Chapter 29

Scarlett stood at the edge of the door, looking out at the ring. Morgan watched her closely, noting the tension in her shoulders. When he touched her back, she jumped.

"Katy..."

"I'm fine, D. Just nerves..." she bounced in place on her toes for a moment, before looking in his eyes. "You gave them my music..."

"Yes... Katy, everything's set up. They got it... just go out there and give them a show..."

Scarlett listened to the announcer's voice echo through the microphones across the gym.

"First up in our elimination match tonight, we have a newbie to our circuit..." she heard him say and she looked out again to the ring. Her music started blaring out of the over heads and she tuned out everything accept the sound of "Troublemaker" surrounding her. Morgan watched the change come over her features as she switched to game mode.

"Fresh off the Chicago circuit, with three titles under her, we have Katy "Baby-Girl" Moore..."

Scarlett moved out of the sidelines into the ring, dancing along with the music, making sure to get the crowd riled up as she showed off some moves and faced off with her competition. She sized up a woman about her age, who she'd seen training yesterday. Playing it back in her head, she picked apart the other woman's strategy, finding her weakness to determine the fastest way to drop her out of the match.

Back in the conference room at the BAU, everybody became silent as they watched her on the screen. She was dressed up in black shorty shorts and a matching sports bra with "Baby Girl" written in lime green across her chest and butt. Spencer swallowed hard as he watched her move, drawing in the crowd and even posing at times, creating a scene. As the music played louder, he could see her pump herself up with it.

"Here we go..." Reid heard Garcia say under her breath.

Spencer watched Scarlett move to the center of the ring to greet the other fighter. The woman wasn't much bigger than Scarlett, although she looked more muscular. They listened to the rules as read by the referee before taking a step back to await the signal for the round to start.

When the bell rang, Reid watched the other woman move towards Scarlett quickly. Bouncing in time to the music, she easily dodged the attempted blows. Instead of returning the parley, Scarlett backed away, taunting the other woman to charge her again. She side-stepped the next blow, landing one of her own instead, surprising the woman.

Spencer held his breath as the fighter turned back sharply throwing a kick towards Scarlett's face. He felt the air rush out of his lungs when suddenly instead of receiving the kick, Scarlett grabbed the foot and twisted the other woman, throwing her to the mat.

When she turned her back to the opponent, she sensed the movement behind her, and threw a high kick of her own, catching the woman in the jaw. A shout came up from the crowd as the woman slumped to the mat upon contact, knocked out.

The camera angle caught a view of Morgan in the corner and Spencer saw him raise a fist, jumping up with the crowd. One of the microphones picked up his shout of 'that's my girl' as Scarlett moved to her corner. She bumped her fists to his and looked over to the announcers table, making a motion with her hand. The music repeated at her request and Scarlett circled the mat again, showboating for the audience. When they started cheering, she pulled herself up on the ropes and threw her hands in the air, letting out a yell.

"NEXT!"

The people around the ring cheered as another competitor joined the ring. The brunette that came into the match was taller than Scarlett and when they met at the center, she sneered down at her. Scarlett batted her eyes mockingly and made a kissing noise.

The woman came at her fast and low when the bell rang. Scarlett jumped backwards, avoiding a swing and then landed a blow into her midsection, winding her. When she retaliated with kick, Scarlett blocked it and slid around to her back. Hooking her ankle behind the woman's knee, she dropped her to the mat. She put a choke hold on her and held on until the referee broke it off.

When Scarlett turned around to go to her neutral zone, the brunette charged her, attempting to catch Scarlett off guard. A heartbeat before she reached her, Scarlett turned and threw and upper cut into her face, knocking her flat. As the referee counted her out, Scarlett rounded the ring again, skipping like a kid, hands behind her back.

The crowd showed their approval by jumping to their feet as she ran from one side to the other. When the ref counted the brunette out, Scarlett scrambled to the top of the ropes, throwing her hands in the air.

"NEXT!"

Spencer sat at the table, mouth agape. Penelope laughed out loud at the look on his face, drawing everyone's eyes to her.

"Dr. Reid, meet 'Baby-Girl' Ryan..." Garcia quipped.

"I guess you haven't seen this side of her?" JJ chuckled at Penelope's teasing of him. To add to the mischief she reached over and closed his mouth. Her touch brought Spencer around.

"Did you see that?!" he asked her incredulously.

"Yeah, honey I saw that... we all saw that..." she laughed. Spencer looked around the room quickly, as if he just realized the others were present.

"She didn't even take a hit..." he said with awe in his voice. JJ looked over at him.

"Spence, are you smiling?" she teased. He blushed.

Penelope scoffed. "I told you so..." she rolled her eyes.

Agent Swan looked over to Hotch. "I didn't know... I read her sheet, I saw she won some titles a couple years ago... but I never realized she'd would have a chance..." she shook her head. "I only expected her to get some intel, cause a distraction... She may get into the underground..."

Hotch nodded. "I can tell you that Agent Ryan doesn't do anything halfway. If the quickest answer is for her to get into that illegal fight, I'm sure that's what she's planning on doing."

Rossi looked over to Hotch. "She's on a mission..."

Spencer listened to the conversations around him as he continued watching the action on the screen.

"What's happening now?" he asked Penelope.

Garcia looked up from the laptop to the big screen. "They are taking five. Giving Scarlett a breather..." she watched her friends talking in their corner. Morgan handed a bottle of water to Scarlett as she stretched out, loosening her muscles. They saw her give a hand signal to the table outside of the ring and music started playing again as the crowd began to cheer once more.

Scarlett winked at Derek before she started dancing around the ring again. She ran across the center of the mat, flipping forward in a hands free cartwheel once at the center then climbing up the ropes once again at the far corner. She let out a primal scream to the fans on that side, before dancing over to the other side. Once she reached them, the fans cheered her on as she hammed it up on their side.

A tall blonde entered the other neutral zone and the audience noise created a din that sounded like a roar in Scarlett's ears. She tuned it out, focusing on her music and her new opponent.

The blonde had her own game plan. She played to the crowd also, showing Scarlett that she had her own fans.

Scarlett let her take the field, using the time to catch her breath and center herself. She took her bottle of water from Derek, leaning in towards him as he tried to talk to her above the noise.

"You okay?" he asked, watching her closely.

"Never better, D. Just watching and learning..."

"Same song and dance baby girl, just different partners," he told her.

"Yup, I'm getting that," she grinned. "How long should I drag this one out for?" she teased.

"Don't go getting cocky on me," he warned. "This one didn't get to be a favorite by just laying down and playing dead."

Scarlett watched a little longer, until the ref called them to the center for the next round.

Reid watched as Scarlett and the blonde moved to the middle of the ring. He could already tell that the vibe of this round was different by her body language. The blonde was more relaxed, as if daring Scarlett to take the first swing. As they circled each other a few times, it was obvious that Scarlett was going to have to make that move.

He watched as she darted forward, throwing a low swing into the blonde's abdomen as she dodged a fist to her own. Jumping backwards, she used the momentum to circle backwards, hitting the other woman with a roundhouse kick.

When the kick landed, the blonde stumbled backwards but quickly righted herself. She grabbed Scarlett's leg and tossed her on her back.

Scarlett felt the air rush out of her lungs when she hit the mat for the first time that night. She planted her feet and jumped back up to a standing position as fast as she had fallen. She dragged in a breath, elbowing her opponent to the ribs as she charged forward.

Hearing the crowd cheer again, she turned once more, landing a rapid succession of blows to the woman, backing her against the ropes.

The bigger woman pulled away from the ropes, dodging Scarlett's kick as she spun latching a strong arm around her neck. Hanging on tightly, she took Scarlett to her knees, trying to force a submission.

Garcia heard Spencer's fist hit the table before him and quickly looked to the screen. She saw Scarlett on her knees and sucked in a breath.

"C'mon Scarlett..." Reid whispered. "Get up..."

"Get up..." Penelope repeated. She held her own breath as she watched the blonde squeeze tighter.

Scarlett pulled forward, flipping the woman off her back and onto the mat. They both stood quickly, facing each other again. This time, the opponent charged and Scarlett kicked, landing a foot against the other woman's jaw.

The audience cheered as the blonde dropped to the mat, out cold...

Scarlett threw her hands in the air as the ref called the match to her favor, announcing that she'd cleared her weight class. Circling the ring, she stopped in front of the camera and looked directly into it. She pointed, winked and stuck out her tongue.

Reid and Penelope both looked at each other.

"What was that?" - "What the hell?" … they said at the same time.

Rossi looked over at them. "What?"

The two looked at each other for another moment, before Penelope thought to answer. "Reid?"

"I saw..." he looked over at Dave. "Scarlett has a tongue piercing in..." he told him.

Rossi nodded. "I noticed."

Garcia shook her head. "No... you don't understand. Scarlett doesn't have her tongue pierced. She never wanted one..."

"She made a point of showing us... she knows we'd know that it was new..." Reid stated flatly. "She's trying to tell us something..." he focused back on the match, watching Scarlett's face again.