Chapter Text
JJ called us in early for a new case, and I poured myself a cup of coffee before heading into the conference room. Reid was pouring way too much sugar into his, and I cringed.
“Hey, don’t judge me, I’ve seen the weird things you eat,” he said in jest, and I smiled, bumping his shoulder before heading to the conference room.
Everyone else was already in the room, except for Hotch, who joined us just after Reid.
“We have a body found dumped in the woods, 6 year old girl. Coroner puts time of death about 20 years ago.”
“20 years? And we’re just finding this body now?” Morgan asked, looking at the photos from the crime scene.
“Someone must have been holding onto it this whole time, the dump site isn’t exactly a secret location, people walk through there every day, someone was bound to have found it before now,” Emily added, as JJ put photos up on the board.
“Dental records ID the victim as Sarah Asher. She went missing 20 years ago in Boston, never any evidence to find. We’ve notified her father, mother passed 17 years ago. Grief.” JJ explained, placing photos of Sarah when she was alive, alongside photos of the skeleton that had been found. One photo stood out, a photo of two little girls.
I stared at the photo on the board, feeling a sense of déjà vu coming over me. I recognized the girls in the photo, but I couldn’t immediately place them. As I stood up to move toward it, I heard Hotch call my name, but I was drawn to the photo.
As soon as I got close to it, I gasped, realizing exactly who the girls were. One was our victim, Sarah Asher, the other was me.
“Y/N, you okay?” JJ asked, coming to stand beside me.
“No…this girl in the photo with Sarah…”
“Childhood friend, it was one of the photos Mr. Asher gave us.”
“This girl is me.”
I heard everyone gasp behind me, and Hotch came over, pulling me to face him. “Are you sure?”
“Yes, I’ve seen photos of me wearing that same dress.”
“So you knew Sarah Asher?”
“I don’t…I don’t remember her. I don’t remember much before I was 8…”
Hotch turned to the team, “continue working on this, Y/L/N come with me,” he said, pulling me gently to follow him. We went to his office and he closed the door behind us.
“Tell me what you remember.”
“I told you, I don’t remember much of anything before I was 8. My parents never talked about it.”
“Why?”
“They always said something happened so we had to move. They only kept a few photos of me before then. I always assumed it was my mother’s family, they’re kind of hostile.” I shook my head, sitting in the chair closest to me. “Hotch, what does this mean?”
“It means you’re off the case until we figure out what your connection to Sarah Asher is.”
“What? No. Hotch, I need to help with this. If I knew her before she was kidnapped, I need to remember it.” I stood again, angry at my boss.
“Yes, you do. Which is why you can’t be a part of the case until that happens.”
“At least sideline me. I won’t go into the field, I’ll look at paperwork and help Garcia. The best way for me to remember is to put myself into her life.”
Hotch stared at me for what felt like minutes, though his unblinking eyes usually did that.
“Fine, you’ll help Garcia here unless I call you.”
“Understood.” Hotch opened the door and we went back to the conference room.
“What did we miss?” He asked, taking his seat at the table. I sat down in my seat next to Reid, who looked at me questioningly. I just shook my head. We’d discuss it later. I had very few secrets from Reid.
“Looking over the autopsy report, there wasn’t any damage done to the body, before or after death,” Reid answered, passing the report to Hotch.
“Cause of death?”
“Asphyxiation, no marks on the neck, most likely the unsub smothered her,” Reid said, giving me a quick apologetic look.
“So no marks, no signs of abuse or torture, and he killed her peacefully, why take her at all?” Morgan questioned.
“Are we sure it’s a he? This sign of care says female not male,” Emily objected.
“Why take her, and keep the body for 20 years, only to dump it in a well-traveled location? They wanted us to find her,” Rossi piped up.
“JJ get the plane ready, wheels up in 30,” Hotch said, standing up, “Y/L/N is staying behind with Garcia.” He said with authority before walking out of the room. Emily and Morgan gave me a sad look before also leaving. Rossi patted me on the shoulder, “We’re gonna figure this out, bella, ” He said, calling me by his nickname for me. He and JJ left the room, leaving me alone with my two best friends.
“Y/N, what the hell is going on?” Penelope asked, grabbing my hands in hers.
“I have no idea. My parents moved us to Richmond when I was 7, they never told me why. I’m guessing it had something to do with Sarah’s disappearance though.”
“Do you think they know something about what happened, and that’s why they moved away?” Spencer asked, and I shook my head.
“I dunno, I have to call them, ask what they remember. Spence, you better go.”
Spencer stood and pulled me up into a hug. “Call me if you need anything, okay?” I nodded into his shoulder and he let me go, grabbing his stuff before heading out.
“You wanna talk to your parents now?” Penelope asked, and I nodded. “I think I need to bring them in. If the reason we moved is related to Sarah Asher we need to know.”
I called my parents and told them they needed to come to Quantico immediately. My mother freaked out of course, but I just told her it was important and I needed them both to be here. While I waited for them to arrive, I went to Garcia’s office, and sat as she typed away on the computer, looking into Sarah’s missing person case files.
“Find anything?”
“Not much, sweetie. Parents reported her missing when she didn’t come back from the park for dinner, no evidence found at the park. Started looking for a body couple days later, never found anything. They wrote it up as kidnapping and that she was taken across state lines, but with nothing to go on the case went cold.”
“JJ said her mother died 3 years later?”
“Yeah, she became heavily depressed after Sarah went missing. Husband hospitalized her in 1989, she died 6 months later. Wouldn’t eat or drink, they had to IV her for nutrients. Eventually she just…gave up hope.” Penelope responded sadly.
“Her daughter went missing without a single trace, cops gave up on her, I can see why she did.”
“Your parents on their way?”
“Yeah, they should be here shortly.”
“Did you tell them?”
“No, I wanted them here so we could get their initial reaction.”
“You don’t think they know something about this?” Penelope asked, turning towards me.
“I don’t know. It’s too convenient that we moved right after Sarah went missing and that they hid my childhood from me. Let me know if you find anything else, I’m gonna go wait for them downstairs.”
Garcia nodded, giving me a sad smile and turning back to her computers.
My mother wanted an explanation right away, but I led them upstairs before answering any questions. I commandeered Hotch’s office, making sure I had my phone recorder turned on.
“Y/N tell us what this is about, right now” My father demanded, and I nodded from behind Hotch’s desk.
“We got a case this morning, body found in the woods. We ID’d her as Sarah Asher.”
My mother’s immediate reaction, though she tried to hide it, told me all I needed to know.
“I have a picture of the two of us as children. She went missing right before we moved to Richmond. We have no photos of me around that time at the house, and you never explained why we suddenly moved. I don’t remember much about that time. So, I need you to tell me everything you know about Sarah Asher.”
“Honey, we don’t…” my father started, before my mother cut him off. “No, there’s no point lying now.”
My mother looked at me with tears in her eyes. “We wanted to protect you. When you told us you were joining the FBI, I was so worried that someday you’d discover this, even though there was nothing to find.”
“What happened back then mom? To Sarah? To us? Why don’t I remember it?” I asked, leaning forward on the desk.
“You are Sarah were best friends. She was a few months younger than you, but we lived next door to each other. You were stuck like glue the moment the Ashers moved in.”
“Sarah went missing at the park, where was the park? Why was she there alone at 6 years old?”
“She wasn’t. You were with her. The park was just down the street from our houses, we could see it out the living room window. You two played there every day after school until supper.”
“If I was with her…why don’t I remember any of this?” I asked, confused.
“The doctor said it was trauma. Your mind was protecting itself from whatever happened at the park that day. When you two didn’t come home, Claire and I…Sarah’s mother, we went to get you. You were alone, sitting on the swings. You wouldn’t talk to us, wouldn’t tell us where Sarah went. We called the police, and I took you to the hospital. The only thing you said was that Sarah went away.”
“Is that why we moved?”
My parents looked at each other, and I knew they were hiding something else.
“What else happened?”
“Sweetie, if you don’t remember, maybe it’s best-“
“No. Tell me what happened in 1987. Why did we suddenly up and move?”
“There was…a letter,” my father answered.
“What kind of letter?”
“From…the man that took Sarah, or at least that’s what we assumed. He left it on our doorstep.”
“Do you still have the letter?”
“No, we gave it to the police, it’s probably in evidence somewhere.”
“I’ll have Garcia look for it. What did the letter say?”
My mother started crying then, and my father put his arm around her shoulder.
“It said that he would come back for you. We didn’t know what else to do. I took you to my mother’s while your father packed up, and we moved to Richmond a month later. We never heard anything from him again,” my mother answered, sniffling.
Mentally I was creating a profile, but on the outside I just nodded. “Whatever happened that day…I saw it. I just need to remember.”
“Honey, we never wanted you to find out about it. The doctor said whatever caused you to supress the memory must have been traumatic.”
“I know, but he gave us Sarah’s body. He wants us to look into this.”
“You can’t be part of it,” my father said sternly.
“You sound like Hotch. I’m not officially on the case, I’m working from here.”
“Good. If that bastard is still out there…”
“It’s okay dad. Thank you, for finally telling me. Let’s get a coffee before you go home,” I said, turning off the recorder and leading them out of the office.
I called Hotch from Garcia’s office.
“Hotchner.”
“Hotch it’s Y/N, I just spoke with my parents. Sarah and I were at the park together the day she disappeared. Whatever happened there, I suppressed the memory.”
“Maybe we should have Reid try a memory exercise with you, try to help you remember.”
“Hotch, there’s more.”
I had already told Garcia, and she had pulled up a photocopy of the letter from the case files. Her grim expression showed me just how concerned she was.
“The unsub sent my parents a letter. Garcia’s sending you a copy. He threatened to come back for me, that’s why we moved.”
Hotch was silent on the other end of the line.
“Hotch?”
“Y/L/N get on the first plane here, I don’t want you out of our sight until we catch him.”
“Hotch that’s not necessary.”
“That’s an order, Y/L/N,” he said before hanging up.
I groaned and sank back into my chair. “Great, he’s gonna be hovering over me like a guard dog now.”
Penelope looked at me with her knowing smile and I smacked her. “Not the right time.”
“Right, yeah, threatening kidnapping murder guy, not the right time, ignore me.” She went back to her computer, booking my flight for me.