Show: Criminal Minds I have no rights to this it's just fun.

Blindsided

Chapter One

(Derek Morgan's voice as the plane descends into a snowy airport)

"Someone once said that things happen when you least expected them to. As we go though life not really knowing what we expect you do find that when you least expect nothing, something may be there waiting."

"A Ranger found her body on a routine search of the area before it closed up for the winter." Jennifer "JJ" Jareau looked at the file in front of her. "She's the most recent of the four bodies found in the Sierra foothills since spring. All in various stages of decomp. With the weather so unpredictable it's hard to send search parties up any farther then the tree line."

"Not much police presents that far into the wilderness is there?" Dr. Spencer Reed asked.

"Actually there's a team out of Lake Tahoe that specializes in high altitude search and rescue. Thirteen men and woman trained in all aspects of law enforcement including crime scene investigation. These people are more qualified then some of our agents to run an investigation."

"A bunch of ski bums?" Derek Morgan laughed. A bodiless voice radiated from the speaker in front of him.

"Laugh will you but I ran a check on these guys. Most were military of some sort and a few were trained by Quantico. The head honcho up there is one Matthew Hawkes. His background alone puts some FBI agents to shame. His brother Cody served time in Iraq with Special Forces. And there's one Jessie Lynne Hawkes who's clearance has been higher the Hotch's." Penelope Garcia, computer wiz piped in. "Must be a family affair up there."

"Mountain people tend to stick together." Morgan gaffed. David Rossi shook his head.

"I know their father. He started the Rangers when he got back from Vietnam. Even if those three were working on what their father taught them I would say they're a crack investigating team. Jesse Hawkes is a legend in those mountain and his kids are not too far behind. Jesse Lynne worked Secret Service for the Clinton administration. She led teams into Afghanistan after that."

"So what we're trying to convey here is that the investigation wasn't compromised by lack of inability or inexperience." Aaron Hotchner the head of the team intervened. "JJ continue."

"Four woman with different back grounds. One was a nurse. One a dancer. Another worked as a dealer at a casino in Tahoe. The last one, the most recent was a private detective from L.A."

"No one reported these women missing?" Spencer asked.

"No. None had families and friends seem to think they went on vacation or sabbaticals."

"Casino dealers go on sabbaticals?" Morgan questioned.

"All four woman were not do back to there perspective lives till spring." JJ raised her eyebrows. "They all seemed to leave the grid. Reports say they can't rule out accidents in any of the four cases but evidence does warrant a look into it. I talked to Jesse Lynne Hawkes and if these women went hiking up that mountain by themselves she found it hard to believe." Emily Prentes had been quietly reading the file in front of her.

"No woman with their backgrounds would climb a mountain alone. For a man yes. But never by themselves." She looked up. "None of them have even a gym membership."

"Do they think that there are more women out there?" Reed voiced what everyone was thinking.

"They have fifteen helicopters searching while the weather is still good but after the end of September things get dicey up there." JJ closed her file. "Thirteen of the most highly trained law enforcement officers have been combing that mountain day and night for weeks and not even a third of the ground has been covered. Matthew Hawkes asked for our help. They've exhausted their resources. He even dragged his father out of retirement."

"Okay then lets hope there's no more bodies and an unsub waiting to get busted." Morgan looked at his file and shook his head. He hated the cold. Worse yet he hated hicks. They knew nothing of how to run an investigation. This ought to be a big waste of his time and the BAU's.