A/N: This chapter is based on 8x08 The Wheels on the Bus with mentions of 8x07 The Fallen
TRIGGER WARNINGS: KIDNAPPING, HUMAN TRAFFICKING MENTIONED (CHILDREN)
Whole chapter is a trigger warning again, so please read with caution!
Time skips are used in this chapter :)
"The destruction of the world didn't happen overnight, and neither will saving it,"
― Tahereh Mafi
Crystal was busy wrapping up Christmas presents, she was doing it her and Hotch's walk in closet so Jack wouldn't catch her wrapping them. Santa was still something he believed in, and Crystal would actually break inside if she was the reason he found out the truth. The door opened to the closet and Hotch stared at her, "What're you doing?"
"Being Santa." Crystal answered and he chuckled, "Y'know, one day he's going to know the truth. That Santa isn't real, and that mommy's and daddy's are the actual ones who wrap presents for their children." Crystal gave him a look, "And when he does, it's not going to be because of me. Now, are you here to help or not?" Hotch closed the door behind him and crouched down to help her wrap up the presents. She had already wrapped up Hotch's since she had a feeling he'd try and sneak a peek at it, it wasn't anything big though. Crystal had gotten him a watch with an engraving on the back, there was a Hypericum on the back. It was said to be a flower that was gathered and burned in the past as a form of protection from evil spirits.
Crystal liked to think that maybe the engraving would be protection on Hotch from any harm out there, maybe not evil sprits, but against other bad things. She wanted their family to always be safe and happy. Christmas rolled around and Crystal smiled at Jack gasped at all his presents, he looked truly happy. Hotch liked his present as well, he pressed a passionate kiss against her lips and smiled. "I love it, thank you." Hotch had gotten her a mug with a picture of the team, Jack, and Henry on it from the softball game. It had family written on the other side with another picture of the team when Emily was there, she really liked it.
Jack was busy playing with his new presents and Crystal watched fondly with Hotch next to her, mugs of hot chocolate in their hands. "Merry Christmas, Crystal." Hotch mumbled against her head and she snuggled into his embrace, "Merry Christmas, Aaron."
___
New Years had just passed and the start of the year should've started strong, should've being the key word. Crystal was at her desk working on a file when Hotch marched over to her, she looked up at him. "What-"
"I'm sorry, I forgot." Hotch told her and she frowned, "Huh?" Hotch sighed and rubbed his face, "Our wedding anniversary, our first wedding anniversary. It's coming up, and I completely forgot." Crystal blinked at this before realizing he was right, "Oh...yeah, it is." Hotch walked around her desk towards her seat, he crouched down and held her hands in his. "Sorry, I'm being a bad husband."
"Aaron, you're not being a bad husband. It's just an anniversary, besides it's almost like we're working our day jobs to save lives out there." Crystal told him gently, she squeezed his hands. "Anyways, I forgot too. That's okay, we don't have to do anything." Hotch sighed at this and stared at her ring, "I'm still going to make it up to you, I wanna do something nice for you." Crystal smiled at this and raised his hands to her mouth, she kissed both of them before letting go. "And that makes you a wonderful husband." He smiled at this before standing up, he walked back to his office. Crystal made sure he was back inside before rolling over to Reid, "Oh my God, I forgot my anniversary."
Reid shrugged as he continued working on his file, "To be fair, you guys always acted like you were married so it'd be hard to remember your actual anniversary." Crystal smiled at this before nudging him, "Seriously, Doc. What do I do now?" Reid looked up at her, "Why're you asking me?" Crystal leaned back in her chair, "Because you're observant, what does Hotch want?"
"A kid."
"I will throw everything on my desk at you."
Reid smiled at this and put his pen down, "I think that whatever you give Hotch would make his day, you could give him anything and he'd treasure it." Crystal smiled and looked up at his office fondly, "I know, which is why I don't want to give him just anything. I want to do something special for him." Reid picked up his calendar, "Well you've got until this weekend, that should be enough time to find something. You know Hotch better then any of us, maybe you could get him something that means special to the both of you." Crystal rolled over to him and hugged him, "And this is why I come to talk to you about things."
Crystal was going to roll back when Reid stopped her, he looked around before clearing his throat with a smile. "Actually, I uh...I'm sorta seeing someone too." He had whispered it and Crystal almost missed it, "Really?" Reid nodded happily and she smiled widely, "Reid, that's wonderful."
"You can't tell anyone."
"Do I look like Garcia?"
"No one knows, you're the first." Reid told her and she leaned on her hand, "Do I know this lucky lady?" Reid shook his head, "It's the specialist I called about my headaches, we sorta started talking and it went from there. I've never met her though, she has reasons to not see anyone at the moment so we've just been calling. I don't even know what she looks like." Crystal hummed at this, "Well, when you do meet I think that's going to be magical. I'm happy for you Doc, you seem happy." They continued to talk about it and Crystal smiled how happily Reid told her about him and Maeve, that was her name and he said it so fondly.
Reid didn't tell her about Maeve's reason for not being able to see anyone, and Crystal didn't push for an answer because it wasn't her business. She went back to working on her files and sighed, she really needed to think of a good present for Hotch.
He deserves it after all.
___
TRIGGER WARNING
Crystal rushed into the BAU office with Hotch not far behind, "I'll go get everyone grouped." Crystal told him and he gave a nod, "And I'll see which units are missing." He kissed her before leaving and Crystal went to grabbed the team and the officers who were here, an abduction of 24 students, their teacher, and the bus driver. It was all over the news, it happened at 1 PM that afternoon and Crystal had just been out to a late lunch with Hotch when they got the phone call. Everyone was on this case, the last known GPS ping was over two hours ago and the GPS was disabled after that.
Highway patrol was going on the route the bus was supposed to, but had no luck on finding any signs of an accident or the captives. Helicopters were on the search as well as ground units, search and rescue was their top priority. It had to be the work of more than one unsub, a team most likely. The team got together to fill in the officers on what they had so far, "We've attempted to contact everyone on board, but so far all calls have gone unanswered." Reid told them and JJ gave a nod, "But we can confirm that the students dropped off at the first two stops have been accounted for."
"The average school bus holds approximately 80 gallons of diesel fuel, making it possible for them to travel up to 550 miles on a single tank."
"Which is why we believe they're still in a 200 mile radius." JJ told them and the officers nodded, Crystal checked her watch. "Our unsub's have a two hour head start over us, this could be a kidnapping or an act of terrorist act to a child trafficking ring. Either way, we're treating this as a mass abduction. If you find any signs that could lead us to the holding sites of the kids, call it in." The officers left after that and Crystal sighed, they would be heading to Central High as their command center since that's the high school the victims attended. This was going to be a long case.
___
Crystal sat in an SUV with Hotch, JJ, Reid, and Garcia. Garcia was on the phone and she hung up, "Local P.D. says they just found a backpack full of the kids' cell phones half a mile from the second bus stop." JJ shook her head, "Disarming the GPS, disposing of cell phones feels less random and more premeditated." Reid leaned forward from where he was in the back, "There were 7 other buses from different schools on their route, why target this bus in particular?"
"Maybe there's specific kids targeted?" Crystal offered and JJ nodded, "Maybe a group of kids got together to pull this off? Waited for their friends to get off at an earlier stop, then made their move." Garcia was on her tablet, "I'm checking school disciplinary records seeing if I can find any recent suspensions." JJ's phone rang and she answered, "Alex, you're on speaker."
"Uh, I've been looking over the personnel files for the bus driver Roy Webster. Something isn't adding up."
Hotch frowned at this, "What isn't?" Blake sighed on the other line, "Over the past 3 years, Webster had several altercations with students but was never formally reprimanded." Rossi's voice came from the speaker, "Sounds like the school hasn't told us the whole story." Morgan sighed on the line, "We know how disrespectful some teenagers can be, maybe he snapped." Crystal shrugged, "Could be payback, getting back at the kids who wronged him."
"What about the woman that was on the bus?" Reid asked and Kevin's voice came through, "That would be Carol Roberts, retired teacher, assigned to monitor Webster's bus 6 months ago." Rossi let out a confused noise, "What's that about?"
"I took a bus throughout high school, we never had a monitor." Kevin told them and Morgan hummed, "Makes you think who she was there to keep an eye on. The kids, or Webster?" Hotch glanced at the phone, "Either way, they're missing as well unless we get solid evidence that either one of them or both of them are involved. Keep us posted if you find anything else." JJ hung up and Crystal leaned back in her seat, the unsubs had a big head start against them. Time wasn't on their side, and they needed as much time as they could get to save all those kids.
What's so special about that specific bus?
___
They made it to the high school, Crystal was interviewing the parents of the kids on the bus with JJ and Morgan. Crystal held a grandmother's hand as she asked the questions, "Did Seth ever have any trouble with Mr. Webster? The bus driver? Any of the other kids?" The grandmother shook her head, "No, Seth's a good kid. He's always home on time, turns in his work, he's a really good kid. Please bring him home, please." Crystal comforted her the best she could before continuing the interviews, this was getting sadder by the minute.
Some parents talked about how Mr. Webster having anger issues, the altercations even due sometimes because of him. Crystal walked with him to go see the principal, she knew it was because she had a background in the education system. "Agent Archer, you've been in a classroom before. You understand that sometimes, things get stressful." The principal told her and Hotch as they walked down the hall, Crystal hummed at this. "That's true, but I've never been stressed enough to where I had altercations with my students." Hotch gave a nod, "Why is it that he was never reprimanded for the altercations?"
The principal sighed, "Mr. Webster's been with the school for almost 15 years, he agreed to complete a mandated class. In exchange, the incidents wouldn't go on his record." Hotch frowned at this, "Were the parents made aware about the school's disciplinary actions?"
"Or rather, lack of?" Crystal explained and the principal sighed, she stopped walking to look at them. "Look, being a bus driver can be stressful. You're responsible for getting these kids to and from school, you add some unruly teens and someone's bound to bump heads. Mr. Webster's a good man, that doesn't change just because he has a temper." Crystal glanced at Hotch, he didn't look convinced. "So Carol Roberts was assigned to monitor the bus?"
"Yes, just to make sure everything would go smoothly from now on." The principal answered and footsteps were heard walking over to them, it was an officer. "Agent Hotchners? We found a body."
And that's never good.
___
The body of Roy Webster had been found, Hotch and Crystal went with the detective on the case over to the crime scene. Rossi was already there, "He suffered two bullet wounds, the first was a clean shot to his left leg and the second in his chest." The detective frowned, "Why not go for the kill first?" Hotch looked over at him, "Probably still needed him to drive." Crystal gave a nod in agreement, "He was still useful to them, and then he wasn't anymore."
Rossi looked down at the covered up body, "If they dumped Webster this quickly, I'm sure Carol Roberts isn't far behind." The detective put his hands in his pocket, "There's no way someone did this alone." Hotch looked around the area, "One unsub most likely controlled the adults while the other controlled the kids."
"But why get rid of them before they reached their destination?"
Hotch's phone rang and he answered, "You're on speaker, Garcia."
"Hey, I reran the last GPS signal of the bus through a proxy server, retraced the route, and it turns out that the signal was never disabled. It was just masked, and yes I did just send you the coordinates on your phones."
Crystal checked her phone, "This is less than a mile away."
"Thanks Garcia." Hotch hung up, "Let's head out."
___
The SUV pulled up with the SWAT and Crystal walked over to the barn with JJ once the doors to a wooden barn was opened, she climbed on the bus with Morgan. "Bus is clear!" Morgan nodded and JJ called out to them, "Hey, there's blood here." Crystal put her gun away, "Probably the bus drivers, the kids aren't here."
Barking caught their attention and they quickly exited the bus, the barn was empty and there were no more clues left for them. Reid and Blake walked over to them with a group of kids, "There's only 14, the other 10 are still missing." Morgan gave a nod, "We'll look around." The team searched the rest of the property, but they came up empty. The owner of the barn died a few months back and the place was now abandoned, so there was no way to trace their unsubs to this place.
The teenagers they did find were checked up on from the EMT's, Hotch walked over to her. "The kids will probably be in shock, but questioning them right now is key to our investigation if we want to get close to our unsub's head start." Crystal sighed at this and shook her head, "That'll only make them more unwilling to talk, they don't want to remember. We should take them back to the school where their parents are, that could make it better."
"It could cause some hysteria for some of the parents when they don't see their kids," Hotch reasoned before moving a strand of her hair from her face, "Blake's going to try and do some cognitive interviews, I want you to help her out." Crystal nodded at him with a smile and he smiled back, they walked over to Rossi who was near one of the ambulances. "Why only take some of the kids?" Hotch crossed his arms, "Smaller numbers, easier to control them and send a message."
"If you act up, you get left to die." Crystal stated and Rossi sighed at this, "Well if they were child traffickers, they wouldn't have left any of them behind regardless of the risk." Hotch looked over at the teenagers being treated, "Whatever the reason, they only needed 10." Rossi gave a nod, "At least it's not trafficking, that's good news."
Bad news is, we don't know why they only needed 10.
Crystal went to interview the teens they had found like Hotch asked, the sooner they did the interviews then the clearer their memories were. Crystal thanked the last teen before leaving them at the ambulance, that was the 7th person she interviewed and they all had similar stories. The bus stopped because of a car in the middle of the road that looked to have car troubles. When the doors opened, one guy boarded and shot the bus driver while the other came on and walked down the aisle. Their theory was right, they were looking at a team.
The two guys had on gas masks, they both had guns which kept anyone from trying to fight back. After arriving to the barn, Mrs. Roberts was taken away from them as they were told to line up. Collars were put around their necks, and the unsubs took turns choosing which kid they wanted. This was more confusing to Crystal by the minute, but their first priority now was to get the kids they found back to their parents.
Reid walked over to her as they watched the students run to their parents, "We only found 14." Crystal sighed at this, "I'm really hoping we find the other 10 alive, this case makes no sense. If they only wanted a certain amount of teens, why risk taking a whole bus?"
"Convenience?"
"Or more choices, I don't think the 10 that aren't here were original targets. It's like...the teens said the unsubs were choosing between the kids. Something about those 10 stood out, but what?" Crystal questioned and Reid looked over at her, "Could be a power dynamic, the idea of having power over who could live and who could," Reid glanced around to make sure there were no parents around them, "Die."
Crystal hummed at this and did take note on the distressed parents, she felt horrible for them.
We should take this conversation somewhere else with the team.
"Hey, Reid? Do you know why Hotch was so frantic about forgetting our anniversary?" Crystal asked as they left the cafeteria, it had been in the back of her mind for awhile now. Reid shrugged in response, "I actually don't know, has he forgotten before?" Crystal shook her head, "No, but I can understand why he would. We've been busy and Christmas wasn't too long ago, so it's natural for the both of us to be preoccupied with other things." Reid looked over at her, "I'm sure it's nothing, but if you're worried then just ask him when we get back to the station. He'll tell you anything, he loves you too much."
Crystal let the cheeky reply slide since it was true, and because it was good advice minus the last part.
I'll ask later on, when we're alone.
___
"Dividing them into groups, you think that was to maintain control?" JJ asked as they stared at the board, it had pictures of the still missing kids on there. Crystal sat in a chair and leaned on her hand, "Maybe? But then why not take the other kids too?"
"They could've come back for them."
Blake hummed at her words, "But how do you explain the shock collars? Torture?" Reid looked back at them, "It might've been a way to scare them into submission." JJ sighed and looked back at the board, "Okay, so far we have two white males, early 20's, and wore gas masks of all things. Footsteps were heard and Crystal looked back to see Rossi walking over, "Abducting a bus, a form of transportation, gas masks, shock collars, dividing them into teams. This sounds...a lot like 'Gods of Combat'."
"And what is that?" Crystal asked and Rossi turned to look at all of them, "This is a video game."
Huh?
Rossi left after that and when he came back, he was bringing Morgan with him since Hotch was still busy talking to the other police officers. Crystal sat up in her seat and accepted the mug of tea Morgan gave her, "They're replicating a video game?" Rossi nodded, "In the game, you take over a form of public transportation. Subway, train, bus, anything. That's how you get your players." Blake raised an eyebrow at him, "You've played this game before?"
"I may have played...once or twice before. Anyways, I remember that this game consists of 5 players. Captain, lieutenant, a pair of soldiers, and a pawn." Rossi told them and JJ frowned at his words, "Maybe the unsubs picked them based on their personality type." Morgan went to the board and pointed at two pictures, "Well Sage and Trent are both athletic, so they probably would have considered them lieutenants." Rossi nodded at this, "Wendy would most likely have been considered the pawn."
Crystal sipped her tea, "So they did preselect these kids after all, they had to gain knowledge about them before they could decide on their teams." JJ hummed and leaned back in her seat, "Probably got the details from social media, most teens don't use privacy settings. Anyone can gain access to their accounts and what they post online." Blake crossed her arms and leaned against the table, "They planned their attacks and struck the bus when it was most vulnerable."
Morgan turned back to look at them, "That explains why the unsubs only needed 10 of these kids and left the rest behind." JJ looked back at Rossi, "So how do the shock collars play into this game?" Rossi sighed, "They're used to keep your player from straying from their mission, the objective of the game is to destroy as many of your opponents as possible. The one with the highest body count wins, that's how the game works."
"But this isn't a video game, this is real life." Crystal reminded him and Rossi looked over at her, "Then that means the unsubs plan on using the kids to play out their fantasy, until one unsub has the most teens killed."
This isn't going to end good if we don't hurry.
___
It was dark now and Crystal jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she turned and smiled at Hotch. "Hey." Hotch kissed her forehead, "Hi, you doing okay?" Crystal sighed and leaned against him, "Yeah, if we don't take into account of how the unsubs are toying with the teenagers they kidnapped."
"What a way to lead up to our anniversary." Hotch mumbled against her head and she hummed, there had been no statements given yet. The fear of having a copycat was too high, and they couldn't have that right now without the main unsubs being captured. The gamers who enjoyed a simple video game had turned it into an obsession, and like any obsession it was like an addiction. The unsubs were looking for a way to update their violent tendencies that were most likely always there, and now they were acting on it.
Crystal looked up at Hotch, "Hey, can we talk?" Hotch looked down at her, "About?" Crystal shrugged and stood on her own, "What did you mean when you said you were hoping things would be different this time? You've never forgotten an anniversary before, so I'm not too sure on how this would be different." Hotch sighed at this and moved her hair from her face, "I...when me and Haley were married, I forgot a lot of things. I got caught up in work, chasing criminals, I forgot that I was someone other than an Agent. I was a husband, a father, and I was absent. Anniversaries would have to be made up, last minute gifts had to be chosen, and it was...tiring for her. I don't want it to be like that again, I don't want you to feel like I'm not thinking of you. I always have you in my mind and in my heart, I don't ever want you to think differently."
"Aaron, you do realize that I work this job too right?" Crystal asked and linked their hands together, "I get it, it's a stressful job and sometimes it gets in the way of a lot of things. It's okay, I forgot too and even if I didn't I wouldn't mind. I know it's not because you don't care for me or you don't love me, it's because there are many important things happening in your life and career. I won't blame you for that."
"You're the most important thing in my life with Jack."
"And I love you so much because you do your best for the both of us, and you do that for your career. You're an amazing husband, Aaron. I wouldn't have you any other way." Crystal assured and Hotch's shoulders relaxed, "You're an amazing wife, one who always knows what to say to me when I feel like I'm losing it. I wanna do better though, I want to do better for you." Crystal leaned up and kissed him, it was short and sweet. "I know, and you are. Give yourself some credit, who else would propose to me in the BAU and remember how much I like the meaning of flowers?" Hotch chuckled at this and leaned his head against hers, "I love you, let's solve this case. Together. With each other and the team, we can solve anything."
Always together.
___
Author's Note:
Hey! Happy Valentines Day!!! Here's a chapter so you don't have to be alone (like me lol) for this lover holiday, or enjoy it as another treat if you actually have someone. This chapter is a bit late, but I needed to work a few things out with the plot so it was put on hold. Hope you liked the nice fluff moments and the chapter overall. Updates are still gonna be slow since I've got exams rolling in one after another, but I'm hoping to post more when I get my Spring Break in about a month. Things should be faster now that I've worked out a few plot holes that I was dealing with, but things could pop up with how many ideas I have running through my mind (Let's hope this doesn't happen so I can continue the story quickly).
THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH FOR 500K READS!! IT'S MIND BLOWING TO ME ABOUT HOW FAR THIS BOOK HAS COME AND I APPRECIATE ALL OF YOU SO MUCH AND CAN NEVER THANK YOU ALL ENOUGH. THANK YOU MORE THAN YOU'LL EVER KNOW❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
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