Seven. Where You Want To Be

"Whoa, nice hair, Reid." Agent Derek Morgan announced as he entered the room.

"Wow! Hot date tonight or something?" Agent Emily Prentiss chimed in.

SSA Spencer Reid was beginning to feel a bit self-conscious about his decision to cut his signature long locks, but under no circumstances was he going to tell his coworkers his reasoning. "Just time for a change." He answered, taking a sip of his coffee. "Hotch here yet?"

"Just walked in." Morgan answered.

"Great." Reid put his coffee down next to the file he was reading and entered the Savannah Police Department conference room where Agent Aaron Hotchner was set up. After closing the door, he swallowed nervously and silently prayed this would work. "Hotch?"

"Yes, Reid?" Hotchner replied without looking up.

"I'd like to be the one to pick Dr. Taylor up from the airport, if that's alright." He blurted out.

"There are plenty of policemen here that can take care of that. Why do you want the task?"

"Well, we've pretty much completed the geological profile, and everything else we need depends on what she has to say… so I figure I'm not needed at high priority for now."

"Reid, it doesn't take a profiler to know that's not it. What's on your mind?" The older agent asked, concerned.

"Nothing. It's just, she's kind of an old friend of mine from the academy." He admitted.

"You never mentioned that."

"I didn't think it was important. The UnSub is targeting her for a specific event in her life that altered his. I'm certainly not the event." Reid justified.

"Her plane lands in an hour, gate 15. I told her to look for a member of SPD, but I assume you'll recognize her?" Hotchner consented.

"Yes sir, thank you." Spencer left the room and returned to his earlier spot to retrieve his messenger bag and keys.

"And where are you going?" Prentiss asked.

"Airport." Reid answered before exiting the building. He climbed into the black SUV and drove away.


"Ladies and gentlemen, we have now landed at Savannah Hilton Head International. You may now unfasten your seat belts and gather your belongings. Please be sure to take everything, as reentry is prohibited. We hope you enjoyed your flight, and as always, thank you for flying United Express."

Jessica sighed with relief at the thought of standing up. The flight wasn't too long, she was just anxious about joining another case. She pulled her duffel out from under her seat and began the process of exiting the plane. She said a polite thank you to the stewardess as she left and headed out of the busy gate. "Great. No uniforms… guess I get to wait a while." She thought to herself. She messaged Dean to let him know that she was in Savannah before calling Bridget.

The minute Reid spotted her, a wide grin made its way across his face. It had been over five years, but he still remembered everything like it was yesterday… of course, seeing as he had an eidetic memory, it was to be expected. He watched her sit down on one of the benches and put away her phone. He adjusted his bag on his shoulder out of habit and made his way across the waiting area.

"Dr. Taylor?" he asked, clearing his throat.

"That's me." She answered, leaning over to pick up her bag. "I didn't see any officers, so I was beginning to" – Her eyes met his face and Reid smiled again. "Dr. Reid?" she asked, shocked. "What's it been… five years?" They shared a quick embrace, awkward on Reid's part, and pulled apart again.

"Five years, two months, and 16 days actually." He corrected her.

"That brain of yours… still mesmerizing." She laughed. "What brings you to Savannah? Coming or going?"

"Well, actually, I'm your escort." He beamed. "Here, let me take that." He motioned to her bag. "Do you have anything checked?"

"No, no. This is it. I was actually away on business when Agent Hotchner called, so I just brought what I had. So, Dr. Reid working for the BAU now? I can definitely see it. I bet you solve all the cases, huh?" She teased.

"Please, my friends call me Spencer… well, actually, they call me Reid… but Spencer is fine." He babbled.

"Ok… Spencer." She smiled. "Where are we headed?"

"I thought we could drop your things at the hotel. We've got you a room booked. Then Hotch wants us at the crime scene. He thinks you'll be able to give us some insight into all of this."

"So my house is a crime scene now… I didn't really plan on going back there." She stated flatly.

"I heard about your sister." Reid offered. Even someone as socially inept as he understood her reservations to returning to Savannah… especially that house. "I'm sorry you're getting caught up in all of this."

"Thanks. But I'm ok." She smiled up at him. "I guess we should get going."

Spencer and Jessica spent the ride to the hotel catching up for lost time. They reminisced over the first time they met; the first day of the academy she had gone out of her way to talk to him. When Reid asked her why she spoke to him, she admitted that anyone reading Hemingway in a place like that was certainly on her interesting radar.

"Hey, it's the girl from the picture." Prentiss pointed out to Morgan when Jessica exited the vehicle.

"It is…" Morgan agreed, slightly confused. "You made her drive?" he asked Reid.

"GPS wouldn't work. She knows her way around." Reid defended.

"Dr. Taylor, I'm Aaron Hotchner, we spoke on the phone." Hotchner extended his hand once they got to the front room and she took it. "This is Derek Morgan and Emily Prentiss. The rest of my team is back at the station."

"Jessica Taylor, pleasure to meet you all." She smiled. "But I'm sorry it's under these circumstances. I'm afraid I don't know what your mystery man wants with me."

"That's ok. We're here to guide you through that. We know you still own the house. Did you have any sort of relationship with the tenant?" Morgan asked.

"Becca Shanks? No, not really. She's a college student I believe; I just rent to her."

"Is there any reason why someone would think that taking her would be of importance to you?"

"No. I mean, except for the fact that it's my house." She replied. "Can I read the letter he sent? Maybe that can tell me something."

"It's back at the station, but I can recite it." Reid answered. "It says 'How could she let him go? She took her from me. Tell Jess the body count is about to go up to two. My proposal is simple: Taylor for Shanks.'"

"How could I let who go? Two? He's killed already?" Jessica asked.

"Not that we're aware of. We were hoping you might be able to understand this." Hotchner replied.

"We think he may be suggesting that you failed to save someone he was close to… in his mind, you killed them." Prentiss spoke.

"Well, we've all had our share of cases that could have turned out better. How are we supposed to dig through them all?" Jessica asked. Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she pulled it out. "Excuse me." She opened the phone and it was a message from Dean: "We're still headed to Greenville. I'll catch up with you when there's something to report. Be safe." She closed the phone and put it back into her pocket.

"We're going to need to go through your life with a fine-toothed comb." Prentiss responded. "It may get uncomfortable, but somewhere along the lines this guy made a connection with you that went downhill." Jessica nodded in agreement and Prentiss continued. "Can you tell us about your family?"

"Sure. My dad was a cop for SPD and my mom taught sociology at the university. They both retired a couple of years ago and moved to San Antonio. I have two biological brothers: Kendall and Jake. Kendall coaches in Indiana and Jake works on the oil rigs up in Alaska. My adopted sister Beth and I lived in this house until she was murdered back in April and I just moved out a few weeks ago. That's when I started renting to Becca… but I don't know how any of that could be connected to this."

"What about the house? Do you think you could take us through it? The UnSub destroyed Becca's room. We think the room itself holds some significance to him." Reid asked.

"Of course."

"He refers to you as 'Jess' suggesting that he either has a personal relationship with you or thinks he does. This guy doesn't want to hurt Becca, but I wouldn't underestimate his ability to do so." Morgan chimed in.

"There's a lot of people that call me Jess, so no narrowing it down there." Jessica led them upstairs and let Hotchner take the lead to Becca's room. "This was my old room." She said softly, looking at the destruction in front of her. There were papers from Becca's desk all over the room, scratches in the walls, the bed and dresser had been overturned, and the shutters ripped off the windows. "Damn. I really pissed this guy off." As she turned back around, the sun's reflection from something on Becca's desk shined in her eyes and she moved closer towards it. A broken silver bracelet with the initials B.E.S. lay on the desk. "Oh my god…"

"What?" Hotchner asked.

"This bracelet." She motioned. "It's Beth's. Her mother gave her this for her ninth birthday. She never went anywhere without it. I always thought it was odd that she didn't have it when she was killed."

"So Beth is the one you couldn't save." Prentiss thought out loud.

"Excuse me?" Jessica scoffed.

"I just meant that our UnSub holds you responsible." Prentiss corrected herself.

"We're going to need to know everything about your sister." Hotchner redirected. "The details surrounding her death are going to be important here. You worked the case, correct?"

"Well, yes." Jessica started. "You can't really ask me to relive that all over again."

"I'm sorry, I know this is difficult. It also may save Becca's life." Prentiss sympathized.

"Wesley Crandall was arrested for the murder, but was released." Reid started.

"That was my fault. I screwed up." Jessica admitted. "I got too involved in the case. I may have hit him… a few times."

Morgan saw the look of shame on her face and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, in your case, there's no such thing as too involved. I probably would've taken a swing at him too." He gave her a small smile and she returned it.

"So that's what he was referring to at the beginning of the letter." Reid pondered. "Jessica, you said Beth never took the bracelet off?" Jessica nodded in response and he carried on. "Think back, are you certain she never gave it to anyone?"

"Did she have a boyfriend?" Hotchner added.

"No. She was meeting Crandall for dinner the night he murdered her." She half-lied. There was no way she was telling three federal agents about Dean or the shape-shifter. Suddenly, memories of that night flooded her brain. "I helped her get ready right down that hallway. I waited downstairs for her to come home for hours. I was in this room when I got the phone call. I ran down those stairs and out that door and…" Reid watched her expressions fade and his heart dropped. "I'm sorry, I can't be in this house anymore. Can we go back outside or something?" she shook her head, in hopes the memories would go away.

"Of course, I think we have all we need here for now." Hotchner complied.

"Are you ok?" Reid asked Jessica in the SUV.

"No." Jessica looked down at her hands. "I'm not. She didn't give the bracelet to anyone. I think it was taken."

"You think someone stole it?" Prentiss asked.

"I never really thought about it, but someone was following her. We tried looking for the creep when she was killed, but we got nothing. Turns out it wasn't even him." She looked up at Reid. "I think I know who he is now."

"Who?"

"Jake, my oldest brother, one of his college roommates was always real interested in Beth. I was always the quiet one… too into school and my career goals. Boys never phased me, but Beth was just the opposite. She started dating him when we were seventeen. Beth was all about fun, you know? She wasn't the type to seriously date anyone. She broke up with him after a few months, but he never seemed to accept it. I think he may have kept tabs on her… she noticed things going missing all the time, but she was always so unorganized that I never thought anything of it." She explained.

"What's his name?"

"Everyone called him Nate… I don't remember his last name. I haven't thought about him in years."

"I'll get Garcia on it." Morgan announced. "Baby girl? I need your help. We're looking for an old boyfriend of Bethany Saunders. His name is Nate, probably short for Nathan, but we have no last name." he put the phone on speaker.

"So basically you're giving me nothing? I'm good hot stuff, but I need more than that." Garcia responded.

"He would be between the ages of 30 and 35. He pledged Gamma Chi at Savannah State University." Jessica added.

"Got it. Now that I can work with."

"We just need a name and address, sweetness." Morgan chimed.

"Ok, I've got a Nathan Burgess at 1210 South Park Ave. in Savannah. He was dismissed from the University after an arrest for lewd conduct."

"Thank you, Garcia." Morgan responded. "We'll be in touch." He closed the phone and looked back at Jessica. "You know where this is?"

"Hang a right at the next light." She answered.


"The car is still in the driveway." Hotchner pointed out as they pulled up to the curb.

"Let me go in." Jessica said.

"No. We need to wait for the rest of my team and secure the perimeter." Hotchner argued.

"He wants me to go in there. He knows we would find him, and he's going to kill her unless you let me go inside. I can handle myself. I used to be one of you guys, remember?"

"I don't like it." Hotchner shook his head.

"Look, I don't take orders from the bureau anymore. I certainly don't take orders from you. Either give me a gun or I'm going in unarmed." She quipped.

"It may be our only shot, Hotch." Morgan added. "He wants her in there… I say we indulge him."

Hotchner pondered the ramifications for a moment before handing Jessica a gun. "Take an earpiece. I want to know everything that goes on in there. I get the slightest inclination that anyone is in danger, and we're busting in. Got it?"

"Got it." Jessica answered while putting in the earpiece. She tucked the gun in the back of her waistband, letting her shirt fall to conceal the weapon. She walked up the driveway and to the front door. When she pulled back her hand to knock, she noticed it was partially open. "The door is open. He knows we're here." She said softly. She pulled out the gun and pointed it in front of her.

"Be careful." Hotchner replied into her earpiece.

Jessica searched the small house room by room until she came to the back bedroom. She leaned up against the door to listen for voices. "Please, just let me go? I won't tell anyone, I swear!" She heard Becca plead.

"Not until she shows up." Nate spat back.

"I can hear them." She whispered. "I'm going in."

"Morgan, I want you in there as backup. Don't let him see you, or he may kill Becca." Hotchner ordered.

"Got it, Hotch." Morgan answered. He quietly ran in the house and down the back hallway, giving Jessica the ok nod.

Jessica pushed open the bedroom door and immediately aimed her gun at Nate. She took a moment to assess the situation. Becca was on the floor in front of the closet and Nate was unarmed. "Really? No weapon?" she scoffed.

"Don't need one." Nate responded.

"Come on, let her go and we can all leave here peacefully." Suddenly the door slammed shut behind her and she felt something hard connect with her skull.

"Ok." Nate laughed, and Jessica slipped out of consciousness.