"A kind gesture can reach a wound that only compassion can heal"
-Steve Maraboli-

RING RING RING

Maya heard as she was sound asleep in bed. "Ugh" Maya groans as she lifts her head from the softness of her pillow and looks over at her phone that lies on her nightstand. The phone continues ringing until Maya couldn't take it anymore and she answered.

"Whoever this is better have a good rea-" Maya starts off before she is quickly interrupted, "Maya! Thank God. It's Penelope".

Maya quickly adjusts herself in her bed and holds the phone to her ear. "Garcia? Why are you calling me?" Maya asks before letting out a yawn. "I need your help. Something has happened to my friend and I could use your... toughness!" Garcia rants making Maya furrow her eyebrows as she pushes her hair out of her face.

"I'm confused" Maya mumbles. "Can you just come? Derek's on his way to get you now" Garcia says and Maya widens her eyes. "What? Why asks when you've already planned on me coming?" Maya asks as she tosses her comforter to the side and proceeds to get out of bed. "I thought you'd say yes off the bat" Garcia defends before Maya sighs and hangs up the phone, getting ready before Derek arrives.

______

Back at the parking lot the cops don't believe Garcia's stories of abduction, but luckily Derek and Maya show up to take over the investigation. "We got it from here" Maya declares as she shows her FBI badge. "You're an FBI agent?" The officer asks and Maya raises her eyebrows.

"You're a terrible, nerdy, stupid police officer?" Maya asks and the officer shakes his head before he walks away.

"You gotta be harsh?" Morgan asks and Maya chuckles before they both walk over to Garcia to get get more information. "I have this feeling. And that officer wouldn't listen, and I-" Garcia stammers and Maya sighs, "Can you calm down?" Maya asks, "Don't yell at me at a time like this" Garcia begs and Maya throws her arms in the air shockingly.

"I wasn't yelling!" Maya says loudly before Derek intervenes.

"Okay" Derek says, looking between the two women. "Now, Penelope. I believe you. I do. But I need you to keep your head in the game right now. You hear me?" Derek asks as he looks to Garcia who nods her head assuringly.

"Did she leave with someone?" Maya asks as she walks to the car that belongs to Monica, the supposed victim. "No, not today" Garcia answers. "Yesterday was the anniversary of her daughters abduction" Garcia adds. It seems the abduction was five years earlier, and Garcia doesn't believe that she'd just run off after surviving the anniversary.

It also seems that when the mom found out about the flyers and ran off with the kidnapper, she left her daughter's letter lying in the car - convenient for Garcia, since it immediately proves her theory correct, but psychologically nonsensical.

_______

At the BAU headquarters, the team assembles for a briefing where Hotch insists on doing the case presentation. "7 years ago, yesterday at Manassas, Virginia, 8-year-old Hope Kingston was abducted from her front yard while playing with a friend. She's been presumed dead" Hotch presents and Maya sighs sadly and quietly as she looks at the pictures pop up on the screen behind Hotch.

"A few hours ago, her mother Monica disappointed from a parking lot after attempting Garcia's victim support group" Maya adds on before everyone looks to Garcia who seems worried and sad about the disappearance of her friend who's a survivor.

"It's not common for unsubs to reach out and contact relatives of victims. Joran Van Der Sloot extorted $25,000 from Natalee Holloways mother in exchange for information" Reid rants, trying to prove a point but it only made the mood go down.

"Do we think both abductions were related?" Rossi wonders. "There was a letter signed by Hope in Monica's car" Maya says as she looks to Derek who confirms her statement.

"The anniversary could could have been the trigger. We can't rule out the possibility that Monica committed suicide" Rossi states and Maya tries to stop him, but he already said it and she already seen the sadness appearing on Garcia's face more and more.

"Monica would- would never hurt herself. She- She thought Hope was alive. Don't rule out that possibility" Garcia begs as she looks at the room of profilers.

"What about the father?" JJ asks and Garcia shakes her head. "He died in a car accident right before Hope was born" Garcia informs and Maya crosses that off the list.

Discussing the letter, the team goes along with Gracia's abduction theory, and announces that they'll be checking the letter for forensic evidence. The fact that Hope drew a butterfly next to her name. Could that be related to her capture site, somehow?

"Well, there was no sign of struggle at the scene" Derek adds but Emily wonders if she went willingly. "That's true. Maybe, the unsub wanted to give her what she's been looking for all these years. Hope" Maya states and Rossi raises an eyebrow, "That would certainly get her attention" Rossi says to which Maya and Emily nod their heads too.

Rossi and Emily figure out that the killer must have abducted the mom in public for a reason, since she left a spare key to her apartment under the mat, meaning she was vulnerable all the time.

______

Back at the BAU, Reid thinks the letter may have been written by the killer, since it clearly wasn't written by a 15-year-old girl. "You think the unsub wrote it?" Maya asks as she crosses her arms over her chest while looking at the board Reid has assembled.

"The language used is inconsistent with that of a 15-year-old help in captivity for 7 years" Reid states before Garcia informs the team, she's got something. Garcia found a person that matches Monica's description at local gas station.

The team then figures out that the gas station is important, since they immediately are able to get footage of the couple entering, not buying anything, and then leaving.

"Look at the way he's hiding from the cameras. He must know this place inside and out" Maya observes as she notices the unsub isn't showing his face so there's no way to get facial recognition. "Why isn't she asking for help?" Garcia asks as she watches her friend Monica be calm as anyone can be in a situation like that.

"She doesn't want to draw attention to herself" Hotch informs. "She leaves and the unsub stays?" Reid questions as they watch Monica leave the gas station.

"He must have complete control over her. He's not worried at all because he knows that she knows he's got the only thing she wants" Maya explains before looking back at the security footage.

"There are plenty of service stations between the community center and here, but he drive her clear across town. This place must mean something to the both of them" Reid observes as he looks to his map he has set up on the board.

"But what?" Maya wonders, standing next to Hotch. "It could be where it all started" Hotch declares before him and Maya look over to each other thinking they've got something.

Now that the team has found out about the killer's visit with mom to the old crime scene- as well as the fact that the letter was delivered to the old house a week prior (what if the guy had opened it - or not known how to contact the mom?), they're pretty much settled in the idea that the killer is walking mom through the same abduction steps from seven years ago so that he can grab her. Why?

"He didn't go after just any woman. This is Hope's mother. He kidnapped her daughter and now he wants her" Maya says as she looks around at the team. "Which means that Hope is probably dead and he's looking to replace her" Hotch adds on.

"This is everything the Manassas P.D. had on Hope's investigation" Garcia informs as she walks into the room with a box in her hand. "Let's get to work" Hotch orders and everyone scatters and does as they're told.

Maya flips through a couple of files and looks over to Garcia who sits alone and looks stressed. She knew Garcia could barley handle a victim she didn't know at all and now she couldn't imagine her handling one she knew too well. "She'll be alright" Derek says as he walks next to Maya and looks through the box in front of her.

"Are you sure? I've never seen her so..." Maya trails off. "Sad" Derek answers for Maya to which Maya nods her head. "Yeah, she's always so happy... smiling. Why? I don't know but I got used to seeing it" Maya sighs before she looks down at the file she has in her hand.

"She's always happy but this job becomes too much for her sometimes. It does for us all, it just hits her harder than the rest of us" Derek informs and Maya nods her head understandingly.

______

Later, Reid delivers one of his geographic profiles, announcing that the killer must live at some point within a circle made up by all the colored tabs at the top of the map. "That would make it easier for him to learn her routines. That zone can't be more than 20 miles" Derek adds before Reid continues his profile.

"When was the first case reported?" Maya asks as she turns to look at Rossi and Garcia. "6 months before Hope's abduction. A 12- year old girl in the area reported a man taking pictures of her on her way home from school, and then three weeks after that, she thought he was peeping into her window and then her house was broken into and the only thing missing was her clothes" Garcia explains and Maya widens her eyes slightly.

"That's a clear escalation in M.O." JJ adds. "He must've been building his confidence to abduct Hope. She must've been his target all along and if she's dead that could've been the trigger to why he kidnapped the mother as well" Maya rants and everyone nods their heads, agreeing with her statement.

"These were found in Heather Wilson's bike 2 weeks after Hope disappeared" Emily informs as she walks in with a bag found in evidence from the case that holds a butterfly in it. "That's the girl Hope was playing with when she was abducted" Garcia says as she stands up immediately. JJ proceeds to read the thank you card the unsub left behind along with the butterfly.

He sent a thank you card to the girl he didn't abduct?

JJ and Emily go to talk to Hope's friend, who's now a teen with pink streaks in her hair. Emily profiles this as survivor's guilt, with the friend using them to remind herself of how much she looked like Hope. She volunteers that she felt guilty about the abduction because the killer had asked to play hide-and-go-seek with them, and she agreed, after being mollified with a jar of butterflies. Hopefully there's something useful in among all that personal stuff - maybe the fact that she remembers the guy's voice really well?

______

Maya walks past the round table room and sees Garcia looking at Monica and Hope's pictures that are on the screen. "Hey.." Maya says softly as she enters the room and stands next to Garcia, looking at the pictures as well. "Um, are you okay? - Okay, that was a bad question" Maya mumbles as she instantly regrets her choice of words.

Garcia smiles slightly because shaking her head. "After Emily, I never thought I'd see another person I love up there" Garcia rants and Maya places her hands in her back pocket. "It doesn't help if you blame yourself" Maya says, trying to reassure.

"We're trying our best to find h-". "No! No, we're not. We're not doing enough to find her. If we were trying our best, we would have found her" Garcia states angrily, wishing there was more she could do.

"Listen, there's nothing I can say that'll make you feel any better but you have calm down. Thinking you aren't doing enough isn't going to help us find her" Maya states, trying to give Penelope tough love.

"We'll find her, but you have to believe it" Maya reassures and Garcia turns her head looking to Maya as tears slide down her cheeks.

"If I liked woman, I'd kiss you right now. I would probably kiss you anyway, but I'm too sad right now" Garcia jokes making Maya burst out into laughter. "Don't tempt me with a good time" Maya says as she raises her hands in surrender before it's time to give the profile.

The team believes the unsubs presence evolved in the past 7 years to erotomania obsession with Hope Kingston. And now that Hope is absent, he's out his attention on Hope's mother for the time being. He abducted Monica in public which tells the police that Monica is pivotal and is the key to his fantasy.

With absolutely no viable leads to follow, the team finally makes a useful guess-maybe since the killer was stalking mom, he might have infiltrated her support group? They don't just ask if anyone in the group has a red truck, though, they make Garcia go through a memory exercise. Did anyone seem unduly interested in her? It was a guy who claimed to have lost his pregnant wife and he followed her out of the meeting! Bill... but is that his real name?

"William Rodgers joined the support group 2 months ago. Garcia's still looking for an address" JJ informs as she enters the room after giving Garcia the memory exercise.

"Any priors?" Maya wonders. Turns out, the unsub had a background of criminality in which he tried to abduct a 14-year-old girl. He abducted a younger one this time so she could age into his fetish and then he could impregnate her. And the team is guessing that he wants to impregnate the mom so he can replace Hope with a new model.

"Address... Address" Garcia hums as she types away on her computer trying to find an address for this unsub. "This guy, like, redefined home invasion. By going to those group meetings, it was like he read Monica's diary, like she only talked about her most personal feelings in that group. The group is definitely gonna have to disband" Garcia rants all while trying to find an address but Maya was barley listening she was too busy looking at Garcia's screen until she stopped typing.

"Can we find the address instead?" Maya asks with a hint of sass. "I got two addresses sassy pants" Garcia says as the map pops up on her screen. Garcia then sends the location through and starts to get up as if she's about to leave.

"Um, where are you going?" Derek asks as him and Maya stop in their tracks and look back at Garcia. "I'm going with you" Garcia says as she takes off her headset. "Uh, is that a good idea? I don't think that is a good idea" Maya says as she looks in between Morgan and Garcia.

"Yeah, it's a bad idea. It could be dangerous" Derek states before Garcia stands to her feet anyway. "Either you let me go with you or you're going to have to forcibly remove me from the SUV. Your choice" Garcia says as she exits her office.

"Personally, I would drag her out the SUV, but I understand she's your baby girl" Maya jokes before she walks away from Derek until he starts to follow behind.

_____

Maya and Derek walk onto the perimeter with 2 other officers and raise their guns as they start to search since Hotch already cleared out the other location and it came up empty. Garcia calls Bill on the phone, and luckily, he still has one of those answering machines that plays the voice out loud, since he's obviously not going to answer it while he's busily attacking Monica. They continue to talk until the killer opens the door and offers to let Garcia in to talk in person, which she does, after confirming that Derek, Maya and their gunmen have made it inside the house.

Garcia parrots the killer's support-group blather back at him, keeping him long enough for the team to surround him with their guns drawn, but fingers in no way on the triggers.

"Drop the gun" Maya orders as Bill continues to hold the gun in his hand. "Drop it now" Derek adds as he points his gun towards him.

Bill surrenders without incident and slowly walks away from Monica as he raises his hands in surrender, knowing what's going to happen to him next. Except, he didn't. Maya looked over to Monica who was eyeing the gun on the ground.

"Monica" Maya calls out and Monica quickly raises her head.

"He killed my baby" Monica cries out before she quickly reaches for the gun, wasting no time. "Monica!" The team shouts but it was too late. Monica had already executed him on the spot and watched as his blood painted the wood floor beneath him. Case closed.

_____

"Here we are" Derek says as he puts the car in park and stops in-front of Maya's home. "Thank you" Maya says as she grabs her duffel bag from the backseat and exits the car. "You going to be alright?" Derek asks as Maya starts to shut the car door.

"I'm good any other night" Maya says as she looks to Derek with a slightly confused look.

"Right, right" Derek mumbles to himself and Maya could see he was rethinking his previous words. "Goodnight, Agent Morgan" Maya says, breaking the silence as Derek looked over at her and they locked eyes.

"Goodnight" Derek says softly before Maya shuts the car door gently and proceeded to walk to her front door...

"Life is promised to us. We are blessed everyday by simply being able to rise in the morning"
-Unknown-