Remember to R & R

It was three in the morning when Garcia heard the gunshot.

It hadn't been a particularly eventful day up until that moment, when she was awoken from her sleep by the noise. Her beautiful, restless sleep that she had been longing for since two days beforehand. There had been a case called in about three siblings in Memphis, an older sister and two younger brothers, who had been kidnapped and bargained for ransom. The case had lasted almost two days- nearly 46 hours, and Garcia hadn't gotten a wink in since. The kids were safe, being held in a foster home just outside of their hometown after the unsub killed their mother. No one was seriously hurt besides her, which was also good, but she didn't really care about any of that. She was happy, of course she was, but she just needed to sleep. 46 hours of digging through dirt on suspects could do that to a girl.

So, when Garcia got to her small but colorful flat, the first thing she did was belly flop onto her bed. Before she knew it, she was being startled awake by her worse nightmare.

At first, Garcia thought she had woken from a dream she couldn't remember, maybe one of the usual ones that end in flying bullets, but then she heard the sound of something heavy being thrown to the ground just beyond her living room wall, followed by some oddly quickened footsteps rushing away from the scene. She sat there for a minute, wondering if this was all some practical joke that the team was playing on her. She would almost have believed it too, if it wasn't for the eerie silence that remained in the hallway. Garcia half contemplated calling Morgan and telling him that something was wrong, but what if it really was nothing? What if her paranoia was just getting the best of her, as it sometimes does after an exceptionally long case? Garcia let out a sort of muffled sign, her eyes never once moving from her door, which was particularly masked by her lavender and blue meadow curtains that she hadn't bothered to shut all the way the previous night. She sat like that for nearly a minute before her eyes flickered to the crack underneath her door. It was nothing, her half conscious brain chided. Go back to sleep. But she couldn't, she just knew there was something wrong.

She shifted her position to where her torso was still facing the door, but her legs hung off the bed. She felt for her purple teddy bear slippers blindly, praying to God that something wouldn't reach out from under her bed and grab her ankle. She rummaged in her bedside drawer, feeling for Morgan's spare gun he had left for her protection. She frowned slightly, as the only things she could feel were her silver dolphin earrings and a half-full12-pack of fluffy pencils.

It seemed that Garcia was going blind into this, which was probably not a good idea, since the only tactical thing she'd ever done was screech at a Puerto Rican man in Montreal for steeling her special zebra striped purse.

She slowly stood from her position on the bed. "Okay Penelope, you can do this," She assured herself. "It's fine, no one's going to blitz attack you from behind or shoot you in the head because that's just stupid. Why would someone try to kill an FBI agent? It's not like we're valuable or anything. We, especially I don't know any secrets about people's personal lives, including ones people don't even know about themselves." She trailed off, leaving it to only her mind to chide herself. You don't know what you're doing, Penelope. This is stupid, just go back to your bed. You're tired, you need sleep, this will all be over with in the morning.

Garcia gulped, a thin stream of sweat forming on her hairline. She was scared, not just for herself, but for whoever just got murdered outside her door. Now you're just overreacting. You've been standing here for nearly five minutes, if anything, you'd be the one responsible for letting someone die if they just bleed out onto floor. Her conscience was right, she needed to see if someone need help before it was too late.

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. It'll only get better if you help it get better. She took a shaky step forward and, once figuring out that she was capable of actually moving, began making her way toward the door.

She layed her hand on the doorknob, suddenly becoming very much aware of what she was about to do. She really wished Morgan was here. Her knight is shining armor. If he was here, she could stay curled up in her bed, surrounded by stuffed animals and velvet blankets, but instead, she had to dive right into a possible murder case and get her beautiful hands dirty.

She twisted the doorknob only halfway, flinching instinctively. Nothing exploded. No one shot her. This was good, so far.

Garcia then turned the hinge the remaining half and inched the door open. But whatever bravery she had in her at the time immediately vanished as something heavy fell at her feet. It must have been leaning up against her door before she opened it. Garcia stared straight ahead, trying not to look down at what had just fell at her feet, but she had to. She had to be brave.

She looked down.

Oh my god.

It was nearly 9 am when Morgan rolled out of bed that morning. It'd been so long since he'd actually gotten a full ten hours of sleep. So long in fact, that instead of waking up easily like he thought he would, he woke with a start, thinking something was seriously wrong and he should've been in the round table room at least an hour and a half ago.

But no, Hotch had told them all the day before that they'd be able to sleep in today, as they usually get to do after long cases. It would seem that Hotch stuck to his word too, as Morgan didn't even get a phone call until forty-five minutes later when he was making his morning cup of coffee. It was JJ.

"Hey JJ, what do you need?" Morgan was light hearted today, that was for sure. Not having to get up at 6 in the morning, and not hearing from Hotch. Since it was JJ calling him, it couldn't be a case, that's for sure.

"Morgan." Morgan's stomach dropped at the sound of her voice. It sounded so heavy and uncharacteristic to her. He put down his cup. "JJ? What happened?"

She paused, sniffling a bit on the other end. "We're at Garcia's. Can you be here in fifteen minutes? It's... urgent."

Morgan's spine straighten, his eyebrows furrowing. "What... Is Garcia alright? Is she hurt? Oh god, is she...?"

"No! No, oh god no." She replied a little too quickly. "Well, I mean, she's a bit shaken up, an-and she keeps saying she won't tell anyone but you what happened-"

"What happened?"

"-but other than that she's fine."JJ paused, sighing at the other end. "Derek, we have a problem."

"Well I figured that much JJ, but-"

"It's Spence."

Morgan's breath caught in his throat.

"Wha-"

"Please hurry."

The line died on the other end, leaving Morgan flustered, confused, and most of all, worried.

Hey guys!

For all of you who've been following my writing for the past couple years, you may have noticed my pretty dramatic switch in story topics. It's been a while since I've posted anything on Fanfiction because of my near permanent move to Wattpad. (p.s. please, if you haven't already done so, follow me on Wattpad as well. Same username.) I mean, I'm already a sophomore guys, how crazy is that? I figured that if I want to make myself someone in the writing community, I should maximize my reader count as much as possible. So, this story (at the time of writing this, I haven't picked a name for it yet) will also be on Wattpad. If you want a more professional reading experience, you can read that one.

This opening chapter is meant to capture your attention. It is in no way meant to tell the entire story, so I hope you didn't expect an exceptionally long chapter. If you like where this is going, please comment your opinion on whether or not I should continue, and if you have any suggestions on my writing style, please comment those as well.

Thank you!

- Byronsar