𝐃𝐄𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 ~ aaron hotchner

chapter thirty four

a/n: This chapter mentions sa so if that is a trigger for you please feel free to skip this chapter (I won't put any big plot elements in for that reason).

**Ellie's pov**

Walking out of the bathroom in a new pair of gray sweatpants, that I had always kept in a file cabinet next to my desk, I sighed and walked back towards the office.

Looking down at the floor while walking almost the entire way there, and I didn't look up until I heard high heeled feet come rushing towards me, "Ellie Ellie! Come look at this!" Penelope exclaimed before reaching forward and wrapping her arm around my wrist and pulli- dragging me back to the office.

"What is so important Garcia?" I questioned her, wanting nothing more than an answer.

But she didn't say or do anything except for pointing at her main monitor.

Sitting on the screen was the background checks of the victims' husbands... all with the same crime linking each and every single one of them.

Sex crimes against young women... in one case a fourteen year old girl.

"They all have accusations against them Ellie... what if they got killed because of that?" Penelope muttered while sitting back down in her chair.

Nodding my head in agreement I ran a hand through my hair, "I agree... well they should have gotten to Grand Rapids so you should call and tell them. I'll work on unsealing those allegations reports?" I suggested.

With her hand reaching over towards the phone I started to quickly walk back to my computer to start the process of unsealing the original reports.

The entire time I was typing away on the computer I couldn't stop thinking about the innocent children who were killed just because their father was a sick and twisted man... but also the children that were assaulted by the fathers.

What happened that made them drop the charge or change their stories?

Breaking out of my thoughts I got a ping on my computer, it was an email back from a bank that was a shared commonality amongst all of the male victims.

"Pen! You should come take a look at this!" I exclaimed while just staring at my screen.

When I felt her presence behind me I slightly tilted out of the way so that she could read the email without me in the way. It took her a few seconds before she finally said something, "Oh. My. God. What the hell were these men involved in?" she muttered.

Shrugging my shoulders and slowly becoming more and more weary on how I was wanting to believe that there was no reason for these men to die the way that they did, "I have no clue, and to be honest I really don't think that I want to." I thought to myself.

Penelope reached over towards my landline and started to call the team again.

After a few rings it connected again, "What? Did one of you forget something?" Derek's teasing voice echoed out from the speaker.

Scoffing with a slight eye roll I glanced towards Penelope, "Absolutely not... we just finally linked the victims. It's not a good thing either." I announced.

"Well let's hear it," David requested while there was movement on the other side of the call. After a few seconds I cleared my throat, "Okay so me and Penelope were trying to find out some plausible way that all of these victims were attacked. Nothing was out of the ordinary until Penelope unsealed their records and they all had sexual assault allegations against them from underage girls." I quickly rambled off.

Penelope took over and looked closer to my screens, "A few seconds later after I found that revolting connection, Ellie here seemed to connect them even further." starting to mess with an alien shaped stress ball she continued explaining. "They all are connected to a offshore bank account owned by a company named 'Life and Death Brigade'. It has been open for around twenty years and it is always the fathers that are depositing and withdrawing money." her voice ended with an abrupt end.

The first person of the team to say something was Emily, "It's safe to assume that these fathers were in some sort of cult thing since they were young and decided to prey on innocent minors, and then one of the people connected to one of their victims decided to retaliate?" She voiced her thought process.

As the team was throwing back and forth opinions or ideas on what they were thinking about the newly given information, Penelope and I were sitting there.

Sitting in our little combined office, listening to the closest people in our lives talk about how the case is developing. Something that was completely normal to us... but disgusting and creepy to the rest of the world.

a/n: i have been struggling with literally the worst writers block recently and so in result, this chapter is a little bit shorter than usual.

i hope you enjoyed it <3

bYe!!!