Elijah hummed as he walked out of the bathroom in Rossi's house, adjusting his top button. He'd stayed the night, just so they could spend time together. Meanwhile Rossi was in his room, putting his blazer on.

"Going somewhere?" Elijah asked, noticing him as he walked past.

"Oh- I would have what you kids call..A date."

"A date- With who?" Elijah blinked.

"Can't an old man keep his secret?" Rossi asked.

"Not around me, dad." Elijah shook his head.

"It's.. An old friend."

"An old friend, hm?" Elijah raised a brow.

"An..Ex-wife." He admitted.

"Which one?"

"Carolyn."

"Ooh, number one?" Elijah tilted his head.

"Number one." He hummed.

"What's she like?"

"Well, she might have changed from the last time I saw her." Rossi shrugged,"Does my beard look okay?"

"You look great, dad." Elijah chuckled,"Go enjoy yourself."

"Thanks, figlio." He hummed.

"No problem." Elijah smiled.

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

"So, where's Dave?" Fleur asked.

"He's out with a friend." Elijah hummed, playing with his pen.

"A friend?" She raised a brow.

"A lady friend."

"Oh- Oh." Fleur nodded, sitting down in the Conference Room.

"Her name's Carolyn." Elijah smiled.

"Ah, is it an old wife?"

"His first." He nodded.

"Oh, so it's serious."

"I think so."

Fleur chuckled,"I hope he enjoys it."

"Me too, he deserves something nice." Elijah smiled.

"For once." Fleur nodded.

"Hey, I'm sorry I'm late. I got hung up with something." Rossi told them as he hurried in, sitting down,"What do we got?"

"A child abduction in St Louis." Hotch nodded.

"Yeah. Bobby Smith, nine years old, vanished 48 hours ago from a residential area where his mother, Marlene Smith, claims to have dropped him off." Garcia told them.

"Forty eight hours and we're just learning about it now?" Morgan raised a brow.

"Yeah. That's cause mom didn't know he was gone. She assumed he was with the grandmother and just left him there." She sighed.

"So she's not exactly on a short list for mother of the year." Fleur muttered.

"What about the father?" Emily asked.

"He was convicted of embezzling from his workplace two weeks ago. Currently cooling his heels in state prison." Garcia hummed.

"If it's a stranger abduction, the first 24 hours are critical. This kids already been missing twice as long." Rossi nodded.

"Which is why we shouldn't waste any more time. Let's go." Hotch clapped.

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

"St Louis. Probably a couple days, I'll let you know. Can't wait. Bye." Rossi smiled as he hung up his phone, sitting down and looking at the others,"What?"

"Nothing." Fleur hummed.

"Just somebody's got a lot of extra pep in their step this morning, that's all." Morgan shrugged.

"Probably doubled up on his vitamins." Emily smirked.

"Oh, he doubled up on something." Morgan chuckled.

"Garcia, what have you got on the mother?" Hotch asked her.

"Oh, I have so much on the mother and try as I might, none of it is good. Marlene Smith has a history of erratic behavior, seriously clinically depressed, two suicide attempts in the last five years." Garcia explained.

"Was she being treated for her depression?" Reid tilted his head.

"Oh my gosh, yes. Like more pill pipping than Elvis, yes." Garcia sighed.

"Depression is one of the few things that can overwhelm maternal instinct." JJ told them.

"Whar about the grandmother?" Emily asked.

"I don't have anything on her yet, but don't reach for your remote. I'll be back." Garcia hummed before she hung up.

"Two suicide attempts. Why hasn't child services intervened?" Fleur asked.

"Probably talked her way out of it." Elijah shrugged.

"Most social service organisations are overworked and underfunded. Things slip through the cracks." Emily shrugged.

"If this boys mother tried to commit suicide, and he's from a chronically unhealthy household, maybe this wasn't an abduction at all. What if Bobby simply ran away?" Reid suggested.

"When nine year olds run away, they're usually home for supper." Rossi sighed.

"JJ, you and I will talk to the mother. Morgan, Reid and Deans, you go to the boys house. Prentiss, you, Dave and Howards assess the site where the mother claims to have dropped him off." Hotch instructed.

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

"Mother's not a suspect anymore?" Detective Woods walked into the Conference Room where everyone was.

"Based on our assessment, we need to reprioritize." Hotch nodded.

"The concern for her son was genuine. Her tone of voice, body language. She didn't once ask if she was in trouble, under arrest, Where's my lawyer? None of that." JJ shook her head.

"Home environment points the same direction. Money was tight, but mom did whatever she could to create a nice world for her son. Whatever cash she had, she spent on him." Elijah added.

"Only four pairs of shoes in her closet. And she taught her son to be self sufficient. The kitchen was scaled down to a nine year old's level so he could microwave his own meals, get food and utensils from the pantry. He even had his own little key ring so he could come and go as he pleased." Reid pointed.

"How'd it go?" Morgan asked Rossi as he, Fleur and Emily walked in.

"It took a while, but grandma's alibi checked out. She was with two lady friends in Seneca, other side of the state." Rossi nodded.

"Aqauintances, relatives, teachers. So far, they've all checked out." Emily sighed.

"This is starting to look more and more like a stranger abduction." Morgan looked at them.

"Yeah, except the area Bobby disappeared from has a decent amount of foot traffic." Emily told him,"If he'd put up a struggle, chances are someone would've noticed."

"My guess is Bobby knew his abductor or trusted him." Rossi shrugged.

"The trio to grandma's was a spur-of-the-moment decision. The Unsub must've been staking out the mothers house, saw them leave and then followed." Morgan pointed.

"Self sufficient kids learn to trust their own judgement. How did the UnSub get into Bobby's life?" Fleur asked.

"And what's he trying to accomplish?" Elijah tilted his head.

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

"We're looking for a male UnSub in his mid to late twenties, phsycially fit enough to subdue Marlene Smith and carry out a vicious and sustained attack." Hotch began to give the profile.

"We believe he sees himself as a rescuer, taking children away from unfit parents." Rossi contiued,"He may very well have abandonment issues from his own childhood."

"The impulsive nature of committing the murder out in the open suggests he's inexperienced." Morgan pointed.

"The violence on Marlene Smith went from precision to frenzy, which points to someone with classic psychopathic traits, quick to rage and quick to recover." Reid explained.

"He also appears to have insider knowledge of the families in these cases, so we need to look for someone who is privy to what went on behind those closed doors." Emily nodded.

"Emergency personnel were called to the Smith house after both suicide attempts and once to the Tanner house after the mother overdosed on prescription drugs." Elijah told them.

"That means first responders, child service workers, ambulance personnel. Both missing children apparently went without struggle or protest. That makes us think that they had prior contact with the person we're looking for." JJ nodded.

"Or they inherently trust who he is by virtue of his job, the uniform he wears. Doctor, mailman, police." Rossi added.

"So far, the violence has been directed to the offending parent, but we don't know what the Unsub's endgame is." Morgan sighed.

"We have written up a media release on precautions the public needs to take." Emily crossed her arms.

"And we've taken the second mother into protective custody, thus depriving him of his targets. This will increase his volatility." Fleur continued.

"That's why it's critical that we find these kids. If they are alive, he may turn to violence against the children himself." Elijah finished.

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

"Garcia, any progress with the 911 dispatcher?" Rossi asked over the phone.

"Okay, I'm going as fast as I can, which is super fast. There are literally hundreds in the greater St Louis area. Can you help me narrow this down?" Garcia shook her head.

"Refine your search to males between twenty-five and thirty years of age. And our UnSub probably has abandonment issues, so look for backgrounds that reflect that. A history of foster care, or someone who was farmed out to other relatives by his own parents." Emily explained.

"Can you trace individual 911 dispatchers based on calls they would have received?" Elijah tilted his head.

"Okay, look, let me make this clear. There are a quarter of a billion 911 calls annually. That's like ten calls every second of everyday. And non-emergent calls are disposed of quickly." Garcia sighed.

"Well, this operator would've been on duty when both calls came in from the Smith and Tanner families." Rossi told her.

"And he would have been off-duty during the times of the two abductions and Marlene Smith's murder." Fleur added.

"Oh my god. This brings needle in a haystack to a whole other dimension but I will go to that dimension, and I will cross-reference, and I will call you back." Garcia then hung up.

"A mother that wants to kill herself. What does that say to a child?" Rossi sighed as he looked out of the window,"They're not worth sticking around for?"

"A 911 operator would be why the kids trusted him. The Unsub must've gone back to the house to do some sort of follow-up on his own, they remember his face." Elijah shook his head.

Rossi didn't seem to respond, still staring out the window in silence.

"Rossi, did you hear Eli?" Fleur asked.

"Oh- Sorry." Rossi turned, walking back over to them.

"You know, we were joking around on the jet but something is definitely up." Emily looked at him,"Is there anything you want to share?"

"It's nothing." Rossi slowly sat down,"..I had breakfast with Carolyn the other morning."

"Oh-Yeah. Elijah told me." Fleur hummed.

"Oh! Is that wife number four or five?" Emily chuckled.

"Look, let's get our facts straight. I only had three wives." Rossi pointed,"I mean, that's within the realm of reasonable."

"Okay, sorry. Which one was Carolyn?" She asked.

"Número uno." Rossi told them.

"Mmm." Elijah hummed.

"Use your words, Elijah." Rossi looked at him.

"There's always something about the first... In anything." Elijah sighed.

"I don't know, but I think she's putting some feelers out to see if that old spark is still there." Rossi shrugged.

"Is it?" Emily gasped.

"Well, I'm having her over to my house for dinner when I get back." Rossi nodded, "I'm crazy, right?"

"We don't always get second chances in life, Papà. I say take the plunge, see where it goes." Elijah shook his head.

Rossi sighed,"Thanks figilo."

"It's all going to work out, trust me." He smiled.

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

"Talk to me, mama." Morgan hummed when he answered the phone.

"First of, you are on restriction from my inner Lamborghini." Garcia began.

"Garcia-"

"I mean it. This high-performance engine may purr like a puma on the prowl, but this time, Derek, you have seriously overheated my engines, and I will require some cool-down laps upon your return, if you know what I mena by that." Garcia finished.

"Babygirl, you're on speaker." Morgan hummed.

"...I knew that." Garcia responded quietly,"I was calling to tell you, sir, that there are eleven 911 dispatchers in the greater St Louis area that were on duty when the calls were placed but not working during the murder or abduction. Of those eleven, only one fits your profile. George Keeling, age twenty-seven, 1181 Clay Street, apartment eight. Sending his picture right now."

"Do you know where he is now?" Rossi asked.

"He was scheduled to work today. His supervisor said he showed up for his shift, but then left early." She told him.

"Can you get the log of all the calls he took tonight?" Fleur leaned forward.

"Yeah, of course. But there are a lot." She nodded.

"Skip to the last one." Hotch crossed his arms.

"Last one is a domestic disturbance at 788, 4th Avenue, number C. Attempted sexual assault of a young girl. Kelling dispatched the police, and then he took off." Garcia informed them.

"Let's go." Hotch nodded.

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

Once they had arrested Kelling and saved every single one of the kids, the Agents walked through the halls of Quantico.

"How about ten pairs of shoes? I mean, that has to be enough, right? Ten?" Reid looked at the girls.

Fleur laughed,"Spencer. It's different with the ladies. We need them to match our belts, our handbags, our skirts, and fashions change with the seasons."

"Yes, boys are so boring. Shoes, pants, out the door." Garcia added, before pointing at Elijah,"You're an exception."

"Yes, Elijah likes to plan outfits." Reid nodded.

"Although, it's not like men don't have their things. I dated a golfer once. He had twelve putters in his closet. But this conversation is reminding me I need new boots." Emily mentioned.

"Oh, they're having a sale at DeMille's on those tall-shaft kitty heels. You like those, do you wanna go?" Garcia asked her.

"Yeah." Emily chuckled.

"You getting all this, babe?" Elijah hummed.

"No." Reid muttered as they walked into the lift.