Welcome to the B.A.U. Boy's Club.

Thirty minutes later we had boarded the jet and were preparing the profile.

“Victimology says that the unsub’s a woman, late twenty’s early thirty’s,” Dr. Reid said, as he scanned a case file.

“How can you tell it’s a woman and not a homosexual man?” I asked, and immediately he turned to look at me. My gaze was intense because as soon as he caught my eye, he flinched.

“Most homosexual men tend to be more secretive. They would have hidden the body a little bit better. A woman angry enough to kill has no regard for secrecy, especially for revenge kills. These bodies were placed out in the open so that they would be seen,” he answered, before turning back.

I listened more than I talked on the plane, and my mind wandered a little. Emily had clued me in a little earlier that the first rule in profiling was to not profile your teammates, but I couldn’t really help it. I was naturally good at it.

I saw the way that everybody on the team casually arranged themselves around Dr. Reid. I assumed that this was because he was the youngest and that they were trying to protect him, but it instantly made me think of him as weak. What type of grown man needed protection?

While they might be surrounding Reid, they focused all of their attention on Hotch. He was their starting and finishing point and to argue or resist would do nothing but create tension.

But I also noticed that while they all hung on Hotch’s every word, he would glance every once in a while at Rossi. It occurred to me that Hotch was partially trying to prove himself to Rossi, the group’s founder.

Emily stayed into herself, as if she wasn’t really sure if her input was worth all that much, and Morgan would look up every so often at Garcia. Not really as if they were lovers, but more like a brother would check for his little sister.

And then there was me.

I sat a full two feet away from everyone, not purposefully, but because I’d chosen my seat first and they walked past me. This told me that as much as they pretended to put up with me, they wanted me as far away as possible. And I was ok with that.

“Five minutes to landing everybody,” Garcia called, pulling me out of my daydream. Everyone else, who had continued the profile, started packing up their files in anticipation of our arrival.

Exactly five minutes later, we touched down and the first thing I saw when I landed was my husband and Eli, casually waving to me from the tarmac. I laughed.

“Hey,” Naj said to me, before kissing me. “I figured that I’d come and get your bag so that you can stay at home. No since staying in a hotel if we live near, you know?”

“Mind if we stay with you?” Garcia mumbled, coming up behind us with Hotch hot on her heels.

“Garcia, this is simply unacceptable! Hotel reservations! How hard is that?” he said, rolling his eyes.

“Actually,” I said, “It’s April, and this is a college town. Everybody who’s applying for Harvard is here to visit the campus, and while the applicants get to stay in the dorms, their parents need to get hotel rooms. It’s practically impossible to get a room here this time of year, let alone six.”

“Well that’s just great,” Emily said, sitting on her duffel bag.

“We’ve got plenty of room,” Naj said, shifting Eli from one hip to the other. Immediately, I looked at him with the “WTF?” look.

“We wouldn’t want to put you out,” Hotch said, catching the look on my face. I wasn’t exactly sure, but I could have sworn that I saw my same look reflected on his face.

“You wouldn’t be putting us out at all,” he said, giving me a look that said, ‘Behave’.

“Besides, it’s not like you have any other options,” he said with a shrug.

“That would be great,” Emily said, immediately, and she handed her bag to Morgan, who put it in one of the vans for her.

“Then just follow us. We’ll get the guest house ready when we get there,” he said. He looked around for Eli who had somehow managed to be snuck out of his arms and into the colorful arms of Garcia.

She looked up at me pleadingly and said, “Can I keep him?”

Her eyes were so sad looking that I had no choice but to say yes. I strapped his car seat in the van, and she scurried in after him. In exchange, we took Dr. Reid.

“So, how old are you?” Naj asked, looking in the rearview mirror, as we started on our trek home. I nudged him.

“I’ll be twenty- nine this year,” he said, with a wan smile. For the most part, he kept his eyes trained on his lap, making conversation with him very hard, and eventually, I just quit trying.

When we pulled into the driveway at our house, Naj and I immediately set to work setting up the guest house. But even with help, six beds were not going to work in there.

“We can always turn the study into an extra bedroom,” Naj said to me, wiping his forehead.

“Fine,” I said, curtly, ready to just be done.

Halfway through, Naj went to go get the kids from school. I could see that every minute we spent on getting them settled was a minute wasted in Hotch’s eye. I was tempted to stretch out the process, but the fact still remained that there was a murderer on the loose.

“Garcia, you can start setting up in the dining room. I can finish up here,” I said to her.

She looked up from the drowsy toddler with a sad face before going off to where I pointed her.

“You have kids?” Dr. Reid asked me, and I raised an eyebrow before picking up Eli.

He quickly amended the statement.

“I meant besides that one.”

“I have four children,” I answered him, before quickly laying Eli down for his nap.

“The room’s ready,” Garcia called out, and we all went in there. After reviewing the evidence, we split up. Naj had come back with Juli, Anajsha, and Najee, so Hotch and I were off to the police station to speak with the victim’s families and Morgan and Prentice were off to the crime scene to view the bodies. Rossi and Dr. Reid were staying to prepare the geographical profile, and Garcia was setting up her systems.

On the ride over, Hotch and I didn’t say a single word to each other.

I immediately flashed my credentials on the way in, cutting through all the crap the desk attendant was about to give us, and continued on my merry way to an office all the way in the back.

I knocked lightly and then entered the room without any further ado.

“I felt a chill and I knew it was you,” he said without looking up. When he finally did, he smiled.

“It’s been a while, Nevaeh, but you haven’t changed a bit.”

“I’ll say the same for you, but I’m afraid it’s not a complement. That goatee wasn’t in style when we were in training and it’s still not now,” I answered back, taking a seat and motioning Hotch into the room.

He laughed and extended his hand to Hotch.

“Captain Roman Young. Nevaeh and I were in the marines together.”

“Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. Unit chief of the B.A.U.” he responded with a firm handshake.

“Oh I know who you are. And if you don’t mind my saying it, you’ve got yourself a handful here. But no matter what, she’s more loyal than a Saint Bernard.”

I snorted.

“Thanks for the comparison to a giant dog, Rome,” I said, “But we’re here about the murders. You should know, you called us.”

“Between the three of us, that was more for my career than for the sake of those sick bastards,” he said, motioning Hotch to take a seat for he did himself.

“To be honest, no one around here really cares, except for the church heads down the street. They staged a press conference all about forgiveness and that even though they had raped have of humanity, the victims still deserved to have their murders properly taken care of. The talked to a few people, got the word out, and before I knew it, I was the bag guy.”

“We’d like to keep you as involved in this case as possible, as long as you’re willing,” Hotch said, his face just as stony as the gargoyle on top of the church. “We don’t like to give the impression that we’re taking over.”

“Do whatever you need to do. If you need any assistance, any resources I have at my disposal are yours,” Rome replied.

I could see that Hotch was in a rush to leave, and when we finally vacated the premises, he turned to me and said, “I don’t think I like that man.”

“Everybody has their opinions, Hotch. These guys were chronic rapists. They weren’t gonna stop. Everybody around here feels safer now that their dead. Why should he have to lie and pretend like he gives a shit that their gone? I’m not gonna. I have kids, and honestly, I feel a hell of a lot better knowing that those sickos are on the wrong side of the dirt,” I said, buckling my seatbelt.

He gave me a strange look, before slowly pulling off, and I got the impression that that comment had just earned me a world full of trouble.