"i'll be needing sitches."
-shawn mendes, "stiches"
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Twelve years later, Annie Paron was walking up to the building where her new job was. She was an FBI agent one for the BAU, a profiler. Annie was good at her job, the reason she was being transferred to Quantico, Virginia for a spot on a team.
Riding up the elevator alone was odd, every other job Annie had the elevators were always at full capacity. Just another thing the strawberry blonde would have to get used to. Smoothing out her blouse, Annie strutted out of the elevator doors. Her black work pants clinging to her slim legs. The white, tight blouse showing off the right amount of curves and the black jacket matched Annie's pants perfectly.
Annie had always been perfect.
"You must be Agent Paron," a tall man that looked to be in his thirties to forties walked up to Annie, his hand held out for her to shake. "I'm the Unit Chief, Aaron Hotchner. Everyone just calls me Hotch."
"Of coarse, nice to meet you, sir," Annie said formally.
Hotch directed her forward, moving to walk next to her. Annie shouldered her black bag and smiled at him. Hotch talked as he walked, "Strauss told me you would coming. I hope this will be up to your expectations." He said as he showed Annie her new desk.
Nodding, Annie set her go-bag down. "It's perfect. Thank you."
"I'll introduce you to the team," Hotch walked up a ramp and to a conference room. There was a circular table in the middle of the room with a screen to the left of it. Putting a hand on Annie's back, Hotch introduced her to the team. "Everyone, this is Agent Annie Paron and she will be a new addition."
An African American man walked up to Annie with a smile on his face, "Nice to meet you, Paron. I'm Derek Morgan."
"Pleasure," Annie shook his hand. A blonde came up next and just smiled, "Jennifer Jeraue, but everyone calls me JJ. I deal with the press."
Shaking her hand as well, Annie nodded. "Annie."
"Emily Prentiss, welcome," the dark haired woman said as she sat down at a seat.
A tall man with brown hair that was somewhat long, nodded with a wave. "Doctor Spencer Reid, but everyone just calls me Reid."
Annie nodded and the last man introduced himself, "If you don't remember me, Paron, I will be very mad."
"Nice to see you again, Rossi," she smirked. They had worked a case together a couple of years ago when Annie was just getting started.
"Let's get started," Hotch instructed and everyone took a seat.
JJ stood and she held a remote in her hand. Files were placed in front of each of them and they watched as a picture of a woman appeared on the screen, "This is Delilah Grennan. She was bludgeoned and raped during the night at her home in Lower Canaan, Ohio."
"Lower where?" Emily asked from next to Annie.
"Small town forty miles outside of Cincinnati," JJ informed them.
"Staging the body face-up with the arms across the chest like that," Reid leaned back in his chair, studying the picture of the bloody woman.
Morgan turned from where he was getting his coffee, "Ritual. Nice hair, by the way."
He flicked a piece in front of Reid's face and Annie smiled a bit. Reid fixed it and cleared his throat, "Thanks."
"Uh, there's more," JJ pressed a button. "Small puncture wounds on her stomach. Note the lack of blood."
"Post-mortem," Annie frowned and leaned on her arm.
Emily leaned on the back of Annie's chair, "Were there any other victims?"
"Kind of," JJ pursed. Everyone looked at her and she used the remote again. "Victimology and signature match a serial killer from the same town ten years ago -- six victims spanning over ten months. He called himself --"
"The Angel Maker," Hotch finished. "I remember this case."
"They caught that guy," Reid said as the photo popped up on screen. Annie nodded with a frown, "And executed him if I remember correctly."
JJ nodded, "That's right. He was put to death by lethal injection a year ago yesterday."
"Yesterday," Prentiss repeated.
Morgan rose his eyebrows and shrugged, "So we're looking for a copycat."
"Honoring the anniversary of his hero's death," Rossi looked to Annie with a shrug.
"It says here they found semen at the crime scene," Reid looked up from the file. "Perhaps locals will get a DNA match when they run it through VICAP?"
"Well that's where it gets weird," JJ told them with a shrug. "They ran it already and got a match, too."
Prentiss looked confused as JJ passed the paper to Rossi. "Well, if they already have a name, why'd they call us?"
Reading the paper, Rossi sighed, "Oh, you've got to be kidding. The match they got back on the DNA is to a Cortland Bryce Ryan, otherwise known as. . . The Angel Maker."
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"The Angel Maker's victims were beaten with the assailant's bare hands," Reid spoke after reading the file. "Delilah Grennan was bludgeoned with a heavy instrument, maybe a hammer."
Annie was sitting in the window seat, with Reid next to her. JJ was leaning between the two seats and listening to the conversation. Morgan spoke up, "Ok, so this unsub's a weaker guy, or at least someone who perceives himself that way."
Morgan and Prentiss were siting across from Reid and Annie, both looking at files as well. Prentiss folded her hands, "So he brought along the hammer to make certain his victim wouldn't fight back?"
"They have parachutes on-board, right?" Rossi asked from next to Hotch.
"They should," Annie shrugged. Everyone looked at her as she spoke. "It's standard on all federal air transport."
Nodding, Reid looked at everyone in the jet. "She's right."
"Maybe we can give one to the elephant in the room, get him out of here."
"That'd be the elephant with the dead man's DNA."
Hotch sighed, "Well, obviously somebody planted the semen on the victim."
"In the victim," Morgan corrected.
Looking at the table cluttered with paper, Reid furrowed his eyebrows. "That's one theory."
"There's another?"
"Think about who shares the exact DNA makeup of another person," Reid tried.
Annie shook her head and looked at Reid with an odd expression. "An evil twin?"
"Reid, you're not seriously floating around the idea of an evil twin, are you?" Morgan asked while gesturing to Annie who agreed with him. The idea of evil twin brothers were raped and killed women and tortured them after dying sickened her.
He shook his head, "No, I'm not. I'm floating the idea of an eviler twin. Traditionally, the concept is a good twin and an evil twin. But in this case, it's evil twin, eviler twin."
Everyone looked at Reid oddly and it got quite, it was an awkward silence. Hotch started to hold his head and looked like he was in pain. Morgan nodded his head. "Hotch?"
"Yeah."
"You have been cleared to fly, haven't you?"
Hotch didn't say anything, just leaned back in his seat.
Annie had heard about what happened to the team. It was a surprise they had survived, only losing the head of the New York division after a terrorist attack was good in Annie's book. She was briefed on Hotch's condition with his ear after having a car explode near him. She also knew of Morgan driving a car with a bomb on it out of a hospital and surviving. The team had been through so much together, Annie didn't know if she was good enough to be on a team that good.
-
"Before Cortland Ryan, this town hadn't seen a homicide in over thirty years. He didn't just kill those six women. He killed a way of life. Now this thing's got people thinking he's come back," the sheriff said as he led Hotch, Annie, and Reid into the crime scene.
From in front of Annie, Reid spoke, "They don't really think that, do they?"
"I guess when you've been scared by something, I mean really scared, that fear's in you forever."
Annie refrained from speaking, she understood the sheriff. She didn't think she would ever not be scared of Jon Paron. His effect on her was long lasting.
Hotch spoke up, "Let's stick to the facts. Were there signs of forced entry?"
"None that we could find, but whoever killed Delilah Grennan opened up every window in this house before he left."
Moving to look at the windows, Reid told the three, "That's a signature from the previous murders."
"That wasn't released to anyone, was it?" Annie asked as she looked around the house.
The sheriff shook his head, "No, ma'am."
"And it came out in the trial?"
"No, sir," he told Hotch. "Prosecution had Ryan nailed nine ways to Sunday. Didn't need it. So I'm hard-pressed to know how this copycat knew about those windows."
"The man we're looking for is most likely a fan who exhaustively studied the first killings and used them to form his own murder fantasies," Hotch said as he made his way to the bedroom."
Annie crossed her arms, "Whoever the unsub is, he knows the case as well as us."
"Better, maybe, if he had actual contact with Ryan while he was incarcerated," Reid added onto Annie's idea.
Walking back to the three, Hotchner spoke to the sheriff, "We sent one of our agents to Hawkesville prison to look into it."
"And the semen?"
"Smuggled out of the prison, kept on ice, brought out on the anniversary of the execution."
Reid started to speak after Hotch walked passed them, "There's an entire cottage industry based on serial killer effects and memorabilia. You can find absolutely anything if you know the right people."
"Question is, is this a one-time commemoration or is it just the beginning?"
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