"My European chums." Garcia ran over to Elijah and Fleur.

"Is something the matter, darling?" Elijah blinked.

"I have a gift for the two of you- Well not for you guys, for your little kitties and pup." Garcia hummed.

"Oh, I love presents. I mean- The cats love presents."

"So for your two..I have these little jumpers." Garcia handed Elijah two jumpers,"They match the colours of them."

"I love them so much." Elijah gasped.

"And for Marie I got her a little bowl with a crown on it." Garcia handed it to Fleur,"Along with a new collar for Beau."

"They'll love them." Fleur smiled.

"Beau is gonna look so handsome." Elijah hummed.

"I think Rigatoni will love his jumper, however Horatio might have some trouble." Garcia pointed, But if you have any trouble, send him right to me."

"I have some faith in Tony for once... But Horatio is definitely going to eat this." Elijah nodded.

"100%." Fleur chuckled.

"But I will try my best with him."

"Also..Sorry to burst your bubbles, but I also had to come get you for a case." Garcia bit her cheek.

"Please tell me it's not extremely bad." Elijah sighed.

"Well, all the cases are." Garcia pouted.

"I know, but you know what I mean. On a scale of one to ten, how horrific is it?"

"Maybe..An eight."

Elijah shook his head,"Let's just get this over with."

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

Soon enough, they were all in the Conference Room and Garcia began speaking,"Last night, all of the Bennet family were killed in their home in Council Buffs, lowa. Jake and Sandra were the parents of Sammy, eleven, and Kayla, nine." Garcia sighed.

"Agent Beeks in the Omaha Field Office called me. The previous night, the other family, the Archers, were killed just across the state line in Nebraska. He thinks it's the same offender." Hotch told them.

"The MO is consistent. Both mothers died due to severe blunt force trauma and the fathers with multiple stab wounds." Fleur read out.

"The children were all strangled. Violence only in the kids' rooms, but no sexual abuse on any of the children." Elijah contiued,"That's odd."

"Odd comes up right now because the Bennet father was not just stabbed he was also.." Garcia stopped herself before she turned off the screen,"And those pictures are in your personal files cause I didn't think they needed the help of 1080hp."

"His chest was opened, organs disturbed, intestines removed." Rossi read out.

"That's awesome. Can we please leave the gross part of the conversation for the plane?" Garcia asked quickly.

"The father of the Archer family had multiple stab wounds, but no dissection." Reid pointed out.

"So he went from piquerism to this overnight?" Fleur blinked.

"Two families in two days. He's on a spree." Elijah shook his head.

"Wheels up in thirty." Hotch nodded, getting up.

As the others got up as well, Emily stopped in front of the window,"Hey, Morgan."

Morgan walked up to the window, seeing.. Ellie. She gave a small wave towards Morgan.

"Why is- Oh my god." Fleur walked up.

"Dont tell me what I thought could happen actually happened." Elijah crossed his arms.

"C'mon." Morgan nodded for Fleur to follow.

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

"Ellie, how did you get past airport security?" Morgan asked her.

"I stayed real close to this family. Nobody asked. If they had, I would have said I was twelve cause that's when you can fly yourself." Ellie explained.

"Sweetheart..This isn't right." Fleur sighed.

"You can't just run away like this." Morgan shook his head.

"But that house is awful." Ellie began to tear up,"The older boy tries to watch me in the shower.'

Morgan looked back at Fleur before Garcia walked in.

"Hey, it is way early in LA. I left a message with Child Protective Services, but I haven't heard-"

"You can't send me back there." Ellie shook her head.

"Ellie, you're a missing kid. We have to left them know you're safe." Morgan told her.

"I didn't know where else to go."

"I know." He nodded slowly,"Listen, this is one of my very good friends, Penelope. She's going to look after you while I'm gone."

"Hi Ellie." Garcia waved slightly.

"Ellie, I'll come back as soon as I can." Morgan wiped away her tears.

"Come on." Garcia held out her hand.

"Go ahead, it's okay."

"Have you ever been in a lair before? I think you'll like it." Garcia hummed as they walked out the room.

"What are you going to do?" Fleur sighed.

"I don't know." Morgan shook his head.

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

On the plane, everyone was talking in their own little groups until Rossi walked up.

"Check this out. No forced entry at either house. Both dinner tables are set for five people, not four."

"Maybe they knew him and invited him to dinner." Morgan suggested.

"Both families live in different states, but only eight miles apart. Is it possible they knew each other?" Reid tilted his head.

"Garcia, did you find any overlap between the Bennett and Archer families?" Hotch asked.

"Zip. They didn't work, shop, eat or worship in any of the same places." Garcia shook her head.

"Worship?" Elijah blinked.

"Both families religious?" Fleur raised a brow.

"And then some. Pretty much all their social lives revolved around some kind of church activities." Garcia nodded.

"Maybe he forced the families to make them dinner as part of a ritual, like Karl Arnold." Emily suggested.

"The Fox was a classic family annihilator who targeted patriarchs." Reid nodded slowly.

"The dissection of the last dad makes me think the UnSub was focused on male parents as well." Morgan looked up.

"I'm not so sure. There's a lot of overkill on the mothers." Rossi pointed.

"Alright. When we land, Morgan, Prentiss, Howards and I will go get set up at the field office with Agent Beeks. Dave, you, Deans and Reid go to Council Buffs while the crime scene is still fresh." Hotch ordered.

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

"Family annihilators tend to kill the children first. It makes the parents suffer the most." Reid told them as they walked into the children's room.

"Maybe that wasn't the only reason. Mom comes up to say that dinner is ready." Rossi began.

"First thing she sees is the children, she runs to them." Elijah looked across the room.

"She opens up her back for him to attack. He uses the children as bait." Rossi realised.

"The father arrives next." Reid walked around the stairs,"He runs to the family, just as the mother did. The Unsub repeats the attack."

"Worked the first time." Rossi shrugged.

"It's a risky plan, though. I mean, the Unsub needs ten or fifteen minutes alone with the children to tie them uo." Reid pointed.

The three then walked downstairs to the kitchen, looking around.

"Table's set for five." Rossi pointed.

"They were going to have tacos." Elijah hummed.

"The big pot has red meat. The small one has some sort of tofu mix. Now, if a psychopath was forcing you to cook dinner, would you take the time to make vegetarian sides?" Rossi asked.

"He obviously didn't force Sandra to make dinner. She wasn't afraid of him." Reid shook his head.

"He was their guest."

"He's too disorganized to bring a gun. All the other items he used on the families came from within the house." Elijah looked around,"Kitchen knives, jump ropes, belts."

"The Bennetts trusted him with their kids. They had to have known this guy." Rossi sighed.

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

"M.E report on Jake Bennett says he died less than a minutes after being stabbed multiple times. All dissection was done post-mortem." Beeks told them as he handed them the report.

"If it was done post-mortem, it was probably done out of curiosity and not torture. Is there any indication of medical training?" Fleur turned.

"Apparently, it's just the opposite." Emily shook her head as she looked through the report,"The cuts were crude. No more advanced than dissecting a frog.. Sandra Bennett died slowly, in a lot of pain, just like Monica Archer. The wives suffer the most, physically and psychologically."

"So what does that get us?" Beeks asked.

"It means that everything he did, he did to hurt Sandra and Monica." Emily pointed.

"He's targeting the women." Hotch nodded.

Meanwhile, Morgan was outside the room. He was pacing as he called Garcia, asking about Ellie.

"Hey, how's she doing?" Morgan asked  her.

"Sleeping. Which, I get the impression, she has not done in many weeks. There was six kids living in that house." Garcia whispered.

"Well, what did the family say?" Morgan crossed his arms.

"They didn't even know she was missing."

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

"Sandra was a sixth-grade teacher, she ran a church programme for adult literacy and volunteered at a local soup kitchen." Reid began.

"Monica Archer was a nurse at Northern Omaha Medical, and she worked pro bono with disabled veterans at the VA." Emily explained.

"Maybe he posed as a victim, asked for their help." Beeks suggested.

"So it's likely these women would help a stranger, but doubtful that they'd let him upstairs." Fleur nodded.

"It could be another volunteer." Reid agreed.

"If they met him during charity work, he could seem trustworthy." Rossi shrugged.

"Okay, so, we'll look into volunteers who worked with both Sandra Bennett and Monica Archer. But even so, neither of these women would've left their children with someone they didn't know well." Emily sighed.

"It's unlikely it's a stranger, but we haven't found a single person who knew both families." Reid pointed.

"Great. So we have a disorganized killer, on a spree, who appears perfectly stable." Elijah crossed his arms.

"People trust him on sight." Rossi added.

"And he has absolute confidence that no one will guess what he is." Hotch sighed.

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

"He's been in the system? I thought you said he's from suburbia?" Beeks asked.

"He grew up with medium socio-economic status, but his rage against families tells us that he experienced extreme abuse or neglect. So, at some point, he was most likely removed from his family." Reid explained,"Now, I had Garcia widen the search of missing children to those in foster homes and juvenile care facilities, all represented by these ten block dots."

"Ten kids fit our profile. That's great." Emily hummed.

"Actually, each dot represents a thousand kids currently in the system." Reid corrected.

"Ten thousand children?" Emily blinked.

"Nebraska's one of the nation's highest per capita state ward populations. Now, using the age and gender of our suspect, I was able to whittle down the search, and that yielded this interesting pattern." Reid pointed to the board.

"A pattern of red dots. Give me one more hint." Beeks hummed.

"The red dots represent thirty-three boys between the ages of ten and seventeen who became wards of the state this year, all abandoned at major hospitals." Reid told them.

"The state safe haven law." Beeks sighed.

"Wait a minute. I thought the safe haven law was so that women could leave unwanted babies in hospitals instead of leaving them in dumpsters." Elijah tilted his head.

"That's correct but initially there was no age limit in Nebraska." Reid nodded.

'He's right. The law now just covers infants, but we still get teenagers left at hospitals with a note pinned to their jacket." Beeks shook his head,"Some are even driven in from out of state."

"Now Monica Archer, our first victim worked at this hospital, Northern Omaha Medical. If the Unsub's parents abandoned him there, that's probably where they're at." Reid turned.

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

"Monica Archer called a friend at the Northern Omaha Children's Hospital about an abandoned thirteen year old boy. Monica was going to bring him in the next day." Garcia told them.

"We need to talk to that friend." Hotch crossed his arms.

"No, I already did that. Apparently the Children's Hospital and Child Services have a strong rapport."

"Did she get a name?" Fleur raised a brow.

"Yeah, she said the child's name was Niko Bellic and his hometown was Newton, lowa." Garcia answered.

"Say that again. Niko Bellic?" Beaks blinked.

"The thing about that is.."

"Niko Bellic is the name of the main character in Grand Theft Auto IV." Rossi explained,"..What? I know things."

"Guy's, he's headed due east on Route 6, which passes right through Newton." Reid pointed.

"He probably didn't expect the question and gave away his real hometown." Rossi nodded.

"Garcia, call the lowa State Police, tell them to be on the lookout for a minivan headed east towards Route 6." Hotch instructed.

"Will do." Garcia hummed.

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

"Nancy Riverton got out of surgery. She's gonna make it." Reid told them as they sat on the plane.

"She's lucky." Rossi sighed.

"She managed to control him long enough to save her children. She's impressive." Elijah hummed.

"Mrs Sayer asked that she and her daughter be notified if and when Jeremy is released." Emily added.

"BAU should keep his file handy, too." Rossi nodded.

"Excuse me." Hotch got up, going over to Morgan who was sitting himself.

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

When they arrived back at the office, Morgan and Fleur headed into a room. Ellie was sat at a table while a woman, her mother, stood nearby.

"Agent Morgan and Howards?" Ellie's mother, Katherine, looked up

"Ma'am." Morgan nodded,"You weren't easy to find."

"I just got back to the States." Katherine nodded.

"So you didn't know about Matt?" Fleur asked.

"I had no idea." She shook her head, before leaning closer to Ellie,"I'm so sorry.."

Ellie just turned away, she didn't even bat an eye towards her.

"Hey, you." Morgan smiled down at Ellie before looking up at Katherine,"Look, I get it. You and your ex-husband had your share of problems, so you separated. But how could you not be in Ellie's life?"

"I tried. Matt pushed me away. Said they were better without me."

"Were they?" Fleur asked.

"I wasn't happy. Matt and I.." Katherine stopped,"Ellie used to walk around with the biggest frown. And I thought, I've done that to her. She's angry because that's how she sees me."

"So what are you saying? You're better now?" Morgan raised a brow.

"..I've wondered if you'd like the places I've been, if you still took ballet, if tulips are still you're favourite." Katherine took a book out of her bag and sat it in front of Ellie.

Ellie took the book and pushed it ahead of her, Fleur sighing and picking it up.

"Go ahead, look at it." Katherine nodded.

Fleur looked at Morgan before she began flicking through the pages. It was filled with letters and pictures.

"You wrote to her every day?" Morgan looked at Katherine.

"So what?" Ellie muttered.

"Ellie."

"She wrote to me everyday. Who cares?" Ellie shrugged.

Morgan knelt down beside Ellie,"Hey. This book means that you're mom never stopped thinking about you. Ellie, you know that I lost my father the same way that you did.. And it's really hard growing up without you're dad. I miss my dad every day. But my mom, she means everything to me. I gave your dad my word that I would keep you safe. Ellie, right now you have a chance to live a really good life with your mom.. Just give it a try."

Fleur gently placed a hand on Morgans shoulder, placing the book down for Ellie.

Ellie began flicking through the pages and she started smiling before looking at Katherine,"I..I remember that we used to read stories together all the time."

"I miss that." Katherine smiled.

"Me too." Ellie nodded.

"Let me show you something." Katherine flicked through the pages.

"We'd better be off." Fleur sighed.

"Thank you." Ellie smiled up at them.

"Be good." Fleur pointed, hugging Morgan's waist as they walked off.