Morgan was stood in the kitchen, making coffee for Fleur and himself.

"Morning." Fleur walked through to the kitchen.

"You sleep alright?" He turned to her.

"Kind of." Fleur sighed,"I don't know how to feel, Derek.. Emily's alive."

"I understand." Morgan shook his head,"I know it was for her safety.. But she lied to us. All of us."

"I'm just glad we didn't lose her forever, but seven months was enough."

"I just don't know if i can trust her, you know?"

"I understand." Fleur sighed.

Morgan held out the coffee to her,"Here, figured you'd like one."

"I don't usually take coffee but I think I will today." Fleur took it.

Morgan kissed her cheek,"We'll.. We'll figure it out."

"What lies in store for us today?" Fleur hummed.

"Hopefully nothing too bad." He shook his head.

"We never know."

"We've got enough to deal with."

"We better head." Fleur nodded, petting Beau.

"We'll see you when we get home." Morgan hummed as Marie rubbed against his legs.

"At least they're fed and happy."

"That's all that really matters."

"We love you both." Fleur hummed.

*********************************

Elijah was sat on the couch, looking down at his arms.

"Love?" Reid walked downstairs.

"Hm?" Elijah looked up at him.

"Everything okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You're staring again."

Elijah sighed,"I know."

"What's wrong." He sat down.

"Everything- All of it."

Reid sighed and leaned against Elijah,"I know."

"I shouldn't have.. I should've said- I tried to stop until you got back from JJ's." Elijah looked away.

"What?" Reid looked at him.

"Just- I'm sorry."

"Elijah." Reid sighed.

"I tried. I promise, I tried." Elijah told him.

"It's..It's okay."

"It's not okay."

"It is. We'll get through it together."

Elijah leaned into Reid, reaching up to play with his hair.

"You're stuck with me so get used to this." Reid hummed.

"I really don't know what I'd do without you." Elijah sighed.

"You'd probably be living with twenty cats."

"That doesn't sound half bad actually."

"Hey." Reid chuckled.

"I'm kidding." Elijah leaned against Reid's shoulder,"I'd never give you up, not for anything."

"I'm glad to hear that."

Elijah smiled softly, taking Reid's hand and squeezing it,"I love you."

"And I love you." Reid smiled.

*********************************

Fleur, Morgan, Reid and Elijah headed to work together and got into the lift together. They were torn about Emily and had kept their distance.

"Hey, where have you been? I wanted to do brunch this weekend?" JJ asked as they walked out of the elavator, Emily at her side.

"I had to deal with stuff with my mom." Reid shook his head.

"We had date night..A lot of nights." Fleur nodded.

"Where's Rossi?"

"He's with Garcia." JJ pointed.

The group quickly walked away from the other two, but they were still in earshot.

"They hate me." JJ sighed.

"I'm sure they're just busy. Let it go." Emily assured her.

Once everyone was in the Conference Room, Garcia and Rossi walked through.

"And I must serve the beautiful food of his country." Garcia laughed.

"Maybe you should show a Disney film and stick with burgers." Rossi shook his head.

"You know, Rossi, you could always give Penelope a cooking lesson." Morgan suggested.

Garcia gasped,"Oh my god, that would be amazing. That would be like.. That would be like the Iron Chef meets the BAU. And we could do it at your house."

"I don't have a house, I have a mansion." Rossi corrected.

"And when am I inheriting it?" Elijah looked over at him.

"I'm not dead yet, kid." Rossi chuckled.

"Alright, let's get started." Hotch handed the file to JJ as he sat down.

"Oh." JJ handed it to Garcia.

"Alright, mes amis. You are jetting to Durant, Oklahoma, because in the last three days, two women have been found dead after being sexually tortured and then blinded with a sulfuric acid solution." Garcia told them as she showed pictures on screen,"Abby Elcott is our first victim, nineteen year old art student. She was headed to campus for an advanced drawing class. She'd been missing for two days. Same goes for our second victim, Beth Westerly, seventeen. She has just finished her coffee shop shift and was on her way to a bar method class."

"Both low risk victims." Emily nodded.

"And physically similar." Morgan added.

"How close are the two abduction sites?" Rossi asked.

"Five miles apart at bus stops." Garcia told him, "Abby's cell was found near one, Beth's scarf near the other."

"Where are the dump sites?" Reid leaned forward.

"One in an alley, the other in a firld."

"So he stapled their eyes open, then he blinded them." Fleur blinked.

"It's about power and control. Maybe he didn't want them to watch while he hurt them." Elijah suggested.

"Or it could be about shame. Perhaps the UnSub is disfigured himself. Blinding the victims leaves them helpless, lost, totally dependant. It may be a manifestation of how he sees himself in this world." Reid explained.

"It is a form of enucleation, just without the scalpel." Emily sighed.

"His face is the last they see before darkness." Rossi nodded.

"Garcia, come up with a list of jobs that would give the Unsub access to sulfuric acid." Hotch instructed,"The rest of us, wheels up in thirty minutes."

*********************************

"Victimology is very simular. Blond haired, blue eyed, teenage girls." Hotch sighed.

"We believe they were both abducted near public transport stops." JJ nodded.

"When was this photo taken?" Emily held up a photo of one of the victims.

"Beth was caught on a bank surveillance camera three hours before she disappeared. That's a recent photo of Abby." Morgan pointed.

"So she wasn't found in the same clothes she was abducted in." Fleur took and held up the photo of Beth's body.

"Maybe he changed them because hers were burned by the sulfuric acid." Rossi suggested.

"It's possible. Sulfuric acid can turn human flesh into soap." Reid hummed.

"Garcia, any recent similar cases in the surrounding area?" Hotch asked her.

"Actually, yes. Two months ago, a prostitute and a runaway were both found raped and killed and they had stab wounds to their eyes." Garcia explained.

"So maybe he practiced on high-risk victims first." JJ nodded.

"And then advanced to chemical enucleation." Morgan shook his head.

"Isn't that a rare paraphilia?' She raised a brow.

"Well, the chemical part is. It would exacerbate the pain." Emily shrugged.

"Like Ed Kemper, he's probably practicing on surrogates before going after the true object of his rage." Elijah sighed.

"Dave and I will talk to the parents. Morgan, Prentiss and Howards go to the disposal sites. JJ, Deans and Reid you head to the abduction sites." Hotch nodded.

*********************************

"So Beth got off the bus here and headed northwest towards class." Reid nodded as they walked.

"It's amazing no one witnessed her abduction." JJ sighed.

"Emily was buried six feet under and ended up in Paris, so I guess anything's possible, right?" Elijah hummed.

"So that's what this is about." JJ looked at them.

"Maybe our Unsubs a little bit like Bundy. He feigns an injury in order to get her to help him." Reid ignored her.

"Look, guys, if you want to talk about this-

"Maybe he tried other tactics like, 'You're so pretty. You should be a model. I can take your photo." Elijah contiued.

"I'll.. Take that as a no." JJ sighed.

"Either one would disarm her." He shrugged.

"Charm is quite the killer." JJ nodded.

"So are tears." Reid commented,"Whatever his ruse was, the Unsub most likely used it to get her inside his vehicle."

"Well, if Abby was last seen at a bus stop a few miles away, then he definitely has a means of transportation." JJ told them.

"Hopefully the disposal site will tell us more." Elijah shook his head as he started walking away from JJ with Reid.

*********************************

"So what do you have Detective Bonner?" Fleur asked.

"Beth's body was found over there." Bonner pointed.

"You smell the urine?" Morgan looked up.

"I thought that was air freshener." Emily hummed.

"There's drugstore food everywhere." Morgan shook his head.

"It's a homeless corridor." Emily sighed.

"Abby was found in a shantytown as well." Bonner mentioned.

"So, our Unsub hunts and travels through these areas unnoticed, blending in with his surroundings." She nodded.

"This guys either homeless or appears to be." Fleur shrugged

"He most likely has a car, to get them from the abduction site to here." Bonner told them.

"Just because you're homeless doesn't mean you're carless." Morgan sighed.

"It could explain why he went after high-risk victims at first. They were all around him." Emily nodded.

*********************************

"Spence, look, we gotta talk about this." JJ sighed as she followed Reid inside the station.

"What do you want to talk about?" Reid picked up some files.

"I get it, okay? You're disappointed with the way we handled Emily."

"Listen, I have a lot going on, alright?" He tried to walk away from her.

"You know what I think it is?" JJ followed her.

"What?" Reid turned.

"You're mad that Hotch and I controlled our micro-expressions at the hospital and you weren't able to detect our deception." JJ scoffed.

"You think it's about my profiling skills? Jennifer, listen, the only reason you were able to manage my perceptions is because I trusted you." Reid pointed at her,"I came to your house for ten weeks in a row, crying over losing a friend when someone else needed me, and not once did you have the decency to tell me the truth."

"I couldn't." JJ shook her head.

"You couldn't?" Reid raised a brow,"Or you wouldn't?"

"No, I couldn't." JJ raised her voice.

"..What if I started taking dilaudid again? Would you have let me?" Reid asked her.

"You didn't." JJ looked at him.

"Yeah, but I thought about it." Reid turned and started walking away.

"Spence..I'm sorry."

"It's too late, alright?" He kept walking.

"Reid." Emily tried to walk after him.

"Don't." Elijah stopped her as he started walking.

Reid continued walking until he was outside, leaning against the wall as he tried to calm down.

"Spencer?" Elijah walked up to him.

"I- Did I overreact?" He held his head.

"You're just.. Upset." Elijah sighed.

"..I made a scene." Reid shook his head.

"I know." Elijah took his hand.

"She's gonna hate me now."

"Reid, you know she won't hate you."

"You don't know rhat." Reid shook his head.

"Reid, JJ cares a lot about you." Elijah told him,"I know she wouldn't hate you, even after that."

Reid sighed and leaned his head against Elijah's shoulder,"I don't know what to do."

"We'll figure this out, baby." Elijah held him,"It's going to be okay."

Reid nodded slowly,"We better get back to the case."

"Yeah." Elijah sighed,"..But is that stuff you said about the dilaudid true?"

Reid looked at him,"I..I had a thought of it..Once. But I thought of you."

"Me?"

"You. And the cats."

"I want to be as strong as you, y'know." Elijah squeezed his hand.

"You are, Eli. You're one of the strongest people I've ever met." Reid smiled.

Elijah smiled back,"Thank you."

"Let's head back in, hm?"

"Yeah."

*********************************

"It would have had to been a woman very close to the UnSub to make him react this way." Hotch began to tell the others.

"Then why go after surrogates?" Morgan asked.

"I don't think we're dealing with a typical homeless person. He's good with chemicals, owns a car. I think the only mistake in our profile was assuming there was something wrong with his physical composition, reducing him to some sort of stereotype." Reid walked in with Elijah.

"You think it's only his mental state?" Rossi looked up at them.

"I think this guy might be smart enough to use his disability to his advantage so he comes across as harmless." Reid explained.

"Then when he's alone and the victim rejects him, he goes off." Elijah sighed.

"What if he doesn't live on the street? What if he's in halfway house?" Fleur suggested.

"Garcia, I need a list of halfway houses and mental health centers in the Unsub's comfort zone." Hotch told her over the phone.

"Okay. Five are being sent to your phones." Garcia typed.

"Which of those were around in the '80s Garcia?" Morgan asked.

"There are two in your area."

"Morgan, Howards and Prentiss take the first, Dave and I will take the second." Hotch instructed.

"What about us?" JJ asked for her and the Reids.

"Stay here and check ViCap for similar MOs and signatures." He nodded before turning to Reid,"Reid."

Reid looked up, walking over to him.

"If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me." Hotch crossed his arms.

"I can't. I didn't come to your house crying for ten weeks." Reid walked off.

*********************************

"I've worked here over fifteen years. There are many people who fit that description." Gwen, the woman at the halfway house, told them.

"This guy would be mobile, probably early forties." Morgan sighed.

"Well, if he has a car, then he's transitioned out in the last few years." Gwen shook her head as she moved trays,"State budget cuts."

"Alright, we'll need a list of those names." Emily nodded.

"It ain't gonna be small." Gwen sighed, walking off.

"Guys." Emily turned to the two,"What do I do about Reid?"

"Emily, there's a lot about you being back that's unresolved." Morgan told her.

"Are you pissed at me too?" Emily sighed.

"I'm.. I'm just glad you're here." Fleur shook her head.

"Thank you.. Because I know what you went throughout." Emily looked over at Morgan,"Grief counseling- You carried my coffin."

"Yeah, we sure did. What was in thar thing, anyway?" Morgan chuckled.

"I don't know." Emily smiled, shaking her head.

"Here you go." Gwen walked over.

"Thank you very much." Morgan took the list before turning to Emily again,"Look, just give Reid some time. He'll be fine."

"And Elijah. He's still trying to comprehend you're back." Fleur added.

"I'll try and speak to him." Emily nodded slowly as Morgan took out his phone.

"We got eleven from the one we visited. Send your names to Garcia. Have her cross-check with jobs that have access to sulfuric acid." Hotch instructed.

"Alright. We'll start reaching out to the extended families." Morgan nodded.

"Okay." Hotch hung up

*********************************

"We just interviewed the nineteen people released from the group home. None of them fit the profile." Fleur shook her head as she walked in.

"Dave's still trying to locate the families." Hotch shook his head.

"Tammy Bradstone's parents just filed a report. Their daughter didn't return from Homcoming last night." Bonner sighed as she walked in.

"Her face is similar to our three vics." Emily pointed.

"She's about the same age." Fleur nodded.

"Well, the after party she was last seen at was smack in the comfort zone." Bonner told them.

"Where are her parents now?" Hotch asked.

"They're at the house. We're bringing her friends in for questioning." She nodded.

"You head over there. We'll start the interviews here." Hotch told everyone.

*********************************

"Any luck?" Morgan asked as he opened the door.

They had found out the UnSub was the Bradshaw's relative, Cyrus, Reid, Rossi and Elijah walked into the home where Morgan, Fleur and Prentiss were.

"He hasn't been in either of the mechanics shops in the past two months." Reid shook his head.

"But the one on fourth said a bunch of car batteries had gone missing." Rossi told them.

That's when the house phone rang and Tammy's mother, Lyla, went to answer it.

"Wait." Emily pointed.

That'd when Morgan's phone rang,"Yeah?"

"Morgan, its from a payphone near a coffee shop." Garcia quickly spoke.

Morgan nodded as he hung up,"It's him."

"Okay, go ahead. Just like we talked about." Emily leaned forward.

Lila slowly picked up the phone,"Hello?"

"Hi, it's Cy." Cyrus hummed,"Paulie said you were looking for me."

Lila nodded, letting out a small sob.

"Lila? What's wrong, Lyla?" Cyrus asked.

"Matt got arrested." She told him.

"What? Lyla, what are you talking about?"

"They.. Think that he hurt Tammy." Lyla shook her head,"Oh, God, Cy... I need you."

"Lyla- Don't cry, Lyla. Everything's gonna be alright." Cyrus hushed her.

"I need you to come over here and.. I need you to talk. I need you to hold me." Lyla told him, reading the note Emily held up.

"You do?" Cyrus asked.

"Yes, I... Hurry. I have no one else to turn to."

"I'll be there Lyla, I'll be there." Cyrus hung up.

Lyla put the phone down, shaking her head,"He's coming."

"You, Deans and Prentiss stay here. Morgan, Howards and I will cover the front." Rossi walked out, nodding to Reid.

That's when Cyrus pulled up in his truck, quickly running out to meet Lila who was walking out of the house.

"Lyla!" He pulled her into a hug,"Lila."

"Cy Bradstone. FBI! Put your hands where I can see them. Let me see your hands." Morgan ran up.

"On your knees, now!" Rossi instructed.

"How could you so this to me?" Cyrus looked up at Lyla as he got onto his knees.

"Get up." Morgan pulled Cyrus to his feet, cuffing him.

"How could you do this?!" He shouted.

"Stop it. Stop moving." Morgan shook his head.

*********************************

After rescuing Tammy, the team were on the plane back home. Elijah sat back in his chair, rubbing his arms.

Emily moved from her seat, slowly walking over to Elijah,"Can I sit?"

Elijah glanced over, nodding slowly,"Yeah."

Emily sat down,"Look..I know you're mad."

"I'm not.. Mad." Elijah sighed.

"You're upset."

"Of course I'm upset."

"And I understand that. But.. You also need to understand why we did it."

Elijah looked down,"It was for your safety."

"I wanted more than anything to come back to my family and say that I made it..I survived lan Doyle. But I couldn't." Emily sighed.

"I know." He dug his nails into his leg.

Emily looked at him and gently took his hands,"Eli. You're one of my best friends and I don't want you being upset at me."

"I just- You were gone. You were gone and the last we spoke, you snapped at me." Elijah sighed,"I never got to apologize.."

"You had no idea what was going on." Emily assured him,"You didn't need to apologise, I did."

"I didn't want to forget you." Elijah bit his cheek,"I was scared I might- And I don't know what I'd do if I did."

"Hey, I'd always be a little devil on your shoulder." Emily chuckled.

Elijah squeezed her hand,"I'm.. I missed you. A lot."

"I missed you too." Emily smiled softly.

Elijah looked up at Emily, letting go of her hands and holding his arms out. Emily hummed and hugged him tightly. Elijah held her close and shut his eyes tight, adamant that he wasn't going to cry.

"Besides, I couldn't leave my little brother alone."

"..You have to promise me this time." Elijah rested his head on her shoulder.

"I promise, that I won't leave again."

"Thank you." Elijah's voice broke.

Emily smiled and gently kissed his head,"Now, are you going to the dinner at Rossi's?"

"Of course I am." He rubbed his eyes.

"I'll see you there then?"

"You will."

"Good." Emily hummed, walking back to her seat.

*********************************

"Cooking is the most sensual art form. And these are my paintd." Rossi explained to them, gesturing to his ingredients.

"So your hands must be brushes." Garcia smiled.

"Dont interupt." Rossi pointed,"In a pot of boiling water, we cook out spaghetti until its al dente, firm to the tooth. Here you go everyone, pass it around. See? Feel the texture. There we go."

Everyone felt the spaghetti, Emily and Fleur taking half and eating it.

"Now, in a large pan, we fry up our pancetta. Keeping an eye that the edges are crisp." Rossi demonstrated.

"But careful not to burn the onions." Hotch pointed.

"Bravo, Aaron! We saute until translucence." He hummed.

That's when the doorbell went.

"I got it." Fleur got up, running to the door.

"Grazie, amico mio." Rossi smiled as she left.

Fleur answered the door, seeing Elijah and Reid,"You're just in time."

"We didn't miss anything, did we?" Elijah asked quickly.

"Just some touching of spaghetti." She chuckled.

"Great." Reid smiled.

"Come on." She walked back to the kitchen.

"Sorry, we're late." Reid apologized as they entered.

"Yeah. And this is why I cook alone." Rossi pointed.

"So.. When do we get to drink the wine?" Emily asked.

"Almost there. Okay." Rossi clapped his hands,"We start at the beginning. You eat what you cook, ill supervise, but we're gonna do this all together, just like a family."

"Now?" Fleur held up her glass.

"Now." Rossi nodded with a smile.

Everyone cheered, drinking their wine, although Rossi handed Elijah a smaller glass.

"Thanks." Elijah smiled softly.

"I didn't forget." He hummed.

"You never do." Elijah chuckled.

Rossi winked before everyone began grabbing their ingredients. It was a night for them all just to relax and be a family.