third person's pov

It has been a couple weeks and Sydney is finally healed which is a good thing because she is over it. it's also been a couple days since Sydney's belated birthday party, which is a good thing as everyone's lives were getting back on track. Sydney moved her few stuff that she had packed to stay at Derek's house and moved it back to the house.

Maeve is finally out of the hospital too, but she's on bed rest and to take it easy. Sydney was being on call for Maeve which was fine. As the only times where she wasn't with Maeve she was in school. Spencer got his position back which made Sydney a little sad as it was fun taking over. Hotch promised the girl a job when she finished high school which is in a couple months. Which she is happy for to say the least. She wouldn't need to be anywhere else. He said that letting her come on cases will be the practice of the job and what it entails.

Rossi had taken the girl to surprise Derek as he's been working on. as when sydney wouldn't be in school and or on cases she and Derek would tag team restoring house. he doesn't like the term renovate but restore. sydney had to explain that to Rossi ten times. Hopefully he got the hint, but Sydney isn't biting her tongue. Knowing Rossi, he'd joke that Derek is renovating.

"Hey, we thought we'd lend you a hand." Rossi says holding a bottle of alcohol in his hand as Derek smirked seeing the two. Well Sydney.

"Ah, Rossi, shorty, my two favorite people." Derek says as sydney smiled at Derek finally being her happy self for the first time in a while. everything just seems to be going the way they're supposed to be. "Brought a little something to drink. i like that." Derek adds to what he previously said.

"Well, you can't do renovation without a little bevvy." Rossi says as sydney shakes her head with a smile.

"I'm just here since Derek harassed me on the phone." Sydney says as Derek gave her a look which made her grin like the cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland.

"Wait a minute, now. You know i don't renovate. i restore. there's a big difference. I actually think there used to be some shutters here once upon a time. I'm hoping they're upstairs in the attic. I want to see what i can do with them." Derek explains to Rossi.

"Well, why don't we start with a couple glasses?" Rossi suggests as Derek smiled. "That Ican definitely do." he adds.

Suddenly Sydney's phone rang as Rossi raised a brow at the girl. "It's Penny." She says as she put the blonde woman on speaker. "Say it away Penny." Sydney says with a small smile as she takes a sip of her iced coffee, that she had gotten on the way here.

"Hey, pretty lady, boss has ordered me to tell you pretty people that we have a disturbance in our lives." Penny says as Rossi looks at Sydney confused.

"We have a case." Derek says understanding what Penelope said as Rossi then looked at Derek.

"Why couldn't she say that the first time." Rossi says as Sydney's grin grows.

"I'm trying a new thing with Syd, that it gets weirder every time i call." Penelope says as sydney nods her head confirming.

"Why?" Rossi asks as sydney gives him a look as she stuck out her tongue.

"Because she can that's why. Besides it's cute." Sydney says as Penelope smiled on the other line.

"See you in a few." Penelope says as she hung up and Sydney looked at the two men.

"Let's go, before hotch gets cranky." Sydney says as she rode shotgun in Derek's truck for no particular reason whatsoever.

"You going to leave Rossi." Derek says as sydney nods her head as she got the secret stash of gummy bears in Derek's truck and popped on in her mouth.

"Yup, that and he doesn't have any secret stashes of food." Sydney says as she gave Derek a gummy bear and he ate it.

"Makes sense, also I didn't harass you over the phone i kindly asked you to come over." Derek says as Sydney shrugs her shoulders.

"Eh, same thing. I was busy." Sydney says as Derek gave her a look as they're at the stop light before they get to the BAU.

"Great, I'm having a debate with a teenager." Derek says as sydney shook her finger at him with made him gave her a playful glare. "Why are you shaking your finger at me?"

"I'm an adult. not a teenager, big difference Mr. renovator." Sydney says to him as they walk to the elevators inside the building.

"For the millionth time, i don't renovate, i restore. big difference Syd." Derek says even if he knows he's not going to win with this debate.

"Patayto potato, same thing." Sydney says as Spencer was right ahead of them.

"Derek you're not going to win against Syd." Spencer says to his friend as Derek shakes his head as they head to the round table so they can discuss the case.

"Worth a shot." Derek says as Sydney stuck out her tongue as spencer smiled at her. Glad to have this side of sydney back, the one whose smile would light up the room.

"Sooo, ladies and gents, two men have been killed on the southside of crazy town aka Chicago in the last ten days. The first is Michael Crowley. He was a repairman who was out jogging pretty late at night. Second, Anthony Rango he was a convenience store owner." Penny explains the case.

"No known connection between them." Hotch adds.

"Both men were beat to death with fists of fury. Rango suffered a crushed larynx and something called a Lefort fracture." Penelope looked over at sydney. "It's a bilateral horizontal facial injury." she explains.

"Looks like there was also a blunt force trauma to the back of the head." Spencer points out.

"So, they were blitz attacked to gain control, then it was essentially fisticuffs." Sydney adds to what her dad said.

"They were both literally caught with their pants down. Like their jeans and their boxers both down to their ankles." Penny adds on.

"But there was no sign of sexual assault or robbery." JJ tells confused.

"So, it was a message." Rossi figures.

"Either they led secret lives, or someone wanted to symbolically demean or embarrass them." Hotch says.

"You can't really tell if it was done pre or postmortem." Derek tells.

"Aren't these your old stomping grounds?" JJ asks. "We should go say hey to your family."

Derek looks down when JJ said that. "Yeah, I'm not going to let anybody know I'm in town. at least not until we're done with this. I don't need any distractions or god forbid an incident like last time."

"With this level of hands-on violence, this unsub is filled with rage. He's probably just getting started. wheels up in 30." Hotch ordered and with that the team headed onto the jet, ready to head to Chicago.

Sydney being excited as she's never been there. "Why you happy?" Derek asked the girl as she put her hair in a ponytail before turning to Derek before shrugging. "Never been to Chicago."

"You never been to Chicago? we've had numerous unsubs there." Derek says to the teenager who seems happier than anyone is let alone Derek. he's not overly thrilled to go back to Chicago especially like this.

"Seven to be exact." Spencer says randomly as Derek looked at spencer unimpressed.

"Not helping." He says before turning back to sydney as they walked to the jet.

As soon as they got there hotch split the team up JJ and Derek would head to the convenience store, Rossi and hotch head to the morgue, and Spencer and Sydney to the police department.

They were greeted with the lead detective in charge. Sydney remembers Derek talking about what happened and that he got accused of a crime he didn't commit.

"Detective Stan Gordinski." The detective says introducing himself to the two Reid's. Sydney narrowed her eyes not overly thrilled to see the man who nearly put Derek in jail. "Your agent Reid, correct."

"It's doctor Reid." Sydney nonchalantly corrects the detective without looking at Gordinski.

"Right, so it's been what six, seven years?" Gordinski says as he put his hand out for Reid to shake.

"The number of pathogens passed during a handshake is staggering. It's actually safer to kiss." Spencer tells him as despite Sydney mood right now she smirks a little. "Ah, yeah, I remember you."

"Who are you, aren't you a little young to be an agent?" Gordinski asks the teenager as she narrowed her eyes more.

"The youngest person to be an agent is Sixteen and I'm eighteen, so actually i am not too young." Sydney said as Gordinski was taken aback by what she said.

"Any developments in the investigation?" Spencer asks changing the subject before anything else happens.

"While you were in the air, another body dropped outside a local diner on Halstead. Guys panths were pulled down, he was beaten to a pulp." Gordinski tells them as Sydney and Spencer looked at each other.

"We had some team members headed to the morgue. We'll redirect them to the diner instead. thank you." Sydney says to Gordinski ready to leave this place as soon as possible.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

Morgan and JJ had arrived back to the police department and had news to deliver to the team. sydney was putting was putting pictures up on the board. "The ME found glass shards from a Helgeson vineyards wine bottle in the back of victim number 3's skull." Spencer stayed as Sydney just finished putting the pictures up.

"I know what this is about." Derek tells getting the attention of everyone in the room. "This is about Carl Buford." Sydney's facial expression and demeanor changed completely, only Spencer noticed.

"What do you mean? Buford's in prison for life." Spencer says looking back at Derek.

"The word 'look up to the sky' were found in both the minimart and the alley." Sydney looked at Derek "It's what Buford used to say to me."

Hotch and Rossi had arrived back to the police department and Derek had begun to explain. "Carl Buford was an expert...at spotting and exploiting vulnerabilities in adolescent boys that he coached at the community center. He had the whole community thinking he was a hero. parents, teachers...cops. I mean, everyone. after my dad died, he locked onto me. He manipulated me into compliant victimization. Now, you remember how I told you that i got into it with that local gangbanger when I was younger. Well, somehow Buford got it all expunged. Now, I didn't understand why a guy who barely knew me would do that." Sydney listens as she's clenching and unclenching her fists as Derek explains, she's growing livid at this man.

"Buford gave me his time. he taught me how to play football. and then he took me to his cabin on the lake. I was a kid. I was a kid from the southside. I'd never been to a cabin much less a lake." Derek says.

"Morgan..." Hotch tries to stop Derek, but he shook his head.

"They need to know. they need to know this guy's MO." Derek says as Hotch nodded his head.

"Buford built up my trust, and then he would lower my inhibition with Helgeson wine. He called it 'Jesus Juice'. Then he would molest me and every time he would see that dead look in my eyes that said I wanted him to stop...he would just say, 'you better man up boy. look up to the sky." Derek explains as Sydney had a dark look on her face but she's trying to hold it together.

"Did you ever tell anyone about that phrase?" JJ asks.

"No." Derek says.

"We're probably looking for someone who Buford abused." Rossi states.

"The victim could harbor a great deal of anger if he didn't deal with his own abuse. With the right trigger, it could develop into this kind of rage." Hotch states.

"Where is he now?" JJ asked.

"We got him locked up for homicide in 2006, but because of the statute of limitations, we never got him for molestation." Derek says as Sydney looked up at everyone with a raised brow.

"He's going to be someone's bitch." She said as despite his feelings and emotions Derek nods his head.

"Buford ran the community center for years. an offender like him could have hundreds of victims." Reid states.

"Alright, let's talk about victimology." Hotch says.

"Each of these men had interactions with kids right before they were killed." Sydney says.

"The killer switched from white victims to African Americans." Rossi adds.

"You'd think that if they were surrogates for Buford, he'd only kill black men." Hotch says b before he calls Penelope.

"Hello, PG is here what is your wish to be granted." Penelope says as sydney smiled a little.

"Garcia, i need you to compile a list of all the boys who played football at the community center 20-30 years ago." Hotch orders as Penelope pauses before responding.

"Okay, right ahead."

Afterwards, the team had delivered the profile to the police department. After that, Penelope had called Sydney once she had the news. "Go ahead, Penny." Sydney says.

"I'm going to start with the good news first because I want to. The renamed Damien Walters community center is thriving under its new director, Ms. Walters, Damien's mom. The bad news is, although they now computerize their records, but back when Buford ran the joint it was all paper files, so I'm out of luck there." Penelope informed.

"Alright, thanks, babygirl." Derek says as Sydney hung up.

"JJ, why don't you, Spencer and Syd go over to the center, dive into those files, see if you can come up with a comprehensive list of Buford's potential victims." Hotch says as the two Reid's and JJ nods their heads as they left.

Derek had decided to talk to Buford but not before having a cognitive interview with JJ. Nothing was working, so Derek went to go see Buford in prison. Buford had given him the list of people that he had molested, and they had found someone that fit the profile but that personed them to a man named Rodney Harris, someone Derek knew and had trouble within the past. he wasn't on the list Buford had given him. They had caught Rodney just in time.

They brought him in, and the police department was surrounded with reporters and cameras. It made Sydney sick just by looking at it. They cleared the way in for Derek go put Rodney in custody. Sydney walked over towards Derek who had given Rodney over to a police officer and had taken him away.

"You did it, good job." Sydney says as he held onto Derek's hand. He gave the teenager a small smile as a thanks. They made their way back over to the entrance and Sydney followed him, more like a lost puppy but he didn't mind.

"You're saying that's why Rodney Harris killed those men?" A reporter asked.

"Yes, that's what i said." Gordinski stated.

"So, being abused made him a killer." Another reporter questioned.

"No." Derek instantly answered. "No, it did not." The cameras and microphones faced towards Morgan now and Sydney's head as she stood behind him. "The vast majority of child sex offenders or criminals. I know this because...and let me be direct...I was one of Carl Buford's victims." Sydney watched as Derek revealed his own story to the public and applauded him.

After that, the team went back on the jet, on their way back home. Derek had been putting two containers in the fridge and the other one in the freezer. "What's that, Morgan?" Spencer asks curiously.

"It's my mom's peach cobbler and the other one is for Syd." Derek answered turning his head to the sleepy girl who is sleeping on the couch.

Spencer turns back to Derek as he opened the lid enough for spencer to look to see what's inside. "She's going to love it." He says as Derek nods his head with a smile as the two walked to where everyone else is.

"Garcia's going to love that woman." JJ comments.

"There's enough for everybody. We'll heat it up when we get back " Derek states.

"Derek, you did a great thing back there." Rossi says as Derek pauses and looked at the rest of the team.

"I appreciate all of you for having my back." He says with a small smile as Spencer sat across from Derek.

"Always."

Derek took a seat in front of Spencer and his cell phone rang. He grabbed it quickly so Sydney wouldn't wake up. He checked the caller ID and then answered. "Yeah, this is Derek Morgan." He says as his face turned from confusion to shock. "What?" he says as Spencer looked up and noticed his expression. "Alright, thanks for the call."

Derek hung up as everyone looked his way. "What happened?" Hotch asked reading everyone's mind. Then, Derek said words that no one couldn't even believe came out of his mouth. "Carl Buford is dead."

Everyone stayed frozen and silent on the jet ride, not sure how to respond. It would take time for Derek to heal, it would just take time.

•❅───✧❅✦❅✧───❅•

When they got back Sydney wake up from her nap as she got sick right after her and Derek left the police department. So, he said to take a nap on the way home, that's what she did. When she woke up, she looked around at the others and they were all silent and quiet, only whispering to each other, Derek was the quietest he didn't say anything. That's when she realized that something happened when she took her nap. She got up as everyone was getting their stuff and heading out, but Derek stayed behind. He seemed to be in his own world and thoughts so when Sydney tapped his shoulder he jumped.

She looked at his brown eyes with caution and confusion. Like she could see through him, which she did. "He's dead, isn't he?" After she said that he paused before nodding his head. He didn't know what to say as he was processing what happened and what was said.

"Did you ever catch what was Logan's last name?" He finally asked which made Sydney look at him confused on why he would ask that question. When she realized what he was talking about her body froze as the memories of Logan raping her and drugging her so that her body would be numb started flowing back.

"His last name was Bentley." She says to Derek as he nods his head pulling a piece of paper from his pocket and handing it to the teenager. Her brows squint as she's confused before her eyes land on the name that she had to double check was on there: Logan Bentley.

The same person who raped and drugged her was right in front of her eyes as she couldn't believe it in a million years. Let alone that he was one of the people that Buford had molested. "Carl mentioned someone in that description but i didn't realize it until i left the prison."

After Derek said that Sydney nodded her head as they walked out of the jet as Sydney held her ice cream in her hand that Derek's mom made. Vanilla with sprinkles, Oreo and caramel drizzle. as she knows that Sydney's belated birthday party was a couple days ago.

His mom said that she would've come to it, but she didn't have a way to get to Quantico as her car is at the dealership. that and she didn't have the money from Chicago to Quantico.

"When I got kidnapped, he never mentioned anything about Carl." Sydney says as they hushed their conversation as they passed Rossi and Hotch but when they were out of their earshot, they continued their conversation.

"Makes sense, you never knew about it." He says to her as she nodded her head as she is always having conversations with Derek as they can see through each other. When she doesn't want to talk to her dad, about whatever she goes to either Derek and or Penelope. If it's about girl stuff or boys, she goes to JJ she did used to go to Emily, but she hasn't been around much. Then again, she is dead, so if she wanted to know, she can't.

Last sydney knew was that Emily was in London as she's 'visiting a friend', but Sydney knew that was a lie. she said that so casually and highly suspicious for the teenager.

She's not an idiot she knows when someone is lying. Then again, she is the daughter of a literal genius, so it works either way. Though she should talk as she lies herself.

"So, Maeve is out of the hospital, right." Derek says changing the subject as Sydney nods her head.

"Yeah, she's glad that she can be out of there. the food was horrible, then again, it's hospital food. which is trash." Sydney says glad that he changed the subject to Maeve. As Sydney is starting to like her more, now that she's spending more time with her and getting to know her better.

Maeve is starting to grow on sydney but in a good way. "Makes sense that food is horrendous." Derek says smiling the first time in a couple hours, which felt good. They got to Penelope's cave or den as Sydney opened the door as Penelope turned around with a bright smile at seeing Derek and Sydney. Her favorite people.

"Hey my babes." Penelope says as she gave Sydney a hug and then Derek as he hugged her with his free hand.

"Got you somethin'." Derek says as Penelope's eyes widen but in a good way as she opened the container.

"Oh, my goodness, thank you chocolate thunder." Penelope says as when Sydney heard that she looked at the two confused before walking out without another word. She found her dad as he was distracted by paperwork. So, she saw this as an opportunity to sneak up behind him.

"Hi, um can you help me find my dad, he's tall and lanky." Sydney says as Spencer turned around to face his daughter who had her best innocent smile.

"How rude, Syd. I'm offended." He says to her as she shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal.

"Poor baby." Sydney says as Spencer gave his daughter a playful glare which made her only grin more.

"JJ, sydney is being mean to me." Spencer says as JJ had passed the two Reid's. she turned around to face spencer.

"Poor baby, you probably deserved it." JJ says as spencer's mouth gaped open slightly when he heard that as he shook his head at his friend.

"Your fine, pretty boy." Sydney said using the nickname that Derek had given Spencer. When she first heard that, she was confused as she never heard of it before.

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hannah speaks!

i figured i could end the chapter here since it's almost to four thousand words.

i got inspired and had motivation.

hope you enjoy!