Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Sometimes you gotta wake, and answer the call, or fall. No need to raise the stakes, when you’re on the wall, stand tall.”

~

JJ clicked through pictures of a small town in Michigan called Hatchetfield.

"Approximately 2 weeks ago 18 year old Maxwell Jägerman, one of the local high school's star football player, went missing on a Friday night. No body has been discovered, there have been no leads, no developments, no suspects, and subsequently, no arrests." JJ was clear and concise, as she spoke to the room. The rest of the team watched her aptly, sipping at bitter coffee in an attempt to wake up after being called in on a Sunday morning. JJ continued with her presentation.

"That is, until 2 days ago. A teenage boy, Richard Lipschitz, was found dead Friday night at Hatchetfield High school, ‘purple nurpled and swirlied to death.’ He also had lacerations on his head and chest.” The team all exchanged confused glances and Emily raised her hand as if to ask 'huh?'

"One of the investigating officers' words, not mine." JJ said apologetically as she switched to focus on pictures from the crime scene. She paused on one showing messy red handwriting scrawled on the wall above Richie's limp body.

"Nerdy Prudes Must Die?" Reid read out loud, then shook his head in confusion, fidgeting with his hands in his lap. "Is that written in-"

"Blood? Yeah." JJs eyebrows knitted together. "He was the school mascot at that night's big football game against a rivaling town's high school football team."

"That reads pretty nerdy to me." Morgan sighed heavily, sifting through the stack of papers in front of him. "Seems like this unsub gave us a head start with motive and victimology" The BAU team echoed his sentiment with silent nods. Hotch still looked critical.

“Are we sure that these two cases are connected?” Hotch's words grabbed the whole team's attention. “The star football player isn't exactly what you think of when the words ‘nerdy’ or ‘prude’ come up.” JJ nodded in acknowledgement of Hotch’s question, then addressed the whole group.

“I find it hard to believe that 2 teenagers going missing in such a small period of time, in such a small town, are separate occurrences.” JJ then flipped to a map of the town. “Especially since Hatchetfield is located on an island on Lake Michigan, and is fairly separated from its neighboring town, Clivesdale.” Hotch gave a glance of approval, then resumed flipping through the case files.

“Assuming this is the work of one person, this unsubs MO is all over the place. Why kill the second victim in such a public place? The method of killing seems almost like your average highschool bullying gone way too far, if not for the message on the wall.” Reid began, gears clearly turning in his probably human head. “The other kid hasn't turned up at all, why act this differently?”

“It almost seems like the opposite of what their highschool lives were like.” Prentiss joined in. “The star of the football team disappears quietly, but the nerd nobody thought much of dies publicly and dramatically.” The others nodded and made noises of agreement as they flipped through more photos of the crime scenes, but no one spoke up to voice any theories yet.

“What about the local PD?” Rossi inquired. “Do they seem to think we have a case here?”

"We've been asked there by Detective Shapiro. Apparently she's new to the Hatchetfield police force, but she seemed very concerned about the situation there. Tensions have been rising among the parents and residents there. It doesn't seem like this town is going to make my job very easy.” Light chuckles echoed around the room. Hotch started gathering the papers on the table in front of him. The rest of the team followed their superiors lead, and the shuffling

“Ok, wheels up in 30. Garcia?” Hotch spoke. Garcia perked up, as she had been staring pointedly at her computer, fingers flying across the keyboard.

“Yes sir?”

“We’ll call you once we are in the air.” Garcia nodded in response, and began gathering her things as well.

“Of course Sir. Stay safe my lovelies!” The team broke out into smiles as they all bid her goodbye and hurried out the door, grabbing their go bags and coffee refills, making their way toward the plane.

Chapter Text

The roar of the plane engine sounded as the team settled in for the next two hours. Hotch eventually cleared his throat, getting the others' attention. Garcia popped up on JJ’s computer screen and waved quickly before returning to typing.

“Ok everyone, we should get started. We have one dead kid, and one missing, and I want us to be as prepared as possible to help local police when we land.” The team nodded in response to Hotch's words, then looked over to Garcia when she raised her hand on the screen.

“I actually got a head start at looking at our victims' online lives, just public instagrams and other social media. These kids may have gone to the same school and both been involved in football in some capacity, but other than that, their online lives have basically no overlap. They aren't following each other on instagram, and their friend groups don't seem to have much in common. Maxwell seems to be your typical high school jock, lots of pictures of him playing football and messing around with friends, mainly other jocks and some cheerleaders. There are some…,” Garcia paused for a second, clearly trying to figure out how to word this, “... rude comments left on a few other students' instagram posts, some of which our other victim seems to have interacted with. Other than that his online presence is not very notable.”

“What do you mean by ‘rude’ Garcia?” Reid asked, leaning forward in his seat, chest pressing against one of his knees.

“See for yourselves.” Garcia shared her screen and the rest of the team scanned a collection of comments on various posts. The comments ranged from responses calling the other students things like ‘losers’ and ‘virgins,’ to borderline threats of violence. Eyebrows rose as the team took in this new information.

“Damn.” Morgan said under his breath, clearly disapproving. JJ sighed at the new information. They all knew what kind of kid interacted with their peers like that.

“Quite a few of these comments were deleted later, either by him or by the posters, but you know your girl found them. Once on the internet, always on the internet.”

“Thanks for working your magic babygirl.” Morgan smiled at Garcia, then focused back onto the case. “What about the other victim, Richard?”

“Yeah, this kid was way more my speed.” Garcia's eyes held understanding and sadness as she continued to talk about Richie. “His instagram was privated until about two weeks ago, and it’s filled with pictures of movie nights, study sessions, and local fan conventions. I also found a blog where he posted pretty consistently about anime and his other interests.” Garcia's screen was now displaying pictures of a kid with messily dyed blue hair that stuck out in all directions. His clothes were layers of t-shirts and vests made of bright, clashing colors, almost all of them displaying some kind of anime reference. In one of the pictures he was smiling wide, his arms slung around two other awkward teenagers that appeared in many of the other photos. One was an incredibly tall and lanky boy, who was notably wearing argyle suspenders over his white button up shirt, and a much shorter girl with an unruly head of curls and outrageous headgear.

Garcia and Reid briefly locked eyes and gave each other soft smiles that seemed to say ‘That was us!’, an understanding of their similarly nerdy high school experiences passing between them.

“These kids seem like complete opposites.” Emily mused. “What's the connection between them? Why did the unsub pick them?”

“I have a feeling we won't know until we talk to the other students at school.” Rossi responded. “Highschool is its own messed up world, and the only people who truly understand it are the people who are there everyday.” Hums of agreement were heard throughout the plane.

“Good work Garcia. Keep digging, see if there is any overlap at all. Look at class schedules, extracurriculars, past and present teachers, hangout locations.” Hotch instructed Garcia as she nodded. “Look into the family's lives too. There has to be some connection we are missing, especially in such a small town.”

“Yes sir, on it.” Garcia smiled at the rest of the team before clicking off the video call.

~

They landed in a neighboring town's airfield, then drove across a toll bridge to get to the almost cute town of Hatchetfield. Something in the air seemed to shift the second the cars wheels touched down on the island, feeling the team with a weak sense of unease, but with no clear cause, they all tried their best to brush past it. This was just a normal town that was dealing with something incredibly tragic, that's all. As morbid as it was, this was routine for them.

The Hatchetfield police precinct was pretty small, cramped between two other quaint buildings. When they walked through the doors they were welcomed by a serious looking woman who introduced herself as Detective Shapiro.

“Welcome to Hatchetfield. I wish I had more time for pleasantries, but I’ve got one dead kid and a town full of gossips who are convinced everything is going to shit.” Shapiro shook all of their hands quickly, then motioned for the team to follow her. “I had Officer Bailey set up this room for you all.” The team began setting their things down as Hotch turned toward the Detective.

“Agent Jareau, our media liaison, might be able to help you with managing the town's response, she's one of the best at what she does.” Hotch nodded in JJ’s direction and she nodded back.

“We’d also like to talk to the victims family and friends, it would help us better build a profile of our unsub.” Reid chimed in, straight to the point. The rest of the team nodded in agreement with the young man.

“Of course. I was just about to head over to the school with Officer Bailey to talk to some of the victims' friends before school lets out.” Shapiro agreed. “If any of you would like to come with you could also take a look at the crime scene. It should still be blocked off.”

“We’d also like to interview both victims' families if that is ok.” Morgan spoke up from the other side of the room. Shapiro smiled quickly back at him, then went right back to business.

“Of course. The families addresses and phone numbers should be on these files, I just ask that you call ahead to let them know. These people have suffered enough.” The team nodded their understanding.

“Ok, here's the plan. Reid, I want you to go to the school with Detective Shapiro and Officer Bailey. Talk to the victims friends, talk to some students if you can, and go over the crime scene. Morgan and Prentiss, you go talk to the Jägermans, Rossi, you and I will go to the Lipschitz'. JJ, you stay here, work with local PD and news outlets to come up with a press release to calm down the town. We’ll check in again in two hours when we all get back and finish building a profile for this unsub.” Hotch directed the group toward their individual assignments. With a working plan, the team separated into their respective tasks, ready to get to work.