CHAPTER ONE
i. Shoot Your Shot
( L.D.S.K. )

☆ ★ ☆

     THE SUN SHONE DOWN ON CARLA ALFARO as she maneuvered the black SUV down the streets of Des Plaines, Illinois. The wobbly figurine of Iron Man bobbed back and forth with every bump on the semi-busy road. Her leather jacket stuck to her body like glue and she felt like she was on fire due to the heath. She huffed in annoyance, not particularly fond of the heath due to spending the last few weeks in the blazing November sun. The former agent was no stranger to the work on the field — hell, working in Washington D.C. proved it. Constantly working on foot, wrecking her brain while trying to figure out the next move of the criminal that was currently causing havoc.

Yet, she lately found she didn't enjoy it as much as she used to (not that there is much to enjoy in her line of work).

Her eyebrows furrowed after pulling up at the latest crime scene, seeing quite a few of the unfamiliar faces litter the small crowd of people. She figured since this was the third shooting in the last two weeks their police department would be seeking help from the higher forces. She honestly didn't expect the BAU to make an appearance let alone take some time of their busy lives to fly to their city to investigate the ongoing case. That was her first mistake. She stepped out of the car, lifting her sunglasses from her nose and onto her gelled head. Her footsteps were heard almost immediately due to her black combat boots while her high ponytail gently grazed against her back. Her eyes caught those of Detective Shea Calvin who gestured her forward.

"Detective Alfaro." The older woman greeted making the attention of the agents surrounding her shift from the short woman to the one approaching. Carla felt their eyes roam over her figure immediately. "Agents, this is Detective Carla Alfaro. Detective Alfaro this is Doctor Spencer Reid —", Carla first made eye contact with a guy with short and sleek brown hair Calvin gestured to. He was tall and skinny, exceptionally younger than the rest of them. He stood awkwardly by the woman in charge of the crime scene, his hands disappearing into the pockets of his jeans after offering her a small wave.

"— this is Detective Derek Morgan —", the next guy she pointed to immediately offered his hand for her to shake. He was wearing black sunglasses and a flirty smirk on his face, Carla not doubting he would be winking at her if his eyes weren't covered. Nonetheless, she shook his hand, offering him a tight-lipped smile," — and lastly this is —"

"Agent Aaron Hotchner." Carla acknowledged the man with a sly smirk and a shake of a hand. Their joined hands were joined in an intense yet comforting grip. "I really shouldn't be surprised to see you here." The agent in question smiled at the woman in front of him, letting a breathy chuckle upon hearing her sentence.

Carla had to admit he looked better than he did the last time she had seen him. It had been almost a year since their last encounter in Washington when they chased down a serial killer for three and a half weeks straight. She noticed there was something lighter about him, an unfamiliar aloofness he didn't usually carry. But he still radiated the same seriousness and authority he used to with the way he stood confidently and firmly beside his colleagues.  

"You two know each other?" Agent Morgan's smirk was now gone and was replaced with a confused frown, his hand lowering his sunglasses so his boss could see the perplexity in his brown eyes. The frown didn't suit his youthful face, wrinkles on his forehead making him appear older than he actually was.

"Sure we do. We worked a few cases together." Carla's eyes hadn't left Aaron's as she talked. Agent Morgan only bobbed his head slowly, his shoulder less tense, though he still held a questioning look in his eyes. Knowing there were more than a few cases involved in their story. Calvin, already knowing that bit of information, nodded while Doctor Reid rather kept his focus on the crime scene and not on the ongoing conversation. "Shall we?"

Calvin was the first one to move, passing both Hotch and Morgan. She lifted her finger, pointing at the park in front of them, more specifically at the bright orange cones littered across the park. "The cones mark the places where the victims were."

"So we know he fired from somewhere in this area," Aaron concluded, the rare smile on his face wiped in a second as his eyes moved from cone to cone as a gentle breeze blew past them. He paced in front of the rest of them as he continued to voice his analysis of the crime scene. "Close enough to hit all three victims, but far enough away not to be seen."

"If he's wounding his victims intentionally, we would classify him as a "sadistic killer."" Doctor Reid spoke, the rest turning to him. Carla stood there and let herself wonder how old he actually was. With his hair bathed in too much gel and his torso covered with a brown cardigan even her late grandfather wouldn't wear, he looked no more than twenty-one. Which baffled her even more.

Carla noticed Calvin raise an eyebrow, eyeing the younger man up and down, not expecting him to speak up. "That would help us?"

"Well, we know a lot about sadists." Agent Morgan explained, his arms crossed over his buffed chest, his eyes also focused on the park. Looking and analyzing. "But most want to be close to their victims to watch them suffer."

"A powerful scope would allow him to observe it from a safe distance."

"Well, how do we determine if he's a sadist?" Calvin asked, her eyes still focused on the younger man.

"We have to be him," Carla spoke up before Agent Morgan could, bringing the attention back to her once again. She ignored the surprised stares of the younger man and the dark-skinned agent as she stepped up beside Hotch. "Step into his shoes and let him tell us."

Hotch shook his head in agreement, still pacing in the parking lot. He was still focused on the cones as he moved from place to place until he eventually settled on the only handicapped parking space in the small lot. Carla followed the man, watching him place his hands on his hips as he talked. "This handicapped spot couldn't be further away from the entrance to the building."

Morgan turned to look at the building behind them before turning to his boss. "Yeah?"

"It also has a line of sight to all three victims and the flagpole."

"What are you thinking?" Morgan queried, a frown gracing his features.

"At this range, the UnSub would have to factor in wind direction and speed as he shot. To do this, he needed a spot with a wide field of fire, where he could see the flag to judge how the wind would affect each shot." Hotch walked away, stepping down on the grass in front of them as he cosplayed their UnSub. He turned around, walking back to the handicapped spot. "He came here before the shooting, decided this was his spot, and ensured that it would be empty when he came back."

"Ensured by making it himself," Carla crouched down beside the handicapped parking spot, letting her finger press down on the painted spot. Her nose twitched upon smelling a lingering odor of fresh paint on her fingertips. She glanced back at the rest of the parking spots, noticing they looked more dirty — more used. It just proved their point.

As she stood up, Hotch stepped up beside her and continued. "My guess is he's shooting from his car."

"Well, that would mean he wanted to get away from here quickly," Morgan concluded, looking around, "that he didn't stick around to watch his victims suffer."

"So he would not be a sadist."

"How would you know?" Calvin once again asked, trying to keep up with the pace of others.

"Sadists have a desire to control and dominate others and they use violence to establish it," Carla explained briefly as she recalled times she crossed paths with people of that nature. Job of a detective was great, she didn't have any complaints about it, yet she missed the life she used to have as an agent. "If he made a quick getaway, as previously mentioned, he wouldn't be one."

"Then what would he be?" Calvin asked, her eyes twinkling with respect as she looked at her fellow detective, noticing how the switch happened when she worked with agents rather than police officers from their station.

"A very smart, very resourceful, very paranoid sociopath."

They stood in silence for a moment, soaking in the new information they didn't have a few hours before their arrival. Calvin nodded in acceptance before addressing Hotch. "We should get back to the station. See if the rest of your team had any luck figuring this bastard out."

Hotch agreed, his hand coming up to rub off the sweat on his forehead before they ventured towards the parked cars. But just as Carla reached to the driver's side Hotch spoke up again, this time addressing his two agents. "I would like to ride with Detective Alfaro." He then turned to Calvin. "If that's alright?"

"Fine by me." She said before entering her own car. Hotch looked at Carla who only nodded in agreement.

Her second mistake.

Morgan and Reid stood awkwardly in the parking lot, the latter more so than the former. "What's that about?" Reid asked his friend as both watched how Hotch got into the passenger seat before the duo sped away from their sight. He looked at Morgan who wore the same puzzled expression on his face.

"No idea." He replied before fishing through the pocket of his jacket for his phone. Quickly dialing the number he had in mind, he pressed the phone up to his ear. "Hey, baby girl. I need you to look up someone for me."

☆ ★ ☆

"So, how have you been?"

Carla rolled her eyes almost immediately. Leave it to Hotch to try to make small talk, she thought as she turned the steering wheel to the left, going into another street. "Never pegged you as a person who is not good with awkward silences so much that he makes small talk."

"I'm not not good with awkward silences. It was a genuine question." He replied almost immediately yet turned to look through the window when Carla looked at him with a raised eyebrow. When he did look at her though, he was still expecting the answer which Carla didn't provide. She was the one now to look through the front window of a car.

"How's Haley?" She rather asked, her fingers tapping a beat on the steering wheel. "Assuming you're still together."

"We are, we are. And she's great." One of those rare smiles climbed up to Hotch's face as he thought about his wife. Carla thought it was endearing to see how much Hotch's whole mood changed at the mention of his wife. The way his shoulders were no longer tense yet relaxed, the way his frown was replaced with a smile, and the way his whole vibe became more easygoing than strict. Hotch loved his wife with the kind of love that is rarely found nowadays. "Actually, she's pregnant."

"Wow. Congratulations!" Carla smiled for the first time that day, truly happy for the man sitting beside her. "How far along is she?"

"She's due in a few days."

"Wow, Hotch. And here you are spending your time with me." Aaron laughed, nodding his head in defeat.

The duo fell into yet another silence, and this time, less awkward. As they drove through the busy streets of Des Plaines, Carla remembered how much she enjoyed Hotch's company. They met a few years ago and, despite the fact he was a brooding workaholic, they managed to hit it off and remain friends outside of work. She met his wife, whom she liked immensely, and his brother, whose company she enjoyed for rather different reasons. But overall, Hotch has been proven to be one of the few friends Carla has.

"My answer is not changing, Aaron." She said calmly, glancing over to him in a split second as she pulled up to yet another street.

He didn't say anything for a moment or two. It was like he was trying to come up with a new way to ask her the same question he had been asking her for the last year or so. Because no matter what he said or said what he would do, her answer, as said, did not change. "I didn't say anything." He decided to say.

His answer was met with a scoff. "I know what you're doing and it's not going to work."

"I'm not doing anything." He was quick to respond, shaking his head and throwing his hands up in mock surrender. "Just wanted to catch up since we haven't seen each other since you left Washington. That's all."

"Sure." Her eyebrows were still raised and she remained skeptical, but decided to move on with the conversation by changing the subject.

Thankfully, they arrived at the station a lot quicker than she thought they would and the duo temporarily separated ways. After the man went his own way Carla made a B-line towards her desk, dropping her jacket on the chair and her sunglasses on the desk. She greeted her coworkers with a simple hello's and small smiles that they returned. Although Carla worked in the station for a few months now, she didn't have so-called friends within the station. Sure, she was friendly to most of the people she worked with, but she wasn't close to anyone enough to call them her friend.

She never did have many friends growing up (if you count out her imaginary friends) because of her strict parents who watched over her too much. Paid attention a little too much for a normal parent to do. It was rather lonely if you think about it too much.

Not that Carla did. After all the years spent away from them, she learned how not to.

After dropping her stuff at her designated table, she made her way towards the separate room where the part of the BAU team, that Carla already met, along with Detective Calvin was. They were talking amongst themselves, looking at the whiteboard in front of them, tossing theories, and sharing insights.

Suddenly, Morgan excused himself as his phone rang. Though, upon looking at the number and name of the caller, he paused and answered. And what baffled Carla the most was that he put it on speaker for everyone to hear. "Isn't this spooky?" A female voice was heard coming from Morgan's phone. The woman on the other end of the line was whispering and her voice had a hint of amusement in it.

"Isn't what spooky?" Morgan asked, his facial expression showing confusion. Yet, Carla found as she watched him, he was fighting the urge to smile at the simple yet weird sentence the mysterious woman said.

"That right now, you were thinking about me," she stated confidently making Carla's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. Morgan now had a small smile playing on his lips as he continued to listen to the woman, "and out of the blue, your phone rings. And it's me. Huh?"

Carla turned to Hotch who only shook his head in the manner that said 'Please don't ask' while Dr. Reid only rolled his eyes in amusement, rather keeping his attention to the board at the front.

"How's that for a spiritual connection?"

"Ahm, do I know you?"

"Why do you hurt me?" The woman asked, mysterious tone and velvety whispers nowhere to be found. Her voice was now normal with a joking undertone.

Carla shook her head in amusement, guessing the woman on the other line was Agent Morgan's girlfriend or something. So, not to intrude, she stood by Hotch as he and Reid talked to Calvin about their UnSub whom they thought was a cop due to his excellent knowledge of law enforcement procedures. Calvin, upon realising what the agents were applying, put on a dubious facial expression. "Y'all are saying the shooter is a cop."

"We're saying it's a possibility." Hotch almost immediately interjected, ignoring the smile of irony that crawled up on Calvin's face. "He scouted and prepped each crime scene. He chose an elevated position with excellent enfilade and perfect file of fire."

"That's textbook military practice."

"True —"

"Yeah, but maybe he was in the Army." Calvin interrupted once again, a look of disbelief still on her face. Her eyes kept on glancing at Carla, almost like she wanted her second opinion or just for her to confirm that what the BAU was implying was just a load of bullshit. But Carla looked more determined than she had ever seen her.

She guessed that was expected of her. She noticed, as in the last few months of knowing her, that Carla had a strong moral compass. Knowing that there was a killer within their midst didn't seem to bother her as much as it did Calvin. She looked like she was ready to expose the coward and bring them down just like any other criminal they'd encountered. She supposed it was easier for her since she didn't really step over the line where colleagues became friends.

Suddenly, Morgan joined their huddled group after hanging up the phone call. "He was probably a Marine, Ranger, or other specialised unit. Garcia says the bullet was a .223 fired from an M4 variant of the M16." Carla almost sheepishly smiled at herself upon making a quick assumption that the woman on the phone was a significant other to the agent before her. Turns out it was their technical analyst.

"All the services use an M4."

"It's got a shorter barrel than the M16. It's less accurate, and it's a lot harder to fire, especially at these distances." He turned his attention to Calvin as he continued to speak. " This level of skill indicates specialized training."

"If he has specialized training, he knows exactly what he's doing." Reid quickly deducted.

"He intended to wound them." Carla nodded in realisation, getting a nod from Morgan as she came to the conclusion.

"The "underkill" is deliberate."

"Everything he does is deliberate," Hotch noted, his hands on his chin as he thought the situation over, "but it's as if he needs to show how smart he is."

"Well, since the crime scenes aren't centered around one single location, Garcia can't get a geographic profile without additional data."

"What kind of data?" Calvin finally asked.

"More crime scenes." Morgan seemed to hesitate a little as he delivered the news to the local detective who only looked up at him in horror in her brown eyes. Carla too shared the horrified look on her face as she went over their constructed profile in her head.

"She's going to get them. This guys got something to prove."

☆ ★ ☆

There has been another shooting with, once again, three victims, all three of them carrying non-fatal wounds. Calvin was quick to visit the newest crime scene at one of the most popular brunch locations downtown, instructing Carla to stay at the station along with others. Upon her arrival back she was accompanied by three new Agents.

While Jason Gideon was familiar to Carla, having seen his work up close and reading about him in the newspaper, the other two female agents were in unknown to her. But despite not knowing them for more than a few hours, she concluded they were very skilled and passionate at their jobs as she watched them deliver the profile of their killer.

"We're looking for a 30 to 40-year-old male veteran driving a car large enough to shoot from, but not so large it was noticed." Hotch stepped up after their Communication Liaison Jennifer Jareau gave direct instructions for police officers to avoid alerting the media of their profile. "Like the Beltway Shooter, it's probably a sedan, customized to conceal the shooter, his weapon, and the sound of his shot.

"The shooter suffers from both narcissistic and paranoid personality disorders. He works out obsessively and is never without a weapon. He's completely self-centered and cannot empathise with others. Incapable of admitting fault, he blames his shortcomings on those around him." While still listening to Hotch, Carla looked around the room, trying to suspect any of the cops who might look antsy. Apparently she was not the only one as she noticed Agent Gideon doing the same, though his stern and serious expression was capable of making everyone around him nervous and anxious.

"He has no friends and his career history has been marked by frequent job changes." Hotch continued, "He's drawn to high-stakes jobs by a need to prove his superiority to a world he perceives has undervalued him. And these shootings are the ultimate expression of that need. We believe he changes jurisdictions intentionally and strikes during the first/second shift change, indicating an intimate knowledge of law enforcement. "

"You're saying he's one of us?" One of the officers sitting at the front asked. His eyebrows furrowed and his mouth ajar. His eyes flickered up to Carla for a split second. None seemed to notice it aside from Carla herself whose eyebrows shot up in surprise. She straightened up her posture to seem more intimidating, her eyes daring the officer to make further comment.

Though, Gideon seemed to catch the tense moment shared between the two. His eyebrow quirked up in interest.

"We're saying he once was, or is now, a police officer."

"Is he driving a white van, too?" The officer joked, his eyes retuning to Hotch. His comment earned a few snickers around the crowded room.

"Enough. That'll be all for now." Sargent Weigart said, sending a glare to anyone who dared to make another joke or let as much as a chuckle. He turned to Hotch with a nod. "We can talk in my office."

Carla followed Calvin along with Sergeant Weigart and the BAU team into the said office. As they were getting in, Hotch stepped up beside Weigart and spoke. "Sergeant Weigart, we would like to re-enact the third shooting during the shift change."

"Why?"

"Well, to better understand his MO. How does he get there, how does he leave, what's the traffic like." Hotch explained as Weigart leaned back in his chair, looking at the team. Beside Carla, Calvin still held the same struck look of admiration mixed with disbelief.

"It could help us with witnesses." Jennifer Jereau stated. In the two seconds Carla knew her, she could tell this woman was considerate and kind. When she got to the station after the second shooting, she immediately introduced herself to Carla and a few other detectives, offering pleasantries and encouraging words. "Maybe the victims or bystanders saw something but don't realize the significance of what they saw."

The sergeant considered their plan for a hot minute but eventually nodded. "All right. Let's do it."

author's note: ladies and gentlemen, after a millennia, the first chapter is here. enjoy.