"Did your aunt tell you what the emergency was?" Parker asked.

They and JJ made their way to the elevators to wait for Mrs. Homefeldt.

Mrs. Homefeldt was a friend of JJ's aunt and really wanted to talk to JJ and Parker had offered to accompany her.

"No."

The agents didn't have to wait long before an unknown woman stepped out of the elevator and walked straight towards them.

"Mrs. Homefeldt? Hi. I'm Agent Jareau and this is Agent Gallagher."

"Thank you for seeing me."

"My aunt said it was an emergency?"

"Yeah. She said to give this to you," said Mrs. Homefeldt.

She reached into her purse and pulled out a photo and handed it to JJ. It was a photo of the FBI agent in high school with two other classmates. All three wore their football jerseys.

"You played soccer."

"I don't understand," JJ said confused.

"My daughter Polly plays soccer, too. For North Mammon. The varsity team. She got a scholarship to Penn State."

Parker and JJ looked at each other briefly before the young woman turned back to Mrs. Homefeldt.

"Forgive me, ma'am. My aunt didn't really explain to me the nature of this emergency."

"No one is looking for them," said Mrs. Homefeldt.

"Excuse me?" Parker said while Mrs. Homefeldt took a second photo out of her bag.

There were three girls in their soccer jerseys again.

"Here. My daughter and her two friends. They've been missing for five days, and I know someone took them, but no one will believe me."

"Missing?"

"Yeah," confirmed Mrs. Homefeldt, reaching for a newspaper article in her bag. The two agents realized from the photo of Rebecca Bryant that it was about the Fischer king case.

"This... This here. This is you, right? I mean, you found this girl, right?"

"No, no, not just us. The... The team here did."

"It's been five days now. Can you ask them to help me? Because no one is looking for my Polly."

~~

"As much as we want to take this case, we have to be invited by local authorities. I'm sure that this friend of your aunt's is very concerned, but it doesn't work that way," said Hotch a quarter of an hour later, after gathering the team.

"JJ called the chief. He faxed over an official request for our assistance," Parker reported and handed the note to Hotch.

"This is Brooke Chambers," JJ began and the team turned their attention to the screen. "Her father, Peter, a widower, left her home alone for the weekend. Polly Homefeldt and Kelly Seymour were sleeping over Saturday night. At 9:35 p.m., during the town's pep rally for the high school football team, both Kelly and Polly called home."

At the end, JJ started the first recording.

"It's me. I know this is last minute, but please don't be angry. Brooke, Kelly, and I are going to take off on a road trip for a few days. Sort of our last adventure before graduation. We'll be back Friday night. Love you. Bye."

"Kelly Seymour left this message on her parents' machine 44 seconds later."

"It's me. I know this is last minute, but please don't be angry. Brooke, Polly, and I are going to take off on a road trip for a few days. Sort of our last adventure before graduation. We'll be back Friday night. Love you. Bye."

"Exactly the same."

"Word for word," Parker confirmed.

"Both calls were made from Brooke's cell, which has since been turned off."

"And there's been no activity on their cell phones or ATM cards since Saturday," added Garcia, who was at the meeting today.

"Well, it sounds like they were reading from a script," Hotch agreed.

"And obviously since the phone's turned off, I can't use it to locate the girls. But I have an open trap on the number in case it gets turned back on," explained the technical analyst.

"Okay, guys, guys, not for nothing. I remember my senior year in high school. Isn't it possible these girls took a road trip?" asked Derek.

His question was immediately answered by JJ with an emphatic: "No."

"Absolutely not. Polly accepted an athletic scholarship to Penn State. I was a high school athlete just like these girls. I was these girls. They don't smoke. They don't do drugs. They don't drink during the season. And they do not jeopardize a full-ride scholarship by cutting school and missing practice."

"Okay. I hear you, JJ," said Derek. "It has been five days. There's a chance these girls... There's a chance we may not find them."

"I don't think so," Gideon spoke up.

"Why not?"

"The phone messages," Spencer replied. "If they were reading from a script, they said, 'I'll see you next Friday.'"

"Not two days," Parker added.

"– Not two weeks."

"– Friday."

"Why be that specific? My guess is we have until Friday to find them."

"Two days."

"So are we taking this case?" asked JJ.

Gideon and Hotch looked at each other for a moment before Gideon left the room and Hotch said, "Wheels up in 30 minutes."

~~~~

Legendary basketball coach, John Wooden said

"It's not so important who starts the game but who finishes it."

Derek, Gideon and Spencer went straight to the Chambers house while Parker accompanied JJ, Hotch and Mrs. Homefeldt to the police station.

The profilers got out of the car and were already expected.

"Chief Yates?" JJ addressed the man.

"Yeah."

"Jennifer Jareau. We spoke on the phone," the young woman introduced herself and held out her hand.

"Hi."

"This is Agent Hotchner and Agents Gallagher.

"Hi. Jeff Yates," the chief introduced himself.

He then addressed Mrs. Homefeldt.

"Hi, Judy. Hey, why don't you... Why don't you go on inside and make yourself comfortable. We'll be in, in a minute."

"Okay," said the woman and walked past the others to wait in the police station.

"Chief Yates, there's not much of a case file yet," Hotch said.

"Listen, I can't get anyone to agree the girls are actually missing," Chief Yates explained.

"Mrs. Homefeldt certainly believes it," JJ pointed out.

"Yeah, well, I wouldn't put too much stock in what Judy Homefeldt thinks," the man replied, which made the agents suspicious.

"Why is that?" Parker asked.

"She's got a history of mental problems."

"What kind of history?"

"Depression. I just heard she's even on medication."

"Didn't she raise Polly on her own after her husband abandoned her, what, 12 years ago?" JJ wanted to know from the man.

"That's right. Yep."

"If you were in her place, don't you think you'd be a little depressed?"

"Point taken."

"Chief, if you're not sure the girls are missing, why would you request our help?"

"Listen, something happened I'm just not sure what. And if it's bad, I'll take all the help I can get. Plus, your Agent Jareau can be pretty convincing."

"Are the parents inside?"

"Well, Kelly's parents are in there. We still haven't been able to track down Brooke's father, Pete. He's... Well, he travels a lot," Chief Yates reported. "Listen, these people are... They're my friends, okay? I mean, they're... They're my neighbors. Good people. I don't want anyone assuming that they're involved, okay?"

"We just got here; we're not assuming anything."

The chief nodded and the four entered the police station.

~~

"Should we expect a ransom demand?" Mrs. Seymour wanted to know first.

"Kidnappers who want money contact the families to prove they have possession of the victim. They don't call to conceal it," Hotch explained.

"Kidnappers?" repeated Mr. Seymour. "Are we sure they just haven't run off?"

"It's pretty unusual the girls left identical messages," said Parker.

"They feel scripted."

"Why would Kelly run off?"

"Here's the thing. This is a football town. Kelly plays girls' soccer. Our son is on the football team. This week football is all anyone cares about. That didn't always sit right with Kelly. "

"Should it, Gill?" Kelly's mother spoke up. "Should her be told that she's not as important "sit right" with her?"

"I didn't say she wasn't as important."

"You never said it," the woman replied, now having difficulty holding back her tears.

"No. Shh, shh. It's... It's going to be all right. She'll be back after the game. You'll see," Mr. Seymour tried to reassure his wife.

"Come on, Gill, I've got some tissue in the office," said Chief Yates and brought the two of them into his office.

~~

"It looks like Chief Yates won himself a title back in the day. They do like their football," Hotch commented as he, JJ and Parker walked past the memorabilia hanging on the wall.

"Trust me, it's like a religion."

"For us it was Lacrosse. My dad still has his old jersey and the trophy he won back then."

"Does one of you think it's strange that with three girls missing nobody's talked about cancelling tomorrow night's game?" asked Hotch.

"Oh, come on, Hotch, it's football," scoffed JJ. "Don't you know they can play without girls?"

At the same moment, Chief Yates stepped past the profilers.

"Just found Brooke's car. Abandoned."

~~

Spencer, Gideon and Derek looked around where the car was found since they were already on their way.

They noticed that it had been there for a few days and the girls weren't going on a spontaneous road trip.

This discovery also helped the profilers find out which kind of person they are looking for.

"Brooke, Kelly, and Polly have been missing for five days," Parker began introducing the profile. "Usually, in cases like this we wouldn't expect to find them alive. However, in this case, we don't believe that to be true."

"The person responsible spent considerable time and energy planning the abduction. He did not do all this work to simply to kill the girls once he had them. Otherwise, he would have done it at the Chambers' house. He certainly seemed to know he had the time."

"And he had Kelly and Polly reference "Friday" in the messages that they left for their parents."

"We think the UnSub has something planned for the night of your championship game."

"We are certain the UnSub is someone from this community," Gideon explained as the door to the police station opened and a man entered.

"How do you know that?" he wanted to know from the profiler.

"Because, Mr. Chambers, he didn't have your daughter leave you a phone message or a note," Gideon replied. "Did he?"

"No, not that I know of."

"Because he knew you'd be out of town for a while. Just like he knew the dump site for the car would eventually be found. Everything points to him giving himself time."

"Time for what?" Mr. Chambers asked further.

"Don't know yet, sir."

"Well, what's being done about it?"

JJ walked towards Mr. Chambers.

"Sir, I'm with the FBI. We're going to need some information," she explained.

"No, wait a minute," said Brooke's father.

He stepped past JJ and walked up to her colleagues.

"Someone from this town's taken my Brooke. I want to know what the hell's being done about it!"

"Yes, I know, sir. If you would just come with me, I will explain everything all right?" JJ tried again.

This time Mr. Chambers relented and followed JJ into a separate room.

"Predatory abductors like this UnSub are intelligent, patient, and cautious," Spencer continued with presenting the profile. "They like to watch everything. The victims. The families. The police. He's surely watching us now and may even attempt to inject himself into our investigation."

"We also know that predatory abductors prepare a nest prior to the abduction."

"A remote cabin. An underground bunker. A secret, secure place–" Parker listed. "– only he has access to, designed to confine and conceal his prey once his hunting is done."

"Should we be looking for this nest?"

"You'd never find it," Spencer replied. "For his nest, predatory abductor John Jamelske built a sophisticated dungeon complex under a suburban Syracuse home where he documented every detail of the torture, he carried out upon the victims that he kept there for up to three years."

"The man who kidnapped these girls has a relationship or a job that permitted them to get close enough to watch them. We must focus on those people who had access," Parker added.

"A family member. A teacher. A next-door neighbor. It sounds clichéd, but often it is the person you least suspect."

"One more thing to remember, we're looking for someone who was not at the pep rally. Ask the community. I'm sure someone videotaped it–," Gideon reminded the others again.

Parker, who had been listening intently until now, was momentarily distracted by Spencer's cell phone ringing.

The young genius took a few steps to the side and answered the phone.

"– through the tapes. Start eliminating townspeople."

"I'm... I'm sorry, sir," JJ had to interrupt the meeting. "Mr. Chambers just took off."

"Where'd he go?"

"I don't know."

"That was Garcia," Spencer spoke up after he ended the call. "She just ran the cigarette butts through CODIS and got a name. Donald Haas."

"Don Haas is the girls' soccer coach," explained Chief Yates.

"Was he at the pep rally?" Parker asked.

Chief Yates looked at his colleague, who had just introduced himself as Sergeant Sikes, and both shook their heads.

"I don't remember seeing him there. No."

"Where would Coach Haas be right now?"

~~

Coach Haas was at practice for the girls' soccer team.

Mr. Chambers was attacking the other man when investigators arrived on scene and took both into custody.

About half an hour later, Parker was sitting across from Coach Haas.

"What the hell is wrong with Pete, huh? Going crazy like that. Like I had something to do with this," the man complained. "Mind if I smoke?"

"Yes," Parker replied.

Coach Haas looked at the young agent briefly before putting the cigarette pack back on the table.

"You smoke Morley One Hundreds, Mr. Haas?"

"Yeah."

"We found 13 Morley One Hundred cigarette butts with your DNA on them across the street from the Chambers' house," Parker explained.

They placed photos of the cigarette butts, and the DNA test results on the table in front of Coach Haas so he could see them.

"This is a mistake. Someone has made a mistake."

"You smoked those cigarettes and left some of yourself on them. That's a fact."

"Yeah, but I didn't leave them there."

"So you left them somewhere else where you watched the girls?" asked Parker.

"What? No, of course not. It wasn't me."

"Ok. Can you tell me who did?"

"How the hell should I know?"

~~

Parker stood up and left the interrogation room.

They went into the next room to discuss things with their colleagues.

"Chambers represented Haas in a minor sex offense case six years ago. Had the record expunged," Hotch reported.

The unit chief had spoken to Mr. Chambers while Parker was talking to Coach Haas.

"What kind of sex offense?" Chief Yates asked the profiler.

"Underage prostitute."

"Sound like the right kind of crime?"

"Could be."

"Well, Haas swears he didn't put the cigarette butts there," Parker explained.

"Does it strike anyone else as grossly inconsistent that an UnSub this sophisticated and methodical would leave an obvious pile of his DNA at the crime scene?" asked Spencer.

"Don Haas was at the pep rally," JJ pointed out as she entered the room. "I saw him on two different videotapes."

"I guess I must have missed him then," said Chief Yates.

At the same time, Derek also entered the room through the door.

"All three of the victim's soccer jerseys were found behind the motel Peter Chambers has been staying at for the last week."

Hotch walked past Derek and sat down next to Mr. Chambers in the interrogation room.

Brooke's father then told the profilers why he was there.

He met someone at the motel.

They just had to keep it a secret since the other man was currently married.

The fact that the UnSub planted false evidence suggested that it wasn't just about the girls.

He also targeted their families.

~~

Investigators gathered the girls' parents.

Maybe they had an idea who it could be.

"This UnSub or unknown subject is someone you know. He's someone from your past and he is someone who thinks that you have wronged him. We'd like for you to think about who might fit that description."

"Don't you think if we knew who did this or why, we would have told you?" said Mr. Seymour.

"Please, let him talk, Gill," asked Mrs. Homefeldt.

"Oh, I'm going to take advice from someone on mental medication?"

"What?"

"Everyone knows, Judy," Mrs. Seymour explained.

"Look, can we– Can we just stay focused, please?" Parker interrupted the the parents.

"The man who took your daughters, he framed Peter Chambers and Don Haas for a reason. This is an attack on you."

"I've made mistakes in my life, but why take it out on Brooke?" asked Mr. Chambers.

"You know, it's one thing for Brooke to pay for your mistakes, but if my daughter has to pay for them, too," Mrs. Seymour addressed Brooke's dad.

"Mr. Seymour, that's not helping."

"That's not fair, Gill," said Coach Haas.

"Fair? You shut the hell up! You are nothing but a pervert!" hissed Mr. Seymour and stood up. "You will never get near the children of this town again!"

An officer immediately responded and pushed him back into the chair.

"We need to keep this as civil as possible," Derek reminded the parents.

It didn't help when they blamed each other.

Whatever it was that made the UnSub do this, they couldn't change it.

But the profilers had to find out what it was.

"Gill, are you even listening? It wasn't Don. He had nothing to do with it!"

"You knew he was a deviant. You didn't tell us! You let him coach our girls!"

"His arrest was a misunderstanding, okay?"

"We talked to the hotel manager, Peter," said Mrs. Seymour. "We know about you. Maybe this is God's punish–"

"– ment for letting this sinfull into our lives!" Mrs. Colson shouted at Parker's mother.

Parker sat on the stairs. They could understand that Mrs. Colson was upset, after all, she buried her son today.

"It wasn't because of  Tomas and you know that," Caroline replied.

"No," scoffed Mrs. Colson. "We all know who he was really after."

"Punishment? Okay," Mr. Chambers interrupted Parker from their thoughts. "At least I didn't spend the week my daughter was missing focusing on my son and a damn football game!"

"No, we know what you spent the week doing."

"I blame myself," said Mrs. Seymour. "– for ever letting Kelly be friends with Brooke and Polly to begin with. Low breeding always shows through!"

"Low breeding?"

"They're bad seeds. They always have been."

"Don't talk about my daughter like that! All right?" hissed Mrs. Homefeldt and stood up.

"Ma'am, please sit do–"

"All right, that's enough!" Parker shouted and stepped closer to the table. "What is the matter with you people? This is exactly what he wants. He is attacking all of you. He's turning all of you against each other, and you're just letting him do it. Your daughters are best friends. And you everyone has known each other most of their lives. Don't let this man beat you this way."

"What do you want us to do?" Mr. Seymour wanted to know.

"Listen to us. We came here to help. Let us do that."

The parents nodded and Parker turned to Spencer.

"I need fresh air," they murmured, and the young genius nodded.

Outside the building, Parker grabbed her cell phone from their bag and dialed their father's number.

Parker's father wasn't answering the phone, so the young adult decided to call again later.

The cell phone had barely disappeared into the pocket with the keys when all the investigators rushed out onto the street and looked around frantically.

At Parker's confused expression, Spencer explained to his better half what was going on in just a few words.

Brooke's cell phone was on and according to Garcia, it was outside the building.

In fact, two of the girls were standing on a side street that ran at the side of the police station.

"Morgan," Hotch addressed the other profiler. "Keep the parents back. There are only two of them."

Derek, along with other officers, tried to hold the parents back as Parker, Hotch, Gideon and JJ approached the girls.

JJ and Hotch stood by Polly while Gideon and Parker checked on the other girl.

Both were wrapped in a blanket and the second girl (Brooke or Kelly) was wrapped in such a way that at first glance you couldn't tell which one it was.

"Polly, are you hurt?" asked JJ.

"She's bleeding," Hotch said.

"It's not her blood," explained the second girl and lifted her head.

"Brooke, where's Kelly Seymour?"

~~

"Whatever happened, you're a very brave woman," Gideon said to Brooke.

Parker just closed the door behind them and placed the water and the candy bar they had taken from her private stash on the table.

The teenage girl nodded slightly.

Parker saw this as a 'thank you' and sat down next to Gideon and Parker.

"– Not many people can face what you did and make it out the other side."

"It wasn't Polly's fault," Brooke muttered after a few seconds. "She didn't do anything."

"What happened?"

"We were so hungry. So thirsty. So cold–"

Brooke reported that the UnSub wanted the girls to choose one of them who wouldn't make it.

Kelly had already decided on Brooke because Brooke had caught a cold.

Brooke overheard Kelly talking to Polly about it and decided to make her own decision.

"You killed her?"

"I didn't have any choice. They had already decided to... But it wasn't Polly's fault. It was him. He said we had to choose."

"Who is he, Brooke?" Parker wanted to know. "Who made you choose?"

"I never saw him."

But luckily Polly did.

It is one of the old team members of Chambers, Haas and Yates.

"Marcus Younger," said Chief Yates when the profilers showed him the team photo.

"Polly just ID'd him."

"He was the star of our team," reported the chief. "Blew his knee out in the first quarter of the championship, losing a full-ride scholarship to Notre Dame."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"Come on."

~~

Parker accompanied Chief Yates, Gideon, Derek and other officers to Marcus Younger's address.

They searched Younger's house first– he wasn't there.

The investigators found the man in his storm cellar– along with Kelley Seymour's body.

Younger sat on the floor in the middle of the room. He seemed to have been waiting for them.

"Marcus Younger? FBI."

Parker followed Derek into the room and pointed their gun at Younger.

"I never touched her," said the man and Parker really didn't like his smugness.

"Put your hands where I can see them."

"I never hurt them," Younger defended himself and raised his hands.

"Get up, Marcus."

"I never even came into the room, Jeff."

Gideon stepped past his colleagues to confirm that Kelly was indeed dead.

"They did this. Brooke and Polly," said Younger. "All I did was show them who they really are. What they were truly capable of. People pretending to be decent. When it came down to it, they..."

Please stop talking, Parker thought, their finger already twitching on the trigger.

But of course, they had enough control not to shoot.

That bastard would spend the rest of his life behind bars, Parker would make sure of that– for Polly, for Brooke, and for Kelly.

"– They reacted just the way I knew they would. They turned on each other. Just like when I got hurt. You all couldn't wait to run over me to take my position. To take my life. And to forget all about me."

"Marcus, I'm not going to ask you again. Get up!", Derek instructed the other man.

Younger slowly stood up and Derek was now able to handcuff him.

"You don't know what it's like, Jeff," Younger addressed the chief. "You all had lives, and I just cleaned up after you. Now you have to clean up after me."

"You get him out of here," said Gideon in a dangerously low voice.

Derek then led Younger out of the room.

Parker looked at Kelly one last time before following the men.

"The ultimate choice for a man inasmuch as he is given to transcend himself is to create or destroy, to love or to hate."

Erich Fromm

On the flight back, Parker leaned their head against one of the small windows, trying to sleep, when suddenly her cell phone rang.

"Hey, Dad," Parker answered the phone.

"Parker, my little Stormcloud," Brian Gallagher greeted his child. "– you called earlier, is everything okay?"

The young agent smiled. Brian, just like his wife Caroline, knew Parker far too well.

Well, after all, he was the one who was always there when Parker had a nightmare as a child.

Caroline too, of course, but since Brian mostly worked until the middle of the night, Parker went to him so they wouldn't have to wake their mother.

"Yes, everything is fine. I just wanted to talk to you."