This morning,
When Bruce came to the office,
He looked at the empty space,
He was stunned. Other than the two parents, the technician, and the liaison, who had separate offices,
The other people's desks were in the same hall.
"Meggen, what day is it today?" Bruce was wearing a Bluetooth headset in his left ear.
"Thursday,
Sir. "A childish female voice came from the headset.
Meggen was the name the Red Queen had given herself,
Because the name Red Queen was very recognizable in the hacker community,
She was still their suspect,
Bruce planned to avoid this name,
He wanted to use the name Alicia, but the Red Queen objected,
Saying that she wanted her name to be Meggen.
Although to make the Red Queen's behavior closer to that of a human and not a cold machine,
In the interactive interaction module, she was given a lot of authority, allowing her to update the database of human language, expression, and other behavior patterns as well as modify her own behavior patterns. However, this was the first time Bruce had seen the Red Queen raise an objection.
Bruce was surprised,
But the name was a trivial matter,
He didn't care about this at all. He even vaguely hoped to distinguish her from the Red Queen Alicia who had accompanied him in many derivative worlds,
So he immediately agreed.
But why was there no one on Thursday,
It wasn't a holiday, and work hours were coming up soon. Bruce looked around,
He found Morgan in Rossi's office,
He thought for a moment,
When he came to Garcia's office, he was surprised to find that JJ and Prentiss were not inside, but Reid was.
"Good morning, I was shocked to find no one in the hall when I came. I thought you guys didn't inform me that today was a holiday," Bruce said to the two of them with a smile.
"You still want a holiday? I just pray that the serial killer doesn't work overtime for us. " Garcia sat with her back to the computer and facing the door. She saw Bruce at a glance. Reid, who was opposite her, also turned around and greeted him.
Bruce saw two boxes on Garcia's desk. He walked forward to take a look. The top box was filled with candies, and the bottom was filled with cookies. "Penelope, are these your creations?" He asked as he opened the boxes, wanting to give them a try.
"No, no, no. Don't move. This is for Hotch." Garcia walked up and pushed Bruce's hand away. Then, he closed the box. "I didn't make it. I have a friend who owns a dessert shop. I forgot how to make desserts a long time ago."
"Aha, the same treatment. I also wanted to try the taste of that cookie." Reid said gloatingly as he gestured at the candy in his hand. "We can only taste the candy." He then said to Garcia, "You should know that Hotch hates attention."
"It's only a cookie, not a cake. Also, Hotch is back at work. He should do something. " Garcia put the box of cookies aside. "Do you think he'll be fine after a month of rest? After he was … Foyet. "
Bruce was silent. He thought back to last night. After hearing the news, he had been a little angry and had knocked on the door of Hotch's apartment next door.
After a while, the door opened. "Jones?" Hotch stood by the door with a puzzled expression.
"You're coming back to work tomorrow?" Bruce's voice was a little low. He seemed to be suppressing some emotions.
"Yes." Hotch seemed to understand why he was there. He opened the door and turned to walk inside. "Come in and talk."
Looking at Hotch's calm expression, Bruce was a little discouraged. He followed Hotch in. He understood that Hotch had already made up his mind and it was difficult for him to change it. "But your injury …" However, he was unwilling to not stop him.
"My injury is fine now. I've passed the psychological evaluation. The bureau has approved my reinstatement report. Are there any other questions?" The room was a little dark. Hotch sat at the glass table in the living room and picked up a stack of papers to read. There was a lamp on the table and it was full of things.
"I …" Bruce also walked to the table and saw Foyet's photo on the table. There was an open file with Foyet's name on it. The table was full of Foyet's information.
Bruce didn't know what to say. He knew that as long as Foyet wasn't caught, Hotch would still live in torment. He couldn't see Haley and Jack. He would often think about what Foyet did to him that night in this very place. Even if his physical injuries were healed, the wound in his heart would still bleed.
However, there was nothing he could do. Even if he spent all his savings to buy a few high-performance computers in the house next door to Hotch to increase Red Queen's processing power, allowing Red Queen to hack into the traffic surveillance system and expand the real-time monitoring range to the entire state of Virginia, there was still no trace of Foyet.
He simply sat down and picked up Foyet's information to read, from his life to every case he committed, hoping to learn more about this criminal and increase the possibility of arresting him, even if it was just the slightest bit.
"You're saying PTSD?" Reid's words caught Bruce's attention. "PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, refers to a mental disorder that occurs after an individual experiences, witnesses, or encounters one or more actual deaths, threats of death, serious injuries, or threats to the integrity of one's body, which leads to a delayed and persistent mental disorder in an individual. I'm not sure if Hotch — "
"We seem to have a new case. Are you sure you want to chat here?" Bruce interrupted Reid. He saw JJ walking over.
He didn't want to hear their discussion on this topic at all. Bruce thought that maybe it was a good thing that Hotch came back to work. At least this way, Hotch wouldn't focus all his attention on Foyet.
But it didn't take Bruce long to overturn this idea.
In their new case, the murderer went on a killing spree in a pharmacy for no reason and then disappeared without a trace. As the investigation of the case deepened, they found that the murderer was a survivor of an unsolved child slaughter case. For many years, he had been taking sedatives to get rid of the tragic scenes of the past. He was a mental patient, but now that the murderer had stopped taking the drugs, the past returned to his mind. He began to search for the truth of the past.
The case was very clear. They only needed to hunt down the murderer who had disappeared. The murderer could no longer distinguish between reality and memory. He kidnapped a boy and thought he was a friend of the victim.
When the police planned to track down the murderer, Hotch objected. He thought that they shouldn't follow the murderer because they might never catch him. Instead, they should analyze the murderer's intentions through the murderer's past and catch him before he did.
"If we studied Foyet's early crimes, we should know that there can't be any survivors," Hotch said.
"What does this have to do with this case?" Prentiss was puzzled.
"We should have checked Foyet's history, but we didn't. Two couples and a car full of people were killed. I won't make the same mistake again. "
Bruce understood that Hotch wanted to save the kidnapped child. However, whether it was Foyet's case or the current one, they had already done their part. If they had discovered that Foyet wouldn't have left behind any survivors, they would have arrested Foyet. Indeed, there wouldn't have been any victims after that. However, they weren't gods. How could they deduce everything from such a small clue?
Hotch felt that he had made a mistake. He even took a risk to save the boy in the case. He did not wear any protection or weapons and went to talk to the murderer alone.
Although the result was good and they saved the boy, Bruce, who could only watch from the side, was furious. However, he also felt sad. Hotch put his own life on the line. Did he think that he had nothing to lose after Haley and Jack were taken away? Or …
"Do you think that Foyet has won because you can't watch Jack grow up while you're alive? And if you're dead and Foyet can't torture anyone else, you've won?" As soon as Bruce returned to the apartment, he knocked on the door next door angrily. "But why don't you think about it? I found him, I mocked him, I caught him. The person he should hate the most is me, but why did he hurt you?"
If you live in torment, I'll be hurt. If you die, I'll be hurt too, much worse.
Bruce had long regretted not killing Foyet back then. Now, he almost hated himself for not killing Foyet.
Hotch had just opened the door to let Bruce in. He was walking to the table in the living room when he heard Bruce. He turned around and looked at Bruce. "Who are you to say this to me? Or should I thank you for … your love for putting me through all this? Do you know how I feel? " He was still wearing his work suit, and when he said this, he looked serious and unapproachable.
Bruce seemed to have lost all his strength in an instant. He leaned against the closed door. The question that he had never thought about and dared not think about was suddenly placed in front of him.
"I'm sorry, I wish he hurt me." However, Bruce knew how weak his words were.
"I'm just … too scared. If you're not here, I don't know what I'll do. "
"Really, really, I'm so sorry …" Faced with the silent Hotch, Bruce did not dare look at Hotch's face. He was almost running away.
Back in his apartment, Bruce stood in front of the bathroom mirror and calmly took off his shirt.
He really should know how Hotch felt. Although his experience had made him accustomed to wounds, he would not be in as much pain as Hotch.
Bruce took out a new dagger. He avoided the arteries and organs and calmly stabbed his chest.
One, two, three …
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