Elijah hummed as he and Reid sat at the park. Reid was reading and Elijah was sat beside him, looking over his shoulder as a kid, Eric, played chess nearby.

"I see checkmate in five. What do you two see?" The kid asked.

"I see it in three." Reid nodded.

"Kid, I'm clueless." Elijah whispered.

He sighed, moving pieces,"We missed you guys out here."

"Aw, thanks."

"Yeah, we had to take a little break." Reid told him.

"How come?" Eric asked.

"I used to play all the time with an old friend of mine. He was probably the best mind I ever went up against. One day he just decided he didn't want to play anymore." Reid explained.

"So, you gave up, too?"

"Just the opposite. I attempted to play through every permutation of moves on a chess board." Reid sighed.

"That's an infinite number of games." Eric pointed.

"It's not infinite. It's exponentially large."

"You couldn't have played through them all."

"There's an average of forty moves per chess game. I'll tell you something, the more I played the more I realised that every single match, every single chess game is really just a simple variation on the exact same theme. You know? It's aggressive opening, patient mid game, inevitable checkmate and I realised why my friend quit. He was tired of repeating the same patterns and expecting a different outcome."

"He just needed.. A break." Elijah nodded slowly.

That's when Reid's phone began to ring.

"You've got a lifetime of chess strategy in your head and you're just sitting on it?" Eric asked.

"I still use it, I just apply it differently. We gotta go." Reid checked his phone.

"It was nice seeing you, Eric." Elijah smiled.

Reid hummed and moved a piece before they ran off.

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

"Rita Stuart, twenty-five, second victim in Atlantic City." JJ pointed at the screen.

"Pretty public spot for a dump site." Rossi tilted his head.

"You know, technically I'd say it qualifies as more of a disposable site. You don't leave a body on a merry-go-round our of convenience." Reid shook his head.

"He took some time with her appearance didn't he?" Fleur sighed.

"Yeah, her nails were polished, her hair was cut, her clothes were brand new."

"He wants her to look her best when found. That's a lot of remorse." Morgan nodded.

"Who was victim number one?" Hotch asked.

"Stacia Jackson, twenty-nine. She was found at a local playground." JJ showed the picture.

"Quite a change in victimology." Elijah nodded slowly.

"What's the connection between these women?" Hotch asked.

"There is none. Rita was married, Stacia was single. Rita worked at a diner, Stacia was a corporate lawyer." JJ told him,"According to their credit cards, they never came within ten miles of each other. "

"Both women were taken two months ago?"

"Yeah. They led such completely different lives the police never connected their abductions together until now." She explained.

"Was there any evidence of sexual assault?" Reid asked.

"There was no evidence of violence of any kind."

"So how did they die?" Emily tilted her head.

"Rita had a stroke, Stacia had a brain hemorrhage." JJ answered.

"Look at this. The Unsub gave them a battery of drugs. Atracurium, Doxacurium. These are neuro-inhibitors. They block signals from the brain to the muscles." Reid explained.

"He put them in medical comas for six months."

"Actually, they weren't in a coma. You'd need Phenobarbital to keep them unconscious, and they didn't have that." Reid shook his head.

"So, you're telling me.. These victims were paralyzed but they were still conscious?" Elijah asked slowly, playing with his sleeves.

"They could open their eyes, hear, probably even feel stimulation." Reid nodded.

"Physical immobility but mental awareness." Rossi sighed,"This Unsub wants total domination over them."

"And he turns their bodies into prisons to do it." Hotch realised.

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

"Keeping women in a conscious paralysis reads as sadism." Rossi looked over the file.

"Definitely dehumanising. Reducing them to objects." Morgan nodded.

"But there's nothing else about this profile that takes us down that path."

"These women were found in excellent condition. There was no evidence of bedsores. They were well-fed through an IV." JJ added.

"If he has access to IVs and drugs, he almost certainly has medical training." Reid nodded.

"Are we sure this is a he?" Fleur asked,"The care this UnSub shows these victims, although they are dehumanised, it profiles as female."

"What about the postmortem posing?" Hotch raised a brow,"That's a lot of dead weight for a woman to carry."

"These women are petite. They're under one hundred pounds." JJ told him.

"Alright, if we reconsider the gender of the profile, what changes?" Hotch questioned.

"Nothing." Elijah hummed,"If anything, it fits better."

"Men kill to fulfill sexual compulsion. Women don't." Rossi shook his head.

"You see this in angel of mercy killers, like Genene Jones and Amy Archer. They didn't care about race or hair colour. It's men that do that." Reid explained.

"Damn straight, men do." Garcia hummed from the computer.

"Well, hello, Red. Look at you." Morgan smiled as he turned the screen around,"Guys."

"Wow." Fleur smiled

"You look gorgeous." Elijah hummed.

"Garcia, what did you find out about the clothing the Unsub dressed the victims in?" Hotch asked.

"At first, only that both garments were made from chiffon, but with the Wonder Twin powers of the Atlantic City Police and my impeccable eye for fashion, we have also determined that these garments fit ridiculously well. They're super flattering to each victims exact measurements. Kind of exactly like the UnSub whipped them up herself." Garcia explained.

"Maybe that's what connects the victims." Emily suggested.

"How so?" Hotch raised a brow.

"Maybe she isn't just killing petite women because they're easier to abduct and pose, but because of a physical type. She wants a body type." Emily explained.

"Please tell me she is not killing these women because she needs human models." JJ blinked,"I mean there's gotta be more to it than that."

"There probably is, but at least we have a start on victimology." Rossi nodded.

"Prentiss, Morgan and Deans, I want you to interview the victims families. Talk to them about lifestyle choices, any body image issues these women may have had. Reid and Howards go to Rita Stuarts autopsy. See if the drugs point to any specific medical training the UnSub might have had. Dave and I will go to the disposal sites..And Garcia?" Hotch ordered.

"Sir?"

"I want you to check missing persons reports for the last two months. See if any abductions match what we know. We need to find out if the UnSubs already taken another victim." Hotch sighed.

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

"Ah, Agent Jareau?" The officer at the station asked as he walked over,"Detective Marty Cotrone."

"Hi, these are SSAs Morgan, Prentiss and Deans. Were you able to contact rhe families?" JI asked.

"They're already here." He nodded.

"Did they bring the pictures we asked for?" Emily looked up.

"Yeah, they were pretty confused by that, and to be honest, so am I." Cotrone answered.

"Let's head in." Morgan nodded.

Elijah nodded as he and Morgan headed into the interview room, meeting with Stacia's mother, Linda Jackson.

"Agents, I don't understand. How does what my daughter looked like have to do with the monster that killed her?" Linda asked.

"We think the Unsub is looking for a particular body type. Fit, but petite." Elijah told her.

"Did she work out? Go to the gym?" Morgan asked.

"She went to the gym at least three times a week." Linda answered,"Stacia took pride in every aspect of her appearance."

"In what way?" Morgan raised a brow.

"Her clothes. She loved to shop, especially at high end boutiques."

"Expensive ones?" Elijah tilted his head.

"Certainly." She nodded.

Elijah looked down at Stacia's pictures,"And dressed to fit?"

"Everything had to be taken in so that she would look.. Perfect."

"Would you mind writing down some of her favouriye places to go?" Morgan asked, sliding a piece of paper towards her

Linda wrote some names down, handing it back to them.

"Would she ever wear anything like that?" Elijah asked, showing the picture of Stacia from the park where she was dumped.

"No." Linda shook her head.

The pair looked through the window and made eye contact with Emily, shaking their heads. Emily shook her head too, neither girl would wear something like this voluntarily.

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

"Once I have the knees bent, I can get leverage under her. Normally an assistant helps me, but I can do it by myself if I need to." The morgue worker told them.

"I'm assuming the Unsub would have this training, too?" Reid tilted his head,"Let me ask you this. Is there anything specific about it?"

"No. Any caregiver out there can do this. Docs, nurses, orderlies." She shrugged.

"Where do you think she's getting the drugs that she's using? Do you think she could be manipulating a doctor or a pharmacist, maybe?" Fleur suggested.

"He'd be criminally negligent if she was." She nodded.

"I mean, doctors order things through residents, nurses forge signatures, prescriptions fall through cracks." Reid mentioned.

"That's a lot of drugs and a lot of cracks. She keeps these women paralyzed for two months."

"Your report said both of them had hair extensions clipped in." Reid added.

"Yes. To hide the fact that clumps of their real hair had fallen out." She nodded.

"But if they were fed through IVs that wasn't from malnutrition, right?" Fleur asked.

"You see this a lot in bedridden patients. Loss of motor function, especially in a young woman like this."

"Of course, psyhic shock." Reid realised,"Yeah, the mental effects take a physical toll. One last question. In your professional opinion, do you think the hair extensions were clipped on before or after the death?"

"Before."

"And you seem pretty certain of that?"

"You know the old wives' tale about your hair and nails growing after death?" She tilted her head,"What's really happening is that dehydration is shrinking your skin, pulling it back. Based on where she clipped these extensions, they were definitely still alive."

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

"I think we found who was taken last night." Morgan walked over,"Her name is Bethany Wallace. Her husband said she never came home from the dry cleaners where she stopped off to pick up some clothes."

"Anybody at the cleaners see anything?" Hotch asked.

"The employees were busy locking up but they did mention that they do farm out work to tailors who work from home." Morgan explained.

"Good. We can match records based on who worked on Bethany's clothes."

"I just got the pictures of two recent abductions from Garcia." Rossi walked in.

"Line up the photos of the new victims next to the bodies they replaced. That might help us with the timeline." Hotch pointed.

Morgan did as he was told,"You guys seeing this?"

"Yeah." Elijah sighed as he looked at the women.

"She's matching up the victims, physically. One to one." Fleur realised.

"She's a collector." Reid walked in with Emily.

"We're ready to give the profile." Emily nodded.

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

"The Unsub we're looking for is female. She's a collector. It's a psychopathology similar to hoarding." Hotch began with the profile.

"So, when we say collector, we're not talking about stamps or baseball cards. It's not what your kids, or even you, might pursue as a normal hobby." Rossi added.

"This is an attachment to objects that's become obsessive by someone that is antisocial and extremely introverted." Elijah contiued.

"These people attach a part of themselves to their collection. If you try and separate them from it or take it away from them, they will react violently, even psychotically." Fleur nodded.

"They've suffered damage to their prefrontal cortex. That's the part of the brain that regulates basic Freudian fantasy-reality." Reid explained,"They can still function. Drive a car, go to work, even do their taxes."

"In fact, she excels at goal orientated jobs. Like the precision of sewing or the details of an abduction." Morgan added.

"But they've lost their ability to categorize the difference between living and dead, belonging and loss. That has been irreparably destroyed." Reid told them.

"So what is she collecting? Women?" Detective Cotrone asked.

"Actually, we think she's collecting dolls." Rossi informed him.

"Technically, replacing them." Reid corrected,"We believe she lost the originals sometime within the last three months, this is what served as her stressor."

"She searched for a replacement and when she couldn't find one, she started abducting the closest possible surrogate." Elijah crossed his arms.

"Women of different ethnicities but a similar physicality." Emily pointed.

"The drug-induced paralysis is part of the fantasy. She puts her victims in a position where they can't talk back, so she can fetishize them like the object she lost." Morgan contiued.

"Look, I respect your analysis, but this woman kidnapped six women and killed three of them, and you're telling us this is about dolls?" Detective Cotrone blinked.

"This Unsub stitched a wig onto the scalp of her latest victim. It's a technique used to attach hair to porcelain dolls." Emily informed him.

"Keep in mind, collectors and serial killers share certain traits. Uh..A lot of serial killers take trophies, attaching the same significance to them that this collector does to objects." Reid added.

"But this Unsub's intent isn't violence. She needs this collection to be complete so she can feel in control of her life, probably to overcome some trauma she experienced." Rossi explained.

"She really only feels that deep control when the collection is complete which is why she's repeating an abduction pattern of living victims. If she loses a doll, or in this case, if she loses a women who represents a doll, she has to replace it." Reid contiued.

"This woman works alone. We know she has medical training. Look for nurses' aides or orderlies who were fired for a lack of social graces. She can't fake a bedside manner." Hotch shook his head.

"We believe she's currently working as a tailor or seamstress, and we're following these leads now. But do let us know if you notice any overlap in your suspect pools. Thank you." Fleur hummed.

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

"Look, collectors are good, honest people. Just because you enjoy dolls doesn't mean you're a freak or a pedophile." The shop owner shook his head.

"We appreciate that, sir, but the woman we are looking for has lost her ability to control her obsession." Morgan sighed.

"She's killed three women trying to recreate a type of doll she had when she was a child. " Elijah told him.

"Describe the line to me." He crossed his arms.

"Well, there's a pattern to the victims. They're all in their 20's and they're petite." Reid began.

"Most doll lines revolve around infants. Is she dressing them like babies?" He questioned.

"No, she's not. The wardrobe consists of chiffon dresses, wore by one a blonde woman, a redhead and a black woman." Morgan told him.

"The dresses, is she sewing them herself?" He raised a brow, walking over to a shelf.

"How'd you know that?" Elijah tilted his head.

"It's the Valois Line. A local company, back in the late 80's."

"Probably when the Unsub was prepubescent." Reid nodded.

The shop owner held out a magazine,"Yeah, they promoted feminism and multiculturalism. Strong, independent girls from different backgrounds who could still be friends."

Morgan flipped through the magazine,"Guys, birth certificate to fill out, a form to describe their lives, and a kit to sew your own clothes."

"JJ said she's been at it for a while. She's probably been seeing since she was a little kid." Reid sighed.

"Wait a minute." Elijah pointed to the corner of the page,"Sir, what's this contest that they held?"

"That was to see who could come up with the most imaginative doll. Sew a dress, write an essay to describe her. If you won the contest, you'd have your doll featured in next year's line." He explained.

"And I'm assuming that didn't end well, did it?" Reid raised a brow.

"No, it did not." He sighed.

"It's a classic tool child psychologists use. 'Tell me a story with these dolls'." Morgan nodded.

"When the company got essays with thinly veiled references to physical or sexual abuse, they turned the entry forms and the dolls over to the police. The publicity killed the line." He explained.

"Wait, you said the company was local, right?" Elijah asked, turning to the others,"They might still have the clothes in evidence."

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

"Okay, guys. I just got Samantha Malcolms medical records. And oh my god, she was doomed. Like Emily Brontë doomed. Like Shakespeare doomed. Like red-shirted ensign in Star Trek doomed." Garcia ranted.

"Garcia, what happened to her?" Hotch asked.

"Sorry- Well, for the first ten years there's nothing. And then, she started a battery of electroshock treatments." Garcia tilted her head.

"At ten? Who subjects a child to ECT?" Elijah blinked.

"That would be her father, Dr Arthur Malcolm. He runs an inpatient mental health facility for troubled young people called New Lives. At first, the essay that Samantha wrote raised some flags, but then her father explained that the therapy was to deal with the recent death of her mother. After that, he started her on a serious regimen of anti-psychotic drugs, which he weaned her off of a few years ago." She nodded.

"That explains her familiarity with medication." Emily nodded,"Where is she now?"

"Her father declared her incompetent, so he's still her legal guardian. Everything is in his name, and all of her records list New Lives as a residence."

"She couldn't keep victims at an inpatient facility. She needs privacy." Rossi shook his head.

"Garcia, what about real estate holdings in her father's name?" Hotch questioned.

"Just his own. But New Lives has a bunch of outpatient and halfway houses all over town." Garcia told him.

"JJ, where does she work?"

"I have her placed at three different shops around town." JJ nodded.

"Alright, let's split up and cover the shops and the facility." Hotch nodded.

"I want to go to New Lives." Reid spoke up,"Whether or not she's there, I want to talk to the father. There are hundreds of therapies to help kids through loss. Electroshock is not one of them."

"Take Rossi." Hotch sighed.

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

After the case, reuiniting Samantha with her dolls and rescuing the women, Morgan and Fleur eventually ended up back at their apartment.

"God..I feel so bad for Samantha." Fleur sighed.

"I know, but at least she got to be reunited with her dolls." Morgan nodded slowly.

"I always loved my dolls."

"Did you have a favourite?" He tilted his head.

"I had this little doll called Suzy." Fleur hummed,"She was ginger."

"My sisters had a few dolls." Morgan nodded slowly.

"I bet you played with them all the time." Fleur chuckled.

"You think I got a choice?"

"Who was your favourite?" She sat down.

"Well, there was this one doll, Rachel." Morgan put his arm around Fleur,"She came with a little dog so she was obviously the favourite."

Fleur nodded,"I should get Addy some dolls."

"I'm sure she'd love them." Morgan agreed.

Fleur hummed,"Come on, I'm tired." She got up.

"Hi tired." Morgan winked.

"God, you've got such dad jokes." Fleur groaned.

"Hey, I'm a dad. I need dad jokes." Morgan pointed as he headed towards the stairs.

"And what do you think Adelaide will think of these jokes?" She followed him.

"Oh, she will love them." He hummed.

"Yeah right." Fleur laughed.

"What's wrong with them?" Morgan asked as he walked into the bedroom.

"They're horrible."

Morgan gasped, crossing his arms,"I see how it is then."

"And how is it?"

"You clearly don't want any kisses."

Fleur gasped,"How dare you."

"You don't like my jokes." Morgan looked away.

"But I like your kisses." Fleur walked over, holding his hand.

"And how can I be so sure?" Morgan raised a brow.

Fleur hummed and leaned up, kissing him. Morgan kissed back, using his free hand to gently hold Fleur's cheek.

"Was that sure enough?" Fleur asked while pulling away.

"It was." Morgan chuckled,"Besides, I could never say no to you."

"Exactly." Fleur smirked,"Bedtime."

"Oh yes, bedtime."

Fleur hummed and pulled Morgan towards the bed.

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

Elijah was sat outside his house, just thinking. Reid had stayed behind at the park to play a few round of chess with Eric.

"Hey, sorry I'm late." Reid jogged over.

"Did you have fun?" Elijah looked up at him.

"I did. I let Eric win." He chuckled.

"That's so kind of you." Elijah hummed as he stood up, opening the door

"Did you miss me?" He walked in.

"Y'know, I think I managed just fine."

"Really?"

"Of course not." Elijah shook his head.

Reid hummed,"What about the cats?"

"They've been behaving.. So far."

"So far." He chuckled.

"I don't want to jinx it." Elijah shook his head.

"This is the cats you're talking about." Reid chuckled.

"I have no faith." Elijah leaned against him.

That's when Horatio jumped out, meowing.

"Hello little man." Elijah bent down.

Horatio purred and climbed up onto Elijah.

"Have you been good? Hm?"

"I think they have..So far." Reid looked around.

"Good." Elijah sighed.

It was fine until Rigatoni came into the room with toilet roll in his mouth.

Elijah sat Horatio down, shaking his head,"It had to be one of you."

Rigatoni tilted his head.

"Drop it."

Rigatoni purred and ran off, the toilet roll unrolling even more.

"Tony, get your ass back here." Elijah chased after him.

Reid laughed, clapping his hands.

"The hell are you laughing- Rigatoni!" Elijah grabbed the cat.

Rigatoni dropped the paper, looking at Elijah.

"Are you proud of yourself, little man? Are you?" Elijah looked down at him.

"I think he is."

Elijah sighed, sitting Rigatoni back down and grabbing the toilet paper.

"I'll get it." Reid hummed.

"Thank you." Elijah sighed.

"Go shower."

Elijah smiled, kissing Reid's cheek as he headed upstairs.