A/n this follows about three years after the events in "How did this happen to me. All feedback is appreciated.

Disclaimer: I own my own original characters and nothing else. No copyright infringement is intended.

Nightmares

She was running hard, stumbling over rocks and twigs that littered the pathway through the woods. The moon was racing her as she ran, flashing white gold through the trees. Her face was continually whipped by tree branches as she forgot to push them aside.

Her breath was coming in gasps, and the stitch in her side hurt so badly she could barely stay on her feet, but she had to keep running. She had to tell someone. Fear made her strong, it pushed her on through pain of breathing and the reaching and stinging branches on her face and bare arms.

She tripped and fell flat, the pain of the skin erasing from her knees buried in the rush of adrenaline that made her get back to her feet and move forward. She had to move forward. She could feel something trickling down her legs, and she supposed it was blood from the cuts and scrapes, but her mind screamed for her to run faster.

The trees were beginning to thin and she saw headlights moving on the road in front of her. She heard the engine of the next car coming closer. If she could get to the road, she would be safe. Her breathing was heaving in and out of her chest, and it was the only thing she heard above the slap and pound of her shoes on the hard ground below her feet.

She was going to make it. The engine of the car was coming closer and she could hear the snarl of the gears changing, as the driver shifted down on the winding road. The opening in the trees was coming closer, and if she could just reach it, and get out into the open, she would be okay. He wasn't back there he wasn't following her. He couldn't be back there. She had to save herself and tell everyone what had happened.

The heaviness in her legs was beginning to slow her, but it was okay, she was nearly to the edge of the trees. The moon looked down on her and its rays lit her path as though sent by a guardian angel from above. She had been brave. She had gotten free and left that terrible place. She'd survived and a triumphant surge of joy made her legs move faster again. She reached the tree line and…

Another branch tangled in her hair and yanked her back, she could only grunt in surprise. She tried to reach up and untangle her hair, but her arms wouldn't move. It was then that her brain succeeded in telling her that someone had grabbed her, not a branch. The arms held her to the body behind her and she felt the hot breath of her pursuer on her cheek.

"No… you can't be here. Please… let me go!" She rasped her voice was so hoarse with crying and screaming she could hardly get the words to pass by her lips.

"Naughty girl," He whispered in her ear. "You know what happens to naughty girls." He yanked her back, just beyond the edge of the trees. The car she had been listening to flew by, its lights penetrating to where she'd stood, but not far enough to expose them.

"No!" Her scream was only a whisper as his arms tightened further around her, crushing into her ribs and making her moan in pain. Adrenaline wouldn't save her now.

"You'll pay just like all the others." He dragged her back into the trees and fell on her. Her voice was freed and she screamed and screamed. A knife flashed into the night silhouetted on the sky before curving down to her chest.

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He was sitting in the afternoon sun, watching the golden rays fall on the beautiful face of his little girl. She was so lovely, just like her mother. Her blond hair was shoulder length, and the sun worshipped it like a supplicant worships his goddess. Her blue eyes were large, doe eyed, and dark as the depths of the ocean.

"Dada… plays wif me." The two year old asked, toddling over to her father.

"Of course princess… what would you like to play?" He picked her up and walked over to the bench in the backyard.

The grass was green and lush under his feet. He noticed that it needed to be cut. He shrugged and smiled. His wife would be getting on him to cut it, but that was okay. He would do it another day. It was time to play with his daughter.

The bench had been built by Morgan just after the house was purchased in a new development of Arlington Virginia. It sat beneath a small arch that was painted white, and blue morning glory flowers climbed over it. There was a flowering Dogwood tree behind the arch, its white flowers swaying gently in the perfumed breeze. Morgan had told JJ that it was a sweetheart bench. There were more colorful flowers surrounding the arch and the stone path he'd laid himself, much to Morgan's surprise. Learning to lay stone had somehow calmed a part of him that had been in turmoil since Tobias Henkel had tried to destroy him. It appealed to his innate sense of order and symmetry.

"Dada… me want tick!" She reached up to play with his hair. Her little hands were soft on his head, and all the troubles of the day before fell away like ice melting and sliding from a tree branch.

"Okay… that was a dumb question. You always want magic tricks." He put her on the bench next to him and leaned over to get something from next to the arch. He kept one hand behind his back and Hope grinned up at him. JJ was always there in her little face, but that morning her smile was so much like JJ's that his heart almost broke with happiness.

"Dada do tick" His daughter demanded. Yep… she was her mother's daughter, forthright, outgoing and good natured.

"Yes… baby daddy will do the trick." He pulled his hand out from behind his back and showed her the red rose he'd plucked from the bush next to the bench. She laughed and clapped. His long fingered hands moved with a grace that he never saw himself, but that everyone around him noticed and delighted in.

He made the rose appear from behind her ear and used it to tickle her chin. She laughed and grabbed at his nose. He was looking down at her face when her expression changed; her face screwed up and went red. She began to scream, but it wasn't the kind of scream he'd ever heard from her when angry or upset.

"Hope… what's wrong honey." His voice seemed to be coming from far away.

She screamed and now her voice was older, it sounded so familiar, but he couldn't place it. "Baby girl… what's wrong." He grabbed her up in his arms, suddenly it was icy cold. He looked up and saw that the sun was gone.

There were clouds overhead that were black and pewter around the edges. The wind was beginning to pick up and blow hard. It was growing even colder, and goose bumps jumped out on his arms. Something was very wrong. He jumped to his feet and began to run to the house with his screaming daughter. She was terrified and he could feel the pounding of her little heart against his chest.

Thunder cracked from overhead and lightning flashed. He ran across the lawn, and now it was gold, and dry, and dead under his feet. Rain began to fall in levels he'd never seen before and he tried to shield Hope from it with his own body, but they were both drenched by the time he reached the back porch. Thunder sounded again and Hope was crying.

"Dada… Go bye-bye,"

Her little face was approaching purple, and he could see that she was having trouble drawing breath. He yanked open the door, and ran to the living room where he laid his soaking wet daughter on the couch.

"Dada…" He could barley hear her over the rain thumping on the roof of the house. She closed her eyes and stopped breathing.

He could still hear the screaming of the woman, it was a woman he realized, even as his own breath began to hitch.

"Hope… Wake up!" He couldn't remember CPR. How could he not remember CPR?

"Hope…"

"Spencer… Help me!" JJ was yelling. Now he knew it was her voice he'd heard. He looked to the doorway where the voice was issuing, then back to Hope. Her lips were blue, and her eyes were open and staring at him accusingly.

"Help me Spencer… please."

He couldn't go he had to remember CPR for Hope. She couldn't die. He wouldn't allow it to happen, but JJ was in trouble too.

"Spencer!"

He shot up out of sleep and heard the rain thumping on the roof. Thunder cracked loudly over head and he jumped in surprise. The storm must have incorporated itself into his dream. That's all it is, he tried to tell himself, even though his heart was still racing. He felt the bed shift and the sheet that had covered his body was pulling away. He turned to see that JJ was tossing and turning in the bed next to him. The sheets that were pulled off him, had wrapped around her like a mummy's shroud. Then she screamed, long and loud. It was the scream he'd heard in his dream. It was all a dream he said to himself again, just a dream. Hope was asleep in her crib and just fine. Then JJ screamed again and he tried desperately to shake her awake.

"JJ… Wake up baby!" His heart was trying to throw itself out of his chest. He just wanted to be sure that JJ and Hope were okay. "Come on sweetheart… wake up… please!" He begged.

Her eyes finally flew open and stared up into his. "Spence…" She struggled out of the sheets that had wound around her slender body, and jumped into his arms. She was trembling all over.

"Honey… what -"

"It was him!" She sobbed. "Why won't he leave me alone?" She pulled back and looked up at him with the large blue eyes that he loved.

"Shh… it's okay!"

"No it's not… I was so scared. He was coming after me again." She went back into his arms and put her head on his chest. Their hearts beat fast for a long time as they held onto each other. Finally both their hearts slowed, and synchronized to a slow and steady rhythm that always existed between them.

"Why won't he leave me alone?" She asked into his chest.

He was going to answer her when Hope began to cry. His heart began to speed up again. What if that terrible dream wasn't a dream, and someone or something was hurting her. He untangled himself from JJ's arms and got out of bed. He grabbed his robe and rushed out of the room while putting it on.

"Spence… What's wrong baby?"

She' gotten out of bed and was running to catch up with him. He ignored her and hurried down the hallway to Hope's nursery. The door was open about halfway. He didn't like to leave her with a closed door. What if he didn't hear her at night? JJ teased him unmercifully about this, but he didn't care. She was his to protect and it didn't matter that she didn't come from his DNA; he loved her like he'd never loved anyone else in his life.

She was standing up in her crib, and it struck him how big she was getting. She was nearly three, and it was time to get her a little bed to sleep in. She saw him enter the room, the light at his back and she held out her little arms.

"Dada…" she gasped. He picked her up and JJ came up beside him. "Hey pretty girl… what's wrong?" she asked their daughter.

"Mama… I scared." Large tears were running down her red and blotchy face. She sniffed and laid her head on Spencer's shoulder.

"Oh sweetie… it's okay." She laid a hand on Hope's forehead and sighed with relief when she felt that it was cool.

"She's okay." She said to Reid who smiled down at his daughter.

"Mama and Daddy are here. You're okay now." He stroked a hand over her silky hair and Hope stuck her thumb in her mouth.

It had taken them sometime to break her from sucking her thumb, but if storm was frightening her, he wasn't going to make her stop. In fact, he kind of wanted to curl up in a corner and suck on his thumb. It was okay though, they were all awake and they were all okay.

He started to lift her back into the crib, but she began to cry again. "No Dada… go wif Dada and Mama…"

"Honey… its okay I promise." He told her.

She shook her head and wailed. "Go wif Dada pwease!"

He looked helplessly at his wife and she nodded her head. "I think staying together is the best thing to do. We're all a little shook up. We'll worry about bad precedent later." She always knew what he was thinking. He was the one that was supposed to be the profiler, but he couldn't ever fool her.

"Okay baby girl… let's go to sleep."

Hope smiled through her tears and clasped him tighter around his neck. They took her back to their room and eventually all three of them got back to sleep.

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The sheriff met up with Officer Baker at the edge of Allegheny National Park. It was eleven am and his man had said that is was a bad one.

"What have we got Baker?"

The man in front of him had been on the force for ten years. He was no rookie, but his face was green and he was sweating profusely.

"I hope you didn't contaminate the crime scene." He said testily. "Show me what they found." He gestured to the two hikers who were huddled together. The woman was sobbing into the man's shoulder and the man looked like he'd swallowed a fly.

"T-they were w-walking the trail and they f-found her just lying in the m-middle of the path."

"Pull yourself together Baker." He let the younger man lead him to the body. The flies were already gathered in buzzing swarms over what was left of the woman in front of him. The smell was incredible. He'd been a detective for twenty five years, but he'd only ever seen anything like this once before.

"God Damn it!" He exclaimed, while looking at her. He bent closer, ignoring the choking sound of his officer trying to keep down whatever was left in his stomach. He looked at the pattern of the wounds on her face and the fact that her hands were gone, and his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He got up from the crouch he had adopted and turned to Baker.

"Do something useful and get the FBI on the phone. We need the BAU out here now!"