Title: Mother May I?
By: realityaskew
Pairing: Hotch/Prentiss
Rating: PG-13
Warning: WiP
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing except for the serial killer that I created for this story.
A/N: This is sort of a continuation of Crave so you may want to read that just for a little background on what has happened to the characters.
Summary: A sick and twisted serial killer is on the loose in Albany, New York. A continuation of Crave.

***

Chapter One: Like Mother Like Son

"Oh Jesus Christ just looking at you makes me want to vomit." Audrey Neil took a long drag from her cigarette and quick swig of whiskey. "I should have aborted you like I wanted to but my fucking father was against it you know, being such a religious man and all. No, instead I had to marry that dead beat son of a bitch and he ended up going out for a pack of cigarettes and it's been what now 12 years since he's gotten back from the store."

Kenneth Neil kept his head low and nursed his fragile jaw which was already beginning to swell up. He never dared look his mother in the eye especially when she was off on one of her many drunken rants. Kenneth sat huddled up in the corner of their dingy two room apartment and refused to let himself cry; he wouldn't give that bitch the pleasure of seeing his tears.

"You are NOTHING!" She screamed out tossing the glass of whiskey at him causing it to smash into pieces right above his head.

"Please don't do this, please. I promise if you let me go I won't tell anyone. I won't tell the police or anything I swear. Please just let me go, please."

Kenny watched the bound girl at his feet begging for mercy with a face the showed no hint of sympathy or any other emotion. Her dark brown hair clung to her bruised and tear stained face as she tried helplessly to wriggle her hands and feet out of the scratchy rope that was holding them together.

Kenny reached for the recently sharpened butcher's knife on the table beside him and looked the innocent girl over one last time. "You are NOTHING!" He screamed before sinking the knife deeply into her soft flesh.

Emily Prentiss shot up in bed her body covered in a cold sweat. She looked around the room slowly letting her eyes adjust to the dark. Looking over at the alarm clock she saw that it was only 3:30 am. Three hours of sleep had been the most she had gotten in the past few months. The feeling of a large warm hand gently pressing against her back calmed her down a bit.

"Are you alright?" Aaron Hotchner asked.

"Yeah I'm fine it's nothing." She lied.

Aaron sighed knowingly and carefully pulled her back down wrapping his strong arms protectively around her slender frame. "I know when you're lying to me Emily. You were dreaming about him again weren't you?"

Emily let her body relax against his and nodded. "I know it's been months but I still can't get his face out of my mind."

Aaron instinctively pulled her closer to him and placed a tender kiss on her lips. "Emily, Jonas Lincoln is dead he will never be able to hurt you ever again. I will never let anything happen to you."

Emily let a ghost of a smile spread across her lips. "I know." She whispered resting her head in the crook of his neck.

Aaron soothingly stroked the smooth skin on her lower back trying to help her fall back asleep. In only a few hours they would have to get up for work.

Kenny stopped to take a quick break as he dragged the lifeless corpse of a once beautiful and vibrant young woman behind him. His car was parked only a few hundred yards away but it was strenuous work hauling a body weighted down with cement blocks up to the small bridge that crossed over Lark's Creek. Once he was finally at the bridge Kenny knelt down behind the body and with a few shaky pushes he managed to roll her into the water.

"You make me want to vomit." He said quietly under his breath as her fired up a cigarette and watched as the body sunk down into the murky water.

***

Chapter Two: A Familiar Face

Emily Prentiss let out a small yawn and stretched her tired muscles as her alarm clock went off. It only took her a few seconds to realize that she was all alone in the large bed. She rolled over and smiled to herself when she saw a steaming cup of coffee and a note next to it on top of the night stand. She reached over and picked up the note reading it.

Emily,

I left for the office about an hour ago. You finally fell back asleep and I didn't want to wake you up.

Aaron.

Quickly drinking the cup of coffee he had left for her Emily crawled out of bed and hopped into the shower. She and Hotch had gotten their morning routine down to a science. Whenever they stayed over the other's apartment they were extremely careful to always show up at different times. It was safe to say that the team had no idea what was going on between them because at work they kept it strictly professional.

Joel Burns sat with his grandson on the small bridge above Lark's Creek and cast out his fishing line. Things were pretty quiet for about 20 minutes until his grandson Scottie began bouncing up and down excitedly.

"I caught something grandpa! I caught something!"

Joel grabbed onto the fishing rod helping the tiny child reel in his catch. "Whoa it looks like you got a hold of one big fish there kiddo."

Joel let go of the rod and fell back with a gasp of horror when he saw a human foot pop out from underneath the water. Without a second thought he scooped up Scottie and dashed back to the car leaving all of their gear behind.

"Morning." Morgan said to Prentiss as she sat down at her desk. Ever since she was attacked Morgan had been even more protective of her, it was sweet. She shot him a tired smile and tried to stifle an oncoming yawn. "Tired?" He asked amused.

"Let's just say that a good night's rest has eluded me once again."

"Hey guys Hotch wants us all in the conference room." Reid said as he passed by.

"Here we go again." Morgan said shaking his head, as usual expecting the worst.

Emily and Morgan walked into the conference room and both inwardly cringed when they saw the crime scene photos already up on the screen. JJ handed them each a case file and turned her attention back the photos.

"Early this morning Joel burns was fishing with his grandson and this is what they caught."

"That's one fishing trip the kid won't forget." Morgan said flipping through his file.

"The body looks like it's only just beginning to go through the early staged of decomposition." Emily said taking a closer look at the body.

"The coroner who preformed the autopsy said that she had only been dead about 12 hours when she was found which means that the unsub must have killed her and dumped the body that night. She was identified as 28 Janice Stone who went missing from strip mall parking lot two weeks ago." JJ hit the remote control bringing up the autopsy photos. "She was stabbed in the stomach around 300 times."

"300 times suggests that they unsub lost control and let rage take over." Reid said.

"On her back the phrase mother may I? was carefully carved."

"This is exactly the same phrase that was found on both Rita Brown and Sheila Brooks when their bodies were discovered a month ago in a dumpster behind a local restaurant." Hotch said. "We'll be leaving for Albany, New York in an hour.

Emily stood by the fax machine and punched in a number. She turned her head and saw a group of agents walking by and her heart almost stopped when she saw Jonas Lincoln, clad in a neatly pressed suit look up and wink at her. Her only reaction was to stumble back and she bumped into Hotch almost making his spill his coffee all over himself.

"Hey are you okay?" He asked his voice filled with genuine concern.

"I'm fine, it's nothing." She said quickly calming herself down and brushing off his question.

Hotch new better and he gently took her by the arm and led her into his office shutting the door behind him. Emily let out a long strained sigh and avoided his gaze.

"Emily, you're still having nightmares about him, you're seeing his face in crowds; maybe it would be best if you take some more time off."

"No I'd rather be working and actually focusing on a case instead of alone in my apartment focusing on him."

"Are you sure that everything is going to be alright?"

Emily smiled at his concern and shook her head yes. She quickly looked around her even though she knew they were both alone and pressed a chaste kiss to his lips and rested her forehead against his. "Everything is fine I promise."

Hotch let himself linger in her intoxicating presence for a long moment when there was a knock at the door. He and Emily hastily jumped apart and tried to make themselves look as professional as possible. Emily said a brief hello to Garcia as she passed her on the way out of Hotch's office.

Kenny sat patiently in his car as he watched a 20 something year old brunette load groceries into the trunk of her car. He took the cigarette out of his mouth and snuffed it out onto the picture of his mother that sat on the passengers' side seat next to him. He scanned the parking lot making sure that the coast was clear and pulled his van up behind her. Before the young woman even had a chance to scream he pulled the van door open and grabbed her by the waist. He sped out of the parking lot leaving only the woman's open trunk and purse behind.

***

Amelia Crawford was hit with a sudden feeling of nausea as her senses slowly began returning to her. Her first response was to rub her queasy stomach but she was stopped when she realized that her hands were tightly bound together and so were her feet. She tried to make out her surroundings but the room was too dark and her head was throbbing. The last thing she remembered was putting her groceries into the trunk of her car and that was it.

"Good morning team." Everyone looked up from what they were doing and turned their attention towards the lap top. "I've got some bad news for you all. It looks like this mother may I guy has grabbed another victim. 27-year-old Amelia Crawford was abducted from a supermarket parking lot right down the road from the strip mall that Janice Stone was abducted from. Witnesses say they saw her being pulled into a white van but no one caught the license plate number."

"Do you have the surveillance videos?" Hotch asked.

"Fortunately for our murderer and unfortunately for us the surveillance cameras were being repaired so nothing was caught on tape."

"Alright well see what you can find on Amelia Crawford that might connect her to the other victims." Hotch said.

"You got it chief, over and out."

"Okay so he kidnapped another victim but he holds them for two weeks before he murders them." Morgan said.

"Yeah but look how quickly he snatched Amelia Crawford after murdering and dumping Janice Stone's body. He waited at least a week and a half after first killing Rita Brown before he abducted Sheila Brooks and he dumped their bodies in the same location, in a dumpster behind a restaurant." Prentiss pointed out.

"His need to kill is growing stronger we can't be sure that he's going to follow the same pattern with Amelia Crawford." Reid said.

"When we land I want you and Reid to go and check out the dump sight of the latest victim." Hotch told Morgan. "Prentiss and I will go to Amelia Crawford's apartment and see what we can find out."

"I'll set up shop at the Albany police station." JJ said.

Kenny sat huddled in the corner of his dark apartment with all of the shades drawn, rhythmically slamming his head up against the wall.

"Who was the little whore I saw you talking to in the playground today Kenneth? Huh who was she? Who was the little whore?"

Kenneth tried to hold back his tears but he couldn't. "Her name is Alice Jones mother, she's my friend."

Audrey Neil let out a shrill laugh and lit yet another cigarette. "Oh please do you actually think that little girl wants to be friends with you? No girl will ever love you because you are nothing just like your father. Do you hear me? You are nothing! You're just a pathetic excuse for a human being. God, you disgust me." Audrey shoved her son hard and made her way into the kitchen to fix herself a drink.

Kenny wiped the tears from his face and shook his head violently. "It's not true. It's not true. It's not true."

"It's not true!" Kenny screamed, jumping up. He stalked over the bookcase on the other side of the room and used all of his strength to push it over. There was a small door behind it and he took a key out of his pocket and unlocked it. When he was in the tiny secret room he saw Amelia Crawford struggling to break free of the ropes. She stopped when she saw him and her eyes grew wide with fear. Kenny went over to her and picked her up slamming her against the wall.

"Please." She begged. "Who are you? What do you want from me?" Please don't kill me I have a little girl at home, she needs me."

"Shut up!" Kenny screamed into her face.

Amelia choked back her tears and dared to look into her captors face. "Do I know you from somewhere?" She asked her voice soft and frightened.

Kenny instantly dropped her back on the floor and stepped away. He got out of the room as fast as possible and locked it back up moving the bookshelf back in front of the door. In a fit of rage he started throwing furniture all around the small apartment.

"This is it, Amelia Crawford's apartment." Hotch said as he pulled up in front of the apartment complex and shut off the engine of the SUV.

"Let's go." Prentiss said, hopping out of the car.

They both went to apartment 4B and Hotch knocked on the door. A pretty brunette who looked to be in her early 20's answered the door holding a quiet four year old in her arms.

"Hi, I'm special Agent Aaron Hotchner and this is Special Agent Emily Prentiss."

"Is this about my sister Amelia?" The woman asked putting the child down.

"Yes we wanted to ask you a few questions about her."

"Come in." She said stepping out of the way to let both agents enter the apartment.

The little girl tugged on Emily's pants and Emily crouched down. "Do you know where my mommy is?" She asked innocently.

Prentiss quickly looked from Hotch to Amelia's sister and then back down to the little girl.

"No sweetie we don't but we're going to do everything we can to find her."

The little girl named Abigail nodded her head and sweetly ran her hand through a strand of Emily's hair. "You're pretty." She said.

Prentiss smiled at the little girl. "You're pretty too." She affectionately tickled Abigail's tummy making her giggle.

Hotch couldn't help but smile at this little exchange. He knew that Emily would make a great mother someday. She was always great with Jack whenever he was over the apartment.

"Abigail why don't you go and play with your toys while I talk to the agents okay honey?"

"Okay Auntie Jessica." Abigail said before bouncing away to her bedroom.

"What's this about? Did you find out who took my sister?" Jessica asked.

"Not yet." Hotch told her.

"Have you seen your sister with any unfamiliar men in the past few months?" Prentiss asked.

"No."

"What about Abigail's father, is he still around?" Hotch asked.

"No he took off before she was even born. Amelia isn't really big on dating. She did make an account on this online dating website and tried going out with a few different guys but she said the last one was a real freak and she was going to cancel her account."

"Prentiss get…."

"Get Garcia on the phone and see if any of the other victims were involved in any online dating websites, I'm on it." Prentiss said already hitting the speed dial to reach Garcia.

Hotch was amazed that she could finish his sentences and almost always knew what he was thinking. He had never had that before with Haley.

Kenny finished off the bottle of whiskey had started on only a half an hour ago and collapsed to the floor. His mother's taunting voice swirled around in his head and he blocked his ears trying to make it stop.

"No girl will ever love you! You're pathetic! You disgust me! You're nothing!"

"STOP IT!" Kenny screamed writhing around the floor in his drunken state.

***