59. Acornville

A Chapter by halflives

*In Quantico*

*It’s after the weekend. We’re all sitting in the Conference Room, waiting for JJ to get here with the case file to be briefed. Jocelyn, Mayisha, Megan and I are talking about the awesome-ness of the BAU*

Jocelyn: So… Has he asked you yet?

Me: asked me what?

Mayisha: Has the Doctor asked you to marry him yet?

Me: Has he WHAT?!

Megan: Nice going, Mushroom.

Me: *smirks* Just kidding. Of course he has.

Jocelyn: That’s why you spent the weekend with him.

Mayisha: What did you say?

Megan: Are you going to become my Sister-in-Law?

Me: *sighs* I said I’d think about it.

Megan: Why are you thinking about it?

Me: We had a huge fight… And he’s right. *drops to a whisper* I kind of… Like Hotch, too.

Jocelyn: Do you like him more than the Doctor?

Me: No! No. It’s just… I don’t know. I need to sort out my feelings.

Mayisha: Hotch likes you, you know.

Me: The Doctor told me.

Jocelyn: Was he jealous?

Me: REALLY.

*JJ walks in*

JJ: Okay, guys, we’ve got a hot one.

*We all get into position*

JJ: Ella Caron was killed last night. Her body was found on the side of the road, just dumped.

Mayisha, Jocelyn, Megan and I: *exchange nervous glances*

JJ: She’s the third of two other victims, Victoria Elric and Sheyla Light. They--

Me: WAIT! WHAT TOWN WAS THIS IN?!

JJ: Uh… Acornville.

Mayisha, Jocelyn, Megan and I: WHAT?!

Hotchner: *is deafened* What’s wrong?

Me: Ella Caron… Sheyla Light… Victoria Elric… *hyperventilates*

JJ: Do those names mean something to you guys?

Jocelyn: MEAN SOMETHING?!

Mayisha: They’re our friends!

Morgan: What?

Me: Acornville is our hometown!

Jocelyn: Someone’s killing our friends! *rocks back and forth*

Megan: This is bad.

Prentiss: Hold on… We don’t know if someone’s killing JUST your friends.

Mayisha: WE KNOW THEM ALL.

JJ: It’s a small town.

Me: It’s kind of funny how many of our old friends stayed in good ole Acornville.

Megan: TO DIE! *bursts into tears*

Reid: Hey guys…

Morgan: Wait… So Acornville is your hometown?

Me: Yeah. We went to Acornville High School, attended Acornville Junior High and Acornville Elementary.

Jocelyn: Every summer afternoon we went to the Acornville Public Pool.

Megan: Liv and I liked to go to the Acornville Rec. Center before we met Jocelyn and Mayisha.

Mayisha: I liked the Acornville Target Shooting Center.

Jocelyn: And to read, we went to the--

Morgan: Let me guess; the Acornville Library.

Me: No, just the Library, stupid.

Morgan: *rolls his eyes*

Hotchner: So you know all these victims?

Megan: They are our best friends. WERE our best friends…

Prentiss: Do you know how many of them still live in Acornville?

Me: Minus us, I believe they all still live there.

Mayisha: Does that mean we’re all going to DIE?! *spazzes*

Hotchner: We haven’t yet established if they’re just going after YOUR friends.

Me: If they are, they might be one of our friends.

Mayisha: YOU MEAN ONE OF THE HERMITS UNITED DID THIS?!

Gideon: One of the what?

Me: Hermits United. That’s what we called ourselves, because of a quote from Doctor Who. None of us were popular, but we weren’t exactly unpopular either. So we were our own stereotype, Hermits United.

Hotchner: So you think that someone from this, uh, “Hermits United” is our UnSub.

Megan: *bursts into tears again*

Jocelyn: What if it’s Cassidy… Or Chris… Or Mohib for that matter!

Me: I don’t believe Mohib would be a murderer.

Mayisha: YOU NEVER KNOW.

JJ: Briefing, anyone?

Me: Sorry.

JJ: *points to the picture of Ella, dead. The four of us break out into rapid sobs. The Doctor hugs me, Reid sort of side hugs Jocelyn, and Gideon moves a bit towards Megan. Mayisha is hugged by Garcia* As I said before, this is Ella Caron. She was shot in the hip, then her throat was slit which then she died of blood loss.

Me: Poor… Ella…

Garcia: Were you guys close?

Me: Really.

Jocelyn: She was our other best friend.

Megan: She was in our tight knit group. Including Tori Elric and Sheyla Light.

Garcia: Jeez.

JJ: Ella was then abandoned on the side of the road in the midst of town. It was almost as if the UnSub WANTED us to find them.

Megan: Maybe whoever killed Ella *sniffle* wanted us to come back to the scene and investigate.

Mayisha: But who of our friends knows we’re in the BAU?

Me: They don’t have to. They just have to know that we’d come to town for the funeral or whatnot.

Jocelyn: Mayisha was always the investigative kind.

Megan: All of our friends knew that.