A/N This is my first published CM fic, I've been writing it on/off for a year, after years of watching the show. It is incredibly self indulgent, just a warning, and I may not be the best writer ever so don't expect something special. It's already half way done, I'll be posting chapters every few weeks. This was written mostly for myself, someone else wanted to read it so I'm posting it for them. It was written because I love Spencer Reid too much. Don't judge, I know it's lame :) Probably a little ooc, some violence, and mentions of suicide.
"Whatever you do or dream you can do – begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"
"One extra-large double shot iced espresso." The barista called and I jumped up to grab my drink. I headed over to grab a straw, and like clockwork, I wasn't looking where I was going – boom, coffee spilled all over myself and the person who I bumped into.
"I am so sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." A voice said, and I shook my head.
"No, no it was me." I replied, looking up and seeing a tall, slim young guy around my own age with messy hair and eyes that looked like he hadn't slept in days. He was attractive, there was no doubting that, but it was more than that, he was interesting, compelling.
My blouse was completely soaked and I had yet to even register the chill from the drink.
"No really, it was my fault." He said, grimacing at the stain spreading on my shirt. He grabbed some tissues from the bench next to us and began trying to awkwardly blot the liquid.
"Don't worry about it, I'll have to go home and change." I said, not meaning to make him feel bad, although it was probably at least 90% my fault.
"Uh here – wear this to cover up on your way home." He said, handing his blazer over. I protested but eventually pulled it on, crossing the front over my soaked shirt.
"How will I get it back to you?" I said, smiling at the nice guy I was probably never going to see again.
"I'm here all the time, the probability that we'll bump into each other again is incredibly high – although hopefully we won't actually physically bump into each other again." He said, "Well I've gotta get to work, I'll hopefully see you around. Sorry again." He said, and with a wave he was out the door of the coffee shop.
I pulled the jacket around myself tightly, and headed back home to change, all the while thinking about soft brown eyes and smelling a slight musky scent.
"I'm Dr Spencer Reid – you don't have to call me doctor though." He said to me days later when we bumped into each other for a third time, this time we ended up sitting together and no coffee was spilled.
"I'm Jena, just Jena, I don't have a title. It's nice to see you again." I replied with a soft smile. It was nice to see him around again, it was starting to become a regular occurrence. I just hoped I'd have time to continue getting my coffee at the same place after I started my new job the next week.
Friday morning we met again.
Monday morning I skipped the coffee, and headed straight into my new job, the BAU headquarters staring at me imposingly. I went straight to where I was instructed, the unit chief's office, where I was met with an intimidating man with an intense stare.
"You must be Jena Parker. I'm Aaron Hotchner, you can call me Hotch. We've just got a case so we'll have to do the introductions on the way. I trust you have a go bag?" He said, and I nodded before he motioned for me to follow him out of the room.
We headed into a room with a large table in the middle and screen on the wall. There were five people already in the room, reading over the files littering the table. Before I sat down, Agent Hotchner started the introductions.
"Everyone, this is Special Agent Jena Parker, she joins us from New York." He said, and the team looked up. "Agent Parker this is Derek Morgan," He gestured to a tough looking, rather hot black guy, "Jennifer Jareau -"
"Call me JJ." The pretty blonde woman said with a smile.
"Emily Prentiss," Aaron continued, pointing to a striking dark haired woman, who would have looked intimidating if it wasn't for the smile gracing her face, "David Rossi," Everyone who's anyone knows David Rossi, "Our technical analyst Penelope Garcia," An incredibly cheerful looking blonde woman grinned up at me, looking like she was bursting to talk to someone. "And I don't know where -"
"Sorry I'm late, I was – Jena?"
"You know each other?" Hotch asked, and I turned to see my new coffee friend rush flustered into the room.
"Kind of, we met over coffee." I said, still in shock to see him there.
"To be more specific, I spilt her coffee on her a couple of weeks ago." Spencer said with an awkward sort of laugh, and I saw a couple of the team laugh like it was completely unsurprising.
"Okay well now the introductions are over, we need to get started. We're expected in Los Angeles ASAP." Hotch said, and Spencer and I took our seats around the table.
The technical analyst picked up a remote and six photos popped up on the screen, and she started explaining.
"There have been three home invasions in LA in the last two weeks. All three were in large, wealthy homes with no children. All couples were tied up and tortured with a knife before the carotid was slashed and they bled out. The houses were then robbed of almost everything valuable, and finally trashed before the unsub left. All this happened at night, and because of the affluent neighbourhoods being filled with large houses, the neighbours don't live close enough to hear anything." She said, showing various photos of the crime scenes. "The Hayes family was the most recent home invasion, they were found yesterday morning by their dog walker. The LAPD is waiting for you to arrive."
"Wheels up in twenty."
"So this was the new job you were talking about." Spencer said as we settled on the jet, and I nodded.
"I had no idea you would be here, I mean I just moved here a couple of weeks ago, what are the chances that you're the only person I know here and you work where I'm about to start?"
"Zero point one three percent."
"Oh of course you know the exact chances." I said, but we didn't get to finish the conversation because we were called over by the team to go over the case and start profiling.
"So what do we know about victimology?" Hotch asked, reading over a file.
"The obvious is that all three of the couples were wealthy, all of the husbands had high profile jobs, as well as two of the wives." Prentiss said.
"The wives were all very beautiful, and only the last wife didn't have a job – she was a trophy wife I guess you would call it." JJ added.
"It looks like he definitely is attacking their wealth. I'd say he's lower-middle class at most." Rossi said, and I nodded along, just watching to see how the team worked.
"That means the geographic profile won't work." Spencer said, looking down at the file in front of him. "The three couples all lived in affluent neighbourhoods, but it's likely the unsub won't live near them."
"The time between murders has shortened, so he'll most likely strike in the next week. We need to get working quickly, Prentiss and Morgan, you two go to the latest crime scene, a detective will be waiting for you there, Dave and I will go straight to the police station to set up, and JJ, Reid, and Parker you go to the ME and check out the victims." Hotch said, and I took it as a dismissal since everyone headed back to the various seats on the jet, so I sat myself opposite Spencer, striking up another conversation.
"Most of these stab wounds were made anti-mortem, but after slashing the carotid, there were a number of stab wounds made post mortem." The medical examiner said as we looked over the victim. It had taken me a long time working at the New York field office to get used to seeing dead bodies.
"So this is extreme over kill then." JJ said.
"Were there any signs of sexual assault?" I asked, and the ME shook her head.
"I couldn't find anything of that sort on any of the victims."
"So the stabbing is in place of sex then." Spencer said, thinking out loud. We thanked the ME and headed out to the police station to let everyone know what we found.
"So we need to dig into victimology, see what each couple had in common, find out if there was any enemies, any cross over at all." Hotch said once we filled everyone in. Prentiss and Morgan were back from the crime scene, and they said it was a complete mess, almost everything was broken, and there was obviously a lot missing.
"Okay crime fighters, I've been digging and digging into the lives of the Hayes, Johnson, and Walters families, and I am finding nada, zip, zilch. No overlap what so ever, none of the same places, not even at different times. I will keep digging but I fear the worst." Garcia was on speaker as we sat in a break room at the police department, pouring over the case the next afternoon, we'd given the profile that morning to the police department.
"Okay, so we know that there was no forced entry, and by the looks of the scenes, he was probably waiting for them when they got home. That means he probably had been to the houses beforehand." Morgan said, "Baby girl, we need you to look for any overlapping service workers, employees, something that would give them access to each house."
"I'm on it sweetness, I'll hit you back when I find something. PG out." There was a click as Garcia hung up, leaving us to ponder the case on our own.
"All of the victims have their own connections, dog walkers, pool cleaners, house cleaners, friends, family, personal trainers, doctors. It's going to be someone who blends in, someone they wouldn't notice." Emily noted, and Hotch nodded.
"We're not going to get anywhere hungry, let's stop and get some dinner, and see what Garcia comes up with." Hotch said, and we all headed out to the nearest Chinese restaurant.
"I see you still can't use chopsticks." JJ said laughing as Spencer tried and failed to eat his meal.
"Here." I said, reaching over next to him and adjusting the chopsticks in his hand to make them simpler to use. He tested it out and it worked much easier.
"Hey, that's not too bad now, thanks." He said, grinning triumphantly as he was able to pick up his noodles properly.
"My best friend in high school was Japanese, it was how she taught me to use them." I replied, laughing at how proud he was of finally being able to use them.
"So Jena, where are you from?" Morgan asked me.
"You want the life story? Well I grew up along the Cali coast, studied at Harvard, went straight to training, then ended up at the NY office, and now I'm here." I said with a smile.
"What did you study at Harvard?" Hotch asked.
"Most people think I'm crazy, I've got a joint PhD in Psychology and JD in criminal law, and a PhD in Sociology and I'm currently finishing up a linguistics degree. I work fast."
"No wonder you get along so well with our dear Dr Reid here." Prentiss said, and I looked over at Reid, who was staring at me with a look on his face that I couldn't place. Was it awe?
"Dr Jena Parker, it has a nice ring to it." Spencer said with a cute little awkward grin. "How old were you when you graduated high school?"
"Oh um, I was about fifteen?" I said, thinking back to my childhood. I never really talked about it because I always felt like people thought it was weird I was so young at Harvard, and that I had so many degrees. That's what you get when you'd rather focus on work than the rest of your life.
"Ha! I graduated when I was twelve." Spencer said, and it instantly made me feel better about my strange teenage years. Even though the whole team was there, it felt like it was just me and Spencer comparing genius stories.
"Why is it that I feel even more inadequate now?" Prentiss said, and everyone else around the table nodded in agreement. I looked back over at Spencer, and winked, at which he blushed a furious shade of red.
"Yes, but I'm sure you have a social life." I said, and it was her turn to laugh.
"I'm pretty sure the only one of us with a life outside of the team is JJ, and maybe Morgan." This seemed to be a general consensus between the team. They were all so close with each other, such a family, and I already knew they would all be very important to me.
We were just finishing up when Morgan's phone rang. There was a short conversation before he hung up, and I hoped it was good news.
It was.
"So I was cross referencing all of the services each of the families use, and there was one overlap, which didn't come up in the initial search because none of the families used it regularly, or around the same time." Garcia said on speaker once we were back in our room at the station.
"What the service baby girl, come on don't leave us hanging." Morgan said, and I could hear a chuckle on the other end.
"A cleaning company by the name of 'Mrs Higgins Cleans', but that was as far as I could get since they don't have records online, but I figure that's a start right? I'll keep digging though." There was a click as she hung up.
"So we'll pay Mrs Higgins a visit tomorrow morning and see if any of her workers overlapped the families. I'm going to stay here and keep working but feel free to head back to the hotel." Hotch said, and we split in two, Rossi and JJ headed back to the hotel, and the rest of us stayed behind.
I stayed mostly since it was my first case, and I wanted to prove that I could do what was needed. Of course, that didn't exactly work out so well for me.
A couple hours later I was sat cross legged on the couch staring at the evidence board, but every so often my eyes would droop. Spencer sat down next to me, staring at a folder, trying to get something from the evidence.
"Come here." I said to him, gesturing for him to move over closer to me. He looked very confused, but shuffled closer nonetheless. Slowly, I rested my head on his shoulder, letting my eyes close completely.
Unfortunately, I was woken up just half an hour later when Prentiss and Morgan walked back into the room.
"Awww, aren't they cute?" Prentiss cooed, and I opened my eyes groggily, wincing at the bright light of the room. Spencer had fallen asleep on me too, and as I pulled away and sat up straight, he woke with a yawn.
"Hey lover boy, you looked pretty relaxed there." Morgan said with a wink, and Spencer blushed profusely, rubbing the back of his neck as he sat up.
"I'm awake, I swear." I said, but it was followed by a huge yawn, completely voiding the comment.
"Reid, Parker, go back to the hotel and get some rest, we'll be able to keep going in the morning." Hotch said, a rare smile gracing his lips before turning back to the evidence board. The man must never sleep.
Reid and I gathered our things and headed out to the SUVs, climbing inside one after a brief argument about who was driving to the hotel.
"You haven't seen it yet, but I'm telling you, I'm a fantastic driver." I said with a pout as I sat in the passenger seat.
"Well I hardly ever get to drive with everyone else, so this was my only shot." He said with a grin, and I couldn't help but smile back.
"I've been on holiday for three weeks, I'd forgotten what it's like to be working so hard and so late." I said, yawning yet again to prove my point.
"Three weeks of holiday, I wouldn't know what to do with myself."
"I didn't know what to do with myself, I only took the vacation time because I was moving departments, I spent the first week packing up my life in New York, the second week moving everything here, and the third week drinking coffee with you."
We headed up to the rooms in the hotel, which just happened to be next door to each other, and said goodnight, despite it being just passed one in the morning.
"Goodnight Doctor." I said with a tired grin, kissing him lightly on the cheek. I'd spent a couple of semesters in France, and it was a habit easily picked up, but that never went away. I could tell it was definitely not something he was used to, he blushed for what had to be the billionth time that day, stuttering out a goodnight.