Author: Ren Kayashima

Genre: Family/ Mystery

Rating: T

Disclaimer: Alas my top secret mission to steal the rights to Criminal Minds failed. At the last minute my repel line broke and I was arrested for trespassing on ABC ground. If you would like to help me with bail money…

Shout Outs: As promised, all reviewers from the final chapter of The Chariot Card will receive a shout out. Thank you so much dyallon for all of your kind words about the last story. P95000, I love that you tell me everything you like about the chapter. Kimd33 you showed up as the story was wrapping up, but you took the time to review every single chapter, and for that, I'm truly grateful.

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Chapter One:

David Rossi was a lot of things. He was an Italian American with an impressive family history. A former Marine, who believed that you could never truly stop being one. His work at the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit was extremely popular among fellow law men and women. He had gained world fame as a published author in the area of True Crime. And more recently, he had become a father to his eighteen year old daughter, Rori.

Rori Morre-Rossi was born and raised by her mother in the sunny state of California. Thoughts of her father were left to the imagination. That is until the summer before her eighteenth birthday. After her mother's death two years prior, Rori's guardian and aunt Kate was left with a decision to make: deny an opportunity of a lifetime, or tell David Rossi that his ex-wife had taken a secret to the grave.

Shortly after meeting his daughter, David had come to realize many things. One: There are something's that are better left unmentioned for the sake of keeping the peace. Such topics generally revolved around the topics like sex and PMS. Two: Under no circumstances are you allowed to enter a teenage girl's bedroom without permission. That is unless you want to be pelleted with stuff animals, pillows, and on rare occasions, shoes. Three: If your daughter is listening to music while chopping vegetables in the kitchen. Wait to enter until she has finished. One ER visit for a cut thumb is quite enough. And four, which is probably the most important: Do not leave her alone for the day with nothing to do. She will rearrange the furniture so that it is to her liking and not yours.

As Dave was pondering these four realizations in his home office, Rori was making her way up the driveway in her silver Ford Mustang. Like her father, the teen had thick black hair that she had pulled into a ponytail. Her green eyes gleamed from behind a pair of forest green plastic rimmed glasses. When she was standing she was five six, five nine in a decent pair of heels.

She slid out from behind the wheel and popped the trunk. He classic school attire was a pair of jeans, black Converse All-Stars, and a one tone t-shirt. As the weather got warmer, she switched this simple outfit for shorts, flip flops, and a tank top. When it was cold, she wore layer thermal shirts and t-shirts, wool coats, and warm fuzzy boots.

She grabbed her backpack and headed inside, locking her car as she pushed the front door open. "Dad?" she asked.

Dave looked up form the latest draft of his new book. "In my office," he called.

Rori came into the office with a wide smile. Mostly, the offices use was reserved for writing and meetings with an editor or publisher. But, every once in a while it was where the father and daughter would sit and talk about their day.

"How was class?" Dave asked.

Rori dropped her backpack into a chair and fell into her usual spot on the large overstuffed brown reading chair. "It was… educational," she answered slowly.

"I certainly hope so. Seeing as I'm paying for your private education," Dave grunted as he closed his laptop.

While Rossi was off chasing America's sickest and most depraved, Rori attended college at Georgetown University. She wrote articles for the school paper, and studied late into the night at the school's library. Even with an established IQ at the genius level, she still found herself working hard to stay a step ahead of the professors, while still maintaining a somewhat decent social life. Dave and Rori had a deal in play. So long as she kept her grades up, he would continue to pay her college tuition, leaving the teen to worry about other things.

"Are you going to New York this weekend?" Dave asked.

Rori made monthly trips to the Big Apple as a part of her job. She was a fan of Japanese animation, and had snagged a job as a voice actor. Originally taking the job to pay for college, Rori now did it for fun, and to fund her many exploits in the D.C shopping mall.

"Yep," Rori popped. "I only have a few things to record. Right now, my character doesn't have a big part."

"So does this mean that you'll be coming back to D.C early?"

"Probably not. I'll finish Sunday morning, but I'm going to hang around the city and catch my usual evening flight," Rori explained.

"Okay," Dave nodded. "Do you have any homework?"

"Loads, but yay for me, I've set up a plan and schedule to get it all done in time," Rori smirked as she slouched farther in her seat.

"Good," Dave nodded as he rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"So how did the child abduction case go?"

"We found the boy just past the twenty-four hour mark," Dave sighed. "He's alive and in his parents arms once more," he told her. He knew from experience what it was like to lose your child for a moment. The panic you feel is like no other feeling in the world.

Thomas Wilkes was abducted from his front yard. His parents were frantic and had been fast to contact the police. This largely contributed to the BAU's success in finding the eight year old boy. He had been grabbed by a family friend, and Seaver had quickly caught on to him during an interview. Rossi had come to the conclusion that the cadet was on her way to becoming a decent profiler.

"That' fantastic," Rori said.

Dave stood up. "Let's go get some dinner. Does Phoenix Garden sound okay?"

"Chinese sounds perfect after a long day of lectures," Rori moaned.

Dave pulled out his wallet and checked to make sure everything was in order. "I let the dogs out early since I had gotten home before you."

"Cool, I'm sure they appreciate it."

The Rossi's had three dogs. Mudgie, the oldest, was a brown Labrador. Perfect for hunting at the lake and a perfect friend of man. Zenzen, or Zen, as Rori had later shortened it, was a Shiba Inu with lots of energy and a playful air crammed into orange fur and curled tail. Chouchou, or Chou, was an Akita and the most docile of Rori's dogs.

Zen and Chou had been graduation gifts, and they were a strong indicator that family members should discuss all potential gifts before actually buying them. However, Rori loved the two dogs to death and they spent their nights on her bed, and provided moral support after a long day.

Rori gave her dad a hug before skipping out of his office. He rolled his eyes and shook his head, but smiled nonetheless. He quietly mused about the last nine months with Rori.

Rori had originally believed that her mother, Christine, had died in a car crash. After two months of living with Dave though, she had come to find out that it was a clever lie. During a trip to Scotland, Rori and her mother had been kidnapped by serial killers. Rori had managed to escape, but Christine hadn't been so lucky.

Kate had lied to Rori after she realized that the teen had not recollection of the Scotland trip. After discovering some inconsistencies with Rori's injuries from a 'car accident', Hotch and Rossi decided to look into the small vacation. They broke the news to Rori shortly after finding out that Christine had been murdered.

One of the serial killers had 'fallen in love' with Rori, and came to the United States to make her love him back. Just before the start of the school year, Collin MacGregor had kidnapped Rori and kept her locked in a room for two weeks.

Dave had been racked with worry, but in the end he had been able to hug Rori for the first time since he found out about her. That day he made a promise to himself, to be there when his daughter needed him.

On Rori's eighteenth birthday, while interviewing a foreign humanitarian, she had been abducted a third time. This time she ended up in a three day coma at the end of the day.

Notwithstanding, this series of unfortunate events had only brought Rori and Dave closer together. They made dinner together, did the household chores together, and in general, made time for the other.

Dave locked the front door and turned to find Rori sitting on the hood of her car. "Your car or mine?" she asked.

Dave rolled his eyes again, but smiled. "We'll take yours," he said.

Rori grinned and slid off the silver car. She unlocked the doors before tossing the keys to her dad. He caught them in one hand. "You can drive," she said as she opened the passenger side door.

"Okay, but you have to drive home," Dave said.

"Okie dokie," Rori chirped as she slipped into the passenger seat.

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Author's Note: Well, I think that this is a great start to a new story. Certainly better than the others I've written. I wanted to write this chapter as an introduction. Something that sets it up for all the adventures to come in this one. I sense many laughs on my part for this story, so I hope you all like it as well.

Drop me a review telling me what you think of the beginning of Rossi and Rori's new adventure. I love hearing from you and I'm going to continue with the shout outs. So please look for your names in the next chapter.

Ja ne.

Shane