Morgan, Reid and Prentiss were joking about something when JJ breezed through the bullpen.

"We have a case, guys, and it's somewhat unusual."

All three of them got up to go to the meeting room; they were joined shortly after by Hotch, Rossi and JJ. They all sat down, except JJ, who put a picture on the wall.

"Peter Jansen, 28. He was stabbed repeatedly in the stomach and left in an alley. He's the third in a series of murders in Pittsburgh, PA. They were all out gay men and there were signs of sex prior to death. They have all been found in alleys around Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh's gay area."

"Was the sex consensual or rape?"

Prentiss looked at the file to see if she could find the answer herself.

"It appears to be consensual."

"Were they all killed the same way?"

Morgan looked at the screen as JJ put the pictures of the other two men up next to the first one, and then the crime scene photos under those.

"Yeah, all stabbed multiple times in the abdomen after what appears to be consensual sex."

"How far apart were the murders?"

JJ looked at Rossi when she answered and she expected the reaction she got.

"2 weeks in between each and the last one was 10 days ago."

"What? Why weren't we called in sooner?"

Morgan was outraged and the rest of the team seemed to share his sentiment.

"The detective in charge of the case, a Carl Horvath, told me that the entire police department is if not directly hostile to the gay community, then at least indifferent to it, and it has taken him this long to get his captain to agree to let him call us. Apparently, the only reason he agreed was to get Detective Horvath off his back."

"You would think that in this day and age people would know better. Are they still going to cooperate with us?"

Hotch looked both exasperated and disgusted with the turn of events and his expression didn't get any better when JJ answered.

"No, they won't even give us a place to work, say they have too much work of their own to bother with some random faggots dying; the captain's words, apparently."

Reid had been uncharacteristically quiet, but now, he spoke up.

"Then where are we going to work; how are we getting access to the information we need?"

"Horvath told me that he has arranged for us to work at the home of two of his family members. They apparently have a very large house with a dining room large enough for us. The whole house is wired for Wi-Fi and they even have 6 bedrooms for us to stay in. They are two gay men and are therefore interested in this case being solved; and before you ask, yes they have both been cleared of suspicion; they were out of town on two of the dates and on the third one, they were having dinner at Detective Horvath's house."

"They have 6 spare bedrooms? Wow, it must be a really large house."

Dave sounded impressed, but before JJ could answer, Reid spoke up again.

"How are we going to get all the information we need?"

"Detective Horvath is going to bring the case files to the house and he is going to be there with us. He will make sure we get the information we need."

"Alright, everybody, wheels up in 45 minutes."

Hotch was the first to get up and leave the room. He had to call Jessica, Haley's sister, to make sure she could stay with Jack.

The rest of the team filed out of the conference room to gather their go-bags and get to the airport.

Once in the air, the team looked through the file and started coming up with some theories.

"There is a lot of rage in this; look at how deep the stabs are; that takes a lot of force."

Reid nodded at Morgan.

"I agree; it's overkill, it wasn't necessary to use that much force if you just wanted to kill them; this was somehow personal."

"We'll have Garcia go through their lives to find out if they have anything in common."

JJ opened the laptop after Hotch's words and Garcia came on.

"What can I do for you, my pets?"

"Garcia, we need you to look into the lives of the victims; we need to know if they have anything in common. It seems like this guy is killing them for some kind of personal reason."

"Will do, oh fearless leader, Garcia out."

"Again, I have to remember to get her drug tested."

Hotch looked a cross between exasperated and amused and the rest of the team laughed.

They spent the rest of the time talking about the case until they landed a blissfully short while later.

They were met by Detective Horvath at the airport and they got in the two SUV's and followed his car out of the city.