My Fan Fic Page (Reader Fics and OC Fics) of my favorite guys. You can call me Gryfflepuff or the Eccedentiast as tagged. I am a Primary Hufflepuff, and a Secondary Gryffindor. I am an INFP and if my memory serves me right, I am an Ennegram nine. I have ADHD (the second most common disorder in the world after dyslexia yet one of the most misunderstood) and believe that mental health should be better understood to the general public. I don't have obsessions, I have hyperfixations! They typically are on certain characters which I write fan fics on.
All my Works, characters are colored by which Hogwarts House I think they're in. I am a Primary Hufflepuff, Secondary Gryffindor and I genuinely think Hufflepuff is the best and most underrated house. (Since Tumble removed the yellow color, Orange will represent Hufflepuff, except in the condition of Good Omens' Crowley who I am stuck between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. If you disagree, please give me your best argument and I'll offer my insight of David Tennant's Crowley... Since I have nothing written for Crowley and I'm still conflicted about the news on the new "season" (THERE SHOULD BE SIX EPISODES, NOT ONE!) I've added him and other characters I haven't written for YET to my "Who I'm Willing to Write For" post.
I don't do reblogs, just because I feel that when you're searching through the posts, the reblogs clutter up the blog and get mixed with original posts but I am willing to do fan fic recommendations if requested.
You can call me either Gryfflepuff or the Eccedentiast (Not to sound by Lemony Snicket but "a word that means 'someone who hides their pain and tears and sadness behind a smile'.").
Ninth Doctor - Brooding Time Lord Who Tries To Hide His Light with Darkness
Supernova Series/Season One Masterlist (Ninth Doctor/Tenth Doctor) (Delilah "Lillie" Tyler/Princess Supernova played by Katherine Langford)
Campbell Bain - Bipolar Nineteen-Year-Old Walking Ray of Sunshine That Somehow Doesn't Do Well With Girls
Sweet Jane Masterlist (19-year-old Campbell Bain x 18-year-old Traumatized Reader)
Steve Harrington (Stranger Things) - The Hair; Nomenee for Mother of the Year
Killer Queen (Cassandra "Cassie Dare" Henderson played by Zoey Deutch; Pan Henderson played by David Tennant)
Trauma (Emilie Henderson played by Hailee Steinfeld)
Devil Town (Imogen Henderson played by Katherine Langford)
Isaac Lahey (Teen Wolf) - The Abused Puppy With a Heart of Gold Who Only Wanted the Power to Defend Himself and To Not Be Scared
Embers in the Sky Season One (Milo Stilinski played by Katherine Langford)
Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds) - The Genius Pretty Boy
(I have created so many ideas for the initial character, Zoe that I may have to split them up among Spencer Reid main character love interests and because of more complicated reasons I will explain in Valentía)
Valentía (Zoe Noble-Valdez played by Selena Gomez)
Valentía Season Masterlist
Valentía Season One
Alec Hardy (Broachurch) — The Grumpy and Broody Scottish Detective With a Heart Condition yet a Heart of Gold (and He Doesn't Know He's a DILF
Blood in my Ledger (Alec Hardy x Reader)
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I have created an OC to be the Henderson!OC and Dustin's father and I always choose David Tennant, he just really gives off protective I-will-kill-anyone-who-hurts-you dad vibe and I have a soft spot for an overprotective dad for his daughter (I never had that. My dad wanted a boy--granted the disapproval that's implied is possibly because my mom told me this--and he is ADHD and was always sleeping and then he moved two towns over which was an hour's drive but seemed longer in my ADHD mind but so he could sleep and I could play video games on the Xbox that's memory wouldn't save the game so I continuously had to start over. Oh, and also, there's the fact that a TV fell on me when I was five/six because I didn't understand gravity and I locked myself in the dryer when I was seven/eight. What, is that not normal? 🙄) I'm not a big crier but a father that's willing to do anything for his daughter is your best bet. Sorry for this rant.
Warnings: Implied Short Reader, Implied Non-Scottish Reader, Accidental Cheating, Campbell Bain being Bad with Women, Campbell Bain
H/T/N — Hometown name
(Post-Asylum; May be connected to "Sweet Jane" or read alone; If you decided to include this in Sweet Jane, this takes place between the ending of the series and the epilogue written by me.)
Summary: It's the one-year anniversary of the star of Campbell's career and they're having a party and Campbell has developed quite the number of fans—especially young beautiful women.
Warning: Mentions of Reader's Discomfort for Sex, Mentions of Campbell being a virgin, Implied Short Reader, Sort of Cheating, Non-consensual Cheating, Sad Campbell, Desperate Campbell, Angst, Campbell Fears His Relationship is Over, Crying Campbell Bain, Doctor Who reference, Implied Non-Scottish Reader (if you are, you can just imagine that the reader is from another part of Scotland other than Glasglow), Good Omens "Ineffable" reference,
1995 (Eleven Months Since the Events of Takin' Over the Asylum)
"I am there. Waiting, watching. Keeping to the shadows. But when you need me, I'll step out of the shadows and protect what's mine." — Unknown
It wasn't Campbell's fault exactly. He had never had a girl show interest until he was nineteen. Because apparently, his condition without medication is a billion times worse or he grew up in a town where the girls just preferred jocks, blind, or lesbians, which Y/n joked about quite often. But despite being the first girl to ever show interest in him... she wasn't exactly the most open person with her feelings.
But now he was becoming a bit of a local celebrity, his career was growing.
They threw a party to celebrate Campbell's one-year anniversary of his radio career; he had grown quite the following, the most enthusiastic of them being women in their late teens to mid-twenties for the adorkably awkward, easy-on-the-eyes Campbell, whose optimism was infectious. They seemed to see they had the best shot with him.
Y/n shouldn't have taken her eyes off him. She had left for a minute to get them some punch, and he kissed her, proclaiming he already missed her before she disappeared into the crowd.
Then a pretty, blonde woman with that big curly hair that seemed to be reminiscent of the eighties club hairstyle, approached.
"Hi, I'm a huge fan." She said, speaking not quite naturally accent-wise but upping her accent so she seemed more intriguing than she actually was.
"Oh, always happy to meet a fan." He proclaimed, his grin as wide as it could be.
The woman was around Campbell's age, but she held herself as though she were a highly respected businesswoman in her thirties or forties rather than in her early twenties. She was dressed more gracefully than what was expected for a Scotland Radio anniversary party, but Campbell was completely oblivious to any of these red signs. In his eyes, there was only one woman worth paying his undivided attention to... and that was Y/n.
"My name is Alice Tutman. My father works here." She told him.
"Oh, the name sounds familiar." He shrugged, vaguely, his head turning to see if he could see Y/n but he didn't want to be rude.
The woman narrowed her eyes at him, upset she didn't have his undivided attention. So she leaned into him and said, "My father actually let me in to watch you yesterday. You were so funny and upbeat!" She put on a high, posh, and unnatural-sounding laugh.
He looked at her and beamed modestly at the compliment. "Well, I try tae be. Y/n says I'm like a loud and very Scottish golden retriever on coke and a constant sugar high." He snorted at his girlfriend's jab that he took proudly, by tackling her to their bed and kissing her all over the face, while intentionally thickening his Scottish accent.
Something flashed in Alice's eyes at the mention of Y/n, who was just as known as Campbell as she was both Campbell's manager and live-in girlfriend who he was rarely seen without, and she laughed far harder than what he said called for, leaning into him and putting her hand on his bicep as though to steady herself but he still hadn't caught onto her more than platonic intentions.
"You're more than funny. You're hilarious." She laughed and then looked up at him, through huge mascara-covered lashes. "And you're so much cuter in person."
At this, Campbell's characteristic smile faltered as dread suddenly started to form around his heart, weighing it down as he realized this woman wasn't being just friendly and a fan and just a year ago, he'd be flattered but now he was in an almost year-long relationship with Y/n who as far as he was concerned was the love of his life and there was no one else for him in the multiverse. The Doctor could take him to any time in any planet, dimension, or parallel Earth in his Tardis, and there was no one else for him than Y/n.
He started to step back when Alice suddenly put her hand on the side of his face and forced him into a kiss.
"MMF!" He let out, honestly too shocked to pull away but he did not kiss back or enjoy the kiss.
Then he heard a clatter and he pulled away (and by that, meaning he had to both pull his body and push her away to get her to stop pulling his face against her's) to see Y/n, standing there, looking wounded and two red plastic cups of punch at her feet. Seeing her look so hurt physically made Campbell's heart ache.
"Y/n..." He started, starting to push the woman away and Y/n turned and ran off.
Fear started to clench around Campbell's heart at the prospect of losing Y/n.
He pushed Alice away and said quite firmly, "I'm not interested in anyone other than Y/n. Now get off!" Then he hurried past the gob-smacked-looking woman. He started pushing through the crowd that suddenly felt claustrophobic as he shouted for his girlfriend.
He came up to Eddie and Francine, "Have you seen Y/n?"
"She went runnin' through there." Eddie said, pointing to a door that led to the hall.
"She looked awfully upset." Fracine said, noting the tackily bold dark red lipstick messily smeared on and around Campbell's lips.
"This woman attacked me with her lips." Campbell bemoaned, running his hands through his auburn hair, stressed.
"Well, fix it before she leaves you and you die from heartbreak." Eddie said, raising his eyebrows.
"Aye, that is exactly what'll happen!" Campbell exclaimed and went running after her but she wasn't in the hall. She must've hidden in one of the rooms. "Bloody hell!" He swore he ran to the closest door, but it was locked.
He tried multiple other doors, but they were either locked or empty. He slammed his fifth one shut and pressed his back against it, feeling like he was going to start crying. He wanted to curl up in a ball and sob until Y/n came back, but he knew what his dad would say. "Crying isnae gonna to fix anything. You need tae be a man and fix it yourself."
For once, his dad was right. Crying wasn't going to fix it. But running about wasn't working. Where would Y/n go? He knew her better than anyone and he loved every bit.
"Where would she go? Where would she go? Where would she bloody go?" He muttered to himself, pacing back and forth, running his hands through his hair.
Then there was a distant clattering and an emotional "FUCK!" He'd recognize that curse anywhere, and it hit him where she was.
His studio.
He ran at a full sprint to his studio and ripped the door open to find Y/n crying with disheveled hair.
"Y/n."
She looked confused, "You came after me?"
"She came ontae me, Y/n. I thought she was being nice." He defended.
"And you came after me?" She asked, incredulously.
"Always." He promised, his tone stern and determined in response to her incredulous tone of disbelief.
"But... I saw her. She was pretty and outgoing and spontaneous." She said. "And willing to give you what I'm not ready for."
He knew what that meant. Sex. To take his virginity.
He walked up to her and cupped her hands, using his thumbs to wipe her tears.
"She's not you. She never will b,e and neither will anyone else. I want you." He promised.
"You didn't push back..." She muttered, weakly, hating how petty and small she sounded.
"I was surprised. I only just realized she was flirting with me. That's never happened before. Girls never flirted with me before you, and I don't want anyone other than you tae!" He said.
Another tear fell, and he literally kissed it away, then he kissed again and again, all over her fac,e until she started laughing.
"Campbell!" She giggled when his hands fell to her waist, pulling her against him and continuing to kiss all over her face.
"I cannae help it! You taste so sweet!" He grinned.
She felt her shift and stiffen and he pulled away, "What is it, baby?"
"I threw my mobile/phone." She said.
He turned to see her mobile phone on the other side of the room. "Aye, I see that." He paused for a moment and then he asked, "Why?"
"My... one of my old friends from H/T/N called me about... EX/N." She explained.
Campbell stiffened. Two weeks short of eleven months ago, Fergus killed himself after Y/n's abusive and toxic exe (if you could call him that) came and helped a psychiatrist paint Fergus, a nonviolent and very intelligent schizophrenic, in a bad light, ruining his promised job. Then he approached Campbell at Fergus' funeral and insulted Y/n while promising Campbell that Y/n would never love him like she had loved him (neither were true. She did love Campbell and she never loved EX/N), and Campbell had aggressively pushed him down. Y/n tried to mediate and nearly got punched herself if Campbell hadn't pushed her out of the way and took the blow, getting a punch to the fac,e which he retaliated with his only good punch in his life, and EX/N got a bloody nose. He was still rather proud of it, but wished he had done worse, now that he knew at least some details of what EX/N had done to Y/n but he expected that she was downplaying it.
"His trial's in next month and... the lawyers are planning on bringing me on as a witness." She admitted.
Oh, that explained it.
"Oh, can you get out of it?" He asked.
"No. I'm the key witness. They might call you too, considering he assaulted you." She said with a slight huff to her voice.
"Aye, I'll come even if they don't call me. You need the support." Then he cringed, "Not that you need it, but I want tae. I want to be there for you, if-if you want me tae be there for you."
"I know. Thank you. It's not just that. She..." She trailed off.
"What?" He asked, "What-what?"
"She told me EX/N's pleading not guilty." She admitted.
Campbell felt himself getting angry at this.
"What? Are ye serious?" He scoffed.
"And he's got a good defense lawyer..." She hesitated before she confessed, "My dad."
"WHAT!? Your father is defending his daughter's rapist!?" Campbell asked, outraged. "Is that not like some conflict of interest or something?"
"It's not directly but it can potentially cause one, but my dad's one of the best defense attorneys, he's a professional and he doesn't believe me what EX/N did to me." Y/n said, shaking her head in the kind of bitterness that has built up for years, yet you were simultaneously used to it. She looked to the side, "He's always cared more about his clients than me."
Campbell wanted to comfort her, but from what he had heard about her parents, this was most certainly the case. Neither had believed what EX, a family friend, had done to her and then shipped her off to Saint Jude's, which was far away, rather than a closer mental hospital.
"When is it?" He asked.
"It's just before our anniversary. Maybe, even during. It depends." She said. She swore this had to be intentional how bad was her luck?
"I'll go with ya." He said.
"I can't ask you for that." She shook her head, looking away.
"I want tae. I punched that bastard in the face for ya, and I'll do it again first chance I get. I love ya so much. No flirty blonde nepo babe or some bastard rapist ex-boyfriend is gonna stop me from doing all I can tae show you how much." He said.
She looked up at him through her eyelashes. "You love me that much?"
"Frankly, I don't think my words accurately describe how much I really love ya." He confessed, "My love for you is beyond understanding. It's impossible for me to put into the perfect words. It's... It's ineffable."
A smile tugged at her lips as she had her arms wrapped around herself. "Ineffable? Big word for you, don't you think."
"I know big words!" He exclaimed in mock offense. "My girlfriend is the smartest person I've ever met. Frankly, her IQ quite frightens me but even more frankly, I like it." He raised his eyebrows, suggestively.
She snorted as he practically slid back up to her, putting his hands on her waist and gently pulling her closer. "You're such a dork, Campbell Bain."
"And you're my whole bleeding heart, Y/n L/n. I want no one else but you for the rest of my loony life." He promised.
"You're my whole heart, too, Campbell Bain." She sai,d and he leaned in for a kiss, but she pulled away. "You still have that 'nepo babe''s lipstick on your lips." She mimicked his Scottish accent when she said 'nepo babe' as she used her thumb to wipe across his lips as he stared at her with a look of love and lust. He rather liked her attempt at his accent. Then she pulled him in for a kiss, and this one he eagerly reciprocated. Then she pulled away when she felt him start to get giddy, possibly because of them making out in his studio. When she pulled away, he tried to follow and whined out a high-pitched whine. "Right now, I've got to mark my territory."
"Mark your..." Campbell muttered, confused, actually initially wondering if that meant that she was going to literally 'mark her territory' which may get HR on his butt... again. And then he realized that Y/n had moved past him and towards the door. "Y/n!?"
He recognized that stance. It was the same after his dad threatened to have him sectioned. It was her protective stance. Her I'm-gonna-fuck-someone-up stance, and he realized what she had meant.
"Bloody hell!" He whispered to himself and ran after her. "Y/n! Y/n, don't!"
She walked back into the main room, grabbed a cup of punch, and walked up to Alice and walked right into her, spilling the sticky punch all down her dress.
"AHH! MY DRESS!" She screamed.
"Oh, I'm so, so, so sorry." Y/n said with a note of utter insincerity. "I didn't see you." She feigned sincere wiping it off, and then she smiled at Alice and said, "If I ever find out you sexually harass or even touch my boyfriend again, it'll be worse than a ruin tacky dress."
Then she spun around, her hair whipping Alice in the face, and she walked towards Campbell. She got on her toes and she kissed him and passionately and lovingly reciprocated, trying not to smile too much.
*Finally finished this fic that I've been trying to figure out how to write for over a full year now and it's still not as angsty as I intended it to be.*
Blood in My Ledger (Alec Hardy): Season/Series One, Episode Two
Word Count: 6065 Words
Warnings: Flirting with Alec Hardy; Alec Hardy being socially awkward; Alec Hardy's accent; Mentions of trauma; Using sarcasm as a coping mechanism; Child murder statistics; Mention of sister's death; Mention of trauma involving sister's death; Vague mentions of something the reader blames herself for; Mention of rough aftermath of sister's death; Panic attack; Method on dealing with a panic attack; Mention of murder of a relative
"Losing a sister is like losing the moon and stars. No words can describe the void in your heart."
When Y/n entered the station the next day and walked up to Hardy's office through the precinct that was filled with overflowing phone calls, where he was talking to Ellie, she said, "Does anyone know why there's an irritating journalist I'd very much like to punch in the face hovering outside or should I taze her now?"
"Don't taze her." Hardy said, rather dryly like this was a normal occurrence for him. "You didn't tell her anything, did you?
"Only that I'd taze her in the face and she wouldn't be so pretty anymore if she didn't shut the fuck up and get the hell out of my way." She deadpanned.
"Mmm. Very violent." He said, dryly, and then turned to Ellie, "How're we doing on the house to house?"
"We've got five uniforms allocated, two probationers, one who can't drive, and one who'd never taken a statement before last night." Ellie said.
"That's all they've given us?"
"It's a summer weekend." Ellie explained, "You've got three music festivals and two sporting events within a hundred miles, so all the officers are attached to them until Monday."
"Don't tell the family." Hardy said, "Uniform are moaning they're having to take calls."
"We're getting more phone lines put in." Ellie said.
"Clear desk policy end of the day, yeah?" Hardy said and walked off the whiteboard.
"You drink coffee?" Ellie offered the coffee cup she had gotten Hardy to Y/n.
"I hate coffee." She shook her head. "I live in London and have an addiction to chocolate, I drink tea or hot chocolate." She went to join Hardy at the whiteboard.
"SOCO are at work on the beach, it's gonna be a long one." Ellie continued, putting down the coffee that no one apparently wanted, "Oh, we're still going through the Latimer house." Hardy was staring intently at the board. "Sorry, are you listening?" You couldn't say he wasn't dedicated. A rather handsome at it too.
"Danny's skateboard. Danny's mobile. Priority. Also, main suspects. You know this town, who's the most likely?" Hardy asked, and Ellie looked like she didn't know what to say while Hardy turned to the map. "If the boy was killed before he was left on the beach, where's the murder scene?" He looked at the map as if expecting an arrow to say: Danny Latimer was killed here. He turned to Ellie, "What are you doing now?"
"We've managed to find a Family Liaison Officer. I'm gonna take him over to the Latimers. Oh, and Jack Marshall, owns the paper show, rang in. He said he'd remember something." Ellie said, holding out a note.
Hardy took it without a word of thanks. "Right, Officer L/n, with me," Hardy said, and then he added sarcastically, "Gotta make sure you don't taze anyone."
"Like you could stop me. And are you sure you aren't just using that as an excuse to spend time with me?" She teased.
Hardy looked at her, his brain starting to short-circuit again as his mouth gaped open like a fish out of water, "Shut up." Was all he could manage and walked off.
—————————————————————————
Y/n and Hardy met back up with Jack Marshall, "Couldn't stop thinking about him... all last night. I help run the Seas Brigade."
"What's that, like, Boy Scouts?" Y/n asked.
"Sort of, but on the water. Danny had been coming about eighteen months, on and off. Cheeky lad, but a good heart. It matters, a good heart."
A twitch on Hardy's face suggested he found something ironic in Jack's words and he did not find them funny in the slightest
"Yes, it does." Y/n agreed. "You don't see it much these days in my experience."
Hardy glanced at Y/n, his bitterness of the irony of Jack's words fading with the mystery that was Y/n, and then he turned back to Jack and said, "You said you remembered something about seeing Danny."
"Must have been end of last month. Around a quarter to eight on a Wednesday morning on the road to the cliff tops on the way to Linton Hill. I saw him."
"And what was he doing?" Hardy asked.
"Talking to the postman. Well..." Jack Marshall said as he picked up a newspaper, "not talking, more like arguing. He was quite a way away, but the body language was pretty clear. Then Danny stormed off. The postman was calling after him."
They walked in the shop with Jack, and Hardy said, "You're certain it was the postman?"
"Well, he had a bag and one of those high-visibility jackets. Who else is going to be out that time in the morning?" Jack said.
"Can you describe him for me?" Hardy asked.
"He was a long way off. Medium height, short brown hair, I think. It was only after you were in yesterday that I remembered. I should've mentioned."
—————————————————————————
Ellie had gone to the Latimers' to bring Pete, the Family Liason officer there and to take the family's fingerprints to eliminate them from the prints they'd find around the house. They had given her a list of people who could've killed Danny and she was shocked to find that it was all their friends. SOCO Brain found five hundred pounds in cash taped under Danny's bed frame and cocaine in Chloe's room.
When Ellie questioned her, Chloe claimed that Becca Fisher from the hotel gave it to her.
Hardy, Ellie, and Y/n went to question her.
"Chloe Latimer says you supplied her with a wrap of cocaine."
"What? You're kidding!?" Becca gasped.
"Why would she say that if it's not true?" Ellie asked.
Becca hesitated but admitted, "There was this couple down from London for a long weekend, in a suite, spending money, they asked me if I could get them some coke." She sighed and continued, "Chloe was working for me that weekend, I asked her if she knew where I might find some. She took so bloody long, the couple had gone, I gave it back to her." A maid knocked on the door. "Not now—thanks, Emily." Emily apologized and closed the door.
"Where did Chloe get it from?" Ellie asked.
"She said a friend. She didn't tell me his name. She said he didn't deal, but he knew where to get stuff." Becca said.
"Did her brother have anything to do with it?" Hardy asked.
"It's... it's nothing to do with that." Becca said, "Do I get arrested?"
"We will have to process the offense." Ellie said.
"Is there any way we can keep this quiet? I could lose my license." Becca pleaded.
"Fix a time to come down to the station, make a formal statement." Hardy said.
"Just make sure, none of that stuff gets near my girls or you'll lose more than your license," Y/n said as they left with a smile that held a threat behind it.
"You do know you don't have to threaten everyone." Ellie said.
"Oh, but it's such fun." Y/n said, sarcastically.
—————————————————————————
Hardy poured himself a cup of tea as Ellie said, "Cocaine, though. It must be a one-off. They're not that type of family. Chloe's not that type of girl."
"Nobody ever is." Hardy drawled.
"No, I live here. We don't have these problems. A couple of arrests for possession every month on the estate but no more than that." Ellie said.
"Yeah, but that's what everyone thinks. That this stuff doesn't happen to them until it does. I can't tell you how many times I've heard that." Y/n said.
"This is different."
"No, it's not. Everyone has secrets, Ellie. It's one of the reasons my job exists."
"What, you come in and snark at everyone?" Ellie snapped at her.
"No, that's just my defense and coping mechanism." She said blankly.
"For what?"
A twitch twinged on Y/n's face as she narrowed her eyes at Ellie. Ellie seemed to forget because of Y/n's age, but trauma happened no matter how young you were. "Buy me a drink first, and maybe I'll give you a hint." She snarked with a cold bite to her words and walked off before Ellie could push any further.
Hardy turned, picking up his tea and he watched Y/n walk away. She was fiddling with her silver bracelet that he hadn't noticed before now due to her always wearing her jacket.
"I can't tell when she's being serious." Ellie said and then she rounded on Hardy, "Are you just making one for yourself?" He just stared at her.
Then another officer said, "Ellie, you might want to take this one." Ellie walked off.
Y/n watched Ellie walk past her before she looked back at Hardy from where she had sat down. He stared at his cup of tea and... his face faltered. He looked dizzy, he clenched his fists, and she watched him hurriedly make his way to the bathroom. Like she said, everyone had secrets.
—————————————————————————
Hardy, Ellie, and Y/n went to speak to the postman that Danny had been seen arguing with, Kevin.
"Yeah, that's my round up past Briar Cliff." He answered them.
"And did you work the route last month?" Ellie asked him.
"I've done every delivery out there for the past eight or nine weeks, I'd say." Kevin said.
"Did you ever see Danny Latimer?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah, all the time. He used to deliver papers up there to a couple of houses, including the hut. When I heard, I thought, I've only seen him a couple of days previous."
"And did you ever talk to him? Particularly the last week in June?"
"I might've waved and maybe said 'hello'. I didn't really know him to talk to."
"That's it? Just hello?" Ellie asked.
"What else would I say?" Kevin asked, almost nervously.
"You didn't ever have a conversation with him?"
"No."
"Or an argument?" Hardy asked.
"What am I gonna be arguing with a paper lad about?" Kevin asked but they didn't answer.
"I don't know? Mail?" Y/n drawled.
"And where were you Thursday night?"
"Thursday, I'd have been with the boys. We got hammered. Six of us, there was. Finished at four. My missus woke me up at seven, I was out cold."
"Well, we're gonna need the names of all those you were with." Ellie said.
"But, I mean, you don't think I had anything to do with it?"
"I don't know. Did you?" Y/n asked.
"No."
"Ignore her." Ellie said, and Y/n gave her a sharp side look. "It's just to rule things out. Nothing to worry about." Hardy looked at her as Ellie smiled politely and warmly. "All right, thanks, Kevin. Bye."
They walked off. "Don't say that." Hardy said once they were a little ways away.
"Don't say what?" Ellie asked him.
"No need to worry."
"Why not?"
"Don't reassure people. Let them talk." Hardy said, which enraged Ellie.
"Can I just say, you can't just rock up here and try to mold me. I know what I'm doing and I know how to handle people. And you can keep your broody bullshit schtick to yourself," Then she turned to Y/n, "and your sarcastic and joking flirts to yourself. We're investigating a child's murder."
"Miller." Y/n said, sharply, she was tired of Ellie judging her based on her age, she had been silent until earlier "Don't think that just because you have more years in law enforcement, that you can understand even a fraction of what I've seen and been through. I do not need to explain my trauma to you. I hunt serial killers and serial rapists and human traffickers who think they could break me because I tend to be their type—young and a single woman—only to be mistaken on a colossal level and I have done so for the past six years and my trauma started before I even started. So, yes, everyone has secrets, and you need to understand that if you want to make it through this investigation, because I had to learn the hard way, bleeding and broken. I cope the way I cope. If I didn't I would have killed myself by now. Just because I try to make a little light in the darkness that is my life, does not mean I am not serious about this investigation. I don't have to stay here but I am so I can help get Danny justice because a lot of boys like Danny go under the radar. You don't know people as well as you think you do. That's why my job exists. I am trained to see what most don't notice. I'll walk back to the station." And she walked past them away from the car.
"We're four miles away and a child was just murdered." Hardy called after her.
"Yeah, well, I'm not nine hundred years old like you. I've been through worse than walking five miles. I think I'll survive." Y/n shouted back.
"You just got here not forty-eight hours ago! You don't know your way around this place!" Hardy shouted.
"Just leave me alone and let me walk. Good for your mental state. You should try it!" She shouted back. Taking a walk. Something she was forced to do for a little less than a decade now.
—————————————————————————
Y/n had gotten back to the station perfectly fine, imagine that.
She was going over something with Hardy with her dinner in a Tupperware container when Ellie came back with two wrapped dinners. She put one on Hardy's desk.
"What's that?" Hardy asked.
"Thai place was closed. Chippy was the only place open." Ellie said.
"I can't eat that." He shook his head.
"You don't eat fish and chips?" Ellie asked, "What kind of a Scot are you?"
A grumpy one with a sexy accent. Y/n thought as Hardy looked at her before taking off his glasses and sitting down. She could easily become obsessed with Hardy's accent and the way he pronounced certain words.
"You eat chips?" Ellie asked Y/n.
Y/n's eyes flickered to the unwrapped fried food. She used to love chips, but she didn't eat them as much as she used to. Not since she was fifteen, well, twelve.
"No. I don't eat much fried food anymore." She said, shaking her head.
Hardy unwrapped the fried dinner and Ellie said, "That's all there is. Eat or be hungry." He stared at it but didn't eat it. "What's wrong with you two? Don't drink coffee and don't eat fish and chips."
"Oh, I hate fish." Y/n shook her head and nodded at the barely eaten homemade variation of a Mediterranean salad in her lap. "I have this salad." She didn't seem particularly hungry, given she didn't have lunch.
"I hate salad."
"Oh, I do too. That's why there's no lettuce in this." She said.
"Then why do you eat it, if you don't mind me asking?" Ellie asked.
Y/n stared blankly at her for a few seconds. Much like how Hardy tended to do. "The postman, Kevin's alibi checks out." Y/n ignored the question. Apparently, she did mind her asking. "Four times." Then she stabbed at her salad.
"He was with his mates all night, the night Danny was killed." Hardy said.
"Jack Marhall got it wrong then?" Ellie asked.
"Or it's unrelated." Y/n said, "He could still be lying that he didn't have an argument with Danny."
"Do you think everyone is lying?" Ellie asked.
"Most people I talk to are trying to lie to me." Y/n said. "You have a heated argument with a child and that child ends up dead a few weeks later. Not ideal."
"She's right. Do we have any reason to disbelieve the postman? How's Marshall's eyesight? Does he have any reason to lie? And do we think that the money and the drugs found at the house are connected? Is that cash for the supply of cocaine?" Hardy asked.
"You do know you do this incessant list of questions thing?" Ellie asked, "Bam-bam-bam-bam, so no one's got a chance to reply. It's like you really enjoy it?"
"Do I?"
"Yeah, can I eat my dinner please?" Ellie asked, and she continued to eat.
After a few moments, Hardy asked her, "First murder. How you finding it?"
He was checking up on her. He wanted her to understand that people did have secrets as much as Y/n did but he didn't want Ellie to be traumatized and jaded like he was.
"Grim." Ellie said as Hardy picked up a single chip to eat. First time in forty-eight hours either of them had seen him eat.
"What do you make of Mark and Beth's list?"
"Heartbreaking." Ellie admitted, "Some of their best friends, Danny's teachers, baby-sitters, neighbors. They're traumatized, not thinking straight."
"Or smart. We never asked for a list." Hardy said, shaking another fry to get the grease off. "Maybe they're trying to direct where we look." He said a brief goodbye to somebody leaving before continuing. "Taking focus away from their household."
"They didn't kill Danny." Ellie said.
"You have to learn not to trust." Hardy said.
"Oh, do I? Of right. That's what you've been sent to teach me—the benefit of your experience..." Ellie said, getting frustrated again.
"You have to look at your community from the outside now."
"I can't be outside it and I don't want to be." Ellie argued.
"If you can't be objective, you're not the right fit." Hardy said and this seemed to hit the sore subject that he got the job that had been promised to her.
"No, I am the right fit. It's you who's not the right fit. Swanning in here and taking promotions meant for other people. Not being able to accept a cup of coffee or a bloody bag of chips without a great big sigh!" Ellie snapped and Hardy stared blankly at her with grumpy half-lidded eyes. "Sorry... sir."
"You need to understand, Miller, anybody's capable of this murder, given the right circumstances." Hardy said.
"Most people have a moral compass."
"Compasses break. And murder gnaws at the soul. Whoever did it will reveal themselves sooner or later."
"No killer behaves normally over time, especially one like this. Danny was left out in the open. His killer wanted him to be found. This was their first kill and he's right, it isn't impossible that Danny's family didn't have anything to do with it. The statistics say that seventy-three percent of homicide victims knew their killers, and twenty-four-point-nine percent of them were done by a family member."
"That... can't be accurate." Ellie said, shocked at how high the number was.
"It is. I specialize in crimes against children, I'm required to know the statistics as mind-numbingly as the paperwork is. However, it's a bit harder to pinpoint the exact percentage that happens to children. But for kids who were murdered from ages zero to twelve, the most common perpetrators are family members."
"You know what people are like here already. You have to look for behavior out of the ordinary, even just a little bit. Follow your instincts." Hardy said.
"My instincts tell me the Latimers did not kill their son." Ellie said.
"Just make sure that's your instincts talking and not your judgment," Y/n said.
—————————————————————————
The next day, some time after lunch, Y/n went into Hardy's office, "The CCTV footage from the car park below the hut, I just sent it to you."
When Hardy noticed Ellie had returned from lunch, he shouted for her, "Miller!"
"What is it?" She asked after she entered.
"CCTV from the car park below the hut." He clicked the mouse to pause the video as a man walked around the hood of a car. "Mark Latimer."
"When is this?"
"The night Danny snuck out of his bedroom." Y/n said.
"He said he was out of a call. What's he doing?" Ellie asked.
"Waiting for someone." Y/n said.
"How do you mean?" Ellie said.
"His body language." Y/n said.
Then the video continued until the screen was filled with static.
"Tape's run out. Is there another one?" Hardy asked, and Ellie started to look.
"No. Apparently, they just use the one tape and rerecord over it to save money." Ellie said.
"Bollocks!" Hardy cursed.
Then there was a hesitant knock at the door and it was the guy who was installing more phone lines. "Sorry."
"Are you done?" Ellie asked as Hardy glanced at him, vaguely wondering who he was and why he was bothering them.
"No, no, it's not that." He said, "It's Danny Latimer you're doing, isn't it?"
This made Hardy look up at him and Y/n furrowed her brows.
"Why? " Ellie asked
"It's something to do with water." The man said.
"What?" Y/n asked.
"What are you saying?" Hardy asked.
"I've been told it's something to do with water." The man said.
"Told by who?" Ellie asked.
I-I have, um... I have this thing where I... I get... I get messages." He stammered, leaving Ellie and Hardy still confused. Y/n's body language shifted and she sighed, heavily having gathered what this was about. "Psychic messages."
"Oh, for God's sake, who let you in?" Hardy complained.
"No, the thing about the water, that's important. Don't just ignore it." The man tried to protest.
"Oh, come on, out." Ellie sighed, trying to escort the man out.
"It's something that I'm supposed to tell you." He continued, "Erm... like, he was... he was in a boat. Like he was... he was put in a boat. Yeah, yeah. I don't... I don't know why."
Y/n ran her hand over her face and asked, "You said it was a message. Who... told you this?"
"Danny."
—————————————————————————
They escorted the man, Steve Connelly, to the interrogation room. Hardy and Ellie sitting while Y/n stood behind them, leaning against the wall next to the door.
"And state your address for the tape." Ellie said.
"57 Whitney Road, Lewiston."
"Where is that?" Hardy asked.
"Um... it's about thirty miles from here." He said, pointing in a direction. "I cover the full region.
"And you're saying Danny Latimer wants us to know that he was put in a boat before he died?" Hardy asked, glaring at Steve.
"Yes."
"And I want you to know that nothing offends me more... than cranks wasting police time." Hardy growled. That must be quite the achievement. Y/n got the impression that a lot of things offended Hardy.
"I receive messages. I don't... I don't ask for them. I don't question them." Steve said.
"Did the message happen before or after you were allocated by your company to install extra phone lines here?" Y/n asked.
"After."
"Amazing. I love this." Hardy said, sarcastically, "The phone engineer who hears voices from the dead."
"I don't want this. It comes to me." Steve said and he held up his hands, "Look, you don't want to listen, that's fine."
"Oh, you're a reluctant psychic!?" Hardy spat out, "A child has died, and you come in with this self-indulgent horseshit!"
"Did you ever meet Danny Latimer?" Ellie asked.
"No, never."
"Do you know the family?" Ellie asked.
"No, I don't think so."
"Do you have any concrete evidence relating to the death of Danny Latimer?"
"No."
"Interview terminated at 6:17 PM." Ellie said as she turned off the recorder next to her.
"Do you know what happens around a murder, Mister Connelly?" Hardy asked, "A whole industry grows up, of groupies and rubberneckers, and people who want to touch the case. You're just the first. Don't let me see you 'round here again." He got up and started for the door.
"She says she forgives you." Steve said, and Hardy turned to him, "About the pendant." Hardy stared at him, a vacant yet traumatized look filled those chocolate brown eyes that usually only conveyed the exhausion and cynicism that his trauma had caused him. "And Officer L/N, she says it's not your fault."
"What?" Y/n asked, sharply.
"Your sister." Steve said, "She says that her death isn't your fault and neither are the things that happened before it."
Y/n's face was paling and her breathing was growing more and more shallow. As he spoke, his face went in and out of focus as she felt like her axis was tipping and the world kept half swirling from one side to the other, almost like swaying... now that she mentioned it, the world was also swaying. Her sister's eyes and her smile swimming in and out of her vision.
"Stop talking." She said, a sharp plea, but there was a notable quiver in her voice.
"And she's sorry she wasn't there for you when you needed her after she died."
Images flashed behind her eyes, the white hosptial room, the doctors' faces, her aunt's face, the grainy black and white hospital pictures.
Y/n couldn't take it anymore; she fumbled for the door that Hardy had stepped back from to get out of her way, tore it open, and ran out, closing the door behind her.
"Miller, get him the hell out of here." Hardy said, sharply, pointing aggressively at Steve, and he opened the door to go after Y/n.
Hardy found Y/n across the hall, against the wall, sinking down it as she grabbed at her chest.
"L/n." He said, recognizing that this was a panic attack but that was only the to of the iceberg, he moved quickly in front of her. Hardy crouched down in front of her, trying to get her to focus on her.
"I can't... I can't breathe." She said, clawing at her chest and throat, pulling the fabric away from her throat but he grabbed her hands when she started to claw marks into her skin and he forced them away from her throat and by her sides.
"You're having a panic attack, you need to calm down and slow down your breathing." He said, rationally. "You're hyperventilating, you're making it harder for you to breathe."
"Oh, there are a lot of things making this worse right now." She said with a weak, disingenuous chuckle.
"Y/n." He said her first name, making her look at him, but only just barely to be really looking at him, he grasped her hands tightly in his in an effort to help ground her back to reality. "You're okay. You're in the police station in Broadchurch in Wessex, England. It is July twenty-first, 2013. Your name is Officer Y/n L/n with the Serious Crime Analysis Section in the National Crime Agency in London. You are twenty-four years old. You have two nieces that you have adopted as your own." He was describing their surroundings and what he knew about her to ground her back to reality. It was two of the techniques recommended if you're having a panic attack. "I need you to focus on me and only me. Listen to my voice. Breathe with me. Slowly. Breathe in... and breathe out."
Her breathing was shaky as she attempted to do, copying his own deep breaths, but it slowly steadied and the fear slowly faded from her eyes. She looked at him and he looked at her. After a long time, she pulled her hands from his and wiped her eyes, wiping away her tears.
"Are you okay?" Hardy asked, "Do..." He didn't really know what to do now that it was over. "Do you need me to ring your girls?"
"No!" She said, quickly. "No. They don't... I don't like it when they get involved with... my issues. They worry. I don't like to worry them." He could relate. He hadn't told anyone about his heart problems. Not even his own daughter. Y/n couldn't seem to be able to keep his eye contact, he kept looking down, feeling embarrassed and then she said, "I'm sorry. This was unprofessional of me."
Was she actually apologizing for having a panic attack?
"You can't control your trauma, L/n." He said.
Ellie had returned now, looking concerned at Y/n's teary eyes and the tear stains around her eyes; the rest of her face was still quite pale. "Are you okay?"
"Okay is a relative term." She said. "I... I wasn't expecting... him to say that."
"What was he..." Ellie asked.
"Please, don't." Y/n said, and she cleared her throat, "There's no one who's old enough to remember that time besides me. No one ever talks about it to me anymore. It'd... triggered a... panic attack."
Hardy eyed her. That was more than a panic attack; that was a PTSD panic attack. She hadn't been kidding when she said she had trauma, and it was clear that it was about her sister's death, which, based on her reaction, she blamed herself for.
"Stop that." She said.
"Stop what?"
"Stop looking at me like that. Like you pity me. Stop it." She said.
"But what was he talking about? He said something about a pendant." Hardy didn't answer. "And your-your sister..."
"My sister was murdered." Y/n interrupted, sharply.
That... actually explained a lot. Her overprotectiveness of her girls and based off the chemical burns on her hands... she may not have been unscathed either.
"You said she died in labor." Ellie said.
"Yeah, she was in labor when she was murdered." Y/n said, "I didn't lie, I just left out something. I... I was there when it happened."
Hardy's eyes flickered at her hands. The chemical burns. Hardy suspected she had gone unscathed from the incident.
"You're too close to me." She suddenly said to Hardy and he stood up, holding out a hand but she ignored it but she didn't get up, she just looked away from it as pain continued to throb in her body. She didn't seem to like touching.
Hardy turned to Ellie and continued on, respecting Y/n's obvious wishes to stop focusing on what just happened. "Every big case, these people come crawling out of the woodwork."
"What did he mean about the pendant?" Ellie asked, "Do you know?
"He has the bloody nerve to come in our office!" Hardy said, furiously. "Check his details, find out who he is. Rule him out, just to be sure." Then he turned to Y/n, who was still on the ground. "Are you going to stay down there?"
"Maybe." She said, the pain had dulled but didn't completely go away. It never did. She forced herself through it as she always did and got up. "Happy?"
"No." He said and he started to walk off.
Ellie and Y/n followed him into the bullpen and he entered his office.
"What are you going to do now?" Ellie asked.
"Mark Latimer lied to us about where he was that night." Hardy said.
"Danny's social network profiles from his hard drive. They've just come through, all his posts." Ellie said and she read Danny's posts out loud, "Third of May: going to get a lock on my door, keep all this crap out. Seventh May: she's totally having sex with Dean. Twelfth of May: Dear Dad, remember me? I'm the one you used to play with. Twelfth of May: I know what he's doing."
"See you later."
"Hey, where are you going. I'm coming with."
"You just had a panic attack." Hardy said, continuing to walk as Y/n followed him. "I'm not bringing you along. Go home."
"No. I'm not going 'hoome'." She mimicked the way he pronounced the word with his accent. Honestly, she had been tempted to do for the past two days, it was amazing it had taken this long to do so for her. "It was a shock, that's all."
"It was PTSD. I'm sure you, being a forensic psychologist, can recognize that." Hardy said.
"Recognize it?" She scoffed. "I live with it. And like you're any different!" Hardy stopped and turned to her, his eyes intense. "I read the Sandbrook case. I know what happened."
"No, you don't." He promised.
"I know enough. I read the lines on the file and in between the lines as a profiler. I know that you're not the same as you were before it. You've got PTSD too. I could see it on the beach when you saw Danny's body and I know why you took his job."
"Why, if you know so much about me?" He challenged.
"You're punishing yourself for what happened on that case and you took this job as penance. You don't want to let Danny down like you feel you did in Sandbrook. You're not the only one."
"What does that mean?"
"What happened to my sister was my fault. That's why I do what I do now. My PTSD won't interfere with my abilities in this case. You have my word on that." She promised.
Hardy searched her face for any deception but all he saw was stubborn determination—not unlike his own. "Fine. But you're going home early and if I get the idea that it is, I'm calling your boss."
—————————————————————————
Hardy and Y/n took Mark out to the backyard, closing the sliding door for some privacy while Beth watched them through the glass.
"Um, Thursday night... the night Danny went missing," They had clokced by now that Mark had a bit of a temper, apparently the local preist had gone on TV to offer condolences and sharing belief in the church that they will support everyone in the wake of the tragedy and Mark had stormed over there and practically throttled him in rage. "Where were you?
"On a call-out. Call came through... I dunno, early evening, about half six. Whole family's system had packed in, you know?" Mark said, even though they knew he was lying to them.
"How long did that take?"
"Most of the night. It was a nightmare boiler, so I was there pretty late." Mark continued to lie.
"No." Hardy said.
"Why are you lying to us, Mister Latimer?" Y/n asked.
"There was no call out." Hardy said and Mark stared at them. "We have CCTV footage of the car park at the top of Briar Cliff. You were there at seven-thirty."
"Uh..." He glanced at the house before turning back to them, "so you're snooping on me now?"
"No. We just checked the CCTV in the area where Danny was found, and we saw you." Y/n said.
"Now, what did you do that night?" Hardy asked.
"What am I, a suspect?" Mark asked.
"The first thing we do is eliminate people from the investigation. You tell me where you were, who you were with, how long for, I can eliminate you from suspicion. It's entirely methodical. You don't give me those facts, I can't eliminate you. And if I can't eliminate you, you're a person of interest." Hardy explained.
"In the murder of my own son?" Mark said, looking past them.
"I'm sure this is all very straightforward," Hardy said, looking down.
"Mister Latimer, most cases of kids who were Danny's age were killed by a family member. I can tell you love Danny, his death hasn't changed that. But we need look at every angle, that includes his family and you were the only one not in the house. You tell us where you were and we can get closer to finding out who really did this and they will pay for what they did." Y/n explained.
"I, uh... I met a mate. You know, we drove off together, and then he dropped me back at the car park and er... I came home." He said, still being evasive.
"What time?" Hardy asked.
"Three or four in the morning, maybe." He said.
"What's your mate's name?" Hardy asked.
"I can't remember."
"Sorry? You can't remember the name of your friend?" Hardy asked. "Where did you go?"
"I think we just had a drive around. Bite to eat. Bit of a drink."
You think? This was three days ago." Hardy said.
"Yeah, and a lot's happened since then." Mark pointed out.
"And is there any reason you wouldn't want to tell me the name of your mate?" Hardy asked, glancing at Beth through the window, he had a suspiscion. "This is only about who killed Danny. Nothing else."
"Um... It'll come back to me. I'm just knackered. I haven't been sleeping, you know, all the stuff on the news. Head's not straight."
"Yeah, we heard about that." Y/n said and Mark looked at her.
"When you came in, you went straight to bed?" Hardy asked.
"Yeah."
"Can your wife confirm what time you came back?"
"No. She was asleep." He said.
"Mark, who you met... it's a big gap in your recollection." Hardy said and then his phone rang.
"Sorry." He stepped away, "What?" His body language shifted and he turned to Y/n, "L/n. You should hear this."
"Excuse me, Mark." Y/n smiled and went to Hardy. "What's up?"
"Miller's at the hut. They think that's where Danny was killed." He said as they moved even further away from Mark so they could put Hardy's phone on speaker phone. "Miller, go on. Anything else?"
"Yeah, the whole place has been cleaned. But we've also found another set of prints by the sink. I messaged them through to run a match against elimination prints. They belong to Mark Latimer."
Blood in My Ledger (Alec Hardy): Season/Series One, Episode One
Word Count: 8966 Words
Warnings: Canon child's death; Canon child's body; Mention of a mother dying in labor; Reader has grief over sister's death; Canon family in grief; Alec Hardy being socially awkward; Chemical burn scars
"No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear." — C.S. Lewis
Officer Y/n L/N arrived in Broadchurch and made it to the crime scene before Alec Hardy and Ellie Miller. She traveled with her nieces who she had adopted as her daughters as soon as she was legally allowed to, so she had to set them up at the hotel before she traveled to the crime scene on the beach.
By the time Alec Hardy arrived, Y/n was already crouched over the young boy's body. He was just a young boy, barely more than ten years old.
Alec Hardy arrived, not really noticing the young woman with the h/c and e/c at first, only the body that was prompting a small panic attack to surge through him. She looked remorsefully at the body of the boy.
"Oh, God, don't do this to me." He muttered to himself.
Y/n's eyes flickered up from the boy's body to see a man who was at least a decade older than her, but his tired eyes made him seem older. The man stopped, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath, he was gathering his strength. The man was handsome, very handsome, but he didn't look very well-cared for; his hair looked like it wanted to curl but was just as tired as the rest of the man so it just didn't and drooped. It barely looked combed. The man looked professional but drained... more than that, he looked like the definition of depression. And Y/n would know. The man was muttering to himself. If she didn't know what one looked like, she'd say he was fighting through a panic attack.
He wasn't moving and his breathing was so heavy that his shoulder kept rising and falling. He looked like he was overwhelmed by all the senses around him. Y/n knew who he was. She had kept tabs on the Sandbrook case. "Come on." He breathed to himself and forced himself to walk. One foot in front of the other.
"What do we got here?" Alec Hardy asked. He had a Scottish accent, so he likely wasn't from around here. Somewhere around Paisley, maybe?
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Y/n asked, standing up to her full height. He looked familiar, and it wasn't like he was a face you'd forget and she wouldn't be forgetting that accent any time soon.
"DI Alec Hardy, and this is my crime scene. Who the hell are you?" Alec asked.
"I'm a new transfer, sort of. Officer Y/n L/n from the SCAS in the NCA. I'm a forensic psychologist."
"A what?" He deadpanned.
"I'm a profiler. I analyze the behavior of criminals based on their crimes and use that to find them. I specialize in crimes against children so I was called when the boy's body was reported."
"Oh." Alec groaned in annoyance. "You're too young."
"I am twenty-four years old, old man." She retorted back, making Alec give her an offended look, and looked at the body, scanning it, "He didn't fall. There's no bruising consistent with blunt trauma. But..." She crouched down, "He might've been strangled. There is bruising consistent with manual strangulation. I'd wager the attacker was male. Most likely an adult but it's hard to tell. He was placed here with care. The killer was remorseful, he may have known the killer. It's entirely possible the killer cared for the boy, his murder may have been entirely accidental."
Hardy stared at the woman, but the skepticism had disappeared from his eyes. Something mingled with that tired sadness... he was impressed.
Y/n's eyes flickered back to Hardy to a woman who was allowed past the tape, and she looked past her to see a middle-aged woman casually smoking and holding a dog leash. Too casually. She balled her fists as a memory throbbed, and she dug her nails into the palms of her hands. As she did this, Hardy crouched down to examine the boy's body.
The woman who was allowed past the tape started to speak in horror. "Oh, God. No, no, no."
Hardy stood up and tried to instruct her while Y/n analyzed the woman's face and voice. Recognition. She knew the boy.
"Off the beach. This area's off-limits." Hardy ordered.
"No, I'm police." The woman said, taking out her badge and handing it to him, never looking away from the boy's body. "Oh, God, I know him. He lives here. He has tea at my house. He's my boy's best friend. Oh, God, Beth. Does Beth know?"
Y/n stepped to her, "Alright, calm down. Who's Beth?"
"You don't understand! I know that boy!"
"I understand that." Y/n said with calm compassion laced in her professionalism.
"Shut it off." Hardy said, bluntly.
"'Shut it off'!?" The woman exclaimed.
"Be professional. You're working a case now." Hardy said and held his hand out. "Alec Hardy."
"I know. You got my job."
"Really? You wanna do that now?" Hardy asked.
"You don't even know who he is!"
"Tell me!"
Y/n moved to the two arguing older detectives and she spoke rationally. "I understand this is more than a little jarring, but you need to compartmentalize for the moment. Right now, we need to know as much as we can. And this is not the time nor the place to be bickering over a job, we've got a dead child here."
"Who are you?" The woman asked.
"Officer Y/n L/n. I worked in the Serious Crime Analysis Section in the NCA. I specialize in crimes against children. And you are?"
"D.S. Ellie Miller."
"Now... who was he?" Y/n asked.
"Danny. Daniel Latimer. Eleven-years-old. Goes to school with my boy, Tom. His family live here. Dad's the local plumber."
"Is this a suicide spot?"
"He wouldn't do that."
"Answer the question." Hardy said.
Ellie glared at him and replied, "No. There are others. There's one three miles west. Another one further inland. He's not that type of kid."
"He didn't commit suicide. The bruising and placement of the body's inconsistent." Y/n repeated.
"I need more than the word of a twenty-four-year-old using a pseudoscience." He said. He wasn't disagreeing with her. There was definitely something off about the placement of the body.
"Is it already reminding you of Sandbrook?" She countered, and he looked sharply at her. "Young child murdered near the water. Must be triggering."
Hardy glared at her for a few more moments and said, sharply, "What else can you deduct?"
"Not much else at the moment." She said.
"Great. Find out where SOCO are. We have to move fast. That tide'll be in.
"Who's Beth?" Y/n asked.
"His mother. She'll be devastated."
"Any good mother would." Y/n muttered and then as they covered the body, she looked past them to see a frantic, rapidly approaching woman with the body language she had seen too many times over the course of her career—the body language of a mother who knew that they had outlived their child but needed confirmation of what their mother's intution already told them. "Oh, boy. That her?"
Ellie turned to see a very beautiful woman in her early thirties with auburn hair in a red dress, carrying her shoes to keep them from slowing her down on the loose, sandy terrain of the beach, running and panting as she got closer.
"No, Beth, get off the beach!" Ellie said as Y/n shifted, trying to shield Danny's body from Beth's view.
"What have you found!? Let me see, let me see!" Beth shouted as Hardy and other officers tried to stop her.
"You can't be here!"
Beth caught sight of Danny's shoes before Y/n blocked them.
"Those are his shoes. Those are Danny's trainers." Beth gasped as she grew hysterical, as the officers tried to pull her back. "THOSE ARE DANNY'S TRAINERS! NO! NO!"
Ringing rang in Y/n's ear. No, not ringing. Screaming. Multiple ringing screams that throbbed against her skull.
"DANNY!"
Y/n wished she could say this was an uncommon occurrence. For the memories of the screams to ring in her ears, but they were far from that.
—————————————————————————
Hardy, Ellie, and Y/n walked along the top of the cliff as Hardy criticized," They let people walk along here, no safety barriers?"
"It's the coastal path. People know to be careful."
"Careful or not, people can still trip and be pushed by accident. Cliffs crumble and bring whatever's on top of them with them." Y/n pointed out.
"She's right. It's a death trap." Hardy agreed as they approached the SOCO team.
"Morning, Brian. This is a new transfer, Officer Y/N L/N from NCA." Ellie greeted, and Y/n awkwardly smiled and waved.
"How's it going?" Hardy said, straight to the point.
"Well, from what we've got up here, sir, it looks like the rock fall around the body was faked." Brian said.
"What do you mean?" Ellie asked.
"The angle of the body was wrong. It was too arranged." Brian said, and Y/n looked at Hardy with a sardonic look, like, imagine that, as she had already told him that twice. "And up here, there's no flattened grass or slippage. No loose rocks. No fibers, no hand marks. No sense of a downward trajectory."
"You mean he didn't fall?" Ellie asked.
"Could he have jumped?" Hardy asked, still not ruling it out.
"That's unlikely, sir, given where he was found and the trajectory of the cliffs."
"See, not Danny."
"Someone tried to make it look like an accident." Y/n said, "It's unlikely he was on the cliff."
—————————————————————————
They walked down the cliff as more cars arrived, including one that didn't look police-issued.
"Get on to the pathologist. Tell him to hurry up. Even if it is just preliminary." Hardy said.
"He'll have to take his time. What happened to Danny in the hours before his death are just as important as what happened to him." Y/n advised.
"We need to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else."
"I understand that, sir." Y/n spat it out, turning sharply, "But hurrying results may cause for something to be overlooked. Time isn't always better than efficacy, contrary to what men may widely believe."
Hardy did a double-take at her implication as she walked on as if she hadn't said anything rather cheeky. Ellie raised her eyebrows.
A young man around Y/n's age with brown hair got out of a cheap, hand-me-down-looking red car that pulled up.
"DS Miller!" The man shouted.
"Who is that?" Hardy asked.
"Just keep walking." Ellie sighed.
The man jogged over to them. "Ellie!"
"He seems to know you." Hardy stated the obvious.
"Auntie Ellie!"
Ah, there it was.
Ellie held up a stern finger and reprimanded her nephew, it was more than the sternness of the mother of an eleven-to-twelve-year-old boy. It was lifelong. And her son and her nephew had quite the age gap and based off the state of the car... that told Y/n that Ellie was the responsible sibling while her sibling and nephew's mother was irresponsible, so Ellie grew up scolding and being stern.
"I told you, don't do that!"
"Olly Stevens, Broadchurch Echo." Olly introduced himself to Hardy and Y/n.
"Ugh." Hardy groaned, and Y/n scoffed, her jaw and hands clenching. She detested journalists. They tended to make her job even harder for their own ambition without caring who they hurt with the consequences of their actions. But mostly, she had a personal reason she hated journalists so much.
Olly jogged alongside his aunt, questioning her, "I was down at the other end. They said you'd be here. Why has the beach been closed?"
"Because it's been closed." Y/n answered unhelpfully.
"No statements now." Hardy answered.
"I heard there was a body. Has it been ID'ed?" Olly asked.
To Y/n's surprise, Hardy opened the backseat passenger door for her and looked at her. She blinked in surprise, not used to people acting out of simple kindness for her and especially not from men. She smiled in thanks and ducked inside. He closed it after her and got in the front seat without a word to Olly.
"Please." Olly begged for something.
"There will be a statement, Oliver." Ellie said and got in the seat next to Hardy. Then they drove off. They had to alert the family.
—————————————————————————
They pulled up to the Latimer house and Hardy asked, "Are they all in here?"
"Sir. I can lead with this family." Ellie offered.
"No."
"I know them." Ellie said.
"How many deaths like this have you worked?" Hardy asked.
"You can't make it better. Don't try."
"You don't know how I work." Ellie said.
"L/n. What are the probabilities of Danny's death?" Hardy said.
"The most likely premise is abduction. Was he taken, and if so, then by whom? The statistics say that it was most likely by someone he knew. You need to watch their movements, their reactions, every single one. I can only do so much, but you know them personally. Any behavior that doesn't make any sense, you should tell DI Hardy or me."
"Okay." Ellie said, and Y/n started to unbuckle as her seatbelt and get out. "I'm sorry, if you don't mind me asking, how many of these have you done?"
"Quite a few. I specialize in crimes like these against children. I may be young, but I've been doing this for six years and I am more than competent for this job."
"I wasn't questioning your competence." Ellie denied.
"Yes, you were. You're just being polite by not voicing it, but you're thinking it. You're thinking that I can't be this young and be truly competent for this case. But let me tell you that my career was fast-tracked, and there is a reason for that. I am no less capable than an older officer may be, more perhaps."
"Wha-what does that mean?" Ellie asked but Y/n was already getting out of the car.
Hardy raised his eyebrows and got out of the car, soon followed by Ellie.
When they knocked on the door, Danny's father, Mark Latimer, opened the door. Hardy shook his hand while Y/n smiled solemnly and waved awkwardly again.
The whole family was waiting for them, their grief suspended with their uncertainty of who was found on the beach. Beth was standing up, staring out the back door. Danny's older sister, Chloe, sat on the couch with Danny's grandmother, Liz Roper.
"Morning." Hardy said and cut right to the chase. "I'm Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, this is Officer Y/n L/n from the National Crime Agency, and I think, you know DS Miller. Why don't you take a seat? We need to talk about something."
"Yeah." Mark said, hollowly.
Hardy went to fetch a chair and returned with two, one for him and one for Y/n. She briefly paused again before sitting down in it, glancing at Hardy, momentarily before she turned her attention to the family. She knew these moments. These suspended-in-grief moments where it was Schrodinger's Cat. Danny was both dead and alive until they broke the news and opened the box to reveal that the poison had killed the cat and that it had been Danny's body on the beach.
Liz sat with her arms crossed, leaned forwards with a cross necklace on, Chloe sat back, shrunken back on the couch, her whole world that had previously just been about growing up, school, and boys was about to come crashing down when she learned the brother she had taken for granted was gone. Beth sat literally on the edge of her seat, her hands folded on her lap, axniety written on her face with... maybe just the slightest bit of hope that they would tell her that it wasn't Danny. Mark sat between Beth and Chloe with one arm around his wife and his other arm around his doaughter, looking numb and in shock, just as uncertain how to feel as he was uncertain if it really was Danny and he was hoping so much that it wasn't.
Hardy sat down in his chair and started, speaking with gentleness and more than just sympathy but empathy. "The body of a young boy was found..."
"Let him tell us, please." Mark said, breathlessly.
"I saw his shoes!" Beth interjected.
"Plenty of kids have those shoes." Mark tried to reason and nodded to Hardy, "Sorry, you talk."
Hardy nodded and broke the news, still speaking in the gentle tone, "We believe it's Danny's body."
The box was open. The news crushed any hope the family had had that it hadn't been Danny.
Beth struggled not to burst into tears and she looked at Ellie for complete confirmation. "Who is it, Ellie? Was it him?"
When Ellie didn't protest but remained silent with tears in her eyes as she nodded, Beth started to sob and hyperventilate. Mark took her hand, and Chloe and Liz joined in holding their hands as the family grieved at the sudden passing of the young boy. Mark wrapped an arm around Beth and an arm around Chloe as both women started to cry.
Y/n's mind rebelled against her will and forced her to recall when she woke up... her aunt Iris sat by her side with baby Isobel in her arms, just a few months old by the time, Y/n finally got to meet her. Y/n had known... she knew that Jasmine was dead. Iris couldn't get the words out as she choked on the tears, and Y/n just nodded, understanding the horrible news. She had known there would be no saving Jasmine, but because of what she did, Isobel got to live.
Once the grief had settled in, Ellie went to make the family some tea. And Beth asked Hardy, "Was it an accident? Did he fall?"
It wasn't a good idea to confirm this to the family without a proper autopsy.
"We don't know yet. Can you think why he might have been up on the cliffs last night or this morning?" Hardy asked.
"He wouldn't have been." Beth said.
"Well, he obviously was." Mark said.
"He didn't have any reason to be." Beth rephrased
"How was Danny over the past few days?" Y/n asked.
"He didn't kill himself if that's what you're suggesting."
"Ellie said the same thing. I'm a behavioral analyst. I study the behaviors of criminals and..." She hated using the word 'victim'. "The people the crimes have been committed against. I need to know how Danny's been."
"He's been just... normal." Beth said.
"He wouldn't kill himself. He knows he can talk to us about anything." Mark said as Chloe sat beside her father again.
"And you last saw him when?" Hardy asked.
"I looked in on him... about nine o'clock last night." Beth said. "He was laying in bed reading."
"Anyone see Danny this morning?" Hardy asked.
Beth shook her head, "No. He was up and out before anyone else. He's got a paper route... but he didn't turn up for that. Jack, I spoke to him." Beth looked at Hardy and Y/n and explained, "He runs the paper shop."
"Any signs of forced entry or disturbance around the house?" Y/n asked.
"No, nothing." Mark said. "I want to see the body." Nobody replied. "You might be wrong about it being him. So, I want to be sure. I want to see.
—————————————————————————
Ellie took Mark down to the station while Hardy and Y/n searched Danny's room. There was absolutely no sign of any forced entry.
Y/n found Chloe sitting against the wall, hugging her knees.
"You need anything?" Y/n asked, knowing asking if she was okay was stupid. "Water? Chocolate? Ice cream? Pizza?" Chloe gave her a look, "Studies show that fatty foods can make you feel less sad, not that it'll make it go away but that's why it's called comfort food."
"I'm fine."
"No, you're not and it's okay not to be fine." Y/n said as she slid down the wall to sit next to her. She pulled a bag of chocolates out of her bag and offered one to Chloe, she looked at her. "Chocolate is a natural antidepressant, plus it's delicious. What, you don't like chocolate?"
"Who doesn't like chocolate?"
"Only idiots." Y/n joked, and Chloe managed a small twitch of her mouth that hinted at a smile and she took a piece. "They say dark chocolate is better for grief, but it's gross, this-this chocolate's from Belgium. My youngest, she loves chocolate, I mean loves it, she hoards it, I have a hide it. I always give them comfort foods when they're sad."
"You have kids?" Chloe asked, Y/n didn't look too much longer than her, barely a decade.
"Well, they're my nieces. They were my sisters' daughters before... look, I know how you feel, believe it or not." She seemed to be having trouble getting words out. "You know, I lost my sister when I was fifteen too." Y/n said, "She was eighteen. We... I was there and the memory still haunts me and I'm still dealing even eight years later."
"What happened? I-I'm sorry. That was... I'm sorry." Chloe said.
"She... it was a complicated situation, she always tried her hardest to protect me. The big sister and all that. That's what got her killed. She was my best friend, she was always there for me and then suddenly she wasn't and she wouldn't be ever again.
"Does it get better?" Chloe asked.
"I wish I could say it did... but better's not really the word. Easier. More like it. Easier to live with. But I still live with the constant ache that replaced where she used to be. I think about her every day. I've been where you are, Chloe. I used to live in a town like this when my sister was killed, and I feel I should warn you.
"About what?" Chloe asked.
"These following months, in a town like this, I can't promise you it'll be easy, especially when people find out, they'll look at you with pity and they'll expect you to be grateful for it. It'll be hard that all the memories, everything will remind you of him and it won't be easy."
—————————————————————————
Hardy paced in front of a whiteboard with Danny's picture on it.
Y/n and Ellie were the only women in the group that he spoke to.
"Was Danny Latimer abducted? Did someone gain access to the house?" Hardy questioned. Y/n's memory betrayed her again and ventured off to when she was twelve and was abruptly awoken with a rough hand slamming over her mouth to keep her quiet before she saw that disgusting hunger in his eyes and Jasmine's distant pleas for to leave Y/n alone from the other room. "If so, how? If it wasn't forced entry, who has the key? We need to collect any CCTV from a mile radius around the house." Hardy turned to Ellie and said, "Miller, family. Who are they and where were they?"
"Beth had Chloe, their eldest daughter, when she was fifteen. Uh, Mark was seventeen."
"Beth and Chloe were at home watching the telly." Y/n said, recalling the answers to the questions she had asked the family back at the house. "They say they didn't leave the house until school the next morning. Mark was out on an emergency call-out. Apparently, he's the local plumber. He got in around three in the morning. Neither parent thought to check on Danny. Last time either of them saw him was when Beth checked in on him at nine o'clock. Liz Roper, Beth's mother, lives nearby. She was in all evening and Mark's mum lives in Wales."
"Until we're ready, all of this remains confidential. No gossip. Do you understand? All right. Go on."
The Chief Super, Jenkinson, waited to pull Hardy aside to talk to him but not before talking to Y/n, "Officer L/N, your boss wants to speak to you. Line three."
Y/n noticed the uneasy look Jenkinson had. She had learned a little about her past. Y/n slid off the desk. She was sitting cross-legged on it as she felt Hardy's eyes on her. She spun in a semi-flourish and sat down, and picked up the phone, "Hello, boss-man. How's Foxley Hall?" As her boss answered, her eyes shifted to Hardy's hard eyes on her. "Uh... It's a bit crowded here, you mind if I give you a ring somewhere else? Thank you, sir. See you in a minute."
—————————————————————————
As Hardy spoke to Jenkinson spoke, Y/n spoke to her own boss about if she thought Danny's death was related.
"No, sir. I don't think so. Well, whoever put Danny there, placed him there with care and remorse... they never have remorse." Her boss asked if she wanted to come back. "No, sir. I think I'll stay. Danny deserves justice."
—————————————————————————
Y/n walked with Hardy and Ellie on the boardwalk.
"What did Jenkinson want?" Ellie asked.
"Jenkinson?" Hardy asked.
"The Chief Super. I saw you walking with her." Ellie clarified.
"No." Was all Hardy replied with.
"I did, you were having 99s," Ellie said.
"I think he meant 'no' as in he's not going to answer your question." Y/n deadpanned.
"What did your boss want?"
"Asked me if I thought it was serial and if I needed more officers or if I was going back to London?"
"Do you?" Hardy asked.
"Too soon to be sure but I don't think so."
"Then why aren't you leaving?" Ellie asked.
Y/n, similarly to Hardy, didn't answer the question.
"Miller, your son went to school with Danny. Does he know yet?"
"No."
"You need to talk to him."
"Tomorrow. I'll tell him tonight." Ellie said, and then she said, "And sir, do you mind not calling me, 'Miller'?"
Hardy looked at her and frowned, "Why?"
"I don't really like the surname thing. I prefer Ellie."
"Ellie." Hardy tried out as though he had never heard the quite common name before and it was foreign to him, "Ellie." Then he decided, "no."
Y/n rolled her eyes and said, "Do you have any other kids, Ellie?"
"Yes. I do. Fred. He's two."
"Oh." Y/n smiled, warmly.
"Do you have kids?" Ellie mostly meant it as a joke, given her age and the job she had.
"Sort of. Two nieces. I adopted them when... my sister was... " She cleared her throat and looked down, and Ellie's face softened in sympathy while Hardy felt a twinge around his heart. "Thirteen and eight. My sister died when she was in labor with the youngest. Anyways, they're back at the hotel."
"You don't have someone watching them. School's not out yet."
"They get assignments because of my job. We don't have anyone else and I don't tend to trust people enough to let my girls get near them for long, nonetheless, leave them with them when I'm cities away for sometimes weeks at a time." Y/n said with a note of protectiveness in her tone, like anyone dared to would have to get past her first.
Hardy almost let a smile tug at his lips, reminded of how he felt towards Daisy.
—————————————————————————
They stopped at the paper shop to talk to Jack Marshall, who was clearly saddened by the news of Danny's death.
"Jack, we need to ask you a few questions. Danny didn't turn up for his round this morning?" Ellie asked.
"I assumed he was sick."
"Did he often miss his round?" Ellie asked.
"They all do, one time or another."
"How was Danny yesterday?" Y/n asked.
"No different than usual."
"Didn't notice anything on his mind the last few weeks?" Y/n asked.
"He was only in here fifteen minutes first thing. I'm no psychiatrist. Surely, that's your job."
"Yes but I didn't know Danny." Y/n said.
"Are you married?" Hardy asked Jack, suddenly.
"No. Are you?" Jack asked but Hardy didn't answer.
Jack looked back at Ellie and Y/n while Hardy didn't stop staring.
"They brought him in here, Mark and Beth. Three days old, he was. " Jack reminisced and he looked at Hardy, "It's not right."
"No. But sadly, that's how the world is. As tragic as it is, sometimes children die before they can truly become themselves." Y/n mused, heavily, and she felt Hardy examine her. She could tell he was piecing together that her sister must've been young when she died. He wasn't exactly right but he wasn't wrong either.
Jack sympathized... more than that, he empathized, but he didn't let on.
—————————————————————————
Hardy, Ellie, and Y/n met up with the coroner once he had finished on the preliminary autopsy on Danny's body.
"What do you have?" Hardy asked him.
"Superficial cuts and bruises to the face. Traces of domestic cleaning fluid on the skin. Cause of death was asphyxiation."
Hardy turned to Y/n and dryly said, "You were right."
She didn't react as through she had heard. She was fidgeting with her hands. Hardy's brown eyes fell down to her hands, she was scratching the inside of her palm and... her skin was discolored like... a chemical burn, but it was almost all of her palm. Y/n seemed to notice him looking without even looking at him because she hurriedly pocketed both her hands, hiding them from him.
"He was strangled." The coroner continued, solemnly, clearly the autopsy had been harrowing for him, given Danny's age, "Bruising to the neck and the windpipe, and at the top of the spine." Y/n swore sometimes she could still feel their hands against her throat. "The pattern of bruises suggest large hands."
"Male?" Y/n asked.
"I'd think so." The coroner said, "It, um... it would have been brutal." Y/n lost count of how many times they would choke her until she passed out after the third month. "The angle suggests he would have been facing his attacker. They always liked it when she was facing them as they choked her, so she would never know whether or not they'd be the last thing she saw. "Uh... he would have known."
"Any sexual violence?" Hardy asked.
"Mercifully, no."
Y/n felt some semblance of relief for the young boy... that he hadn't suffered as...
"The time of death?" Hardy asked.
"I'd put it between 10 PM, Thursday night and 4 AM Friday morning."
Hardy closed the file and shook the coroner's hand, "Thank you."
The coroner shook Ellie's hand, but when he reached for Y/n, she stepped away and gave an awkward yet polite nod of thanks.
"We don't get these around here." The coroner said. If Y/n had a nickel for every time, she'd heard that. "Make sure you find them."
As they left, Hardy asked Y/n bluntly, "What happened to your hands?"
"I had a bad day." She said, vaguely.
—————————————————————————
They went back to the Latimers' house, where they were all still grieving the loss of the youngest Latimer, taken violently from them, far too young. They had to let them know what happened.
"We... have some preliminary findings." Hardy told them once they entered, after Beth numbly let them back in. He spoke in the same gentle and understanding voice that told Y/n that he, too, was a parent, "We are treating Danny's death as suspicious." Beth gasped, horrified, as Liz grasped at her heart at the news. "We think he may have been killed."
"I should have checked on him before I went to bed. If I'd checked..." Beth said.
"Beth, this is not your fault." Ellie reassured her. "Whatever happened, this is not down to you."
"You can never predict when these things happen. You'll drive yourself insane with all the 'what if's and the "I should have's." Y/n said in a calm tone but her words were heavy, telling Hardy that she tortured herself with those. "This is no one's fault except for the person who did it."
"I promise... we will find the person responsible." Hardy promised. Beth sobbed as Mark went to her to embrace and comfort her. "You have my word."
"He's a little boy!" Beth sobbed, and Chloe went to her room so she could call her boyfriend; she had to get out of the house.
—————————————————————————
They stopped at a gas station. Hardy looked at Ellie. "You okay?"
"I'll be better once I've eaten something." Ellie said. "You two want anything."
"No." Hardy said.
"I need to call my girls." Y/n said, and she started to unbuckle her seatbelt.
"Do you think other kids are in danger?" Ellie asked, and she turned to look at Y/n, "You said Danny's killer is likely remorseful."
"Just because a killer is remorseful doesn't mean they won't do it again." She sighed. "I don't know if any other kids are in danger. It's just too soon but you should keep your son indoors until we get more information." Then she got out of the car as she called the only non-work contact she had on speed dial.
Hardy's head tilted as his eyes went to the car side mirror, where he could see Y/n where she was leaning against the car, her hair blowing messily in the beach air as she had to keep brushing and irritatedly batting it out of her face. She clearly wasn't used to being in a beach town. She was definitely a city girl. There was something... about her. He had never worked with an NCA officer before but he was pretty sure they weren't supposed to be like her. He could tell there was a trauma behind those E/C eyes, he didn't know if it had happened on the job or not but she had definitely seen things. He could tell in the small things. How she hesitated and looked confused when he held the car door open for her and pulled up a chair for her, something that was just a natural instinct for him to do for another human being, but it had clearly taken her aback as though she wasn't used to common decency.
He knew that her sister had died in labor, but he could tell there was something about it she wasn't saying, not that he wanted her to go into detail. He noticed that she was not as happy as she pretended to be, not that she had smiled too much, but she wasn't her true self when she talked, or maybe she was, just as much as she was her true self when she thought no one was looking.
He could chalk all of this up to her being traumatized by her sister's death... except for those burns... they looked like chemical burns. And he knew that she didn't have to be here but she was choosing to stay.
Hardy got out as Y/n took her phone away from her ear. He needed some air.
Y/n looked up at him and then bent her head down, looking down. She was nervous to be alone with him, he realized. But he wasn't sure if it was because of her trauma or just social anxiety—he got social anxiety, that's for sure.
"How are your girls?" He asked, thinking of Daisy and how we wished he could talk to her every day, not just that but see her.
"Fine. Just making sure, they don't eat chocolate cake for lunch. My youngest, she'd eat chocolate cake for breakfast, lunch, and dinner if I didn't stop her."
Hardy's lip betrayed him, and he almost smiled.
Y/n looked up and a teasing smile lit up her face but still it didn't seem to fully reach her eyes, just enough to fool ordinary people who didn't know to look for those subtle microexpressions.
"Was that a smile?"
"No." Hardy refused to admit.
"You smiled." She sang.
"No, I didn't." He shook his head.
She smiled at him and he tried not to look at it. "Fine. I'll keep your secret." She teased and then she said, "How many do you have?"
"What?" He asked, growing internally socially anxious as this seemed to be crossing into small talk region, and he hated small talk... and social interactions.
"Kids. How many kids you got?" Y/n asked.
"How'd you know I got a kid?" He questioned. He didn't doubt her capabilities, despite her age, she had proven to be on point so far, perhaps that's what made him anxious about her, that she can read what he tries so hard to hide.
"You looked at the Latimers with sympathy only a parent would know. Especially a parent who doubled as a cop. Like you spent every moment since they were born terrified that one of the world's monsters would hurt them."
He hesitantly nodded, uncomfortable. "A daughter. Daisy. She's fifteen. Lives with her mum." There was a great sadness in his words, he clearly he could see her more often.
Y/n searches his face with her eyes, and he anxiously wonders what she's deducing. What she's deducing is that if his daughter was fifteen, then when the Sandbrook case happened, his daughter would've been twelve—exactly the same age as that girl's.
There's something both familiar and foreign about the officer, and it unsettles Hardy. She had a teasing manner not unsimilar to his ex-wife's, who had a way of getting under his skin, but Y/n seemed much kinder than Tess, that was the foreign part. Tess didn't get emotionally involved in the Sandbrook case, not like he did, something that had added to his anger towards her, how could she have been so careless when their daughter was the same age? But he could tell that Y/n was already emotionally involved into Danny's death. She didn't show it, she didn't show much emotion but he could tell she felt it.
"What exactly did you mean earlier, that there was a reason your career was fast-tracked?" He questioned.
He knew he was ruining the moment... whatever this moment was... honestly, even he was shocked at times that he was married and had a kid with his social skills.
Y/n didn't curl into herself, her walls didn't go up. She seemed to know that he was trying to ruin the moment so he could run away from it and hide behind his badge. She maintained a playful, almost mischievous but not malicious glint in her eyes as the stupid, stupid sun shined rays of light behind her.
"If I told you that now how would I maintain my mysterious allure?" She teased.
Hardy was pretty sure his brain was short-circuiting and was actually glad when Ellie came back and he was able to hide behind the case again.
—————————————————————————
When they got back to the station, Y/n's phone rang and she picked it up to see a picture of a very pretty girl in her early teens that you just knew would one day turn into a beautiful woman, but she was making a silly face with her tongue sticking out.
She stepped aside and asked, "Heather? Is something wrong?"
Behind her, Mark had come up to the gate between the street and the station parking lot as Heather explained what she had found on Twitter, with cartoons playing in the background as Isobel watched TV.
"Ellie!" Mark called, making Y/n turn as she continued to listen to Heather on the phone.
"Mark?" Ellie asked.
"You just announced it without even telling us. Is that how it's done?" Mark asked.
"What are you talking about?" Hardy asked.
"Everyone knows now, don't they!?" Mark shouted. "Eh!?"
"Danny's name was released on Twitter." Y/n said, telling him what Heather had just told her.
"Oh." Hardy actually growled and stormed past Y/n, seething.
—————————————————————————
Ten minutes later, after Hardy was chewed out for what he had absolutely no fault in, he stormed into the bullpen, shouting angry Scottish.
"FOR GOD'S SAKE, BLOODY TWITTAH! THESE PEOPLE'S LIVES HAVE BEEN DESTROYED, AND NOW OUR INCOMPETENCE HAS MADE IT WORSE! THINK WHAT WE HAVE TO DO NOW TO REBUILD TRUST THERE!" He glared at the officers with the utmost hate, like they had personally killed Danny themselves, "Who told the journalist?"
Ellie hesitantly raised her hand, willingly taking the brunt of her idiotic nephew's mistake. "I think it might have been me."
Hardy turned towards her and he made a guess. "Your nephew?"
"He saw Danny's sister at the beach. I didn't tell him anything. I told him not to publish. He's a little shit." Ellie said and Hardy shook his head in disappointment. "I'll rad the riot act and I'll explain to the family."
"Go away." Hardy said, softly, and he turned and retreated back into his office.
Y/n walked into another room and rang the Echo's phone number so she could furiously tell the editor what her journalist had done.
—————————————————————————
Y/n went into Hardy's office twenty minutes later, once she felt he may have run out of steam.
"Uh, there'll be a press statement outside in thirty minutes. Have you done one before?"
"Yes." He said, blankly
"Good. So I don't have to..." She I don't think Ellie told him anything, really. You shouldn't be so hard on her."
"Shouldn't I?" He challenged, raising his eyebrows.
"No, who you should be yelling at is her nephew. I'd like to wring his throat right now."
"Now do you?" He asked in the same Scottish monotone, rather causal, when this NCA officer just threatened to strangle someone.
"This isn't the first time some journalist who thought that violating a... v-victim's family to make a name for themselves without thinking of the consequences, about the lives they could be destroying and... someone ended up killing themselves and driving the rest of the family out of town forever." Hardy noticed how she spat out the word 'victim' like it was poison in her mouth.
"Oh? When was this, now?" Hardy asked, leaning back in the chair, keeping cool and causal, trying to find out more about this mysterious officer. He wasn't very good at cool or casual.
"At some point before now." She deadpanned, vague and unhelpful... and rather sarcastic. She wasn't easy to get information out of. "But Ellie is not at fault. Olly Stevens is determined and didn't leave that beach for hours, and spotted Chloe paying respects to her brother. He's clearly not stupid because he put two and two together and ignored what his aunt said. This is his fault and he should hope he doesn't get sued for this."
She spoke with calm determination and passion that Hardy could tell that under her calm, she was as furious as he was.
—————————————————————————
Thirty minutes later, Hardy gave the press conference, confirming the details.
"This is a short statement to confirm that this morning, the body of an eleven-year-old child was found on Harbour Cliff Beach at Broadchurch. The body was subsequently identified as Daniel Latimer, who lived in the town. We are treating his death as suspicious. Our investigations are continuing and there'll be a full briefing later this evening. We ask that the media respect the family's privacy at this time. Thank you very much."
—————————————————————————
At the end of the work day, Hardy approached Y/n and said, "You're staying at the Traders hotel too." It wasn't a question.
"Yeah."
"Come on. I'm giving you a lift. Don't argue." He said and walked off without another word, leaving Y/n taken aback and confused.
—————————————————————————
The car ride was silent. Hardy wasn't striking up any conversation, and Y/n seemed on edge. He had a feeling it was because he was a man she had just met that morning, and surely in her line of work, she had seen the very worst of men, the kind that made him ashamed to be a man.
This was the kind of hotel where the room keys were checked out when you left the hotel, to hang behind the front desk until you checked back in.
This forced both Hardy and Y/n to interact in some non-work-related human socialization. Something neither of them were particularly fond of, funny considering their jobs
"Hello." The owner of the hotel, Becca Fisher, a pretty young blonde woman with an Australian accent, she had to be a few years older than Y/n, and she was pretty enough that even Hardy clocked this, said as Y/n smiled half-heartedly in greeting.
"Hi." Hardy said.
"Long day?"
"Yeah."
Y/n tried to move off, but Becca stopped her.
"Oh, um, Officer L/N..."
"Y/n, please. I'm not on duty at the moment and even then I don't like being called that." She sighed.
"Y/n," Becca smiled politely, "this came in for you." and she handed Y/n an envelope. She glanced it for a moment and looked away from it at once in exasperation and shoved it into her leather jacket pocket. While she did this, Becca got a key and handed it to Hardy.
"It's really tragic. Can't bear to think what the family must be going through. We're all in shock." Becca said.
"Well, just... try to let the family have their space, it's already been ripped away from them to some extent. I wouldn't want to taze someone after being in town for less than twenty-four hours. Well, I say 'want'." It wasn't until her lips quirked did Becca realize she was joking, trying to alleviate Becca's sadness, and smiled. "Uh, ahem, my girls didn't cause any trouble, did they? I told them to stay in the room but... they're them."
"Uh, 'Izzie' came into the bar before the other one brought her back to the room but other than that, no." Becca said.
"Looking for sweets?" Y/n drawled, "Yeah, she does that." She had an exasperated tone like she had warned her time and again to stop and would again when she got to the room.
Becca stopped them before they could go further into the hotel, "Actually, um, do you think the beach will be open tomorrow? I... only so I know what to tell the guests."
"I don't know." Hardy said.
"Probably not." Y/n said.
"It's just I've had an early check-out and a cancellation just tonight. So..."
"Yeah, a child death tends to put people off." Y/n deadpanned, morbidly and then she looked through the doorway to the bar and suddenly said in a louder voice, "What in the hell is Ellie's shithead nephew doing here? Trying to tempt fate?"
"Oh, sorry." Becca said, remembering now, "There's two people waiting for you two in the bar.
Y/n was already glowering at Olly with a murderous rage as she and Hardy went in.
Maggie, the editor, looked at her journalist protégé and prompted, "Well, go on." She wasn't going to hold his hand and do it for him.
"I was wrong to post that news. I'm sorry." Olly said.
Something shifted in Y/n's eyes and the rage somewhat dissipated but there was still a lot there. The last journalist never apologized. Just fanned the flames.
"I should hang him by the bollocks from the town hall spire." Maggie said.
"Should? Can't you?" Y/n asked, not breaking eye contact from Olly who couldn't hold it.
"You must be Officer L/n who yelled at me over the phone, and I gave him the talking to I promised. All reporting on this will come through me now. The Echo works with the police. I'll... I'll speak to the Latimer family. Give them our apologies."
"Apologies? He should get on his knees and beg for their forgiveness." Y/n said, "You had no right to do that. Danny was a minor. He was eleven. That gives him the right of anonymity until we're ready to release his name—until his family is ready for the town to know. And you took that away from them. It's disrespectful to the police. It's disrespectful to you. It's disrespectful to your own aunt, DS Miller. And most importantly, it's disrespectful to Danny and his family, who now are going to have to deal with everyone suffocating them with pity."
Olly hung his head in shame, but Y/n wasn't done.
"Ellie's son was Danny's best friend. He eleven too?"
"Tom. Nearly twelve, actually." Olly nodded.
"What if it were Tom on that beach and someone released his name?"
"They wouldn't live when Aunt Ellie got their hands on them?" He guessed, "I... I wouldn't be too happy either. I'm sorry."
"You're lucky, the Latimer family isn't suing you. Not us, not the Creek Echo! You!" She said, and then she said, "Can I make a request? I want him," She pointed at Olly, "To go and personally apologize to the Latimers. I want you to drive down to their house and apologize to this mourning family for making their grief public without their consent. I want you to own up to it. And I want you to tell them that Ellie Miller did not confirm it to you, so they should hold no resentment for the suffocating pity people are going to smother them with on her and to the police, because you very well could've damaged our case in giving Danny the justice he deserves."
Olly seemed genuinely ashamed as he wouldn't make eye contact. When she spoke again, she wasn't speaking in a tone with restrained but potent rage anymore. She spoke in a gentle yet firm tone to get through to him.
"You got rejected today, didn't you? From a newspaper?" She asked.
Olly looked up in surprise and furrowed his brow. "How did you..."
"It's what I do. I analyze behavior, and I know journalists, and I've gotten a read on your aunt in the past twelve hours. She's the responsible sister to your..."
"Mother."
"Your mother is irresponsible, and you're desperate not to be like her. But there are consequences for your actions. This could've not only ruined our investigation,n but it could've ruined your aunt's career, she's already convinced that it is ruined, and if you keep up with that kind of behavior, well, I reckon newspapers don't exactly want a journalist who gets them in trouble with grieving families. You're determined and intelligent, and you clearly got what a lot of journalists don't have—compassion, you're here and you're owning up to your mistake, and I can tell you're genuinely ashamed. A lot of journalists don't have that. They only care about themselves. If you aren't careful, the stories you send out could ruin someone's life or even end it. Do you understand?"
"Yes, I'm sorry. I won't do it again." He promised.
"I should hope so because if you do, I'll be coming down to the Echo myself. And you haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg of what I'm capable of." Her eyes softened, "Good luck with your applications. Don't let something as foolish as nativity ruin your potential, but don't let it jade you like most others."
Then she turned and walked off. Hardy looked back at them, rather impressed with the wisdom and kindness that had come from that scolding. He looked at Olly and said, "Stay out of my way."
Olly nodded, and Hardy walked off to his room.
—————————————————————————
Later that night, everyone had to go back in.
Y/n was getting off the phone with Heather. "I should be home before dinner. I'll pick up something. Text me what you two are in the mood for, gotta go. Hey, I love you both. Bye." She hung up and sat beside Ellie. "That the footage from last night?" Her eyes flickered up and eyed Hardy, noticing he was wearing a different suit. A very subtly nicer one. Same black blazer, same black tie. But nicer material. He looked good in it but it still didn't hide the weariness of him.
"Different suit?" She asked.
"Press conference in ten minutes. Jenkinson wants you there. I'll give you a lift." Hardy said and he noticed a slight movement of her brows, furrowing just slightly in confusion.
"Uh, Gallifrey. Look at this." Y/n said and he gave her a bewildered look. "Ellie got the CCTV from, where the hell is this? It all looks the same."
"Town center last night." Ellie said.
Hardy walked over and Ellie pushed play. The jittery footage played, showing a young boy around eleven with dark hair skateboarding down the empty road.
"Is that Danny?"
"It matches his clothes and his height." Ellie said. "It looks like his skateboard. He wasn't abducted."
"He snuck out. Why? Where was he going? Who was he meeting?"
"And where's his skateboard? Or did I miss that and all your grumbling?" Y/n asked.
"No, you didn't." Ellie said as Hardy gave her an irritated look. "Oh and another thing: I was checking through the list of belongings recovered from Danny's body and at home and there's no mobile phone. He definitely had one because he and Tom, my son, had the same model, virtually identical."
"It isn't there?" Hardy asked.
"No."
"Check with the family." Hardy said, "Come on, L/n." Y/n rolled her eyes and got up to follow before a single-worded praise went to Ellie. "Good."
Y/n got on the phone as she followed him, "Hey, Heath. I'll be a little bit late. Just try to keep your sister from demanding sweets from strangers." They got in the car, and Hardy saw her face fall in a deadpan, "Oh, you'll try? Great. Thanks. Yeah. Yeah, I'll pick up a pizza if this town is big enough for a pizza place."
—————————————————————————
Hardy and Y/n sat down in front of the camera as Jenkinson said, "I'm going to hand over now to our senior investigating officer, DI Alec Hardy."
Hardy looked like he had never smiled in his life.
"What advice do you have for the people in the town, particularly parents?" Maggie asked.
"The crime rate in this area is one of the lowest in the country. Um, this is a terrible anomaly." The door squeaked as it opened, and a pretty woman with dark hair entered and seemed to cause a distraction to Hardy. "Um, we are in the early moments of what might be a complex investigation." He knew that woman. Y/n could tell. "Danny's life touched many people, and we'll be looking at all those connections. If you or someone you know has any information, has noticed anything unusual, please come forward now. Um, I'd urge anyone, don't hide anything. Because we will find out. If a member of your family or a friend or a neighbor has been behaving differently in the past days or weeks. Please tell the police, immediately. There will be no hiding place for Danny's killer. We will catch whoever did this."
Personality Notes: Y/n may have a face of sarcasm and statistics, but under that is a woman who was deeply traumatized and is filled with self-loathing over what she has endured and been forced to do in the past.
Hogwarts House (this is the one I have in mind): Burnt Hufflepuff (I am a Hufflepuff, personally. I'd love to explain what a burnt Hufflepuff is but I tend to get sidetracked very easily—I'm ADHD—and it's too long to put in here, so Google it, it should pop up right away.)
Occupation Specialties: Violent crimes against children; Child trafficking; Sexual assaults; any crimes related to the Barrow couple
Disorders: PTSD; Severe Depression; Insomnia
Inspiration: Spencer Reid (some aspects such as being empathetic without being overly emotional and remaining analytical, germophobia, not mentioned but the reader is a genius and she so successful so young in life like Reid); There are also clear similarities between the main character here and my main character in my Spencer Reid slow burn story, Valentia, named Zoe Noble-Valdez (who has an OC as her father, whose faceclaim is David Tennant, too.) But I can't really state those without spoiling them, as they'll be revealed slowly over the series.); Chloe Decker (I want a similar dynamic between the reader and her girls but also a bit like Mazikeen's)
Notes: The UK does not have a direct equivalent to the BAU which seems odd to me but the closest I can find is the SCAS which stands for the Serious Crime Analysis Section which is why she works with that part of the National Crime Agency.
Note 2: Also, I am American so I do not really have a great understanding of dialect or slang in the UK so Y/n may use more American slang and I directly tried to leave some of her dialect more... ambiguous, even though Y/n is from the UK.
Officer Y/n L/n is a forensic psychologist-slash-criminal profiler for the National Crime Agency (NCA) for the Serious Crime Analysis Section (SCAS) who specializes with crimes against children so when eleven-year-old Daniel "Danny" Latimer is murdered in the otherwise sleepy, idyllic town of Broadchurch in Wessex, Dorset, she arrives rather quickly with her nieces-slash-adopted daughters and meets DI Alec Hardy and DS Ellie Miller. They are surprised that this twenty-four-year-old is so far in her career and has enough experience under her belt. Alec Hardy finds himself taken aback by her when he finds her to be unpredictable; just when he thinks he has her pinned down, she surprises him. She is compassionate yet matter-of-fact. She is understanding yet perceptive of deception. She is deeply intelligent yet humble. She is professional yet sarcastic, and… he could swear she's flirting with him at times. But it turns out there's even more to Y/n than meets the eye, and it turns out she is just as broken and traumatized as Hardy is.
Alec Hardy x Reader (Slow Burn)
Broadchurch Rewrite
Here are a list of my favorite Spencer Reid fics. I don't do reblogs on this blog because I feel that it can clutter up a blog when you're trying to find the blogger's things but I also wanted to share my favorites, so I think I'll do some rec lists. This is just some that are currently my all-time favorites at the moment. I have a lot of them so this list may not be all of them but some of them. I have a separate private blog where I have over 80 drafts of rec fics but those are just for myself, just because I have so many likes that I can't find the ones I want when I want to so I may copy some and bring them public here. Thes are mostly ones that I've liked and reliked just so they'll be a the top of my likes list (is that annoying to the bloggers?)
I purposely kept the angst and smut fics on here to a minimum on this one but I may update this list or create more. The draft lists I have are more according to the subject matter of the fic so if anyone would like that I could do that. There's also a lot of fic writers that I didn't mention on here so I think I'll do a list of my favorite Spencer Reid fic writers.
Fluff -- 🍬
Angst -- 😢
Smut -- 💦
Smut-like/Mention of smut -- 💧
Drinking -- 🍺
Drunk -- 🥴
Secret Relationship -- 🔒
Post-Prison Spencer Reid -- ⚖️
BAU!Reader -- 🕵️♀️
Trigger warnings/Blood/Involved in a case -- 🩸
Drugs/Spencer's drug addiction -- 💉
Dad!Reid (I LOVE SPENCER AS A DAD! I MEAN, WHO DOESN'T!) -- 👶
Slow Burn -- ❤️🔥
Cat Adams -- 🐈⬛
One-Shots
My Girl -- 🍬💧 -- @reidslibrarybook
Infestation -- 💧🔒🕵️♀️ -- @reidslibrarybook
Suspenders, Ties, Cuffs -- 💧🍺🥴 -- @reidslibrarybook *I love drunk Spencer. He's just so funny*
Rib Cage -- 😢🩸 -- @imagining-in-the-margins
Don't Go -- 😢💦💉 -- @moon-light-jukebox
Germs -- 🕵️♀️😢🩸💦 -- @moon-light-jukebox
Tease -- 🕵️♀️💧💦1️⃣0️⃣ -- @moon-light-jukebox
I've Got My Eye On You -- 💉😢💧 -- @unseededtoast
Exposed -- 🍺🥴🔒 -- @gf2bellamy
Drunk -- 🥴🍺 -- @gf2bellamy
Reid My Lips -- ⚖️😢💧 -- @fortheloveofwonderland
Multi-Parter
All I Do is Try Try Try, I'm Still Trying Everything -- ⚖️🕵️♀️💧 -- @pencil-n-pen
The Holiday -- ⚖️💦 -- @g4rvez-r3id (There is currently no part two)
That Wicked Love Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, They Never Will, Unconventional-- ⚖️😢👶🩸💧💦 -- @aperrywilliams
Don't You Want Me? -- 🍬💧💦 - @nereidprinc3ss (I think I was accidentally blocked (I never directly interacted with them other than liking their posts, so I have no other understanding for why I was blocked) and I have no other way of contacting the owner of this blog so I can't link the masterlist of this series and I had to type out the full blog name. This was my all time favorite series before I was blocked though.)
A Muted Shade of Green -- ❤️🔥🩸🐈⬛😢💦 -- @dalamjisung
Spencer Reid x OC (This one is not directly a fic but it's like stills-version of one. I don't think there's a masterlist so I just put the blogger's tag link for it to see the story in chronological order just scroll to the very bottom and go up from there.)
Spencer Reid and Alison Strauss -- 🍬💧😢 -- @marril96
*I haven't updated lately because I was working on Valentia (My Spencer Reid x OC fic) on my Wattpad account, but I just finished the first book (seasons one to seven) and I'll start uploading them here soon.*
Summary: The BAU are supposed to have two weeks off but a psychotic killer has other plans and forces the team to play in his elaborate fantasy game to rescue a missing girl but what will he do when they break one of the rules?
Warnings: Killing, Blood, Decapitated heads, Isobel Noble and her daughters, Single mother of four with no mention of any fathers.
Cast: (Gifs/Pictures on Archive of Our Own and Wattpad Only)
Amelia Noble (Ten years old) — Caitlin Blackwood
Ophelia Noble (Eight years old) — Sadie Sink
Astrid Noble (Six years old) — Lexi Rabe
Effie Noble (Five years old) — Zoe Colletti
"There is no evil in sorcery, only in the hearts of men." — Merlin (Colin Morgan)
Zoe tossed and turned in her bed. Her heart was racing, she was sweating. In her dreams, she kept hearing her sister, she was crying and then suddenly Zoe shot up in bed, clutching her heart as it raced as if she had been attacked. She felt like the room was spinning, she stumbled out of bed, she moved through the room in the dark expertly, even in this state she was able to move around the dark as well as she could in the day as she had been trained. There was an intense pain in her chest, she made her way to the bathroom and stood in front of the sink, panting heavily.
——————————————————————————————————
Two weeks later, the whole BAU team was actually given two weeks off.
"Morgan, your friend's resort better be as nice as you say it is." Elle was telling Morgan.
"Hey, I never said it was his. He just manages the place, but trust me when I tell you it is off the hook." Morgan said, "Hot sunny days, cool breezes at night, never-ending tropical drinks with the little umbrellas and nothing but young, beautiful adults looking to make vacation memories."
"Male and female, right?"
"Elle, two weeks of pure heaven."
"I can't imagine what two weeks away from this place is going to feel like." Elle sighed as they came back to their desks.
"Well, you know, you better thank your man upstairs for making it the whole team. Otherwise, you know they'd find a reason to bring us back up in here." Morgan said, referring to Hotch,
"Why? They got other teams."
"Okay, you can go on believing that if you want to, but I am not answering my cell phone." Morgan said as Spencer came back to his desk.
"Okay." Elle chuckled and clinked her mug with his.
"Oh, there he is." Morgan said and walked over to Spencer, "Pretty boy. Last chance. I can get my man to swing you a hotel room for practically nothing. Even you might get a little loving out there."
"Thanks anyway." Spencer refused.
"Ah, come on, Reid. Live a little, huh?
I have to go. Uh- I'm going home." Spencer said.
“Zoe, pretty girl, you in?”
"No, my aunt, Dad's sister and her daughters are flying in from Scotland."
"I thought you were visiting your ex." Elle said and Spencer clenched his jaw.
"I'm doing that next week." Zoe said
“Have a good one, guys.” Spencer said, heading off.
"Bye." Elle said.
Morgan turned to Elle, "He look okay to you?"
"He looks about the way I would if I was gonna spend two weeks with my family." Elle said.
Hotch walked down the stairs from his office, saying, "Hey, don't knock family. I'm going to get nothing but for the next three hundred and thirty six hours.
"Good for you."
"Haley's got a list of chores a mile long and I can't wait." Hotch said, "The biggest decision I gotta make is what I'm gonna do first."
"I bet you she has a thought or two about that as well."
"Bring it on."
"I'll be lost in a cabin in the woods for the next two weeks." Gideon
"Sounds like somewhere you'd be murdered." Zoe deadpanned.
"Do not call me for anything. Have a great time. You all deserve a break." Gideon said and then backtracked, "Seriously, don't call."
"Don't worry." Elle chuckled.
Alexander walked down the stairs and said, "Isobel and the girls' plane should be landing in twenty minutes."
"Great. Did she have any more children since the last we saw her?" Zoe deadpanned.
"She only has four."
"That's too many!" Zoe said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Writer Elbert Hubbard said, "No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one."
Isobel was a beautiful thirty-four-year-old woman. She was seven years younger than Alexander and they were close since ever. Their mother had died when Alexander was fourteen and Isobel was seven, leaving them with their abusive father until they ran away. Isobel worked in the National Crime Agency where she worked in a specialized team that focused on behavorial analysis, criminal profiling, and the investigation of serious crimes. Essentially it was the Scottish BAU.
Isobel had four daughters all with her red hair. The oldest was a ten-year-old named Amelia with red hair and blue eyes. The second oldest was a nine-year-old named Ophelia with curly flaming red hair and blue eyes. The second youngest was a six-year-old girl named Astrid with brown hair with a hint of red hair and brown eyes and the youngest was a five-year-old girl named Effie with red hair and blue eyes.
"Zo-Zo!" Effie ran to her cousin and hugged her.
Zoe picked Effie up and said, "You're getting heavy, you know."
"No, I'm not!" She laughed.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
After a four-hour flight, Spencer arrived at his home city of Las Vegas, he didn’t have many pleasant memories here except of those with his mother.
His mother, Diana Reid, had paranoid schizophrenia and for the past six years, she had been a patient at the Bennington Sanitarium since Spencer had admitted her when he turned eighteen as she couldn’t care for herself. Despite that she, like her son, had a high IQ, she used to be a professor of literature and she had shared that love of literature with her son whom she was immensely proud of. Spencer could do anything he wanted, but he chose to make the world a safer place.
When Spencer was ten, his father just left them, so Spencer had to care for his mother while she hadn’t exactly been easy to deal with, what with her episodes and him going to high school when he was twelve.
Spencer stood on the other side of the room as he watched his mother read.
A nurse who recognized him came up to him. “Heard a rumor you were here.”
“How’s she doing?” Spencer asked, without looking away from his mom.
“Schizophrenia’s a lifetime illness. The meds stabilize the worst of her symptoms, but she still has bad days.” The nurse told him as Spencer nodded slightly, “What makes her most happy are her journals and your daily letters. She is exceptionally proud of you.”
A small smile pulled at Spencer’s lips. “She is?”
“Talks about you all the time to anyone who will listen. Staff, other patients. Her journals are filled with the cases you write her about.” She told him, “Calls them your adventures.”
“Mom’s of the belief that you can find adventure all around you if you just look.” Spencer said, “That’s what happens when you’re a professor of fifteenth-century literature.”
“Well, she’s going to be so excited that you were finally able to get here in person.” The nurse beamed.
The twitch of a smile fell from Spencer’s cheeks as guilt rippled through his chest from his heart.
Schizophrenia was highly heritable, the exact percentage of how so was debatable going from as low as sixty percent to as high as ninety percent. Not one gene was considered to be responsible and there was no sure way to prevent it. It was a brain disorder classified as a psychosis meaning that it affects a person’s thinking, sense of self, and perceptions. Schizophrenia was widely perceived to be dangerous due to media and the few violent schizophrenics who become famous such as David Berkowitz also known as the “Son of Sam” and Ed Gein, just to name a few, but schizophrenics are rarely actually violent, arguably less than ten percent of violence is attributable to schizophrenia.
Spencer knew the statistics. When a parent has schizophrenia, the child’s chances go up ten percent and schizophrenia typically develops in male in their late teen to early twenties with a peak at twenty-one to twenty-five years old. Exactly Spencer’s age. And it very well could be triggered by trauma to those who are already vulnerable to it.
"Maybe it's better if I just let her rest today." Spencer said.
"Rest?" The nurse frowned.
"Yeah, I'll-I'll, uh, come back tomorrow." Spencer stammered.
"But, Doctor, she's..." She started.
Spencer held out the wrapped book in his hands to the nurse, "Can you give this to her? It's, uh, Margery Kempe, her favorite."
The nurse took the book from him and glanced down at it before looking back up at her patient's son and protested, "It would really be good for her if you could just...
Please?” Spencer interrupted her, politely, “Thank you so much. Thanks.” And he left, guilt and the constant fear he lived with continuously pounding in his chest.
He loved his mom dearly, she was all the family he had, but it didn’t get rid of the constant fear that one day he’d have to live with what he watched her go through.
When he was young, around six years old, Diana’s schizophrenia had worsened, he didn’t know why, it just did, and she started having these episodes that had terrified him. How was he supposed to know? He was only six. A six-year-old with a brain beyond most six-year-olds had but still just a kid. Diana had still explained her schizophrenia to him and he had understood enough, not to the extent that he did now or even what Diana had known at the time, but he understood enough. He remembered the words she said to him.
“I know sometimes I get confused, but I want you to remember because this is so, so important, I will never ever stop loving you. My love for you is bigger and stronger than a disease of the brain. Love is a world of its own that lives in the heart, not in the head.”
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe had the girls staying over at her place, she had a guest room that she kept just in case… they ever found Zarah. Just the kind of room Zarah would want. A bay window that let in plenty of light, a big closet, plenty of room for her to move when she felt like dancing. Decorated how she wanted… Zoe wouldn’t have allowed pink furniture in her house by hand, so everything was on the line of Zoe’s slightly gothic grunge tomboy and Zarah’s girly-girl-ness. Not consisting of Zoe’s preference of dark colors but Zarah’s preference for light colors. Zoe told herself when they found Zarah, she could get what she wanted and maybe Garcia would want these.
A dark voice in her head always corrected, "if" but she always ignored it. She had to hold onto her faith.
There was a colorful plushy carpet that consisted of bright blue, yellow, and pink that Zoe had only bought because she knew Zarah would’ve loved it. There was a large bed with a blue-purple fluffy comforter, identical to the one at Alexander’s house that looked at though it had remained untouched in five years until you realized there wasn’t a spot of dust in the whole room. The bay window had colorful cushions and pillows around it including a folded pushy pastel blanket.
The girls slept in there, strewn through the room. Effy and Astrid would sleep on the bed while Ophelia would sleep in a sleeping bag on the soft clean carpet and Amelia sleep in the bay window.
Now, the girls were in the room watching TV until it was time to go to bed. Isobel would be staying at Alexander's since there wasn't anymore space in Zoe's place.
Zoe sat at her dining room table that she never actually ate food on, wasn’t that what couches in front of TVs were for? She had some case files in front of her but she was clearly distracted. Her heart kept racing and fluxing but she didn’t think it was related to her heart condition.
"You know your mum used to do that too when she was very stressed." Came Isobel's thick Scottish accent as she came and sat across from Zoe. Zoe looked up, she had braided her hair into four separate braids. Isobel had only been fourteen when the twins were born and Zelena died but she had known her well and she knew that her brother had loved her dearly. "What's wrong?"
Zoe hesitated before saying, "...Zarah. I feel like she's... but I can't do anything..."
"I'm sorry."
"I miss her." Zoe confessed.
"We all do." Isobel told her but she knew it wasn't the same. There wasn't a bond like the kind twins had and Zoe had a way of forming this intense bond with certain people and Zarah was one of them.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Late that night, Garcia was still at the office, playing a game on her personal computer, Camelot, where she would meet up with someone she had met on the game.
He wrote: I have a surprise for you.
Garcia giggled and grinned until her laptop screen went black. The only thing on there were two words written in white: GAME OVER. Then the words vanished and one by one more words showed up with a beep for each one: All Work No Play.
It started disappearing and appearing in different spots on the screen as Garcia processed this, she frowned and repeated the words. "All work, no play?" She started to type but then suddenly the words appeared over and over on her screen as there was a rapid beeping and buzzing sound.
She looked up and saw one of the BAU computers were black with: GAME OVER. All Work No Play.
Garcia's eyes widened as the other computer screens started to do that same thing. The first one had the four words repeating. The same thing spread to the other computers.
"No, no, no, no." Garcia kept repeating as the shock wore off she tried to stop it but nothing was working, "No, no, no, no. Oh, my... No. No."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Isobel had retired to Alexander's place and the girls had fallen asleep, Zoe still remained at the table when there was a knock on the door. Just a simple three-knock knock.
Zoe raised her eyebrows suspiciously. After being kidnapped at least four times, she was wary. She had four girls in the house that she would protect with her life. She grabbed her gun and crept to the door, silently. She looked through the doorhole but there was no one there, clutching her gun, she unlocked the door and opened it. Her eyes immediately went to a simple package. It was a simple box taped with duct tape.
She was no stranger to mysterious packages but the bloody lillies only appeared when she was in or near Boston and his packages were always meticulously packaged with clear tape.
What this box told her was that there was something in the box, they didn't want to be accidentally opened.
Zoe bent down and nudged the box with her gun, there was something somewhat heavy in it. She licked her lips, pocketed her gun and picked up the box, swiftly and brought it over to the table, kicking the door shut behind her which automatically locked.
She put her hand in her pocket and pulled her pocket knife with a clip out and she flicked it open with a soft click. She cut through the duct tape and opened the box.
The first thing she saw was the bloody hatchet with no handle. Things started going off in her head, then she noticed there were pictures underneath. She would deal with that later. She got out her phone and called Alexander.
"Dad, I just got a package. There was a bloody hatchet in it with no handle." There was a crash on the other end of the line as her father fell out of bed. "I'm waking up the girls and getting them out of here."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe had brought the girls to Alexander's to stay with Isobel and Zoe rode her motorcycle to the BAU before her father did by now it was around seven in the morning. There wasn't anyone in the BAU office except for Garcia.
Zoe walked into the part where Garcia mostly resided and stopped, it looked as though Garcia had taken apart the BAU’s computer case, the rectangle box on the floor that sat under the desk. Zoe had made the computer case when she was seventeen and it had been deemed to be more efficient than any one that the BAU could’ve bought. There were computer chips and ribbon cables all over the floor as Garcia furiously used needle-nose pliers to take the case apart as she grumbled, furiously to herself.
"All work and no play, huh? All work and no play? You just wait till I am through with you."
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! What happened here!?" Zoe exclaimed.
"I've been hacked, Zoe! They hacked me! I swear when I get my system up and running again, I am going to track him down!" Garcia shouted. Zoe had never seen her this upset.
"Okay, calm down, Garcia. Give me the tool before you break something and you can't get it back up. Deep breaths." She kneeled by Garcia and took the pliers from her.
"You're right. You're right." Garcia said and then she took some deep breaths that were louder than necessary but very Garcia-like.
Zoe looked down at Garcia's hands and all but shouted, "Why aren't you wearing gloves? What hacker are you, you don't wear gloves when furiously digging around in a computer case! You should be wearing anti-static gloves to protect sensitive electronic compnents from static electricty damage or are you under the impression the computers are only sensitive to coffee?"
"I... I..."
"And there are a bunch of sharp metal edges in there. I don't think your blood has the power that Hulk's does." Zoe scolded her.
"I don't have any anti-static gloves."
Zoe scoffed and got up to move the area and opened a cabinet where there was a safe with an old-school combination lock.
"That doesn't open." Garcia said.
Zoe looked at her and she turned the wheel to the right, then to the left, and then to the right again and it easily unlocked.
“I had your job before you did. This was my office when Dad was on local cases.” She said and she pulled out a toolbox and brought it over. “I made these computer cases.”
"You did?"
"Yeah, when I was seventeen." She said, opening the box. The tools were colorful, a variety of dark and bright colors. "You think the FBI would buy something so retro?"
She handed a pair of pink, green, and white zebra-striped gloves to her while Zoe picked a pair of striped purple gloves.
Zoe noticed Garcia looking at the gloves, oddly. These didn't match Zoe's style. "Those were Zarah's." Zoe explained and Garcia dropped them like they burned.
"Come on, put them on." Zoe said, putting hers on. Garcia put them on.
"Already, tell me what happened?"
"I... I... I was playing a game. Not on the BAU computer on my laptop..."
"Did this game happen to be online?"
"I... y-yes."
"Got it. He hacked your computer through the internet and jumped to the BAU computer." Zoe nodded in understanding.
"I... I thought he liked me..."
"Well, men suck." Zoe said. "And you know what I say, treat everyone you meet online like they're planning on killing you."
The the phone rang, Garcia's irritation came back and she huffed at this distraction from fixing the computer, she got back on the computer chair and slammed her hand on the answer button.
"What?"
"Garcia, I need a rundown on a guy." Morgan's voice said.
"No." Garcia said, bluntly.
"What?" Morgan asked.
"The information superhighway is closed." She told him.
"What are you talking about?"
"Someone had the nerve to run a black hat op into my computers, Morgan. They hacked me. Okay? But you can bet your sweet ass I will find them. I've got honeypot farms hidden behind UML kernel data packets and a first-generation honeynet I personally programmed. My Snort log lists every visitor, every server request, every keystroke on this entire network. If I have to back-hack his IP all the way to the freaking Stone Age, I will find this son of a bitch. Okay? So bye." Garcia raved and then she hung up.
"What's Morgan doin' up? Jamaica is an hour behind meaning it's six in the morning now, you'd think he want to sleep in."
"It's seven? What are you doing here?"
"Someone sent a box with a bloody hatchet with no handle and pictures. I had to
"Oh my God!" Garcia screeched.
Zoe nodded and looked down, "A handless hatchet was the only weapon they found when they found my mom."
The door opened and JJ entered, "Zoe, uh, Alexander said to tell you when Gideon got here. He's here, someone sent him a head."
Zoe got up and pulled the gloves off, dropping them back into the box and followed JJ as Gideon entered the BAU.
"Gideon, I've been trying to call you." JJ said.
"Why?" Gideon asked.
"Someone sent you a head?" Zoe asked him.
"From Jamaica." Gideon confirmed.
"Morgan and Elle are in Jamaica right now. There was a murder. The body was headless. Elle's been arrested for it." JJ said.
"What?"
"Hotch headed down there last night with some Bureau lawyers and a crime scene unit." JJ said, "He should be there by now."
"If you talk to him, have him call me right away." Gideon said.
Yes, sir.
"I was sent a bloody hatchet without a handle and pictures. I haven't looked at them yet. Dad has it."
Gideon's eyes narrowed and his face paled even more. He remembered the scene when they finally found Zelena. The place had been abandoned, she had been left for dead, only recently, meaning they had just missed him. Zelena's body had been coated in sweat and blood from the nineteen blows, in her chest just above her pregnancy bump was a hatchet with the handle broken off.
"I'll be right there." Gideon said.
Zoe nodded and she walked with Gideon and continued to walk when an agent stopped him with some information. Gideon joined Zoe and Alexander in
"Are the girls okay?"
"Yes, I drove them to Dad's, right after I opened the box." Zoe said.
Gideon put on the gloves and removed the hatchet. It was the same kind as the one they found in Zelena's chest.
The pictures below were of each person in the team. Gideon. Hotch. Morgan. Elle. JJ. Garcia. Spencer. Alexander. Zoe. They were clearly taken from a distance but there were two more. Zelena and Zarah.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer entered his mother's sanitarium, hoping to maybe build up the courage to actually face her when the secretary called after him.
"Oh, Doctor Reid?" He looked back at his name being called, "Someone delivered this to the desk last night for you."
Spencer frowned, his teammates didn't even know where he was. Just that he was in Las Vegas.
"What?" He asked and he took the large envelope and opened it to a smaller envelope the kind you would put a business card in, with Dr. Reid written on it, and he opened it and found an old-fashioned black key and a folded-up piece of paper in it.
"She will die unless you save her, Doctor Reid. Call Gideon. He knows." He read aloud.
———————————————————————————
Apparently along with the head was a Nellie Fox card, though Zoe had no idea who that was only that Gideon had mentioned it a few times throughout her life. JJ had been sent a pale clouded yellow butterfly which were indigenous to Europe but mainly Britain. Hotch had given proof that there was no way Elle could’ve killed that man and got her off on the charges.
They had a suspect named Frank Giles who had flown to Flordia and then to Virginia, Arlington and he had a long criminal record. The victim, Marty Harris had been a two-time convicted fetish burglar, and registered child sex offender.
Hotch had gotten a phone call last night before he had found out Elle had been arrested.
They regrouped into the conference room, "So, clearly we have a psychopath intent on drawing us into his game."
"Playing with us." Gideon added.
"Then let's return the favor." Elle said.
"He kept telling us repeatedly to save her. What 'her'?" Morgan asked.
"Maybe, the items he's sent must be some kind of clues." Zoe suggested.
"Let's get them up on the board." Hotch said.
"I got a Nellie Fox baseball card from 1963 and I got a head in a box." Gideon said.
"I got a rare butterfly in a shadow box." JJ said, uncapping the marker to write on the whiteboard.
"And repeated messages to 'save her'." Hotch added.
"I got the decapitated body and a nice visit to the Jamaican Police Headquarters." Elle said, still resentfully.
"Your, uh, tech girl told me something." A Scottish voice said as Isobel strode into the room, "Reid called from Nevada. He's on the way back here with a skeleton key and a note he got, too."
"Uh, who is this?" Morgan asked.
"Uh, Morgan, Elle, JJ, this is my kid sister, Isobel." Alexander introduced.
"Kid? I'm thirty-four years old." Isobel scoffed.
"Why are you here?"
"I'm helping you. My daughters were in your house when that package was sent." Isobel said, challenging Zoe to argue.
"The guy who called me said, 'The second youngest one holds the key'." Hotch interrupted.
"That's Reid." Elle said.
"I got bloody handleless hatchet and stalker pictures of all of us."
"Okay, but wait a minute. UnSubs, they don't contact us this way. I mean, they might taunt us, dare us to catch them, but they don't drag us into their fantasy." Morgan interrupted.
"Why not?" JJ asked.
"Because they're sexual fantasies. I mean, taunting us is a show of power, but making us the object is..." Morgan tried to search for the right word, "I don't know what the hell that is."
"There's something else about the baseball card. Nellie Fox was one of the stars of the 1959 White Sox." Gideon said, "I went to almost every game with my father that year. Fox was my hero. So is it a coincidence that he sends this to me, or does he know how I feel about him?"
JJ turned around, "I collected butterflies when I was a little girl. That's how I knew what butterfly was in the box.
"So then he knows us?" Morgan surmised.
Zoe's memory drifted to Garcia. Could their UnSub be the hacker?
"I got an anonymous message." Hotch said,
"I got a police raid."
"Why'd you get the hatchet?" Morgan asked.
"When we found Zelena, she had..." Alexander's voice broke, he hated to think about it, his sister put her hand on his shoulder so Zoe took over.
"When they found my mom, there was only one weapon to be found a hatchet with the handle broken off stuck in her chest after she was hit nineteen times." Zoe said. It was very quiet for a long time. "That information was never released. I've read every article about Mom's death, about that UnSub, they never mentioned the hatchet. Only the FBI and police involved knew."
"So how did he find out?" Isobel asked.
"And he knew exactly where we were." Morgan said, "Hotel in Jamaica, Gideon at the cabin, Reid in Vegas, you at your homes."
Garcia entered, her rage had by now subsided and had turned into guilt, disappointment and shame in herself. "He got that from the Bureau computers. "Your locations are always in there so they can find you if they need you. And I checked the log. The hacker was definitely in the personnel folders. There were room numbers to the hotel in Jamaica, the address of Gideon's cabin... There's a lot of information in those databases."
"What about my mom's murder?" Zoe asked.
"The digital file was untouched. I don't know how he got that information." Garcia said.
"Have you figured out how he was able to get into the Bureau's computers?" Hotch asked. Zoe looked at Garcia, pursing her lips.
"I'm-I'm still working on that." Garcia choked out, clearly guilt-ridden. Her poker face was useless against profilers.
"Garcia, if you know something...
-No, it's, um... It's just... I..." Garcia struggled to get out, she had never screwed up this badly before. "I was playing a game yesterday. An online game."
"A game?" Gideon asked, confusedly.
"Not on the Bureau computers, sir. On my own personal laptop." Garcia said.
"No, Garcia. No, no, no." Morgan sighed.
"I don't understand." Hotch said.
"Wireless Internet. By wirelessly hooking into the Net here to get online, the hacker could have gotten into her computer first and I doubt her laptop has as much protection as the BAU computers." Zoe explained.
"And he could have gotten into the entire Bureau computer system this way?" Hotch asked.
"Yeah, it's possible." Garcia said.
"J.D. used to do it all the time." Zoe added.
"Playing a game?" Gideon scoffed, "How could you be that stupid? Information, files. You have a responsibility."
"I know, sir. I'm so sorry." Garcia said, struggling not to cry.
"Gideon, she didn't know. She told me. She met this guy on the game. He tricked her." Zoe defended. "She's not a profiler like us."
"But I found him."
"You what?" Elle asked.
"I know who he is, the hacker. His name is Giles. Frank Giles. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, forty miles from here." Garcia said, her voice breaking, "I have his address."
"Garcia, you said Giles?"
When they walked down, "ZO-ZO!"
Effie attacked Zoe with a hug and Zoe saw all four of her cousins there.
"Uh, why is there an army of redheaded children here?" She asked in her usual snark.
"This UnSub knows where we live. The girls are safest here. Now anyone else have any problems with it!?" Isobel asked.
"I-I can watch them." Garcia offered.
"Mummy told us not to go with strangers." Effie said.
Zoe crouched down and smiled at her, "Effie, this is a coworker of mine. A friend. She is the most positive person you will ever meet. She has her own little Batcave and she has a table full of pink little knick-knacks and you four can have all of my sugar stash that you want, okay-okay?"
———————————————————————————
They arrived at Giles' place and as per usual they had Morgan do the door-kicking, apparently that was one of his specialties. But when they got there presumably Frank Giles had a sword in his chest and through the mattress below him and written on the wall with blood was: HERE THY QUEST DOTH TRULY BEGIN.
"He's definitely playing with us." Hotch said as they examined the body.
"His identification checks out." Elle said, "That's Frank Giles."
"There's a big old bag of money sitting right here on the dresser." Morgan noted.
"So Giles took Harris to Jamaica to kill him and then the UnSub killed Giles." Hotch recounted.
"Yeah, but he paid him first." Morgan said.
"And left the cash?" Elle asked.
"Well, he's apparently well-funded."
"He said these were 'unrepentant, bad men'."
"Are we looking for some kind of vigilante?" Isobel suggested.
"No." Gideon shook his head. The bodies are nothing but a way to get us interested. They're game pieces. The killings are secondary."
"It's a chess game to him, Giles and Harris were merely his pawns." Zoe said.
"Well, this guy likes to write things in blood on walls." Elle said as Zoe gave it a distasteful look.
"All kinds of cult and demonic significance to that." Morgan said.
"'Thy?' 'Doth'? 'Quest'? 'Thy quest doth truly begin'." Elle said, "Why start phrasing things like this now?"
"Yeah, all the other messages were in modern English." Hotch said.
"Maybe this is the first one the UnSub actually wrote." Morgan suggested.
"So we're looking for Shakespeare?" Isobel asked.
"What are you doing?" Morgan asked Zoe. "Why are you being weird?"
She was crouched down and looking intently at the blade with her head fully tilted to the side.
"There's something etched on the blade." Zoe said and she read it aloud, "To learn of what should next be done, leave the blade till the hour be none."
"'Hour be none'?" Morgan asked.
"'Leave the blade'." Hotch repeated.
Zoe got up and stepped backwards until she was in the doorway. She remembered when Maze taught her how to read a sundial. Tell the time by shadows.
"The bed's in the middle of the room." Zoe noted.
"Which isn't by chance."
"And maybe the light from here casts a shadow and points to something.
Come on. Are we in the middle of an Indiana Jones movie?" Elle scoffed.
"It's called a sundial." Zoe said, sharply.
"The hour be none."
"Well, midnight is zero-zero hours in twenty-four-hour time. Would that be none?" Morgan said.
"No, midnight wouldn't cast a shadow. There would be no sun. Sundials work by using shadows."
"Hour be none."
"Three PM." Spencer said from behind Zoe and she moved out of the way so he could awkwardly scoot on through, "Hey, guys. Garcia told me where to find you.
"Three PM?" Isobel asked.
"Um..."
"Reid, this is my aunt and my dad's sister, Isobel Noble, she's with the NCA in Scotland. Her dozen children are now living at the BAU." Zoe deadpanned.
"Oh, hi. Nice to meet you." He waved awkwardly as she smiled back, she had been told he didn't like to shake hands, "yeah, three PM. It's medieval. The days used to be broken into hourly intervals, the canonical hours of the breviary. Prime: six AM, terce: nine AM, sext: twelve noon, none: three PM, and vespers: six PM."
"Reid, do not ever go away again." Elle said and Spencer smiled.
"Medieval. That's why the language changed." Gideon said. "Doth."
"Everything this guy does is a clue." Zoe said.
"Okay, but, guys, it's four-thirty-five. What do we do? Leave the blade in till three PM tomorrow?"
"Uh, no." Zoe deadpanned.
"Not if we can block that window out." Spencer said and he turned to a police officer, "Do you have any spotlights in your car?"
"Sure." She said, getting up to go get them.
"Thanks."
When she returned, Zoe had blocked the window and the police officer came back and handed Spencer the light. He thanked her and went to a certain spot in the room and shined the light across the room so it cast a shadow from the sword.
"See, the sun is right here at five PM. Zoe, follow the shadow as I move the light higher." Spencer advised.
Zoe kicked a small table away from the wall and started to tap the wall, making hollow sounds.
"It's hollow." Morgan noted.
"Yeah, most walls are hollow." Zoe deadpanned.
"Definitely an Indiana Jones movie."
"Elle, shut up. I'm trying to listen." Zoe told her as she got lower and there was an almost indecipherable change in hollowness in the tap but she could sense it, "Now that's less hollow." She felt the wallpaper, "It's been replaced."
"Tear it up." Hotch said.
"Wait, what if there's like a trap..." Alexander started to protest.
There was a shout and thud and they found Zoe punched into the wall with her fist and she ripped the hollow wall with her bare hands.
"It's a box." She said.
"Take it out."
"Wait, are we sure that's safe?" Spencer asked.
"What, you think it's a bomb?" Hotch asked, "You think he'd be playing this game just to blow us up?"
"He'd have already done that as long as we've been standing here. We've been here for what feels like two hours which means it's probably been thirty minutes." Zoe said and she took the box out and she placed it on the table.
Morgan tried to open it.
"It's locked. You want me to break it?" Morgan asked Hotch.
"No, we should process it first."
"'The second youngest holds the key'." Gideon recalled.
They all looked at Spencer who emptied his pockets before remembering he had put it in the breast pocket of his shirt and pulled out the skeleton key. He crouched beside Zoe and opened the box. It started playing music. A music box.
"Schubert. The Trout Quintet." Gideon said.
"Five people fishing." Hotch said as Spencer took a card
"Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight." Spencer read.
"Well, that was worth it.
"Did you forget what we said fifteen minutes ago or are too sleep-deprived?" Zoe asked, "Everything this guy does is a clue. There's a tab underneath the lock."
She reached out and pulled the tab and the roof of the box pulled down to reveal a lock of blonde hair held together with a ribbon and a DVD with "Thy quest" scrawled on it.
"Oh, God." Elle groaned.
———————————————————————————
When they got back to the BAU, they watched the video on the DVD.
It showed a desk with a bunch of knick-knacks on it, a number of them seemed to be of medieval things. The UnSub walked around the desk and went to get in the chair. He didn't in it swiftly like one normally would. His body was stiff and he moved to the side to shuffle sideways to get in the chair.
"He moves funny." Hotch noted.
"It's like he's injured or something." Morgan suggested.
Zoe leaned her head in with concentration. "It must be a full body injury, he walks stiffly as if in constant pain, not severe exactly but he's learned to walk in a way that causes him the least amount of pain."
"I assure you, you will all understand in the end why it must be this way. You might even thank me." The UnSub said on the video.
"Don't hold your breath, scumbag." Elle scoffed and Zoe shushed her.
"You know now you're on a quest." He said and the video showed what seemed to be an old-fashioned dungeon with a young blonde woman behind the bars. She was clearly very angry as she threw a book at the UnSub and banged and shook the bars. "A young girl's life depends on the successful completion of it. As you can see, she is quite beautiful and in distress. Now please listen closely, for there is one rule and this rule must be followed. The one rule is, only the members of your team may participate in the quest: Jason Gideon, Alexander Noble, Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, Spencer Reid, Xiomara Noble-Valdez, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia." With each name, a picture of said member showed up, different than the blood-splattered ones in the box, "A quest must be completed in the proper way or it isn't a quest, is it? That's it. One rule. Simple. Now, you will be receiving an item soon that will hold the final clue you will need to finish the quest. You will find you will also need a book which has inspired many an adventure like mine. Believe me when I tell you I truly hope to see you all soon. It will mean a successful end to this adventure for all of us."
"What do we do now?" Spencer asked.
"Well, the lock of hair's being analyzed for DNA. There might be something on file." Hotch said.
"I'll get Video to enhance the shots of the girl." JJ said.
"Let's get the clues up on the board. Maybe we can make some sense of something."
"Wait, we're going to play this guy's game?" Elle scoffed.
"Do we have a choice?
"She's a keeping a girl hostage. If we have to play his game to save her, then that's we'll do." Zoe said, sharply.
Gideon suddenly left, clearly shaken.
"Be right back. You guys keep working." Hotch said and went after him.
Zoe soon followed Hotch to tell him about an idea she had that she could look for, "Hey, uh... Hotch, I could analyze the UnSub in the footage and see if I could come up with a list of possible injuries he may suffer from."
"Are you sure it's an injury?" Hotch asked.
"It's most likely a traumatic injury of some sort from just what I've seen." Zoe said.
"Good idea. You do that." Hotch approved.
Zoe's head turned to the side and she turned back, "Also, Haley's here with Jack."
"Haley?" Hotch asked.
Zoe stepped to the side and let Hotch move past her and he walked down to his wife and son. Haley seemed urgent and distracted as she held a yellow envelope.
"I've been trying to call you, but you haven't been answering your cell." She said.
"Oh, no, my battery died. We just got back. What's wrong?" He asked.
"A man came to the door with something he said you would need right away. That a girl's life depended on it." She said.
"He came to the door?" Hotch said, he had agreed to let Isobel's daughters stay because she seemed determined and there was no one else in their family they'd be willing to watch them but maybe that wasn't such a bad idea.
"Yeah."
Hotch brought Haley and Jack to his office and he gently moved Jack's stroller back and forth to ease his son.
"What's going on, Aaron?"
"Honey, what did the guy look like who came to the door?" He asked.
"Look like? Um, I don't know. Young. Dark hair." Haley said as Gideon entered.
"Did he look injured?" Hotch asked, remembering what Zoe had said about it most likely being a truamatic injury.
"Injured?" Haley asked.
"Yeah. I mean, did he seem injured in any way?"
"No. He was just a guy. He told me what he was giving me, you needed right away, that a girl's life depended on it."
"Well, that's not a normal delivery." Gideon said.
"I know." Hotch agreed.
"What do you mean?" Haley asked.
"Well, they don't come with detailed messages like that." Gideon clarified. "Did he say all these things to you? Were they in a note?"
"No, he said them." She confirmed.
Gideon looked at Hotch, "If he isn't the UnSub, he probably talked to him."
"What's going on?" Haley asked.
"It's the case we're working on." Hotch explained.
"What did he deliver?" Gideon asked.
"Um, a piece of paper with numbers on it." Haley recalled.
"The team's got it. It's in the conference room." Hotch said.
———————————————————————————
The folded-up piece of paper was taped the to clear whiteboard
"My eyes are so heavy, I can barely see it." Elle complained.
"Go home. You haven't slept in over twenty-four hours and they were exhausting hours." Zoe said. She dauhad her various medical books from school on the table as she made a list of possible injuries.
"No way."
"Then drink some of the coffee you guys love so much." Zoe said.
"I think it's a coded message of some sort." Spencer said. "The UnSub said we needed a book, didn't he?"
"Yeah. 'A book that inspired many an adventure'." Morgan recalled.
"Maybe, it's a book code. Zarah and I used to do that with Mom's old books."
"You did?" Morgan asked, "Is that a twin thing? Like twin talk?"
“It’s a 'genius daughters of a paranoid FBI agent’ thing. Dad encouraged us to have a code that only we would understand and to challenge us. We both had high intelligence and found a lot of things understimulating.” Zoe said, she got up, walked to the board, and pointed, “Each one of these sets of numbers represents a particular word.”
"For instance, page one-eighteen, line thirty, word three." Spencer said as Zoe walked back to her chair and sat down. "We need to figure out what the words are and fill in the blanks.
"Yeah, but from what book?" Elle asked.
"I don't know." Spencer admitted.
"The trouble is, it has to be the exact same edition of the exact same book that he used." Zoe pointed out, writing on her list as she examined the video now on her laptop.
JJ entered, "Just got a DNA hit on the lock of hair. Rebecca Bryant. She's been missing out of Boston for two years." She handed Elle a picture of a young sixteen-year-old with blonde hair.
"Two years?,"
"I think she's sick." Zoe said, examining Rebecca on the video
"What?"
“She’s pale and sweaty. Plus, if he’s had for two years in that environment, that’s not good for you. Lack of sunshine increases the risk of Vitamin D deficiency which causes rickets and other bone diseases including osteoporosis. Also high blood pressure. Assuming she doesn’t get fresh air, that can contribute to a range of respiratory diseases including asthma, allergies, bronchitis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, or lung infections, also it can be linked to cardiovascular issues like stroke and heart disease."
"What does all that mean?" Morgan asked, having understood very little of this.
"Which part?" Zoe asked.
"I don't understand any of the medical talk you just said."
"Does it matter?" JJ asked, "none of it sounds good."
"I... the place I was in for those eight months and then those six months, were similar. Old. Stone. Prison bars. At least, she can see, in my eight months, I was... most of the time, my vision of obscured, making me rely on my other senses." She skirted around it. But Spencer knew. She told him. They had put a headbox on her head.
"Guys, how are we supposed to figure out which book this code was copied out of?" Morgan asked.
"I have no idea." Spencer said again. "How's the list of possible injuries coming along."
"There's a lot of traumatic injuries that can cause full body pain." Zoe said, showing her notebook.
Nerve damage from trauma (like a major accident; can cause chronic pain, paralysis, loss of sensation, difficulty with movement, and/or difficulty with coordination)
Complex regional pain syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Severe burns (it would most likely be full body burns; extensive burns can damage underlying nerves, leading to chronic burning pain even after the itial injury heals)
Severe motor vehicle accidents
Major falls
Crush injuries
Spinal cord injuries
"This is too much." Morgan said.
“Well, I’ve ruled out menstruation.” Zoe sassed and sighed, “I’m almost certain that it’s related to nerve damage. Neuropathic pain, or nerve pain for the Morgans in the room, can occur when the nervous system is damaged or malfunctions, causing nerve fibers to send the wrong signals to the body’s pain centers. This pain can feel like stabbing or throbbing, and can affect the entire body.”
An agent named Agent Grant Anderson entered, "Zoe, they did an analysis on the axe that was sent to your house." Anderson didn't really go in the feild, his duties seemed to be mostly grunt work but he was a good agent, nonetheless, and perfectly friendly.
"What?" Zoe asked
Anderson didn't seem to want to meet Zoe's eyes and he handed her the piece of paper, she looked at it and she sighed, dropping it on the table as Anderson made his escape.
"What?"
"That particular axe that was sent to me was made in the year 1985. Same year, Mom died. Same year, Zarah and I were born."
"Are you sure, it looks ancient?" Morgan asked and Zoe gave him a look.
Zoe typed on her computer and brought up the sealed case file for the UnSub who killed her mother.
"The UnSub who... we, or rather, they back then theorized he was obsessed with famous axe murders. Contrary to popular belief, the Borden murder was not done with an axe-axe, well, depending on who you ask. The only possible murder weapon they found a year later, it was the same kind that was used on my mom and she was struck nineteen times. Same as Andrew Borden." Zoe said with a loud tap on a key and it sent it back to the video.
"Is this common knowledge?"
"No. The hatchet wasn't mentioned to the public." Zoe said.
"So how did he get that information?" Morgan asked.
Zoe shrugged and pulled her medical textbook back towards her.
Spencer awkwardly cleared his throat and got back to the book code, "He said we have everything needed to complete the quest."
"The answer's got to be up there somewhere." Elle said, her voice was tired and slightly slurred.
Gideon entered, "JJ, get some reporters here as soon as possible."
"For what?" JJ asked.
"Just say we need help on a new case."
"Is it this? Because he said we had to keep it in the team. Some criminals are very strict about rules." Zoe said but Gideon ignored her.
"Press conference?" Morgan asked.
———————————————————————————
Zoe had finished with the traumatic injuries and was now writing down possible diagnoses for Rebecca along with all possible symptoms.
"A Pale Clouded Yellow butterfly indigenous to Great Britain?" Spencer questioned as Hotch entered the room.
"How's it going?" Hotch said.
"Here's the list of possible injuries the UnSub has," Zoe handed Hotch a few papers stapled together. "I'm now writing down possible diagnoses that Rebecca may have that we should prepare for."
"The answer to what book we need has to be in here." Spencer said.
"Yeah, but we sure as hell can't see it." Morgan said.
"Yet." Spencer said.
Elle was asleep on the couch, Zoe wasn't complaining, this way she'd be quiet.
Hotch walked over to her and shook her shoulder, gently, "Elle?"
"I'm awake." She awoke with a start.
"I'm sending you home." Hotch said.
"No." She slurred.
"You need to get some rest, and we won't do anything without you, I promise." Hotch reassured her.
"Elle, seriously, we're not any closer than we were." Morgan agreed, "Get out of here. Go home."
"But..."
"It's an order." Hotch told her
Elle sleepily picked up her bag and headed out with Hotch.
"Hotch, have someone drive her home." Zoe called.
"I'm fine." Elle protested.
"Impaired driving performances due to sleep loss is a major contributor to motor-vehicle crashes, fatalities, and serious injuries." Spencer said.
"It can affect driving as much and somethings more than alcohol." Zoe said.
"Ugh." Elle groaned, walking out of the room, bumping into the doorway on her way out.
Zoe held up a hand like, see?
"Good call." Hotch agreed and he followed Elle, making sure she didn't bump into anything else.
"Anderson, take Greenaway home." Hotch requested.
"Yes, sir." Anderson agreed.
Hotch looked at Elle who was rolling her eyes, "I'll have your car brought over later."
"All right, come on, Anderson." Elle sighed.
"Get some sleep." He said.
"Yeah." She sighed.
———————————————————————————
Elle arrived home and too tired to drag herself all the way to her bedroom, she crashed on a nearby couch under some windows, she was too tired to notice that they were both open and as she had last left her house, going on vacation, that should've raised some alarms.
She also didn't notice the man in her house with the gun, until he said in a hoarse voice, "I told you there was one rule."
Elle sat up, seeing him pointing the gun at her, and said, "No."
"One rule, Agent Greenaway."
"Stop."
"Do you not consider that holding a press conference is going outside the team for help?" He asked as Elle glanced at her holster with her gun on the table in front of her.
"Listen." Elle tried to protest.
"ONE RULE!"
"Listen to me!" Elle pleaded, "We can talk about this."
"I told you this was important!"
Elle lunged for her gun and...
BANG!
*I am now on Wattpad too. The profile is GryfflepuffinTardis (I couldn't fit in "the")
Summary: The BAU are called in to investigate the CIA’s counterterrorism unit on a mission to save one of its informants and identify a mole in the unit while Zoe has to call in help from an old friend who the mole may had wronged.
Warnings: Killing, Mentions of terrorists; JD; Mistrust of the CIA; Mention of torture; Mention of sexual assault
"A wise man once said, 'be careful who you let on your ship because some people will sink the whole ship just because they can't be captain'."
Albert Einstein said, "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as judge in the field of truth and knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the Gods."
Spencer, JJ, and Garcia walked out of the elevator
"We have a CIA escort, okay?" Garcia said, "It's weird and a little scary."
"What do you suppose this is all about?" JJ asked.
"Call me cynical, but considering it's 2:00 am, I doubt it's good news." Spencer said.
"You are a genius." JJ said.
They entered the briefing room where Morgan, Elle, Hotch, Gideon, Alexander, and Zoe already were.
"The CIA's counterterrorism unit is engaged in a mission to save one of its informants." Hotch told them, "They suspect one of their agents is a mole, and until the identity of that mole is discovered, they've locked down the unit."
"This gives us the opportunity to profile the UnSub up close. Go ahead."
One of the CIA agents spoke into his watch, "Start the video feed."
A man appeared on the monitor.
"John Summers was the CIA's best field agent in the Middle East. Three nights ago he was found in his home in Washington. He'd been tortured and murdered." Pictures of his body appeared on the screen
"CIA made it look like suicide." Gideon said.
"How'd you like to have that job?" Spencer said, grimly.
"Look at the wound patterns." Zoe said, "They come from two distinct angles. Different heights. One's right-handed and one's left-handed. He was definitely tortured by more than two people."
"Are you sure?"
"I've been tortured and seen torture enough to know." Zoe said.
"Hotch, what was Summers working on?" Elle asked.
"Aaliyah Nadir. Had been beaten and sexually assaulted at the hands of her husband, Hassan Nadir. That's how Summers flipped her and got her to work for the CIA." Hotch said.
"And what's the husband's story?" JJ asked.
"He's a diplomat for the Saudi government, but he's a fundraiser for major terrorist organizations." Zoe said and they looked at her. She just shrugged in that way she did.
"Aaliyah gave Summers intelligence on terrorist organizations the CIA had never been able to penetrate, organizations Hassan, her husband, funneled money to."
"And Hassan realized he had a leak?
"Yes, but he didn't know who." Hotch said, "For Aaliyah's protection, Summers never revealed her identity to the CIA until about eight weeks ago. CIA arranged papers for her and Summers brought her and her children to the US about a month ago."
"Only Summers knew where he hid her." Gideon said.
"What did Hassan think happened to his family?" JJ asked.
"Car accident. Bodies too disfigured to identify." Hotch said. "Only the CIA knew it was staged until Hassan arrived in Washington last week under diplomatic cover."
"Only someone in this unit could have given Hassan the information about his family." Spencer said.
"And now he's here looking for her." Morgan asked, "Why us?
"Over the years, I've conducted psychological evaluations on every field agent in that unit." Gideon said.
"You work for the CIA?" Garcia asked.
"Not officially."
"And I may or may not have been sporadically in contact with this unit before the BAU." Zoe said.
"You were?" Spencer asked.
"I didn't speak to them personally. It was more just sending them what I profiled. And then I was kidnapped by terrorists for six months and they really wanted to know about that but almost everyone in that prison ended up dead."
"The train's running and if we stop this mission, even for a second, Aaliyah and her children are as good as dead." Hotch said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
They left the elevator in the CIA building
"Don't remove your firearm." Gideon told Spencer who was about to do so
"US soil. Federal building." Hotch said.
"Just your cell phones. Non-negotiable." Gideon said.
"The moment we walk in there, the UnSub's going to know we got him cornered." Morgan said, "We don't hand jack over."
They walked through the scanner, the scanner picked up, Hotch's hip gun and his ankle gun. Spencer's gun. Then Zoe's right hip gun, her left hip gun, her left ankle gun, her right ankle gun, her left thigh gun, her right thigh gun, the gun tucked into her front, the gun tucked into the small of her back, her gun concealed in her bra, the guns inside her jacket, and her micro pocket guns in her leather jacket.
The man behind the scanner gave her a look as she was carrying thirteen guns. She just nodded at him like, what's up?
They stepped through the unit when Bruno Hawkes who had called them on the case came out of his office
"Special Agent Hotchner." Hotch introduced himself with a handshake.
"Oh, I know who you are, and your team, too. Doctor Noble-Valdez. I am very sorry for the ordeal last year." He said.
"By ordeal, you mean me and my ex-boyfriend being tortured for six months by terrorists?" Zoe deadpanned.
"I'm afraid so."
"Well, that makes it better." Zoe had a bite to her tone and less professionalism in her eyes than usual.
"I've got the personnel files all set up for you guys. Video, whatnot, it's all there in the conference room. Now, if you have any questions, feel free to talk to my senior officers. This is Gina Sanchez. She's the Associate Director of Field Operations. And that guy up there is Kruger Spence, the Assistant Director of Operations. The lady with him is his second-in-command, Olivia Hopkins. And, uh, thank you for coming."
As he walked away, Zoe clearly gave him a sarcastic smile. People were looking at her. She didn't blame them. They knew things about her that were classified to the team. Including that she shouldn't be there. She was technically on a list...
"Neither of you ever mentioned Bruno Hawks." Hotch said
"You never asked." Gideon said.
"Eh." Zoe shrugged.
"How long have you unofficially been working for CIA?" Hotch asked.
"Long enough to know who and what we're dealing with." Gideon said.
They all entered the conference room and Hotch closed the door behind them.
"We're looking for what the CIA classifies a Type A personality. Overachiever. Highly adaptable. Well-educated. Virtually unshakable." Gideon said, " Manipulative enough to persuade a loyal foreign national to betray their country, a wife to betray her husband. Most importantly, this UnSub long ago accepted the reality they will be summarily executed if caught." He had looked out the window and then turned back to the team, "Life means nothing to this UnSub. Not his own life, not his family's, not his colleagues', certainly not ours, and certainly not theirs." He pointed the the missing family on the monitor.
"One of those agents turned against everything they believe in. Why?" Hotch asked.
"Well, they stopped believing. Maybe it was about ideology." Morgan said.
"We need to find the stressor. A major event that caused them to turn. Love. Revenge. Economics. Ideology."
"The intelligence community's mantra says, 'Increase the parameter of your enemies' paranoia.' Right now, we're the enemy. Whatever you see or are told, please trust no one but me."
"Gideon, you're going to want to take a look at this surveillance video." Garcia said, appearing on the monitor with JJ.
"What is it?"
"Uh, it's you. It's your name next to a whole slew of MPEGs. There's one that says 'John Summers.' It's three hours long.
The video showed Gideon in his car, talking to Summers through the window, but it was taken from a little bit away, hidden.
Shoot, go.
"When was this?" Hotch asked.
"Three days before he was killed."
"Who called this meeting?" Summers asked Gideon.
"Does that matter?" Gideon asked him.
"Every detail matters."
"Why?"
"It can only be one of four people." Summers told him.
"Why is that important?" Gideon asked.
"Whoever requested this wanted more than just an eval from you."
"Did you know they were filming you?" Morgan asked.
"I assumed they were." Gideon said.
"Taking in all factors discussed, age, rank and field status, and if you eliminate all non-field agents, we're left with a total of sixteen candidates." Spencer calculated.
"All of whom are in this unit." Elle said.
"We have to assume the mole has an exit strategy." Gideon said.
"Only now we're blocking the exit, and the only way out is through us." Hotch said.
"Zoe, we need all hands on deck," Gideon said.
Zoe raised her eyebrows as she understood his meaning. "I can call J.D., but I can't guarantee he'll cooperate."
"Why wouldn't he?" Morgan asked.
Zoe clenched her jaw.
"He's... different. He's impulsive, he has trust issues, he doesn't cooperate, I mean, he's my ex-boyfriend."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Hawks presented the BAU to the unit, "Now, we all know why BAU are here. They have their job and we have ours. And we're down to the wire on this. Aaliyah Nadir risked everything, and now she and her children deserve our fullest attention. Let's find her."
It was four at night, so getting a hold of J.D. was difficult. Zoe was still on "hold" essentially, she had connected her phone to an earpiece that was in her ear now.
She stared at a video, "Hey, guys, take a look at something." She said when Gideon and Hotch returned. She pointed at the screen, a nearby car. "Right there. That's a woman sitting in the passenger seat of that car." She took the remote and the screen zoomed in and optimized the picture.
"Looks a lot like Aaliyah." Elle stated.
"Why would he leave them in the car, unless he knew he was being videotaped?" Hotch asked.
Gideon took the remote from her and played the tape, replaying the scene from earlier.
"Who called this meeting?
"Does that matter?"
"Every detail matters."
"Why?"
"It can only be one of four people."
"That's not true." Gideon said, "Anyone in this division could have insisted upon an eval.
"Why narrow it down to four?" Elle asked.
"Well, he rightly suspected Hassan came to the US because he knew his wife was alive." Morgan asked.
"And that someone in this agency was working for Hassan." Spencer said.
"If we don't discover who the mole is before they find her, she and the kids are dead." Morgan said.
"Zoe."
"Still on hold. I'm seriously about to go down to that prison and shove a pitchfork up their..." Zoe said, clearly very annoyed.
"Garcia." Gideon interrupted
Garcia and JJ appeared on the monitor.
"Right here, boss."
"How many agents in this unit were actually in Saudi monitoring US interests?" Gideon asked.
Garcia did some typing, "Uh, four."
"Let me guess. Bruno Hawks, Gina Sanchez, Olivia Hopkins and Kruger Spence." Gideon said.
"Four-for-four."
"See what else is on the tape.
"All right."
The two BAU blondes disappeared from the monitor and Gideron gently placed the monitor down. "John Summers would have only trusted seasoned agents, of which, in this unit, there are only four."
"So he guessed that the mole had to have been one of his four bosses." Zoe said.
"Before he put in for Aaliyah's extraction, he wanted to know which one not to ask." Morgan said.
"We need to match up with them, one-on-one." Gideon said.
"But there's six of us." Zoe said.
"You, sweetheart, will be switching between all four. You've seen the most darkness, you can recognize trauma." Alexander said.
"But..."
"Sweetheart, you have the best instincts the BAU has seen ever. You worked with this unit."
"Barely. I insisted on being as far away from the CIA as possible. I don't really trust them. They deal with politics more than the FBI and I think politics make people distrust each other. It breeds bad people like our UnSub."
"Exactly. There's a reason you're on a list and the CIA still had to let you in here because you're that good at profiling." Alexander said.
Zoe huffed, grumbling under her breath. Now she had to interview four CIA agents while she attempted to get her extremely uncooperative ex-boyfriend to cooperate and help the CIA of all people.
"Kruger Spence, assistant director of operations. Recruited at the age of eighteen after graduating from M.I.T." Gideon said.
"It says he had six years of experience as a weapons systems designer and an IQ of one-ninety-seven. He butted up against the system and didn't deal with authority. They moved him into field operations in China for eight years before transferring him here."
"Olivia Hopkins, divorced mother of two. She spent nine years in field operations in Europe. She also visited Riyadh with Krueger." Elle said.
"I got Gina Sanchez. West Point graduate. Black belt in two martial arts. Served in Iraq doing psychological operations with military intelligence. She joined the C.I.A. Speaks three languages, including Arabic." Morgan said.
"Bruno Hawks, deputy direction of operations. Extensive field ops in the Middle East and Europe. Did his military service with Jason Gideon." Hotch said.
"One thing I've learned over the years profiling CIA agents, spies are some of the smartest liars in the world. Be smarter."
Zoe suddenly slammed her hand on the desk. "Finally! I got through to you." She looked at the others. He picked up. J.D. I need your help... of course, you heard." She lifted her hand in incredulity.
"What?" Morgan asked.
"He's speaking in Old French for some reason. J.D. J.D.! Stop speaking like you're a Frenchman from the thirteenth century. You're from New York!" She looked at the others, "It's going take a while to get him to cooperate. Give me ten minutes."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe finally got him to stop speaking Old French and talk like a normal person.
"Why would I help them? They never helped me. The CIA is one of the reasons I'm stuck in the locked box in the middle of nowhere for the rest of my life." He argued.
"And the fact that we're trying to save a woman and her children's lives doesn't sway you?" She asked.
He didn't reply. She didn't think it would. He wasn't emotionless, he just... felt less for others... except when it came to her.
"Alright, how about this since the only thing outweighing your IQ is your egomania. We worked with this unit two years ago. That means it's very real possibility that it was this mole who informed the terrorists about us and got us kidnapped."
"You really think so?"
"Would I lie to you?" She asked.
"No." He admitted, honestly. "I hope you wouldn't. Will they pay for it? They work with the CIA."
"J.D. If they compromised us, then that means I will blame them for what happened as much as I blame myself." She said, steely cold.
Knock. Knock.
Zoe turned to see a more awkward-looking than usual Spencer. "Zoe, I'm about to talk to Kruger.
"Who's that?" J.D. asked sharply.
"No one." Zoe said. "Just a coworker. You're sure this line won't be compromised?"
"Are you doubting me?" He asked, cockily.
"Don't be cocky."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
"We can't circulate a photo of a woman who's supposed to be dead." Krueger told Zoe and Spencer.
"We realize that, but..." Spencer said.
"Look, I appreciate you have a job to do, but so do I." Krueger said and got to his team of agents
"All right, start looking at where Aaliyah would feel the most comfortable. Arab-populated areas...
"This guy sounds like a real numbskull when it comes to profiling. You sure he has an IQ of one-ninty-seven?" J.D. asked.
Zoe and Spencer exchanged looks at Kreger's strategy plan.
"Actually, you might wanna start by profiling Summers." Spencer said.
"Be my guest. Aaliyah's about to be brutally murdered in front of her children." He said, rather condescending to the two and he looked at Zoe. "Got nothing, sweetheart?" Zoe narrowed her eyes at him in a way that reminded him of so many of her female family members.
"Tell me this guys IP address, I'm gonna ruin his life." J.D. said but Zoe ignored him. "No one talks to you like that!"
Kreger turned back to his team, "Okay. Where were we? Let's put some teams together."
"John Summers was obsessed with his own security." Zoe said.
"Aren't we all?" Kruger groaned out, exasperatedly.
"Can you shut up for five seconds and listen to the actual profilers?" Zoe snapped.
J.D. clapped over the line.
"He didn't care about money, or possessions, or family. All he cared about was his job. He was a classic control freak, a meticulous paranoid." Zoe explained in a mocking somewhat condescending tone.
"A loner who chose to live outside the community," Kreuger realized.
"In an environment that he could control." Zoe said.
"All right. So he would have placed Aaliyah outside the community in an environment only he could control or have access to."
"May-maybe." Spencer stammered, "on the other hand, he might..."
Krueger held up his finger to silence Spencer, "Alright. New deal. I want you to search the areas surrounding Summer's apartment..."
"So, we're looking for industrial sights, uh, storage spaces, warehouses." Zoe cut in. "Basically anywhere that can hide a grown woman and her two children but still have the ability to keep them from suffocating."
The team moved out as if Krueger had given the order and he looked at the two young agents, impressed. "That's good. Thanks."
"Oh, and sweetheart? Don't ‘sweetheart’ or condescend me again. We may be young but we are geniuses, we're as successful as we are for a reason." Zoe growled.
"That was mucho sexy, Zoe."
"No, no, no, no. Don't do that." Zoe said and she turned to Spencer, "I'm going to Morgan and Gina."
She arrived to them and said, "Well, Kreger's a jackass. I set him straight.
"I commend you." Gina said, slightly deadpan, and said, "I don't think I could have a job where I had to sit and talk to people all day."
"Okay, wait a minute, it's not all psychobabble. Trust me." Morgan said.
"We get our fair share of action." Zoe said.
"I'm sure you do. Here's something you might find interesting." Gina said and spoke to her coworker, "Joystick, come around thirty degrees, fifteen by thirteen north. Zoom in two miles." The computer she was on zoomed in on the Earth and into Virginia, to a neighborhood.
Morgan frowned and leaned forwards, "Wait a minute. That looks like my neighborhood. That is my neighborhood. That-that's my house and that's my bike."
"What kind of bike does this guy have?"
"Something inferior to my bike." Zoe told him and Morgan gave her a look.
Gina zoomed in on Morgan's house and a white spot moved around the green-outlined furniture.
"You have a dog."
"Yeah, yeah, I got a dog. That's Clooney." Morgan chuckled.
"Well, it looks like Clooney's on the couch." Gina said.
"Okay, so you know where I live. I like that." Morgan said.
"Tell me does this guy ever flirt with you?"
"He knows how many guns I carry." Zoe told him and she looked at Gina, "- You also knew where Summers lived."
"That's my job." Gina said.
"Your job to make it look like suicide?" Morgan asked, "You stood over the dead body of a friend and a colleague, you stuck a shotgun in his mouth, and you pulled the trigger?"
"Yep." Gina said, but there was clearly not happy with it.
"Must take a psychological toll, no?" Morgan asked.
Gina turned to Morgan and Zoe. "Let's get one thing clear. We all write a letter just like the one Summers wrote."
"Yeah, I know. When the CIA joined my cousin's anti-terrorism task force, they tried to get me to do the same. I wasn't putting up with that shit." Zoe said. "Writing a suicide note is one thing. Shooting the brains out of your friend's corpse's head is another."
"That doesn't mess with your mind just a little bit?" Morgan asked.
"I'm neither disillusioned or confused about what I am, what I do or what I have done."
"Somebody here is. Why else would they rat out their own people?" Zoe asked.
"You'll have to ask them."
"Did it bother you what you had to do to Summers' body?"
Gina turned to her and countered, "Did it bother you when you had to do your job and arrest your boyfriend?"
J.D. grew quiet.
"Yes. But I didn't do it because it was my job, I did it because it was the right thing to do. I could've easily let him go but I didn't. I thought about it but I didn't. It only bothered me because I pushed him into doing it. It's my fault and if the mole here is the same, it's just as their fault. And they should remember what Maze was capable of before fucking with me." Zoe said with a cold danger in her voice and then she walked off.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
She joined Elle with Olivia who looked like she was being bothered by a child peppering her with questions when she was trying to work.
"CIA looks a lot like the FBI." Elle said, "This is a real boys' club. Must be tough being a woman here."
"Get to the point, Agent."
"Well, she's a real ray of sunshine, isn't she?"
"Divorced, lost custody of your kids." Elle said, "That didn't help your career, huh?"
Hopkins slammed the file she was working on shut and started to storm off, demanding Are you interrogating me?
"Just questions." Elle said.
"You're doing your job. We're doing our job." Zoe said.
"You want answers, look in my file."
"That's not how profiling works, agent." Zoe said.
"I did. During an operation in Europe you were taken hostage." Elle said.
"For which I received counselling."
"But it didn't help. Your marriage fell apart soon after." Zoe said.
"How does this help you?" Hopkins asked them, crossing her arms.
"It would take a major event for someone to turn against their country, don't you think?" Elle asked.
"A major event like what?"
"Like one that's not in any file." Zoe said. "I've was taken hostage too... multiple times and I know what does and doesn't go in files when it comes to that."
"What happened to you over there?" Elle asked but Hopkins didn't reply.
"I know what people like that do." Zoe said, "Did they attack you? Did they torture you? Did they rape you?" Zoe's tone didn't have the hostility that Elle's did. It was blunt yet... understanding of that the situation.
Hopkins didn't reply.
"Olivia!"
"That's enough." Kreger said, "This is in violation of her civil rights."
Hmm. That's interesting. Mister Condesending's ego isn't big enough to defend Hopkins.
"Until they find the sleeper and we find Aaliyah, all rights are revoked." Hawks said.
"And they wonder why we refused to work with the CIA." J.D. said.
"Where were you on the night that Summers was murdered?" Elle asked. The rest of the team and the CIA agents they were following had gathered around.
"I was with her in her apartment." Kreger confessed.
"Well, you're a married man. At some point you must have left to get back to your wife, right?" Gideon said. Kreger just looked at Hawks. "You wake to an empty bed?"
"Yes, I did." Hopkins said and looked back at Elle, "Are we done here?"
"My wife will testify that I arrived home at 1:30 am." Kreger said.
"We all know none of this'll ever reach a court." Hawks said.
"Look, if you want to arrest us for having an affair, be my guest." Kreger said.
"I'll deal with you two later." Hawks said and Olivia walked off.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
A few minutes later, Zoe noticed that the CCTV monitors were down and having a bad feeling, she went after where Olivia went to find Olivia's body. She was in front of a computer slumped over it. The bones in her neck were pushing against her skin in an unnatural angle. Her neck was broken... just like Summers'. She felt for a pulse but there wasn't one.
She fetched Gideon and brought him to the room.
"When I saw the CCTV monitors were down and Olivia hadn't returned, I thought I'd better come looking for her. Her neck was broken. She must've been killed just after we all saw her." Zoe told him.
"Have any agents seen the body?" He asked.
"No."
"Good. We can use this to our advantage. Get the others."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
They gathered the rest of the team, informing them of what happened and brought in the remaining possible moles: Hawks, Kreger, and Gina into the room the team had set up in.
"What? What's going on?" Hawks asked.
"What are we doing here?" Kreger asked. "You're pulling us away from our assignments? There's a woman out there whose life depends on us."
Gina looked around and asked, "Where's Olivia?" Kreger also looked around until Zoe spoke.
"I'm sorry but Olivia Hopkins was murdered ten minutes ago. Her neck was snapped. Just like John Summers."
Kreger scoffed, "What are you talking about?" Gina looked at Hawks. "You're lying. Where is she?" He looked around at them as Gina looked at him, "Look, people don't just get murdered inside the CIA." He turned to Gina to see her, looking at him, "What are you looking at?"
"I realize the enormity of this, but Hassan Nadir is still out there looking to kill his wife, and I need every agent on this." Hawks said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe entered Hawks' office with Gideon as Gideon stared at Gina at her chair.
"What do you think it would take for somebody to betray their country?" Gideon asked.
"If I knew that, you wouldn't be here. Or is this the part where you two profile me?" Hawks asked.
"I've done that for over twenty years and for free.
"What'd you come up with?" Hawks asked.
"Well, you don't smile as much as you used to, but the Rogaine's working." Gideon said.
"You need to quit your day job."
"You've strived your entire life just to seek the approval of your father. Obsessively tried not to make the same mistakes he made. The emotional cost wipes the smile off your face." Gideon said.
"You know, my kids, they don't even know who or what their father really is." Hawks said.
"But they know there's absolutely nothing you wouldn't do for them." Gideon said.
J.D. scoffed, bitterly, "Wonder what that's like."
"Who says, you know, our kids need to know everything about us?"
"Or that our parents need to know everything about their kids." J.D. said but Zoe didn't quite know what he meant by that.
"Trust me, we're not that interesting." Gideon said.
"I beg to differ." Zoe said. Twenty years in and her parents and father figures in Rossi and Gideon were still her heroes.
"Who do you think it is?" Gideon said.
"I'm so close to it, Jason, I honestly can't tell." Hawks siad, "But I will say this, I'm glad you're here."
"You feeling okay?" Gideon asked and Hawks tilted his head, "I mean, you lost two of your people. Two colleagues. Two friends."
"I've lost plenty of those along the way." Hawks said, "I just feel pissed off." Zoe furrowed her brow, something didn't sit right with her. Even for a CIA agent, Hawks' emotions didn't quite fit his words. She had seen agents after they lost friends. She had seen anger... after a while, the anger's not as impulsive. It would've fit more to be tired with his reaction. Tired of it all. Tired of the guilt. But that's not what he said. The human response would be to feel guilty. "Someone is going to pay dearly for what they've done."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe had excused herself and joined Morgan and Hotch in following Gina, "You lined us all up to see how we'd react to Olivia's death." She said, "What did you see?"
"You stared straight at Kruger like you were trying to deflect blame onto someone else." Hotch said as Gina sat back down at her desk.
"You are wasting precious time. Time she doesn't have." Gina told them as she, "Now, unless you having something useful to ask, we're trying to save lives.
"So are we." Zoe said, "This is how we do it." J.D. said something and she said, "You're getting a call."
Gina furrowed her brows but then her phone rang. "It's our tech analysist."
Gina picked it up to see that she was right, "Patch her through. It's for you." Then she walked off and Garcia and JJ showed up on Gina's monitor.
"Garcia? talk to me."
"That virus that knocked out the CCTV."
"Yeah, what about it?"
"It was downloaded into the system three weeks ago."
By who?
"Kreger."
Well, that was easy. Almost too easy.
Morgan and Zoe went across the room to where Elle and Spencer were questioning Kreger. "Just because I lied about Olivia doesn't make me the mole."
"No, but the virus that took out the CCTV monitors does." Morgan said.
"It originated from your computer." Zoe explained.
"Then whoever put it in my computer is trying to frame me." Kreger exclaimed.
"Olivia was looking for something. She didn't find a thing. You know why?" Morgan asked, "Because all of your files have been erased."
"Do you really think if I was the mole, I would keep files that would incriminate me?" Kreger demanded, "Those files were erased to make me look guilty."
"It's what I would do." J.D. said.
"Looks like it's working." Elle said.
"Garcia's calling." Zoe said.
"Morgan, your girlfriend's back." Gina shouted.
They went back to Gina's computer. "Garcia, it's Morgan. Go."
"Can she not see that?" J.D. asked.
"Hey, listen, that virus left a back door into the CIA mainframe."
"Yeah, so?"
"So I sort of went ahead and used it to find out who ordered John Summers' psych eval with Gideon." Garcia said.
"Who was it?"
"Well, that's what's so weird." Garcia said.
"Who, Garcia, who?"
"John Summers." JJ said.
"Summers? Why would he order his own evaluation?" Morgan asked.
"So we'd ask that question ourselves." Spencer said, "Guys, we missed something on that tape."
"We better figure out what it was before Hassan's friend in here beats us to it." Morgan said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
They watched another part of the footage, Summers was now in Gideon's car with him, "Presidents come, presidents go. One thing always remains: the people that run those presidents."
"People like you?" Gidoen asked.
"Me?" Summers laughed, ironically, "No. No, no, I'm an expendable pawn, but I got wise to their game."
"Game? What game?"
"Battleship. I'm the ship at sea. They try to sink me." Summers said.
"What the hell is this guy talking about?" J.D. asked in Zoe's ear and she shushed him.
"How do you cope?" Gideon asked in the video.
"Compartmentalization. Separate and seal every aspect of my life."
"How does that work?"
"One part of the hull is compromised, the rest of the hull remains intact." Summers said, "I stay afloat."
"Wow, he's really sticking to this ship metaphor, isn't he?" J.D. said and Zoe shushed him again.
"And what about a direct hit?"
"Then I have a box that I put the really important things in, a sort of insurance policy."
"Against what?"
"Sudden death. Keep it safe from those who appear to be friends."
"That's the only thing he's said that's made sense."
"I forgot how much you talked. Shush!" Zoe shushed him as Morgan paused the video.
"What?"
"J.D.'s yapping." Zoe said and then nodded to the video, "Summers was trying to tell you about the mole."
"If they were following Summers, how come they don't know where Summers put Aaliyah?" Morgan asked.
"You couldn't follow Summers through a desert. He was that good." Gideon said
"So they followed you." Hotch said.
"So Summers must have known they'd be filming him." Morgan said.
"They always are. Smile." Zoe said.
Garcia and JJ appeared back on the monitor.
"Garcia, let's review the tape again." Hotch said.
Garcia and JJ conversed amongst themselves.
"He sure likes boats." Garcia noted.
"He refers to compartmentalizing his life like the hull of a ship. Yeah, and then he talks about a box."
"And putting something inside the box as an insurance policy."
"He was telling Gideon how to find Aaliyah." Garcia said.
"Summers' cover in Saudi was for a shipping company." JJ recalled.
"Okay, um, what about a shipping container?" Garcia asked, "That's a box. That's a big box."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." JJ agreed as Garcia typed, "The only shipping port near Summers' apartment in Baltimore, it's north up the I-95 from Langley."
"Garcia, I love you." Hotch said.
Zoe heard J.D gasp.
"J.D.?" She asked. "Guys, something's wrong?"
"Garcia?" Hotch asked.
"Someone just hacked into this feed." Garcia said.
"We just found out where Aaliyah is. But so did someone else." Hotch said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
The office was as frantic as the CIA seemed to allow themselves to now that they knew where Aaliyah was
"I can have a chopper on the roof fueled and ready in two minutes." Gina said.
"Yeah, but there are thousands of containers at that port." Hawks said. "What makes you so sure Aaliyah's in one of those containers?"
"Why don't we send in a SWAT team? Split them up." Elle suggested, "Have them search in grids."
"Why? Because Hassan has diplomatic immunity, this mission can't exist." Hotch said.
"It's not Gina." Gideon said and Gina looked up at him, shocked.
"Yeah, obviously." Zoe said.
"Morgan, Zoe, take Gina with you." Gideon ordered.
"Wait, this is my command. These are my people." Hawks protested.
"We have jurisdiction here, and there's nothing you can do to stop us." Hotch said.
"This is my career on the line here." Hawks said.
"No, this is Aalyiah and her two children's lives on the line here." Zoe said, bluntly.
"You always trusted me, right?" Gideon asked and Hawks asked, "Trust me now."
Hotch and Elle approached Kreger, "Come with us."
"This is crazy. Bruno." Kreger protested yet he gave up his firearm anyways in resignation.
"Come on, let's get moving!" Zoe urged.
"Use the thermal imaging. Search every container for body heat." Gina said, "You can walk us in and direct us when we get there.
"J.D.'s doing that too." Zoe siad.
"What, how?"
"It doesn't matter! Hurry up!" Zoe shouted.
"Green, Adams, Duncan, come with me." Gina instructed.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
"How'd you know I wasn't the mole?" Gina asked Zoe as they got on the chopper.
"Your profile. Highly intelligent, strong-willed. That's because of your dedication to what the CIA protects. You're a good person, you may do morally dubious things but so have I. When it comes down to it, you do the right thing even if it comes to disobeying orders, unfortunately that's not what the CIA likes to hear."
They arrived soon and ran through the port of shipping containers that kind of smelled like fish.
They're somewhere on the east side of this port." Gina said, "You guys, take that area over there. Morgan, Zoe, let's go."
They kept on running as they were informed Hassan had found them and was in the container.
"This is crazy, Gina. We're just running in circles."
"J.D., your directions are not helping at all, now stop screaming in my ear!" Zoe shouted and she touched her other comm, "Reid, come on, help us out here. Give me something."
"A hundred meters southwest of your current location." Spencer said.
Zoe took off running, "Come on!"
She came upon a particular container that caused both Spencer and J.D. to speak, saying different things in the other ear.
"Okay, you're both talking but I get the gist." She said.
"Make the arrest. It's FBI jurisdiction. You're in charge." Gideon said.
When they reached the container, Morgan, Gina, and Zoe pulled the doors open
"FBI!" Morgan shouted
"Let her go and put the gun down." Zoe shouted and he narrowed her eyes at him. He didn't obey, "I said, put down the gun or I will shoot you. I can still arrest you if I cripple you with a bullet!"
He let Aaliyah go and put the gun on the floor, holding his hands up.
"Diplomatic immunity, my friend." He said, smirking at her, she knew he recognized her, maybe not personally but from photos perhaps.
Zoe grinned at his underestimating her intelligence, "Uh-uh. You got it wrong, my friend. You see this container hasn't passed through customs." Hassan's smirk fell. "Officially, we're not on US soil. Summers was a smart man."
Suddenly Gina pressed the barrell of her gun into the back of Zoe's head.
"That he was. Drop the gun."
"Lower the gun, Gina!" Morgan shouted, now pointing his gun at her.
"No, keep your gun on Hassan! Do not give him the chance to hurt Aaliyah and the kids." Zoe shouted.
"Morgan, what's going on?" Gideon asked, the screen kept flickering to static.
"You still certain that Gina isn't the mole?" Hawks asked.
Crystal.
"Angel?" Alexander asked, pleadingly.
"Morgan? Zoe? What's going on?"
"Gina's holding a gun to Zoe's head." Morgan said.
"Well, get it away from her!" Alexander cried.
"When she drops her gun!" Gina shouted but Zoe didn't move.
"Zoe, just drop the gun!" Morgan shouted and J.D. joined in, she relented and handed Gina her gun.
"Gideon, we got a situation here." Morgan said as he and Zoe shielded Aaliyah and the kids and Gina held a gun at Hassan.
"Gina, don't do this. Gina, don't do this." Gideon said.
"I don't take orders from you. Bruno, what do you want me to do?" Gina asked.
"Cover their eyes. Cover their eyes." Zoe said, "he's a monster but they shouldn't witness this."
Aaliyah covered her children's eyes as she pleaded, "Please, please stop this."
"Bruno?" Gina asked.
"You know what to do."
"Say it." Gina requested.
"It's not your call."
"I told you from the start, this was strictly in-house." Hawks said to Gideon.
"This is not your call." Gideon gritted to Hawks.
"Gina, what are you waiting for?"
"An order." Gina said.
"Finish him." Hawks said and then he repeated it, "Finish him."
"Gina, don't do this." Gideon pleaded.
"You're going to cut the visual feed, right, Bruno?" Gina asked.
"Of course. Cut it, now. Cut it!" The visual feed was cut off, followed by four gunshots.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
"I want to thank you, Jason, for your help." Hawks said when he turned back to Gideon.
"Why?" Gideon asked, "Why'd you turn against everything you believe in?"
"What are you talking about?" Hawks asked.
"When someone asks you how you feel about losing one of your colleagues, the only human answer is, 'I feel guilty,' isn't it?"
"But as you so brilliantly deduced, Kruger Spence is the guilty one." Hawks said.
Elle handed Hawks a note they had handed Kruger earlier. It read: We know it's not you. Bruno is the mole.
He just chuckled, "Ridiculous." He scoffed, "Absurd."
"The only thing that's absurd is your arrogance." Gideon said, "to believe you could get away with this."
"Unfortunately, with Hassan now dead, you have no proof." Hawks said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
They had turned off their microphones and arrested Hassan.
Zoe checked on Aaliyah and the kids.
"You're going to be all right." She reassured them. "They're a little dehydrated and malnourished but nothing a little hospital food can't fix. You should get checked out just in case. I don't see any signs but better safe than sorry."
"Sorry about that. I had to find out if I was right." Gina said when Zoe walked away from the kids.
"No problem, believe it or not, you're far from the first person to hold a gun to my head." Zoe told her.
"How'd you know it was Bruno?" Morgan asked.
"Because Agent Gideon believed in me, and there isn't a reason in the world to kill a man who knows as much as Hassan does." Gina said.
"Except one." Morgan said.
"The same one that made Bruno and Hassan kill Summers. Self-preservation." Gina said.
"Looks like Gideon was right." Morgan said.
"Yes, it does."
"He usually is." Zoe said. "Same as that eval. You disobeyed a direct order."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer put down the phone and said, "Actually, Hassan is alive and well." The smugness on Hawks' face falls. "He's en route. That's all the proof we'll need."
Hawks looked at Gideon and stepped closer to him, "You are a fool if you think they're going to put me in prison with all that I know."
"Why'd you have to kill Olivia?" Elle asked.
"Economics." Gideon said, "Olivia was looking into your financial records when you snapped her neck."
"So she knew your dirty little secret." Elle said.
"Which one? I have so many."
"You were looking to cash out using Hassan." Elle said.
"Mmm-hmm. Twenty million from Hassan will go a very long way to helping occupy my mind on a beach somewhere." Hawks said.
"The only beach you'll see is on a postcard I send you from my vacation." Gideon said.
"Did you tell them about my daughter?" Alexander asked.
"It was so I could prove myself to Hassan, so he could trust me." Was all he said.
Alexander balled his fists and was clearly itching to empty his gun into Hawks so Hotch stepped in front of him.
"Let me have your gun." Gideon said.
"You know, I think the consequences of what you're doing to me, my friend, are going to be a lot harder to live with than you think."
"No, I think that's what happened when you gave my daughter over to those terrorists." Alexander spat.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe, Morgan, and Gina returned on the chopper. She was quiet as she gathered her things. An act of closure upon her while J.D. ranted in her ear.
"Thank you, J.D. For everything." She said.
"It's been a while."
"Yeah, it has. But we can't do this again. And you know why."
"Yeah, I do. Bye, my rebel love." He said and he hung up.
Zoe took the ear piece out of her ear and looked down at it. She sighed heavily and pocketed it.
"What I don't understand is why he invited us here." Spencer said as they exited the conference room.
"He didn't. Summers did by asking for the eval." Hotch said.
"When I put the call in, Bruno had no choice." Gideon said, "He had to find outwhat I knew and keep me close."
"Bad choice."
"You said you'd send a postcard of a beach. You lie." Alexander said.
Yeah, you hate the beach." Spencer said.
"Beaches are for storming." Gina shrugged.
"Only if ordered to." Gideon said.
"Thank you." Gina said and shook Gideon's hand and the team went to leave while Morgan flirted some more with Gina.
"So how are you and J.D.?" Elle asked.
"Uh... I think I might visist him during our two weeks coming up."
Spencer frowned.
George Orwell said, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."
*I actually quite like Kreger, not necessarily his character but the foil he is to Spencer. They're both stated to have exceptionally high IQs, they were both recruited to agencies at young ages from good colleges after skipping grades, and if you've watched half way through season twelve there's another thing they have in common. But Kreger is arrogant and condescending and rude to those who he thinks are beneath him, like he was to Spencer before Spencer proved to be just as smart as him. Spencer is kind to everyone, he values everyone's contribution, despite his intelligence he doesn't think his intellect is better than others, he knows he's a genius on paper but doesn't think that it can truly measured.*
*Gina originally knew Zelena but I feel like I already have too many cases that will connect to Zoe*
Summary: The BAU is in Florida again, tracking a known serial killer who kills women by torturing and drowning them in hotel rooms and he is able to elude capture through multiple states by changing his appearance like a chameleon.
Warning: Killing, Drowning, Canon Emotionally Abusive Parents, Implied Toxic Relationship, Implied Clingy Ex, Alexander being a Protective Dad
"The only way to keep your head above water is to convince yourself you are going to make it."
April 17, 2006
Morgan stared at Elle, oddly as Zoe's personal phone started to ring.
"What?" Elle asked as Zoe saw the picture she used for J.D. She declined. He knew she was at work.
"We've only been here an hour. You've made two calls."
"And?
"You hate the phone, Elle." Morgan said.
"I don't hate the phone."
"Actually, you do." Spencer said as Zoe's phone started to ring again. Seriously. She declined again. "Hey, did you know that Alexander Graham Bell and Eli Gray both simultaneously invented electronic sound transmission devices? It came down to a race betwixt the two."
"Yeah, and Bell beat Gray to the patent office by a matter of hours." Elle said, "Common knowledge."
"Why are you acting so weird?" Morgan asked.
"We're sitting with a guy who knows that there are eight hundred kernels of corn on the average cob..."
"Arranged in sixteen separate rows."
"And a woman who has twenty degrees by the age of nineteen."
"Twenty-four." Zoe corrected as she declined another call.
"And you're calling me weird?
"You're getting some loving, aren't you?" Morgan asked, "You got a boyfriend."
"You are basing this on what, exactly? The fact that I don't like the phone?" Elle asked. "That's all you've got? That's your best? You've been a profiler for how long, Derek, and that is... That's weak. That's weak."
"What's weak?" JJ asked as she approached with the files for the next case.
"Morgan thinks Elle has a boyfriend." Spencer said as Zoe's phone rang again and she declined it.
"Nothing." Elle said.
"'Nothing.' See, you just denied it." Morgan laughed as they got up to follow JJ into the briefing room.
"Do you?" JJ chuckled.
"It's more fun not to answer that question." Elle said.
"That right there's a yes, baby." Morgan teased. "I knew it. I told you."
"She didn't really admit to anything, man." Spencer said.
"Thank you."
"Reid, trust me, you got a lot to learn." Morgan said and Zoe's phone rang again. "Who keeps calling you?"
"It's more fun not to answer that question." Zoe mimicked Elle as she silenced her phone and started to text a graphic threat to the caller.
They entered the briefing room where JJ told them where the case would be. Tampa, Florida. Ugh.
"FBI Tampa has been investigating a series of murders over the past two months along Florida's central Gulf coast." JJ said.
"I consulted with the SAC down there. They had a strong lead." Gideon said, not looking up.
"And DNA evidence. All four women were killed by this man, Mark Gregory." JJ clicked the remote and a man appeared on the monitor.
"Wait. If they know who he is, he's not really an UnSub. Why are they calling us?" Spencer asked.
"They were unable to arrest him before he disappeared."
"They let a serial killer get away?" Hotch asked.
"Well, it's Florida." Zoe deadpanned, banging the decline on her phone again.
"How long has he been missing?" Hotch asked.
"About thirty-six hours, along with this woman, Nicole Wegener." She clicked the remote, showing a dark-haired woman.
"What do we know about the other victims?"
"They were all abducted within a sixty-mile radius, tortured and then drowned in hotel bathtubs. They were all found a couple of days after they were reported missing." JJ said.
"Same geographical area and he's killing in hotels instead of private, controlled environments." Morgan said.
"Well, he can pay for privacy in a hotel room." Elle said.
"Let's just hope he's not heading for Orlando." Spencer said, "It's second only to Las Vegas in the number of hotel rooms."
"Well, knowing who he is, is certainly part of the equation, but it's a long way from knowing where he is." Hotch said
"A serial killer who's been sussed out and is on the loose, he's got two choices. He's either hiding or worse, he's on the run." Morgan said.
"And if Gregory feels like he's got nothing to lose..." Hotch said.
"He's got the whole country ahead of him." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
The French philosopher Voltaire wrote, "There are some that only employ words for the purpose of disguising their thoughts."
They sat on the plane; Zoe didn't sit near Spencer like she usually did and her phone calls had finally stopped.
"All right, this is everything, the Tampa office has on Mark Gregory. He's a single, white male, thirty-eight years old. Graduated from FSU., Started his own real estate company with a business partner five years ago. He frequently travels for work around the country, sometimes overseas. Just last year he purchased a very lavish home in Sarasota."
"What was he doing before he got into real estate?
"Says he raced cars after college, even worked as a chef at a French restaurant." JJ said.
"Jack-of-all-trades." Zoe mused, lost in memories of the year prior.
"Yeah, he's plenty mastered. He worked as a staff photographer for a couple of magazines along the Central Coast before transitioning to work with models in Miami." Hotch read from the file.
"It's strange so many serial killers make a hobby of photography." Spencer mused, "Must have something to do with the act of voyeurism."
"Zoe, you've profiled known criminals based on what you know of them." Alexander said.
Zoe looked up at her dad with an unreadable stare and then blankly said, "That was different. I don't know anything about Gregory personally yet."
"Zoe." Alexander said. "You still did it. Every time."
She sighed and asked, "What about his bank accounts and credit cards?"
"They seized everything after he disappeared thirty-six hours ago." JJ said.
"So when he uses his credit cards or goes to his house or work, then they've got him." Zoe explained.
"I heard enough about Mark Gregory. I want to hear about his victims. Zoe, is anything familiar."
"Yeah, a lot of these women look similar. Dark hair. Could be surrogates. When we get there, I can see in detail how they died when I get the autopsy reports."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe was given the autopsy reports once she arrived at the warehouse the police had set up. She looked through the four files, examining them. All of which she had suffered through once before. Only she had lived.
"See anything?" Hotch asked.
"None of these women have the same injuries. He used different forms of torture with each one. Choking, burning, suspension, and beating. Drowning was the only constant."
"They were all classified as wet drownings, which means the victim was alive when they were submerged. They could feel their lungs filling up with water." Spencer said. "It's an extremely painful way to die."
"I'll say. None of these methods of torture are by any means pleasant. Elaine Carol's whole body had broken bones and fractures all over it."
"Why would he take the time?" JJ asked. "They were barely alive after all the torture.
"Well, drowning's a form of torture, too, and it's all part of his signature." Zoe explained, "And it just might be the part that's the most important to him.
The doors opened and an officer came through to introduce himself, "SSA Raymond McCarthy.
"SSA Jason Gideon, we spoke on the phone." Gideon shook his hand.
"Sorry for the temporary setup. We wanted you closer to where Mark Gregory lives." McCarthy said as he shook Hotch's hand. "Please, continue."
"Oh, we were just discussing drowning as a cleansing ritual." Spencer said.
"If we look back into Gregory's childhood, we may find what he needs to purge." Morgan said.
"You think that's the best use of our time? We're itching to find this guy. He got away on our watch."
"Well, by studying his behavior as a child, it helps us understand why he does what he does." Hotch said.
"You know everything about this killer, except why he does it. So, the further we go back, the further ahead of him we might get." Gideon said.
"Were you able to connect Gregory to all four victims?" Morgan asked.
"He had a previous relationship with the first woman he killed." McCarthy said
"Oh, we can look into that as the possible stressor." Elle said.
"The second and third were acquaintances from business deals. The fourth worked at a restaurant the same time he did."
"What's his connection to the missing girl?"
"We can't find anything. Gregory's big news in Florida." McCarthy said, "When do we hold a press conference to alert the entire country?"
"Hopefully we'll find Gregory before we have to." JJ said.
"So, if we split up, we'll cover more ground." Gideon said, "Does he still have family in the area?"
"His dad's close by."
"Why don't we start from the present and work our way backwards?" Gideon suggested, "Zoe, Reid, and I will go to Gregory's house." Zoe gave resigned smile and a nod.
"Elle and I will go and talk with the business partner, Hank Bloomberg." Hotch said.
"I'll comb through some of the evidence here." JJ said.
"I'll help you with that." Alexander said.
"Garcia's going to want an update. I'll catch up with her." Morgan said.
"Good, let's meet back here in two hours. If he's following a previous pattern, we have less than twelve hours to find Nicole Wegener alive." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Gideon, Zoe, and Spencer arrived at Gregory's house. Zoe's Florida migraines were already forming.
"This is a really large house with hardly any furniture." Spencer noted.
"It kind of reminds me of Rossi's house, only without the books, awards, art, kitchen supplies, and endless cigars." Zoe noted, "like the house he had when I was a kid after his divorce with his second wife, before he started writing books."
Gideon nodded and said, "Typical bachelor pad. Large sofa, big-screen TV, white walls."
"I noticed a luxury car in the garage, but it's at least ten years old." Spencer said. She knew how to drive a car... and barely that, since she drove like a maniac.
Zoe shrugged. She didn't know cars. She knew motorcycles.
"Where are the dogs?" Zoe asked, walking past two food bowls surrounded by dog toys.
Spencer entered Gregory's closet.
"Gideon, Zoe, check this out." He said.
Zoe approached and then coughed at the mixture of a closet of leather boots and Gregory's cologne. Also the enclosed space of the closet, made it even less appealing for her to go in. She had been imprisoned for months at a time twice in her life and it gave her mild claustrophobia, and she wouldn't really consider it a phobia but a strong dislike and want to avoid it.
"This guy's got, like, twenty different suits. Some Italian, some tailored, some leisure suits."
"Yeah, looks like Rossi's closet, all right." Zoe said. "Just missing the stench of cigar and his overpriced coffee." Then she leaned to the side, "Except for that." She pointed to a nearby uniform. Spencer turned and frowned at it.
"He's got a mechanic's uniform."
"Yeah, Rossi definitely wouldn't be caught dead wearing that." Zoe said.
Spencer went to a case full of fancy watches and pointed with his gloved pinkie, "Wide assortment of watches and wallets, approximately twenty different pairs of shoes."
"Look at all these driver's licenses. He could start his own DMV." Gideon noted
"Yeah, then he could find a new way to torture people." Zoe quipped.
Spencer smiled, their bond had slowly mending over the past few weeks but still wasn't what it used to be.
"Feed those to Garcia." Gideon said and walked out of the closet, past Zoe. "He travels around the country to buy and sell different properties."
"Probably reinvents himself with each deal he makes. You know?" Spencer speculated, "Plays a different role."
"Dresses up to impress a rich investor, dresses down for a poor farmer." Gideon said.
"This guy is a chameleon, he can adapt to any situation." Zoe said,
"You know, from the outside this house seems clean and shiny, you know, but it's like it's all for show. Like it's a facade to hide what's really going on." Spencer said, picking up something Zoe had pointed to.
"Well, serial killers tend to do that. Ted Bundy was described as incredibly charming while he was committing assault, rape, necrophilia, decapitation, and you know murder, oh and keeping their skulls as trophies in his apartment." Zoe said.
Spencer walked past Zoe to Gideon and she followed as Gideon took out some books from Gregory's desk.
"Drawer full of catalogs. Uniforms for law enforcement, construction, janitorial, military. What do you think he needs these for?"
"Probably has something to do with this." Spencer said, handing Gideon a booklet with his face and sketches of glasses, beards, mustaches over it. To see what he'd look like with them. "Someone's trying to disguise himself."
"Like Ted Bundy."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Garcia found that Gregory had been caught peeking through a neighbor's window and when he was eighteen, he had been charged with statutory rape, and his marriage had lasted only twenty-three days.
"Wow, that's like the length of one of Rossi's marriages." Zoe had deadpanned.
They gave the profile to the Tampa police, Zoe's migraines had fully started by now and she was wearing sunglasses inside... like a douchebag. Since she still had her sight.
"We found evidence at his house that he acclimates well to different surroundings." Gideon said. "Possible disguises."
"He's emptied his bank accounts and he's put his dogs in a kennel. We're certain he's left the area and he's not coming back." Hotch said. "And since he's on the run, this classifies him as a spree killer."
"Usually this type of killer goes through two phases, guided and random.
"Guided means that this killer stays in his particular geographic area or comfort zone until he breaks down." Elle explained
"That's why he killed the first four women in a sixty-mile radius?" McCarthy said.
"That's right, and we're hoping he's still there."
"In the guided phase, they usually have a final destination in mind." Morgan said.
"Like Edmund Kemper and Andrew Cunanan, they saved their most meaningful kills until last." Zoe said. Respectfully Clarnell Elizabeth Strandberg and Gianni Versace. "We should find out who that would be for Gregory.
"When the random phase begins, the kills seem to be without design, there's less time in between them. At that point, he's lost total control." Spencer said.
"And as he devolves, he's going to take more victims and become less noticeable." Elle said.
"What does that mean?" McCarthy said.
"In Gregory's case, his MO is the torture. That would mean he will torture less and spend more time on the thing that gives him sexual release, drowning." Alexander explained.
"So it's very important that we find him while he's still in the comfort zone." Hotch said, After that, there's no telling where he'll be."
Hotch's phone rang and he excused himself to take it.
"We'll get a release out to all the major networks." JJ told the officers, "His face, possible disguises will be all over the country by dinner time."
Hotch came back and announced the news he had got, "They just found the missing girl's body."
"Close by?" Morgan asked.
"No, Georgia."
"Come on, Elle. Looks like we're going to Georgia." Morgan said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
A few hours later, Hotch got off the phone and told them, "Elle and Morgan just landed in Georgia. They'll be at the hotel in about twenty minutes."
"So, Florida's not his only comfort zone." McCarthy said.
"No, apparently he set up businesses throughout the southern US." Hotch said.
"He's prepared." Zoe noted.
"Well, we have warnings along I-95 and I-10 in case he decides to travel along the Gulf Coast." McCarthy said.
"Well, now that he's crossed state lines, it's a nationwide search." Hotch said.
"He doesn't want to get caught, so he'll probably alter his route and drive quieter roads." Zoe theorized.
"We'll prepare for that, too."
"These records indicate that he went to high school in four different states." Spencer said.
"So he moved around a lot.
"Let's talk to his father. Find out why." Gideon said.
"Maybe he's revisiting places where he feels comfortable." Spencer said.
"The latest hotel records indicate that he checked in using his own name." Zoe said.
"You know, if he doesn't want us to catch him then what's he doing?" McCarthy asked. "Taunting us?"
"No, taunting would imply that this is some sort of game. It isn't." Hotch said, "He's made it very clear that he has no intention of going back to his life as it was. This is a one-way trip."
"There's DNA proving he's the offender." Alexander said, "No point in covering his tracks now. That would only slow him down."
"And if he wanted us to catch him, he'd simply stop running." Hotch said, "It's not likely. He's got four hundred grand in cash."
"That type of money, he could charter a plane or buy a ticket virtually anywhere in the world." Spencer said.
"Well, he's not hiding, he's hunting. Besides, driving works for him. It's anonymous and he can cover a lot of territory." Hotch said.
"We should notify the Mexican and Canadian border patrols." Zoe suggested. "He might try to leave the US."
"Let them know that most spree kill send with suicide by cop." Gideon said, "Could be how he plans on getting out of this mess."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe, Spencer, Alexander, and Gideon went to speak with Gregory's father, Doug.
"I still can't understand how my son could be responsible for this."
"Your son's a narcissist with split-personality. He's able to gain his victim's trust before inflicting pain upon them." Spencer informed him in his usual matter-of-fact tone. "This is most likely derived from an incredible amount of self-awareness."
"Mark has mastered the art of manipulation." Gideon said, "Only allows you to see his good side."
"This is a nightmare." Doug scoffed.
"I don't doubt that," Alexander said.
"Why don't you sit down, Mister Gregory?" " Gideon asked.
Gideon crossed the room to sit a couch while Doug sat on another couch. Spencer sat next to Gideon and cross his legs while Alexander sat next to Doug. Zoe remained standing, still wearing her sunglasses.
"You moved around a lot when Mark was growing up?" Gideon asked.
"Mark never complained. I guess it's because he was always good at making friends." Doug said, "He fit in wherever we went."
"We know he's been to Georgia. Do you know where else he might go?" Gideon asked. "Any places he loved to visit? Anywhere he'd call home?"
"We lived here the longest. He would consider Florida home."
Zoe had been looking around, all the photos contained Gregory as a child but no sign of Mark's mother. When Zoe and Zarah were growing up, there were always pictures of Zelena. Not just because of their tradition of putting up a picture of a loved one who had passed. Alexander had wanted them to know what their mother looked like. The woman who fought against a psychopath and let him torture her just so she could ensure Zoe's safety and bring her into the world even if she knew she wouldn't make it.
"I notice that Mark's mother isn't in any photos." She said.
"Elizabeth died in a car accident."
"I'm sorry." Alexander said as Zoe pursed her lips.
"How old was Mark when that happened?" Spencer asked.
"Ten."
"Were they close?" Spencer asked.
"She was his mother." He said, defensively.
"That doesn't answer the question, with all due respect. I know what it's like to lose a mother. Granted, my mom died in childbirth due to a murderer, but I still felt very close to her." Zoe said.
"Typically when a child loses a mother, he sees her as a victim. Which, you know, theoretically, he'd want to protect women. More likely to lash out against the father, blaming men for needing punishment, but Mark didn't do that."
"Because you and Mark were close." Gideon asked.
"Yes." He kept using the same tone.
"Any reason he would've blamed his mother for her death?" Alexander asked. "Was she drinking and driving..."
"No."
"...falling asleep at a wheel, anything?"
"No, no, nothing like that."
"Maybe he blames her because he thinks she abandoned him?" Spencer suggested.
"The loss of a female figure could explain why... he was Peeping Tom in adolescence." Gideon said.
"Are you telling me that young boys, aren't curious?" Doug asked.
"Sure, they're curious but not all peek through windows. Right, Spencer?" Zoe looked at him.
"What?" His voice went up several octaves at her teasing implication. "No, I never did that."
"What about the statutory rape charge?" Zoe asked Doug.
"Oh, no. Mark had just turned eighteen and his girlfriend was fifteen. They were kids, for God's sake. It was her parents that pressed charges."
He kept making excuses for his son.
"Did Mark ever have to take responsibility for anything?" Gideon asked.
"Look, what are you saying?" Doug demanded, "That being a protective parent has turned my child into a killer?"
"No, I'm saying you're making excuses. I'm not sure it did him any favors. I'm a protective father myself, this is my daughter here and she hasn't killed four women."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
They met back up with Hotch at the warehouse and found out that Garcia had found Gregory's ex-wife. Apparently, he had repeatedly accused her of cheating on him and then stalked her years after the annulment.
"Well, if I found out my ex-husband who thought I was constantly cheating was stalking me. I'd move away too."
"Well, he'd have my entire bullet clip collection in his head so you wouldn't have to." Alexander said and then narrowed his eyes at Spencer who looked both confused and scared.
"I can handle myself." Zoe said.
"Based on these interviews, it looks like the first victim wasn't being unfaithful. She had a husband and was trying to keep it secret." Hotch said, reading the report.
"Sounds like he found out."
"Yeah, there must have been something major in his past to trigger such an extreme reaction." Hotch said.
"Maybe something with his parents' relationship that scarred him during childhood?" Spencer suggested.
"Ted Bundy's hatred of women stemmed from when he found out as a child that the woman he had thought was his sister his whole life was his mother and his parents were his grandparents but they tried to hide it due to religious beliefs. This caused him to feel unloved and illegitimate. Then when his girlfriend dumped him, it furthered this feeling of being unloved and his hatred towards women." Zoe explained.
Garcia showed up on the laptop that was searching for Gregory, "Hey, guys, I found Mark Gregory's car at Atlanta International Airport."
"That's pretty smart. There's a sea of cars at the airport." McCarthy said.
"But he parked in short-term and he got a ticket."
"There must have another reason for him to dump it there." Hotch said.
"Guys, I know we ruled out flying, but it's hard to ignore the fact that his last known location was a place that literally had thousands of international flights a day.: Spencer said.
"Thousands of people, all possible victims." Gideon said.
"Hey, Garcia, is it possible to run the face recognition software at the airport?" Hotch asked.
"I'm already on it. I went ahead and started with security footage at the parking garage since we know he was in there."
"Knowing what he looks like's got to be some advantage to us." Hotch said.
"It is. I'm uploading to you right now."
"Thanks."
They watched the video of Gregory dressed like a pilot, eyeing a blonde woman putting her luggage into a car but he walked on by.
"She seemed like his type." McCarthy said.
"Some serial killers look for challenging victims for the thrill but not Gregory. He just wants the release. He's looking for the easiest target and he doesn't have time to waste." Zoe explained.
Gregory settled on a dark-haired woman, helping her put her luggage into her car.
"Who doesn't trust a man in uniform?" Gideon asked.
"He helps her. She returns the favor and gives him a ride." Hotch said as Gregory walked to the passenger's seat of the car.
"Fatal mistake." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer stared into a cup of water, intently with those hazel-brown eyes of his.
"Let's review what we know. Gregory will continue to drown. The question is why does he have to?" Hotch asked.
"People who murder via drowning typically want to invoke fear." Zoe recalled for her own experience of being waterboarded to the point she would pass out.
"If water symbolizes emotion it says they're overwhelmed by their own unresolved issues or facing some sort of major life crisis." Spencer said, "It suggests a release of the old is necessary to emerge and begin anew."
"So there's something he's trying to purge or cleanse by killing these women?" McCarthy asked.
"Yeah, I think that's exactly right." Spencer said.
"That's the key to unlock why he kills." Gideon said.
An officer came up and said, "Excuse me. Sorry to interrupt. But we've located the missing woman to a motel in South Carolina."
"Already?" Zoe asked, "That's not good."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer stared at the board of the victims.
"You see something?"
"No, I was just thinking about the information we released about Mark Gregory at the press conference." Spencer referred to the press conference JJ had held not too long ago.
"What about it?"
"Well, we described him as someone who's engaging, confident, poses as people with authority, but this is a guy who's flying under the radar." Spencer pointed out.
"So what, we made a mistake?" McCarthy asked.
"No, not at all, no." Spencer said. "We're dealing with a killer who's highly intelligent and incredibly resourceful. You would think that we've pushed him to change what he's doing."
"To what?"
"Maybe he's not using a simple ruse anymore?"
"He could alter his appearance so he's barely recognizable, just like in the sketch book." Gideon said.
"If he does that, we have no idea what we're looking for." Alexander said.
"Have Garcia find the records of the accident that killed his mom. Maybe there's something in there that can help us."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Garcia called Zoe, "Who's the answer to all your dreams?"'
"I believe they're fictional." Zoe quipped, "I'm going to put you on speaker."
"Oh, you completely suck. Are you getting the records?"
"Yeah, I got them." Zoe said, bringing them up on her laptop.
"Hospital records show Mark Gregory fractured a vertebra when he was ten. He suffered damage to his spine, ligaments, and neck.
"What causes that type of injury?" Gideon asked.
"Whiplash." Spencer and Zoe said in unison.
"Behold the wonderful geniuses of Doctor Spencer Reid and Doctor Zoe Noble-Valdez. Sweethearts, that's exactly what the rest of the hospital record says. Now, I did some more digging. I found an article in the Polk County paper describing the crash."
"What did it say?"
"Well, the headline reads that Elizabeth Gregory died in the crash, but here we go, her ten-year-old son was only injured."
"Mark Gregory was in the car with her?" Hotch asked.
"Apparently."
"We need to talk to Gregory's father, find out what else he's keeping from us." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
"Well, I know you guys didn't come here to look at pictures of my son." Doug said a few minutes after he had let them back into his house. "Did something happen?"
"Why are there no memories of your wife here?" Zoe asked.
"Why would I want to remind my son of the most horrible thing that ever happened to him?" Doug asked.
"Normally when a parent dies, the other parent tends to overcompensate by building a shrine of pictures, leaving their personal effects untouched, sometimes for years." Spencer said. "You didn't happen to do that."
"My pregnant fiance died hours before my youngest daughter here was born and I still put pictures of her all over the house. I told my daughters stories of her for years and I still carry a picture of her in my wallet twenty years later." Alexander said.
"Why didn't you tell us your son was in the car when your wife died?" Gideon asked.
"I didn't think it was important." Doug scoffed
"You didn't think it was important?" Gideon repeated, "You didn't think it was important to tell us your son witnessed his mother dying?"
"No."
"The fact that he witnessed his mother die at such a young age, it clearly affected how he regards women." Spencer said.
"But still he despises women. He blames his mother for someone." Zoe said. "Do you know why your son was married for such a short period of time?"
"Yes, it was a mistake, he was young." Doug scoffed like that was all there was to it.
"Well, we talked to his ex-wife. Mark was obsessed with thinking she was unfaithful."
Doug scoffed and said like they were stupid, "It could happen."
"Well, she never was, but he made life unbearable for her. She couldn't leave the house. She couldn't take a breath without worrying about it." Zoe said, "And years after he still stalked her, to see if he was right."
"Something must've happened to feed that distrust and give him such a distorted view of relationships." Spencer said.
"How were things with your wife, Mister Gregory?"
"Normal and uneventful." He said.
Well, it ended with her dying in a car crash.
"Was she being unfaithful?"
"What?"
"Did she pick men up? Did Mark find out, catch her in the act?" Gideon asked, quick fire.
"No! All right, all right, enough. Stop it." He said and sighed, "Uh... When she couldn't find a babysitter, she would take him with her to the motel and let him play by the pool. This went on for over a year. What kind of mother would do that?"
"Did you ever take him to therapy, Mister Gregory?" Alexander asked.
"No."
"Why?"
"I didn't think he needed it." He said.
"You didn't think he needed it?" Gideon repeated again.
Even Zoe and Zarah had therapy by Gideon's ex-wife about their mother's death and they were babies when it happened.
"No."
"A boy watches his mother die. He lives. She dies. You don't think that's confusing to a ten-year-old kid?" Gideon asked.
"I didn't say that!"
"You did say that."
"Mark was smart enough to know what was going on. That explains his issues with infidelity, his hatred towards women, and now why he tortures and drowns them." Spencer explained. "His first victim was married. She was having an affair with him, which it clearly reminded him of what his mother did to you."
"Do you think your wife's death was an accident?" Gideon asked.
"I honestly don't know." He confessed.
"Well, what do you know, Mister Gregory? What do you think? What do you feel? Do you even know what I'm talking about?" Gideon said, quick fire, gesturing with his hands.
"Well, okay, I had my suspicions." He confessed.
"Well, your son did what you thought about doing a hundred times. These are innocent women, innocent women, Mister Gregory. They didn't do anything. But in his mind, he views all women as unfaithful like your wife was." Zoe said.
"Ever occur to you your son might be trying to stand up for you in his own sick, demented way because you weren't there? You weren't there, Mister Gregory!" Gideon said.
"I..."
"Help us, before he kills again and again and again. Help us, Mister Gregory. Help us."
Doug didn't do anything.
"Right. While you sit here and perfect the art of doing nothing, we're going to try to save more women from being killed." Zoe spat and stormed out of the house.
"Zoe!" Spencer ran after her, "Zoe." She spun around, looking at him with an angry glare in her eyes. "You do know that Doug Gregory isn't the killer, right?"
"Yes, I know that, but he protected one, and now at least six women are dead because of it." She said.
"Zoe... what's going on with you..." Spencer asked.
Zoe's face scrunched up as she clenched her jaw, then she said, "We're not friends, Reid." She spat then she spun around and stormed off, leaving Spencer with a hurt look on his face.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
April 19, 2006
"Garcia found a lead in Tennessee. Allyson Glennon was snatched from a grocery store a couple hours ago and survived an attempted drowning in a motel pool." Hotch said when they came back.
"Motel pool?" McCarthy asked, "Doesn't sound like our guy. "
"Yeah, I know except that she's identified Gregory as her attacker, and the place is less than an hour from the last killing." Hotch said.
"And the last victim was killed at a motel. He's devolving." Zoe said. "He's not sticking to hotels anymore."
"Garcia's giving Elle and Morgan details right now."
"Alexander, Zoe, Reid and I had another talk with Mark's father." Gideon said. "We need to get everybody on the phone."
"Hey, Gideon." Elle said over the phone.
"We think Mark's first victim was his mother." Gideon said.
"What?" Morgan asked.
"I'm sorry. You're saying a ten-year-old killed his own mom?" Garcia asked.
"It's possible. I made my first kill at thirteen." Zoe said.
"What!?"
"It was self-defense."
"You did it with a bow and arrow." Alexander said.
"I still did it!"
"It's a common theory that sons can fixate on their mothers since their mothers are their introduction to love." Hotch said.
"And if that mother had a negative influence on him, in this case, she was an adulteress, it invalidated not only the father, but it reflected poorly onto the son." Spencer said.
"Mark Gregory was a child, but he was old enough to understand what his mother was doing." Gideon said, "He was protecting a weak, impotent, passive-aggressive father who wanted his wife dead. He read the old man like a book and lived the life he couldn't."
'Because she was his mother, he saw her as a saint, but because she was a cheater, he also saw her as a sinner." Zoe said, "It wouldn't be hard to cause a car crash. Mother and son argue. Son grabs wheel and turns it. Car crashes."
"Do you think the father knew his son was a murderer?" McCarthy said.
"Yes." Gideon and Zoe said.
"It's why he's so overprotective of him." Spencer said.
"We need to go through all of the evidence from the car accident." Hotch said. "Absolutely everything."
"News articles, medical records, police reports. I'm on it." Garcia said.
"We need to do it as quickly as possible. He's a killer on the run, and he's grabbing women as he sees them." Hotch said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
"Here's the police photo of the car Gregory's mother was killed in." Hotch said as Zoe ran a hand through her hair. "Right there. See the water dripping from the under the car?"
"It doesn't look like it'd be a fatal car crash." Spencer said. "All the damage was done on the passenger side?"
"What was her official cause of death?" Zoe asked.
"I'll ask Garcia."
McCarthy came in, "We've got a possible abduction. Kelly Dalton, twenty-eight. Eyewitnesses saw her leaving a parking lot with a man who resembled Gregory. She was supposed to pick up her son, never made it."
They called the rest of the team, "So, he's got a victim and a car. Now all he needs is the location."
"Okay, there are five sources of water nearby. Closest to the accident is... Rock Creek in..." Garcia said.
"Clearwater, Flordia." Spencer said, "
"That's where Kelly Dalton was abducted. Morgan and Elle are there right now."
"I'm headed there on my motorcycle. They need all hands on deck. I can be there in less than fifteen minutes on my bike." Zoe said.
"Zoe, one more thing." Garcia said, "Elizabeth Gregory's official cause of death was asphyxia caused by immersion in fluid."
"She drowned?" Hotch asked.
"With no discernible damage done to her, keeping her trapped in the car, what would cause a taller mother to drown and a smaller child to survive?" Spencer asked.
"There's only one way." Zoe said as she gathered her things, pulling her helmet out and strapping it on her head, "Mark Gregory held his mother's head under whatever water was in the car."
"His first kill was his most powerful." Hotch said. "Well, at least we know where he's going."
"Back to where it all started."
Zoe left the building and got on her bike.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe was on another side of the mass of land at route sixty, when there was a constant honking sound cutting through the air, it was nearby. She was closer than Elle and Morgan, she got on her motorcycle and drove at top speed until she got to the car, just a minute away. She got off her motorcycle.
"I just found the car. It's been crashed and it's empty. Kelly Dalton must've made a run for it." Zoe said.
She looked around, calculating where Kelly would've run to when she heard distant screams.
"SOMEBODY HELP ME! HELP!"
"I hear somebody screaming. I'm going into the woods." Zoe said. "In the direction the car is pointed. Keep you posted."
She bolted towards the direction of the screams
"Help me! Help me! Somebody help! Help!" Kelly screamed.
Gregory shoved the struggling woman into the body of water, he kept on pushing her under.
"How does that feel?" He shouted, "Shut up. Nobody can hear you.
Kelly grabbed a pipe at the bottom of the pond and hit him over the head with it. He stumbled back and she stood up, taking a breath of the sweet, sweet air she never wanted to not appreciate again, before lunging at him to make sure he was down for her own survival, stumbling because she was knee-deep in water and grabbed onto him, raising the pipe but he pushed her off him and she tried to flee, yelling out, hoping someone anyone could hear them, he pulled her back and raised the pipe.
"HEY! MARK GREGORY!" FBI! Zoe screamed, holding up her gun. "PUT DOWN THE PIPE AND LET HER GO OR I'LL SHOOT!"
"SHE CHEATED!"
"SHE'S NOT YOUR MOTHER! YOU KILLED HER TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS AGO!" Zoe shouted. "LET HER GO!"
He didn't move; he seemed to be examining Zoe, almost as if trying to decipher her words but due to his complete loss of sanity and distinguishing any Caucasian woman from his mother all he saw was a sinner, a liar, a cheater.
He lunged to hit Kelly over the head. BANG! Zoe shot at him, hitting him in the shoulder. He screamed out in pain as there was too much pain for him to even barely hold the pipe, much less hit Kelly over the head with it. Zoe rushed forwards and punched him, not enough to knock him out because he lunged at her to try and drown her next but she kicked him between the legs and punched him again, knocking him down, his bottom half in the water and kneed him in the face, simultaneously knocking him out and breaking his nose.
Zoe looked at his bleeding body and turned to the woman, "are you okay?"
She was sobbing and crying out, "He tried to kill me" and "no".
"So, you smashed your car to get away from him and beat him with a pipe. My kind of a woman." She tried to joke before looking at her wound while speaking to the other agents, "Alright, she may have a minor concussion, definite bruising and she should spend the next seventy-two hours at the hospital to avoid risks of secondary drowning and while that's on my mind, someone call the South California hospital that Allyson Glennon is in and warn them to keep her for at least seventy-two hours after her near drowning."
"The author François de La Rochefoucauld wrote, "We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves."
*I changed where Kelly Dalton was abducted so Zoe could face off the UnSub in the end and also I really liked Kelly. I thought she was a really tough and resourceful survivor and these are mostly told through Zoe's point of view. I changed it because the locations between them was eight hours by car. I don't think Rock Creek in Copperhill, Tennessee is a real place, so I kept that the same. Sorry.*
*Just a little hint but J.D. will make an appearance but no one gets to see him.*
Embers In the Sky (Dominique "Nico" Henderson played Georgie Henley; Alex Henderson played by David Tennant)
Killer Queen (Cassandra "Cassie Dare" Henderson played by Zoey Deutch; Pan Henderson played by David Tennant)
Trauma (Emilie Henderson played by Hailee Steinfeld)
Devil Town (Imogen Henderson played by Katherine Langford)
Isaac Lahey (Teen Wolf)
Embers in the Sky Season One (Milo Stilinski played by Katherine Langford)
Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds)
Braveheart (Isobel Noble played by Karen Gillan) (*This is a different character completely from Isobel Noble the aunt of Zoe Noble-Valdez in Valentía.*)
Born Profiler (OFC Played by Katherine Langford)
Chip Taylor (68 Kill)
The Black Sheep (Work in Progress; Coming Soon) (Chip Taylor x Reader; Liza and Dwayne's sister)
Kyle Orfman
Brother's Best Friend (Work in Progress; Coming Soon) (Kyle Orfan x Reader; Zach Orfman's Best Friend)
Joe Harper (The Band of Robbers)
True Companions
Fred Weasley
(All of these are Potter!sister!OCs, most of them are of Harry Potter's twin sister)
The Girl Who Lived (Sadie Sink as OC) (Need of a rewrite. Her name was Violet but since then my cousin had a baby daughter who he named Violet so I'm changing this character's name. I just can't write original characters with names of people I know. It's a rule of mine.)
North Star/Falling Star (Metamorphmagus!Cassiopea Potter played by Katherine Langford)
The Twins Who Lived (Georgie Henley as Currently Unnamed OC)
Embers in the Sky (Emberly "Ember" Potter Played by Caitlin Blackwood/Karen Gillan) She is also the face claim I maintain of Lily Evans/Potter. (Caitlin Blackwood played young Amelia Pond in Doctor Who and is Karen Gillan's real life cousin.)
Will Burton (Escape Artist)
Unjust (Will Burton x Reader) (Escape Artist Rewrite)
I don't know if I'm being paranoid but people seem to be not liking my posts as they usually do. So I'm going to simplify my Masterlist because I haven't written for most of these.
So I'm going to add these here. Remember the characters are color-coded by what Hogwarts house I think they're in and since Tumblr removed the yellow color, Orange will represent Hufflepuff except in the condition of Good Omens' Crowley who I am stuck between Gryffindor and Hufflepuff. If you disagree, please give me your best argument and I'll offer my insight of David Tennant's Crowley.
Ninth Doctor - Brooding Time Lord Who Tries To Hide His Light with Darkness
Tenth Doctor - Hyperactive Time Lord Who Is Always Being Slapped Born From His Love For a Human Who Tries To Hide His Darkness and Trauma With Light
Metacrisis Doctor/TenToo (My Headcanon is that he chose the surname "Noble")
Fourteenth Doctor - The Face That Returned, now arguably more Hyperactive and Traumatized
Campbell Bain - Bipolar Nineteen-Year-Old Walking Ray of Sunshine That Somehow Doesn't Do Well With Girls
Alec Hardy (Broadchurch) - Grumpy and Broody Scottish Detective With a Heart Condition yet a Heart of Gold (Doesn't Know He's a DILF)
Emmet Carver (Gracepoint) - The American Version of Alec
Crowley (Good Omens) - A Hyperactive Drama Queen "Vaguely Sauntered Downward" Angel Turned Only Demon with an Imagination
Barty Crouch Junior - The (Possibly Bipolar) Misunderstood Boy Who Never Got His Father's Love and Was Manipulated By Voldemort (I think I read that he was actually a Ravenclaw but I do see a lot of Hufflepuff in him, his insistence of a fair fight and honesty and loyalty)
Peter Vincent (Fright Night) - Hyperactive Alcoholic Magician/Vampire Hunter with a Heart of Gold
Dave Tiler (Single Dad) — The sweetheart dad with too many children with so much love in his heart who fate was so cruel to.
Kilgrave (I've never seen Jessica Jones, I just feel like with him having the same accent and looks the same, it might ruin David Tennant's Doctor for me, and I love David Tennant as the Doctor.)
Cale Erendreich (Bad Samarian; Haven't Seen This Either)
Will Burton (Escape Artist) — Britain's best Criminal Defense Attorney, who defended and offended his worst client
Doug McLeod — A "complete and utter bloody shambles" and "Not England" Dad of three fantastic (and hilariously curious and independent) children from ages four to ten (who are the most mature in the family) who made a few mistakes but loves his family so much.
Steve Harrington (Stranger Things) - The Hair; Nomenee for Mother of the Year
Isaac Lahey (Teen Wolf) - The Abused Puppy With a Heart of Gold Who Only Wanted the Power to Defend Himself and To Not Be Scared
Spencer Reid (Criminal Minds) - The Genius Pretty Boy
Raymond Wadsworth
Chip Taylor (68 Kill)
Kyle Orfman
Lesley Juniment-Smith
Thornton "Thorn" Adams (King Knight)
Joe Harper (The Band of Robbers)
Fred Weasley
Walter "Wally" Clark (School Spirits)
Yes, there are a lot of David Tennant characters. I don't want to write for the actor himself, I just feel a little creepy doing that. In my numerous Steve Harrington fics, the more recent ones (The OC is always Dustin's older sister, except in one) I think he is the best Doctor and I think he should officially be titled as the biggest Doctor Who Fan ever. (He became an actor because of Doctor Who, he says he thinks he underplays how much he loved Doctor Who, he became the first regenerated Doctor and the first one to last more than one season on the revived Doctor Who, he met his future father-in-law, like a year before he met his wife, Ty Tennant, Georgia's oldest son and David's now adopted son, in 2008, considered the Tenth to be his favorite, and hilariously, his grandfather was nowhere on the five-year-old's list--then David Tennant met Georgia (at the time) Moffat on the set of Doctor Who as she, the daughter of the Fifth Doctor, played the daughter of the Tenth Doctor, I heard that David Tennant met Ty on the set, and according the Peter Davidson, Georgia didn't even realize that he liked her when they started going out (apparently he was offended when she said she hadn't seen any Shakespeare), then David Tennant counts as the unofficial twelfth regeneration (there was the War Doctor who the Doctors deem as not worthy of having the name of the Doctor), then he adopted Ty Tennant and married Georgia; he returned for the 50th and 60th anniversary (and I hope he never stops returning), now is the Fourteenth Doctor, that's three official regenerations, and Good Omens is full of Doctor Who references. I don't think anyone can beat him for the biggest Doctor Who fan. His life like revolves around Doctor Who in a way that every fanboy/fangirl dreams of.
*(Can't pinpoint what house Alec Hardy and therefore Emmet Carver would be in, the only blog I've found on it, discussed how he may be a burnt Hufflepuff (just google it, it'll send you to the tumble immediately) but discusses his desperation in season two suggests Gryffindor, also implying his ignoring of his heart condition but he's aware that he has it, so he's gone to the hospital and he takes pills, he's just aware that the doctors told him that he may not survive his surgery to have the pacemaker put in and he feels like he owes it to the families to get the closure they deserve, so it doesn't strike me as impulsive but more dedicated, determined, and "unafraid of toil". Then the blog argues that his need to protect people he views as in his care and how he related to the Sandbrooke case as Slytherin but I don't see that. I think perhaps a "Burned Hufflepuff" is accurate.*
Summary: While in Los Angeles conducting a profiling seminar with the LAPD, Gideon and Reid are brought in to consult when someone commits a series of murders occurring around a young Hollywood actress, who becomes attracted to Reid.
Warnings: Stalking; Killing; J.D. Zoe being mean to Spencer; Spencer being mean to Zoe; Spencer cursing; Zoe is being a bit shady when it comes to her photo being taken, Obsessive Love
Note: *Although I have recast Lila, because she’s played by a real life UnSub (someone on Archive of Our Own said “she wasn’t but okay” but come on, look what she tried to do) and a genuinely awful person who tried to ruin a good man’s life, there will be passive-aggressive comments about her because I hate her that much because I love Johnny Depp so much. My mom actually wouldn't let me watch Aquaman because she didn't like Herd and this was before the scandal broke, she didn't trust her. I kept being reminded of different actresses because she looked so different or more likely, my brain was trying to replace her with someone I actually like rather than a terrible human being who can't act. She is now cast by Claire Holt from the Originals and H2o*
"When you have seen as much as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love." — J.K. Rowling
Diane Arbus once said, "A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know."
March 26, 2006
Zoe's suspension was up and she was in California with Spencer and Gideon to give a lecture and Spencer had brought them to an art gallery that a semi-friend from high school was hosting. He hadn't been a friend exactly but he hadn't been one of the cruel ones to Spencer and defended him a few times which Spencer had appreciated.
"Spencer! Spencer Reid!" The man was older than Spencer, obviously and hugged Spencer who awkwardly tried to return it. "Dude, dude, dude. Look at you. You look just the same. Look at you, dude, nothing changed. Spencer was the only twelve-year-old in our graduating class. Just the same."
"Thanks." Spencer said.
"This is Special Agent Jason Gideon and this is Doctor Zoe Noble-Valdez." Spencer introduced, "This is Parker Dunley. We went to high school together, as you can probably gather."
"Yeah, I gathered." Zoe said.
"Hi. How are you?" Gideon introduced.
Hey." He said and then he looked at Zoe and Spencer didn't miss how he eyed Zoe. "You work with the FBI?"
"Yeah, Spencer was the youngest before I came along." Zoe said and she looked at her hand still in Parker's hand too long and she pulled it back as Spencer shifted, uncomfortably.
"It's a beautiful gallery." Gideon said.
"Oh, thank you, thank you."
"Uh, Jason's a big contemporary art enthusiast." Zoe said.
"Well, we're exhibiting four up-and-coming artists in this show. Everything's for sale." Parker said.
"Yeah, birds are his favorite. You got any of those" Zoe deadpanned.
Parker looked at Spencer who just shook his head with a fond smile like, she's always like that.
"And I could definitely swing a nice discount for a friend of..." He spotted a pretty blonde woman enter the room with a brunette friend. "Lila." He turned back to them to bring them to introduce them. "Hey. Guys, come on." He walked to the woman.
Spencer turned to Zoe and Gideon, "Do I look twelve-years-old to you?"
"Basically." Zoe deadpanned with a smirk. Not that she
"Fourteen?" Gideon said.
Spencer looked away and shook his head and followed Parker.
"Spencer, you ever meet a real movie star?" Parker asked.
"Movie star? Please. She has a supporting role on a television series about beach volleyball." Lila's friend said, "Totally blue-collar."
"I'm Lila." She introduced to Spencer.
"Hi, I'm uh, Doctor Spencer Reid. Um... I'm Spencer. You don't have to call me doctor." Spencer stammered.
"I won't."
"Doctor Zoe Noble-Valdez, M.D." Zoe said and then started to turn to make her leave before turning back around at such a quick pace that something was clearly wrong and standing stiffly as someone started to take pictures of Lila.
"Excuse me." Parker said and turned to confront the photographer, "Hey, you. I told you no photos in the gallery. All right? Out!
When the photographer moved as Parker made him move, still taking pictures of the group, Zoe ducked and reemerged with her leather jacket hood over her head but she wasn't sure if she had kept herself hidden enough.
A waiter offered them champagne, Lila took one and Spencer declined, Zoe immediately took it, rather annoyed with the situation but unable to leave without risk of getting her photo taken.
"So, you're not from around here, are you?"
"No." Zoe said, blankly.
"Me? No, no. I'm... We're running a training service about profiling for the Los Angeles Police Department." Spencer explained.
"Profiling?" Lila asked.
"Yeah, we're with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI. We psychoanalyze crime scenes in order to gain a better understanding of the criminal who might have committed the crime." Spencer explained.
"Psychoanalyze, huh?" Lila said and Spencer nodded and glanced away awkwardly.
Zoe stuck her tongue out in disgust. Barf.
"Are you doing that to me right now?" Lila asked
"What? No. I'm not psychoanalyzing you. I'm just..." Spencer stammered.
"I'm kidding." Lila chuckled and Spencer pressed his lips together, nodding.
He noticed Zoe, giving him a rather annoyed look as Lila was clearly charmed by Spencer's awkward nature.
"You're an idiot." Zoe said.
"What?" Spencer asked but she then spun and getting on her phone, deeming possibly being caught on camera was worth getting away from these two.
"Hey, J.D." He caught her say before she disappeared into the crowd. Spencer bit his tongue. "Hey, uh, I know this is just a message but I might have been captured on some paparazzi photos and I'd really appreciate it if you could search for those to make sure they don't reach anyone who may have seen me. I'm at an art gallery actually, I know you don't have many pleasant things to look at other than computer screens, I can look for one something that you'd like as a thank you. And if I wasn't, just... I can't say I'm sorry because I was doing my job but you are where you are because of me. Bye, J.D. I hope you get this soon."
Zoe was examining a piece of art that was closest to JD's taste but still not to it. It was gothic enough. He was dark. When she got the call from him.
He spoke to her with his usual... JD-ness, only she ever understood him. Zoe knew she shouldn't smile when she talked to him but she still did which Spencer noted bitterly.
"I don't think any of these are to your liking. Too modern. You're both. You're classical and modern." Then she spotted Gideon looking deeply uncomfortable. "Uh, Gideon looks like he's freaking out, I gotta go but I'll call you later. Well, Johnson can say that to my face, if he wants. We both know he won't."
"Zoe, let's go. Where's the kid?" Zoe led Gideon to Spencer.
"I can't tell you how to feel." Lila said.
"Right now I feel pretty good." Spencer said, awkwardly.
"We're leaving." Gideon told him
"We're still looking at the exhibit." Spencer protested.
"Now." Gideon said but Spencer hesitated, "Now. Now."
"Uh, yeah, yeah, I guess we're leaving." He shook Lila's hand, "Nice to meet you."
"You too..."
"Reid, now." Gideon said.
"Bye, Spencer." Lila chuckled and watched as he awkwardly weaved his way around the caterers, meeting up with Zoe who was downing a last glass of champagne and not looking at him, determinedly.
——————————————————————————————————
March 27, 2006
They gave the lecture to the LAPD in the morning, "Today, we thought we'd focus on what is probably the most important component of profiling... or, for that matter, any investigative technique, victimology. The word victim stems from the Latin word, 'victima,' which means sacrifice. Victims of violent crimes are brutalized by a subject who takes it upon him or herself to decide life or death over a fellow human being."
Zoe jumped into her work as usual. "There are around sixteen million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. Every time a person is killed, robbed or raped, the most important question you will ask yourself is why. Why did your UnSub choose this victim at this time? Was there anything done which provoked the criminal to act or was the target available or weak? A casualty of circumstance?"
Spencer had never seen Zoe be so focused on a lecture, she didn't give one sarcastic comment, and she seemed to be ignoring him.
The detective who had invited them walked the three to their car, Detective Owen Kim.
"You know, we really can get ourselves to the airport." Gideon said.
"I didn't invite the FBI here to let them make their own way around town." He said.
"We really appreciate it." Spencer said.
"Hey, I can't thank you guys enough for conducting the seminar." Kim said.
"Well, don't hesitate to call if there's anything we can help with." Gideon said.
They started to pack up their things when Kim got a call and stepped aside to take it. His body language seemed to change as he got off it.
"Everything all right?" Zoe asked.
"Double murder at a Hollywood bungalow. A celebrity. A young movie star, Natalie Ryan, and her fiancé apparently shot to death. It's going to be a major pain in the ass." Kim said, "Hey, you guys care to take a quick look before I drive you to the airport? It's on the way."
"Absolutely."
Zoe unattached her motorcycle, not wanting to sit next to Spencer and drove off at once.
Kim, Spencer, and Gideon met up with Zoe at the crime scene as she examined the bodies. The woman was on her couch with a bullet to the head, eyes open
"No sign of forced entry." Spencer noted.
"Same weapon." Gideon said.
"Natalie was shot execution style, once in the head. Jeremy Collins, her fiancé, three times in the torso." Zoe said.
"So, you have two different MOs." Gideon said.
Kim approached them, "We have an image on the video surveillance camera. Looks like a messenger of some kind wearing a motorcycle helmet. He's unidentifiable."
"There's no sign of a struggle between the girl and the UnSub from the door to the couch. He most likely forced her at gunpoint." Spencer said.
"He told her to trust him, 'Do what I say. I won't hurt you'." Zoe said.
"Fatal mistake." Kim said and Zoe hummed in agreement.
"He asked her to sit on the couch and then shot her in the head."
"Fiancé wasn't expected. His killing's messier. It's less controlled. It's less organized." Gideon said and looked at Kim, "What do you think?" "I've had a couple other cases recently, past few months. Same type of weapon, .22 caliber handgun, both shot in the head. The first was an established film producer, Wally Melman, and the second was Chloe Harris, another young actress. Though not as well-known as Natalie here." Kim said.
"Sounds like a pattern." Zoe said.
"Any forensic evidence?" Spencer asked.
"No, and the guys have been going through this place all morning and haven't come up with anything."
"So, he clearly knows how to cover his tracks." Zoe said, walking around.
"Like a professional hit man?"
"Maybe." Zoe said and then she suddenly ducked and reemerged, looking annoyed and with her hood back over her head.
"Gideon, there are people actually taking photographs of us from the next yard." Spencer said, looking at what made Zoe duck.
"Yeah, welcome to LA." Kim said.
"Well, some of us don't want their photo taken." Zoe grumbled, turning away from the paparazzi.
Zoe made her way back to the bodies and turned her back to the windows.
"Twenty-two's are small, but efficient. They bounce around inside a person like a pinball." Zoe said.
"Preferred weapon of the Mafia." Spencer said, "You know, there's no obvious sexual component to these crimes, which is usually the case with serial murders."
"So, you are thinking this is a serial killer?" Kim asked.
"Well, it's certainly a series of murders. We don't know enough yet to call them serial." Gideon said.
"Would you consider hanging out in LA a little while?" Kim asked. "Let me lean on your expertise until we do figure out what we've got?"
"As long as I don't get my photo taken." Zoe deadpanned.
"Yeah, just cancel the flights. We'll have the rest of our team out here ASAP."
——————————————————————————————————
Kim listened to what the team had come up with so far once the rest of them arrived.
"This guy is an assassin?"
"When you look at the victimology, there's no obvious links." Morgan said, "All the kills are clean, except in the instance of the last victim, Jeremy Collins."
"There's absolutely no evidence left at the crime scene. There's no DNA. No manifestation of psychosexual release and there's no detectable signature of any kind." Elle said.
"Remember, our profiles are formulated not just by what's present at the scene, but also what's absent." Gideon said.
"From all the evidence that we've gathered, we believe that you're looking for a Type Four Assassin." Alexander said.
"Type Four?"
"Type One's are political assassins like John Wilkes Booth." Spencer explained.
"Type Two's are egocentrics looking for simple recognition." Zoe said.
"Type Three's are psychopaths, cold-blooded killers who leave far messier scenes." Hotch said.
"And Type Four, our UnSub, suffers from a major mental disorder and is frequently delusional." Alexander said.
"The closer we come to figuring out that delusion, the closer we'll get to finding the UnSub." Spencer said.
"Well, what's he going to be doing until we do?" Kim asked.
"Finding other victims." Gideon said.
A man entered, "Excuse me?" He knocked on the open doorway, "Hi. Is there a Detective Kim here?""
"Right here.
"You're heading the investigation into the Natalie Ryan murder?" The man asked.
"Yes."
"Um... My... I have a client, she's... Is there any place we could be private?" He asked.
"We're all working this murder." Kim said.
"Well... She received a note. My client did and she freaked out. I told her not to worry about it, and..." He explained.
"Where's the note?" Morgan asked and the man handed it to him, it was an article about Natalie Ryan's death with three words written in red: You owe me.
"Where is your client?" Hotch asked.
"She's waiting in the other room."
"Reid, Zoe, let's go." Morgan said.
Zoe, Morgan, and Spencer walked through the precinct and... you gotta be kidding me.
"How well did you know Natalie Ryan?" Hotch asked.
"We spoke when we saw each other in public, but we were never friends." Lila said.
"How about Wally Melman?" Hotch asked.
"What?" Lila asked.
"Wally Melman, he was a producer who was killed a couple months ago." Zoe clarified.
"The-the paper said that was a robbery." Lila stammered.
"Well, the paper was wrong." Zoe said, somewhat curtly.
"Did you know him?"
"Well, we met a few times about a project, but I didn't get the part. They went a different way." Lila said.
"Which way?" Elle asked.
“He cast another act..." Realization came to her face, "Oh, my God."
"What is it?" Spencer asked.
"He cast Natalie Ryan." Her agent, Michael said.
"You owe me." Morgan held up the article with the note.
Lila sighed, devastated in guilt and put her head in her hands.
"I guess that's one way to ice out the competition?" Elle said.
"Don't look at me. I brought her into the police station." Michael pointed out.
"Have you ever had a sense that someone is watching you, following you?" Gideon asked.
"From the moment I get to work," Lila said, "I have hair and makeup, and wardrobe people, producers, writers, my agent, my manager, publicist. Not to mention photographers. I..."
"It's part of the life." Michael said.
"Anything that seems odd, out of the ordinary, happens on a regular basis or a semi-regular basis?" Gideon asked.
"What do you mean?" Lila asked.
"Repetitive phone calls with hang ups? Gifts left anonymously?" Spencer suggested.
"I receive flowers on the seventh of each month they just appear in my trailer. Never a note. Just a plain glass bowl. Red anemones. My favorite." She said.
"And you don't want to know who they're from?" Zoe asked.
"Celebrities get anonymous gifts all the time." Michael said, "She has fans, you know."
"You remember meeting anyone on the seventh day of the month?" Gideon asked, "Or in July, the seventh month of the year?"
"No."
"Wally Melman was a producer who considered hiring you but didn't and Natalie was a rival."
"And Chloe Harris, she looks a lot like you. Don't you think?" Elle asked, showing a picture of her.
"Who?" Lila asked.
"A potential rival." Elle said.
"She was murdered, too." Hotch said.
They doing a real good job at scaring this girl.
"So, all these people are being killed because of me?
"It's possible." Hotch admitted.
Lila put her head in her hands, briefly, this was too much for her. "I'm sorry. I can't. I have to go."
Spencer hurried after Lila, calling her name. He ran awkwardly out the station after her.
She turned to him, "What's happening, Spencer?"
Spencer brushed his hair out of his face as he explained, "Well, it's still rather speculative, but it appears there's a delusional assassin who's killing people to help further your career. It probably started as a stalker. An erotomanic stalker. There's a psychopathology of the evolution of these types of stalkers and the fact that he's contacting you indicates that he believes you owe him something. This model frequently concludes itself with one of two possibilities, either the stalker will kill himself or he'll kill the object of his affection."
——————————————————————————————————
When Spencer left, Zoe shifted and grabbed the file from Hotch aggressively and sat down, going through it.
Morgan did a full turn and walked away, not stupid enough to tease Zoe at the moment.
Alexander came up to her and sat down, "Are you alright?"
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?" She asked, shortly and hostilely.
"No reason. No reason." He sighed. "Just a father worries when his only daughter who he knows where she is faces heartache over the boy she's smitten with."
Zoe slammed her hands on the table. "I am not smitten!" She growled out.
"Of course not." He said, blankly, being sarcastic.
"He's twenty-four, he's a great guy, he's smart, single, and still a virgin. I don't get a say in his love life."
"You get a love life too as much as it pains for me to admit." Alexander said.
"No, I don't. The Satanists and the serial killer who paid them to kidnap me made sure of that. Because of them, I can't trust people and I can't let myself feel. Emotional detachment, remember? The last boyfriend I had now has multiple life sentences in jail because of me.”
She looked outside, seeing Lila walking away from Spencer who watching her go and tilting his head, obviously checking her out.
She groaned and dropped her head on the table.
"You're going to have to hit your head harder if you wish to induce a concussion, sweetheart." Her father deadpanned.
“I hate everything.” She groaned.
——————————————————————————————————
March 28, 2006
They gave the profile in the morning.
"With this UnSub we're looking at a compound profile. A Type Four delusional assassin with an erotomanic fixation on the actress, Lila Archer."
Zoe didn't like Lila. She was aware of that even if she was vehemently denying the possibility on why. But she knew what it was like to have an erotomanic stalker with murderous tendencies. Every time she got a package, she feared it would be another bouquet of white lilies covered in blood. She couldn't look at any kind of lilies without seeing them. Sometimes she felt like he was still watching her.
"Erotomanics are a form of stalker who possess the delusional belief that another person, usually of a higher social status, is in love with them."
Zoe's hand went to her biggest scar, all of them aching.
"This phenomena is commonly just thought of as another stalker case to many but they are quite dangerous. Famous erotomaniacs include John Hinckley Junior, Margaret Mary Ray, Michael David Barrett, and John Robert Bardo." Zoe said.
"In the United States, at any given time, there are over two hundred, thousand people being stalked." Elle said. "Our UnSub is having a fantasy love affair with Lila Archer. The way John Hinckley did with Jodie Foster."
"Miss Archer was not aware of her stalker until yesterday." Hotch said, "He wasn't trying to impress her. He was more like an unwanted, very violent guardian angel.
"When the stalker feels as if they've been in some way betrayed by their love object, this often leads to violence against the target." Gideon said.
"In the case of John Robert Bardo, when actress Rebecca Schaeffer took a role where she had to have a sexual relationship with another character, it was enough to force him to snap and seek her out to kill her." Spencer said.
"Though stalkers can be either male or female, it's most likely we're looking for a single male. A loner in his late twenties to early forties, very intelligent with ample time to follow his victim and study her habits." Hotch said.
"As of yet, the UnSub has not directed any violence towards Miss Archer, but he has shifted his focus from those around her to her directly." Spencer said.
"This doesn't preclude the fact that anyone who has the vaguest association with Miss Archer is a potential target." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————
Lila had gotten another note that said: Lila—I've always been so good to you. Why would you go to the police?
They were in her trailer looking at the note in the evidence bag now
"I'm intrigued by this particular version of the verb 'to be." Gideon said.
"Past participle." Spencer said.
"Steady state of being. Preceding adverb." Gideon agreed.
"Always."
"In English." Kim requested.
"That is English. We're discussing the verb tenses..." Reid started.
"Reid. Reid." Morgan cut him off.
"No offense but now not the time for a vocab lesson." Zoe said.
Gideon turned to Officer Kim, "Our stalker sounds like someone she knows."
"Based on the tense of the verb." Spencer continued as Lila tilted her head back in exasperation.
Zoe looked at her and gave her a sympathetic smile like, sorry about this.
"Maybe it's time to get her off the street." Morgan suggested.
"You know there's been no physical threat to her. She might be safe just staying put as opposed to anywhere else." Spencer countered.
"I'm standing right here, guys." Lila complained.
“If we did remove you, we’d have to take you to an undisclosed location. I’m sure your stalker knows where you live.” Gideon said.
“I’m not having the whole show close down. I only need one more scene to shoot. Look, last night I decided I wasn’t gonna be afraid of this lunatic." Lila said, reminding Alexander of a rather defiant pair of girls he fathered.
Lila looked at Detective Kim, “Am I safe here?”
“The set’s cleared of everyone except essential personnel, and we have increased security at the gate.” Kim relented.
"But if the stalker sees that she's moved then they may feel more betrayed and try to find her and that never ends well. We don't know how much they know about her." Zoe pointed out.
There was a knock and a young woman with blonde hair around Lila's age stuck her head in. Zoe couldn't get a read off her since she was looking at Lila with the back of her head facing the law enforcement. “Lila, they’re ready for you.”
“Thanks, Mags. I’m staying at work” Lila said and left the trailer.
“Well, she’s one tough girl,” Derek stated the obvious.
“Yeah,” Spencer agreed.
Zoe showed no reaction, putting on her usual apathetic facade.
“I didn’t want to say anything in front of her, but his anger about her going to the police suggests he might alter his agenda." Gideon said.
"It’s typical for a stalker,” Morgan said.
“She didn’t go alone to the police.”
“Her manager took her.” Zoe recalled, "the stalker could perceive him as guilty for getting the police involved.
“You, Morgan, and Reid stay here. Keep an eye on her,” Gideon instructed.
"Awesome." She muttered.
She both didn't want to stay and watch Lila flirt with Spencer while he remained painfully oblivious to it but stay to make sure they didn't cross any lines, not that they likely would with Spencer's utter inability to interact with other people, especially women.
"I'll hang back, too." Kim said.
"Where are you going?" Morgan asked.
"To talk to her manager." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe remained on set of this painfully dull set about beach volleyball. God, she hated the beach. She was on her phone searching for a painting to send to J.D. that he'd actually like or maybe she'd get him a book, but the problem was finding on he hadn't read yet.
Zoe looked up, seeing Spencer bump into a camera and try not to knock it down as he made his way to speak to Lila who had put a robe over her bikini.
"Sorry, if I was, um, insensitive last night." Spencer apologized to her.
"You're only doing your job, right?" Lila asked as Spencer drank some a coke bottle.
"Yeah."
"Then there's no need to apologize." She said, giving a doey-eyed look as she sipped her tea or coffee but apparently it was one of those drinks she had to drink to keep her figure or something or she saw another opportunity to flirt because she made a disgusted face. "Ugh." Then she took Spencer's coke. "You don't mind sharing, do you?" She drank it without a reply but he answered anyways. Spencer shook his head.
"No." The germophobe said.
The bell rang, signifying her break was over, so she took off her robe and moved past Spencer who was drinking from the soda again, trying and failing to appear as if he wasn't looking at Lila's body and watching her walk off.
Morgan walked up to Spencer and mimicked Lila, teasingly while Zoe hit the buttons on her phone harder than necessary. "You don't mind sharing with me, do you?"
"Shut up." Spencer told him, sharply.
"Go get 'em, lover."
Spencer went to walk after Lila before realizing he was going in the wrong direction.
Zoe rolled her eyes. "I didn't think you had it in you to be jealous."
Zoe sharply brought her head up from her phone and glared at Morgan. "I am not jealous."
"Then why are you upset?"
"I am not upset. Spencer's just a friend and I don't have any feelings for him and he doesn't have any feelings for me."
Are you blind? Morgan thought.
"Even if he did, he can do much better than me." She said.
Morgan's teasing smirk fell, "You don't really believe that do you."
"My last boyfriend... wasn't totally dissimilar from Spencer. High IQ, Neurodivergent, book lover, but he was... he was homeless when I met him, and I was in a bad place. We clicked because we had similar traumas, but we never really labeled it. I let him help in the cases I was working on when I was Maze's apprentice and we both ended up being kidnapped for six months. What he saw in that prison... it was my fault. And what he did after that led to him being arrested was my fault too. He was survived so much only for me to finally break him."
"You didn't break him, those men did."
"They hurt us but me more than him because I volunteered to be tortured instead of him."
"You volunteered to be tortured."
"He had been hurt so much, if I could keep him from feeling more pain, then I would. And I did. I can take it. That's something you learn when you're being tortured just because." Zoe said, "I'm too broken for someone like Spencer. Even if we did have those feelings, he could do so much better than me." She stiffened up, "If anyone asks, I never said a word."
Morgan saw he had something in common with Zoe. They had both been hurt by men who took advantage of them, even if they weren't aware of it in each other's past yet but they had ways of refusing relationships because of it.
——————————————————————————————————
Michael Ryler, Lila's agent had been shot in the head. They were too late.
Zoe left the studio with Morgan and Kim while Spencer had taken Lila to her house when Elle called, he put her on speaker phone while Zoe pulled her hoodie over her head.
"Morgan, it's Elle."
"Yeah?
"We just found a manila envelope on Michael Ryer's desk. It's full of photos."
"Okay."
"Well, they're candid shots of Lila Archer nude. I'm guessing he was probably paying someone off to keep them out of the press." Elle said as they got in the car, a groan rumbling in Zoe's throat.
"Do we know who?"
"The name on the envelope was Joe Martinez."
"The paparazzo?" Kim asked.
"You know him?"
"Yeah, I deal with him a lot."
"So the creep kind?" Zoe asked.
"You could say that."
"Elle, we're on it."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer entered Lila's house which was more lavish than his apartment that could be mistaken for a mini-library.
"Wow. I like your house."
"I rent it." Lila said.
"Nice. You should also probably change all your phone numbers." Spencer said.
"I'm unlisted." She told him.
"Anytime you call an 800 number or an 888 number your phone number's put into a data bank that's then sold to telemarketers. If someone gets your cell phone number, they can go online and research all your records." Spencer explained.
Lila looked at him with the usual look.
"Hanging out with you could be really depressing." She said, walking to a different part of the house.
Spencer could practically hear Zoe's remark: He gets that a lot.
"You should also probably carry a piece of paper and a pen with you where ever you go in case you see any suspicious license plates that often reappear." Spencer said, following.
Spencer saw a piece of part that seemed to be randomized bits and pieces.
"Photographic collage." Lila said, "I like it because it's like life, you know? You know, like obscure, difficult."
Spencer nodded and then said, "You should also get a dog. Like a guard dog of some sort."
"Allergic." She said. "Earl Gray or Chamomile?"
"What?" He asked, still oblivious to her attempts to flirt with him and she walked off to the kitchen, "What..."
"Would you like some tea?" She clarified.
"Yes. Yes, uh, sure." He said and then mouthed to himself, scoldingly.
No wonder he had never had a real date-date.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe beat Morgan to the door and kicked it down with her hood still up.
"FBI! Come out where ever you are, creep!" She shouted.
"Martinez?" Morgan shouted.
"The creep's not here. Probably on the prowl." Zoe sighed, coming upon what seemed to be practically a shrine to Lila Archer due to the amount of photos of her "Come look at this!"
"See? This guy's a real scumbag." Kim said.
"You got that right." Spencer said.
"Oh, this creeper." Zoe said, finding a picture of the first paparazzi, "He was taking pictures of her at the gallery we were at the other day. The owner had to kick him out. Morgan, do me a favor. If you see any photos of me, burn them. I'm not being sarcastic, I have a lot of enemies who know what I look like but don't know my name or where I actually live. If they know I'm in America now, it could cause a real problem."
Morgan spotted a piece of paper, "What's this?"
"It's a call sheet." Kim recognized. "It's the shooting schedule for a film or television show."
"That's Lila's show." Zoe recognized.
"Yeah."
"He's not supposed to have that, is he?" Morgan asked.
"No.
"So, at minimum, we can charge him with stalking because this," Zoe gestured around with a finger, "Goes beyond paparazzi to just plain stalking."
Zoe walked to a table and shifted through the photos. She stopped when she spotted a photo of Lila talking to a man. She knew the back of that man.
"Morgan, it's Spencer." Zoe called.
"There's a whole bunch of them." Kim said, shifting through the photos, some directly on Spencer, and some had Zoe in them, turning away from the camera. "He a target now?"
Zoe looked at him, "Not if I can help it. Let's go." Zoe headed to the door, leaving all the pictures of her behind. Who cared if any of those terrorists saw her in the paper, she had to go get Spencer.
"You and me both." Morgan agreed, right on her heels.
"You call him." Zoe said once they left.
Morgan rolled his eyes and called the second youngest agent in the team, "Reid, it's Morgan. Listen to me. You got to watch your back over there. We just found a bunch of close-up photos of you at this guy Joseph Martinez's studio. It looks like he could be the UnSub. He had a ton of photos of Lila and Natalie plus a call sheet for Lila's show. We're on our way right now," Zoe froze, "but I need you to be real careful until we get there, all right? All right."
Zoe had stopped and there was a motorcycle revving up.
"GET DOWN!" She shouted but before they could react gunshots went off at the car, hitting Kim.
Zoe and Morgan pulled their guns and shot at the motorcycle but they were too far away.
Zoe broke away and ran to Kim.
"You hit?" She asked.
"Yeah. It's just my shoulder." He said and Zoe went to applying pressure to the wound.
"All right. I'm calling for help." Morgan said, "Officer down. We need an ambulance at La Brea and Wilshire."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Gideon, Elle, JJ, Alexander, and Hotch came upon them as they had Kim in the ambulance, it wasn't critical but he did need a hospital.
"How we doing?
"He'll make it." Zoe said, "Caught one in the shoulder and shattered his collarbone.
"You okay?" Alexander asked.
"We're fine." Morgan confirmed.
"Yeah."
"No sign of this Martinez, the photographer?" Gideon asked.
"No."
"Whoever took a shot at you followed you from the set."
"I'm sorry. I should've noticed." Zoe said.
"You can't notice everything." Alexander told his daughter.
"I'm going to head to Lila's to provide extra cover." Zoe said and headed off.
She took out her phone and called Spender.
"Yeah?" Spencer said into the phone.
"Hey, there's been another shooting, Officer Kim. Don't worry, he's still alive but it was only the shoulder and since you know you can barely shoot, I'm heading over to Lila's."
"Alright." Spencer ignored the jab, "You have her address?"
"Yeah." Spencer overlayed the message to Lila who seemed indifferent but when Spencer went back to the phone, Zoe had hung up.
"Huh? She must've gone out of service." He said, oblivious as ever.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe's motorcycle shot off at top speed but barely any noise.
"Martinez has a bunch of paperwork in the studio that says where Lila's going to be every day." Morgan said as Gideon's phone rang once Zoe was long gone.
"Gideon. That's what I thought. Thanks." He hung up, "Garcia's gone through every article written about Lila. She never says anything about red anemones being her favorite flower."
"Well, we're looking for someone pretty close to her." Elle said.
"This list gets shorter every day." Morgan said.
"He's circling in. We need to get to her house." Gideon said.
"I'll make sure the press doesn't get out of hand with this mess." JJ said and Kim held up a sign with his fingers.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer stared at the college when Lila came up behind him. "Feel anything yet?"
"There is something definitely appealing about this one." Spencer said, not being able to tell what.
"That's a start." Lila chuckled and headed towards her pool in the backwards undoing her robe.
"What are you doing?" Spencer asked.
"Going for a swim." She said, dropping the robe to reveal her in a bikini.
"What? No, Lila." Spencer ran after her.
Zoe unlocked the door with Lila's spare key that she had found rather easily and walked through the house, not finding them when she heard a loud splash.
She followed it and saw that Lila had rebelliously jumped into the pool with Spencer stuck between his normal awkwardness and his duty to be responsible towards his job.
Zoe had stopped, watching from inside the house where she was unnoticed by both Spencer and Lila.
"Lila, you cannot do this!" He complained.
"Five minutes." She told him and pointed at her house, "go get a suit in the house."
"What!? No! I don't want to grab a suit!" He exclaimed, his voice going more than a few octaves higher as if she had asked for something else, he had yet experienced.
"Are you kidding me?"
"Join me."
"No, I'm not gonna join you." He said.
"Why not?"
"You're being pursued by a psychotic killer who shoots people in the head!" Spencer exclaimed.
"I'm not gonna stop living my life. I'm just not." Lila said, words Zoe had said all too often to her dad.
Zoe had to admit, there were some similarities between her and Lila. They were both tough and rebellious, refusing to just submit to whatever people told them to do. They both had a way of teasing for what they want while never actually making a grab for it, hoping someone will take the hint (but he never will). They were determined not to let a little trauma stop them from living their life. The difference was Lila was a tall, beautiful blonde actress with blue eyes, Zoe was a short, tomboyish noirette (black hair) with at best amber-brown eyes. Lila had no scars that littered her skin unlike Zoe's. Lila was full of light while Zoe's had been snuffed out a long time ago, in her opinion.
"Lila, I'm begging of you. Will you please get out of the pool?" Spencer sighed, exasperatedly, feeling like he was babysitting or hanging out with Zoe.
"Really, Spence," Lila said and Zoe flinched; she was the only one who called him Spence.
"You should live a little." She had a point. He was way too uptight.
"Live a little!? I've known you forty-eight hours; I feel like I've aged ten years!" Spencer exclaimed.
Don't we all feel like that when spending time with or watching her?
"Oh. I can't be that bad." She teased.
"Yes. No, you-you are that bad." Spencer exclaimed.
Preach! Truer words have never been said.
"Oh." She said and Zoe could recognize her tactic at once: to pretend to submit to tease some more. "Fine, can you help me out at least?"
Spencer bent down and reached to grab her hand but predictably, she pulled him in with all his clothes on with her laughing. Spencer came back up, now soaked in pool water, brushing his soaked hair out of his face.
"Yes, very funny. Laugh it up, Lila. Hilarious." Spencer said, sarcastically. "You and Zoe would really get along. My gun's wet. Great." He took his holster off and placed it on the side of the pool, not noticing Zoe watching, unable to look away. He looked down at himself and he actually laughed—a beautiful, beautiful laugh but it caused a small hurt in Zoe's chest that it wasn't because of her. "My clothes."
"You should have worn the suit." Lila flirted, getting close to him, and as apparently nothing less would cause him to get the hint, Lila placed her hand on the back of his head and kissed him and to his better judgment he started to kiss back. Zoe couldn't move. She wanted to flee. She wanted to do what she did best and run from her emotions but she couldn't move. Guess it was just the masochist in her.
Realizing how unprofessional this was, Spencer pulled away, "This is completely inappropriate."
"This?" She asked, "What this? And she pulled him back in for another kiss, this one brief as he kept pulling away to protest yet continued to kiss her with every other word. "This is..." Kiss. "I can..." Kiss. "But I..." He gave up, running his hands through his wet hair and fully leaned in for another kiss, this one was open-mouthed which even Zoe could see from her angle which had shifted since she was now standing outside, watching solemnly for reasons she could not (or would not) understand for the life of her. Spencer cupped her face and deepened the kiss before he pulled away with another logical explanation why this beautiful woman was kissing him.
His first kiss with Zoe had been preceded by her drunkenly (while underage in America) telling him, it was merely for the purposes of him losing his kiss-ginity though Spencer had seen and still saw it as one of the best moments of his life as it continuously appeared in his more pleasant dreams, she had no memory of it and he still didn't want to embarrass her further.
"No, there's this thing called transference..." He insisted, apparently under the impression Lila was redirecting her feelings on someone onto him or it was just because he was supposed to be (and failing to do so) protecting her.
"You don't like me?" Lila frowned, completely unaware of Zoe frozen to the spot in front of her house as Spencer's head blocked her.
"What?" He asked, shocked she would even think that.
"You don't like me." She repeated.
"No. Are you cra—I-I-I do." He stammered.
"I like you." She told him.
"I like you too." He reassured her. "Just I'm a federal agent, you know, and I'm supposed to protect you." He explained.
Yeah. Right. With his aim? Said the sardonicism in Zoe's head.
"Then keep me close." Lila said, getting in close to him again.
"I'm just, uhm I'm a little bit worried." He said and she leaned in. "You know, we're..." She kissed him and he kissed back, not wanting to stop it, no matter what his words said, "we're in a pool." Another kiss. "and it's a—we're..." Another kiss. "Pretty much exposed. They kissed passionately some more before he pulled away and waited for her to answer.
"We have cops posted out front." Lila said, kissing him again. "There are coyotes out back. And right here, it's just you and me." Lila rested her head against Spencer's and they gently rubbed their noses but not in that nauseating couple way, but more of the we-were—just-making-out lips hovering above lips way.
"Ahem." Zoe finally managed to clear her throat, startling Spencer and he lost his footing and went back under the water before popping back up to see Zoe, looking as closed off as he had ever seen her, she wouldn't meet his eyes. How long had she been standing there? "If you're not too busy, trying to lose your virginity, Reid. We should get the target of the psychotic shooter inside now." She said with a noticeable icy cold sharpness in her voice. "We wouldn't want them to shoot her like they did her manager, Michael."
Lila seemed to be in a brief state of shock as Spencer's eyes widened.
"Zo..." Spencer looked at her and then back at Lila, "I was going to tell you. I swear I was."
She turned back to him, "How could you—how could you not tell me?"
"I was afraid you'd be upset." He said.
She started to get angry, "You...! You knew what you knew, and... how could you not..."
"I'm so sorry." He said.
Lila pulled herself out of the pool and Spencer swam after her. "No, don't-don't touch me! Don't touch me!"
Then she stormed off past Zoe back into the house, leaving Spencer in the pool and Zoe feeling guilty.
"Spen... Reid..." She struggled whether or not she should call him by his surname which she only did when she was mad at him or to call him by his first name to apologize to and comfort him.
"Why would you do that!?" He cut her off. "I get what I was doing was unprofessional but... you... she's really upset now. She cared about him!" He pulled himself out of the pool and continued to yell at her, "You know, this is the first time in my life a girl is interested in me." Oblivious. But they both were. She was oblivious to her own feelings for him. "And while I don't understand why she would be interested in someone like me, that gives you no right to chase her off. You're not exactly the most professional person here, you know! You were hired by your dad at nineteen. You're whole family's in the FBI. You're just... you always bring your own bullshit into this. You just bring it up, casually and ignore it when I try to talk to you about it because I'm concerned but you refuse to deal with it and then I'm left standing alone like a jackass! Sometimes you can be such a... such a..." He seemed to calm down and swallowed the insult he didn't mean at the hurt look in her eyes that mingled with the coldness.
"You think I got hired because of nepotism? You think Shyster was right?"
It just now hit him on what he had said. He could barely believe he had said them.
"No. I didn't say that." He backtracked. He was so bad as talking to women. Why? He grew up with one. He grew up without a father so why did he just act like a jerk. Why did he never know what to say?
"Little traumatized Zoe, still very much a child. Unable to move on from her past." She said with cold mockery in her voice, clearly deeply hurt and Spencer was aware people with ADHD usually had something called RSD or Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria, meaning she didn't handle rejection or criticism well, especially not from people she cares about, feeling severe emotional pain when they feel they are shunned or criticized and according to a study he read one in three referred to it being the hardest part of living with ADHD, this was what likely led to her shutting down her emotions during her months of captivity along with the expected trauma, "So traumatized that she numbed herself of all basic emotions without her twin who very well could be dead but she hangs onto this absurd belief that she's still alive, no matter she was just starting to trust again. Trust a man of all things after what they did to me. I thought you were different than all the other boys but you're just like them all. You're willing to string along any girl who'll slip you the tongue and get into your virgin pants."
"No! That's not... I am different. I don't..." Spencer felt near close to tears at how badly he had screwed up and hurt her.
"Am I interrupting something?" Elle asked.
"No!" Zoe said.
"Yes." Spencer said.
"No. What do you need, Elle?" Zoe said, sharply.
"Well, we found him in the bushes." Elle said, taking a towel and handing it to Spencer as Morgan brought a handcuffed Martinez to them.
"I told her she should cut those." Elle looked at Spencer, waiting for an explanation for why he was all wet. "I, uh, fell in."
"Yeah and I'm sure there's plenty of photos of it." Elle remarked.
Morgan pushed Martinez in front of them. "Stop shoving me, man."
He turned to them, "You're a suspect in the murder of Wally Melman, Natalie Ryan, and Jeremy Collins." Morgan said.
"Murder? What? Whoa! Whoa, whoa." Martinez said with his eyes bugging.
"Just shut up with the 'whoa'!" Morgan shouted. "We know for a fact that you have hundreds of photographs of Lila Archer and Natalie Ryan on the walls of your studio. You have Miss Archer's daily schedule on your desk. You've been stalking her."
"Look, guy, look, hold up." Martinez said, "Every paparazzi's a celebrity stalker. If you don't stalk them, you don't get the shot, and if you don't make the shot, you don't sell no pictures.
"You're not supposed to have that schedule or take dozens of photos of her in her personal home in her personal bedroom. That's not being a paparazzi, that's being a pervert." Zoe said in a rougher deadpan than usual. She looked at Elle. "Give me that."
Elle handed the camera to Zoe who looked at Spencer as he looked at her with sad puppy dog eyes and she ripped the film out.
"Whoa. That's just wrong."
"So is stalking, you pervert. Taking photos of people like that is a crime. You're trespassing and you're stalking and now..." She threw the camera on the ground and stomped on it, never breaking eye contact with the man.
"Whoa! Whoa! That thing's expensive."
She got closer in his face with an intense death glare in her eyes. "Should I bill your widow?" She growled and he gulped. "Get this ass out of my sight before I do some digging and find out what else he's done." She snarled.
"I'm still being locked up?"
"At the very least, you're trespassing." Morgan said and pulled him away. Zoe held up the film and handed it to Spencer, "You're welcome, Reid."
"Zoe..." He said with pleading eyes.
"I have to call my dad." She brushed him off and walked to the other side of the house, disappearing around the corner.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Spencer knew Lila would be easier to apologize to... he didn't even know how to apologize to Zoe.
"Lila?" He asked as she cried, mourning her agent's death, "Are you still... Are you okay?"
"Michael was like family." She cried.
"I'm so sorry."
"It's just so hard to trust people out here. You don't know who to believe." Lila said as Gideon entered the house from behind them, "Everybody wants something from you."
"That's why I thought you were different."
Zoe's words rang in Spencer's head. "I thought you were different than all the other boys but you're just like them all."
"I know I should have told you..." Spencer said.
"I told him not to." Gideon said, they looked back to see him as Alexander and Zoe reentered. Spencer immediately noticed, Alexander giving him the evil eye, like nothing would give him greater pleasure than to empty his clips of the many, many, many guns he had on him into Spencer and then beat him into the ground. "He was only following my orders." He patted Spencer's shoulder and walked off. Then he came back and pulled Alexander away before he actually did shoot Spencer.
"You know the last time I was able to fully trust someone was at Juilliard? Before I was a somebody."
"Lila, sorry, but did you just say Julliard?" Zoe suddenly asked.
"Yeah, why?"
Spencer saw she was looking at the college and he looked at it and he spotted something, a piece of what looked like the front of a street sigh name: Hous"
"And didn't you say you used to live on Houston Street?"
"What?" Lila asked.
"You were a waitress, you lived on Houston?" Spencer clarified.
"Yeah." Lila said and got up as both the young geniuses looked at the college.
"I need to take this thing apart."
"What?" Lila asked, still very confused.
"I'll-I'll put it back." He promised, "I think I see images of you."
"Guys!" Zoe called.
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Zoe and Spencer took the college apart, spreading it on Lila's kitchen counter and put the strips of arts together, forming a full picture, all of which related to Lila's life, having several pictures of Lila in it.
"Lila, it looks like someone's been stalking you for years." Morgan said.
"Yeah, this tells your whole life story." Elle said, "Movie premieres, theater playbills."
"Everything since college." Spencer said.
"That's our country house. Right here." Lila said, pointing to a suburban house.
"Who gave you this collage?
"He did." Lila said, pointing to a picture of Spencer's high school semi-friend, Parker.
"This guy? Who is he?" Morgan asked.
"That's the guy I went to high school with, Parker Dunley." Spencer said.
Morgan took his phone out and called Garcia, "Garcia. Parker Dunley. E-mail me a sheet on him, all right?"
——————————————————————————————————————————————
The rest of the team went to question Parker while Zoe stayed with Spencer and Lila.
"You don't seem to like me very much." Lila said as she handed Zoe a mug of tea.
"It's nothing personal." Zoe said, "there's nothing wrong with you. I just have issues.”
"With Spencer?" Lila guessed.
"No." She said, sharply. "We're just friends..."
"Why are you here?"
"I know what you're going through." Zoe confessed.
"How?" Lila scoffed.
"When I was twelve, a serial killer held a gun to my head. He gets off on control and the fear he inflicts in others, and I knew that so I didn't show him fear. I was first person to not do that. It fascinated him. He kidnapped me for five days. I have no memory of what happened. But once he got what he wanted, he let me go... barely. I was comatose for a week and that when I got the first bouquet of flowers... white lilies. Every time I'm near that place, I get white lilies but for a while now, they're covered in blood. It's a taunt. I can usually manage to use their logic against them but not him. He's the only one who has ever had full control over me. He's gonna kill someone one day and it'll be my fault."
"I'm sorry." Lila said.
"Yeah." Zoe sighed and drank some of her tea. It was more bitter than she preferred but she just let it burn her tongue.
Lila wasn't a bad person. She was bold and independent. She didn't deserve this.
Across the room, Spencer's phone rang, and Gideon spoke to him without saying hello.
"We have a name. Maggie Lowe. She's the UnSub. She's on Lila's show. We're on our way."
Spencer hung up and turned to Lila and Zoe.
"Lila, do you know someone named Maggie Lowe?" Spencer said.
"Mags? Yeah, of course I know her. I've known her for years." Lila said, "I got her a job on my show."
Lila's phone started to ring, and she looked at it. Zoe looked at it too and looked at Spencer.
"What?"
"That's her calling right now." Lila said.
"Is she calling from a cell phone?" Spencer asked.
"Yeah."
"Lila, we think Maggie's the UnSub." Spencer said.
"The what?" Lila asked, being unfamiliar with the term.
"The stalker." Spencer clarified.
"No way." Lila said.
"Answer the phone." Spencer said.
"That's-that's crazy." Lila said, standing up.
"We assumed that the UnSub was a man but it's not unheard of that an erotomaniac stalkers are women. Both David Letterman and Story Musgrave were stalked by Margaret Mary Ray." Zoe said. "Answer the phone. Act completely natural. The longer we keep her on the line, the more likely we'll be able to trace the call." Lila looked at her. "I'm doomed with mine, he's going to torment me until one of us dies or I can redeem myself and help arrest him but I can still stop yours. Trust me."
"You can trust her." Spencer nodded.
Spencer went to call Garcia while Lila answered the call.
"Hello? Hello, Maggie? Maggie, is that you? What's wrong?"
Garcia picked up Spencer's call. "Oracle of Quantico, speak if you deign to hear truth."
"Garcia, I need an emergency trace on a cell phone call to Lila Archer's cell phone." Spencer said into his dinosaur phone.
"Sure. Go ahead."
"(323) 555-0129." Spencer recited Lila's phone number to her.
"Okay. Keep her talking. Keep her talking.
"Maggie?" Lila asked.
Zoe put Lila's phone on speakerphone so they could all hear it while Zoe went to Spencer to hear Garcia on the other end too.
"Oh, I am so tired." Maggie sighed.
"Tired?" Lila asked.
"There's been so much upset in the world really. I think it's just so tragic. All of it." Maggie said, so far she didn't exactly sound stable which fit the profile, "I miss you. I just do."
"Mags, I saw you today." Lila said.
"It's never going to be the same as it was. It's just never going to be the same."
"I don't know what you're talking about." Lila said, choking slightly as she started to realize that they could be right about Maggie being the "unsub".
"I'm talking about that time in college! When the heat in your apartment was off and the two of us stayed in my dorm room. Don't you remember?" Maggie asked, sharply as though angry that it wasn't as important to Lila as it was to her, "You were playing Ophelia on the mainstage."
"I remember." Lila recalled, uneasily.
"That was the happiest time of my life." Maggie breathed.
"Maggie, sweetheart, that was only for a weekend." Lila told her.
"The happiest time... And you don't know anything about me at all." Maggie's voice broke. "And I did everything for you."
"Reid, is Lila's address 6028 Pike Street?" Garcia asked
"Yeah."
"She's calling from inside the house. I'll get you two some backup." Garcia said.
"Oh, it's Black Christmas. 'The calls are coming from inside the house'." Zoe said and she took out her holster gun which altered from her usual preference of revolvers and was a Glock. A Glock 19 to be exact. Of course, she would be quoting a horror movie from 1974.
"Lila." Spencer whispered.
"You... you... YOU!" Maggie shouted and then there was a thud from upstairs that echoed through the phone as Maggie brought the phone down from her ear.
"How'd she get in the house?"
"She has keys." Lila said.
Zoe lifted her leg up and pulled her ankle holster gun. It was a revolver
"Alright, Lila, I'm assuming you don't know how to use a gun?"
"No."
"All right. This is Glock 19. It's easy to shoot. The most commonly bought gun. There's no manual safety, so all you need to do is push this secondary trigger and when she pull the main trigger it'll shoot. There's fifteen rounds plus one in the chamber. Careful, it's heavier than it looks. But as long as that secondary trigger isn't pulled, it won't go off, even if you drop it." She handed Lila her hip gun. "It's not my preferred gun but I always try to prepare for the unlikely. I figured worse came to worse, you'd need to defend yourself. Only shoot if Reid and I go down. Only then. You're not experienced, only as a last defense. She's sick but she's still a person. She's still Maggie. She's still Mags."
Spencer's eyes watched Zoe as she explained all this to Lila who tried her best to understand.
They crept through the house with Zoe taking the lead, both she and Spencer holding their guns up.
They crept into Lila's room but saw nothing but then Zoe spun around just before Maggie revealed herself, holding a gun to Lila's head.
"Why'd you have to bring these people?" She demanded.
"Hey, Discount Billy. The only reason we're here because you killed a bunch of people to help her career which could've gotten her arrested, you batty loon. Now we really should calm down before we get a new Agnes."
"Put down the guns or I will shoot her." Maggie growled.
"Maggie." Spencer said, lowering the gun as Zoe did the same.
"Don't call me Maggie. You don't know me. Come on, Lila, let's go." Lila stared at the two, shaking her head, pleading with her eyes. "We really got to go, baby."
"Maggie, don't hurt her." Spencer pleaded.
"You don't need to hurt her." Zoe said.
"Why? I saw the look on your face while these two were..." She growled. "This way I get her and you get him."
"I don't want him!" Spencer flinched at her cruel words, "But you don't get her. You can't force her to be with you. It's not real love. If you hurt someone you love, that's not real love. That's toxicity. That's obsession. That's abuse."
"You don't know anything." She turned back to Lila, "I would never do anything to hurt you." She brushed back Lila's blonde hair, "No. I created you."
"No, you didn't." Lila shook her head. Maggie narrowed her eyes, gesturing at Lila with her gun,
"Yes, I did! I know I did. God. You stupid... ungrateful.... God. I can't believe I loved you."
"Maggie..." Zoe started.
"SHUT UP, BITCH!" Maggie screamed, pointing the gun at Zoe. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"Maggie, Lila, she loves me now." Spencer said.
"What?" Maggie demanded, pointing the gun at him now.
"She told me so. We were in the pool. She kissed me. Now she loves me, okay?" Spencer said.
"No." Maggie said, pointing the gun back at Lila.
"Zoe saw. Tell her. Tell her Lila and I kissed in the pool."
"Yeah, they did. It was full-on making out. Closest he's ever gotten to a woman since he came out of one." Spencer gave her an offended look and his surrender turned into an exasperated come on gesture. "I mean, he's known her for like two days and he's a nerd. I mean, look at him. He graduated high school when he was twelve and look at his hair. He practically screams virgin. To him, that's practically confessing his undying love."
"Zoe!" Spencer hissed.
"NO!" Maggie shouted, pointing the gun back at Lila.
"Is it true? Are you in love?" Lila looked at Zoe and Spencer who nodded.
"Yes. It's true. We kissed. We-we're in love."
Zoe decided to both twist the dagger in Maggie's heart and add salt to the wound. "That's gotta sting. Years of friendship and you get outdone by a nerdy virgin who looks like he's twelve who's known her for forty-eight hours. I mean, come on."
"Stop it." Maggie growled as she walked backwards, pointing the gun at Zoe. Zoe was walking forth, "At least, Morgan's athletic, Reid looks like a toothpick.”
"Shut up!"
"Then why don't you do something about it, Mags. You never did anything. Never. You're all alone."
Maggie pointed the gun at Lila and shot.
"NO!" Zoe jumped in front of the bullet, hitting her in the chest, making her hit the floor.
"NO!" Spencer screamed, he lunged and grabbed Maggie, tackling her to the ground and taking her gun, pointing it at her as Lila hurried to Zoe who landed in front of her bed.
"Don't move."
"PLEASE! PLEASE KILL ME! COME ON! SHOOT ME, PLEASE! I'D BE SO MUCH HAPPIER, PLEASE!" Maggie screamed.
"Is she okay?!" He called to Lila, his voice cracking with fear.
"I'm okay." Zoe coughed out, getting up and sitting up next to Lila who was trying to assess the damage even though she had no idea what she was doing.
Spencer breathed in relief and uncocked the gun.
"We're gonna get you help. It'll be alright." Maggie started to sob and Zoe went to comfort her, soothingly shushing her.
"How..." Spencer asked her.
Zoe pulled at her plaid shirt, making it unbutton and revealed a bulletproof vest. "You didn't think my dad was going to just let me walk around here with a shooter on the loose with no protection, did you?"
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Bernard Shaw once said, "An American has no sense of privacy. He does not know what it means. There is no such thing in the country."
Spencer and Lila parted ways and Spencer sat on the plane ride alone. Just the day after, a magazine published a picture of Lila and Spencer saying goodbye with the oh-so original headline: A Mystery Man in Lila's Life? As opposed to anything about her almost being murdered or stalked. Old news, I guess.
Spencer looked at the magazine as work wrapped up for the day or rather night, most of the BAU had left.
"Night, Hollywood." Morgan laughed.
"Come on, man." Spencer sighed.
"You know, Reid, you're lucky they didn't get a shot of you next to the pool trying to dry your gun. You looked like a wet rat." Morgan teased
Spencer shook his head, looking down.
"Hey, I was playing." He reassured him.
"Did you know that she... uh... I kissed her in the pool? It's so weird. It doesn't even feel like it really happened, you know?" Spencer said.
"Sure, sure, she's a beautiful young actress." Morgan said.
"Yeah. Yeah, you know, I kept explaining to her about transference and the fact that, you know, she probably only liked me because I was there to protect her..." He said.
"Reid. You were her hero." Morgan said.
"I wanted to think that." Spencer said.
"No, no, no, don't go selling yourself short, kid. You took down an armed subject without firing a shot. You saved her life. It's pretty much a hero in my book." Morgan reassured him.
"Let me ask you this, have you ever crossed professional boundaries with a victim of a case you were working on?" Spencer asked.
"No." Morgan admitted.
"It's pretty bad, right?"
"There's some things you can't control even with that big old brain of yours. No harm, no foul." Morgan said and he turned to get his stuff. "Let it go."
"Hey, Morgan?" Spencer asked and Morgan turned back to him, "Has there ever been a girl that you wanted to be with for more than, you know, just one night?"
"Excuse me?" Morgan asked.
"I've never seen you with the same girl twice." Spencer said.
"What, are you calling me a dog?" Morgan asked.
"No, no, no, not at all. I'm just trying to figure out if this feeling I have is ever going to go away?" Spencer said.
"Reid, what we do for a living, it takes up all our time, and a relationship's hard enough even in the same city." Morgan said.
"So, I mean, you're saying it's probably wise that I don't call her, right?" Spencer asked.
"I can't answer that one for you. Here, I'll tell you what I do know. You don't need to come up with that answer tonight" Morgan said. "I'm out." Then Morgan went and started to leave.
"Have a good weekend." Spencer said.
"Yeah, you too, Romeo." Morgan said before he left.
"Reid, no offense but Morgan's never had a relationship that's last more than twelve hours at most." Zoe sighed, making Spencer jump, he hadn't seen her in the darkness. "I wouldn't take his advice. It's not exactly fulfilling
"I know you're mad at me. But can I ask you something?"
"Sure." She said.
"Did you break up with J.D. because of the job?"
Zoe's jaw clenched. "No. It wasn't because of our job or because of the long distance with being not in America is as much as I can say and me flying around the United States every other week. It was what I pushed him into doing. Otherwise, we'd still be together. Long distance was most of the relationship, time-wise. I can do long distance. I can even deal with him being in prison for the rest of his life. Morgan's relationships are more about physical affection, sex, and fulfilling a temporary desire. J.D. and I... we met at a vulnerable time. It was about emotional connection, being understood, having someone to tell our trauma to, and most of all loyalty. It's why we're still friends. I couldn't cut him out completely. Not for me, but I couldn't do that to him."
"So, what do you think I should do?" Spencer asked tentatively.
"Just... think. Do you really see you and Lila going anywhere? Are you willing to wait for a day that may never happen?"
Summary: The BAU travels to New York City to investigate a series of murders that appear to have been committed by a vigilante who is exacting revenge on other criminals who have been released by the justice system.
Warning: Murder, Mention of pedophilia, Schizophrenia, Delusions, Vigilante, My interpretation of the victims, Talk of death penalty, Talk of philosophy, Underaged drinking
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Martin Luther King Junior
March 19, 2006
Hotch showed them a picture of a man's driver's license and showed them the man's body outside his cab.
"Walter Derbin, age fifty-two. His body was found in his cab in East Harlem. He was blindfolded and shot once in the chest. Death was caused by a knife stabbed through his ear. The UnSub broke off the handle with the blade lodged in his brain."
"It's the same signature as two other murders." JJ said and she showed a picture of a woman, "Rachel Holman, twenty-four, found in her apartment three weeks ago on the Lower East Side." Then she showed a picture of another man, "And Kaveh Surrani, thirty. Police found him two weeks later inside his painting studio in Hell's Kitchen."
"Different locations, different victimology." Hotch stated, "It's possible we're looking for someone who will hunt indiscriminately."
"NYPD have any leads?" Elle asked.
"Guy's a ghost." Hotch shook his head.
"He kills at night. There's no witnesses." JJ said.
"Is the NYPD feeling the strain?" Gideon asked.
"Well, they've withheld details so the press hasn't sniffed out a link between the murders." JJ said.
"With no discernible victim patterns, a killer's practically impossible to stop." Morgan said.
"Did you know the original Zodiac Killer actually continually changed his victims? Young, old, men, women, white, black." Spencer said.
"Exactly. And he killed for 30 years without ever being caught." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————
W. H. Auden said, "Murder is unique in that it abolishes the party it injures. So that society must take the place of the victim and, on his behalf, demand atonement or grant forgiveness."
"This is not how I planned to spend a few days home in New York." Elle said.
"I'd kill for an afternoon at Barney's and dinner at Il Cantinori."
"That sounds incredibly boring." Zoe deadpanned. Zarah would've loved it but Zoe always hated shopping.
"I'm looking forward to seeing New York." Spencer said.
Morgan and Zoe looked at him.
"You've never been to New York?" Morgan asked.
"We've never had an UnSub there." Spencer said.
"I thought you were going to talk to Reid about taking some vacation time." Hotch said to Gideon.
"What's vacation time?" Gideon deadpanned.
"Reid, it's a one-hour flight." Morgan said.
"Back before the BAU had a jet, we'd take road trips and New York was always our favorite because there was so much to see. Zarah always would spend like twelve hours shopping."
"It was two, at most." Alexander said.
"Well, it felt like twelve." Zoe said, "And I'd always go to bookstores and museums and obviously famous murder sights." Spencer looked at her speaking with awe in his eyes, "If we have some time, I'll show you around."
"Sounds wonderful." Spencer nodded.
"It's a three-hour train ride, man." Morgan said and Elle chuckled.
"Some people like to stay indoors. Not everyone's an extrovert, Morgan." Zoe defended.
"Well, at least, you finally got a date, Reid." Morgan teased.
"It's not a date!" Spencer's voice went up several octaves.
Alexander cleared his throat and Morgan stopped teasing since Alexander's daughter was involved. Zoe rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Okay, here's what we know. Blitz attackers are almost always male."
"And he got picked up in the pouring rain by a New York cabbie, so we definitely know he's not a brother." Morgan said, indicating that the UnSub was white.
"The fact that he kills in a major urban setting without detection indicates he's highly intelligent." Spencer said.
"How intelligent can he be?" Elle asked, "I mean, blitz attackers are textbook disorganized killers."
"Yeah, but he brings along a murder kit. Blindfold, knife. How disorganized can he be?" Zoe asked.
"We'll split up. We'll take the last two crime scenes." Gideon said, "In the meantime, let's talk about what we can agree on. Blindfold likely means one of two things."
"The UnSub might blindfold them initially if he's unsure of killing them and wants to avoid detection." Morgan said.
"Exactly, but since we know the cab driver couldn't have been blindfolded when he drove the UnSub, we're looking at reason number two. Blindfolding a victim suggests the UnSub feels remorse. Doesn't want his victims to look at him, as he kills them." Gideon said.
"I need caffeine." Zoe groaned and got up to make one of her overly-caffeinated Mexican Hot Chocolates"
"Sorry about Morgan..." Spencer's voice said, cracking slightly.
Zoe looked at him and smiled, "No problem. But I can't believe you haven't been to the Met, it's the largest museum in the world. I mean, I know you don't get out much and didn't in your childhood.'
"What do you mean?" Spencer asked, tensely, fearful that she had found out about his mother.
Zoe realized what she had said and double-tracked subtly, "Because of your personality. You're an introvert who prefers his own company or those you care about. I can only assume that was the same in your childhood. "Plus, you're from Las Vegas that's all that way across the country." Not technically a lie.
Spencer relaxed, "Right. Of course. So you like New York?"
"Yeah, it's probably the state where my dad could be sure that I wouldn't be in the police station, putting myself in danger, once I grew up enough to protect myself. There's too much to do." She looked down and hesitated before admitting, "Mom liked it. She wrote journals too about what she liked about the museums. It was a ritual that we'd go to her favorite museums... but I haven't gone since..."
"Oh, well, you don't have to..." Spencer mumbled, blushing.
"No, I think Zarah would want me to do it and she would like you." Zoe promised, "We would always go see a Broadway play too."
"How'd you get tickets?" Spencer asked.
Zoe looked at him with that mischievous glint in her eyes and slyly shushed him, indicating she and Zarah would sneak inside, she took her hot chocolate and went back to her seat.
Spencer watched her walk back with a cloudy gaze in his eyes until they landed on Morgan, just absolutely smirking at him... until Alexander smacked him in the head with his file, glaring at him.
——————————————————————————————————
Spencer, Gideon, and Zoe went to the crime scene where the cabbie was killed with the detective on the case, Nora Bennett.
Gideon looked at the building the cab was in front of.
"What's in that building?"
"Nothing." Bennett said, "It's been vacant for a couple of months."
"This train goes express after midnight, it doesn't even stop here." Spencer noted.
"He picked this spot beforehand." Gideon said.
"His last fare was logged at an address on Church Street." Zoe noted and she turned to Bennett, "Do you have any idea what's there?"
"Church is an entry point from Brooklyn. There's a dive there where the cabbies stop for coffee before the overnight shift."
"Explains how he got a cab." Spencer said.
"This guy is definitely not disorganized." Gideon said.
"Why does he shoot them and then stab them in the head and break the blade off in their heads?" Bennett asked.
"A few possibilities. Through the ear is the softest way to the brain." Zoe explained, "and snapping the handle's also common in prison shankings.
Your ex-boyfriend in prison tell you that. Spencer found himself suddenly bitterly thinking. He shook that thought away, not wanting to be that person for someone who wasn't even interested in him.
"Break the handle off, the other guy can't pull the blade out Not that you should ever pull the blade out. It's the only thing keeping you from bleeding out. Movies get that wrong. Never pull the blade out unless you have medical help." Zoe explained
"What's the other possibility?" Bennett asked.
"Lawrence Bittaker and Roy Norris drove ice picks into their victims' heads and broke off the handle." Spencer explained, "It's possible our UnSub is sort of a serial killer groupie."
"So is this guy an ex-con or some nut-job with an Amazon account?" An officer asked.
"This particular UnSub presents a mixed profile." Gideon said.
"No offense, but uh, then what good is it?"
"None taken." Zoe said, "The profile's just a starting point for narrowing down the suspects, but it does tell us some things. For instance, the fact that the UnSub shoots his victims first, it suggests that he wants a quick and effective means of controlling the situation. It's possible that he feels he can't overpower his victims. It could be that he has a physical problem or that he's not confident just because he's small."
"We now know he has a high degree of organization. That, coupled with the fact that he hunts at night, means he probably has a steady job." Gideon explained.
——————————————————————————————————
When they explained the profile to the police officers, someone asked, "So, we're looking for a small, angry, white guy with a day job?"
"Maybe it's Wilson." Another officer joked, making the other officers laugh.
"Cut it!" Bennett ordered.
"No, no, it's all right, it's all right. You're right." Gideon admitted, "There's a lot we still don't know, but we do know this, these are not blitz attacks. They're too controlled. These are absolutely executions."
"An UnSub's signature is his own extremely rare combination of MO and ritual. An UnSub kills to satisfy an inner need and will continue killing until that inner need, which is based on a ritual, is lived out perfectly."
"But because reality never lives up to fantasy, this becomes an impossibility." Zoe continued.
"In other words, he's not gonna stop killing until we catch him." Gideon said.
"Okay, hit the streets and keep your head on a swivel." Bennett told her officers.
The rest of the team continued, JJ shook Bennett's hand, "Hi. Jennifer Jareau, we spoke on the phone."
"Detective Bennett."
"Agent Hotchner." Hotch introduced himself.
"Hello."
"So, I spoke to your point man. I reiterated how important it is to keep the crime scene details under wraps, but it would go a long way if it came out of your mouth, too." JJ said.
"You got it." Bennett agreed.
"If this guy is who we think he is, we're talking terror like New York hasn't seen since Son of Sam." Hotch said.
——————————————————————————————————
There was another kill. In a church. Zoe hesitated before going in.
Apparently, the priest was found by the night janitor in the confessional booth who didn't see anything but they had a potential witness who was talking with a nun.
They approached the body, Zoe pulled her hair back in a ponytail
"First public killing. Getting bolder, huh?" Gideon said.
"Didn't let his surroundings alter his method. He's meticulous." Hotch said, "Presentation's every bit as important as the kill."
Hotch wandered to the witness where Elle and Morgan were questioning her, then Bennett, then Gideon and Alexander.
Spencer and Zoe stayed with the body. Spencer got in close next to the officer who was inspecting the body as Zoe pulled on her gloves The officer looked at Spencer oddly who smiled awkwardly back. Zoe stepped next to Spencer, leaning over the body to see something.
"Spence, do you see that?"
"What?" The officer asked.
"The blade." Zoe said, she reached down and slid it out. She looked at Spencer and nodded towards the others.
"He's not using just any knife. It's made of flint." Spencer told the others.
"As in stone?" Elle asked.
"In Egyptian mythology, flint was the symbol for protection and retribution. With hieroglyphics, they used to depict dangerous animals like scorpions and snakes being cut with flint knives in order to render them powerless." Spencer explained.
"Guys, come here!" Zoe called.
When they came over, she gently lifted the blindfold up and looked up, "Anything strike you as strange?"
"The blood's all on the inside." Hotch spotted.
"What'd she say?" Zoe asked, nodding at the witness.
"She spotted a man who was like moving his fingers like he was playing a piano and the priest was deemed innocent towards charges of pedophilia."
Zoe said something in Spanish and looked up, "Justice is blind."
"What?"
"The term, 'justice is blind'. Call Garcia and see if any of the others were acquitted." Zoe said.
Hotch went off to call Garcia.
"If the victim was blindfolded first, the blood would have flowed over the blindfold." Gideon explained, "He puts it on after he kills them."
Hotch returned soon, saying, "All three charged with a felony, all three found innocent."
"And that didn't show up on your man's radar?" Elle asked Bennett.
"Acquittals? No." Bennett said, "Why is it important?"
"Because we have a new profile." Gideon said and left with that.
"He does that." Zoe said.
——————————————————————————————————
They updated the police on the profile in the morning, using a slideshow. "We now believe these killings aren't random. We might be dealing with a vigilante. The UnSub first shoots his victims in order to subdue them. Flint knife then provides both an efficient kill and symbolic retribution. Finally, the victim is blindfolded, like the statue of Lady Justice. This particular UnSub, he displays both a heightened, he's... It's actually almost a poetic sense of right and wrong."
"Serial vigilantes are extremely rare. The exaggerated drama of these killings suggests that they're somehow personal." Spencer explained, "He or someone close to him was likely the victim of a violent crime. His first killing was possibly against his original attacker. And since then he's developed an overblown sense of justice in order to justify that killing to himself."
"Because he chooses the imagery of Lady Justice, it's possible we're dealing with someone who works in or around the criminal justice system. Lawyer, paralegal, bailiff, even a judge." Gideon said.
"We'll crosscheck unsolved murders against suspects in assault cases and victims who work in the system." Bennett suggested.
"Whatever the UnSub's job, he's someone who's a cog in the machine. He's overworked, undervalued. He's used to not being noticed. His sense of theatrics is a way to enhance his own self-esteem. Convince himself he has a higher purpose, but he also knows that people look right through him. Being faceless is his best defense against detection. He's everyone." Gideon said, "One last thing, we need you to close ranks. The more details slip out, the more he'll feed off it. We don't want him believing he's captured the public's fear or imagination."
JJ arrived with a newspaper, "Too late. The afternoon edition's leading with the vigilante story."
"Alright, who ratted!" Zoe shouted across the precinct but no one looked in her eye.
"Zoe, calm down." Alexander told his daughter, only one brave enough to meet her deadly gaze.
"How did they get it?" Bennett asked.
"I don't know.
Gideon put on his glasses and looked at the newspaper, "You were worried about this guy becoming another Son of Sam." He looked at Bennett, taking off his glasses. "Now we might be dealing with a vigilante folk hero like Bernhard Goetz."
——————————————————————————————————
The team went to get Chinese at a nearby restaurant.
"So you know there was a big hole in the profile you presented back there." Hotch said.
"Can you pass the moo shu, please?" Gideon asked.
"Uh, what-what's the hole?" JJ asked, passing it to Gideon.
"I left out the possibility our UnSub might be a cop." Gideon said.
"Well, they do know the system." Morgan admitted, "They're definitely overworked and underpaid."
"They see so much injustice every day they can easily take matters into their own hands." Hotch added.
"When someone like our victim is killed, police refer to the murder as a public service murder." Spencer said, he was struggling to keep his noodles on his chopsticks
"You know how many rapists I saw walk during my Sex Crime days?" Elle asked, "And either the victims, they didn't want to press charges, or the juries they said that she was asking for it. It was enough to make you explode."
"Well, it's a long way from feeling like that and actually committing murder. Don't you think?" JJ said.
"No, not really." Hotch said.
Alexander understood. They never caught who killed Zelena, he just stopped killing. They never caught who kidnapped Zoe and Zarah. And then there was that UnSub who kidnapped and stabbed Zoe when she was twelve...
"Excuse me, could I get a fork, perhaps?" Spencer tried to ask a waitress subtly.
Morgan laughed at this.
"Did you know that experts credit Confucius with the advent of the chopstick?" Spencer tried to hide his embarrassment with an info-dump. "He equated knives with acts of aggression."
"You don't know how to use them, do you?" Morgan asked.
"It's like trying to forage for dinner with a pair of number two pencils." Spencer complained.
"Okay, here let me help you." Zoe said, taking her hair tie from earlier and wrapping it around his chopsticks.
"Oh, the rubber band trick." Morgan laughed.
"Yeah, the rubber band trick. Rossi taught me this after I threw the chopsticks at his head too many times though that more because he gets pretentious when he cooks." Zoe said.
Gideon smiled at this.
"Well, New York City cops do have a lot of pressure on them." Morgan said, back on the subject of the case, "Every move they make gets scrutinized."
"One of the first cases of criminal profiling happened when a New York City cop asked a criminal psychiatrist friend to help with the Mad Bomber case." Gideon said.
"The Mad Bomber was a major inspiration for the Unabomber. He eluded cops in New York for sixteen years, starting in 1940, but he kept his promise and never set off a single bomb during the Second World War." Spencer said.
"Psychiatrist James Brussels, he developed a profile so accurate, he predicted that when they caught the Bomber, he'd be wearing a double-breasted suit and it would be buttoned." Zoe said, "And he was right."
"You guys, we're here in New York and even when we're not talking about our case, we end up talking about another profiler." Elle chuckled.
"You're right." Hotch said as Spencer continued to struggle with his chopsticks. "So, Elle, are you seeing anyone?"
Morgan and Elle chuckled before Elle said, "Gideon, why didn't you tell the cops that it might be one of their own?
"If we're gonna catch the guy, we need all the help the cops can give us. Last thing I wanna do is accuse one of them of murder." Gideon said.
"How's it going there?" Zoe asked Spencer.
"Awesome." He said, sarcastically as Gideon's phone rang.
"Gideon." He answered.
Spencer missed again. "It's absolutely incredible, 1.3 billion people stay nourished using these things."
"Yeah. Okay. I got it." Gideon said and hung up, "He just took out a cop-killer."
——————————————————————————————————
They were back at the station and Bennett handed Gideon a file of pictures of the new murder. "His name's Shawn Cooley. One year ago he killed two Port Authority cops and he walked, because the only witness against him was shot six times outside his apartment."
"Might be worth having your men re-canvass this morning." Gideon said, flipping through the photos, "People are more likely to talk in the day. They feel safer."
"I'm already on it."
JJ arrived, "More bad news."
"Oh, neat, what is it?" Zoe deadpanned.
She handed Hotch a newspaper, "It's the same reporter every time. Lance Wagner. He's practically deifying him."
"I'm not even happy with the results when God plays God." Gideon said.
"You know, a few of the men were talking about making him a wish list of other dirtbags." Bennett said.
"Someday a real rain will come and wash all the scum off the streets."
"Taxi Driver." Spencer recognized.
"This town loves a psychopath." Bennett said.
"Why hasn't he contacted the press yet?" Spencer asked.
"Reid's right. He's got the symbolism, the inflated sense of duty. He should be seeking out acclaim." Hotch agreed.
"Maybe it's not about acclaim with him." Zoe suggested. "He's on a mission. Maybe it's about the work."
"Yeah, but the last two cases were a cop-killer and a pedophile priest." Hotch said, "Those are higher-profile cases."
"He's getting more confident." Spencer noted
"He's growing into his role as the city's judge and executioner." Gideon said.
"I'll check the press archives for controversial acquittals." JJ said, "Maybe we can target the victim before the UnSub. Have the police waiting on him." Then JJ went off to go do that.
Elle approached them, "Hey, guys, listen to what came off the tip hotline." She pushed play on the recorder in her hand.
"I got a tip. Let the guy be."
"How come the NYPD wants to catch this guy? Are you jealous he's doing the job better than you?"
Elle stopped it, "It goes on for half an hour."
"He's a hero." Gideon said.
"The exact same thing happened with the Goetz New York subway shooting in the early eighties." Gideon said.
"You weren't even born." Gideon said.
"I read a lot." Spencer said.
——————————————————————————————————
When Morgan arrived he informed them that Garcia found that all five cases had gone through the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse at 100 Centre Street.
"Do you have any idea how many cases..." Hotch started.
"One hundred-twenty-two-nine-hundred-ninety-eight cases a year." Morgan replied, repeating what Garcia told him.
"I'm assuming you didn't know that on your own?" Zoe asked.
"We'll check it out." Gideon said, "Maybe there's someone with a history of erratic behavior who worked in the building. Crime groupies. Security guard that fits the profile." He looked at Morgan, "Get with JJ. See what you can make of her case list."
——————————————————————————————————————————————
Alexander, Hotch, Gideon, Zoe, and Spencer checked the courthouse.
"Ever crossed your minds?" Hotch asked Alexander and Gideon.
"Taking the law into my own hands?" Gideon asked.
"Not the law, justice." Hotch said.
"Yes." Alexander said, bluntly.
"What's this about? The boys in Iowa?" Gideon asked.
"It's just a question." Hotch deflected.
"It wasn't your fault, Hotch." Zoe said from behind them, shaking her head.
"I guess I think if I ever let my mind go there, then the UnSubs would be getting into my head instead of me getting into theirs. That wouldn't be a good idea, now would it?" Gideon said.
“Well, an UnSub never kidnapped your pregnant girlfriend and killed her and nearly killed your youngest daughter who would continuously be threatened by UnSubs throughout her life.” Alexander said, sternly.
"Dad." Zoe warned.
"Angel." He repeated her tone.
They passed a statue of Lady Justice with the blindfold.
Zoe can't say she had never thought about it. She had been tortured to what was added up to be over a year's worth, but none more so than that one UnSub...
Alexander split up with Gideon while Zoe went with Hotch and Spencer, they spoke to an older man, giving the description to him.
"He's quiet, he... Body language gives the impression he's seen too much." Hotch said,
"Work in this building long enough, we all get that way." He said.
"We have more." Zoe said, glancing up at a picture of, yet again, Lady Justice with the blindfold. "He's small. Meticulous. You might not notice him at first but when you do, you realize he's heard everything around him."
"He might have had a personal brush with crime. When it happened, he talked about it all the time, but now you realize he hasn't mentioned it in quite a while." Spencer added.
"And when the subject of the vigilante comes up, he expresses his support, but it's not something he would bring up in conversation himself." Hotch added.
"Well, if people are being honest with you, that's most of the people in this building." The man said. He turned to Spencer and Zoe, "How old are you two?"
"Twenty-four." Spencer said, confused.
"Twenty." Zoe said with a resigned sigh.
As always, people did a double-take that someone so young was an FBI agent but she just stared at him like, get it over with."
“I give you six years and you ten. By that point, a tiny part of your brain will be asking if what this guy’s doing isn’t the right way to do.”
“My parents co-founded the BAU, when my mom died, my dad brought me along on cases and I’ve seen my fair share of tragedy. My mom died hours before I was born and I’ve been kidnapped by serial killers who would make you shiver and weep and… I don’t kill people with no evidence. Not unless I need to.” She said. "It's not right to force the death penalty on people."
——————————————————————————————————
Zoe and Spencer met up with Alexander and Gideon.
"Anything?"
"Nothing useful. Just a bunch of depressing statements." Zoe deadpanned. "You?"
"Same." Alexander matched her tone.
"What happened in Iowa?" Spencer asked.
Zoe looked at Spencer, the same as Gideon and Alexander.
"It was one of the first cases Hotch worked with us. Small town, two boys had been murdered, same signature. Profile led us to the local 4-H leader. We went to interview him, the guy, he was suicidal. He had a shotgun. Our guns were drawn. And at some point, he turns the shotgun on Hotch, but instead of firing, Hotch talks him down. The guy surrenders." Gideon explained.
"Sounds like pretty good work."
"At trial, the guy's wife gave him an alibi for both murders." Zoe explained with a sigh.
"Small town, they all knew each other. Jurors believed her. Eventually, they got him when he killed another boy." Gideon continued.
"That's on the wife and the UnSub. Not Hotch." Zoe said, sternly.
Hotch came up to them.
"What's not Hotch?" Hotch asked.
"Smiling." Zoe retorted, sarcastically.
"Any luck?" Hotch asked Gideon.
Gideon handed the newspaper he was looking at with the headline: Street Justice
"I want punch him in the face." Zoe deadpanned.
"You usually do want to punch someone in the face." Alexander told his daughter.
"Point taken." She admitted.
"This guy's not doing us any favors." Hotch remarked about the reporter.
"His access is unbelievable. He's practically scooping us." Spencer said.
——————————————————————————————————
JJ met with Lance Wagner. "The FBI needs help, and they get you to do their bidding?" Lance asked JJ.
"I am an FBI Special Agent." JJ said, "The rest of the team is too busy. They're out on the field."
"Yeah, and they're doing a bang-up job, too." Lance scoffed.
JJ glanced at a file tab that said: Righteous Killings. Lance put it away.
"Look, the fact is, you've scooped every other reporter in New York." JJ said, "You've even managed to be ahead of the cops a few times."
"A good crime reporter needs to be better than the police." Lance said. "You got less to go on.
"Well, that's why Agent Gideon was hoping you'd accept this invitation to help." JJ said.
"Jason Gideon?" Lance asked as if he wasn't sure if he heard her.
"Mm-hmm." JJ hummed.
"Ha. Ha. Ha." He said with arrogance and sarcasm, "He used to be one of the best."
JJ did not have her trademark friendly look on her face but she forced herself to remain professional, "He still is."
"Yeah. He had kind of a famous meltdown." JJ knew if not before Zoe would've punched this guy in the face but JJ kept the smile on her face.
"And a whole string of successes since he's returned."
“Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." He dismissed, "Meltdowns make better copy. And he recommended his co-founder and friend’s daughter who was four years under the required age.”
"Zoe is the exception. She was qualified.
"How?"
"She's a genius."
"She's mentally ill."
"Which is what makes her genius. You can see for yourself. You can take that up with them, yourself. You know, if you decide to come in." JJ said.
——————————————————————————————————
Hotch, Gideon, and Zoe spoke to Lance once he came in and Zoe dug her nails into her palm to keep from punching him.
"So, how did you put together the vigilante angle so quickly?" Hotch asked.
"I covered the original trials of all the victims." Lance replied.
"Must have a good memory." Gideon said, "A lot of killers can't remember details from their own crimes."
"Some cases just stick right in your brain." Lance said.
"Tell us about the victims." Hotch said, handing him the photos.
"All right, well, this girl, she was just a waste case." Lance said, pointing at a picture of the first victim, Rachel Holman. "The jury bought into the whole addiction-as-disease BS."
Zoe's eyes hardened. "Her name was Rachel Holman and she was trying to start a new life and was going to Acholoics Anomonous." She said with a slight edge.
"Whatever." He muttered, but he shifted. "And this old guy, he was a thug. He beat his wife, but the case fell apart because she wouldn't testify." Walter Berbin.
"Surrani?" Gideon asked, showing him a picture of the second victim, Kaveg Surrani, "He drank and drove. It was a tragedy, but it was the kind of thing that could happen to anybody, so..."
He related to him the most because he was an alcoholic too.
"So, who do you think we're looking for?" Hotch asked, "What's his background?"
"My guess is he's a crime victim. Probably something violent."
"But you do think he's a hero?" Gideon asked.
"Well, you know, this city makes you swallow a lot of crap. It's hard not to feel for someone who won't take it anymore." Lance said.
"These haven't been released to the press. They're pretty grim." Hotch said, handing him the photos of Shawn Cooley's corpse.
"Well, I've seen plenty of crime scenes." Lance dismissed.
"Huh?" Lance said, picking up a picture of the flint in the ear.
"We're stuck on the ear. Is it for killing efficiency or symbolism?" Gideon asked. Lance glanced up at Gideon but then looked again, noticing Gideon's intense gaze. "Why would you stab someone through the ear into their brain?"
"What's going on here?" Lance asked.
"The profile leads us to think that he works close to the criminal justice system. What do you think?" Hotch asked.
"Oh, no, no. You didn't bring me in here because you wanted my help." Lance said.
"Yes and no." Zoe told him.
"Profile suggests this guy'd contact the media. He hasn't." Gideon said.
"And we thought the killer wouldn't need to contact the press if he were the press." Hotch added.
"You're single-handedly turning this psychopath into a folk hero." Gideon said.
"So what happened? You get your men killed on the job and you think everybody else must be a killer, too?"
"Hey!" Zoe snapped.
"Watch your mouth." Hotch said.
"It's okay, Hotch, Zoe." Gideon said.
"It's not okay!" Zoe argued and she stood up and sighed, "He's not our guy."
Damn right. I didn't kill anybody. What about you?" Lance looked at Zoe. "You and your sister went missing for eight months and only you came back."
"Wagner." Zoe's tone was so cold and sharp that it made Lance stop. "You're right. You're not the killer."
"Mmm-hmm." He nodded like, duh.
“Everything you feel is vicarious. You don’t have it in you to act. You’re worn out, exhausted, cynical, but not completely devoid of empathy. You don’t focus much on the victims’ recent past, like that Rachel was trying to make a new life for herself, trying to not be a 'waste case’ anymore; you only focus on what they were accused of. You’re observant, if you were in her apartment, you would’ve seen the numerous pictures of her boyfriend who OD'd, her 'change of address’ paper, and the printout of A.A. meetings. All of that indicated, that her boyfriend’s overdosing was an accident on his part that she was accused of but she truly cared for him and decided to try and better herself to avoid turning out like him before the vigilante took that from her without warning, without discussion, without knowing the truth.” She explained. Lance’s eyes kept breaking away with obvious signs of slight guilt, “This psycho’s the last chance for you. You’ve screwed up other jobs. You drank too much, you empathized the most with Kaveg Surrani. You probably have a broken marriage or two. You’re actually hoping he doesn’t get caught for a while. That part of you knows that’s twisted and pathetic, but, hey, just reporting the news, right?”
Lance saw what JJ meant about her mental illness making her a genius. She saw through him more than he’d want to admit. She empathized with the victims which made him feel bad for dismissing them. She was right.
——————————————————————————————————
Zoe left the room to the precinct, "Well, I managed not to punch him in the face."
"I'm very proud of you." Alexander deadpanned to his daughter.
Bennett approached them, "The reporter is not our vigilante."
"Yeah, we know. How do you know?" Elle said.
"There was just another shooting in Central Park."
"You say shooting, what about the rest of the signature?" Morgan asked.
"Officers heard the shot, but he ran off before they got there. The victim was an undercover cop." Bennett said.
Zoe looked past her at a man with a black hood on entering. "I think you're looking for me." He held up his hand, holding an M1911 pistol.
Everyone took their guns out at this possible threat.
"Put the gun on the ground!"
"On your knees!"
"On your knees right now!"
"Drop the gun!"
The man got on his knees and got on the floor
"Get down! Don't move!"
"No, you don't understand. I did this all for you. We're in this together." The man said.
——————————————————————————————————
The man sat in the interrogation room with Gideon and Bennett.
"Name's Will Sykes. He's a security guard at a boutique in SoHo. He was a mugging victim last year. Spent two days in intensive care." Morgan informed them.
"Fits the profile." Spencer said.
"Yeah, barely." Zoe muttered.
"How's it going in here?" Elle asked.
"He just confessed to all the murders." JJ said.
Zoe rolled her eyes and entered the interrogation room to get some answers, she sat down next to Gideon.
"So, what were you doing in the park?" Bennett asked.
"It's full of animals. Muggers, scum, drug dealers. I knew one of them would try to prey on me." Sykes said.
"That's not your usual method." Gideon said. "I mean, you target them. You don't let them target you."
"I made that point. Now I'm making this one."
Zoe clasped her hands under her chin, nodding patronizingly, "Mmm. Mmm-hmm. So you're not going to suddenly go back to the original signature, huh?"
"What?"
"What's the point you're trying to make now?"
"If you hunt us on the street, you will die the way you live."
Zoe's facial expression didn't change at all, she just continued to stare at him with an annoyed and unconvinced look on her face, like he was nothing but a nuisance to her. Her mind flashed back to a case eight years ago.
"You know a serial killer told my dad something similar once and he made more sense than you do. That cop wasn't hunting you. Self-defense is one thing, unprompted murder is another." Zoe said.
"So, why turn yourself in now?" Bennett asked.
"I can't change this city without help. People need to be inspired. They need to see me. They need to hear my voice." He said.
Zoe nodded. Now she understood. This guy wanted to be famous. He was a narcissist and wanted to take credit.
"Can you tell me about the cab driver, Derbin?" Gideon asked.
"He was a thug. A wife beater." Was all he said. Profound.
"Can you tell me about the first victim, Rachel Holman?" Zoe asked.
"She was a drug addict."
"She was getting off drugs, starting a new life. She had pictures of her boyfriend. This all points to that his overdose was an accident from his own hand and she didn't want to turn out like that." Zoe corrected him.
He showed no empathy.
"And the priest?" Gideon asked.
"What's to know?" Sykes shrugged, "He preyed on young boys."
"Is that why you stabbed him in the groin?" Zoe asked.
"It's what he deserved."
Zoe smirked, "Thank you... for proving my point. The priest wasn't stabbed in the groin, copycat."
"No, I did it." He protested as Gideon and Bennett left the interrogation room, Zoe stayed behind.
“Do you know what I do for the FBI? I’m assuming you don’t because you have narcissistic delusions and are only doing this for the infamy but I’m going to tell you anyways and you’re going to listen. I profile criminals. The vigilante we’re looking for targets people who were acquitted but presumably, he believes them to be guilty without actual evidence. He’s not going to change that. He’s not just trying to make a point, he’s trying to justify something he did. He uses a particular way of killing that he’s not going to change that you didn’t do and have no knowledge of. You killed that man for no reason and you will only be remembered as a sad, pathetic man who thought murder was a good way to be famous.”
She turned and left without another word.
"We know our UnSub has a heightened sense of right and wrong. If he knew that he inspired a would-be vigilante to murder an undercover cop, he might feel remorse." Spencer was saying.
"Do you think you might be able to mend fences with the reporter, Wagner?" Gideon asked JJ.
"If it played to his ego, yeah." JJ said.
"Well, we might be able to draw the UnSub out. That's a good one." Gideon said.
——————————————————————————————————
The cop's funeral played on the television, the next morning. Amazing Grace was played on the bagpipes.
"Wagner said, this morning, that the cop's blood is all over the vigilante's hands." Spencer said.
"How did JJ get him to cooperate?" Hotch asked.
"UnSub might feel a need to be there, physically mourn for what he caused." Gideon said as they did the 21-salute on the television. "If that article lures him, Wagner gets to claim he caught a murderer. It's the ultimate scoop."
"Will they know how to spot him?" Bennett asked.
"I briefed your men. If the UnSub's there, he'll be alone, out of place, not speaking to anyone else, probably not even making eye contact. Hopefully, he'll panic, draw attention to himself." Gideon said.
"I can never get that sound out of my head. It wakes me in the middle of the night." Bennett admitted.
"You should try being Scottish."
"Or half-Scottish." Zoe added and her father ruffled her hair.
"If there was any justice, cop-killers would have to hear it for an eternity."
Hotch's phone rang and he answered it, "Hotchner. Yeah."
Hotch informed the team of his phone call once it finished, Morgan had found out that there weren't any records available from Derbin's trial which had been four months ago.
Hotch caught Alexander, Gideon, Zoe, and Spencer up on this as they left the police station, "That means that anyone who knows the details of that case had to have been in the courtroom.
"Court reporters take their work home with them." Gideon said.
"They get paid overtime. They take their notes in court and finish transcribing them at night." Hotch said.
"You know what Bennett said about not being able to get the sound of bagpipes out of her head." Alexander said, "Maybe that's why the UnSub stabs the ears."
"Killers often harm their victims in ways" that they themselves have been harmed." Zoe pointed out, her hand subconsciously went to one of her scars.
"A court reporter is by definition a faceless cog in the machine. He sits there, day in, day out, transcribing testimony." Hotch said.
"Well, what if the voices wouldn't stop when you left the courtroom?" Gideon asked.
"The witness in the church said that the UnSub was uh," Spencer mimed with his fingers, "doing a piano-like motion."
"Or transcribing." Zoe said.
"Killing's a good way to get the voices to stop, huh?"
Zoe called Garcia and put her on speakerphone.
"Holla."
"I need the name of the court stenographer in each of the victims' original trials." Hotch said.
"Same one every time. Marvin Doyle."
"Crosscheck him against crime records. See if he was ever the victim of a violent crime." Hotch said.
"No, not him."
"See if anyone close to him was a victim of a violent crime." Zoe suggested. "Any family members?"
"Oh, Darkness, my beautiful friend, you read my brilliant mind." Garcia said, "His parents, killed in an attempted robbery, '04."
"That's his stressor. Is he still working?" Hotch asked.
"100 Centre, Courtroom 103."
——————————————————————————————————
Zoe got to the courthouse first on her motorcycle and by the time the others entered the courthouse, they saw Zoe walking back to the entrance, “Doyle called in sick but he worked in the same courtroom, Hotch, Spence, and I went to yesterday.”
"He saw us." Spencer said.
"I already called for a warrant." Zoe said.
——————————————————————————————————
The team and the police arrived at Doyle's place in their vests.
"Marvin Doyle? FBI. Open up." Gideon called but there was no reply.
They kicked the door in and they entered with their guns out but there was no one home.
Zoe walked to the window that had shiny tinfoil and duct tape on foam over them. She peeled it off, letting in the sound of an ambulance siren of a passing by ambulance.
"Trying to keep the voices out." Zoe said, "Soundproofed the entire place."
"He ripped the speakers out of the television and the radio." Elle noted, "And here is a life insurance check for $250,000. It's two years old. He didn't cash it."
Gideon took it from Elle, "He won't accept blood money."
Spencer showed them a photo of Doyle kissing a woman's cheek but her face was scribbled out
"Here's a box full of flint knives. There's got to be a hundred of them." Hotch said.
"Guys, come take a look at this." Morgan said, standing over a machine similar to a typewriter but not quite. "It's a stenography machine, but look at the keys. They're all worn out."
There were boxes of paper from the machine, "It's like he was trying to transcribe the voices in his head but couldn't keep up." Zoe said, forcing herself not to revert into a memory.
"It looks like hieroglyphics." Elle said, looking at the text.
"It's called steno. It's basically a phonetic series of syllables. No court reporter takes notes the same way, so no one can translate them but the reporter himself." Spencer explained.
"He's getting paid overtime to study potential victims." Alexander said.
"He knows we're on to him. He's racing us now.
"Someone in these boxes is targeted to die. We need to get inside his head and figure out who, so we can stop him. Let's go. Start fishing." Gideon said.
They brought some boxes out and started going through them. Morgan brought out another and said, "You know, this is a lot of boxes, how are we supposed to narrow it down?"
"Check and see if it ended in acquittal. If it didn't, toss it aside." Gideon said.
"It has to be a capital case. He's escalating. The more brutal the better." Hotch said.
"Why not go by most recent?" Elle asked.
"Judging by his elaborate filing system, Doyle, obviously, has obsessive-compulsive disorder." Spencer said.
"People with OCD often finish tasks and then go back to the beginning and start over." Zoe continued. "So he continually goes through the transcripts and the first one to trigger him becomes his next victim.
"Here's one. This is a liquor store owner who was shot with his own gun." Elle said.
"Flip to when they present the defense." Hotch advised, "Did the defendant testify?"
"No."
"Stick with the ones where the accused took the stand. This is personal. He hears their voices." Hotch said.
"Doyle's victims all claimed to be a type of victim themselves. First two threw themselves on the mercy of the court, pleading alcohol and drug dependency." Gideon said, Zoe gave him a look before going back to reading. "The priest said he was a victim, victim of recent hysteria."
"Look for key phrases: Victim, mercy, anything that signifies they thought their crime wasn't their fault." Hotch said.
"I think I might have one, guys. Ted Elmore." Spencer said, "He shot and killed both his parents after claiming self-defense for years of physical abuse."
"Doyle lost his own parents. Hearing someone get away with killing their own, that would haunt him." Gideon said.
They had Garcia get Ted Elmore's phone number and Zoe called. A woman picked up.
"Hello."
"Is Ted Elmore there?" Zoe asked.
"Not right now. Can I take a message?
"Who's this?" Zoe asked.
This is his wife. Who's this?"
"My name is Zoe Noble-Valdez, I'm with the FBI.
Her voice became a little less distant, speaking away from the phone, "Honey, the FBI is on the phone."
Then there was a BANG! And there was Mrs. Elmore's scream.
"Mrs Elmore? Mrs Elmore?" She asked, she looked around, "He's there. I'm getting my motorcycle."
"You need to wait for backup!" Hotch shouted after her as she started running.
"I can at least stall him!" Zoe shouted.
——————————————————————————————————
Zoe drove through traffic, weaving through and no one was very happy about her being there.
She made it to the apartment and ran up the stairs, no one was there as they retreated to safety when they heard the gunshot. She knew they would put snipers up but Doyle was most likely an undiagnosed schizophrenic with no one to help him, she wasn't going to let someone be shot just for having a disorder and trauma. But talking was worth a shot. He had an innocent hostage and he had an exaggerated sense of right and wrong.
"Please, just let us go."
"SHUT UP!" Doyle shouted to Mrs. Elmore who was crying and pleading.
"He didn't do anything to you." She sobbed.
She pulled out her gun and entered the open door. Elmore wasn't crying, he wasn't showing pain, he just sat there as he bled out. It's what Zoe would do. Only someone used to the pain would do that. He hadn't been lying.
"Mister Doyle, I am Doctor Zoe Noble-Valdez with the FBI. Put down your weapon."
"I'll kill him."
"Why?" Zoe asked.
"Tell them how you lied. Tell them how you killed your parents and pretended they'd been hurting you." He demanded.
"They did hurt me." Elmore said.
"You're a liar."
"What if he's not lying, Doyle? What if he's telling the truth?" Zoe asked.
"He's not."
"You hear voices, right? They tell you that people are lying. But they're wrong"
"You're lying."
'I'm not lying. Rachel Holman had an addiction but addiction is hard to fight. It can happen to anyone. She didn't kill her boyfriend, he overdosed by his own hand. She didn't want to end up like him so she tried to turn her life around."
"Liar!"
"New address. She was going to A.A. meetings. You're trying to justify your killings but eventually someone is going to be innocent."
"Stop lying!"
Hotch and Gideon entered the room with their guns drawed, "I'll kill him." He repeated.
"Then you wouldn't get to hear the truth. If he admits the truth, the voices'll stop, right?" Gideon was taking another tact.
"They always lie."
"Do you have the shot?" Zoe heard through her comm.
"Negative."
"Let us interrogate him. Put the gun down. We're the FBI. We'll get the truth." Hotch said.
"Marvin, I'm going to put my gun away." Gideon said, "We'll do this together, okay?" Gideon put his gun away but Zoe and Hotch kept theirs trained on him
Gideon glared at Elmore, "Tell him the truth. Tell him how you lied on the stand."
"They did hurt me."
"Don't listen to him, Marvin." Zoe advised.
"If he dies, they'll go away!" He screamed.
Zoe chuckled bitterly, "What do you think, they won't come back? They'll always come back."
"Waverly, Iowa, 1995. A man kills two boys, only to walk away free and kill another one." Hotch said.
"Stop."
"Haskins, Georgia, last year. Three white guys. Three white guys kill a black teenager, just because. Four witnesses see it, the jury finds them not guilty, just because." Gideon said.
"The first two boys were fourteen years old. The third was only twelve." Hotch said.
"Shut up!"
"It doesn't stop." Zoe said.
"Diallo, Blake, Simpson, T. Cullen Davis. You can't kill fast enough to keep up."
"They killed my parents."
"I know." Zoe said, "But Ted isn't him. Doyle, he’s bleeding out in front of his wife, what if he’s telling the truth.”
“He’s not.”
“Doyle, I’m a profiler. I’ve spent my entire life deciphering people’s body language. Look, he’s not crying, he’s taking the pain. Only a child of abuse would know how to do that.”
“The voices said he did. He killed his own blood.”
This wasn’t working. He was too convinced in the voices. They could do this until Elmore bled out.
"Then you'll need to kill me too. Because I've allegedly killed more family members than him. My own blood. My own mother. My own sister. And I got off scot-free. Wasn't even charged."
"What?"
"My mom died because of me. I killed my uncle when I was thirteen. Five years ago, my sister and I went missing and only I came back. I wasn't charged any of these times. There was no evidence that I didn't kill her but there was no trial."
“I see things too. I see dead people. And I welcome it. I hear voices, I’ve learned to cope. But I know how tired you must be. Just let him live, give me the gun and I promise you, I will get you a place to rest." Zoe promised. "The voices will stop. That's what you want, right?"
Doyle let Elmore fall but he still had the gun
"He... he... needs to die. And you do..."
"Your parents would be so ashamed. Because you're just like the man who killed them. You don't intend to be caught for murder."
"What?"
"You killed all those people because they got off on the charges but that's exactly what you're doing! Rachel Holman was trying to do better and you took that from her. Ted, here has spent years of being abused and you're going to end his life as painfully as it was. Not all of them were guilty! Not everyone who gets acquitted is guilty. A lot of people are but some aren't. Including you. Just drop the gun."
"The voices..."
"You're an undiagnosed schizophrenic. The voices just tell you what you're afraid of based off your trauma. We can get you into a nice a hospital and they'll treat your schizophrenia. It'll be better. I promise. Just give me the gun!"
He loosened the grip on the gun and Zoe takes it. She had been standing in Hotch's way. She knew what he was going to do.
She lets Gideon arrest Doyle and she applies pressure to Elmore's wound as she gives Hotch a glare.
"We do not kill people for being mentally ill. Now be helpful and call an ambulance." She spat at him.
——————————————————————————————————
Gandhi said, "Better to be violent if there's violence in our hearts "than to put on the cloak of non-violence to cover impotence."
Gandhi also said, "I object to violence, because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary. The evil it does is permanent."
"You tried to get him to shoot you." Hotch told her as she watched the ambulance drive away.
"I was trying to stall and confuse him. I was trying to get him to forget about Elmore." Zoe corrected him.
"You kept blocking my shot." Hotch accused.
"Because I wasn't going to let you shoot him for being a schizophrenic. Trauma is a contributing factor to schizophrenia. He likely had it before but the death of his parents worsened it and fueled his delusions. The injustice caused the paranoia. You told me in a few years I could be the team's Forensic Physiatrist. That means I'm in charge of cases with mentally ill UnSubs because I know what I'm doing. If I had a psychotic break would you shoot me dead?"
"No."
"Because you know me or because you don't want to admit the truth?" She demanded. "If Jack had one, do you think the best thing would be to shoot him or to treat him for the illness."
——————————————————————————————————
Zoe had been suspended for disobeying Hotch’s implied orders for a week without pay and Hotch pretended not to use context to figure out what she was cursing in Spanish at him.
——————————————————————————————————
After work, Spencer knocked on Zoe’s door, worried about her. There was a clutter on the other side of the door and muffled cursing in Spanish. Then there was a fumbling for the lock.
Spencer had a feeling before she opened the door and he saw Zoe looking drunk, her hair was disheveled, her eyes were slightly watery
"Are you drunk?" He asked, bluntly.
"No." She said, blankly, her poker face was better than a lot of sober people would be but not as good as it usually was and Spencer saw right through it.
"You're underaged."
"You're a forensic psychologist, not a police officer." She said. "And I turn twenty-one in October."
"But you're not yet."
"Are you going to arrest me, Spence?" She asked mockingly.
Spencer wasn't. If anyone had an excuse to drink it was Zoe. So he didn't give a response. "May I come in?"
"Yes, you may, Doctor Who." She said in a decent British accent.
Spencer entered, passing Zoe, smelling the smell of alcohol. "I'm sorry about what happened."
Zoe just smiled sarcastically as she went back to her couch. "Story of my life. I try to do the right thing and I get punished."
"What do you mean?"
Zoe's gaze unhazed slightly, "It's not important. Not yet."
Spencer looked at her coffee table and saw a file.
“What’s that?” He asked, reaching for it but Zoe suddenly slammed her hand down on the file.
“Don’t.” She said, a seriousness in her glazy eyes.
Spencer held his hands up, relenting, "Okay. Okay."
She slumped back onto the couch, looking sadder than Spencer had ever seen her, she thumbed her glass of what seemed to be vodka.
"It's not right to shoot someone just for having a disorder." She mumbled. "He didn't ask to have schizophrenia and trauma. Schizophrenia is caused by a combination of genetic and environmental factors."
Spencer wholeheartedly agreed. If his mother had a violent break, he'd do everything in his power to keep her alive, but he doubted she ever would, she was more likely to hurt herself than she was others.
"The way schizophrenia affects you depends on your specific life factors. The schizophrenia was most likely not severe but then his parents were killed and then the injustice, forming the black and white morality." She said.
"I know." Spencer said.
"Elmore was abused. He wasn't crying, he was just calmly stating that his parents did hurt him. Only someone who learned to take pain could do that. That's what I was trying to do. I was trying to show him that opinions don't state whether or not someone is guilty. His opinion is as much his as it is someone on a jury. I was trying to force him to see that not everything is black and white."
"You were goading him."
"Yeah, if someone in that room was guilty enough for him to kill, it was me."
"Zoe, you're not a guilty person."
Zoe looked down, shaking her head, "You don't get. And I can't tell you. I can't tell anyone."
"Is this about Zarah?"
"Yes but also no. I've done things. People have died because of me. People will die because of me."
"Zoe..."
"Every room, I step in, I could kill everyone in there if I really wanted to."
"But you don't, you're a good person."
“Nietzsche said morality is subjective. Edward Westermarck portrayed all moral ideas as subjective judgements that reflect one’s upbringing. David Hume believed moral judgements are based on human emotions and sentiments rather than objective truths.”
Spencer's heart did a leap. Even when she was drunk, she was so smart. Smarter than anyone he had ever met.
“It’s true. No one is purely evil and no one is purely good. You’ve been through hell, any one of the things you’ve been through would traumatize someone for the rest of their life but you keep on going in that life because you know you’re helping people. You must’ve done things to survive. It’s wrong to kill someone, but when it’s in self-defense, no one can blame you. You said it yourself, not everything is black and white.”
Zoe's eyes darted up to him and narrowed in dull surprise and mild confusion. She was used to another answer.
Spencer slowly took the bottle from her and capped it and put it on the coffee table.
"Let's get you ready for bed to try and sleep this off." Spencer smiled, kindly at her.
Though, Zoe could get ready for bed herself, even while drunk, she let Spencer guide her to the bathroom and he gently brushed her teeth, cradling her head, gently as she looked at him with an unreadable look.
When they made it to her bedroom, Spencer gestured awkwardly to her dresser and turned around.
Zoe opened her drawers and found "pajamas". She didn't wear traditional pajamas, finding them a bit pointless and wore more graphic shirts and tights. She often fell asleep, working so...
She pulled on an oversided Queen shirt that reached her mid-thigh and turned to find Spencer picking up a stuffed alebrije wolf stuffed animal.
"We agreed that I was a wolf and Zarah was an otter." Zoe said and Spencer turned around and his eyes darted down at her outfit and he willed himself not to have creepy thoughts.
“It fits you perfectly. Strong-willed, stubborn, determined, passionate, protective, brave, loyal.” Spencer smiled and he put the stuffed animal back down. “You’re resilient and intuitive that it’s… before I met you, I’d say it was impossible. And… at least I know as long as you’re on my side, it doesn’t matter what the statistics say, I know everything will be all right.”
He turned to find Zoe, suddenly very close to him. He tried to step back but Zoe's table against the wall, stopped him.
"You're so pretty, Spence... have I ever told you that?" She asked, her hand was stroking his hair and he wanted very much to not push her away.
"No. No one has." Spencer said, awkwardly.
Zoe got closer and Spencer could tell, even in this drunken and emotional state of hers, she was waiting for him to push her away but he didn't want to. Then she kissed him, fully on the lips.
He let out a series of awkward squeaks as she kissed him before he melted into it, his brain having short circuited. His IQ was very quickly losing points.
The kiss was both sweet yet messy.
He pulled away, "Zoe, you're drunk."
"Shh..." She shushed him and kissed him and against his usual professionalism, he kissed her back, his desire for her winning in the end.
He pulled back again and she started to move to kiss neck, making him shutter.
"Lo-look, Zoe, as much as I want this to happen, and believe me, that is so, so much." Against his better judgement, he tilted his head back so he could have more access. "I've had plenty of dreams of this, as recently as-as... well, last night, but-but-but..." He cleared his throat and pushed her away from her shoulders, "not like this. This won't be how our stroy starts if it ever does. And if it does, we will both be sober and it will because both of us truly want it."
Zoe nodded, stepping back, blushing in embarrassment and she mumbled, "Sorry..."
"It's okay. You're drunk. You're not thinking straight." He said, "Besides if your dad finds out, he will literally kill me and hide my body."
"Yeah." She agreed and then she drunkenly, smiled, "At least you lost your kiss-ginity."
"Here, let's get you in bed." He said and guided her to her messy bed. He helped her under the covers, and he couldn't help but notice that the sheets on the mattress were special ones for those with overstimulated sensory systems.
She looked at her alarm... shaped like that Tardis...
"It's too late, there's no more trains and it's too dangerous to walk this late." She slurred. "Stay."
Spencer sighed in resignation, "I'll sleep on the couch." He started to get up.
"When the time comes, you'll have a different opinion." Zoe murmured.
"What?"
"When you learn of the things I did or didn't do, you'll change your mind and hate me." Zoe said.
"I promise you I won't." He said but she was half-asleep.
——————————————————————————————————
Spencer awoke to the Doctor Who theme song, playing on the television at a blaring volume and he fell off Zoe's couch, softened by her carpet.
"You okay?" Zoe's voice asked.
Was that coffee he smelled?
He stood up, his usually neat hair messy and he saw a coffee brewing.
"You hate coffee."
"Yeah, but I work with a lot of people who like coffee." She said.
"You're antisocial." He countered in a matter-of-fact tone that rivaled her usual deadpan.
"Zarah likes coffee too." She said.
"How's your head?"
"I've been tortured for a combined time of over a year, I can deal with a hangover headache." She said as she poured the coffee into a Doctor Who mug. She placed it on her island table and poured a bunch of sugar in it, looking at him, sarcastically, making fun of his preference for a lot of sugar.
"That's good." He said, taking the coffee.
"Thank you. For taking care of me." She said.
"Thank you for letting me. I know you could've done fine on your own, but I couldn't just leave you." Spencer said.
"I'm sorry... I was weak."
"Zoe, if anyone deserves the excuse to drink and forget for a night, it's you. You have nothing to apologize for. You are far from weak."
"I hope I didn't do anything too... embarrassing." Zoe said.
"No." Spencer lied, shaking his head. She didn't remember. He knew that it would just embarrass her, and he knew it meant nothing. Besides, he had kind of hoped she hadn't, given he had said some things he didn't want sober Zoe to remember.
Zoe went to the stove and saw her mixing scrambled eggs, "I figured since you're the one going to work, you should have a homemade breakfast for once."
"Oh, that's not necessary." Spencer denied.
"No arguing." She said, "This is huevos a la mexicana, it's scrambled eggs with onion and tomato. I decided not to do peppers. Eat, matchstick man."
