A/N – so this is a reposting, this was my first story posted on here but I deleted it a while ago and after some prompting from some people I thought that I'd re-work it slightly and repost it.

Chapter 1 - Missing

These cases were always the worst. Children. Children who had been taken, abused, dumped...murdered.

The team had been in Pittsburgh for seven days, three days ago they had been joined by Garcia in a vain attempt to not only solve the case but also to boost the teams morale as they hunted the unsub who had killed three girls aged between 8 to 12, all had blonde hair and blue eyes, all snatched from parks around the city. The trail had gone cold, parents keeping their children locked safely in their houses, unwilling to leave them alone for even a second. It had just gone past 9am as the team convened at the local police station, JJ had headed straight to sit with the local detectives and listen in on the phone calls that had come through to the hot line the previous evening as Reid and Garcia sat together at her laptop narrowing down the geographic profile. Morgan, Rossi and Prentiss were sitting at the table in the conference room, re-reading the files once again as Emily lifted up her gaze and looked out of the window, catching a glimpse of Hotch as he talked on his phone, his brow furrowed as he paced around. Quickly Emily tried to regain her concentration and stared back at the file in front of her.

"He's trying to keep us here."

Emily raised an eyebrow as Rossi spoke, she went to speak but Rossi beat her to it.

"Strauss wants us back, according to her the case has gone cold and we need to leave the profile with the locals and head back home."

Emily felt her anger boil up as she threw down the file, the photos of the three dead girls spilling out over the table.

"Strauss should try telling the parents of these girls that!"

"Funnily enough I said exactly the same thing."

Hotch looked at Emily as he walked back into the room, the exasperation evident on his face.

"But I only got us another 48 hours."

Emily shook her head as she sucked in her bottom lip, she had had to interview the parents of the dead girls and to say it was an unpleasant experience would be an understatement, Emily bowed her head down as she shuffled the photos back into the file, not noticing JJ until she heard her friend speak.

"I think we may have another girl missing!"

JJ's voice stuttered as she walked into the conference room to tell the others.

"What are the details?"

Hotch suddenly lifted his head, frowning as he listened to JJ.

"Katherine Stanley, her school teacher rang the hot line as she hasn't been in school all week. The school tried contacting her foster parents but got no response. Here's her photo and you can see why her school teacher rang the hot line."

JJ walked over to the board and pinned up the photo, showing a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes, a faint smile adorned her face.

"Katherine is 9 years old, lives with foster parents who also have 3 other foster children all boys aged 10, 11 & 13. Local police have been to the house and spoken to the foster parents but they said that she has a history of running away and will probably turn up when she is hungry."

"Aren't they a little bit concerned?"

Emily raised her voice, the frustration of the case getting to her as she failed to understand at a time when every other parent was monitoring their child's every move, Katherine's foster parents were seemingly unconcerned about the young girl's disappearance.

"Apparently not and according to Katherine's teacher she hasn't missed a day of school at all this year which completely contrasts with the foster parent's statement."

JJ sighed as she sat down and waited for Hotch to decide on the next course of action.

"Ok something is not right here, it may be completely unrelated to our case but I am not going to run the risk. Prentiss and Morgan you go and speak to the foster family, Reid and Rossi go and speak to the teacher. Garcia can you dig up all you can find on the girl?"

The team all nodded, silently accepting their tasks as they stood up to carry them out.

It didn't take long for Garcia to find out some basic background information on the young girl and she quickly emailed the details to the team.

Katherine Stanley, born to Richard and Claire Stanley, raised in Pittsburgh, Katherine had a normal childhood with no medical/psychological issues until last year when her parents were killed by a fire in their house. Katherine escaped with a few minor burns and smoke inhalation. After a short stay in hospital she started to get bumped from foster home to foster home until 4 weeks ago when she was moved to stay with Mr and Mrs Ainsley.

Emily read the email out loud as Morgan drove along the suburban road, she pocketed the phone back away before she turned and angrily looked at Morgan.

"If she has only been there for 4 weeks how can they say that she has a history of running away?"

"Ok Prentiss calm down, we're here now let's just see what we can find out ok?"

"Ok Morgan, sorry it's just this..."

"I know its kids."

Two hours later the team were back in the conference room at the local police station ready to discuss their findings, Prentiss stood up and walked around to the board.

"There is no way that that girl has run away. She didn't take a bag, any clothes, or the photo of her parents."

"Prentiss is right, by the look of Katherine's bedroom someone has also been abusing her, the sheets and mattress were stained."

"Well Morgan that fits in with what the school teacher said. Apparently Katherine was doing fine in spite of what had happened to her parents up until a month ago when she became extremely quiet and withdrawn. The teacher tried to talk to her but to no avail."

Rossi looked at Hotch after he had finished.

"Ok, Morgan and Prentiss go and pick up the foster dad and bring him here for an interview. Don't tell him anything just say we need his help with something."

Morgan nodded as he looked at Emily, both of them anxious to get out and bring Mr Ainsley back to be questioned, if he wasn't the unsub he was certainly guilty of the neglect and abuse of his foster daughter.

Kate opened her eyes but only one fully opened, the other was too badly bruised. The dark room didn't help her to establish her surroundings and as she tried to move her body she soon discovered that her wrists had been cuffed to the hard metal bed she was sat on. There were no tears falling from her eyes, all that she had been subjected to in the last four weeks had hardened her, there was no escape, no one to come and save her. Kate focused on the photos that adorned the wall opposite her, she recognised the three girls from their pictures on the television and newspapers, it was in that minute that Kate knew that she was going to die there and nobody would even know or care.