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part seven - harvey
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season 4 episode 4
Paradise
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The morning was bright and Ivy awoke glad that the summer heat was slowly returning to her life.

With the sun greeting her as she awoke, she made her way to a cup of coffee. Her knee was still feeling the pain of Cyrus's attack, a pain which she knew was going to take a while to leave her.

As she waited for the sweet joy of caffeine, her eyes drifted towards her front door. The box of her personal effects was still sitting there, right where Pietro had left them. She had the time to unpack them but, constantly made excuses. She knew that opening it would be like opening Pandora's box and she couldn't stand that at the moment. Ivy chose instead to get ready for work. She found a wine-coloured shirt, unbuttoning the top three buttons to accommodate for the heat, tucking it into black leather wide-legged trousers. She threw on a black blazer for good measure, not knowing where the case would take her.

Ivy was putting on her red bottoms when she heard a buzzing sound from outside. It was distinct and made her adrenaline pumping. She felt fear possess her and the instinct to protect herself took over. She had taped a gun to the underneath of her bed, pulling it out. She walked out slowly, following the noise, unsure of what she would find.

The noise was coming from the box, the one that had been sitting there for weeks. It stopped and that paused Ivy. If it was a bomb, then it was about to go off. But, instead, it started again. She slowly got closer, flicking the lid off and scanning the box's contents.

It was a phone.

"Hello?"

"Baby, you know that I was the one that put the box there, right? You should put the gun down," It was Pietro himself, laughing down the phone. Relief consumed Ivy's body and she put her gun on the coffee table beside her, walking back into her room to collect her things.

"How did you know I had a gun?" She questioned him, letting a laugh slip, along with a smile. It was good to hear a familiar voice, it was good to smile.

"Because I know you too well," She could hear the sounds of busy streets and people yelling behind him, "I'm in Bulgaria, chasing a lead. I heard however that Harvey was up for the taking and, by some miracle, I got him sent to you."

"No way," She grinned, finding a bigger back bag and swapping her heels out for a pair of sneakers.

"I told you, Ivy, I'd do anything for you. He should be arriving momentarily. Enjoy him," He laughed, she was beaming with glee.

"And can I ask why you need to call me on a burner?" She asks, making her way out the door and going down the stairs.

"I got myself into a spot of bother, darling. Just enjoy Harvey, don't worry your sweet little head about me."

When he hung up, Ivy the growing pit of worry in Ivy's stomach was growing. He was her oldest friend, seeing her through the most difficult time but, she also knew what he was like. She knew he couldn't keep his mouth shut and she knew he had a habit of getting in trouble. Yet, somehow, he always ended up fine. She just had to hope that this was one of these times.

Ivy headed outside in a flurry, knowing something beautiful was awaiting her. When she got through the doors of the lobby, she saw him, Harvey. A Yamaha r1 sports motorcycle. Harvey had been by her side through her time at Interpool and she was sad to leave the sleek black bike behind. She loved the feeling of the air in her hair as she zoomed down the highway, letting her worries fly away.

She didn't waste any time and hopped on the bike, feeling at home while on it starting it up, putting on the helmet that had been left for her and flying down the road. Ivy gained a sense of comfortability feeling, like her days travelling around Europe, taking cases and stopping bad guys. She felt like her eighteen-year-old self, at home in her body.

Derek and Spencer had decided to carpool that day, stopping to get the rest of the team coffee.

Derek pulled into the car park, finding his spot and noticing Hotch beside him. He seemed anxious on the phone, talking to someone until he noticed the pair awkwardly waving, Spencer gesturing the trays of coffee they were carrying, which put a smile on Aarons's face. He stepped out of the car, standing on the side of the road with his teammates.

"I needed this this morning," Hotch smiled, taking his coffee from Morgan and thanking him.

They stood together, catching up when, suddenly, the sound of a booming engine coming around the corner, heading their way. They saw the bike pull up, taking. a moment to admire it. They had no idea who it was, thanks to the helmet, but watched as it parked in front of them.

"Look at that sweet, sweet ride," Morgan muttered, staring at the bike and not the woman, for once.

Ivy flicked off her helmet, running her hand through her hair and turning the bike off. She grabbed her things, stepping off the bike with a smile. She lifted her head towards the lobby doors, a usually boring sight but instead, she was greeted by three suited men staring at her.

"Good morning, boys," She smiled, heading their way, "Oh coffee, nice, thanks, Derek." She smiled as she walked off, taking her coffee with her.

They stood confused for a moment, staring at each other.

"What just happened?" Spencer asked, and the pair sighed.

"I have no idea," Hotch muttered.

•———•———•

The case took them to Nevada where they instantly knew trouble was brewing. Couples had been found dead in the middle of the road, waiting for something to hit them and try to blame the deaths on the driver. The case was going to be long and Ivy sat in the evidence room with Spencer, plotting accident reports on the evidence board's map.

"What do the public know?" Hotch asked Sheriff Bruner, watching a very pregnant JJ run around and organized the team.

"Accident," He muttered. He knew, like they did, that an innocent man was currently taking the fall for this.

"We cannot risk this getting out," Rossi explained, he was searching through his bag while speaking to the Sheriff. "We need him to believe that he is getting away with murder."

"Any future calls related to this investigation will be forwarded to agent Jareau," Hotch explained.

Ivy couldn't explain the mood of her boss. Looking at him, something was agitating him and when her boss was acting like this, she tended to stay back.

"Rebecca Gallen's father is on his way to claim his daughter's body," Bruner explained.

Rossi finally found what he was looking for and pulled out a rubber ware filled with pasta, hitting Ivy on the shoulder and looking down at her. "Food."

"Thank you, Rossi," She smiled.

He was a link to her Italian heritage and she was glad that he was helping her remember that. Rossi had taken a special interest in her, there was something about her which grew a need to protect her in him. Earlier in the week, she had told him about her Italian grandparents and how she missed their cooking. Rossi knew that whatever happened at Interpool was rough and plagued her, she carried it in her eyes. It was the only part of her troubled mind that managed to display her tough exterior. Although, he knew, that would make her an extremely good agent, no matter how horrific it was for her.

"Did you get any areal photographs of the scene?" Rossi asked and Bruner shook his head, "I'll have our technical analyst get some from the NSA. I'd like to take a look at the areas around the highways and get an idea of the scene. Morgan, let's go."

•———•———•

The sun was splitting as Ivy found herself stuck inside, staring at an evidence board. She knew that still, even though her first month on the team had just been completed, Hotch didn't trust her out on the field. No matter her skills, no matter her achievements, he did not care.

"We need to go door to door."

The silence was broken upon Hotch's statement, one only being introduced when JJ arrived. Ivy had been staring and thinking alone, bouncing ideas off of herself, all while her boss stood next to her in silence. She couldn't figure out what was wrong with him, why he was aggravating. She chose to just sit down, taking pressure off of her knee.

Aaron noticed her thinking and searching from outside the room while speaking to a detective. He had developed a habit of studying her, noticing how she pursed her lip when she was trying to focus. He was already in a bad mood and he understood that but, he still joined her in the room. He was afraid of his mouth with her, particularly of what could escape it. He watched as she ran her fingers through her hair, her silky dark black hair, something that he knew she did when she felt stressed. Hotch chose not to send her out into the field, noticing that she still had a small limp and felt that at least in here, he could see her and keep tabs on her.

"Won't that take forever? We're not even sure what it is we are dealing with here. We don't have the manpower for that," JJ rightly questions, Ivy looked up at him for his response.

"I know but, right now it is all we have to go on," He picked up a file and prepared to leave, being stopped by an officer.

It looks like we have a possible missing persons. Ian and Abby Corbin were in Reno for the weekend. They were supposed to be home yesterday." The officer explained to the small group.

"Where is home?" Hotch asked the officer, taking their picture and pinning it to the evidence board

"San Luis Obispo." He cleared up.

"They could've driven right through Sherwood," Ivy offered, looking at the map.

They've already been missing a night. His mom's looking after their two kids," The officer remarked.

"Ian and Abby Corbin have already been missing for over 24 hours, which means we may only have until tonight to find them." Hotch remarked, making his way out the room, stopping momentarily, "Auclair, let's go."

She perked up from the chair, he was standing waiting for her. Begrudgingly, she decided to follow suit. The only benefit for her was the fact that she was getting time out in the field and out of the office. She followed him outside and to the car, hopping inside the sleek black jeep and reading over the files he had handed her in. Ivy knew the ride would be silent and she was correct, they were quiet.

Hotch wasn't purposefully being callous with Ivy, he was simply stressed. The case was long and limited by lack of evidence. On top of that, he was straining himself at work and because of that, he was missing time with Jack. His morning phone call with his son had ended with a scolding from Hayley, all over the fact that he wasn't around and it had destroyed his mood. He wanted nothing more than to be with him, obviously but, at the time, it was impossible.

•———•———•

After hours of canvassing and silence, Ivy and Hotch were still stuck. They were interviewing motel managers and owners, knowing that, even though there were several oddballs that would no doubt run into issues with the law down the line, none of them were their guys. Ivy was getting tired of sitting in silence and was prepared to either scream at her boss or just leave. She had decided, that since her last case and his surprising kindness, she would try and follow his lead.

They pulled into what felt like their millionth motel, Ivy immediately taking notice of its run-down condition and lack of cars. It seemed like nobody was staying there and that was a troubling sign. She followed Hotch as they headed to the reception, standing behind him as he rang the bell for someone to come out.

"Sorry about that, I was around back," The man peered out of the back room, wiping his hands with a rag and looking at the Hotch. Ivy noticed that he didn't take a glance at her, degrading her. He was well kept, and tidy. Something, however, felt off.

"Aaron Hotchner, FBI and this is SSA Ivy Auclair," He nodded to her but the manager didn't bother turning her way.

"I'm Wayne Dryden. I'm the manager."

"We're looking for these people, have you seen them? Their names are Abby and Ian Corbin," Hotch opened the file and pulled out the picture. Ivy watched his hands, staring at the way his fingers arched up to slide the image over, taking notice of the veins in his hands.

"They must have done something really bad to bring the FBI all the way out here," He replied. Ivy noticed that he was confident but, she was beginning to wonder if that was fake.

"They're missing. Is there anyone else here who may have seen them?" Ivy decided to ask, testing her developing theory.

"Well," He finally turned to her, glaring at her remark. His eyes were deep, cold, "It's just me and the old lady and she's down at the mall for this Hummel expo. She collects those things. Do you know them?"

"I've heard of them," Ivy replied but, to her, the absence of his answer was noticeable.

"She's got those things taking over my office they are everywhere in there. It's a sight!" His charisma was beguiling and Ivy was not having any of it. "Can I help you, sir?"

"Do you have any rooms?" Ivy was so focused on this man's facade that she hadn't noticed a customer arrive in.

"One moment, sir."

"If you see or hear anything, here's my card," Hotch offered him and he accepted.

"Thank you. I hope you find who you're looking for."

As the pair walked out and headed towards the Jeep, the growing feeling in her gut was that something was wrong. She had learned to trust it, no matter what, even if it meant speaking up to the man whose deminer didn't seem pen to be bothered.

"We're going to look into him, right?" She asked, putting her seatbelt on. She was greeted however with a confused look by her boss.

"Why would we? He does not fit the profile," Hotch scoffed, putting on his seat belt and starting up the car.

"And you got all that from a thirty-second conversation?" He tried to speak but she interrupted, "He wouldn't look at me. That fits his hatred for women pattern. He over-explained himself about the collectables and there were no other customers in this car park. Either he has really bad reviews or he's turning people away!"

She could feel her voice raise and her tone become sour. Ivy hated when people didn't listen to her and dismissed her. It made her feel weak like she had all those years ago. She knew that no matter what, she would fight for her voice to be heard.

"A man walked in right after us. He was polite-"

"A facade, Hotch, if he's our guy then he fits every aspect of the profile, you just don't want to hear it," She scoffed, Hotch rolled his eyes and began to pull out of the car park.

Ivy turned back to the motel and noticed the man who was in there with them leaving with a scowl on his face. He stormed back to his car and she knew that something was up.

"Hotch, the man that was behind us has just left and he-"

"Ivy?" He turned to her, his anger was beaming.

"What?!" She fired back.

"Drop it."

Ivy felt defeated in that moment, knowing full well that there was something wrong here. She knew that building some sort of decent relationship with her boss was important and they defying him was most definitely not the way to do that. So, she stayed quiet.

•———•———•

A day later, the team was no closer to solving the case and as Ivy got dressed that morning, her nagging feeling didn't dissolve. She unpacked a pair of black wide-legged trousers and a white fitted shirt. She didn't particularly enjoy wearing her hair up, but, she tied a messy bun, allowing her curtain bangs to fall around her face. After putting on her heels, she heard a knock at her door.

"Hey Mama," She opened to Morgan, standing with a cup of coffee for her.

"Oh you were sent from heaven just for me," She smiled, taking it off of him.

The pair made their way out of the hotel and to the Jeep, Derek decided to drive so that Ivy could fuel up.

"What's at you this morning, you don't seem yourself?" Derek asked, fixing his sunglasses and turning to Ivy, who had already rolled her eyes.

"I had a thought, on the case, and Hotch completely dismissed me," She explained to him.

"He can be like that, don't worry. He's been in a mood since we got here and I think he's just agitated. What was this thought?" He asked and she gladly started to explain it to him.

When Ivy and Derek arrived at the station, smiling together and greeting their fellow teammates, Aaron was watching her. He couldn't help but stare at her. The way those trousers fitted around her waist always caught his wandering eyes and for the first time, the updo. It showed off her neck. It was going to drive him crazy.

"Garcia is on the line," He distracted himself, "She discovered that each woman in the car had no underwear on."

Ivy sat down across from her boss, not paying him too much attention and decided to read the new information from the file. He noticed that she wasn't looking at him, it was infuriating.

"We know that an underwear fetish typically begins in adolescence, with peeping in neighbours' windows," Rossi offered up to the group, " When that no longer satisfies them, they'll burglarize
homes and start taking the object that arouses them."

"If they get away with that long enough, they become more confident. Then the object becomes the woman wearing it," Morgan added to his point.

"That's when a rape can occur," Ivy stated.

"The one constant is, they always take the underwear as a souvenir," Hotch explained as he stood up, feeling the need to move so that he could think.

"Is it possible a pervert like this has ever been arrested?" Emily asked and the keys from Garcia's keyboard could be heard through the phone.

"There's a good chance that a serial sex offender, with an underwear fetish, has been caught before," Hotch explained.

"Right again, Agent Hotchner!" Garcia piped up through the phone, "For the last 2 days, I've been searching through VICAP for similar rapes and murders, in cases that are still open. That has yielded me diddley-squat. So I regrouped. I looked at some pictures of baby pandas, that Ivy sent me, and I went back in and I started searching for similar rapes and murders in cases that had been solved. OK?"

"What did you find?" Ivy asked, standing up and walking closer to the phone.

"5 months ago, this guy named Clint Barnes is convicted of 5 rapes that happened 30 miles away, in Selbyville. Now, what's interesting, and by interesting, I also mean icky and sad and wrong, is that Mr. Barnes only stole the undergarment of his last victim, and she was beaten in the same manner as our current victims. And she was the only one who died." Garcia explained as Ivy walked towards the evidence board.

"The first four showed no signs of torture?" Ivy asked, cutting Hotch off who seemed to be about to ask the ever same question.

According to statements made by the survivors, yes. Some questions about his performance. Things like... "Did you enjoy it?"" She called out to them in disgust.

"That sounds like a power reassurance rapist," Rossi commented.

"The last victim wasn't his. It was our unsubs," It all clicked with Ivy, turning to face the team who was slowly coming to the same conclusion.

They had to wait for the files to arrive on all the possible suspects, coming from the DA's office. But once they arrived, they were straight on the case.

"How many suspects did they have in the Selbyville case?" Hotch asked Garcia as he passed out files to the team, all of whom were gathered around the phone.

"Let's see. Including Clint Barnes, it says they had about 10 other men who looked good for it.

"Almost all these guys had criminal records,"  Emily commented, "Offenses range from spousal abuse, sex crimes, molestation, and attempted rape."

"Our unsub is using brutal physical force and extreme violence. Look for somebody angry and hostile towards his victims," Ivy commented, she was scanning files incredibly quickly and it was being noticed.

Look for an intellectual component. This guy used the MO of another rapist to make sure the wrong person went to jail for his crimes," Hotch mentioned and it looked as though he was attempting to one-up Ivy, something Derek caught onto that made him laugh. "The Selbyville police talked to our unsub.

"All right, Garcia, let's try again," Rossi called out, taking the new information into account and looking for the Unsub once more.

"Name's Floyd Hansen. Lived and worked in Sherwood his entire life. Went to jail at 25 for breaking and entering. Our friend got caught red-handed with some bloomers. Charged with attempted rape. Jerk served time, and got out a year ago. His last known address is at the Crest Cottages."

Ivy immediately looked up at Hotch, understanding that he hadn't noticed it yet.

"JJ, the list of hotels and motels we went to.." He trailed off, it was hitting him. "I interviewed the manager there.l

His name's Dryden, right? Uh, employee records say Wayne Dryden was fired from the Crest Cottages 6 months ago. The only employee now is the owner...Floyd Hansen." Garcia commented and Hotches eyes darted towards Ivy.

"For fucks sake. You see what happens when you act like a martyr," She rolled her eyes and left the room, not wanting to deal with him.

Ivy knew their next stop was the cottages and she headed to grab her vest and switch into a pair of boots. She was alone in the locker room. But, that was until she heard the door push open and the presents barged their way towards her.

"You are now blatantly disrespecting me in front of the team?" He shouted, she was slightly taken aback but didn't let him notice.

"Are you mad that I was rude or that I was right?" She asked him, but she didn't raise her voice to him, Ivy knew that right now she was simply an outlet for his rage.

"You were disrespectful-"

"You were dismissive. Are we even?" She asked, closing the locker and sitting down, pulling her heels off and swapping them out for her combat boots.

He was taken aback by her, a feeling that he had been plagued with quite a bit recently.

"What is your problem?" He shouted and, to his shock, she laughed.

"My problem? You dismissed me on this guy and I don't know if it's because I'm young or because I'm a woman but, that's on you to figure out. Now, these poor people have been subjected to more torture than you could have avoided. So, Hotch, what's your fucking problem?" She spat back at him and he was grueling with anger.

He didn't know what to say but, he stayed standing there, trying to search for the words. She didn't bother with him, finishing getting ready and putting her heels away, preparing to leave and close the case.

"Learn to trust me, Hotchner, you may discover that I am very good at what I do," She made her attempt to leave the room, having to push past the suited man to get to the door.

Hotch grabbed her arm, turning to face her but she didn't look back at him. Ivy felt his hand grip tighten. He couldn't bring himself to let her leave but, he knew that his words were going to taste like venom.

"Nobody is ever going to trust you, Ivy. You're too far gone," He spat at her, he heard that sarcastic laugh once more. Ivy turned to face him, he didn't lose his grasp.

"You have no idea who I am.  All you do is see the bad in people and I can't help with that," She started him down, he didn't seem to get the message, "Now get your fucking hand off of me."

Ivy pulled her arm away and left the room, alone.

heyy sorry this took so long its like 4000 words. also what are your thoughts on the graphics at the start of the chapter? let me know if i should continue them.

- Jamieee