13 years. That’s how long you didn’t see it. You didn’t realize it. You didn’t see the signs. For 13 long years. It had been coming up on your 14th birthday when police had knocked on your door, breaking the news that your dad had killed 27 women.

After that, your happy family broke apart. Your brother became more withdrawn, and your mom got on drugs and alcohol. It wasn’t long until your brother picked up smoking and, eventually, drugs as well. They claimed it helped mask the pain. At one point, even you’d picked up on smoking. But, as if it was out of nowhere, something in you changed. You got up and you looked in the mirror, seeing yourself and hating how much of your father you saw in your features.

You had such bittersweet feelings towards him. On one hand, he was a murderer. But he was also your dad. It’s not like he was a bad one, either. He was a great dad, a great husband. He’d never laid a hand on any of you… But those women

It was that day where you looked at yourself in that mirror, and told yourself, no. No, you would not let your father’s actions dictate your future. You were going to pull yourself together, and you were going to help catch people like him. For those women. You were going to join the FBI.

You worked your ass off, studying, graduating, getting into college, graduating from there. You were determined to get out. You were able to quit smoking as well. No more of that, you promised yourself. And one day, it happened. You got accepted into the Academy. After finishing the Academy and being one of the best cadets in your groups, you, at 26 years old, joined the BAU.

The unit chief, Aaron Hotchner, introduced you to your new team. Immediately, they recognized your last name. His last name. You saw the shocked expressions on their faces, saw them studying you. Everyone when you were growing up, before the incident, had always told you how much you looked like your father. And they’d been right. And you could tell the team saw the same similarities in you.

But, no matter what they thought, you were nothing like your father. And you were determined to prove that to them.