REPLACEMENT; criminal minds (1)

𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙍𝙏𝙔-𝙎𝙄𝙓

"Well, since you're already here..." Rossi trails off as he starts to make his way towards the conference room, Maya slowly but surely following behind.

"Hotch is in New York and has a possible case" Rossi says as him and Strauss take a seat in front of the video call that has yet to start. "Maya, did you stay overnight again?" Garcia asks as she gets everything set up.

"Guilty" Maya mumbles before she, Strauss and Rossi take a seat in front of the screen before Hotch informs them on the new possible case about a suspicious OD happening to lots of people.

Apparently there have been five deaths already and the cops think it was bad MDMA, but the cause was actually such a high dose of the stuff that it caused their bodies to boil over. "And the ME reports showed 3 other victims bleeding out over the last week" Hotch adds.

The other ones have been in Harlem and in the village but all 5 of them have been categorized as ecstasy overdoses while one of the victims may have been drugged without her knowledge.

"Isn't ecstasy used as some kind of date rape drug?" Maya asks which Rossi nods his head in agreement. "Yes, but I've never seen it cause bleeding like this" Rossi says, sounding shocked. They compare it to the 'Tylenol Poisoning' of 1986, and suggest that this could be another case where someone is targeting a specific person, but poisoned a huge number of people to cover it up.

"So you're saying these death could just be the start" Strauss states, not asking since she already knows the answer. "Yes. I'd like the team to join me in New York as soon as possible" Hotch says and Maya immediately rubs her forehead stressfully because team equals Derek and seeing Derek equals really awkward interactions for the rest of the day.

Erin announces that she's going along on the case because the team seems to go rogue when loved ones are involved.

_____

On the plane, the team discusses the possible motives for mass murder on the plane, but then the focus in on the non-users who still wound-up dead. "The unsub has got to be getting the drug into their system a different way" Maya shrugs before she looks over at Derek who sits on the edge of a seat. They don't say anything to each other, and this is the first time they've looked at each other since the whole team was called to the case.

"Why kill in such a graphic manner?" Strauss wonders. "Well, he gets off on the spectacle. It's not just about the victims with this guy. It's about the witnesses and the fear he brings onto others" JJ answers, saying to a point where Strauss will understand where the unsub is coming from with these murders.

_____

Reid, Maya, JJ and Derek are over at the club, talking to the survivors. Apparently, the dead people were annoyed that the liquid MDMA they bought was taking too long to kick in, so they doubled their dosage, while a guy who took a single vial ended up fine.

The guy also claims that one of the dead people was the dealer. They call up Garcia to ask if there are records of slow-acting MDMA that kills people, and she turns up 'Doctor Death', or PMMA, a drug that's half meth, half MDMA. Apparently, people frequently overdose one it because it takes too long to kick in.

Strauss checks with the DEA, and they say that this is the first time PMMA has been seen in America. The team then talks about how it's lucky that Hotch's brother was involved, because if he hadn't alerted Hotch, they might never have noticed the connection.

Maya unlocks the door to the integration room where Hotch's brother, Sean, who will soon be questioned more. "You enjoy doing this? interrogating good looking innocent guys" Sean asks as he takes a seat on the other side of the metal table that's placed in the middle of the room.