"Sweetie, you've been taking really good care of me ever since you and the rest of the team found me and Reid a month and a half ago. But you don't have to go as far as making me move in with you." I was about to get out of the bed, but he rushed towards me.

"If I want to take care of my girl 24/7, then I've gotta live with my girl. Besides, I was going to ask you to move in with me, so it all works out." Derek wrapped my arm around his shoulders before picking me up bridal style.

"Bert and Ernie seem to be enjoying their time here." I commented after noticing the two laying around on the couch in the living room. "Thank you for letting them move in with us." I kissed his cheek.

"I've always wanted a dog. And a girlfriend." He set me down on the ground. "Let's get to work. Don't want to be late on your first day back." He tucked away a strand of my hair.

"But you have to promise me something." I placed my hands on his shoulders. "If my brother orders me to stay behind, you better support me against him." I gave him a look.

"Well, if it's about your safety, I am not going against him." He shook his head.

"You're worse than my brother." I groaned in complaint. Soon, we were gathered around in the conference room.

"Sandra Davis, sixteen years old. This is her singing at her high school talent show a month ago." JJ played the clip of a young girl singing. "This is her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Ken Newcombe." She pulled up a guy's picture beside the video. "Their bodies were found in a park near the male victim's car in Groton, an affluent, mostly white suburb of New York City in Westchester County. It's the third of three killings believed to be a series of hate crimes." JJ announced.

"Hate crimes?" Emily's eyes widened in surprise.

"The first two victims were Keisha Andrews, fifteen, and Vickie Williams, seventeen." Aaron stood up and went over to the monitor. "They disappeared from their homes in central Westchester one night. Their bodies were found in a wooded area in the southern part of the county in a wooded area." We looked through the pictures.

"Strangled, beaten, stabbed." Gideon listed out.

"And this was painted on their faces." JJ changed the pictures.

"What about this couple? How were they a part of it?" Derek discreetly reached over and took my hand in his.

"Another swastika. This one on the boyfriend's car." She showed us the blue vehicle with the word 'Stop' along with the symbol spray painted on.

"It's a different victimology." Emily pointed out.

"It could be an escalation." I suggested.

"Or a different killer." Gideon spoke up.

"And it doesn't end there. Yesterday, an African-American community leader, a Reverend Williams, decided to take this on as a political issue. Racial hate in the suburbs." Aaron stated and played a video.

"What we are seeing is pure apathy. Black kids are getting killed, and the police are doing nothing to stop it. When will these racists be confronted?" The man exclaimed unsurprisingly.

"Apparently, in response to Reverend William's muckraking, a black kid was beaten on the streets of Groton this afternoon. Connecticut Neo-Nazi group called the White Stallions claimed responsibility." JJ set down the remote.

"There are Neo-Nazi groups in Connecticut?" Emily looked up at her.

"Mayor of Groton called me this morning, frantic. He's desperate to solve these crimes before it escalates even more." I noticed that Spencer was slightly jumpy.

"Racial demographics of Groton?" I asked.

"Population 42,000. 8% black." JJ leaned against the table.

"I'd say the mayor has reason to be worried. If it doesn't stop soon, it could flare up into a full-scale race riot." Gideon shook his head slightly. After the short plane ride and drive, we reached Westchester County and got out of the vehicle.

"This is Detective Rick Ware from the state police department. We haven't had a murder here in two years, you understand. This was way above our heads, so...we put Rick in charge." The mayor's clearly worried.

"These are Agents Gideon, Hotchner, Suparna, Morgan, and Prentiss." JJ introduced us.

"I have to say that, uh, what's been happening here the last few weeks...it-it's just hard to fathom. I mean, we're thirty minutes from the city." The mayor stuttered.

"What do you mean?" Aaron asked.

"Well, this isn't the Deep South. For the most part, these are sophisticated New Yorkers." Detective Ware said.

"Are you saying you don't think this is a race issue?" Derek asked.

"All we're saying is whatever happened here is way out of the norm for this community. I wouldn't want you entering this investigation under assumptions that, well, aren't true." The detective elaborated.

"And make sure that it's the same killer, first of all." Aaron added.

"You mean there could be more than one?" The mayor's eyes widened in shock.

"We don't know that yet." Derek responded. "All we do know is that the threat sent to Sandra Davis was written by an adolescent girl." He restated Spencer's theory.

"You can tell that from just a half a page note?" Ware seemed impressed.

"Just some basic profiling." I nodded my head. There was a police officer standing beside Detective Ware who looked quite uneasy.

"Is there a problem, officer?" Gideon posed to him.

"There was a girl that we suspected at first, but then we talked to her and dismissed her." He informed us.

"I'd like to meet her." Derek requested from them.

"I think it's a waste of time." Ware opinionated.

"I'd like to decided that for myself." Derek shot back calmly. Gideon and Aaron went to the double homicide crime scene, while Derek and Emily went to talk to the possible suspect. I kind of aimlessly walked around the police department, thinking about the things Hankle did to me and Spencer. In some unnatural but peaceful way, the two of us had grown so much closer because of the incident. "Suparna? Suparna, come on." Derek put his hands on my shoulders, making me shiver. "Hey, you okay?" He made me face him.

"Yeah, I was just thinking." I glanced up at him. "Did I have the big guy worried?" I fake pouted.

"Come on." The two of us headed into the building.

"Postpartum stab wounds almost always indicate sexual homicide." We overheard Aaron as he stared at the pictures on the evidence boards. The two of us sat down next to each other by Spencer.

"This is also a fairly extreme overkill, which is markedly different from the other two girls." Spencer sank back into his seat and folded his hands.

"So you're saying this was a different killer." We overheard Ware state.

"No, we're saying if it was the same killer, the overkill indicates he didn't get what he wanted from Sandra." Aaron clarified for him.

"What he wanted?" Ware questioned.

"Sexual offenders kill for sexual release. And in this case, there's no sign of sexual assault on his victims. That tells us he probably fetishes." Derek declared.

"Probably takes some souvenir from his victims that he uses to get off." I built off of it.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesn't sound like the MO of a hate crime." Ware pointed out.

"We're pretty certain that hate wasn't the primary motive at all." Aaron confirmed.

"He has a specific physical type, and he tries to cover his type." Emily deduced.

"He is a serial killer." Gideon looked up at us. The next morning, we watched a live clip of Reverend Williams making an announcement on the news. Derek, Emily, and Gideon went to talk to Sandra Davis' family before coming back. We were scattered around the cubicles with a couple of state police officers and the rest of the team.

"So we dug up everything on the first two victims, and basically these girls were good students who stayed out of trouble." Aaron summarized.

"Just like Sandra Davis." Emily called out.

"And we found something else. They both like singing." Aaron stopped pacing. "One in church, one in a band. Their parents said that this was their passion." He added.

"Just like Sandra Davis." Derek repeated Emily's earlier statement.

"African-American girls between the ages of fifteen and seventeen who like to sing? That's a pretty specific type. It sounds like the same UnSub to me." I crossed my arms over my chest. "And the fact that they all sing, that could be part of his MO. Maybe part of a ruse." Derek placed his hands on my shoulders.

"We found another girl missing. Naomi Dad, sixteen years old." The officer from before informed us.

"When?" Aaron's head snapped to face him.

"Last night." He answered.

"Why are we just finding out about this now?" I squinted my eyes at the officer.

"First victims weren't found for a couple of days, there's a chance she's still alive." Aaron stayed hopeful. "Let's get to the profile before it's too late." He ordered us. And we split up.

"All I need is a gun and a set of wheels, and I'll have this son of a bitch begging for mercy." I snarled angrily.

"Calm down there, Mama Bear. It's briefing time." We rejoined the others when the cops came in.

And just like that, the briefing was over. The mayor tried to get us to stop informing the public of the profile since it would fuel the reverend's anti-racism campaign and make us look bad, but the detective made a choice to announce it. Sadly, an officer found Naomi Dad's body. That night, Derek and Ware found a Lincoln car that matched the profile perfectly, but it was just a car service. And...Detective Ware ended up getting shot and died because some stupid guy thought he and Derek were the serial killers.

"Suparna, you're injured. I am not risking it." Aaron shook his head and got into the driver's seat.

"Aaron, let me go, dammit!" I cursed. "I don't know what I would do if Derek..." I stuttered out shakily.

"Get in." He caved. We got to the crime scene to see a couple of EMTs wheeling away Detective Ware's body. Aaron talked to the guy who shot him, and I looked around for Derek. Finally, I found him sitting on the curb. With complete disregard of my ankle, I ran to him. He glanced up at me when he saw my shadow.

"Derek, are you okay?" He looked down and shook his head slightly, letting out a deep breath. I carefully sat down next to him and rubbed his back, trying to comfort him in the silence.

"We've got another girl missing." Aaron came over to us. I sighed and was about to get up, but Derek stood in front of me and extended a hand out to me. I decided to just take it since he wasn't in the mood for flirting. There was a girl who knew the guy that tried to get her to come to a recording studio. We drove to A&L Studios, the workplace of our number one suspect. Except for the fact he's a stupid security guard there. Aaron and Derek went into the building, leaving me in the car. But I grabbed my gun and crept around the perimeters. Then, I found a guy practically hauling around a semi-conscious girl.

"Let go of her right now!" I yelled at him.

"What are you going to do about it, princess? You're just a little girl." The bastard scoffed. The police, Derek, and Aaron arrived just in time.

"Not so little anymore, am I?" I raised an eyebrow at him. Derek pushed his face against the wall, and Aaron and I took the girl away from them. Aaron got the girl into the SUV while the others took the UnSub away.

The next morning, I saw Derek at Detective Ware's funeral in the park. I went over to him after the guests left.

"You alright?" I whispered to him gently.

"I was just thinking." He gave me a nod. "I know what it's like to grow up without a father." He looked ahead at the coffin covered by the American flag.

"Their father died a hero." I looked down at the ground.

"So did mine." He looked over at me. "It doesn't make it any easier." He sighed.

That night, we got onto the plane. I stepped out from the back with a cup of tea and tossed a book onto the table right in front of Derek.

"Oh, no! I am so sorry." I faked an apology.

"Oh, wait a minute." He chuckled and picked up the book. "No, you didn't. Where did you find this?" He looked up at me with a smile.

"In the airport. Can you believe it?" I sat down next to him. "I haven't read this in twelve years." I picked up the book and scanned the cover.

"Okay, that's funny." He pointed a finger at me. "Chapter three's where it starts to get good." He advised me.

"I will let you know when I get there." I giggled.

"You know, we could read it together." He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him. For a moment, I felt myself black out. "Hey, hey, I've got you." He woke me back up.

"Sorry. I don't know what happened." I lied to him.

"Don't lie to me." He shook his head.

"It's...I-I...he really messed me up." I confessed. "I don't know about the things he did to Spencer, and I don't want to know. But I wish I could have stopped him from getting hurt." I looked over at the young man sitting across from me, asleep in his chair.

"You know, if it was anyone else in your place, Reid might not even be here. We saw what you did and said to protect him. You did good. You did so good." He took my head into his hands kissed my forehead. "Try to get some sleep. Your knight in shining armor is always here to protect you." He kept his arm around me.

"Thank you." I hummed peacefully and closed my eyes.