𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐎𝐖 ━━ 𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐤 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐚𝐧

『19』

"Katie? Katie Cole." I smiled when I saw the friendly face at my door.

"They told me I'd find you here." She walked into my apartment.

"Who told you? I'll kill 'em." I used the couch as a support to get up and went over to her. "It is so damn nice to see you again." I carefully hugged her.

"I heard you got shot. Twice." She pulled away from me but kept her arms around me.

"One in the leg, and the other in the abdomen." I lifted up my shirt to show her the stitches on my stomach.

"Battle wounds. You know how much I respect that." She patted my shoulder. "Alright, we've got a case, so we gotta get going to the BAU." She grabbed my badge and guns for me.

"How'd you know it's my first day back?" I furrowed my brows before taking my things from her.

"Lucky guess." She shrugged her shoulders. "Here's some coffee." She poured some from the coffee pot into one of my many thermoses.

"That's okay. My, uh, friend always brings me a cup." I watched my words carefully.

"Boyfriend?" She looked back at me.

"No, no. Just a friend." I clarified as we headed out. To tell you the truth, today wasn't technically my first day back. I had about two weeks left on medical leave, but I was bored out of my mind at my place. Derek always came over to check up on me, but that's about it.

"I always wanted to meet her." I overheard Derek's voice as we walked into the conference room. Everyone's back was turned to us since they were facing the monitor.

"Really? I heard she's a bitch." Katie joked as the two of us walked in. Well, she walked in, I stumbled in.

"Nobody ever called you that, Katie." Gideon didn't even need to turn around to know it was her.

"Everything alright?" Derek quickly got out of his chair when he saw me.

"Yeah, yeah, I was just bored, and Katie dragged me out of the apartment. By the way, thank you." I smiled at her. Derek pulled out his chair and me sit down.

"What are you doing back so early?" Aaron turned to me.

"It's my first day back. Did you already forget about me or something?" I crossed my arms over my chest.

"The first time I ever saw him, he appeared in a series of photos. I named him Peter." Katie stared at the screen that had an auction countdown...for a little boy. "Now he's being auctioned off when that clock runs to zero." She went up to Aaron and Gideon at the front of the room.

"Auctioned." JJ shook her head in disbelief.

"His face isn't pixelated." Gideon pointed out.

"'Cause the UnSub's confident that we're not going to be able to identify him in time." Aaron justified.

"What about the site itself? Can't we just track its origin?" JJ furrowed her brows.

"It's routed through a proxy server in Belarus. Even if that government was friendly, Peter'd be gone before we finished the paperwork." Katie glanced back at her.

"We don't need to worry about the paperwork. We have Garcia." JJ got up.

"Better get on that, will you?" Gideon instructed her.

"Yes, sir." She headed towards the door. "Good to have you back." She squeezed my shoulder on the way out.

"So, what happened a year ago, Katie?" Aaron asked her to elaborate.