KATHARINE ABSOLUTELY HATE THE FACT THAT SHE HAD TO SIT OUT ON A CASE. After being called to the Avenger's Compound following the case involving methanol, Katharine was told that she would be needed for an entire week.

What made matters worse was that her team was investigating a case in the same town as she was in, though they didn't know that. Of course, every time she's called away to do Tony's bidding, she's not allowed to tell them where exactly she's gone.

She'd been allowed to let one person know, and she used that allowance on Spencer. After all, he was her emergency contact if anything were to go wrong. Not that anything usually would, working for Tony Stark didn't exactly mean putting her life on the line each time she made a visit.

"Sorry, Hotch," she had apologized, her phone pressed to her ear as she oversaw the trainees on base. Though the idea of becoming another person's SO made her sick to her stomach, she had been assured that she'd only be responsible for training this time around. "Mr. Stark has got me out in Oregon."

It never felt good, lying to someone that trusted her, but it was necessary. The government liaison job was utter bullshit first off. The only thing she'd done even remotely related to the title was holding a press conference in Tony's name. And even then, it was completely unrelated from the government and any of its dealings.

Hotch had understood. He told Katharine not to worry, that they'd be able to handle this case without her. He also said something that was becoming more commonplace in their phone conversations. He had told her to be safe, to which she always replied, "I always am."

She knew it was more for his state of mind than actually care about her wellbeing. He knew that she could handle herself.

And now, a week later, she was still in Upstate New York while she watched the news coverage detailing the events of the case that the BAU had managed to solve. It was a miracle, they'd apprehended the unsub and rescued a victim, though to Katharine it seemed the victim had managed to save herself.

Good for her, Katharine thought to herself as she packed away her belongings. She had told Spencer to text her when they were headed back so she could time her departure around their arrival at the BAU.

There was a knock on her door, to which she replied, come in, while shoving a pair of pants into her suitcase.

"Hey," Nina greeted, holding a tablet between her fingers and a headset wrapped around her head. Katharine heard the door close which told her this was more than just a goodbye.

"What's up?" she asked, zipping up her case. She sat on her bed and patted the spot next to her, inviting her friend to sit.

Nina sat down, crossing her legs as she placed herself more in the middle of the standard-issue twin bed. Katharine crossed her legs as well, turning so that she was facing her friend fully. She observed as the usually peppy and excitable woman barely even smiled. Nina pressed a few icons on her screen before passing the device over to Katharine.

"No," she said, her eyes widening in disbelief. "There's no way..."

"There is," Nina said, sighing heavily. "He's back and in DC."

Katharine zoomed in on the photo, taken from a shitty security camera from outside of a bank. He looked rougher than he did all those years ago but considering the circumstances, she figured he would.

"Have you contacted the JTF team that was originally assigned to him?" Katharine asked, handing Nina her tablet back. The brunette shook her head, shutting the device off.

"I figured you'd want to hear about it first," she said, messing with the mouthpiece of the headset. "Plus, you never came in contact with any of the original JTF members. You just dealt with the HYDRA dealers he just so happened to stumble upon."

"No, remember that one... Uh, Lyle Rogers? He caught me sneaking out of the Hydra base to meet with Doyle," Katharine said, rubbing her forehead.

"I doubt he remembers you," Nina tried to comfort her partner. "You talked to him for what? Two minutes, tops?"

"And then I got shot twice and had to work as a preschool teacher," Katharine said, crossing her arms over her chest. She sighed again. "Do you have any information on the original JTF members? Their real information, not their fake."

"I can get it," Nina said. "Kat... What are we gonna do? If he's here, he's probably after something."

"Or someone," Katharine said darkly, standing from the bed. "For now, we lay low. After all, Mabel Knight is dead. We have nothing to worry about."

"Are you gonna tell your team?"

Katharine checked her phone as it vibrated, Spencer had texted to let her know they were heading back to the BAU. She sighed, typing a quick response before pocketing her device.

"For now, no," she said, lifting her suitcase off her bed. "But if that changes, I'll let you know."

"HOW WAS OREGON?"

The weekend had passed quickly. Katharine had spent the two days off in bed for the most part. She had nearly slept all day Saturday, but Spencer had woken her up with the promise of waffles and the ability to watch all eight Harry Potter movies despite the fact that he later admitted he would have much rather spent the time watching Doctor Who or Star Trek.

"Let's just say that being on a loan to Tony Stark is not as fun as it sounds," Katharine said, settling into her seat at the round table. "How'd it go with the last case?"

"It was fine, caught the unsub, saved the girl," Derek shrugged. "Reid said you didn't get home until late on Friday."

Katharine rolled her eyes. She took a sip of her coffee, which was still hot thanks to the new travel mug Tony had gifted her after blowing her old one up.

"Since when were you my mother?" she asked, glaring at her cousin.

"Since you failed to show up for this last case," he argued, crossing his arms. "First Prentiss, now you. What's going on, Katharine?"

She furrowed her eyes. Emily was acting strange? That definitely was news to her.

"Nothing," she finally said. "Absolutely nothing is going on. I just had a long weekend. In fact, if you want to hear about it, I'm sure Spencer could tell you everything we did. I mean, he does have an eidetic memory and--"

"Okay!" Derek panicked, holding his hands up in surrender, "okay. I do not need to know what my baby cousin and the kid genius get up to, thank you very much!"

Katharine snickered into her mug. If there was one way to get Derek Morgan off her back, any talk of her sex life would do it. To him, she was still that ten-year-old girl that didn't have a clue about the world and how it worked.

"Let's get started," Hotch said, entering the room. The atmosphere change was automatic, the dynamic in the room changing from a bunch of friends catching up after the weekend to the serious and professional coworkers they were.

"Ok," Garcia said, taking up her remote. "Ten-year-old Sammy Sparks of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, showed up at his elementary school this morning covered in blood. When police got to his house, they found that his parents, Charlie and Alison Sparks, were missing."

Katharine's good mood for the day dropped as she read up on their latest case. She knew what it felt like to lose a parent at a young age, but to lose them both? Sammy would have a hard time growing up without both of his parents.

"Well, forensics indicates that at least one of them was injured, and by the looks of it, it was pretty severe," Derek said, looking at the crime scene photos. Katharine looked up at the big screen, grimacing at the sight of the blood decorating the Sparks home.

"Has there been a ransom demand?" Emily asked, looking up from her tablet in concern.

"There's been no communication whatsoever."

Rossi gave Garcia a look of confusion. "Then why call in the BAU?"

"New Orleans is hoping we can interview Sammy," Hotch explained.

"No one's talked to the witness yet?" Spencer asked, looking up from the document he was reading. Katharine furrowed her brows, overlooking the information once more.

"I don't understand," she said, scrolling through the initial report. "If Sammy was covered with blood, there's a good chance he could identify the unsub. Unless..."

"Yes," Hotch said, catching on to what Katharine was insinuating. "Sammy's autistic. Getting him to tell us what happened isn't gonna be easy."

Katharine looked back at the family portrait displayed on their screens with a frown. They talked a bit more about the case but ultimately wrapped up the briefing as soon as it started.

Katharine got up from her spot at the table, gathering all her items in her arms. She made her way back to her desk and checked to make sure her go-bag was set and prepped. Once she was sure that was all good, she checked her phone or anything from Nina.

They'd talked once over the weekend and the Puerto Rican woman essentially told her the same thing that she had before Katharine left. There was no new news about Doyle and his whereabouts, though Nina told her to err on the side of caution. Katharine took her advice and told her friend to stay safe as well.

They'd ended the call there due to Spencer coming into the gym to let her know dinner was ready and Katharine had hung up with a smile on her face.

She wouldn't make it a bigger deal than it was but that didn't mean she wouldn't protect her family if that's what it came down to. And Katharine wasn't known for hesitating.

"GOOD MORNING, ANGELS," Garcia greeted them over the video call. "New information to report. The blood at the crime scene matched type to Charlie Sparks, so we can assume that he is the injured party."

"Well, shell casings by the door says he was shot," Derek said, viewing the crime scene photos. "Are we looking at a robbery gone wrong?"

"No robber would break into a family residence before the start of school and not expect to find people home," Emily said, shaking her head.

"No, I think he came for Charlie and Alison Sparks," Hotch said, also refuting Derek's ideas. "He planned the abduction and then gained entry to the house."

"But the scene is frenzied, disorganized," Rossi said, zooming in on the pictures. "He didn't think it through."

"So why'd our unsub do this?" Katharine asked. "Think, what's the number one motive of kidnapping?"

"Financial gain," Spencer answered her easily, handing her a bottle of water. She thanked him and broke the plastic seal, chugging about half the bottle before setting it down. Derek eyed the water bottle before looking back up at her.

"What?" she said, lifting the bottle. "I was thirsty."

She heard Garcia laugh, attracting her attention back to the bright and bubbly woman on the screen.

"Well, if financial gain is the case, they are barking up the wrong money tree," she filled them in, reading off of the monitors in front of her. "The family runs a music store that's been Sparks owned since the nineteen-forties, but business is down and a loan against the house is the only thing keeping that store afloat."

"And this area was devastated by the oil spill," Emily said, reading from her tablet. She put the device down and took up Katharine's water bottle, finishing it off. Katharine blinked, looking between Emily and Spencer as a kind of, 'What just happened?' moment.

"A little bit of money would go a long way here so that puts everyone on the Sparks' contact list as a suspect," Emily finished, crushing the water bottle before tossing it into her bag, giving Katharine a wink.

Katharine put the back of her hand to her forehead and fanned herself a bit, acting every bit the Southern Belle she knew she was.

"Oh, my," she said, letting the accent slip onto her lips as easily as if she were slipping on a coat. "I do think that I've found myself a wife."

The team laughed around them, except for Spencer who draped his arms over the back and Katharine's chair, wrapping his arms across her shoulders.

"You better watch out, boy genius," Derek chortled. "Looks like you've got competition."

And as serious as this case was, even Hotch couldn't resist laughing at the joke. Katharine reached up and laid a kiss on Spencer's cheek.

"C'mon," she said, pushing his glasses back up his nose. He had opted to wear his glasses on the flight, saying he would put in his contacts when they landed. "You know you're the only one for me, pretty boy."

"Oh, yeah?" he asked leaning down to press a kiss to her lips despite Derek's overtly loud protests. Katharine flipped him off before separating from her boyfriend. She glanced sideways at Hotch who had his head turned slightly. She grinned. The plane was like Vegas, and most of the time, you didn't talk about what happened in Vegas.