The Long, Lonely Road Ahead
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1 through F › Criminal Minds
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Adult +
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Category:
1 through F › Criminal Minds
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
35
Views:
3,823
Reviews:
2
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own "Criminal Minds" and make no money from writing this story. This is purely a fun fic, written mostly for my own pleasure.
Chapter Fourteen
The following events take place after Hotch’s divorce but prior to JJ’s giving birth.
Yes, I know it’s a Mary Sue in some ways, but it was fun to write, so I’m throwing it out there for you to read and see what you think.
The Long, Lonely Road Ahead
Chapter Fourteen
I spent the morning working out, in hand-to-hand with a couple of ex-marines who liked to pump iron at the gym. We did some weights first, and then hit the mats in the aerobics studio. They knew as many martial arts as I did, at least, but we each knew a few things the other didn’t, so it was fairly evenly matched. I was lathered in sweat by the time I was done and felt pretty damn good. I’d been having great sex with a seriously sexy man, I got to visit my cousin here in Washington, DC, and one of the men I’d wanted to kill for a very long time was now dead. Now it was time to step things up, particularly if I was going to hunt down and kill the other three.
(“Font of all knowledge, speak and ye shall be heard.”
“Garcia, I need everything you can dig up about your cousin and her links to the Blackhawk Militia. Gather what intelligence you can and meet us in the briefing room in half an hour,” Rossi told her.
“Um, I gave you everything I had, Sir,” Garcia said, but Hotch could hear the hesitation in her voice.
“Garcia, do you want us to have to find someone else to dig this all up?” Hotch asked quietly.
“No… no Sir. I’ll, uh, get you the rest of it right away,” Garcia said, severing the connection.
“Hotch, what are we doing?” Morgan asked, sitting down at the briefing table next to Prentiss and Reid.
“We’re profiling Terra Wintersmith,” Rossi replied before Hotch could speak.
“Maybe I should remove myself from this, David,” Hotch said. Rossi shook his head.
“You’ve got unique insights into the unsub, Aaron.”
“We’re calling her the unsub now? Doesn’t that make her not an unsub? After all, we know who she is…” Reid asked.
“Reid’s got a point,” Prentiss said. “What do we think she’s likely to do?”
“Let’s wait for the rest of the information Garcia’s bringing,” Rossi said, just as Garcia bustled in with a pile of file folders and a USB key.
“That was a fast half hour,” Hotch said.
“I had it already put together,” Garcia admitted. “I had a feeling it might come down to this some day.”
“Come down to what? What has she done?” Morgan insisted.
“Lied about who she is and her ties to the Blackhawk Militia,” Hotch said, staring at Garcia.
“Not intentionally, Sir. She’s never intentionally lied. She’s just omitted some things,” Garcia said, pulling out the files and handing them around. “This is all I have. Really.” There was a pause as the team perused their files, frowns appearing on their faces.
“This seems to indicate that she’s married?” Reid asked. “Is that legal?”
“If there’s parental consent…” Hotch began but Reid cut him off.
“I know, I know. What I meant was the marriage conducted legally? It was performed by the militia’s leader, but never registered with the State.”
“That doesn’t make it legal, although if the leader of the militia was also a leader of a registered religious organization, it would be legal enough,” Prentiss stated.
“Hotch,” Reid said.
“Yes, Reid?”
“I think her mother may still be alive,” Reid said, holding up a still photo of a woman in her sixties standing next to two woman who were obviously genetically linked. “And it looks like Terra might have siblings she doesn’t know about.”
“How can you tell?” Rossi asked.
“Darrel Hollowfield told Terra he’d last seen her mother six months ago and intimated that he’d killed her at that time. But this photo was taken three months ago via telephoto lens at the compound and it clearly shows a woman identified as Maggie Wintersmith. The women next to her are...”
“Her two children, Ruth and Samara, 20 and 19 respectively,” Prentiss finished, reading from the same file. “They’ve obviously been watching this group for a long time. Why haven’t they done anything about them?”
“They’re still trying to figure out more about who the leader is. He never leaves the compound and, in fact, never leaves his home,” Reid told her.
“Bizarre. So in more than 30 years of existence, we know next to nothing about the leader of this cult,” Morgan said, sitting back.
“Pretty much. And the one person who could probably help us isn’t here.” Rossi looked at Hotch, who stood looking at the floor, a frown on his face.
“If I could make a suggestion, Sir?” Garcia said, tentatively raising her fuzzy pink pen.
“Yes, Garcia?” Hotch asked.
“Well, I don’t think bringing her in to answer questions will make her want to share, Sir. She’s not very trustful of authority figures. I know for a fact that although she thinks I don’t know she was fired from her last job, she was. Sir. Anyway… maybe if we tried something a bit more radical?”)
I was back at Pen’s, towelling off from my second shower of the day and ready for lunch, when my phone rang. I picked it up; it was Aaron.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Hi yourself. How are you?”
“I just had the best workout. There’s this gym near Pen’s place where all these ex-marines work out. It was awesome.”
“You’re working out with ex-marines?”
“Sure. They’re good at hand-to-hand, eh? I mean, not the kind I prefer,” I said, making my voice as sexy as possible. He laughed.
“I see. Look, I was calling to ask if you wanted to come out for dinner with me tonight.”
“You’re going to be able to get out of the office for dinner?”
“We’re working on this case, but I’ve got a couple of hours around dinner, sure.”
“Great! When?”
“I’ll come pick you up at around 7.”
“Sounds good. I’ve got some stuff to do before then, anyway.”
“Stuff?”
“A little research on the computer. I’ve got to prep for my classes after the break, eh?”
“Oh, of course.”
“Well, see you at 7. Casual or dressy?”
“Casual. Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but Penelope wants to join us.”
“Pen? Uh, sure, of course! I’ve barely seen her so far this vacation. Bring her along!”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
“See you! Bye Aaron.”
“Bye.”
That gave me about six and a half hours to get some work done before I had to get ready to go out. Excellent. I got dressed and made myself a sandwich, then settled down in front of Pen’s computer. She had much more firepower than I had on my laptop, which would make it easier to do some of the searches I needed to do. I wiped my fingers on a napkin and started my search.
( “Garcia, Hotch says she’s spending the afternoon using the computer to search… something. She says it’s for work, but if what you’ve said is correct and she’s been fired, we need to know what she’s searching,” Rossi said.
“If I know my cousin, and I do, she’ll be using my computer because it’s like a souped up version of her laptop, which I also set up for her,” Garcia said, typing away. “I’ll log in remotely and mirror her searches on one of my monitors here.”
“Let me know what you turn up,” Rossi said. He looked across the hall into the office of Aaron Hotchner, who was shuffling files on his desk. Every so often, he would stop his shuffling and stare off into space for a moment. “Poor bastard.”)
I sorted through various websites and worked my way, slowly, into Pen’s hard drive, searching for information on my targets. I knew they spent most of their time at the compound, but I also knew they had other residences, and I was certain the FBI probably had information on them. I needed to find alternate ways to get at them; going to the compound was a last resort, at best. Okay, I thought, give up what you know… I need info… Matt Shaum, I know you’re in there somewhere… I found a back door Pen had left open for herself, and hacked into it. I didn’t have mad skills, like her, but I could find my way around a computer if I had to. Now that Darrel’s no longer part of the militia, the power structure there would have changed a bit. Maybe Matt was bumped up a level? I scanned data, making notes on my own laptop as I went, but nothing really useful jumped out at me. The FBI was watching the compound, but I couldn’t find anything really relevant to any of the men I wanted to find. It was incredibly frustrating. By the time I was ready to give it up, the sun was going down outside. It was already quarter to seven, and I wasn’t even remotely ready for Aaron to pick me up. “Shit!” I quickly exited the programs I had open, trying to cover my tracks as best as I could, and I shut the system down. I shut down my laptop too, and then headed to my suitcase to find something casual but sexy to wear to dinner. We may be having dinner with Pen (and probably her boyfriend) but I still wanted to look good for Aaron.
Yes, I know it’s a Mary Sue in some ways, but it was fun to write, so I’m throwing it out there for you to read and see what you think.
The Long, Lonely Road Ahead
Chapter Fourteen
I spent the morning working out, in hand-to-hand with a couple of ex-marines who liked to pump iron at the gym. We did some weights first, and then hit the mats in the aerobics studio. They knew as many martial arts as I did, at least, but we each knew a few things the other didn’t, so it was fairly evenly matched. I was lathered in sweat by the time I was done and felt pretty damn good. I’d been having great sex with a seriously sexy man, I got to visit my cousin here in Washington, DC, and one of the men I’d wanted to kill for a very long time was now dead. Now it was time to step things up, particularly if I was going to hunt down and kill the other three.
(“Font of all knowledge, speak and ye shall be heard.”
“Garcia, I need everything you can dig up about your cousin and her links to the Blackhawk Militia. Gather what intelligence you can and meet us in the briefing room in half an hour,” Rossi told her.
“Um, I gave you everything I had, Sir,” Garcia said, but Hotch could hear the hesitation in her voice.
“Garcia, do you want us to have to find someone else to dig this all up?” Hotch asked quietly.
“No… no Sir. I’ll, uh, get you the rest of it right away,” Garcia said, severing the connection.
“Hotch, what are we doing?” Morgan asked, sitting down at the briefing table next to Prentiss and Reid.
“We’re profiling Terra Wintersmith,” Rossi replied before Hotch could speak.
“Maybe I should remove myself from this, David,” Hotch said. Rossi shook his head.
“You’ve got unique insights into the unsub, Aaron.”
“We’re calling her the unsub now? Doesn’t that make her not an unsub? After all, we know who she is…” Reid asked.
“Reid’s got a point,” Prentiss said. “What do we think she’s likely to do?”
“Let’s wait for the rest of the information Garcia’s bringing,” Rossi said, just as Garcia bustled in with a pile of file folders and a USB key.
“That was a fast half hour,” Hotch said.
“I had it already put together,” Garcia admitted. “I had a feeling it might come down to this some day.”
“Come down to what? What has she done?” Morgan insisted.
“Lied about who she is and her ties to the Blackhawk Militia,” Hotch said, staring at Garcia.
“Not intentionally, Sir. She’s never intentionally lied. She’s just omitted some things,” Garcia said, pulling out the files and handing them around. “This is all I have. Really.” There was a pause as the team perused their files, frowns appearing on their faces.
“This seems to indicate that she’s married?” Reid asked. “Is that legal?”
“If there’s parental consent…” Hotch began but Reid cut him off.
“I know, I know. What I meant was the marriage conducted legally? It was performed by the militia’s leader, but never registered with the State.”
“That doesn’t make it legal, although if the leader of the militia was also a leader of a registered religious organization, it would be legal enough,” Prentiss stated.
“Hotch,” Reid said.
“Yes, Reid?”
“I think her mother may still be alive,” Reid said, holding up a still photo of a woman in her sixties standing next to two woman who were obviously genetically linked. “And it looks like Terra might have siblings she doesn’t know about.”
“How can you tell?” Rossi asked.
“Darrel Hollowfield told Terra he’d last seen her mother six months ago and intimated that he’d killed her at that time. But this photo was taken three months ago via telephoto lens at the compound and it clearly shows a woman identified as Maggie Wintersmith. The women next to her are...”
“Her two children, Ruth and Samara, 20 and 19 respectively,” Prentiss finished, reading from the same file. “They’ve obviously been watching this group for a long time. Why haven’t they done anything about them?”
“They’re still trying to figure out more about who the leader is. He never leaves the compound and, in fact, never leaves his home,” Reid told her.
“Bizarre. So in more than 30 years of existence, we know next to nothing about the leader of this cult,” Morgan said, sitting back.
“Pretty much. And the one person who could probably help us isn’t here.” Rossi looked at Hotch, who stood looking at the floor, a frown on his face.
“If I could make a suggestion, Sir?” Garcia said, tentatively raising her fuzzy pink pen.
“Yes, Garcia?” Hotch asked.
“Well, I don’t think bringing her in to answer questions will make her want to share, Sir. She’s not very trustful of authority figures. I know for a fact that although she thinks I don’t know she was fired from her last job, she was. Sir. Anyway… maybe if we tried something a bit more radical?”)
I was back at Pen’s, towelling off from my second shower of the day and ready for lunch, when my phone rang. I picked it up; it was Aaron.
“Hey,” I answered.
“Hi yourself. How are you?”
“I just had the best workout. There’s this gym near Pen’s place where all these ex-marines work out. It was awesome.”
“You’re working out with ex-marines?”
“Sure. They’re good at hand-to-hand, eh? I mean, not the kind I prefer,” I said, making my voice as sexy as possible. He laughed.
“I see. Look, I was calling to ask if you wanted to come out for dinner with me tonight.”
“You’re going to be able to get out of the office for dinner?”
“We’re working on this case, but I’ve got a couple of hours around dinner, sure.”
“Great! When?”
“I’ll come pick you up at around 7.”
“Sounds good. I’ve got some stuff to do before then, anyway.”
“Stuff?”
“A little research on the computer. I’ve got to prep for my classes after the break, eh?”
“Oh, of course.”
“Well, see you at 7. Casual or dressy?”
“Casual. Oh, and I hope you don’t mind, but Penelope wants to join us.”
“Pen? Uh, sure, of course! I’ve barely seen her so far this vacation. Bring her along!”
“Good. I’ll see you then.”
“See you! Bye Aaron.”
“Bye.”
That gave me about six and a half hours to get some work done before I had to get ready to go out. Excellent. I got dressed and made myself a sandwich, then settled down in front of Pen’s computer. She had much more firepower than I had on my laptop, which would make it easier to do some of the searches I needed to do. I wiped my fingers on a napkin and started my search.
( “Garcia, Hotch says she’s spending the afternoon using the computer to search… something. She says it’s for work, but if what you’ve said is correct and she’s been fired, we need to know what she’s searching,” Rossi said.
“If I know my cousin, and I do, she’ll be using my computer because it’s like a souped up version of her laptop, which I also set up for her,” Garcia said, typing away. “I’ll log in remotely and mirror her searches on one of my monitors here.”
“Let me know what you turn up,” Rossi said. He looked across the hall into the office of Aaron Hotchner, who was shuffling files on his desk. Every so often, he would stop his shuffling and stare off into space for a moment. “Poor bastard.”)
I sorted through various websites and worked my way, slowly, into Pen’s hard drive, searching for information on my targets. I knew they spent most of their time at the compound, but I also knew they had other residences, and I was certain the FBI probably had information on them. I needed to find alternate ways to get at them; going to the compound was a last resort, at best. Okay, I thought, give up what you know… I need info… Matt Shaum, I know you’re in there somewhere… I found a back door Pen had left open for herself, and hacked into it. I didn’t have mad skills, like her, but I could find my way around a computer if I had to. Now that Darrel’s no longer part of the militia, the power structure there would have changed a bit. Maybe Matt was bumped up a level? I scanned data, making notes on my own laptop as I went, but nothing really useful jumped out at me. The FBI was watching the compound, but I couldn’t find anything really relevant to any of the men I wanted to find. It was incredibly frustrating. By the time I was ready to give it up, the sun was going down outside. It was already quarter to seven, and I wasn’t even remotely ready for Aaron to pick me up. “Shit!” I quickly exited the programs I had open, trying to cover my tracks as best as I could, and I shut the system down. I shut down my laptop too, and then headed to my suitcase to find something casual but sexy to wear to dinner. We may be having dinner with Pen (and probably her boyfriend) but I still wanted to look good for Aaron.