"AND THEN SHE told me that i'd have to give up my room for the baby!" sierra ranted to spencer as she poured coffee into her mug in the kitchen of the bau. "can you believe that?"
spencer quickly spun around as he poured almost as much sugar into his mug as there was coffee. "wait, mia's pregnant?" he asked.
the girl rolled her eyes. "she's not," she told him. "this is about their hypothetical future baby that i am obviously going to give up my room for even though she has a perfectly good office that she never even uses," she continued, grabbing a little straw and stirring her coffee. "but don't make me, you know?" she said, as spencer poured some of the sugar into her coffee as she stirred. "let it be my own choice."
the doctor stayed quiet, pursing his lips with a nod. he had learned over the past couple of weeks that when she gets like this, the best thing to do is smile and nod.
sierra raised her eyebrows at him. "don't look at me like that." she said with a sigh. "we have a deal." she reminded him. "no profiling."
she quickly spun on her heel, and walked back towards her desk, with the doctor hot on her trails. "i wasn't profiling you."
sierra grabbed a file off her desk, and walk towards the copy room — spencer still right behind her — when finally she spun around and sighed. "i know being mad at my sister makes it easier to lie to her, so i keep finding reasons to be mad at her." she admitted, opening the copy machine. "i know it's unhealthy, and knowing that is not going to stop me from doing it."
spencer pursed his lips next to her. "why do you even have to lie to her?" he asked.
the girl hesitated for a moment. she had been telling her sister that she had been working late when in reality she'd been with spencer almost every time. she didn't want it to seem like she was embarrassed of him — because that wasn't it. honestly, she just liked having something all to herself.
and telling mia and atticus meant that it was something real, which scared the girl more than anything in the world.
sierra sighed. "you know atticus and garcia text like, all the time?" she told him, which was true. "it's so weird, but it also makes a lot of sense."
spencer smiled at her, noticing that they were alone in the copy room. "well, only a little while longer."
the two had decided to keep their blossoming relationship a secret from their coworkers, knowing that it would put way too much pressure on them and evidently implode. they wanted to see what it felt like just the two of them, and then ease into telling everyone.
the girl looked back over at him, the same smile on her face. "i had fun yesterday." she admitted, a hint of rose making its way up to her cheeks.
spencer looked down at her with a smile. "me too." he said. "i was thinking italian tonight, what do you think?"
sierra raised her eyebrows at him. "i think that's, what, third date?" she asked, a small teasing smile on her lips as the copier beeped — telling her her copies had been made. "kind of a big deal." she said with a small laugh as she grabbed the papers and the original out of the machine. "i wonder if i'll put out?"
as she walked out of the room, the doctor stood there for another moment, dumbfounded as blood rushed to his cheeks with a small laugh.
they had decided to take things slowly — which was new territory for sierra. everyone she had ever been with since high school had rushed into things, and the fire burned out fast. either that, or they only wanted her for one thing. she hadn't had someone want her completely almost ever, and it was a new feeling. a bit of a scary feeling, but the girl felt up to the challenge.
as she left the copy room, her eyes caught on none other than aaron hotchner walking towards his office, which was strange because he had taken the day off.
that could only mean one thing — they had a case.
sierra ran towards her desk, calling out to the man before he got into his office. "hotch!" she exclaimed, pulling open her drawer. "don't you dare run away from me, hotchner."
hotch spun around shaking his head, knowing exactly what the girl was talking about. "absolutely not."
the girl's face fell as she excitedly held up the happy birthday hat that she had gotten for spencer's birthday a couple of months back. "come on, hotch, it's a tradition."
hotch shook his head as she came up the stairs to meet him right outside of his office. "no, i'm not wearing that." he repeated sternly. "i have a reputation to uphold, and we have a case."
sierra shot him a quick pout. "i don't care about any of those things." she admitted with a shrug. "and besides, i'm relentless. i'm not going to stop until you wear it." she reminded the man. "you might as well get it over with now before you have to interrogate someone with it on."
hotch narrowed his eyes at the girl, who just stared back at him — blankly. she may have been the only one on the team who didn't have an ounce of fear in her heart for aaron hotchner, because she saw a lot of herself in him.
they stared each other down for what felt like ages, before hotch finally sighed. "fine." he admitted, putting his head down. "you win."
sierra almost let out an excited squeal as she placed the hat on his head. "happy birthday, hotch!" she exclaimed, as she held out her arms for a hug.
hotch pointed his finger at her. "don't push it."
"okay, that's fair." she admitted, pulling her hands back to her sides and following him into the round table room.
as they entered the room, everyone seemed to freeze in their spot seeing hotch wearing that hat. "what is going on?" morgan asked. "has hell frozen over or something?"
hotch just put his hands up with an exasperated sigh. "don't." he warned them. "there's been a murder." he said. "take it away, jj."
jj hesitated for a moment, before turning back to the file in front of her. "allende feel sol, mexico," she started. "population 20,000."
spencer leaned over to the girl on the side of him. "i love that stupid ugly hat." he whispered.
sierra glanced up at him with a smile. "me too."
"the victim is lupe trejo, 62." jj continued, having not heard the two agents. "she was found in her home, stabbed in the face, chest, and genitals." she said, making sierra wince as she picked up a file from the middle of the table to read up on it as jj explained further. "the papers down there connected her murder to eleven others in the past two years, all elderly women." she told them. "they're saying it's the work of a serial killer."
gideon nodded in agreement. "the mexican government disagrees." he told them.
hotch scanned over the file in front of him, trying to ignore the hat on his head. "what kind of city is this?"
"half factory town, half tourist town." jj answered. "the factory makes the tchochkes and clothes that tourists buy." she informed them. "and even though all the murders have happened in the poor neighborhoods where the locals live — "
hotch cut her off, knowing exactly what she was going to say. "serial killers make lousy tourist attractions."
elle furrowed her eyebrows. "so if the government denies that this is a serial killer, why'd they call us?"
jj nodded. "they have a suspect in custody." she told them. "the victims son." she explained. "we're the serial killer experts, they want us to go down there and confirm that this was just a one time killing." she said with a shrug. "put this serial killer angle to bed."
morgan furrowed his eyebrows. "so we're going all the way down there just to prove they don't have a serial killer?" he asked.
gideon shrugged. "maybe." he said. "or we're going down there to tell them what i've read in the mexican papers is true; they've got one of the worst serial killer's the country's ever seen."
•
•
•
ON THE JET, spencer and sierra were looking over the case files as jj sat across from them, studying hotch who stared longingly out the window. it was no secret that the man would rather be anywhere else — likely the top of his list was at home with his wife and child.
sensing this, jj finally spoke up after studying him for so long. "at least you get to spend your birthday weekend in mexico." she told him.
hotch raised his eyebrows. "yeah." he muttered. "what's dog house in spanish?"
without even looking up from the files in front of him, spencer spoke up. "la casa del pairo." he said in a thick american accent.
chuckling, elle corrected him. "la casita del perro."
spencer furrowed his eyebrows, finally ripping his eyes away from the file in front of him. "that's what i said."
"face it, chicko." elle told him with a chuckle as she shook her head. "you're only a genius in english."
morgan furrowed his brows. "you speak spanish?" he asked. "since when?"
elle shot him a shrug. "i'm full of hidden mysteries."
"so, why are there so few serial killers in mexico?" jj asked, sensing a lull in the conversation.
hotch shrugged. "they probably have as many as we do, but they document almost none of them." he explained.
jj furrowed her brows. "why is that?"
gideon sighed. "it's the chikatilo syndrome."
"the what?" jj asked.
spencer's eyes lit up — like they always did when he knew the answer to a question. "andre chikatilo." he told the blonde girl across from him. "one of the most prolific serial killers of the 20th century. by the time they found him he'd killed more than 50 people."
gideon nodded. "he was no more experienced than any average serial killer," he explained. "but he lived in the soviet ukraine. the soviets were convinced the serial killer is a uniquely american phenomenon." he told them. "inevitable result of decadent capitalism."
"so, what's the cultural bias in mexico?" jj asked.
sierra perked up, finally knowing something. "many mexicans believe that serial killers are the result of the break down of the family," she told her friend, who nodded. "which gives rise to the kind of alienated loner who becomes a serial killer."
spencer nodded in agreement with the girl next to him. "it's a fact that there are twelve times as many broken families in the u.s. than in mexico."
jj raised her eyebrows. "alright, so is it possible that there are fewer serial killers in mexican culture?"
gideon pursed his lips. "it is possible." he told her. "but in my experience, evil is not a cultural phenomenon." he said. "it's a human one."
•
•
•
ONCE THE BAU arrived in mexico, they introduced themselves to captain navarro, the lead investigator of the murder, and quickly made their way over to the scene.
navarro assumed they would want to head to their rooms and rest before starting — but he obviously didn't know the bau very well.
as she exited the police car, sierra couldn't help but notice the steady stream of people passing the house. they each looked warily over at the scene, as if they were horrified by the events that took place inside.
"i figured as profilers, you'd want to see the scene before you interviewed the suspect." navarro told them.
gideon let out a small chuckle. "you remembered something from my lecture, huh?" he joked, referencing when the older agent gave a profiling seminar that navarro attended a few years earlier.
navarro winced. "actually, i got it from max ryan." he admitted. "his book. it's a great read." he said, making sierra crack a small smile, remembering that spencer found it a bit insufferable to read. "the victim's name is lupe trejo. 62." he said, turning back to the rest of the agents. "she was found in the bedroom by the daughter." he explained. "no sign of forced entry."
sierra nodded, her eyes focused on the still heavy line of people passing the scenes. "are there always this many people around?" she asked.
captain navarro shook his head. "no." he told her. "church just got out. they're walking home from the town square."
"what time was she killed?" gideon asked.
navarro shrugged. "i'm guessing some time during evening mass." he told them, though he didn't know for certain. "there wouldn't have been a lot of people around, otherwise he would've been seen."
hotch nodded, glancing over at the steady stream of people. "unless he blended right in."
sierra reached into her pocket and grabbed her latex gloves, slipping them onto her hands as she quickly followed behind the rest of her team headed inside. "no forced entry means one of two things." gideon said once the door closed behind him.
morgan nodded. "a push in." he recalled. "he holds a knife or a gun to her and forces his way inside."
navarro shook his head. "the murder weapon, the knife, was taken from the kitchen and placed at the scene."
hotch nodded. "in that case, it's most likely that she let the killer in voluntarily." he told them. "she looked through the peephole, saw someone she recognized, someone who makes her feel safe."
"she lets him in and then what?" gideon asked.
sierra glanced over to the table beside her, where spencer already had one of two glasses in his hand. "they have a drink?" he asked. "hey, did you run a dna analysis on these?"
navarro chuckled. "the closest thing we have to a crime scene unit is detective hernandez." he joked. "he has a fingerprinting kit from 1984."
spencer and sierra shared a quick glance. "well, did he find anything?" the girl asked.
navarro shrugged. "the victim's prints were on one." he told her. "the prints on the other one were too smudged to make any match but i don't think the killer drank this anyway."
hotch furrowed his brow. "why not?"
"this drink is tamarind water." navarro explained. "it's sweet. i could see the victim offer this to a woman, but these are family festivities and at night most men will have a shot of tequila, some beer, and maybe some cigarettes." he explained to the american agents. "this looks like two women to me."
hotch nodded. "and you don't think a woman could've done this?"
navarro raised his eyebrows. "do you?"
hotch pursed his lips. "it's highly unlikely."
spencer nodded, bagging the glasses in evidence bags. "get them to the fbi." he told them. "at the very least they'll be able to tell us the gender of the drinkers."
navarro then showed them where the murder took place, in her bedroom, and it was gruesome. there was blood all over the bed, and the family photos scattered around seemed like watching and knowing eyes. they knew the secret of the room, and they were refusing to tell.
but what sierra and her team found most interesting, was that among all of the photos scattered on all of the dressers, there was one inside the drawer. hidden away was the victim's son, miguel — also the mexican police's lead suspect. it was definitely evidence that the two didn't get along.
maybe this was a family thing, after all.
after looking around the scene, and noticing some jewelry from the daughter's bedroom missing, the bau left the house. "you are almost certainly looking for a heterosexual male." gideon said.
"why do you say that?" navarro asked.
gideon pursed his lips. "well, the victim was found on the bed." he began explaining. "multiple stab wounds to the face, chest, and genital area. all indicators of sexual homicide." he told them. "in the cases of sexual homicide, the attacker targets objects of his or her sexual attraction."
hotch nodded in agreement. "heterosexual men attack women."
captain navarro nodded like he understood. "so homosexual men attack men?"
sierra nodded. "typically." she told him.
"did the daughter have any ideas about who may have done this?" hotch asked.
navarro shook his head. "she didn't have any ideas about anything." he told them. "when she found out her brother was a suspect, she wanted to talk to him alone." he explained to the agents. "i refused because i didn't want them to get their stories straight, then, she stopped talking completely."
gideon furrowed his brow. "so, what's she protecting?"
sierra glanced over between hotch and gideon, who both had their eyes fixated on her — they needed her to figure it out. "we're ready to talk to the suspect."
•
•
•
"MIGUEL, TELL US about the fight you had with your mother the other night." hotch started, once they were back at the precinct and in the cell with the suspect.
he was seated on the metal bed, as hotch and sierra stood near the door with navarro beside them. "i didn't hurt my mother." miguel told them.
hotch just stared at him, stonefaced. "did it have anything to do with you leaving?"
miguel sighed. "she didn't want me to go."
sierra sized him up. she wasn't sure what to make of him yet. his body language was telling her that he may be innocent — but also that he was hiding something. he definitely wasn't used to being in police custody, as it didn't take an expert on the human behavior to notice that he was wildly uncomfortable.
the man sighed yet again, looking down at his hands. "she was angry."
and then finally — everything clicked.
the girl sat down next to him on his bed, leveling their eye contact. "it was more than that, miguel." she told him, as he continued to avoid her eyes. "you had problems with your mother for a long time."
miguel finally looked over at her, his gaze darkening, but not saying a word.
"what is it that you're hiding?" sierra asked quietly. "what truth could be so terrible that you don't defend yourself against killing your mother?" she asked. "what truth would have your mother hiding your photographs in her drawer?"
everything captain navarro had told them about mexican culture; the importance of the family and machismo, it all began to make sense to the girl.
miguel looked away from her, which only made her know that she was right. "when did you first know?" she asked him.
miguel's stare fixated onto the wall. "know what?"
"that you're gay." she told him. "more to the point, when did your mother find out?"
miguel looked over at her, like he was thinking for a moment. "no hablo ingles."
and just like that, the interview was over.
hotch and sierra left miguel's cell, frustration growing in both of them. there was no way they could get the case solved unless miguel cooperated with them.
the team stood outside, anxiously awaiting their return. the two agents explained what happened to them, and they all began racking their brains for a solution — or at least, for a plan. "okay, the best way to get the attorney general on board is by providing a complete profile." gideon reminded them.
navarro nodded. "what do you need from me?"
hotch sighed, running a hand through his gelled back hair. "we need to get the whole story out of miguel trejo." he told the man. "and right now he's not talking."
navarro shook his head. "why does that matter?" he asked. "obviously, he's not a serial killer."
"because obviously there's a great deal of anger in the family." hotch sternly explained to the man. "and before we give a profile, we need to rule out the fact that this might be a crime of passion and not one of the serial killings."
morgan nodded in agreement. "and why wouldn't miguel talk if he's innocent?"
navarro shrugged. "must have something to do with the fact that he's a homosexual."
morgan furrowed his brows in confusion. "he'd rather be straight in jail than gay as a free man?"
navarrow pointed to the hall leading to the cell. "i can protect him in here." he explained to them. "but if he is taken to a prison in mexico city and the other inmates find out he is gay, he will be killed." he said. "that's the way things work here."
spencer sighed. "so how do we get him to talk?"
sierra's mind began to run, thinking of all the anger and yet all of the passion and love within this family struck by tragedy. then her eyes wandered over to miguel's sister, who was still silently waiting in the lobby of the precinct. "rosa." she said quietly, somehow catching the attention of the entire team. "she's our angle in."
•
•
•
ROSA ENLIGHTENED THEM with information on miguel's "friend" roberto. morgan and gideon then went to quickly speak with him after discovering he had a wife before meeting miguel.
if he was bisexual, or at all attracted to women, he was definitely capable of the crime.
but, as the two agents returned to the precinct, morgan shrugged. "i don't think he did it."
"why not?" spencer asked.
morgan sighed, looking for words to describe what was honestly just his gut feeling. "the way he talked about miguel." he explained. "he didn't point the finger at his boyfriend. i think a guilty man would've."
gideon nodded in agreement. "see if he has an alibi." he told them. "run his prints against any found at the scene. right now, though," he said. "i feel confident we can rule out a family fight as a motive for the murder."
a uniformed officer entered the room. "there's a call from the fbi." he told them, quickly pressing the button on the phone on the desk in front of them, answering the call.
"yeah, morgan."
"donde esta, my lovelies." garcia started, in the thickest american accent sierra had ever heard. "es bueno, no? trapero, este-la?"
with a chuckle, sierra spoke up. "take it easy, pen." she teased the girl. "i think you just offended somebody's mother."
the girl could practically hear their technical analyst's smile through the speaker phone. "oh, shut up, you." she fired back. "i took french. what can i say?"
morgan raised his eyebrows. "penelope, your last name is garcia." he reminded her.
"yeah, i know, it's my stepfather's name." she reminded him. "now do you want my genius, or not?"
before morgan could snap back at the girl, elle spoke up. "yes, please." she said with a small smile. "get on with it."
garcia chuckled. "okay!" she exclaimed. "so, i rushed your cups full of mucus through all the regular channels at lightning speed, and survey says one female drinker and one male."
morgan raised his eyebrows. "thanks, doll."
navarro let out a breath. "it's strange." he admitted. "on this occasion, a man taking that drink."
spencer furrowed his brow, and from across the room sierra recognized that he had already cracked the case. "unless the victim thought he was a woman." he said slowly, as if he was unsure of himself. "the woman roberto described, the social worker, that's a common ruse for old lady killers." he explained to them, becoming more confident in himself with every word. "what if, she is really a he in women's clothing?"
morgan nodded. "a heavy woman."
spencer continued on because nobody was stopping him. "he comes to the door, knocks on it,"
elle's eyes widened. "and the victim feels comfortable because she thinks it's a woman."
navarro nodded. "it would explain why no witnesses have come forward." he told them. "no one expects the killer to be a woman. not in this country."
sierra glanced over at the man. "not in ours either."
morgan looked around at the rest of the team. "we need to tell the locals."
gideon nodded in agreement. "and give them the rest of the profile."
the group of agents quickly disbanded, gathering the local police to give the rest of their profile. as they did this, and noticing no one was paying attention to her, sierra approached where spencer stood. "good work, doctor reid." she complimented him.
he looked down at the girl as a blush crept onto his cheeks. "thanks, hayes." he answered, walking away from her before he made it even more obvious what an effect on him she actually had.
satisfied with herself, sierra smiled and made her way over to where the local police had gathered, and hotch began giving the profile. "the killer may very well be a man who wears women's clothing as a ruse to get into the women's homes."
morgan nodded in agreement. "once inside, the killer stabs his victims and then abuses them sexually with the knife."
hotch glanced over at morgan, before looking back to the locals. "but he wasn't always a killer." he explained. "he gradually escalated from sex crimes. these may have started out as peeping tom incidents, eventually leading to rape."
sierra nodded in agreement. "and then at some point, he couldn't rape any more." she said with a sigh. "so he began killing women who represented authority figures in his life he hated." she explained. "typically a mother, grandmother." she told them. "women that he blamed for his impotence."
from across the room, spencer studied the girl up and down as she spoke. he knew they had promised not to profile one another, but she was much more secretive about her life than he was about his, and he just wanted her to know that he was a safe person to talk to. he had noticed that rape cases always seemed to affect her more than the others — but he assumed that it was because she was a woman, and was reminded that it could one day be her.
and he hoped that it wasn't because it had already been her.
"now, how would he have targeted these women?" navarro asked them. "we found no connection between them."
hotch sighed. "we don't know yet." he admitted. "but based on the number of times he's killed and the skill of gaining the trust of his victims, we can assume that he plans his murders and that he's been committing sex crimes for many years." he explained to them. "we think he's somewhere between the ages of 35 and 50."
gideon then stepped forward, and the girl was still amazed how he could command the attention of the room before he even said a word. "you need to talk to all known sex offenders." he told them. "and compare them to this profile."
sierra nodded in agreement. "you should also re-interview all your witnesses and see if anyone saw a man who might have been dressed as a woman."
they then thanked the officers, and sent them on their way as navarro got a phone call. when he hung up, he looked over at the agents, exasperated. "we have another body."
•
•
•
NOT ONLY WAS there another body, but a disturbance at the precinct as well. the frustrated local police had brought in every drag queen and every transgender person they knew of, and paraded them inside while the townspeople yelled obscenities at them.
it was horrible to watch.
the team was discussing how they could fix this royal screw up, and get in the good graces of the attorney general once again. "look, men dressing like women is a manifestation of sexual preference, it's a lifestyle." gideon explained. "it does not imply a psychology of violent behavior."
hotch nodded in agreement. "we're talking about the killer's past." he said. "that's why we were asking for people who'd been accused of sex crimes." he told them, turning to navarro. "are the police looking into this?"
navarro shrugged. "how?" he asked. "most rapes here are not even reported." he said, making sierra raise her eyebrows, noting the many similarities between the two countries. "and the rapists are often people who have power over them. sometimes family, sometimes even law enforcement." he explained to them. "i have interviewed many, many women and," he cut himself off with a sigh. "they do not want to talk."
elle nodded, understanding as she worked in sex crimes before joining the bau. "we can help you. we can teach you interview strategies." she told him. "i specialize in sex crimes and speak spanish, and agent hayes is the most effective interviewer the bau's ever seen."
sierra shot the girl beside her a shy smile. "oh, stop it, elle. you flatter me."
"how do we even get to these women?" a uniformed officer asked them.
"we hold a press conference." jj spoke up. "let everyone know what we're looking for."
hotch turned to navarro. "what about the attorney general?" he asked. "she wants us to leave."
navarro scoffed. "do not worry about her." he assured them. "i convinced her to bring you down here, i can convince her to let you stay." he said, before turning back to jj. "we will have that press conference." he said, making the blonde girl let out a small smile. "all i have to do is figure out what to say."
jj perked up, finally getting the chance to share her expertise. "be forceful, but respectful." she told him. "tell them, 'please, if you have any information at all, we urge you to come forward.'" she explained to him. "the one thing we absolutely do know about this kind of criminal is that he does not stop until he is stopped."
navarro nodded. "the reporters will ask, why look for a rapist when we're trying to catch a killer?"
jj shook her head. "you don't need to mention the killer." she told him. "just tell them that you care about the women in this town, and that you are committed to catching the man who hurt them."
navarro sighed. "why are we looking for a rapist?"
"because we know this man commits sexual homicide." morgan began explaining. "we can also assume that he was once a rapist."
spencer nodded in agreement. "it's a lot easier to track a rapist than a killer because you have witnesses."
sierra nodded. "you also have the chance to discover something else," she started. "the reason he began killing,"
morgan agreed with the girl. "which is the stressor."
looking over at the board where they had written down details of each of the murders, elle spoke up. "as far as we can tell, the first killing was about two years ago." she reminded them. "what happened to the suspect during that time?"
"a typical stressor." morgan told them. "loss of job, loss of love." he explained. "he may have been released from prison. whatever it was, it made him feel impotent, made him feel frustrated, made him feel very angry."
elle nodded. "that's when he started killing."
"we have to talk to victims who reported rapes just before that first murder two years ago." sierra informed them.
jj nodded in agreement. "hopefully the press conference will help bring some of these women forward, but we also need to head out and talk to some of these people directly." she said. "you should use all the female police you have. it'll help put potential victims at ease."
a uniformed officer shook his head, and sierra couldn't help but notice the sarcastic smile on his face. "we don't have any, boss."
elle looked between jj and sierra, knowing the three women had their work cut out for them. "well, you do now."
•
•
•
THE THREE WOMEN had been interviewing other women for hours, and night had fallen as they finished up. it was difficult listening to so many women's stories, and even more difficult to hear all of the ones that had nothing to do with their killer. there was nothing they could do about those except inform the local police and hope the women got the justice they deserved.
just as sierra felt like throwing in the towel, like she might fall apart if she heard one more woman's heartbreaking story, her phone rang. "hey, spencer, we're just about finished." she told him. "what's up?"
"we need you to do one more interview." he told her, making her face fall for a moment before she pulled herself together. "a woman called the police station after she saw the report on television. she says she has information on the rapist." he told her. "she works at a local bar right near you. she's waiting there for you guys."
sierra looked up, and sure enough there was a bar right in front of them, no doubt where the woman was waiting for them. with a sigh, sierra nodded. "yeah, we're on our way." she said, gesturing towards the bar to elle and jj.
hearing this, spencer stayed on the phone. "hey, you alright?" he asked softly.
the girl sighed yet again. "yeah, i'm fine." she said, unsure herself if that was even the truth. "just ready for this case to be over." she admitted. "i'll let you know when we're on our way back."
spencer nodded. "okay," he said. "good luck in there."
sierra smiled before hanging up the phone, walking into the bar with jj and elle beside her. she was worried about recognizing which women they were supposed to talk to, until she noticed only one women cleaning up bottles off a table — it had to be their girl.
"perdóneme," elle began, gaining the woman's attention. "me dijeron que quiere hablar conmigo sobre el violador que estamos buscando. ¿puedes ayudarnos?"
the woman put her hand on her hips. "¿te importa?"
elle raised her eyebrows. "¿lo siento?"
the woman sighed, looking between the three woman and gathering that elle was the only one who knew spanish. "do you care?" she repeated herself. "most of the time nobody around here cares what happens to women. nobody does anything about it." she said. "that's why nobody talks to the police."
silence hung in the air for a moment, the only noise coming from the crowded bar as the women took in what she had said.
"what can the police do, if when a crime is committed, no one comes forward?" jj asked.
the woman sighed. "the man who attacked me, is a stupid dog." she said. "he's a coward. he came up from behind and he started to rape me." she explained to them. "but then i turned around and i started hitting him. i scratched him, i made him bleed."
sierra nodded. "and you got away?"
the woman shook her head, a smile on her face. "that's when i saw he was wearing a dress." she told them, with a sarcastic laugh. "a dress." she repeated. "i couldn't believe it. i laughed in his face." she told them. "i called him a pathetic woman."
the three agents shared a glance — this could very well be the stressor, if the timing lined up.
"he was so scared," she continued, rolling her eyes. "he ran away like a little boy."
"when did this happen, milagros?" elle asked her.
the woman looked down. "two years ago."
jj pursed her lips. "if you weren't afraid of this man, why didn't you report him?"
the woman sighed. "i told you, what good would it do?"
sierra sighed. "look, i understand why you may have felt that way before," she admitted to the woman. "but we're here now, and we want to make sure the man that hurt you cannot hurt anymore people than he already has."
the woman stared at sierra for a moment, before quickly glancing between jj and elle, as she finally spoke up. "you want us to come forward?" she asked. "i know of at least six more women raped by this man." she told them. "now prove to us it will finally do some good."
•
•
•
SIERRA HAD CONVINCED the woman to bring in as many women that were raped by the same man as she could to talk to the police. she had brought in about a dozen, each of them ready to finally share their story.
the catch? they would only share it with elle, sierra, and jj.
the women of the bau went into the interrogation room with each of the women, interviewing them and ensuring that they were as detailed as possible.
needing a break from hearing all of their stories, sierra stepped out of the interrogation room, and walked over to the coffee machine, brewing herself a cup.
seeing her, spencer quickly hopped out of his chair where he sat looking over files, and made his way over to her. "hi," he started. "how's it going in there?"
the girl sighed. "i think it's going well." she said quietly. "but, it's depressing."
the doctor pursed his lips, giving her a sad smile. "i'm sorry i can't help you."
sierra shook her head. "no, it's better this way." she admitted, pulling her coffee cup out from under the machine as it finally filled. "they all just seem so, hopeless." she said with a sigh. "they don't think we'll ever catch him."
"well, with you on their side now, it's only a matter of time before we get our smoking gun." he told her with a smile.
the girl shot him a small smile as she took a sip of her coffee. it was too black and bitter for her, but honestly she just needed the energy boost. at this point, she didn't care how it tasted. "hey, can we watch legally blonde when we get back?"
spencer raised his eyebrows. "legally blonde?"
sierra widened her eyes. "have you never seen it?" she asked, and the doctor nodded. "well, it's amazing." she told him. "and also, like, the peak of feminism." she explained. "it reminds me of why i love being a girl." she said, before glancing back at the interrogation room. "and with all the reasons why i hate it being shoved down my throat, i could really use the reminder."
before spencer could answer, elle stuck her head out of the interrogation room. "hayes, we need you."
sierra sighed, looking back at her. "coming."
she sent spencer one small smile, before turning on her heel and slowly heading back towards the interrogation room. "sierra," the doctor called after her, making her spin back around to face him. "i'll rent it as soon as we get back."
the girl grinned up at him. "it's gonna change your life," she told him. "promise."
and with her newfound confidence, she strided the rest of the way to the room with the women inside, ready to hear the rest of their stories and catch their rapist.
•
•
•
AFTER FINALLY INTERVIEWING all of the women who had come in, the three female agents debriefed with the rest of the team, knowing that they had all been raped by the same man who was killing the elderly women. "they all have the same story." elle said. "he goes up to them in the street, puts a knife against their back, blindfolds them, and takes them out to the desert."
spencer shook his head in disgust. "he also kissed their neck while raping them."
jj grimaced. "and then when he's finished he asked," she shivered. "how did i do?"
sierra felt her stomach flip inside herself, and a wave of nausea wash over her. she looked down at her hands in her lap, just trying to keep her feelings to herself. even though she heard each of the women tell her that he said that, it didn't make when jj said it any easier. it was still like she was hearing it for the first time, the little girl inside of her wanting to scream.
"anything to add, hayes?" hotch asked.
hearing her name, the girl quickly looked up, noticing all eyes on her. "uh, it's classic power reassurance behavior."
navarro kept his eyes on her. "what does that mean?"
sierra hesitated for a moment, still feeling off her game after hearing so many stories and having so many old memories wash up inside of her. "power reassurance rapists lack confidence." she told him. "they can't develop normal relationships with women."
hotch nodded in agreement. "passive and nonathletic."
"he most likely fantasizes that the victims are his girlfriends," spencer began to explained to them. "and of the different types of rapists, he's the most likely to be dissuaded if the victim screams or struggles in any way."
gideon raised his eyebrows. "is that it?" he asked, testing the doctor. "all of the characteristics of the power reassurance rapist?"
spencer shook his head. "uh, there's actually one more." he admitted.
"excuse me." a uniformed officer interrupted them. "i've been going over the forms filled out by the women." he told them. "four of them work in the same factory."
spencer nodded. "he most likely lives and works near the victim."
•
•
•
THE TEAM RACED to the factory, but the owner couldn't help them narrow down the suspects. she claimed that all men that worked there needed to be a little bit afraid of her, and sierra got the sense that she was right.
but still, she let them go through her employee records, and it was looking like little to no help at all. "so far i found more than three dozen men fit the target profile between the ages of 35 and 50." spencer said.
elle let out a breath. "this owner wasn't kidding." she said. "almost all of these guys had a citation for lewd behavior against the women here." she told them. "they'd be warned once, and then they'd be fired if it happened again."
hotch nodded. "i wouldn't mess with her."
elle raised her eyebrows. "afraid of a woman, hotch?"
morgan smirked. "shoot, there aren't many women i'm afraid of, but she's on my list."
sierra raised her eyebrows, but kept her head buried in the file in front of her. "who else is on that list, morgan?"
"well, my momma," morgan started. "and you."
sierra's eyes widened, as she finally picked her head up from the file and looked at him. "me?" she asked excitedly.
morgan nodded. "hell yeah, you!" he exclaimed. "i watched you take down two grown men that had weapons with your bare hands." he reminded her of the brawl between a victim's father and a sex offender that she had gotten between and separated. "i will never underestimate you again."
the girl shot him a sweet smile. "and don't you forget it."
navarro entered, and the agents quickly dropped their joking demeanor and got serious. "only one of these men showed up on police records with a sex crime." he told them. "he beat up a prostitute when she refused to get rough."
hotch shook his head. "not our guy." he said. "he'd be scared, he wouldn't have the confidence to stand up to a refusal."
morgan sighed. "okay, this is crazy." he admitted. "there's way too many men here and not enough time."
hotch nodded. "we need to narrow down the profile." he said. "what would make our guy stand out."
navarro shrugged. "from what you told me, he completely lacks machismo." he explained. "he has none of the confidence of a typical man in mexico."
morgan nodded. "even with a knife in his hand." he reminded them. "what was it that he said to the women after raping them?"
"how did i do?" sierra reminded the man, unsure how he could let that haunting detail slip his mind, when it had just about consumed all of her thoughts since she first heard it.
"any guy with confidence doesn't need to ask if he's doing a good job." elle told them. "he assumes it. in bed and at work."
hotch's head shot up. "in bed and at work."
that was the key — they knew how to get their guy.
•
•
•
PABLO VARGAS. THE factory owner had recalled his name when elle and hotch asked her for a man who constantly sought out her approval, asking how he did for even seemingly meaningless tasks.
but when they went to his address, the only things they found were a skeleton of presumably his mother, souvenirs from his elderly victims, and a shrine to his rape victims.
this was definitely their guy, but how were they going to catch him?
navarro sighed. "we have a name but, how do you find him?"
hotch shrugged. "we always ask, why this victim. why the next victim?" he explained. "serial killers plan their killings, and if we can figure out how he targets his victims, we can get ahead of him."
a uniformed officer spun a blackboard around, revealing a long list of names. "borquez, what is this?" navarro asked.
"i charted all the names of the rape victims who came in," he explained. "like they instructed us."
one of the names jumped out at sierra, and she couldn't figure out why. "that name, torres." she said, standing and moving closer to the board, as if that could make her understand easier. "was there a murder victim with that name?"
navarro sighed. "there are hundreds of torreses in this town." he told her. "but let me see the statements."
sierra glanced between the blackboard with the rape victims on it and the one with the murder victims on it — and almost every single last name was repeated. "oh my god." she whispered.
"what is it?" morgan asked.
gideon's eyes widened, as if he came to the same conclusion as the young girl. "it's maiden names."
hotch nodded in agreement. "the murder victims and the rape victims."
navarro's eyes widened. "they're the same."
afraid her brain was moving too fast for her mouth to keep up, sierra grabbed a piece of chalk, and began to circle all of the names that the two boards had in common. "he's killing the mother's of the women he raped."
spencer's eyes fired back and forth between both boards. "and he's doing it in the same order." he noticed. "the daughters of the last two murder victims, trejo and santiago, never came forward." he said. "if we can assume they were raped, then, according to the board, the next rape victim in line was —"
"milagros villanueva." elle said, her face falling. "his last." she said, reminding them that the last victim was the one who helped gather the rest of the women, and they needed to restore her faith in the justice system by saving her mother.
morgan sighed. "he's gonna kill her mother."
•
•
•
POLICE QUICKLY ARRIVED at milagros' mother's home, but it seemed like they were too late. a trail of blood led from the entrance of the home, all the way out back where someone in a dress laid face down in the grass.
the team followed the blood trail, and their hearts stopped when they saw the motionless body on the floor. they feared they had been too late.
but then, the body on the floor rolled over, and the long brown hair that cascaded down their back fell right off their head, revealing it to be a wig.
upon closer inspection, it was a man dressed as a woman that was lying in front of them — and he was battered, bruised, and covered in blood as he fought for his life.
from the woods behind the house, a crowd of women slowly stepped forward, surprising the team. at the front of the pack, was milagros. "he pretended to be a woman." she told them. "now, he doesn't have to pretend."
that was when sierra took notice of where the majority of the blood seemed to be coming from. his face was all bloody, but there was a huge pool of it right around his waistline.
rosa, miguel's sister, threw down a bloodied club, and milagros threw down a small kitchen knife, as her mother stood proudly behind her.
watching the man that hurt so many women fight for his life by her feet, sierra had trouble feeling bad for him. as her eyes met with milagros she let out the smallest smile.
in its own funny way, it seemed like justice had been served.
•
•
•
WHEN SIERRA CAME in, she smiled as she noticed her sister and atticus in the kitchen, whipping up dinner without a care in the world. it was days like today, cases like this one, when the girl was reminded how much her family meant to her, and just how special they were. "hey, you're home late." mia noticed. "you texted that you landed like, hours ago."
but the agent didn't answer, just approached her sister with a daydreamy sort of look on her face, and embraced her into a hug. "i'm going to give up my room for the baby." she whispered.
mia let out an awkward chuckle, but didn't let go of her younger sister, embracing the rare moment she finally let her affection for her older sister show. "um, that's very sweet of you, but you do know there isn't a baby yet, right?"
feeling left out, atticus grinned. "hey, let me in on this." he said, opening his arms.
but sierra let go of mia, spinning around to face the older man. "no, hayes' only." she snapped. "sorry."
atticus' mouth hung agape for a moment, surprised that the girl had rejected him. "but, she's not even — " he began to protest, reminding the girl that her sister had changed her name when she got married, but behind sierra, mia quickly shot him a dirty look, making him cut himself off. "when you are ready to apologize to me, you let me know." he said, turning back to the stove and stirring the sauce.
"tough case?" mia asked, making the girl turn back around to face her sister.
sierra shrugged. "there's an old mexican proverb." she told her. "i don't know spanish, but it basically says, the house does not rest upon the ground, but upon a woman." she said. "so, thanks."
mia smiled, a small blush growing on her cheeks. "anytime." she said, before turning back to the pasta she was preparing. "i think legally blonde is on tonight, if you want." she told her sister. "i know you like to watch that after a rough day."
"i actually just watched it." sierra told her without even thinking. "i don't wanna overdo it and then get sick of it, you know?" she said, walking over to the living room and flipping through the channels. "but i'm gonna check if clueless or something is on."
mia stopped dead in her tracks and spun around, just like elle woods when chutney revealed she had gotten a perm before getting in the shower the day her father was shot. "i thought you just got back?"
without even turning to face her sister, sierra kept her focus on the tv in front of her. "oh, i, um, watched it on the plane." she stammered.
mia slowly nodded, narrowing her eyes. "you usually do your paperwork on the plane so you can get home earlier."
sierra was grateful she was turned away from her sister, because her face turned a deep shade of pink. "uh, yeah, i didn't have that much." she said. "did i tell you that i landed hours ago? i meant to say that i was taking off." she explained with an awkward chuckle. "that's weird. don't know how i mixed that up." she said, still keeping her eyes locked on the channels as she searched for clueless, or any other hyperfeminine movie her and mia loved. "there was a whole bunch of diplomatic stuff we had to do before we could leave mexico and get back to the states." she told her. "it took forever. we only got back like an hour and a half ago."
mia eyed her sister up and down, waiting for her to turn around — but she didn't. so the girl slowly nodded. "right." she said, turning back to the pasta behind her and stirring it.
before sierra could defend herself any further, her phone rang, and she hurriedly ran to grab it off the counter before anyone could see who was calling her. "gotta take this." she said, even though no one asked. "it's work." she told them, as she put it to her ear. "hey!" she chirped, heading up the stairs to her bedroom. "i told you it'd change your life!" she said with a laugh.
as she ran up the stairs, mia watched her, narrowing her eyes. when she heard the door to her bedroom door close, she turned to her husband. "she's seeing someone, you know."
atticus shrugged. "she's always seeing someone."
mia shook her head. "this one's different." she admitted. "why wouldn't she tell us?"
atticus scoffed. "maybe because last time you grilled her every day about calling eric back?" he reminded her.
the girl rolled her eyes. "oh, please, we all knew that was never gonna happen." she dismissed her husband. "no, the only reason she wouldn't tell us, would be, that we already know him." she explained. "the one thing she hates most in this world is being wrong, especially if you and me are the ones that were right."
atticus furrowed his eyebrows. "will you stop being so cryptic and just tell me."
mia grinned. "okay, but be cool." she said, the smile growing bigger on her face. "i think it's that doctor she works with."
atticus quickly spun around on his heel to face his wife, as a large gasp escaped his lips. "doctor reid?!" he exclaimed.
"shh!" mia exclaimed, quickly looking to make sure her sister hadn't heard him. "i said be cool!"
atticus quickly clamped his mouth shut. "sorry." he admitted. "don't get my hopes up for no reason." he told the girl. "why do you think they're seeing each other?"
mia shrugged. "she may be a profiler, but i've always been able to see through her." she explained. "she knows that. that's why when she lies to me there's always a little bit of the truth behind it." she continued, a small smirk growing on her face. "she keeps saying she's working late because she knows we won't ask questions about work, and also because they work together."
atticus grabbed at his pockets, looking for his phone. "i'll text garcia." he said. "she'll get to the bottom of this."
mia furrowed her eyebrows at him. "are you crazy?" she asked him. "she can never find out that we know."
the man pouted. "why?" he whined. "i want to know everything."
mia let out a chuckle at her husband. "me too." she admitted. "but, if we tell her we know before she's ready for us to know, she'll freak out, get scared, and break up with him before they even get the chance to start." she explained. "besides, isn't it nice to finally be smarter than her?"
atticus raised his eyebrows. "i don't think that's ever happened to me before." he admitted. "but i'm a lousy liar, you know that."
"you don't have to lie," mia told him. "just don't tell her the truth." she said. "technically, it's different."
atticus looked deep in thought for a moment. "maybe i'll just avoid her until she decides to tell us."
mia sighed. "we're screwed."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: spencer and sierra stop being so obvious challenge
some parts of this episode legit felt like i hate crime so i hope i portrayed it in a not offensive way, but please let me know if there's any way i could improve! :)
i ❤️ mia and atticus
this is my love letter to reese witherspoon and legally blonde <3
QOTD: FAVORITE MOVIE?
AOTD: TINKERBELL 🤭