"Justice doesn't clean the blood off your hands. It just teaches you how to live with the stain." —Gideon
Quantico, Virginia – BAU Headquarters – 8:12 AM
The storm had passed.
Ash was in custody. The team was back under one roof. But the quiet wasn't peace—it was the kind of silence that came after a landslide, where everyone waited to see what might shift next.
Jason sat alone in the briefing room, eyes unfocused as he stared at an open file. Not Ash's. Not his own.
It was the summons.
FEDERAL ETHICS COMMITTEE HEARING – URGENT
Subject: Agent Jason Cole, BAU
Closed Session – National Security Designation
He read it again, though he'd memorized every word the night before.
Garcia entered without knocking, a rare deviation from her usual flare.
"I tried to delay it," she said, placing a coffee beside him. "Pulled every string I had and maybe two I wasn't supposed to touch."
Jason gave a faint smile. "I know."
"They're saying it's routine," she added. "Standard post-operation review. But come on—when do they ever pull the entire team in for a review unless they're looking for something to bury?"
Jason looked down at the black ink of the summons.
"They want to know if I belong," he said quietly.
Garcia touched his shoulder. "No. They want to prove you don't. And we're not going to let them."
Federal Ethics Hearing – D.C. – 10:03 AM
The room was gray. That was the first thing Reid noticed. The walls, the table, the chairs. All gray. Clinical. Designed to make you question your certainty.
Jason sat at the far end of a long, steel conference table. The committee—three stern-faced officials from internal oversight, the Bureau's ethics division, and an unnamed liaison from national defense—watched him like wolves who'd finally cornered the injured lion.
Hotch, JJ, and Reid were seated behind him as observers. Morgan and Gideon waited in a separate chamber, scheduled to be called later.
The lead interrogator, a woman named Davenport, adjusted her glasses and began.
"Agent Cole. You've served in black operations under multiple classified designations. You've been embedded, vanished, reactivated, and transferred into a civilian federal unit despite your record containing gaps and omissions. Why do you believe you belong here?"
Jason's voice was level. "Because the world I lived in doesn't go away when you close the file. It bleeds into this one."
"You mean violence?" she asked, pen poised.
"I mean the people who create it. Who disguise it. Who weaponize others to do it for them." He looked her straight in the eye. "You don't catch monsters by being polite. You catch them by thinking like them. And stopping one second before you become them."
Davenport flipped to another page. "Are you capable of stopping?"
Reid's fists clenched.
Jason didn't blink. "Every day, I wake up and make that decision. Every minute I'm in the field."
JJ whispered to Hotch, "They're baiting him. Trying to make him crack."
Hotch didn't respond. His eyes were fixed on Jason's shoulders—tense, but holding.
Another committee member spoke. "Agent Jareau. Would you step forward?"
JJ stood.
Davenport gestured to the chair next to Jason. "Agent Cole's former partner. You were the subject of psychological manipulation by Rebecca Langley, correct?"
"Yes," JJ said firmly.
"And during that period, you questioned Agent Cole's allegiance to the BAU?"
"I questioned a lot of things," JJ admitted. "That was the point. Ash was trying to fracture us. She knew targeting trust would do more damage than bullets."
"Do you trust Agent Cole now?" Davenport asked.
JJ looked at Jason. He didn't look back.
"I trust him to protect people," she said. "Even if it means they don't always like the way he does it."
There was silence. Then:
"Is that a yes?"
JJ paused.
Then nodded. "Yes."
Outside the Hearing Room – 11:47 AM
Garcia, pacing the lobby like a caged cat, spotted Morgan exiting the secondary waiting room.
"They call you in?" she asked.
He nodded. "Wanted to know if I ever saw Jason cross a line."
She bit her lip. "What did you say?"
Morgan shrugged. "I said I saw him draw the line… and then step between it and us."
She exhaled. "Good answer."
"True one."
Federal Hearing Room – 12:10 PM
Gideon was the final witness.
He sat like a mountain—quiet, steady, immovable.
"You recruited Agent Cole personally?" Davenport asked.
"I recommended him," Gideon corrected. "Jason wasn't recruited. He was released."
"Released from what?"
Gideon looked over at Jason, then back at the committee.
"The idea that his only value came from what he could destroy."
Davenport narrowed her eyes. "And yet, the moment he returned to the field, he became the target of a violent operative who nearly dismantled your unit."
"Because she feared what he represented," Gideon said. "Not power. Change."
The committee whispered among themselves, trading notes. Finally, Davenport closed the file.
"This committee will deliberate and deliver its decision within 72 hours."
Jason nodded. Stood.
Didn't say another word.
BAU HQ – War Room – That Night
The team had returned, quiet but intact. No one spoke about the hearing. Not yet.
Then Reid dropped a case file on the table.
"Four victims across three states," he said. "Posed identically. Hands folded. Single bullet to the head. No sign of struggle."
Hotch frowned. "Signature?"
Reid nodded. "The scene is clean… but the arrangement is identical to a case Gideon worked fifteen years ago. Back when the Bureau first started profiling serial assassins."
Jason flipped through the photos.
"They're not just murders," he said. "They're statements."
Morgan raised an eyebrow. "And what's this one saying?"
Jason looked up, voice cold.
"He's telling us we missed him last time."