Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another. - Thomas Merton
Ariel's P.O.V.
It took about five and a half hours for Kat to get to the hotel that Spencer and I had been staying in. I had booked another hotel for us after I called her - I didn't want anyone connecting Spencer to what Kat and I were getting up to. I was waiting for her outside when she got there - the Caesar's Palace Hotel was too swanky for us to go in, so we were changing at the little bed-and-breakfast type place that Spencer and I had been staying at. But Ari Ross and Kat Simms were just their type of rich - if not a bit more… intense… than their usual guests.
"Hey chica." Kat said, as she kicked the kickstand into place before dismounting her old Harley and pulling the saddlebags off. "So what's going on? You didn't exactly explain why you wanted me out here with you - I thought this week was just for you and Spencer, anyways…"
I cut off her rambling with a quick hug. "I'll explain to you once we're inside, come on."
8888
We managed to make it up to the room that Spencer and I had booked without earning ourselves any suspicious looks, and for that I was immensely grateful. Although, considering that we were in Vegas anyway… they weren't as likely to be suspicious of things. "What happens in Vegas" and all that.
As soon as we got in the room, I locked the door and Kat threw the bags down on the king-sized bed in the middle of the room.
"Okay, so spill." Kat said. "What happened to make you two cut your week in paradise short?"
I sighed as I opened up one of the bags, trying to figure out what to wear. Luckily, I had left a few outfits in Pasadena the last time we were up there visiting family. So Kat had been able to just grab some of my stuff from her parents' house in Pasadena before hitting the road.
"Apparently there's some new baddie who is trying to drag Spence and his team into his sick game." I told her. "We were at Bennington, visiting with Diana, when one of the nurses gave Spence an envelope that someone had delivered for him."
Kat was hooked - she had always loved mysteries. "What was in it?" she asked, as she started to pull different pieces out of her bag to wear.
I smirked. "Sorry, babe." I told her. "That's classified."
Kat groaned before throwing a pillow at my head. "Ugh. I hate you."
"I know." I said cheerfully, stripping out of my shorts and blouse before starting to pull on my 'costume'. "Can you help me with this?" I asked, motioning to the dress that I had pulled out. Kat nodded before coming over and starting to lace it up. Luckily, after years of practice with slipping into and out of different costumes, the actual 'dressing up' process didn't take that long, but by the time we were done, Kat and I still looked like ourselves - only ourselves in strange outfits. I wore a sleeveless black mini dress with a corset back, with black fishnets and four inch heels, with a burgundy cropped leather jacket overtop of it - it was a bit cliche, but it worked. Meanwhile, Kat had picked out a spaghetti-strap high-low top in army green, with black shorts, black fingerless gloves, and knee-high black combat boots with a platform heel.
"Right." Kat said. "Now for the hard part." She pulled all of the other stuff that we would need out - makeup, hair supplies, and jewelry. Lots and lots of jewelry.
By the time we were completely finished an hour later, neither of us were recognizable - unless you looked very, very closely or knew us personally. My hair had been straightened, and Kat had applied black eyeshadow and a deep red lipstick to my face. I had given her the same look, only with a deep purple lip instead of a red one. The last thing to go on was jewelry. We went with the standard - rings, chokers, and a few chains - before going for the piercings. When we first started out, we had both wanted to get piercings, but then agreed that they weren't very practical. So we settled for the next best thing - fake piercings. I normally used a nose stud, a lip ring, and several different cartilage piercings, while Kat usually just went with an eyebrow stud and regular earrings.
Once we had finally finished with the daunting task of making sure that Ariel Reid and Katerina Simmons were unrecognizable, we threw on a couple of oversized coats and packed up our stuff before heading to the hotel that I had booked for Ari Ross and Kat Simms.
When we pulled up in front of the Caesar's Palace Hotel, Kat gave me an evil grin. "I can see why you picked this place, Ari." she said. As a rule, all of the members of Undiscovered Nemesis tried our best to not be assholes - unless someone really deserved it. So if a reporter is being a rude asshole, then yes, we're going to say something about it. But we try not to cause trouble just for the sake of causing trouble.
But I have always loved to stir people up just a bit. So booking us a room in one of the swankiest hotels in Vegas - where red carpet stars come to stay - and showing up covered in tattoos and piercings, just to see the looks on peoples' faces?
Yeah, that was definitely something that I would do.
8888
Spencer's P.O.V.
"The path to the end
Begins at his start.
To find her first calm
Her long broken heart.
She sits in a window
With secrets from her knight.
Is it adventure that keeps him
Out of her sight."
"Is it another puzzle?" Garcia asked me.
"It's a riddle."
Began at his start… his" An idea was starting in the back of my head, I just couldn't figure it out...
"The youngest holds the key… sits in a window… secrets, adventure…" it was starting to come together, and what little I had so far was making me nervous. But I didn't want to say anything yet to Garcia, not until I was absolutely sure. "Secrets from her knight. Sits in a window."
I hurried over to the table and picked up one of the photos that had the original poem on it. "Would it be night, but always clear day. That'd be - that'd be bright lights."
I looked up from the picture as I remembered when Ariel and I had received that package at Bennington. "It's never night in Las Vegas." I said, putting it all together.
"Excuse me?" Garcia asked, but I ignored what she said in favor of going over to the phone and rapidly dialing.
"I - I need to be connected to the field office closest to Las Vegas, Nevada immediately." I said. Within seconds, someone answered, and my panic went away a little. "Hi, this is Dr. Spencer Reid with the Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico. Look, I need my mother picked up and brought to Virginia in protective custody as soon as possible."
They asked me why, and I hurried to explain. "We're searching for an UnSub that shot one of our agents today, and I think he might know my mother, and I believe that she may be in danger."
"Alright." the man on the other end said. "Can you tell me where she is?"
"Yes." I said, then took a breath. I knew that Garcia was still in the room, and was honestly afraid of how she would react to this information, but at the moment I didn't care. "She's at the Bennington Sanitarium in Las Vegas. Her name's Diana Reid. She's a… patient there."
"Alright, I'll send some agents over right away." he said, before hanging up the phone.
I breathed out a sigh of relief, then steeled myself to make it past Garcia for right now. I would explain everything to her later, I decided, but first I had to give Ariel a head's up and let her know what to expect.
8888
Ariel's P.O.V.
It was another day before I heard anything from Spencer. Kat and I were at a casino - I honestly wasn't even sure which one - when he called.
"Hey." I said, holding the phone with my shoulder so that I finish off the round of roulette. I lost, so I took my remaining chips and backed away from the table, attempting to get away from the groupies that had formed around Kat and me as well. I quickly gave that part up as a lost cause, though. There was no shaking them, no matter how hard I tried.
"What's up?" I asked. Hopefully, Spencer would pick up on the fact that I wasn't really able to talk. We had had situations like this happen before, so my husband could usually pick up on it quickly.
"Hey Ari-bear." he said. "Can you talk?"
I smiled - he had picked up on it almost immediately. I gave a fake laugh, before saying "No way! So then what happened?" As dramatically as possible. I had learned not too long after our first tour how to hide what was really being talked about.
Spencer laughed slightly, apparently I was amusing him with my little code. "Agents from the FBI office closest to Vegas are coming to pick up my mother. Can you please go and meet them there? I wouldn't ask, but you know how scared she is of flying."
"Of course they did." I said, rolling my eyes for the benefit of the people who 'just happened' to be eavesdropping. Unfortunately for me, that number was still a lot of people. "What time is the party?" I asked as I scanned the room, looking for Kat. I was going to need help if I was going to pull of a disappearing act here.
"I don't know." he said. "I placed the call about five minutes ago. They'll probably be there within the hour."
I sighed, both with relief and exasperation - exasperation at my husband, and relief because I had finally located Kat in the crowds. She was over at the bar getting a drink.
"Okay." I told Spence. "I should be there soon."
Spencer sighed in relief. "Thanks. I love you."
"Same to you." I said before hanging up. As soon as I did that, I made a beeline for Kat.
"Hey, I need to get out of here." I told her. Luckily, she hadn't actually been drinking any alcohol yet, so I didn't have to waste any time repeating myself.
"Why? What happened?" she asked.
"Remember that thing I was telling you about this morning?" I asked her, and she nodded. "Well apparently it's more serious than we thought. The man wants me back home ASAP." I told her. "The man" was the band's nickname for Spence - Gabe had come up with it after first meeting him, saying that he looked like 'the white man' that a lot of musicians talked about in their songs.
"Okay." Kat said. "Do you need a distraction?"
"Yeah. A distraction would be nice right around now." I admitted.
Kat smirked. "No problem chica. I've got all the distraction that you need. Take my bike, okay? It'll get you outta here faster, and the bags are already there anyway."
"How're you going to get out of here then?" I asked, but she just waved me off.
"Don't worry about it. I'll catch a cab or something."
8888
It took me less time than I thought it would to make my escape, and so I had time to stop and change back into my regular clothes before getting to Bennington. Luckily for me, because as soon as I got there I could tell that I was just in time.
Two government agents were already escorting Diana to a car when I arrived, and she appeared to be fighting them to the best of her ability. She stopped when she saw me, though.
"Ariel!" she called out, relieved. "Ariel, get these fascists away from me."
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked.
"Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step aside." one of the agents told me.
"Excuse me?" I asked, crossing my arms. "I don't think so. If anything, I'm going to have to ask you to get your hands off my mother-in-law."
The two agents looked at each other, having a silent conversation. Then they looked back at me. "In that case, you're going to have to come with us as well, ma'am." the first agent said.
"Fine." I said stiffly. "Now let her go." Luckily, they did as I asked - I wasn't sure how much longer Diana was going to accept being manhandled like that. I put my arm around my mother-in-law, saying, "Come on, Diana. We're going to go see Spencer, okay?"
8888
Spencer's P.O.V.
"She's ok - your mom." Garcia told me awhile later. I had been just sitting at my desk, hoping that nothing happened to either of them - my mother or my wife - before the agents got to them. "Agents picked her up. She's flying here right now.
"I forgot - she always used to read me this poem." I said, looking at the evidence in my hands. "It's funny, huh?"
"Funny?" Garcia asked.
"I should've realized sooner. No one knows things like the fact that JJ collects butterflies except for me. People tell me their secrets all the time. I think it's cause they think that I don't have anyone to betray them to… except my mother. I… I tell her pretty much everything."
"I don't think anyone would mind." Garcia said, attempting to reassure me.
"Do you know that I write her a letter every day?"
"That's nice."
I just smiled. "It depends on why I write her."
"What do you mean?" Garcia asked.
I smiled again, but on the inside I was terrified. Terrified that, by telling Garcia this about me, she might not care as much anymore. That she might think that I was as horrible as I did. "I write her letters so I won't feel so guilty about not visiting her." I explained, keeping my eyes focused on the evidence bag in my hands. "Did you know that schizophrenia is genetically passed?" I asked, and then I risked actually looking at her. I was so relieved when I didn't see hate or disgust in her eyes. Instead, I saw… love. Acceptance. Sympathy. The kind of things that I usually saw in my wife's eyes.
8888
Ariel's P.O.V.
The flight back to Quantico was one of the most trying experiences of my life. Not only was there Diana's fear of flying to contend with - which wouldn't have been so bad if it was the only thing - but there were also the agents to deal with. They, apparently, had met my husband briefly, and so every once in awhile I would overhear a comment about how I was 'out of his league' and 'not his type' and other things like that. So by the time that the flight was over, I had had enough of their crap.
Right before the agents from Las Vegas handed us over to some agents from Spence's office, I turned to look at them.
"Thank you, agents." I told them both. The taller one smiled and nodded at me, while the shorter one - and the one who had been making 95% of the comments - spoke up.
"Not a problem ma'am." he said. "And the next time you're in Las Vegas, just let us know if there's anything that we can do for you."
I smirked - he had just given me the perfect opening. "Well, there is one thing that you could do…" I said, smiling at him.
"And what's that?" he asked.
"Stop making inappropriate comments about married women. And you can stop commenting about how Dr. Reid doesn't 'deserve' me, because that's where you are utterly wrong." I snapped. "That's what you can do for me - you can shut the hell up. Because let me tell you, if my mother-in-law hadn't needed me during the flight, I would've shut you up ages ago." With that, I turned and smiled at the agents who were going to take us to Spencer. "We don't have any luggage or anything, so if you wouldn't mind, could we get going please?"
8888
Spencer's P.O.V.
I was over in the breakroom making my fifth cup of coffee for the day when I heard my mom's voice.
"That's why you're so skinny, you know?" she said, and I turned to see both her and Ariel smiling at me. "Too much coffee."
"Thanks a lot, guys." I told the agents who had gotten them from the airport. "I've got them." They nodded and walked off, and I walked over to the two women in my life.
Ariel wrapped me in a hug, while Mom started scolding me. "You know I'm terrified of flying." she started. "If Ariel hadn't been there…"
I couldn't help but smile a little despite the seriousness of the situation as I hugged my wife tightly, taking a moment to just breathe in her scent. She smelled like apples, jasmine, and something that I still hadn't been able to identify after seven years. "I know Mom. I'm sorry."
"Well then why did you have those fascists arrest me?" she asked, and I could practically feel Ariel rolling her eyes.
I laughed softly for a second before explaining, "Mom, they're not fascists, and you were not arrested. I'm trying to protect you - both of you."
"By forcing me to do the one thing that frightens me more than anything else?" she asked.
I decided not to answer that. "I need to show you something." I said, finally releasing Ariel from my arms and holding her hand instead. I refused to let go of her - Elle being shot had shaken me more than anything else, and I knew that I wouldn't be able to let either my mother or my wife out of my sight until this case was over. "Follow me." I said, leading them to the conference room.
A/N~ So this update is a bit early! But don't worry, I should still have another chapter up on Tuesday. Anyways, thanks to ahowell1993, tlcroft, and Jem Juliette Jewels Jade for their reviews! And also, just a bit of advice to the people reading - if you actually read the authors notes - we tend to update faster when we get more feedback. Just a little something for you to puzzle over...
