We head out to an elementary school and I watch as the teacher starts walking towards Kevin. I jump out of the car and slam the old guy against the brick wall and put him in cuffs.
"Agent! Take it easy!" Cole tries to tell me what to do, big mistake.
"We just want to ask him a few questions." She continues after I ignore her.
"Here's a question. What's a principal of a school doing hooking up with a 14 year old boy?" Hotch asks, not giving me the signal to let up.
"Danika." Hotch says and I let go of the Principal after he finally gives in a bit.
The others go inside the school with the principal while Hotch and I get ready to head off with Kevin, to bring him to the social service office. Before he leave Elle comes over with Reid and Hotch scolds her since she's supposed to be taking it easy. Instead of sending them away he tells them to search the guys office.
"Go with them." Hotch orders and I furrow my brows.
"I thought you wanted-." I start saying.
"They need help looking." He states and I sigh and head inside the school.
I arrive just as Derek is starting to get up in the principal's face. Gideon calls him off and tells him to go to the office to help Elle and Reid look for evidence.
"I thought you went with Hotch." Gideon tells me.
"Guess he thought you needed my help more." I shrug.
"Like beat people up? No thanks." Cole scoffs.
"That's not all I do." I sneer.
"Right, how could I forget? You threaten children with bodily harm as well." She scoffs and the principal looks at me appalled.
"Oh, come on, he was never in any real danger." I groan.
"You had a knife to his chest!" She says.
"Details." I mumble and walk past her.
The principal starts talking about how he wanted to save both kids. And that's why he sent Kevin the link of the boy.
"Can I use this one as target practice?" I ask Gideon.
"Not yet." Gideon puts his hand up and Cole's eyes go wide at his repose.
"Go check how the others are doing." He orders.
"They still haven't found anything?" I ask and he shakes his head.
"Everyone out." I order the three.
"What are you doing?" Derek asks confused.
"Do as she says." Gideon says and Derek seems to get the idea and they leave.
I go over to the desk and sit in the chair and close my eyes. I start trying to think like the principal and put my hands on the desk by the locked computer. They need a password and need to have the right one. If the wrong thing is entered the hard drive could be wiped.
"What is she doing?" I hear Cole ask.
"I need silence." I growl.
"Just let her do her thing." Gideon shrugs.
I start thinking like he would and open my eyes with a smirk. I go to the computer and type in 'SAVETHEM' into the password and it allows me entry.
"Sorry, I didn't hear what you said." I say with a smirk as I walk out of the room.
"How the hell did you do that?" She asks.
"Think like they do." I shrug as if it's that simple.
"Well, yeah, but you couldn't have possibly known-." She starts saying.
"I couldn't have possibly been stabbed with a sword and then blown up and survive, yet here I am." I chuckle and Gideon smirks and they head inside the office.
I get my phone out and call Hotch, just wanting to get a suspicion of mine out.
"Everything okay?" Hotch asks as he answers the phone.
"Yeah, we got into his laptop." I answer.
"Good work." Hotch praises me.
"Listen, I don't think this is the guy." I admit as I lean against the wall.
"What are you talking about?" He asks.
"It doesn't fit. The kid he wanted to meet up with is 14. Pedophiles don't have such a big age gap between victims." I explain and Hotch sighs knowing I'm right.
"Danika, your services are required." I hear someone from the office announce.
"Gotta go." I mutter and hang up.
"What?" I ask as I walk into the office.
"We need a code from him. He's not talking." Gideon says and Cole rolls her eyes.
"You know, this ain't all I'm good for you know." I scoff as I roll up my sleeves.
The principal flinches when I move towards him. But he's surprised when I take his laptop and don't hit him. I close my eyes and think of what a pedophile would use as a code. I think about their conversations and come up with the word.
"Butterfly." I say and he looks surprised.
"Is that it?" Cole asks and he gulps and nods his head.
Images burst into my mind, starting to make me feel dizzy. I head out of the room and lean up against the wall trying to get the images to stop flashing in my mind. I shake my head and they start to subside and I'm back in my own mind.
"We have a problem!" Gideon shouts.
"What?" I ask and he points to the screen with the error sign on it.
The website has been shut down. I look at my phone and see the news. I shake my head and show Gideon and he slams his fists on the table.
"Move." I say and sit down at the computer.
"What are you going to do?" Cole asks.
"What I do best." I say and start concentrating.
I log out of the site and look through the photos stored on his computer. There's a few screen shots of the boy and I see he's wearing a Boy Scout shirt.
I look it over and go to the next one and start seeing flashes of names. Mount Pleasant.
I get my phone out and call Garcia.
"Hey, does Mount Pleasant mean anything to you?" I ask.
"Yeah, I was just going to call you, I think I know where the boy is being held." Garcia says and gives us the school and church in the area.
I head to the school with Hotch and Gideon and I can't help but shake my head at how slow the secretary is moving. Her talking is even irritatingly slow.
"This is everyone who registered for the second grade." She says as she moves over towards us like a dead turtle.
"What about the kids that didn't register?" Gideon asks clearly annoyed with her slowness as well.
"Lady, we don't have a lot of time." I state and she finally picks up the pace.
"Charlie Sparks." She explains that he transferred and I get a flash in my head.
"That's him." I say.
"You sure?" Gideon asks and I nod.
When she says she wouldn't be able to describe the father we head out. We try to figure out where he lives but can't find any Sparks in phone directories.
"We just ran out of time." Derek says and I punch the side of the SUV, creating a sizable dent.
"Son of a bitch." I growl and I feel a hand on me.
I expect it to be Hotch but it's Cole. An image flashes in my mind and I rush over to my bike.
"What is it?" Hotch asks as I start my bike.
"I know who it is." I say as I get my helmet on.
"What? Where?" Hotch asks but I ignore him.
"Sorry, Hotch. This son of a bitch is mine." I shout and drive off.
————
I watch as the unsub's car drives down the road. I speed up and drive into him head on. I roll of the windshield as the van comes to a sudden halt and he gets out of the car to see what he just hit.
"Michael Earlson?" I ask and he furrows his brows as I get up off the ground.
"Yeah." He answers looking worried and confused.
"Perfect." I scoff and take my gun out and point it at him.
"Who are you?" He asks clearly frightened.
"The last person you ever want to piss off." I huff as I catch my breath.
"Put the gun down!" Cole shouts and I get ready to pull the trigger.
"Leave." I growl not even looking in her direction.
"Danika, now!" Hotch orders and I clench my jaw.
"Don't make me say it again." He growls in a tone that tells me I'm in deep shit and I put the gun away.
"Cuff him." Hotch orders and I grab the unsub and slam him on the dented hood of the car.
"How the hell did you know?" Cole asks once he's taken away.
"Read the files you had on the case. Remembered his name and address." I lie as I catch my breath and she furrows her brows.
"Go get the kid out of the cooler." I say and she runs to the back of the van.
I put my hands on my knees finally getting my breath back from the wind being knocked out of me. Driving into a van definitely isn't good for anyone's health, even if you see it coming it takes the breath out of you.
We get my bike taken to an auto shop and I ride back to the BAU with Hotch. It's quiet for the first few minutes and I'm surprised Hotch hasn't already started his speech on how I put myself in danger way too often. And blah blah, blah blah.
"You didn't have to let him hit you on your bike." Hotch scoffs breaking the silence.
"Well, needed something to get him in the system if he didn't have the kid with him." I shrug and Hotch just shakes his head.
We get to the BAU and get the Unsub in an interrogation room. I look through the window at him with Hotch standing next to me.
"So much for staying safe." Derek scoffs as he comes into the room.
"What can I say. He came out of nowhere." I shrug and Derek chuckles.
"Yeah, okay." Derek scoffs.
"Peter's real name is Dustin Powers. Abducted him in New Jersey when he was one." Cole explains after she leaves the interrogation room.
"How are you standing right now?" She asks me.
"We stopped asking questions like that a while ago." Derek scoffs and I smirk and look back at the room.
The unsub has a dumb smirk on his face as if he can't be convicted.
"Can I wipe that smirk off his face?" I ask Hotch.
"I mean, he did ruin your bike." Hotch mutters and nods to me, knowing I'll get him to rethink his innocence.
"Be back in a minute." I say with a smirk and head inside the interrogation room.
"So, you like little boys?" I ask and he glares at me.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He scoffs.
"Oh, but you will. Trust me on that." I whisper in his ear.
I leave and head to the bathroom and lean over the sink. Images of of people I've killed, and their deaths run through my head. I can feel each and ever death like before and it just keeps getting worse. I try splashing my face with cold water but it doesn't help.
"Danika, what's wrong?" Hotch asks as he walks in the room.
"Headache from the crash." I lie and rub my eyes.
"You should get checked out. Make sure you don't have a concussion." He says and I slightly nod my head.
Pain shoots through my temple and I crumble to the floor. Everything turns black and all I can hear is screams of the dead.
————
I wake up laying in a hospital bed and groan when the lights hit my eyes. They're immediately turned off and the pain somewhat subsides.
"You took a pretty hard fall." Derek says as he walks over.
"Yeah...Damn motorcycle." I mutter.
"The doctor said they don't know what's causing the migraines. The scans showed up clean." Hotch explains and I sigh.
"It'll blow over soon." I mutter knowing that it starts out with this and then it turns to nightmares and if it gets bad enough, both at the same time.
"They said it could be a combination of all the stress from the explosion and being stabbed. That you just need to take some actual time off of work and actually relax." Hotch adds and I want to roll my eyes but it hurts too much.
I know that relaxing won't stop it, but something else will. And for me to do that something else, I need time off.