My First Criminal Minds Fan Fic!

Hey everyone. It's been a long time since I've posted on this site being that I started up the new Video Roulette blog recently.

But now that I have something to add I figure it's about time to come back for another post.

Very recently, as in I JUST got back, I was with my parents spending sometime with my brother. Today he is officially beginning his training to be in the Army National Guard. We are all so proud of him.

Though, being the dork I am, I took my laptop with me on this trip. However, there was apparently NO internet connection. My internet addiction was just going to wait for 2 1/2 days. Despite this set back, it gave me ample time, when I wasn't spending it with my family, to work on my latest addiction.

I have gotten hooked on Criminal Minds ever since I first saw it. In my utter geekery, I decided to undertake my first TV fan fiction about Criminal Minds.

I completed the entirety of the story at my brother's home and finished the touch up after I got home. So for your viewing pleasure, I will be posting a chapter at a time of my Criminal Minds fan fiction. For those that would want to read more before I have finished posting it all here I will also be posting it on FanFiction.com under my Twitter and blog name Creative Karma at http://www.fanfiction.net/~creativekarma.

Without further adieu, here it comes.

“A Loaded Smile”

~Set in Little Rock, Arkansas~

By Creative Karma

Prologue

                                                       Little Rock, Arkansas

            It’s a typical Friday night on the streets of downtown Little Rock. The sidewalks are packed with laughing couples and groups. The bars and restaurants are full to capacity with a line out the door. The lights and sights keep the wandering eye busy and away from the alleyways that look darker beyond the harsh lights.

            A big group comes walking out of a local restaurant only a block over from the waterfront. A few men carry the air of a bodyguard like a shield looking ever vigilant in their duties.

            The crowd outside the restaurant was not merely those waiting to be let inside, although some of them were. Some of the crowd began to cheer and shout as the group poured out onto the sidewalk.

            For a moment the bodyguards parted and spread out to block the onslaught, revealing whom they were protecting. It was the young and wildly famous recording artist Adam Lambert and Sauli Koskinen out for a night on the town together.

            Adam was leading the way. His normally black hair had been dyed blonde and cut short on the sides and long on the top. Enough hair to artfully sculpt into a fashionable and thick mowhawk-esque hair. Although, his black brows remained dark as they arched over his pale blue eyes. He adjusted the black leather jacket over his torso under which he wore a pale grey t-shirt with a medium grey graphic design. The shirt and jacket fell loosely over his waist only giving glimpses of the black belt that was looped though a pair of medium grey jeans. His black boots were covered down to his ankles by his grey jeans.

            His boyfriend Sauli was following right behind him laughing about something Adam had said. Sauli had dirty blonde hair that was styled very much like Adam’s now was save for the fact it was shorter on top. His light blue eyes shined in the flashing lights of the nearby cameras. He too was wearing a black leather jacket under which he wore a plain black t-shirt. The jeans he wore were so faded they appeared to be white to those around them and were tucked into a pair of loosely tied, black army boots.

            The crush of the crowd and the flashing lights of the cameras drew many eyes in their direction as they waited at the curb for their black SUV to be pulled up to the building. They talked and acted as if they were the only ones on the sidewalk and it was any other normal night.

            However, the bodyguards were beginning to have a harder time holding the crowd back as the limo pulled up to the curb. It was as if the crowd was fighting to be noticed just once before they pulled away. For some, it might be their only chance to see them out in public here. The paparazzi furiously snapped photos of everything.

            Adam pulled out his wallet to give a tip to the staff outside despite the fact he had not used the valet service.

            It was at that moment, the crush overwhelmed even the bodyguard’s determined efforts. A man in ragged clothing shot out of the mass of people snagging the wallet before making a run for it. The man’s clothes were dirty from who knows what. It was hard to determine under the lights hanging over the sidewalk that his shirt was once a forest green t-shirt that hung large over his malnourished frame. His baggy grey sweat pants only hung on by the saving grace of an elastic waist. But his black tennis shoes looked like they would fall apart at any moment on the chase.

            One of the bodyguards started to give chase while the other fought to maintain control of the crowd.

            A figure emerged, from an alleyway only yards from the commotion. The figure’s face appeared to be a young woman from the long yet dirty brunette hair. A pair of black, rectangular glasses framed her hazel eyes. Yet, the clothing was baggy and used enough to hide the rest of her form. The shirt was a tank black tank top while the bottoms appeared to be much handed down jeans with rips in the knees. Her white tennis shoes, however, looked much newer than the man running down the sidewalk. She too appeared to be homeless.

            However, instead of staying out of the way of the coming commotion, she ran faster than seemed possible and tackled the homeless man to the ground. Despite the man’s height and build, the managed to simply keep him from getting up rather than trying to wrestle the wallet from him.

            Soon, the bodyguard that had given chase arrived and took hold of the man allowing the young woman to rise from her place. She brushed her hair away from her face but stayed kneeling. Her voice came sounding rather reasonable.

            “Don’t hurt him. He’s just hungry,” she begged the bodyguard.

            “Thanks for stopping him but now this guy is mine. It’s up to the owner of the wallet if he doesn’t want to press charges,” the bodyguard replied.

            The young woman was about to say more when she heard noise rushing their direction.

            Now, the paparazzi had a new target as they snapped pictures of the trio.

            She was not used to the glare and brought up her hands to try and block some of the light. The glass flashed in the light of the camera flashes. Her ears were being assaulted with questions as they all drew in close.

            The bodyguard was now torn between getting possession of the wallet, holding onto the would-be thief and the onslaught of the media.

            More footsteps were heard that turned some of the attention away from the trio knelt down on the ground. Adam and Sauli had come to see what had happened making the photographers go wild with their cameras.

            Adam looked to the bodyguard holding onto the man on the ground.

            “What happened?” he asked.

            “This is the guy that stole your wallet. While I was chasing him, this girl came out of nowhere and tackled him. She stopped him and held him down till I caught up,” the bodyguard made motions to the young woman and the guy in all the right places.

            This had the frenzy started once again by the paparazzi, leaving the girl slowly rising to her feet feeling unsteady and uncomfortable with all the scrutiny.

            The bodyguard yanked the wallet out of the man’s hand and handed it over to Adam who took it slowly as he took in the young homeless woman that had apparently helped out.

            He was about to speak as the young woman’s soft but intelligent tone started up.

            “Please sir, Gary here…he was just hungry. He’s only been on the streets a few weeks and hasn’t been able to adjust yet. He just needs some help,” the young woman said.

            Adam listened quietly to the young woman before looking to Sauli for a moment. After a bit of unspoken communication, he looked back to the young woman.

            “What’s your name?” Adam asked.

            She looked around at the photographers for a moment with a concerned expression before looking back to Adam.

            “Catherine….” She hesitated a moment as if she was going to give a last name but then she stopped herself and left it at that.

            Adam nodded and looked to the bodyguard.

            “Let him up.”

            The bodyguard looked confused but got off the man slowly who quickly moved away from the bodyguard and Catherine before getting up. He looked scared and confused.

            Adam slowly stepped towards him as he spoke.

            “It’s all right. I’m not going to press charges. Here…” Adam opened his wallet and handed Gary ten dollars.

            Gary looked to the money then back to Adam. He quickly took the money and hurried off pushing his way through the crowd to get away.

            Adam watched him leave and then looked back to Catherine. He reached back into his wallet and pulled out a twenty dollar bill and held it out to her.

            Catherine shook her head and said, “I can’t take that. Anyone would’ve done the same thing. I’d rather work for the money I receive.”

            A smile crossed his lips and he still held the money out to her as he walked closer.

            “Think of it as a reward if you had found a wallet and turned it into the police. You have worked for it and not everyone would have helped. Let alone someone who is in the same situation.”

            Catherine looked over his face for a moment before slowly taking the money.

            ‘Thanks…”

            Adam smiled fully now.

            “You’re welcome. You take care of yourself, the best you can.”

            She softly smiled as she responded, “I’ll try.”

As Adam and Sauli walked away from Catherine taking the majority of the paparazzi with them, none of them seemed aware of a figure watching all of this from across the street.

Early the next morning, a garbage crew was making their rounds through the streets gathering up garbage bags and tossing them into the truck. The pair were wearing regular street clothes but had added heavy duty boots, an orange vest with reflecting patches sewn on.

“I tell you something man. One of these days, I’m gonna hook a better job than trash duty,” one man said as he tossed bags over to his partner.

“Oh really? With all that experience of yours what job you think you’re gonna get?” his co-worker chuckled.

Not hearing a response, he looked over to the frozen form of his co-worker.

“Dude, you all right? What’s the hold up?”

“We’re gonna need the police here. Call it in over the radio.”

The co-worker hopped off the back of the truck and came over.

“What is it now…?” He stopped in mid-sentence as he stood next to his buddy and looked down upon the bloody and mutilated corpse of Gary.

            In Quantico, the Behavioral Analysis Unit was looking up at the screen showing a photo of Gary’s body.

            “This is Gary Sanders. Age 32. He was found dead in an alley way in Little Rock, Arkansas just yesterday,” Penelope Garcia said as she looked to the others. Her fiery red hair was pulled back from her somewhat pale face with colorful hair clips. She had added colorful makeup to add brightness to her skin tone. Her bright green glasses framed her deep blue eyes. Her clothing was just as colorful with frills around the collar. She wore red heels on her feet. The pen she was motioning with was bright pink with a fuzzy ball on the top.

            “Who found the body?” asked Derek Morgan. He was bald but his eye brows were thick and black where they arched over his dark brown eyes. His skin tone was the darkness of the African-American ethnicity. She wore a simple dark grey t-shirt that was tucked into black slacks with a black belt. Black dressy boots completed the look.

            “That would be Eric Hutchinson and his co-worker Steve Calloway. They were loading the garbage truck early yesterday morning and discovered his body,” Garcia replied.

            “What brings this under our jurisdiction?” David Rossi asked as he looked to Garcia with his brown eyes. Rossi was an older Caucasian man with black hair cut in a very short style that left a little volume on the top. He was slowly graying throughout and his sideburns faded from black to grey as the hair moved away from the top of his head.

            Rossi wore a little more business causal look of a black suit jacket buttoned over a white collared shirt that had the top buttoned undone. His black slacks were an exact match to his jacket and his black dress shoes were shined.

            Jennifer Jareau sat forward and opened up her file. “The chief of police called me on this one. No only is this not the first murder of a homeless person within the city limits over the past couple of years but it is supposedly linked to the other because of the removal of a body part.” J.J. was the liaison for the BAU. Her long blonde hair was only half pulled back into a black hair clip leaving the rest to hang loose down her back. Her light blue eyes looked over the team that stood out against her smooth Caucasian complexion. She dressed like the proverbial secretary with dark grey suit jacket, white blouse, matching grey pencil skirt and black heels.

            “Correct, more specifically his hands,” Garcia added moving to the next picture on the screen of Gary Sanders arms sans hands.

            “Why take his hands?” Morgan asked aloud.

            “Could be a trophy. Something to remember and relive the thrill by,” Spencer Reid offered as a possible solution. Spencer looked more the part of a student rather than an FBI agent. A dark brown sweater vest was pulled over a white button-down shirt that held a soft blue pinstripe pattern. A brown tie was cinched around his neck but tucked down into his vest. The vest fell over the brown dress pants he wore. His brown eyes looked over the team.

            “You said that this fit the other vics because of the removal of a body part?” Rossi said with a questioning tilt to his voice.

            “According to the past records of these murders, each victim had some body part removed. Only one other time it was their hands, before that the eyes, and before that the tongue,” Garcia answered.

            “How many other murders fitting this description have there been?” Aaron Hotchner asked with his dark brown eyes focused on the pictures on the screen. He was the leader of the BAU section of the FBI. His black suit was pressed and the collar of his white button down shirt was starched. It was buttoned all the way up and a black tie had been added. His black suit pants and black dress shoes gave the most typical image of an FBI agent. His dark brown hair was cut short and well maintained.

            “According to the chief of police, this makes seven within the past two years.”

            “The chief wants whoever this is caught now before another dead body shows up,” J.J. added.

            “Considering the lack of timeline we need to assume that at any moment another murder might be committed. Either in the next 24 hours or a few days from now. If we want to get ahead of this killer we will have to get there as soon as possible. Pack up everyone, we leave in twenty.” Hotchner said as he rose from his chair.