Hotch's POV:
I get to the BAU and head to my office and schedule the meeting for Danika. I fill out some paperwork for a few minutes and smile to myself that Danika actually made me jump a bit yesterday morning.
"Hotch, we have a case." JJ announces and I get up from my desk and head to the jet with the rest of the team.
"A pilot Chuck Lambert, crashed in a plane along with his cockpit partner in Nazareth. There's no sign of foul play towards the plane and Homeland security is busy with the investigation of TransNational flight 2485 crash." JJ explains on the jet.
"The one that was on the news yesterday?" Morgan asks and she nods.
"Have you heard anything from Danika?" I ask Morgan.
"No, why?" He asks.
"She hasn't picked up her phone since she left to meet up with her friend." I say nonchalant, not wanting to come off as too worried, but we all know when Danika doesn't answer it usually means something's wrong.
"I'll have Garcia trace it." Morgan offers and I nod.
We get to the crash sight and from what we can tell it was crashed on purpose. We talk with a few of his workers and friends to see if there was any history of depression or suicidal thoughts. We don't find any, and the weirder thing is, he was on the flight that crashed yesterday.
"What if the crashes are related?" Reid questions.
"It's possible, but it's more likely he was put back in the plane too soon and had a panicked attack." Rossi states.
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"Guys, I found something really weird. Both planes crashed exactly 40 minutes in. I went back ten years for plane crashes and found that all of them crashed 40 minutes in." Garcia tells us over the phone.
"How is that possible?" Rossi questions.
"Did anyone survive?" I ask.
"Not until yesterday. There were seven survivors yesterday. And the pilot Chuck was one of them." Garcia says and we all look at one another confused.
Danika's POV:
We figure out the demon is going after survivors of the flight. Meaning it's going after me as well. We get to the airport to try and contact the flight attendant, Amanda Walker, who was on the flight.
Unfortunately she's doesn't take the bait and we have no choice but to go on the flight to try and stop a demon from crashing the plane. Dean is losing his mind and Sam is looking at me confused.
"How are you so calm?" Sam asks.
"Let's just say I have a feeling luck's on my side." I mutter.
"Why would you say that?" He asks.
"Because I've been shot, stabbed, hit by a car, and blown up more times than I can count. I don't think another plane crash is going to take me down." I scoff.
"Plus, I'm putting all my faith in the fact that you know what you're doing." I add and he gives me a small smile.
"You do know what you're doing, right?" I ask and he nods, but doesn't look certain.
"Great." I mutter.
We find the possessed person and explain to the flight attendant what's going on. Once we convince her that this is really happening she agrees to help us out. We get the man towards the bathroom area with her help and ambush him.
Sam starts the exorcism while Dean and I hold the guy down. The lights flicker and the plane takes on a lot of turbulence as the demon tries to fight it. The alarms are going off and I can hear people panicking. I hold the guy down more as he thrashes around, trying get free.
The demon says something about a girl named Jessica and Sam stops for a moment.
"Sam!" I shout and he snaps out of it and starts shouting more.
The demon tries to talk it's way out of it and looks at me.
"You really think you can stop me?! You think you're stronger than me? You think you can escape me? Escape death?! I'll break every bone in this man's body! And then I'll come for you!" He scoffs.
"You really think I care?" I scoff and it almost looks confused but it's enough time to distract him and get it out of the man.
Hotch's POV:
We get word that another flight that had the same attendant as the one that crashed, is having trouble and all we can do is wait. Homeland security looked into the first crash and found that the security door of the plane was somehow opened from the inside causing the crash. Reid pointed out that that was impossible because the amount of pressure that would have been on it.
We heard that there were three people who were impersonating Homeland security agents. When they figured it out, the three of them were already in the wind. All we know is that it was two males and a female. And it doesn't appear that they took anything either.
After a few minutes of waiting we get word that the flight was stabilized and everyone on board is safe and the plane lands. I let out a sigh of relief and Morgan walks overs
"So, what are we gonna do about the case?" He asks.
"Homeland security is claiming mechanical malfunction. They don't want the wife to loose the social security." I explain and he nods.
————
I cross my arms when I see Danika in the bullpen the next day. I walk over and startle her while she's on the computer.
"Fucking sneak up my ass why don't you?" She playfully scoffs at me.
"I thought I told you that you were on leave." I state.
"Calm down, I was just getting something." She mutters.
"I set up the appointment for next week." I say and she nods her head.
I already know she's going to tell the shrink what they want to hear. It's exactly what I would do. No cop likes having their brains picked apart.
"Well, as long as you're here you might as well look over a few files. They're in my office." I say, knowing she needs something to do.
"I'll be there in a minute." She says and I nod and walk away.
A few minutes later she walks into my office as I'm sitting by my desk. I already have the files ready for her and a seat.
"What is this?" She asks.
"Have a seat after you close the door." I say and she goes over and closes the doors
"Hotch, if this is about-." She starts saying, but I put up my hand stopping her, not wanting to know what her next sentence is going to be.
"It's not about anything you did." I assure her and she seems to relax a bit and sits down.
"I want to talk go you about Gideon." I say carefully and she stiffens up a bit.
"I know he saw you like a daughter, I could tell he cared about you a lot. He had a soft side when it came to you." I admit and she just listens.
"I know that I'm not him, and aren't as patient with you as he was. But I see you as a vital member of this team. Which makes it hard when you disobey orders and get yourself into dangerous hostage situations."
"I thought you said this wasn't about something I did." She counters.
"It's not. What I'm trying to say is, it's important to me that you're safe. It's important to me that you have someone you can talk to. Like I said, I know I'm not Gideon, but I am here if you ever need to talk." I assure her and she nods.
"That it?" She asks and I nod.
"That's it." I say and she seems to pause.
"I killed someone in Florida." She confesses and I furrow my brows at the change of topic.
"It was when I was supposed to be on vacation and right before Derek called me." She continues.
"It didn't make the news, just thought you should know." She says.
"Why did you kill them?" I question, trying my best to stay calm.
"They were supposed to protect some kids and instead...left them home alone with a loaded gun after telling the older one that they would be safer dead than in foster care." She confesses and I take it in.
"I remember that case. Everyone thought it was an accidental shooting done by the kid. The aunt had the gun for protection and she said the older one figured out the code." I say, remembering how I never thought it was that simple.
"No, she told him do it and then left for the store."
"So you killed her even after you promised you were done with that?" I ask.
"She got away with killing two kids! I couldn't just sit back and let her claim all the victimhood and cushy new life!" She says passionately.
"Danika, you are an officer of the law. You can no longer take it into your own hands just because someone slipped through the cracks." I scold.
"I knew this was a mistake." She huffs and gets up.
"Wait." I sigh, calming back down and she stops.
"I'm not going to do anything about it. Trust me, I understand why you did it. It's the same reason I became an FBI agent. When I was lawyer I would get the cases on my desk and it felt like it was already too late. I wanted to stop it before they got to my desk." I start explaining and she seems to be listening.
"And yeah, there have been times when a killer has escaped and all I wanted to do was hunt them down and make sure they couldn't do it again. But then I would remember that I don't have that right, just as they don't have the right to kill. So instead, I would make detailed profiles of them, so if they struck again I could tie them to both crimes." I say and hand her a file.
"What is this?" She asks.
"A man killed his girlfriend but wasn't charged because his mother alibied him. I know he's the one who did it and I know he'll do it again. Help me create a profile so we know what to look for." I offer and she scoffs.
"What? So we just wait for him to kill someone else?" She asks.
"I didn't think you cared all that much about the victims. I thought you were in it for the hunt." I counter and she narrows her eyes, knowing I'm mostly right.
She sits back down and opens the case file. She sifts through it and writes down some notes. She goes on her computer and looks some stuff up while I work on my paper work.
I know this is what she needs, a distraction, something to do. Prey to research, a puzzle to solve.
"What do you see?" I ask after a half hour.
"He's killed more." She says with certainty and I furrow my brows.
"How do you know?" I question.
"The crime, at the beginning it looks like a crime of passion, spur of the moment. But I looked at his social media and the days before the murder. He went to the gym every day the week before the murder. Three months after that, he went to the gym every day, the following week a woman was found dumped in an alleyway beaten to death. 6 months after that, same thing, another murder victim was found, a prostitute, beaten to death." She explains and I look at her findings.
"The day after the murders he goes out and boxes other guys for cash." She adds and I see the pattern.
"The mother can't cover for him on the first one because she was in the hospital, from a fall down the stairs." I state and look at Danika.
"Good work. I'll let them know the pattern, see if they can make anything stick."
"They need to hurry. His next victim is a week away according to the acceleration rate." She says and I nod my head.
"You up for a drink?" I ask and she narrows her eyes.
"What are you doing?" She asks.
"Celebrating finding a serial killer in less than an hour." I shrug and she thinks about it.
"Yeah, sure I could use a drink." She agrees and I get my jacket and we head out.
We head to a restaurant and order some food and a drink.
"I know what you're doing." She says and I quirk a brow.
"What's that?" I ask.
"Distracting me, getting me to let down my guard so I'll open up." She says deadpan.
"I thought I was having dinner and a drink as a celebration." I counter.
"Do you really think I'm that stupid? Come on Hotch." She scoffs and I sigh.
"Actually I just didn't want to cook tonight." I state and she chuckles.
"But seriously, that was really good work." I compliment.
"Yeah, I know. Getting you to ask me to dinner worked like a charm. Especially since you let me pick the place, which just so happens to be the same place the unsub works at." She says and I furrow my brows and look over and see the face of the man.
"Played you like a violin." She mutters and I just shake my head, a bit ticked off she actually was able to trick me like that.
After dinner we go to question the guy and he ends up running. Danika tackles him to the ground and they start fighting. I get my gun out and point, but before I can even shout at him to stop, Danika has him back on his stomach and is getting the cuffs on his wrists.
"I was really hoping he was gonna put up more of a fight-were you going to shoot him? Come on Hotch, you know you can't take the law into your own hands like that." She mocks and marches him to the car.