"We need someone new for the field team. Someone tech savvy, who can help out Garcia by knowing what she needs to do back here, but with the training to be out helping find unsubs. I've got the head looking for someone, but I just wanted you all to know we're gonna have a new member." Hotch looked at the crew gathered around the table. It would be strange, adding a person to the tight knit team.
"I think I might know someone, actually" Reid piped up. Hotch looked at him in surprise. Spencer Reid was the last member he thought would have any sort of connection.
"Who?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Someone I went to school with. She works with a police department out in California, but she's been looking for a new job. I spoke to her for the first time in months just the other day. She wanted to use me as a reference for her resume, since we were close back at the university and I hold a similar position to the kind she's looking for."
"Can you call her, and have her fax in her resume?"
"Sure." Reid flipped his phone open, scrolled through his contacts and hit dial "Hey, Macy?...Yeah, it's Spencer… I was wondering if you could fax your resume to my unit leader…. Yeah, I can text you the fax number…. Okay, I'll let you know it goes through…. Sure. I'll talk to you later." He shut it and turned to Hotch "She's faxing it over once I send her the number."
A few minutes later, several sheets of paper came spitting from the fax machine. Hotch picked them up and skimmed them, including Reid's letter.
"You think highly of this…Macy James."
"She has a brilliant mind."
"She's extremely well qualified. I say we fly her out, try her with the team for a week, and if she works, and wants the position, she stays. Sound good to everyone?" The team members nodded in agreement. "You'll let her know, Reid?"
"Of course. Should I tell her to book a hotel and a flight?"
"No. The department will put up the money. In fact…" he clicked a few buttons on the screen "Tell her her flight leaves tomorrow morning at six thirty, from Oakland International, via Jet Blue. I've had the confirmation sent to the email on her resume."
"Alright. Oh, if you book her a room? Find a pet friendly hotel. She travels with a cat, it's her anxiety pet." Hotch raised his eyebrow yet again, but nodded.
"Meeting adjourned, everyone. Go home. Sleep. I don't care." Hotch waved everyone out the door but JJ walked towards him.
"Wouldn't have expected that from Reid of all people, eh?" she asked.
"Yeah. But she seems like just what we need."
Back at his apartment, Spencer called up Macy and told her the news.
"So Hotch is booking you a room, and paid for your ticket."
"Did you tell him to book a pet friendly hotel? I can't leave Persephone home.'
"Yeah, I did."
"Thanks, Spence. Alright, I'll make sure I have enough cash for a cab or a rent a car. I'm not having my car shipped until it's all set."
"If you want I could pick you up?"
"Sure. Alright. See you tomorrow, Spence."
"Bye, Macy."
Spencer, hands white knuckle on the wheel, pulled into the airport lot the next day. He hated driving, but he knew Macy hated talking to strangers and wanted to not force her to take a cab, and be stressed before meeting the team. Pulling into the first space he saw, he walked into the baggage claim. If Macy looked anything like she used to, she'd be easy to spot.
And she was. Spencer spotted her small stature and flaming red hair. He walked towards her, she turned around when she heard footsteps.
"Hey, short stuff!" she said jokingly at Spencer, who towered over her.
"Hey, Macy. Got everything?"
"Yup. Can we drop my stuff off at the hotel before we hit the meeting? I don't want to leave Persephone alone in a car for too long." She lifted the cat carrier containing a mewling calico as reference.
"Sure. Hey," he said pointing to her ear, "that's new, from last time I saw you anyway."
"Oh, the bar? Yeah, I've had it about a year" she ran her index finger over her industrial.
"You've just got to be different" he laughed as he unlocked the car.
"You're one talk, Smarty Pants." She put Persephone and her bags in the backseat, slid into the passenger's seat, and they took off for the hotel and the meeting.
"Ready?" Spencer asked as they walked through the main door to the building.
"As I'll ever be."
As they entered the room Hotch walked up and extended a hand.
Hello, Ms. James. I'm Agent Hotchner, the unit leader." She shook his hand firmly.
"Hello, Agent Hotchner. Macy James at your service."
"These are our team members. Get to know them on your own time. We just got a case, so you get to go straight to work."
Hotch briefed everyone on a case they'd just received. Three women dead, seemingly typeless other than all being white. None had the same hair color. They were found over the course of four days, in crude coffins in an orchard in a rural part of the state. They were packed in ice.
"Do you have photographs of the victims?" Macy inquired.
"Both before and after death" he pushed the file towards her. She flipped it open and lined them up.
"What order were they killed in?"
"They're numbered. On the back." She looked, sorted them in order and stared. Spencer was reading through the case information.
"They suspect the unsub is mid twenties white heterosexual male, because all of the women have the same basic build. Small, easily overcome, hourglass physiques, very conventional in basic structure, varying in hair color, eye color, and from what the families say, personality." Spencer murmured.
"He's…collecting." Macy thought out loud.
"What?" Hotch asked.
" Think about it. They were killed within a day of the former, they were all in crude wooden boxes, buried within feet of each other somewhere easily located by the unsub, and they have similar builds with different defining features. Which means it could either be a young heterosexual male, or a very very sick and twisted socially outcast young woman."
"Why a woman?"
"There's a book about a murderess who kills women from her school who have something she wants. She kept them on ice, and kept their bodies as fresh as possible in order to eventually harvest their body parts." At that Morgan picked up the phone and dialed Garcia.
"Baby girl, it's me. Run the victim's names. See what high schools they attended and when they graduated. And email me ASAP… Okay thanks sweet cheeks." A few moments later he glanced down at his screen. "All graduated from Virginia Heights High School, and all graduated two years ago."
"Can you get transcripts?"
"Sure. I'll have Garcia on it right now."
"Okay." Hotch shouted. "Everyone go eat, and then come back., and we'll go inspect the crime scene"
Hours later, they were in the orchard, and Macy had taken the camera to every nearby house and was photographing license plates and car models.
"It's getting dark." Morgan announced. "We should head back. Meet up again tomorrow. Bright and early." Macy walked back to the cars, handed the camera to Morgan, who clapped her on the back and nodded at her. She smiled back and walked towards Spencer, who gave her a quick sideways hug and opened her door, which garnered a few looks from the team.
"Do you think…" JJ turned to Morgan with a speculative glance.
"Anything is possible. Like attracts like. And her file said she was an Aspie, and we all wonder about Reid having Aspergers. Both are well read, well educated, both graduated early, both a little…weird."
They continued watching as the two drove away. Later, Spencer pulled into the hotel drive way. It was late, and most of the lights were off in the small hotel, which was made up of individual cabin type buildings.
"Good work today, Mace." Spencer smiled at her.
"Thanks, Spence. See you in the morning." She hugged him lightly and got out of the car, walked to her door and let herself in. Neither noticed the car lurking a hundred yards away.
Spencer's phone rang about an hour later.
"Hello?"
"Spence, it's Macy" she was whispering "The same car has driven past my room four times in the past hour, at ten miles under the speed limit. I can't make out the plates, but the make, model and color look like one of the cars I saw by the orchard, roughly half a mile from the dump site. Gray, two year old Honda Civic. I would suspect simple sabotage but…" she gulped. "I fit the profile. Five foot two, thin, average breasts, average hips. And the unsub…. The unsub doesn't have a red head yet…" Spencer blinked, and his eyes widened.
"We'll be over as soon as possible. Lay low, stay away from windows and doors. Stay calm. I know that's hard for you, but try. And…please…try to stay alive?" The last part was whispered quickly as he hung up and sprinted to the car while dialing Hotch.
"Reid, it's one am, what is your problem?"
"The unsub, the unsub is after her."
"Who?"
"Macy! The same car, in the same make, model, year and color as one of the ones by the orchard has circled her hotel room four times since I dropped her off. And she meets the base physical description, and the unsub doesn't have a red head yet. I have my gun, and I'm going over there now. I suggest you get the team together unless you want our new member dead and our unsub off scott free." Then he hung up. Realizing he was dead serious, Hotch called the others and headed to the hotel Macy was staying at.
Spencer was slowly creeping along the property when he saw headlights in front of Macy's room. Then the headlights shut off and he heard them knock on the door. He sped up, that was the car. Gray Honda civic. The person knocked again, the knocks were faster. They were impatient. They turned to the car, he could see it was a woman now. She pulled a large post from her trunk and hit the door once, squarely, and it feel to the floor. Spencer was sprinting again now, gun cocked and in hand. He saw Hotch and Emily's cars screetching into the lot but he kept running. He was at the door, and there she was, Macy. She was lying face down on the floor with the unsub's foot in her back.
"Get down, hands on your head, face on the floor, right now or I will shoot." Spencer's voice boomed out, more confident than general, though when he looked down at Macy his eyes were fearful.
"You make one move to shoot me, and she gets its. And believe me, it won't be fast or pretty." She drew a switch blade and flicked it open. Just then, Hotch and the others showed up behind Spencer, all armed.
"Reid, I got-" Hotch started to whisper but was cut off
"I got this one, Hotch. Let me do this. I got her into this mess so let me get her out." Spencer gave Hotch a look and then turned to the unsub again. 'M'am, we are FBI agents. You need to step away from the woman, get on your knees, lean on your elbows and put your hands on your head. Right. Now." He cocked the gun. The unsub threw the knife at a window and threw herself to the ground. Hotch dove for her, and cuffed her. Spencer ran over to Macy, pulled her off the ground, and looked her over for injuries.
"I'm so sorry, Mace. I should have never asked you to come out here. This is all my fault." He shook his head and looked down at her, his eyes apologetic.
"Spence, this isn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for everything." Spencer surprised everyone then by grabbing her and hugging her tightly enough to lift her off the ground slightly.
'Thank goodness you're okay."
They all went to the station and Spencer hovered behind Macy the entire time until JJ pulled him away.
"Hey. She's important to you, huh?"
"She was my best friend at the university. We were in the same dorm, and we were both the awkward outcast types, and we struck up a friendship one night at the library. We talked after we graduated, and I still consider her my closest friend. She was the first person I met that seemed to genuinely…understand me, I suppose. She helped me open up, I helped her. Her anxiety was bad, so some weekends I would just sit in her dorm room with her and calm her down. I was the one who figured out about anxiety animals, and helped her pick out Persephone. She helped me pull back when I babbled too much and just generally fit in better. We made a good team. That's why I offered her the job here. She's brilliant and intuitive and because I thought it would be nice, as much as I love all of you, to have a like mind around."
"What I wanna know, Spencer, is when you fell in love with her. I have never seen you take charge like that. You're always the good cop. But you would have shot that woman before she laid a finger on Macy."
"Hum. You would figure it out and have the guts to ask first. I guess… after we graduated. I was out here, she was in California, and I just felt like something was missing from my life. And one day I realized it was her."
Macy walked out a few seconds later, thoroughly shaken. She went straight to Spencer.
"I'm through being questioned. Hey. Spence? Can I…Can I crash with you? I don't really want to be alone at night right now…"
"Absolutely." He looked at her for a second before hugging her again. "We'll run by the hotel, check you out and grab your stuff."
He went with her into the room, placing his hand comfortingly on her shoulder. She gathered her things, scooping Persephone up off the bed and handing the cage to Spencer, so she could hold her cat.
In Spencer's apartment he sat her down and made her eat some leftover takeout he had, and just sat with her.
"You risked your own life for me, Spence."
"So did everyone on the team. It's what we do."
"No. You would have run in for me, back up or no back up. I could tell. And I want to know why. I've known you for years, Spence, and you have never been anything but a highly logical person, forever thinking things through."
"You want the absolute truth?"
"Yes." She looked at him expectantly. He ran his hands through his hair and breathed out shakily, closing his eyes. He looked up at her, obviously shaken and nervous.
"I'm in love with you, Macy. I realized it after we graduated. Life just seemed, incomplete without you in it. But I've never had a friendship as close as ours, so I wouldn't risk losing that. And when you could easily have been a few minutes from death I saw my life without a best friend, and it would be my fault you died, since this was all my idea. That couldn't happen." Spencer looked down then, and fidgeted. He never was any good with girls. Macy looked at him, head tilted, brows slightly raised. "I understand if you don't want to be friends anymore."
"Oh, Spence. For someone with an IQ of 187, you can be a right idiot." She laughed.
"What?" he furrowed his eyebrows and started to talk again when Macy leaned forward and kissed Spencer.
"You should have figured that out ages ago." She whispered "You profile victims for a living."
"You were never just another victim to me, Mace. Or just another friend. You're the only person I've ever met who understands me."
And then he kissed her.
Maybe Spencer was no good with girls in general, but it didn't matter. He had the only one he'd ever need.