TITLE: Thoughts in Shades of Grey (Part 2)
AUTHOR: Trista Groulx
RATING: T, TV14, PG13 aka same as the show
DISCLAIMER: I don't own these characters. I am borrowing them to play with then returning the network, creator, writers and actors who respectively own them.
SUMMARY: A Garcia and Morgan fic, there's some drama, there's a case, there's some more drama, and there's an ending. The team gets a case, and Morgan gets a surprise.
NOTES: Thank you to those who have reviewed, or put this on their alert lists. It means a lot.
Morgan walked into the conference room, and slid into the closest chair. It wasn't often that he was late, but everything with Garcia that morning meant that one of them wouldn't make it in time, since they had agreed not to go in to work together, so no one would suspect anything.
"Nice of you to join us," Hotch said.
"Power went out last night, no alarm. I'm sorry," Morgan explained.
He nodded. "To get you caught up, we have a case in Little Rock. The unsub is targeting immigrants, of non-European decent. He kidnaps his victims close to their homes, brings them to an unknown location, then returns them home, usually asphyxiated."
"Says here some of the cases show signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, the latest victim died of smoke inhalation," Reid added. "He's disassociating himself with these victims. When you strangle someone you have to watch them, listen to them take their last breath. They struggle with you. When you start using toxins you can walk away."
"What makes you say, he?" JJ queried. "Female serial killers are rare, but females are more likely to use less violence to kill their victims. The fact that there is disassociation as time goes on, which is that it becomes less violent, is far more indicative of a female killer."
"Classically, yes, but there is a description of a likely suspect, masked, seen in the second kidnapping. Reading it all the characteristics lean toward masculine."
Morgan looked at the file, and found the description. "Wearing a black ski mask, stocky build, over six feet tall, blond hair," he read aloud. "That does seem to lean toward a male. This might be obvious, but maybe he's some kind of neo-Nazi?"
"Could be," Hotch agreed. "We need to get to Little Rock, before this guy hits again. How about we talk more on the way?"
Everyone began to stand up, grabbing various case files. Garcia scurried into her office, without making eye contact with anyone. Morgan wanted to go after her, but he had to get ready.
"Morgan, can we talk?" Hotch asked.
Morgan nodded. "What's up?"
"I need you keep this to yourself, but I need your help on this. Garcia told me this morning that she's going to be going on leave in about nine months. I was wondering if you knew why she doesn't want to tell the rest of the team about this," explained Hotch.
"Why would I know why she needs to go on leave?" Morgan asked, trying to act nonchalant.
"I know you two are fairly close. I just thought maybe she told you something she hasn't told me. Assuming she did tell you that she's pregnant."
His heart sank, and his jaw dropped. He couldn't believe he hadn't noticed anything different about her. "Pregnant?"
"I guess she didn't tell you. That's all I know, I tried to ask her about who the father was, anything else, and she told me to butt out, that all I needed to know was she would need to go on maternity leave, she's keeping the baby, she's coming back, and she'll make sure that her temporary replacement will be able to access the files they'll need to. You had no idea about any of this?"
"None, sorry I can't help you on this one. I gotta get ready."
Morgan's mind was reeling; he couldn't believe that Garcia hadn't told him about the baby. He knew it had to be his, she might like to keep things quiet but she was loyal to him. He wanted to tell Hotch he did know who the father was, but he couldn't betray her trust that way. She wanted to keep things quiet, so that's what he would try to do. At least by being taken off guard Hotch didn't suspect that he knew anything.
He wanted to go talk to her, but he knew he had to be on the plane, and he didn't want to embarrass her at work. He would just have to wait until they got back from the case, and hope he didn't slip while he was on the phone with her. He couldn't believe she hadn't told him, or that he hadn't noticed something different about her.
Garcia watched the team leave, and began to look up files that may help them, trying to find any connection between the victims. She sighed loudly. The only connection was they were all immigrants, and none of them were of Catholic decent, but the team already knew that.
As she was searching what mosques and synagogues they worshipped, at a new screen popped up on her computer. She sighed, looking at it, and began to frantically search for any information she could. She gasped when she saw the crime scene photos. She looked at the time. It would be safe to call the team now, so she patched herself through to Hotch.
"What have you got for us?" Hotch asked, without hesitating to put her on speaker.
"Bad news," she said. "There's another two victims."
"Two?" Rossi asked, surprised.
"Yes, a couple. They emigrated from Israel twenty years ago, found together in their home by their kids. Primary report indicates smoke inhalation. I'm sending you the crime scene photos now, as well as the information I was able to find on them," she explained. She suddenly felt bile rising up her oesophagus. "Sorry to cut this short." The screen showed her pulling off her headset, and getting up quickly, before the transmission ended.
"Maybe you were onto something with that neo-Nazi idea," Reid said, breaking the silence.
"Huh?" Morgan's mind was more occupied with Garcia. "Oh, right, well it could be."
"All of the victims so far have been Jewish or Muslim. He started out asphyxiating them, which was too hands-on, only allowing him to focus on one victim at time. He then experimented with carbon monoxide. Maybe he thought that was too obvious, and would give him away, so changed it to controlled fires. It's likely quicker, and he has just discovered he can kill more than one person at a time."
"Which means he has a lot of victims on his list," Rossi added. "If he's working alone he won't be able to kidnap more than two victims at time."
"Racists don't generally like to work alone," Morgan commented. "It's part of being a coward, you need to stand in a group so that no one can hurt you back. This guy is likely looking for people to help him. As sad as it sounds, there are still a lot of people in the world who are full of hate. He'll find people to help if he starts looking."
"The more people he gets to help him, the better chance we have of finding him," Hotch added. "I'll get Garcia to see if she can find out if he's looking for anyone to help."
"This is strange," Reid said.
"What's that?"
"With the Jewish victims it's just straight up strangulation, poisoning, depending on the victim, but with the Muslim victims there's signs of other trauma, like he's beating them. This might not be as cut and dry as we're thinking. It's still a hate crime, but there is a lot more to this then neo-Nazism."
"You're right," said Hotch. "We won't know what that is until we land, and start looking at these victims. We have a lot of work to do today if we want to stop this guy from hurting anyone else."
The team all agreed, and continued to look through the files, and information they had. They knew they couldn't do much else until they were on the ground. For Morgan that was the part of the cases he hated the most. He hated waiting to get sink his teeth into everything. He was also having trouble fully focusing because of the information he had gotten about Garcia. Also, hate crimes always got under is skin because of his past. He hoped he would be able to keep it together to find justice for these families.
End part 2
a/n I warned you that I am evil but I hope you like it hehe