Criminal Minds

The Lynch family, Frank, Barbara, and their son and daughter, are having a great time at the Winter Fair in Ashburn, Virginia. There are carnival rides, food, music, and lots of people celebrating an early spring day. Young Aimee is watching the ponies at the pony ride, making up names for them, as her father and brother wander off to find some food. Mom helps Aimee take off her itchy red cap, revealing her beautiful blonde braids. A shrill scream gets their attention, and both watch, horrified, as an older woman runs through the crowd shouting for her daughter, Lindsey. After a moment, Barbara looks down and Aimee is gone, and now Barbara is shouting for her daughter. Her husband and son return to find her panicked, spinning in circles trying to catch a glimpse of her child. Her son's balloon, once clutched in his tight grasp, trails up into the blue sky and out of sight.

Sometime later, SSA David Rossi and SSA Aaron Hotchner arrive on the scene and introduce themselves to the distraught mother. She's given them the most recent photo she has of her daughter.

At the BAU headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, Agent JJ Jareau fills in the rest of the team. Although the family was surrounded by others, there were no witnesses. SSA Reid considers that it was a temporary gathering with little to no security. Morgan takes charge, advising Reid that the two of them will go the family's home, while JJ, SSA Emily Prentiss, and Analyst Penelope Garcia will check through any records of child abductions in the area over the past year. They know the clock is ticking, but as it is only the second hour of the abduction, they have hope of finding Aimee alive.

A sleepy little girl is carried through a long dark hallway. Her hair isn't blonde any more.

Prentiss' attention is caught by a local news report showing Aimee's picture and advising viewers to call if they have seen the young girl. A disheveled woman approaches her and asks to speak to Agent Jareau - she states that the person who abducted Aimee Lynch also abducted her son, too.

Prentiss finds JJ in Garcia's office. JJ is frustrated and impatient - she recognizes the woman as Sarah Hillridge, an alcoholic who comes into the office every time a child is abducted in the area. Her son Charlie was taken eight years ago. Garcia remembers her - she usually stays for the first 24 hours of an investigation. JJ hurries out. She meets with Sarah in her office, offering her cups of coffee. Sarah sees the picture of Henry, JJ's son, on her desk and asks about him. JJ asks about Sarah's daughter, and the woman replies that her father took her away when he got remarried. Sarah doesn't blame him - she knows she is in bad shape. She leans forward and reminds JJ that Charlie and Aimee were taken eight years apart, but were the same age when taken. She tells the agent that she's been doing research, and knows that young children of either gender can be attractive to the 'right' kind of predator. JJ thinks for a moment and then says, "I'm sorry that you know all of that." "I could have gone my whole life without knowing," Sarah responds, "but then someone took my son."

Dark hair dye staining her forehead, Aimee sits on the bed, knees drawn up, in the dark, underground chamber. One shaft of light shines through a small hole in the wallpaper and she carefully moves towards it. She peels back the paper and peers through the whole, rearing back when a human eye stares back at her. "It's okay," a voice whispers, asking her to come closer. A teen-aged boy asks her name, telling her they won't give her a new one until she gives up her old name. A woman's voice sounds suddenly, loud, and a strong arm drives the boy to the ground. Aimee can't help watching as an older woman begins beating the boy, but his anguished cries drive her away from the wall, back to the bed where she cowers in fear as the sound of the beating goes on and on.

At the BAU, Prentiss tells JJ that their investigation has found that Aimee's mom was distracted by a mother looking for her daughter. JJ is surprised - Sarah Hillridge said the same thing happened when Charlie was taken - a mother was looking for her lost son. Perhaps they have stumbled on a ruse used by child predators - a woman looking for a lost child in a target-rich environment with little security. This ruse would require at least two people to bring it off.

The older woman gently places the boy's bruised body into a long cardboard box, singing nursery rhymes over him as she wheels him down a corridor. She places a lid on the box and slides it within a brick oven. Turning on the gas, she closes the door on the crematorium chamber and turns the boy into ash.

The next day Reid and Morgan leave the Lynch home and stop to speak with Frank who stands in the driveway smoking a cigarette. "Why are you leaving?" he asks. Morgan tells him that every policeman in the area and in the state is searching for Aimee, but Frank knows exactly what the meeting of the 24-hour deadline means: there is little hope of finding Aimee alive. Reid acknowledges the statistics, but tells the distraught father that every case is judged on its own merits. As they speak a squad car pulls up and Barbara Lynch gets out, still clutching Aimee's red cap. The two agents are reminding Frank that the profile of these offenders - more than one person, attacking in a very public place with a ruse, may mean that the offenders intend to keep Aimee. "Keeping her for what?" Barbara demands. Reid merely tells the two that keeping her just means that Aimee is alive and he begins to step away. Barbara is incensed that they are leaving. Morgan says that if any information comes to light they will be back, but Frank shakes his head in disbelief. Reid tells the two that nothing could have stopped the predators from taking their daughter. Frank stares at his wife and claims, "Yeah, well I would never have let go of her hand." He storms off with his wife in pursuit.

When Aimee wakes from an exhausted sleep, a tall boy stands at the side of her bed. He tells her their captors want to call her Allison. He tells her that he is her new brother, and that 'they' call him David. Aimee's eyes fill with tears as she asks for her mommy, but David quietly asks her for her name. She tells him, and he reaches down for an instant camera and takes her picture.

Hotchner assures the rest of the team that no one has given up on Aimee, that hundreds of volunteers are still searching. JJ and Prentiss tell him that, given that the volunteers are looking for a body, that will not help them if Aimee is still alive with the unsubs. Morgan questions their assumption, asking if Charlie, after eight years, is still alive. He challenges JJ, telling her that she suddenly believes Sarah Hillridge because she is now a mother herself. JJ is angry, telling him, "It's because another woman just walked in here with the same exact ruse used eight years ago; I can't deny that, can you?" Morgan believes they must all be convinced based on an unbiased profile. Prentiss runs down the similarities again: eight year old victims, taken from public places, distraction of a lost child with little security around. She believes it is a signature. Hotchner wonders - Charlie - Mrs. Hillridge's son - would be sixteen now, and preferential predators typically dispose of their victims once they have outgrown their "attractiveness." JJ suggests Charlie is serving another purpose. Rossi tells the group that Barbara Lynch described the woman at the carnival as 'slight' and would have difficulty keeping a teenage boy under her thumb. After eight years in captivity, Prentiss believes that Charlie would be complete cowed. Hotchner is convinced, and tells Garcia to begin an intense check starting back ten years into crimes with the specific similarities.

David/Charlie comes back into Aimee's room and tells her 'they' are home, and she should do whatever they say. The older woman and an older man enter the room, the man angry that Charlie is taking pictures again. Aimee scoots under the bed. "Well," he chants, "it looks like somebody's been sleeping in Goldilocks' bed." He bends down to see her.

JJ finds that the front door of Sarah Hillridge's house is ajar, and she walks in, calling for the woman. The television is on, another news report about Aimee blares into the empty room. Further down the hallway JJ pushes open another door to find Charlie's room - still untouched after eight years. His bed is rumpled as if it was just slept in, his toys are scattered on the floor. Behind her, Sarah Hillridge appears, holding a glass half full of liquor, a cigarette in her hand. JJ tells her that she believes the same unsubs who abducted her son have taken Aimee Lynch. Sarah has something to show the agent.

Garcia has found twelve children missing in Virginia for the past eight years. Reid goes to the map to note Charlie and Aimee's abduction sites - both within a half mile of a highway. Garcia reels off the others - all children between 7 and 9, still missing. At Sarah Hillridge's house, JJ finds that Sarah has already made similar chart showing abducted children. JJ tells Sarah that, if she's going to help them she has to stop drinking. Sarah agrees.

Back at the site of the Winter Fair, Hotchner and Prentiss walk the crime scene. They stand in Barbara Lynch's shoes, imagine the families and noises all around, imagine Frank asking if anyone's hungry. They realize the unsubs must have been watching, waiting for the right moment to act. Prentiss turns as they imagine the woman calling for her daughter. Hotchner envisions a man hurrying from an alcove nearby to scoop Aimee up in his arms, holding her head tightly against his chest so that she cannot cry out, and then walking quickly away. Prentiss follows the screaming woman's imaginary progress, and Hotchner follows the man carrying Aimee. To anyone watching, the two would seem completely normal, not worthy of notice. Hotchner and Prentiss end up facing the same street, knowing a vehicle arrived to pick up both man and woman. But who was driving the vehicle? It took three unsubs to pull this off. Hotchner believes that once they find how they keep the children hidden, they'll find unsubs and children.

The older man brushes the remains from the crematorium fire into a grinder, and then dumps the ashes into an urn. Dressed in a suit and tie, the man carries the urn through the cemetery and sprinkles the ashes onto a large rose garden. An elderly woman stops beside him, admiring the flowers. He says, "I like to think of these roses as the souls of the forgotten, like this poor young man here."

The photos of the missing children are all up on the board in the BAU conference room. JJ introduces Sarah to Hotchner - he invites her to join them in their discussion. JJ explains that, although the venues were different, the children were all abducted from similar locations. Hotchner wants them to interview all the families again. Sarah tells him that she knows some of them as they had a support group for a while. She admits that she saw Charlie three years ago. She didn't tell the police because even her husband didn't believe her. Originally, she thought she saw Charlie all the time, but, eventually, she and her husband agreed to try to move on. She didn't see him as she always remembered him - a child of eight - but saw a teen-aged Charlie crossing the street. Her husband left her that day. When she saw Charlie, standing with an older woman and a young girl, she called for him. He seemed to look up, but by the time the traffic cleared, they'd disappeared. She felt like she lost him again that day. JJ reminds her that, if they contact all these parents, they will also have to relive that pain. Sarah claims they would all take the chance.

Slowly, couples begin arriving at the BAU offices. Sarah sits with a sketch artist to make drawing of teen-aged Charlie. The Shepherd's sit with Morgan to talk about their son, Stephen, who would be fifteen now. They see Sarah Hillridge across the room and recognize her - Stephen was taken a year after Charlie. Mr. Shepherd insists Sarah is crazy; Morgan asserts that she isn't. Mr. Shepherd blames Sarah, says she threw her life away and ran off her husband and her daughter. Morgan tells him, "Hope can be paralyzing." Morgan tells the couple that the same unsub may have taken both Charlie and Stephen, and asks if anything happened just before Stephen was taken. After a moment's hesitation Mrs. Shepherd remembers that a woman was looking for her son. Morgan tells them the unsubs have used the same ruse in a dozen abductions. "Do you think there's a chance that Stephen's still alive?" his father asks.

An older girl washes Aimee's face. She tells the child that there were four of them, but there have been others. She tells Aimee to pretend the dinner is her favorite food and to eat it all up.

Barbara Lynch sits alone, devastated. Garcia brings her a cup of coffee and tells her that she is in good hands. Barbara begins to cry, telling the analyst that she let go of her daughter's hand for a second, it was her fault. When Garcia gently tells her not to blame herself, Barbara blurts out that her husband blames her, "And he's right, I should have held on," she sobs. "There's this feeling when they're out of your sight - it takes your breath away until you see them again." Barbara puts one fist against her chest and gasps. "And I think that's why I can't breathe." Garcia takes her hand.

The team meets up again and JJ confirms that they all remember an older woman calling for a missing child at each of the abductions - sometimes she even had another child with her. Reid tells Sarah Hillridge that female child abductors don't usually have children of their own, and they are the most violent offenders. It's likely she is working with a subservient male, but she is the planner, the organizer. They pass around the drawing of teen-aged Charlie. They are most likely using him to help abduct others. JJ ushers Sarah out while the team continues to talk.

Morgan and Hotchner agree that the children must be kept somewhere in isolation, not in a neighborhood. Hotchner believes they should concentrate on domestic calls, social service visits, and people who have been interviewed before.

Sarah is upset, hurt that Charlie has been hurting for all these years. JJ encourages her, telling her that what Sarah has been able to bring to the BAU is rare, and is a great deal of help. "It's not going to end well for all of us," Sarah sighs. Barbara Lynch grabs a copy of the sketch of Charlie and hurries over. She recognizes him - he stood in line a few people behind them at the pony rides at the fair. Sarah is all smiles knowing that Charlie is alive, but the Lynches have another reaction - Sarah's son helped abduct their daughter. JJ tries to intervene, but Barbara lashes out. "Your son is one of them - he's taking innocent children." Sarah is stunned. "She's right." JJ tells her that Charlie doesn't have a choice; he's just trying to survive.

The older girl is brushing Aimee's hair now. She gets up to leave but Aimee begs her to stay. The two lie down together in the bed, but the door bursts open and man and woman are there. The older girl stands between them and Aimee, asking the man to take her and not hurt Aimee, but he grabs her by the hair and hauls her away. The older woman, dressed in an old-fashioned dress and pearls, saunters in, smirking, and sits down on the bed next to the child.

Garcia hurries into the conference room with her laptop, telling the team that there were 107 families visited by social services in the area within the last ten years. They consider how to narrow that down, determining that it is most likely a single-income family where one adult stays home with the children - there are only 23 on the list with a single income. Morgan shakes his head - they will be knocking on the doors of 23 homes where someone has done something bad to a child without a warrant. If they 'get it wrong' and leave the unsubs house, they will destroy any evidence, including the children. Hotchner asks JJ to get an article of Aimee's children for the dogs.

Frank Lynch is trying to hold his wife back, but the woman tears away and approaches Sarah Hillridge. "Eight years?" she asks. "There's a moment," Sarah answers, "in the morning just as I wake up, where there's a split second of peace. And then it all comes back, all of it." Barbara says she hasn't slept yet, and Sarah tells her she hopes she gets her child back before she needs to. Barbara acknowledges that Sarah's belief that Charlie was still alive after all these years has given them all hope. JJ comes into the room to ask about an item of Aimee's clothing. Barbara holds out the red cap.

Door after door opens to the BAU. Each and every face is drawn, shuttered, revealing nothing, wary of any police presence. They teams try to build rapport, to ease into conversations, but each of these people has been the focus of a social services investigation, and they don't want to reveal anything.

Prentiss and Morgan stand in the living room with the male unsub, Roger Roycewood, as he adjusts his hearing aid. Morgan picks up a family photograph nearby - a photograph of the two unsubs playing happy family with three children - one of whom is clearly teen-aged Charlie. He hands it to Prentiss without comment. He claims his wife took the children out. Prentiss asks about the Winter Festival in Ashburn and he claims not to know anything about it. Beneath the home, the woman holds her hand over Aimee's mouth and motions for silence. "If you make a sound I'll kill your mommy," she whispers. She urges Charlie closer and tells him to clean out his room. She takes an old hypodermic needle and injects something into Aimee.

Roger tells the agents that he has to call his wife, and Prentiss excuses her to step outside. Morgan keeps the unsub in view, and encourages him to make the call. Prentiss calls the rest of the team - they've found the house on Moseley Lane. It is isolated, sitting on a large property, and the photo is a dead giveaway that they've found the right place. She tells them that Roger is undoubtedly on to them. Hotchner, Rossi, and JJ hurry off to get a search warrant and dogs. Meanwhile, Roger hangs up, telling Morgan that his call is going straight to his wife's voice mail. "I suppose you all could come back later," Roger suggests. "I think we both know that's not going to happen," Morgan replies.

The female unsub ushers the children out a hidden entrance, waiting until Prentiss' back is turned. The older girl asks where Stephen is, and the woman tells her she'll see him soon. Charlie, carrying an unconscious Aimee, gets into a hearse, and the woman hurries the older girl in as well. She drives off, the older girl peeking out through the curtains in the back.

Dogs and agents comb the Roycewood's property while Roger looks on. Morgan tells him that they have ground penetrating radar and they'll find the children's graves. Roger asks if the radar will hurt the roses. Morgan leaves the man in the care of a police officer as he joins the search. In the basement, the agents find security cameras and monitors, and JJ finds a tunnel entrance concealed behind a bookcase. The long dark hallway is empty.

The woman has taken the children to the crematorium where she lights the fire. Charlie, still cradling Aimee, keeps looking at her small purse discarded on a counter. The older girl hands the woman a sack, and the woman places the contents into the furnace, including a large stuffed doll. As the fire rages, the flames licking around the doll's face, Charlie and the older girl see the truth.

In the underground rooms, Rossi and JJ discover a stash of instant photos, including one of Aimee with brown hair. The photos reveal the frightened faces of children, children they've just seen in photos up on the board of the BAU conference room. JJ believes Charlie took the pictures as proof. Morgan and Prentiss are on the phone to Garcia, wondering if they are keeping the children at a place of work. Garcia says no, that Roger is an electrician. Garcia cross-checks with Mrs. Roycewood's maiden name and suddenly finds a family funeral home located in Leesburg, just a few miles away. The funeral home includes vans, hearses, mausoleums, and a crematorium.

Another long cardboard coffin is being prepared, and the woman sings a little song as she stokes the fire. She commands that Charlie put Aimee into the coffin and he gently places her inside. The older girl begins to whimper, muttering 'no, no, no,' under her breath. The woman shushes her, but the girl crawls away and cowers in a corner. The woman pulls her towards the fire, but Charlie has taken a gun from the woman's purse and shouts at her to let the girl go. The woman stands and smirks, but Charlie pulls the trigger and kills her. He takes Aimee out of the coffin and the three children stand together. The door bursts in and the children turn dirt and tear streaked faces to the sunlight - the BAU has arrived.

Back at the Roycewood home, Rossi and Hotchner get the call and turn to arrest Roger Roycewood. The police officer tells them that the man is in the bathroom, and they rush up the stairs. Roger Roycewood has hanged himself.

At the BAU, Reid and Sarah Hillridge walk down the hallway. She is nervous about seeing her son again. He tells her that, at the age Charlie was abducted, he had a growing sense of right and wrong and of his place in the world. He was less focused on himself and more concerned for others. He believes that, with a mother like Sarah, Charlie will be fine. "I'm a doctor, I put my faith in facts and statistical probabilities, but today eight parents are going to have closure and three children are going home with their families because you believed your son was alive. It's as close to a miracle as I've ever seen."

She turns and sees Mrs. Shepherd and the two women hug - they don't know which children are coming home. The elevator door opens and Sarah's husband hurries out to shake Mr. Shepherd's hand and thank him for calling. He motions to Sarah and the estranged husband and wife approach each other. He grabs her into a tight hug, saying, "You found him - you did it." He's facing it when the elevator door opens again and Charlie walks out. Sarah turns and sees her son, now sixteen. The family hugs, tears falling, arms holding on. Morgan sees the Shepherd's and shakes his head, and another family begins to cry for completely different reasons. Their son Stephen is dead.

Charlie sees their grief.

Aimee and the older girl are embraced by their parents, but other parents aren't as fortunate.

As the Shepherd's turn to leave, Charlie approaches them. He tells them that he knew Stephen, and they were like brothers. Remembering their parents was the only way they survived. Mr. Shepherd asks him how old Stephen was when he died. Charlie turns and points to Aimee and tells them that Stephen died protecting her. Mr. Shepherd's eyes fill and he breaks down, sobbing. "He was alive yesterday," he gasps through his tears.

The pictures are coming down from the board, the notes are being boxed up by Prentiss, JJ, and Garcia, when Sarah enters the conference room, wondering how to say thank you. She asks them why they do a job surrounded by darkness. "Because of days like this," Prentiss replies.

"Emily Dickinson wrote: 'Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without words, and never stops at all.'"

[Recap written by Finnegan77]