WHAT FRESH HELL

After a year and a half of being at the BAU, Amelia knew that when JJ rushed past her desk with a file in her hand, it was time to head to the conference room.

"Case," she mutters as JJ's perfume passes her.

"Hm?" Spencer looks up from opposite her and Amelia points, all eyes follow JJ.

"Case," Morgan agrees.

CONFERENCE ROOM

"Missing child in Wilmington, Delaware," JJ hands out files "11-year-old Billie Copeland was last seen on the playground at 4:30 yesterday afternoon,"

"That's...20 hours ago," Hotch checks his watch "Child abduction response plan says we get notified immediately. What happened?"

"There was reason to believe she was with her father. Her cell phone shows a call to him around the time of the disappearance,"

"So they've since ruled him out?" Gideon asks

"He called the mother about an hour ago,"

"That doesn't mean he isn't involved,"

"He's on his way to the family home, so you can talk to him there. But the local police are now considering this a stranger abduction,"

"20 hours late..." Morgan mutter as Reid starts listing off statistics

"Long-term stranger abductions of children Billie's age are rare. They represent only one per cent of all missing cases per year, but they are usually more likely to be fatal. Of the children that are abducted and murdered, 44% die within the first hour. From that point forth, their odds of survival greatly decrease. 75% are gone after 3 hours,"

"Virtually all of them are dead after 24," Amelia adds

"Which means we have just under 4 hours to find her,"

"Shall we go?"

WILMINGTON, DELAWARE

The team scrambles out of the SUV and Spencer folds up a map "She's been missing 21 hours,"

"We're gonna go meet with the lead detective at the park where the girl was last seen," Hotch says to Gideon as he and Morgan drive away.

"We need to know everything that's being done,"

"I'll find out what the press is running, See if I know any of them. We may need to manage what they put out," JJ walks down to the press vans

"Good," Gideon points to Amelia and Spencer "You two, see what the uniforms know from the canvasses. "Elle, I need you to be a liaison with the family,"

Amelia leads Spencer back to JJ, the three walk together towards the set up of officers and press.

"Big response," JJ notes

"Yeah,"

"My friends in the press eat this up,"

"They have a lot of on-air hours to fill,"

"And they usually don't care what they fill it with," Amelia adds as JJ excuses herself and goes to talk to a journalist "Ohh, that looks flirty,"

"What?"

"JJ and that guy," Amelia points to their laughing friend "Definitely history," she sings before laughing and walking towards the officers "Agent Rowe and Doctor Spencer Reid with the FBI," she introduces

A short conversation later, Hotch and Morgan are pulling up on the street and Gideon, Elle and JJ, Amelia and Spencer walk to greet them.

"What do we know?"

"We talked to a kid who had contact with the unsub,"

"Came back to the same street more than once,"

"Tells us he's at ease in the neighbourhood, comfortable talking to kids in plain view,"

"He lured Billie with a story about a lost dog," Morgan explains

"And she recently lost one of her own,"

"That indicates previous knowledge of the victim,"

"Yeah," Hotch looks to Reid "but it doesn't necessarily mean that she knew him, only that he's aware,"

"It's not uncommon for predators like these to know kids that live around his area.

"He's from the neighbourhood," Hotch realises

"Then we go door to door and ask for voluntary searchers," The detective suggests

"The neighbourhood's already crawling with uniforms. They're everywhere," Spencer looks around

"Look, so far you followed the child abduction response plan to the letter,"

"For the past few hours, yes," Amelia can hear the guilt in her voice

"So now we need to move past the guidelines,"

"-What?"

"-Change tactics," Gideon rapidly moves his hands about "If we don't, Billie isn't gonna make it past the next 24 hours," he gets JJ to get the journalists in a group, and the officers are sent back to the station.

Everything moves quickly, the team now had three hours until the 24-hour mark, and once the profile is delivered, Amelia and Spencer are in the back of an unmarked police vehicle, Gideon in the front with the lead detective.

"Well, that's it. No more uniforms in the neighbourhood. Are you sure this is the way to go?"

"I hope it is,"

"You're taking a hell of a chance, aren't you?"

"All we can do is respond to what's in front of us,"

"What if you're wrong?"

Gideon practically scoffs and Amelia's eyes widen "You know what program did the most harm to this country in terms of crimes like this, child abduction?"

"No,"

"Stranger Danger," Spencer answers

"Flooded the schools with it,"

"I remember them coming to my classroom. It was officer friendly with Stranger Danger colouring books,"

"Sounds very American" Amelia mutters, looking out her window

"Taught a whole generation about a scary man in a trench coat hiding behind a tree. Then we learned that strangers are only a fraction of the offenders out there. Most are people you see every day- your family, your neighbours, school teachers...You know the rest," Gideon shrugs "We prepared our children for 1% of the danger, made them more vulnerable to 99%. So we've been wrong before. All we can do is learn from it and hopefully be better next time,"

A voice comes over the scanner "We have a marked unit calling for your presence at the river off route 6,"

"What's this in reference to?"

"They've located a body. Female," The car moves forward so suddenly Amelia puts her hand on the seat between her and Reid, their eyes meet and convey the same worry.

WILMINGTON WOODS

"The call was anonymous," an officer explains as he leads the detective and three agents down to the river "Said there was a body in the water,"

"Brown hair, brown eyes, about 4'10"/4'11"?"

"Yeah,"

"I should have started the search earlier..."

"I'm sure you just did what you thought was right, detective," Spencer says from the back but the detective stops walking and shakes her head.

"I can't, I can't-If it's her,"

"That's all right," Gideon comforts and he leads the youngest agents to the river, they watch as the body is pulled up...It wasn't Billie.

WILMINGTON POLICE STATION

When they enter the police station, Billie's parents are crying, being held back by Morgan "Is my daughter dead?!"

"A body was discovered," Hotch explains

"It's not Billie!" Gideon interjects "The body that was found was much older and has been dead a number of days. Looks like maybe a junkie or an overdose,"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I saw the body myself. It's not your daughter,"

"My god, I can't- I can't..." Billie's mother collapses into Elle

"Please just come with me," she escorts her and her ex-husband to a quiet room, Gideon looks to the team.

"What the hell was that about?!"

"A reporter asked them about the body,"

"Probably heard it on the scanner,"

"I should have prepared them for that,"

"We don't have anything to tell them yet," Gideon reassures JJ

"Billie's running out of time," Spencer reminds them

"So are the parents,"

"Come on. A little hope, huh?" Gideon leads them all further into the station "We'll make it," Gideon then passes out instructions to everyone, and Reid, Morgan and Amelia are sent to read over the police officers' canvass reports, fifteen minutes later, Hotch checks in on them.

"How's it going?"

"The unsub's in here somewhere. You gotta bet that the police talked to him In their initial canvass,"

"Maybe not," they look to Spencer "Our unsub is a solitary individual. He isn't the type of guy to insert himself into an investigation. Wouldn't it make more sense that he wouldn't have answered the door during the initial canvass?

"Neighbourhood was crawling with cops, canine units, search and rescues. They'd make him nervous and jumpy, he'd want to avoid them at all costs," Hotch adds and then Morgan speaks

"So then he couldn't allow anyone into his home to ask routine questions even if the girl was bound or gagged because it'd be too risky,"

"It's next to impossible to control breathing, speech patterns, body language when the body's under extreme duress. Maybe if we compare hotline tips with anyone who wasn't at home during the initial canvass..."

"Or didn't answer their door,"

"We'll find our unsub," Amelia nods "Sergeant, this is what we need-" she walks to talk to a uniformed officer and eventually Derek, Spencer and Amelia are sat at a small desk, Morgan has just hung up on Garcia who couldn't find much.

"Agent Rowe?" an officer comes into the room

"Yeah?"

"This the kinda thing you're looking for?" the officer leads her into the main room.

"Oi," Amelia snaps her fingers at her tired colleagues "You two, up,"

"A, uh, Mr Lomax has a neighbour with a green SUV, but he hasn't seen him all day. Says that's unusual. Thought he might have been out of town, but now he sees some lights on over there," he passes a piece of paper to Amelia

"1106 Springfield...." Amelia reads and Morgan asks for the canvass sheets

"1106..." Spencer looks through the sheet "No answer,"

"Let's go talk with Mr Lomax," Morgan leads them out of the room as Amelia thanks the officer.

"Good work!"

SPRINGFIELD STREET

A man is raking his front garden, and Morgan approaches "Mr. Lomax?" he flashes his credentials, "Agent Morgan, Reid and Rowe. FBI."

"Holy smokes! That was fast!" he walks over

"Did you call in a tip about your neighbour, Don Curtis?" Spencer asks, resting his leg on the fence

"Lives down the street. I saw the news thing, you know? I was thinking... Don drives a dark green Explorer, and he's at the park all the time. I figured like they said on the television maybe he knows something but he doesn't know that he knows it. Know what I mean?"

"Where's his explorer now?" Amelia asks

"It's usually in the driveway, but I haven't seen it today. Haven't seen Don either, which is kind of weird. We're always out front talking about the lawns. He never has any crabgrass. I don't know how he does it,"

"Do you know if he has a dog?"

"Used to. A big Golden Retriever. Her name was Candy. I think she died like 6 months ago," a quick look is shared between the agents, that was the name the unsub had used with the little girl Hotch and Morgan spoke to.

"Thank you, Mr. Lomax," they walk away and Derek phones Hotch "Yeah, it's Morgan, Better get over here right now,"

"I'll go knock," Amelia walks down the street towards Don's house, she knocks, but there's no response, she rings the doorbell, no response. She can see a light flash off and she sighs, quickly walking back to Morgan and Reid "He's definitely in there, but isn't answering,"

"The rest of the team is on their way," Morgan informs her as tires squeak in the distance and Hotch gets out of the SUV. Amelia catches him and Gideon up to speed.

"Break down the door," Gideon instructs

"No. We don't have probable cause," the lead detective interjects

"He's got a green SUV. He had a dog that died recently. He spends time in the park," Morgan lists off reasons.

"And he's pretending not to be home,"

"None of which are illegal. No judge is going to sign a warrant based on that information,"

"You're weighing the life of a child against the price of a door?" Gideon exclaims

"I'm weighing the law against the price of a door!"

"The girl's in the house right now. The longer we stand here, the longer he has to finish her off!"

"I'll call a judge," she gets her phone out "If we go in there without a warrant, all that evidence will get thrown-"

Amelia looks to Gideon and can see his eyes flick to the house, and as he steps out of the group circle, she's on his heels "Gideon! What the hell are you doing?!" she chases after him, and the team is behind her, she tries to grab Gideon's arm but fails and watches as he grabs a plant pot.

"Amelia, help me get this up,"

"What, no?! Gideon! Excuse property damage, we're not breaking and entering!"

Gideon slams the plant pot through the front window and Morgan breaks open the door, Amelia sighs and gets her gun out, entering behind Hotch.

"FBI!"

"Federal agents!"

DON CURTIS' HOUSE, NIGHT

Amelia is in Don's bedroom, she's ripped the bed sheets off, and she grimaces in disgust, grabbing a photo album and walking downstairs when she enters the living room, she adds it to a pile she'd already brought down, next to the DVDs Spencer had been looking through.

"More photos?" Morgan asks and Amelia nods as Reid starts speaking

"Gideon, we searched the entire house - upstairs, downstairs. Everywhere. There's no sign of the girl or that she's even been here. It is possible that he moved her. Polly Klaas was found 25 miles from home, Danielle Van Damme 30, Samantha Runnion, 52. But keep in mind... We were 20 hours late getting involved..."

"The man doesn't take chances. He wouldn't drive around with a girl in the car. He took her and got her off the street as quickly as possible. Just keep looking!" with that he's gone

"I can't look at any more," Amelia admits, leaning on the desk Spencer's at.

"I know," Derek looks over at her "Why don't you take a break, go sit with Gideon," Amelia nods and goes into the front room where Hotch now is.

"We broke into his house, and without Billie, we don't have the exigent circumstances We need to make this stick. We may have to let him go,"

"I told you we should have waited," The lead detective complains

"I know. We made a call, and if there are any recriminations, we will take full responsibility,"

"Hotch. He's the man,"

"Jason, I agree, but we may have been overly hasty,"

Amelia's eyes scan the room and she sees a broom leaning against a cabinet, she picks it up and flips it around, smelling the fluff at the end of it.

"What've you got?" Hotch asks

"Insulation..." Amelia walks out of the room with a purpose, she looks at the ceiling, searching for a loft hatch or... "A vent," Amelia hits the vent with the broom, but it doesn't move "Hotch! Gideon! Get me a chair! Something to stand on!" Hotch grabs a chair and passes it to her, she can hear Morgan and Reid exit the living room.

Amelia quickly gets onto the chair unscrews the vent and passes it to Gideon "I need to get up there," Derek is quickly at her side, his hands on her hips as he lifts her, once her palms are on the roof floor, she levers herself up. Looking around, she sees messy brown hair in the corner "She's here!" she has to crawl over to Billie, but can see she's alive, bound and gagged with tears running down her face, but alive.

"Hey, Billie. my name's Amelia," she wraps her arms around her in a hug and takes the cloth out of her mouth "I'm gonna get you home, okay sweetheart," Billie nods and Amelia unties her hands "Your mum and dad have been worried,"

"I wanna go home," Billie croaks out

"I know sweetie," Amelia says softly "Put your arms around my neck okay?" Billie does as she's told and Amelia moves her over the vent "Hotch! She's coming down! Let's get you to your mummy and daddy yeah?" Amelia slowly lowers her into Hotch's arms "Watch your leg, there we go,".

BAU JET

JJ, Morgan, Hotch and Spencer are sitting together playing cards, Amelia is standing by Spencer, looking at his cards.

"I don't get it,"

"Pretty girl, you just gotta accept that card games are not for you," Morgan grins

"That's why she's always on Spencer's team," Hotch grumbles and Derek looks at his cards

"I got absolutely nothing,"

"Aw, nothing,"

Spencer smirks "Two pairs..." he puts his cards down "Of aces,"

"Oh, get outta town! Why you always winning? Nuh-uh!"

"'Cause he cheats!" JJ exclaims

"Poker? It's mathematics, it's statistics!"

"He's from Vegas," Hotch reminds them

"House rules,"

"There's that too," Spencer shrugs

"Hey, Hotch," Gideon speaks up

"Yeah?"

"Did you send flowers to that tech room girl...Garcia...and say they were from me?"

"Yeah,"

"Why?"

"Jason, people need to know that they're important, and sometimes you forget that,"

"I already sent her a gift," Gideon shrugs "An mp3 player. They last longer. Unless you drop them or the battery dies, whichever comes first,"

"So she got 2 gifts?"

"What if she thinks I'm sweet on her?"

Amelia's eyes widen and she snorts loudly, sharing a look with Elle. The rest of the team joins her laughter.

"Maybe not, huh?".