Calm down, okay?" Maya states, making sure Derek doesn't go back into the room. From the hallway, Derek looks through the window into the man's room and looks down at the table that's beside him, seeing the words written on the piece of paper he had given to him.

"What is it?" Maya asks, standing next to Derek as her arms cross over her chest.

"We have a much bigger threat to find... much bigger."

"Sad birds still sing."
-Faraway-