Their next two cases take everything out of her. She's dragging her feet on her way into the office after the last one, knowing that it's going to feature heavily in her dreams. Honestly, cannibalism is such a nightmare for her, and a cannibal who drinks blood? Nightmare fuel.

"Nice work, everybody, by the way." Hotch compliments them as they enter Quantico, and Cassandra nudges Elle. She'd been a real help with this case.

"Thank you." Elle smiles. "Now I get to go back to the 15 folders on my desk."

"Wait a minute." Spencer frowns. "15? I have 24."

"That's 'cause I slipped you four of mine." Elle smirks, and just as Cassandra is about to join in on the teasing, a voice calls out to her and stops her in her tracks.

"About damn time!"

Cassandra would recognize that voice anywhere, but she still stops and gapes at the sight of Derek Shepherd sitting in her chair, his feet propped up on her desk. He's drinking out of her favorite work mug–a white one made to look like a letter, with a pink heart as the seal–and looking way too smug.

Spencer bumping into her brings her back into herself, and she's lunging forward before she can think. Derek laughs in her ear, having been smart enough to set her mug down, and hugs her back. Behind her, she can hear her coworkers talking, all of them trying to figure out who he is while she attempts to suffocate him.

"Boyfriend?" Spencer asks, sounding curious, and that's what finally separates the two of them.

"Oh my god, no!" She all but shrieks, her face scrunching up in disgust.

"Ew." Derek adds helpfully, laughing when she stands up and pulls him to his feet too. "Derek Shepherd, it's a pleasure."

"He's my brother-in-law." Cassandra adds, smiling as she watches him shake hands with everyone. He doesn't react negatively when Spencer explains that he doesn't shake hands, only waving back with a kind smile. On the surface, he looks as charming as ever, but Cassandra knows him better: he's exhausted, and something is wrong.

"What are you doing here?" She breathes out, watching the others go back to their desks. They can still hear them, of course, but they at least pretend to focus on their work.

"A guy can't visit his favorite sister?" He jokes, shifting on his feet, and she narrows her eyes at him until he gives in. "Fine! Jesus, put the eyes away. I, uh, I took the job."

"The job." She repeats slowly. "The job? The POTUS offered job!?"

"No. The one that keeps me in Seattle–ow!" He yelps when she swats at his arm, pouting as he rubs the area. "Christ. Yes, I took the job. Before you freak out, Meredith and I are figuring it out. She's staying in Seattle, and we'll–we're gonna make this work."

"You better." Cassandra sighs, frowning. "Did you really come all the way here to tell me that?"

"Nope. I went to your house, realized I didn't have a key, and spent six hours here waiting for you to get back." He tells her cheerfully. "You're out of snacks, by the way."

"I despise you." Cassandra says flatly. "That was my secret stash!"

"Well, it's not a secret anymore. I got bored. Oh, Gideon and Garcia are great, by the way. You've got a great team."

"Yeah, I know." She says fondly, shaking her head as she fishes her keys out of her bag, pulling them back before Derek can grab them. She can't believe he took the job without finding a place to stay first–actually, yes she can. That's so Derek. Of course he wants to live with her for free, even though it means a longer commute. "I still have some work to do here, so you're on your own for a bit. Um, my room's at the end of the hall. I don't have the guest room set up, so you can just bunk with me, or take the couch. Also, I swear to god if you leave your socks in the bathroom, I will castrate you. And if you're mean to me, I will kick you out."

She won't, but she'll at least consider it.

"When have I ever been mean?" 

"Oh, wow. Okay." Cassandra laughs, pulling her phone out of her pocket and scrolling. "Aha! Text from Alex Karev, two weeks ago: dude, will you bail me out of jail if I murder your brother? He's getting on my freakin nerves. Text from Jackson Avery, three days after that: Cassie, please come kidnap your brother and take him to DC. He just yelled at me for daring to ask for a consult. I would do it myself but I think it'll be better for all of us if an FBI Agent did it. Text from Meredith, yesterday–you might know her, she's your wife–"

"Yeah, I get it." Derek scoffs, shaking his head at her.

"Great. Yell at me, and I'll kill you." She tells him cheerfully, smiling despite herself. She's missed him so much.

"Relax." Derek says easily, snatching the keys from her. "I'll order food for us!"

"Don't leave your garbage everywhere!" She calls after him, falling into her chair with a groan. A laugh has her looking up, seeing the amusement on Morgan, Spencer and Elle's faces. "What?"

"Nothing." Derek smirks, shaking his head. "It's just nice seeing this side of you, is all."

"What do you mean?"

"You're normally so put together." Elle tells her. "It's nice to see the annoying sister side of you."

Oh.

"Yeah." She gives them an awkward smile, sighing. "Well, Derek really brings it out of me."

They get to work on their files, and Cassandra scowls when she reaches for a snack only to find that Derek really had eaten all of them. Before her annoyance can flare up, a bag of fruit snacks lands on her desk, and she looks up to see Spencer pulling his hand back. She smiles at him, pleased with the one she gets in return, and happily snacks on them as she finishes her reports.

When she goes home, it's not to an empty house for once. Instead, she has Derek's comforting presence, and he explains everything to her. The fighting, the way he's been struggling between wanting to build his career and stay with Meredith and the kids. The way some part of him grew to resent his wife for keeping him in Seattle, for not wanting to leave with him, and the way Meredith shouted at him to go. The phone call they had after their tempers had calmed down, with both of them promising to make this work out. Honestly, she thinks a break will do them a favor. Still, she makes a point of reminding him that he needs to keep in contact with her sister and his children, and then she throws a blanket on him and retreats to her room.

"I'm Switzerland." She insists as she backs out of the room. "I'm here for both of you. I'm not taking sides." 

She proves that by instantly calling Meredith, assuring her that Derek is with her and safe, and then listening to Meredith complain about his behavior until she falls asleep on the line. She sends her a reassuring text to see when she wakes up, and then she's all but falling onto her bed.

Hours later, he's the one to shake her awake from a nightmare, and he's quick to slide under the covers next to her. They've done this before: Cassandra dubbed them sibling sleepovers, and they increased after Lexie died. For months, Cassandra had a hard time sleeping without being able to see him and Meredith, since they'd been together out in the woods. She'd crawl into their bed and they'd either sleep or stay awake together.

She sleeps better with her brother in the room.

"Missing child in Wilmington, Delaware. 11-year-old Billie Copeland was last seen on the playground at 4:30 yesterday afternoon."

Yesterday?

"That's twenty hours ago." Hotch points out what she's thinking. "Child abduction response plan says that we get notified immediately. What happened?"

"Well, there was reason to believe she was with her father. Her cell phone shows a call to him around the time of the disappearance."

"So they've since ruled him out?" Gideon asks.

"He called the mother about an hour ago." JJ answers, although that doesn't really mean anything. Anyone can fake concern.

"That doesn't mean he isn't involved." Gideon points out, while Cassandra flips open the case file, staring at the picture provided of Billie, trying to memorize her face.

"He's on his way to the family home, so you can talk to him there. But the local police are now considering this a stranger abduction."

"Twenty hours late." Derek sighs, shaking his head.

"Long-term stranger abductions of children Billie's age are rare." Spencer states. "They represent only half of 1% of all missing cases per year. But they are usually more likely to be fatal. Of the children that are abducted and murdered, 44% die within the first hour. From that point forth, their odds of survival greatly decrease. 75% are gone after three hours. Virtually all of them are dead after 24."

"Which means we have just under four hours to find her."

"She's been missing 21 hours." Spencer states as soon as they meet up at the Copeland house. Cassandra had driven JJ and Elle in, while Hotch drove Derek, Spencer and Gideon.

"We're gonna go meet with the lead detective at the park where the girl was last seen." Hotch decides, while Derek stays in the car.

"We need to know everything that's being done." Gideon tells him.

"I'll find out what the press is running." JJ decides, pulling a black blazer over her colorful button-up. "See if I know any of them. We may need to manage what they put out."

"Good. See what the uniforms know from the canvasses. Elle! I need you to be a liaison with the family." Gideon decides. "Grey, you're with me."

Elle separates from them to talk to the mother while Cassandra and Gideon search Billie's room. It's a picture perfect little girls room, and Billie's personality jumps out at them instantly. There's a pink sign on the door handle with her name written in letter stickers and a crown at the top. Pink wallpaper, curtains, bed covers. A pink unicorn under the window. There's jewelery and purses and a beginners makeup kit.

"I had this exact kit." Cassandra breathes out, aching at the sight of it. It's funny how some things don't change between generations. Cassandra remembers perfectly how exhilarating it had felt to discover makeup for the first time, to experiment with the different colors, to try putting it on Lexie and Molly.

Gideon holds up a picture frame, one that had been sitting on her bedside table. It has two pictures in it, and they're both of Billie and her father: none with her mother. She has an iMac on a desk, surrounded by journals and coloring books. She's got multiple soccer trophies. There's a shelf dedicated entirely to a deceased dog, with a picture of him surrounded by candles and his leash.

"She's a Bratz girl." Cassandra notes, and Gideon just looks confused. Cassandra nods to a poster of the dolls on the wall. "Girls who like dolls typically pick either Barbie or Bratz. She's got a poster of Cloe, which makes sense. She has the Bratz Play Sportz kit by her bed: of course she loves the doll who plays soccer, just like her . . . my niece loves Yasmin."

When they leave the room, Cassandra catches Billie's mom talking.

"Billie was . . . being a pain, as usual, giving me attitude." She admits softly, tears streaming down her face. On the TV, Billie's picture is shown, along with a physical description of her and information on who to contact if she's seen. "So I told her to run it off. I sent her away."

Cassandra moves into the room, kneeling down next to her.

"None of this is your fault." She says softly, knowing that she won't be believed. Parents often blame themselves. "We're going to do everything we can to find her. You didn't cause this by telling her to run in a park."

She gives Cassandra a small smile, wiping her tears away with her green sweater.

"I was so mad at her." She breathes out, shaking her head.

"Hmm, my mom had me run it off a few times." Cassandra admits with a small smile. "My dad was more of the 'go read a book' type, to get me to calm down. But my mom would make me run laps around the house, or play basketball, or anything physical to get that energy out. That's all you were trying to do. You are not responsible for this."

She gives a small nod, but Cassandra is sure she still feels guilty. Nothing she says will change that.

"How long have you been divorced?" Elle asks softly.

"Um . . . it's been final for six months, but we haven't lived together in over a year." She admits.

"You seeing anyone?"

She laughs at that. "Between work and Billie, when would I have the time?"

"Not one date? Any men coming over to the house?"

"I–I had a few casual dates after work, but they never came to the house. Billie still hopes that her father and I will get back together."

"How did Billie's dog die, Mrs. Copeland?" Gideon asks from the doorway.

"Uh . . . he was hit by a car. Two weeks ago." She answers, looking confused. "How did you know that?"

"Shrine in the room. Helps her grieve?"

At the mention of the shrine, Marilyn bites her lip and looks down at her lap. She nods slowly, a small smile forming on her face. "Her father did that for her."

"They get along well?"

"Best of friends. She calls him every night, tells him about her day, asks about his. He's a cancer survivor, so he takes time off from work, pulls her out of school for father/daughter field trips. Says we all need to stop and enjoy life. But he forgets that he has responsibilities, that they both do. Which makes me the bad guy. She blames me for the divorce. Blames me for everything. I should have just let her go with her father. I'm sorry."

She rushes from the room, and after a minute of silence Cassandra stands up and follows her. She can hear Gideon and Elle talking behind her, but she focuses on Marilyn, who is wiping her eyes and staring out of the kitchen window.

"She blames you because you make it safe for her to." She tells her softly, and Mrs. Copeland looks at her in surprise. "I know it's awful to be on the other side of it, and you're allowed to be upset about it, but I don't think it's because she hates you or anything else you're worried about."

"What do you mean?" She asks, hopeful, and Cassandra sighs.

"Kids struggle with change, and there's been a lot of that in Billie's life the last few months. Her dad had cancer and beat it, then you two got divorced–and I imagine there was a lot of arguing before that–and then her dog died. That's a lot for anyone, let alone an eleven-year-old kid. And, like you said, you're the parent that enforces the rules. No offense to her father, because I don't know him, but he's not the one with her every day. You are, and so you get the brunt of it. It doesn't mean that she doesn't love you. She has a picture of him on her bedside table, sure, but she has a picture of you holding her in her closet. She has toys and stuffed animals that you bought her all over her bed and room. She's a pre-teen: just because you fight, doesn't mean she doesn't love you."

"Thank you." Marilyn smiles, only to look up when a truck loudly pulls into the driveway, brakes screeching. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Cassandra follows as she storms into the living room, instantly shouting at Mr. Copeland when he runs into the house.

"I have been calling you all night!"

"I'm sorry, Marilyn. I turned my phone off."

"How could you turn your phone off? What if Billie got sick or–? We needed you!"

"I said I was sorry!"

Marilyn just shakes her head and turns away. When her ex-husband reaches for her, she shakes his hand off, rushing out of the room. This time, no one follows her.

"What's being done to find my daughter?" He snaps at them.

"We're assessing that right now." Elle answers diplomatically.

"She's been missing since yesterday! What the hell have you people been doing since then!?"

"Where have you been, Mr. Copeland?" Gideon asks, while Cassandra studies him, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Me?"

"Where were you all day and all night?"

"I have a cabin in Brandywine Valley."

"Police tried you there."

"Well, maybe I was out at the time."

"Billie tried your cell phone yesterday afternoon." Gideon counters, and he rolls his eyes.

"Well, I shut it off sometimes. I like the solitude."

"You didn't fight your wife for custody of your daughter. But you . . . you like being in her life."

"I want her to grow up in her home with her friends around. This is the only place she's ever lived!"

"So you love her very much?"

"Yes."

"Why are you wasting the precious time we have left? You weren't at your cabin. You weren't at work or with friends. Police didn't call us until a little while ago because they thought your daughter might've been with you, that you might've taken your daughter. Until you can give us a satisfactory accounting of your whereabouts from the time your daughter went missing until–would you help me understand why a devoted father who talks to his daughter every night suddenly turns his phone off, disappears for almost 24 hours?"

"I was . . . busy."

"It's 1:30. You called your wife at 11:30, found out Billie was missing."

"So?"

"Well, Brandyvine Valley's 50 minutes away. Where were you, Mr. Copeland?"

"How long?" Cassandra interrupts, and they all turn to her. "How long has the cancer been back?"

"What?" Mr. Copeland asks, but Cassandra is insistent.

"It's in your lymph nodes, isn't it?" She asks him, nodding to herself. "They're swollen. There are pictures of you in Billie's room from after remission: you've lost weight since then, and not a healthy amount. Your throat is audibly sore, and you swallow harshly after speaking louder. You're wearing multiple layers because you're experiencing chills, but two of them are zip up jackets, easy to strip out of for a doctor's appointment. You were at the hospital, weren't you?"

"Sloane Kettering Hospital in New York City." He admits slowly, shifting his weight and looking away from them. "You can call. I saw Dr. Baylan Mahal."

"We will call." Gideon nods, and Mr. Copeland slowly sinks into an armchair.

"There's nothing more they can–please find my daughter." He begs them, tears filling his eyes as he starts sobbing. "Find my daughter."

"Call Sloane Kettering." Gideon orders Elle, the both of them leaving the room.

Cassandra kneels down next to Billie's father, gently patting his shoulder.

"You know, you don't have to go through this alone." She tells him softly. "I'm guessing that this is why you requested a divorce, to try and protect them from this? That's not fair to any of you. They're your family, and 'in sickness and health' isn't just a saying. You don't deserve to die alone, and they don't deserve to be left questioning why they weren't told."

He sobs louder, and Cassandra leaves him to his thoughts, her mind whirling.

When Hotch and Morgan come back, the team gathers together in their front yard. They're far enough away from the media to avoid being overheard.

"What do we know?"

"We talked to a kid who had contact with the unsub." Hotch answers.

"He came back to the same street more than once." Morgan tells them, and Cassandra grimaces. That's a really bad sign, although it could make it easier to track him down.

"That tells us he's at ease in the neighborhood. He's comfortable talking to kids in plain view."

"He lured Billie with a story about a lost dog named Candy." Morgan adds.

"Her dog died two weeks ago." She tells them, sighing. "She would've sympathized with him and wanted to help."

"That indicates previous knowledge of the victim." Spencer says what she's considering. Did the unsub know that Billie lost a dog, or is it just his normal ruse?

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean that she necessarily knew him personally. Only that he's aware of her."

"It's not uncommon for predators like these to know kids around his area."

"He could've seen Billie walking her dog, and noticed when she stopped." Cassandra points out. It's likely that she was stalked leading up to the kidnapping.

"He's from the neighborhood."

"Then we go door to door and ask for voluntary searches." The lead detective on the case suggests.

"The neighborhood's already crawling with uniforms." Spencer points out. "They're everywhere."

"Look, so far you've followed the child abduction response plan to the letter." Gideon tells the detective. Except for notifying us immediately, Cassandra can't help but think. Even if she assumed the father was responsible, they should've been called. "So now we need to move past the guidelines. Change tactics. If we don't, Billie isn't gonna make it past the next 24 hours." He turns and points to the camera crews loitering in the street. "I want you to corral these clowns. We're gonna need 'em–all of 'em."

JJ moves to do just that, sending one last look back at them as she moves.

Cassandra sits with Spencer in the backseat, while Detective Russet sits in the driver's seat and Gideon sits next to her. They watch as the last police car leaves the neighborhood, as they'd ordered during their profile. They're trying to take the pressure off of the kidnapper, in hopes that he hasn't yet killed Billie.

"Are you sure this is the way to go?" Russet worries.

"I hope it is."

"You're taking a hell of a chance, aren't you?"

"All we can do is respond to what's in front of us." Gideon explains.

"What if you're wrong?"

"You know what program did the most harm to this country in terms of crimes like this, child abduction?"

"No." Russet answers, but Spencer is quick with the answer.

"Stranger Danger."

"Flooded the school's with it." Gideon sighs.

"I remember them coming to my classroom." Spencer tells them, and Cassandra nods. "It was Officer Friendly with stranger danger coloring books."

Cassandra grins. "Did you get the pencils, too?" She asks him, blinking as he unlocks a memory. "Oh my god, did you get a t-shirt?"

"What? No." Spencer laughs. "We just got the coloring books."

"Yeah, I swear, we got these shirts! 'Be smart, say no to strangers' in big bold lettering, and a picture of a car driving by." Cassandra remembers, shaking her head. "Kind of horrible to have a kid wear them."

"Taught a whole generation about a scary man in a trench coat hiding behind a tree. Then we learned that strangers are only a . . . fraction of the offenders out there. Most are people you see everyday–your family, your neighbors, school teachers. You know the rest."

"One of the hardest parts of working in SVU was the family offenders." Cassandra sighs. "I'll never forget this girl . . . she was assaulted and drugged, and she thought this man had raped her in a public bathroom, because he came in after she was in there for so long and a line formed. He ran after her to give her her purse back, and they ran right into my sergeant. The timeline didn't line up, and as soon as we got her tox screen back, I knew who'd done it."

"Who?" Russet asks, sounding almost like she doesn't want an answer.

"Her uncle." Cassandra says grimly. "He'd been her dentist for years. Watching her realize what had happened to her was sickening. No one ever thinks something they know, someone they love, could hurt them. So it's easier to be scared of strangers."

"Prepared our children for 1% of the danger, made them more vulnerable to 99%." Gideon states. "So we've been wrong before. All we can do is learn from it and hopefully be better next time."

"Unit 5-3-9." Russet's radio interrupts.

"9." She answers quickly.

"9, we have a marked unit calling for your presence at the river off Route 6."

"What's this in reference to?"

"They've located a body. Female."

When Spencer stumbles on a root on their way to the river, Cassandra is quick to steady him. He apologizes softly and doesn't let go of her hand, gripping it tightly as he follows her through the wooded area. She doesn't mention it, but she feels herself relaxing slightly as they walk along. She doesn't do well with being in the woods: she'd managed to avoid it two cases previously by sticking to research, instead of joining the search party with the rest of the team.

She knows that she needs to get over her fear, and having Spencer's presence helps a bit. She still jumps at a bird song, resenting herself for it, and is thankful when Spencer doesn't mention her obvious fear.

"The call was anonymous." The officer leading them through to the river explains. "Said there was a body in the water."

Cassandra pushes a branch aside, holding it back until Spencer has cleared the area as well.

"Brown hair, brown eyes, about 4'10", 4'11"?" Russet questions. The officer holds up the caution tape for them to duck under, and Cassandra drops Spencer's hand, not wanting to seem unprofessional now that they're not hidden behind the group. As soon as they're back in a line, making their way through another patch of the woods, Cassandra finds his hand again, unable to help herself. He doesn't protest, and she makes a mental note to buy him lunch or something soon. He lets her touch him a lot for someone opposed to germs.

"Yeah."

"Should've started the search earlier." Russet sighs, remorse clear in her voice.

"I'm sure you just did what you thought was right, Detective." Spencer does his best to comfort her.

"I can't. I can't." Russet freezes just as they near the river. "If it's her–"

"That's alright." Gideon nods, squeezing her arm as he walks past. Cassandra gives her a reassuring smile, knowing how hard this can be. There's a crime scene photographer there already, although she gives them room when she sees them coming, and they quickly move to the edge of the river to get a better look as coroners move the body. Cassandra moves to the other side of Gideon, her heart clenching as they move the body closer until they can get a proper look.

The three of them share a dispirited look, and Gideon wraps his arms around both of their shoulders, pulling them close to him in a rare display of consolation.

Shouting in the police station has them moving, quickly entering the room where Billie's parents are snapping at Elle, Derek and Hotch.

"A body was discovered." Hotch is telling them when they enter. Marilyn's hand flies to her mouth as she begins to cry, her anger making way for grief.

"It's not Billie!" Gideon tells them clearly. "The body that was found was much older and has been dead a number of days. Looks like maybe a junkie or an overdose."

"Are you sure?" Mr. Copeland asks loudly.

"Yes, I saw the body myself. It's not your daughter."

"My god, I can't." Marilyn sobs, the stress and lack of answers getting to her. "I can't!"

"Please, just come with me." Elle rushes forward, leading them to a more private room.

"What the hell was that about?" Gideon asks as soon as they're out of the room.

"A reporter asked them about the body." Morgan sighs. The Copeland's had been in the other room, holding a press conference and asking for information about the unsub, although they worded it as if he was just an innocent witness, in hopes that neighbors would come forward. No one wants to think that someone they know is capable of a crime like this, but they will believe that they saw something.

"Probably heard it on a scanner."

"I should've prepared them for that." JJ sighs, regret clear on her face.

Cassandra instantly shakes her head, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. JJ sinks into her side. "No, JJ. That would've just scared them before they went on. You did nothing wrong."

"Billie's running out of time, guys." Spencer reminds them all.

"So are the parents." Hotch sighs.

"Oh, come on. A little hope, huh?" Gideon tells them with annoyance. "We'll make it. We'll make it."

Cassandra runs a hand down her face, taking a break from reading the never ending canvassing notes in favor of chugging coffee. The words on the paper in front of her are starting to blur together, and she rubs her eyes as she forces herself to focus again, just as Hotch joins her, Derek and Spencer.

"How's it going, guys?"

"The unsub's in here somewhere." Derek points out, brandishing his own copies. Even after splitting the pile into three, they haven't gotten anywhere. Cassandra feels like she hasn't made a dent, although Spencer certainly has. "You gotta bet that the police talked to him in their initial canvas."

"Maybe not." Spencer realizes. "Our unsub is a solitary individual. He isn't the type of guy to insert himself into an investigation. I mean, wouldn't it make more sense that he wouldn't have answered the door during the initial canvas?"

Cassandra practically throws her papers down, agreeing with him.

"Neighborhood was crawling with cops, canine units, search and rescue." Hotch adds. "Make him nervous and jumpy. He'd want to avoid them at all costs."

"So then he couldn't allow anyone into his home to ask routine questions even if the girl was bound or gagged because it'd be too risky." Derek continues.

"It's next to impossible to control breathing, speech patterns, body language when the body's under extreme duress." Spencer points out. "Maybe if we compare hotline tips with anyone who wasn't at home during the initial canvass."

"Or didn't answer their door."

"We'll find our unsub."

"Let's get to it." Hotch decides, and Cassandra beams at Spencer, proud of him.

"Sergeant!" Derek calls, walking over to the man. "Here's what we need–everything that comes in here needs to be organized by whether they were spoken to when your officer's canvassed the neighborhood."

Cassandra answers at least thirty phone calls in the next hour. Anyone who has ever seen a green SUV calls it in. She's sitting at a corner desk with Derek and Spencer, and Derek and her are responsible for the phones while Spencer goes through the canvassing list. They help him in the spare minutes they get without a call.

"Agent Morgan?" The Sergeant from earlier comes over. "This the kinda thing you're looking for?"

"Reid, Grey." Derek brings them with him into the other room, following the Sergeant.

"A Mr. Lomax has a neighbor with a green SUV, but he hasn't seen him all day. Says that's unusual. Thought he might have been out of town, but now he sees some lights on over there." He walks them to his desk, grabbing a notepad.

"1106 Springfield." Derek reads off the paper. "Where's our canvass sheets?"

Spencer holds them out, looking down it. "1100 block . . . 1106. No answer."

"Let's go talk with Mr. Lomax." Derek says instantly, turning and thanking the Sergeant. "Nice call."

"Alright, guys. Good luck." He encourages them, and Cassandra gives him a grateful nod as they leave. Derek drives, and Cassandra snags the passenger seat with a smirk, although she knows Spencer doesn't mind sitting in the back seat.

When they arrive, there's a man raking leaves in his yard.

"Mr. Lomax?" Derek greets him. "Agent Morgan, Reid, and Grey." He points to each of them as he says their names, and they quickly show their badges. "FBI."

"Holy smokes! That was fast." He gasps, walking over to them.

"Did you call in a tip about your neighbor, Don Curtis?" Spencer asks. He puts one leg up on the fence, and Cassandra bites back a smile as she looks away. He never likes standing straight.

"Lives down the street." Lomax nods, pointing to the house. "I saw the news thing, you know? I was thinking . . . Don drives a dark green Explorer and he's at the park all the time. I figured like they said on the television maybe he knows something but he doesn't know that he knows it. Know what I mean?"

"Absolutely." Cassandra gives him a kind smile.

"Where's his Explorer now?" Derek asks, since it's not on the street.

"It's usually in the driveway but I haven't seen it today. Haven't seen Don either, which is kind of weird. We're always out front talking about the lawns. He never has any crabgrass. I don't know how he does it."

"Do you know if he has a dog?"

"Used to. A big golden retriever. Name was Candy. I think she died like six months ago."

Bingo.

Spencer moves as if to grab his holster, but Cassandra nudges him, not wanting to make Lomax suspicious.

"Thank you." She smiles at him. "I hope you figure out your crabgrass problem."

"Me too." He sighs from behind them, and she rolls her eyes as they walk. Derek is calling Hotch, and she leans over to Spencer.

"If I ever get that concerned about grass, put me down." She mumbles, shaking her head. Honestly. The guy is nice, but she can't imagine standing in her yard all day, waiting for a chance to talk about grass. How boring.

"Got it." He sends her an amused smile, although their moment of levity dies as they wait for the team to arrive. All they can do is wait, and it's frustrating: Cassandra wants to burst into the house now. The odds of Billie being alive lessen by the second. When they knock on the door, no one answers, and they can't break in without a warrant.

"Third house on the right." Derek tells Gideon and Hotch when they arrive. "We knocked on the door. No one answered."

"His neighbor said he's definitely in there." Spencer adds.

"He's got a green Ford Explorer in the garage." Cassandra tells them. "We saw it through the window."

"Break down the door." Gideon announces, but Russet shakes her head.

"No. We don't have probable cause."

"He's got a green SUV. He had a dog that died recently. He spends time at the park."

"He's pretending he's not home." Hotch adds on to Derek's points.

"None of which are illegal." Russet sighs. "No judge is gonna sign a warrant based on that information."

"You're weighing the life of a child against the price of a door?" Gideon snaps.

"I'm weighing the law against the price of a door!"

"The girl's in the house right now. The longer we stand here and wait, the longer he has to finish her off!" Gideon scoffs, turning to Cassandra with a question in his eyes. She nods, one hand on her hip holster, waiting for his cue.

"I'll call a judge." Russet pulls out her phone. "If we go in there without a warrant, all that evidence will get thrown–"

"We're aware of the rules of evidence." Hotch tells her coldly.

Gideon nods at her, and they take off.

"Gideon! Grey!" Derek shouts behind them, but Cassandra ignores him. She hears them running after them, but she focuses on making sure she gets to the door first: Gideon recently had a leg injury from skydiving, deciding to fulfill his bucket list. While he's been cleared for the field, she doesn't want him injuring himself further.

"Grey! Grey, wait a damn minute!" Derek huffs from behind her, but she ignores him in favor of kicking in the front door. She's the first in the door, quickly followed by Derek, his hand landing on her shoulder as his other hand aims his gun in her blind spot. "Federal agents! FBI!"

"Clear!"

"Clear!"

Cassandra follows Gideon, with Derek following her, and they start clearing a hallway. In the last room, a blonde man jumps when he tries to leave only to have Gideon's gun pointed at his forehead.

"Where is she?" He pants while Cassandra clears the room he'd come from, her heart sinking when there's still no sign of Billie.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He insists, and they all hear it when Gideon clicks his safety off.

"Where's Billie Copeland?"

"Please don't hurt me."

"Gideon." Derek warns from behind them.

"Please! Please put the gun down!"

"Gideon!"

With a snarl, Gideon shoves the man behind him, and Derek is quick to grab him.

"Tear the place apart!"

They find nothing. Derek is seething next to her as they tear through every room in the house, looking in every spot they can find, only to find no sign of Billie. She's surprised it takes him so long to end up snapping at her, but he waits until they're in the last room, watching his collection of VHS tapes: all of children at the park.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

"I was thinking that it's been over 24 hours." She sighs, shaking her head. "I was thinking that that little girl deserves to go home and–and play with her dolls, and win her next soccer match, and hug her parents before her dad dies of cancer. Play the next one."

"Cas–"

"Just play it!"

Cassandra pulls her knees up to her chest, keeping her eyes on the TV as Derek plays the next tape, this one showing children playing soccer at the park.

"Just as we expected." Spencer states when Gideon enters the room. He's at his desk, looking through his computer. "He has an extensive collection of deviant photos and cartoon downloads."

"Partitioned in separate folders? Access the internet history. Identify any pornographic sites, shut 'em down."

"Uploading to Garcia as we speak." Spencer assures him, and Cassandra frowns, feeling for Penelope. She really needs to do something sweet for her, for always being so helpful. She knows how much she hates witnessing the crimes they deal with daily.

"What is this? Is it all porn?" Gideon scowls, throwing some of the books out of his bookcase.

"It's a lot of home movies with a bunch of kids in it." Derek explains, holding up one of the tapes. "But this one, you need to see it."

Cassandra looks away as it plays, unable to watch it again, and Spencer speaks up after Derek stops it.

"Gideon, we searched the entire house. Upstairs, downstairs. Everywhere. There's no sign of the girl or that she's ever been here. It is possible that he moved her. Polly Klaas was found 25 miles from home, Danielle Van Damme 30, Samantha Runnion 52. But keep in mind . . . we were 20 hours late getting involved."

"Man doesn't take chances. He wouldn't drive around with a girl in his car. He took her, got her off the street as quickly as possible. Just keep looking."

"On it."

When Gideon calls out from the hallway a short while later, Cassandra rushes out. She can't sit in that room, watching those tapes, any longer. Hotch is handing Gideon a chair, and Cassandra watches with wide eyes as he sets it down in the hallway . . . underneath a vent.

"No way." She breathes out, watching as Gideon pulls the vent down, pieces of insulation falling down on them.

"Grey." He turns to her, and she nods, quickly taking his place. If it wasn't for his leg, she's sure he'd be the one crawling in, but she doesn't mind taking his place. Hotch helps hoist her up, his hands on her waist, and relief floods her when she sees Billie stuck in the corner. She's still wearing the soccer uniform she was kidnapped in, with a rag tied around her mouth and tears streaming down her face.

"She's here!" She calls down, hearing Gideon's sigh of relief. "Hi, honey. My name's Cassandra. I'm going to get you out of here, okay?"

She nods quickly, and Cassandra pushes down her disgust as she crawls over a filthy mattress to reach her. It's got a single pillow and blanket, and she doesn't want to imagine what was done on it, even though she knows it'll be on those tapes.

"I wanna go home." Billie sobs as soon as Cassandra has removed the gag, and Cassandra's heart breaks even further.

"I know. We're going to take you there. Your mom and dad are waiting, okay?" She says softly, shifting around until she's behind Billie, and only taking out her pocket knife then. She doesn't want to scare the girl any further. She cuts the zipties around her wrists, wincing at the red lines on her skin, and quickly puts the knife away. "Can I carry you? There are a few men downstairs, but they're FBI Agents. No one is going to hurt you."

When Billie nods, Cassandra carefully scoops her up and shuffles on her knees to the opening. There's not enough room to stand up, and she doesn't want to make the girl crawl across the mattress–Cassandra has every intention of burning her clothes after this, her skin crawling with every second of contact.

"Gideon!" She calls down, carefully lowering Billie down into his hands. He cradles her to him, speaking softly to her, and Cassandra spares one last disgusted look around the attic crawlspace before she's lowering herself down. Hotch is there to help her down, and he keeps a hand on her shoulder, frowning at her.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Cassandra breathes, watching Gideon carry Billie out of the house and far away from the unsub. "I'm okay."

"I got absolutely nothing." Derek groans on the jet later. Cassandra is curled up next to him, wearing a pair of sweats and one of his sweaters, since she'd refused to stay in her work clothes a second longer than she had to. She'd thrown them out at the station as they packed up, not wanting to ever wear them again.

"Aw, nothing." JJ nods, tossing down her hand.

Cassandra follows with a sigh.

"Two pair . . . of aces!" Spencer brags, laying his cards down while the others groan.

"Oh, get outta town! See, why you always winning?" Derek complains. "Nuh-uh!"

"'Cause he cheats!" JJ insists, throwing her hands up.

"Poker? It's mathematics, it's statistics."

Cassandra throws a pretzel from her pile at him while Derek mocks him.

"He's from Vegas." Hotch reminds them all with a smirk while Spencer starts scooping their snacks towards him.

"House rules!" Derek reminds him.

"There's that, too." Spencer acknowledges the Vegas thing with a grin.

"We're playing rummy next." Cassandra insists, narrowing her eyes at Spencer when he pouts. "You can't possibly cheat at Rummy. Hand 'em over."

As soon as the cards are passed over, Cassandra starts shuffling, expertly making a bridge.

"Hey, Hotch." Gideon speaks up, and Hotch turns around to answer him.

"Yeah?"

"Did you send flowers to that tech room girl . . . Garcia . . . and say they were from me."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Jason, people need to know that they're important and sometimes you forget that."

"I already sent her a gift." Gideon sighs, and Cassandra shares an amused look with Derek, JJ and Spencer. "An MP3 player. They last longer. Unless you drop them or the battery dies, whichever comes first."

"So, she got two gifts."

"What if she thinks I'm sweet on her?" He worries, and Cassandra buries her face in Derek's shoulder, trying to muffle her laughter as Elle stops behind him, making a hilarious face in reaction to his words. Cassandra is fine until Hotch starts laughing, and then it bursts out of her along with everyone else. "Maybe not, huh?"

"Can I get a gift next?" She teases, pulling back from Derek and wiping her eyes. "Ooh! Can I have a pony?"

"Alright, shuffle the cards." Hotch tells her with a grin, watching as she does just that. "Besides, aren't you more of a gift giver?"

"Oh, you saw that?" Cassandra flushes, unaware that he'd caught her. At the look she gets from the others, she shrugs. "I, uh, bought Billie some Bratz dolls to add to her collection before we left."

"'Course you did." Derek grins, nudging her. "I wondered where you ran off to."

"What's a brat doll?" Spencer asks with a frown, and Cassandra shares an amused look with JJ before she answers.

"Bratz, Spence." She corrects easily. "Like, with a Z at the end. It's a line of dolls that came out in . . . 2002, I think? They had a TV show made and everything. They're the main competitor of Barbie, and a lot of kids love them. Billie had posters in her room, so I figured she wouldn't be upset to get another doll."

She'd been really sweet about it, and so had her parents, who Cassandra thinks are going to stay together. They'd given her their phone number and promised to stay in touch, and Cassandra hopes that they do. That's the one thing no one prepared her for with this job: how easy it is to get attached to the victims.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

authors note
okay timelines for both shows are a mess so i'm just ... doing what i want tbh. i'm following season 11 of greys anatomy so this is another spoiler warning for the upcoming chapters!! if you haven't watched greys, or haven't gotten to season 11, there's a major plotline at the end of the season that will be brought into this book in a few chapters. so just keep that in mind!

next chapter is riding the lightning, and im having so much fun writing it. i do have a list of all the episodes you guys said you wanted to see, and that was on it! if there are others—doesn't have to be season 1– please let me know and i'll do my best <3 i am skipping episodes because otherwise this story will be 1000 chapters long and i don't think you guys want that! so let me know your favorite episodes and i'll work them in.

i have so many plans for the season one finale and season 2 and i just want to get there!!