"Robert," Hotch hear Morgan call out, his voice laced with surprise. "We didn't expect you back for another couple weeks."
Hotch stood, stepping out of his office and scanning the bullpen for any sign of Jane. She should've been off on a consult, but there was every reason to be cautious. If she asked too many questions about Robert, it could impede her recovery.
"Mr. Leon," Emily joined Morgan as Hotch picked his way over. "I know that this situation is difficult but it's important that we approach this carefully."
"I know that," The older man snapped, fingers flexing around the grip of his cane as he lifted a notebook higher. "But Agent Hotchner said to get this information to you as soon as possible."
"No, Robert," Hotch cut in. "I told you to begin to compile the information as soon as possible so you could add to it as you remembered more. I never said you should bring it in, and certainly not in person."
"I -" Robert huffed. "I just -"
"You wanted to see her, and that is completely understandable," Hotch soothed him, extending a hand to take the notebook. "And this is going to be very helpful. But we can't afford to be sloppy, especially since Jane - since Mari has had profiler and FBI agent training herself."
Robert just nodded.
"Do you want to sit down and go over this?" Hotch asked, tilting his head with a slight smile. "We can't do it here, or now, but if you want to talk then that's something I can arrange."
"No," Robert just laughed, his lips tugging into a wry, self deprecating smile. "It's all there."
And then Jane walked in.
"Morgan, walk him out the side way," Hotch quickly orders, eyes on where Jane was in a halfhearted argument with Reid. "I'll distract her."
" - you are a coward and if you even think about trying that with me I will stuff your nostrils with pineapple and sew them shut," Jane is threatening, a finger jabbed in Reid's face even as she fought back a smile.
God, she was so much more animated.
"That's pointless if you're trying to get me off your back," Reid just laughs at her. "You'd just have to undo your work and save me."
"Why are we threatening Jane?" Hotch asks, bodily blocking Jane's view of the bullpen.
"Well you see -" Reid starts before part of a bagel is shoved into his mouth.
"Eat more," His fellow doctor ordered, effectively shutting him up.
JJ joined them then, a pile of files in her arms - which she then passed to Hotch. "Sorry to interrupt … whatever this is," Their Liaison spared Reid and Jane a confused look. "But I've scheduled a consult at the moment with a case I think we should take. Round table room in an hour?"
"Whenever you need us," Hotch nodded, sliding the notebook under a file and passing them both to Reid to read over. "I'll pass these around, get to your consult."
JJ nodded, walking off at a clip; Reid gave Hotch a meaningful look, fingers curling around the load in his hands and nodding toward Garcia's office.
Hotch just blinked back and redirected Jane towards her office.
"Okay, what the heck?" Jane laughed, cramming the rest of her bagel into her mouth. "I mean, I love you Rin but you have been acting weird recently."
"Don't worry about it," Aaron just smiled at her. "But have you read that book Reid lent you?"
"Tuck Everlasting?" Jane snorted, fingers going to the bracelet around her wrist. "Yeah. I don't read much, but it was short. Babbitt is good. Don't know why he would read it, though - it's a kids book."
"Nostalgia?" Hotch shrugged, eyes on her face - every part of her body language.
"I guess," She shrugged right back, making her way around her desk. "Just strange - I typically think of Baby Spinner reading, I dunno. War and Peace?"
"I can see that," Hotch settled down across from her. "So should I give it a read myself?"
"Everyone, this is Agent Russell Goldman from the San Diego White Collar team," JJ introduced the older man in an out of style suit, passing Jane a file as she spoke. "This is everything Garcia pulled together on him for you."
Jane smiled in thanks at the both of them, immediately reading through it even as Goldman seemed to get extremely flustered.
"I'm sorry, why do you need my file?" Goldman is asking, most likely aimed at her, but she's looking over his recorded BP and doesn't feel like answering - and she doesn't need to anyway, her team has it covered.
"She's our doctor," Rossi had pity on the desk agent. "As long as you are working with us, she's in charge of your health and wellbeing. She can't do that if she doesn't know your file."
They go into the briefing as she continues to read, eventually turning to the case file as well, tuning in to their discussion.
"Do you have physical evidence confirming it's your guy?" Morgan was asking, skepticism tracing his words.
"No, but for her to be murdered the night that we spoke, I don't think it was a coincidence," Goldman frowns, picking at his nails.
"No sign of forced entry, theft, sexual assault, or any further disturbing of the scene - that all says personal motive," Jane contributes, panning through the crime scene photos in front of her. "I'd say either a partner or a client, possibly both."
"What's his hustle?" Emily asks.
Reid was giving her an appraising look, and Jane returned it with confusion. 'What?' She mouthed at him. He just shook his head, wiping his face clean.
Jane tunes into the rest of the briefing, eyes on the face of the dead woman in her file.
What was going on?
"I can't believe you guys have your own jet," Goldman leans over Rossi to peer out the window. Jane has to hold back a laugh at the disgruntled look on the Italian's face.
"We take turns piloting," Emily offers with false ernest. "You want to give her a try?"
Jane skirts around the White Collar agent, plopping herself down next to Morgan.
"LeFay," Jane greets him, reaching over to flip his file shut. "So you gonna tell me what's going on?"
"What are you talking about, Four?" He asks, brows furrowing with a touch of confusion.
"Oh, come on," Jane punches his arm. "You know what I mean - you've all been acting strange and I want to know why."
"Strange?" Morgan repeated, and now he's definitely not confused. Just hiding something.
"Cute," She sighed, giving up with Goldman giving them strange, prying looks. "This isn't over."
"Morgan and Prentiss, go to her house. Take Jane with and - Agent Goldman why don't you join them?"
"I sent his case files to the field office." Goldman blinks at him in confusion, fumbling for words. "Shouldn't I stay with you and help you sift through them?"
"I'd like to go through them independently, come up with our own theories," Hotch shook his head. "See if any behavioral patterns emerge that'll help us get ahead of him."
Morgan pulled him aside as soon as the plane landed.
"Jane's asking questions," Hotch supplied before Morgan could say anything.
"What do we tell her?" The younger man half-groaned, his muscles flexing with how tensely he was crossing his arms. "That we're … what?"
"She's getting better," Hotch mirrored his posture. "We can't jeopardize that."
"I -" Morgan laughed, eyes turning to where JJ and Jane were deep in conversation. "She punched me, in the arm. When was the last time she initiated casual contact? Not for her job, or to comfort a victim. Just to touch for the sake of it."
"Never," Hotch shook his head wistfully. "Tell her to talk to me about it. I'll come up with something."
"She was a real estate agent," Emily picked up a frame. She felt Jane brush past her to the spot where the victim's body was recovered.
"She was doing well for herself," Goldman agreed, looking lost in the foyer. "Until William came into her life."
"Why do you call him that?" Emily put the picture back down, facing him.
"He -" Goldman gathered himself, a touch embarrassed. "Introduced himself as Bill, Billy, or Will several times in his early cons. My guess is that his real name may be some form of William."
"So most of his victims were very wealthy, right?" Emily pointed out, studying Goldman.
"You should see some of their mansions," Goldman agreed.
"Well, I'm looking around this house and it's nice - but no mansion."
"If the numbers from the file are right then she didn't invest as much as his other victims, either," Jane called from the adjacent room. "Em, come see this."
"Yes?" Prentiss made her way over, Goldman trailing awkwardly behind.
"This glass covering is completely shattered, most likely from where her head was rammed into it," Jane gestured to a large frame on the wall. "Between her long fingernails and the sharp edges, the chance of our UNSUB not having cuts on his hands is slim. I'm going to check in with the morgue, see if any trace DNA can be found and if it's in VICAPP."
"You found that by looking over the scene?" Goldman asked, shyly glancing to and away from Jane. "You must be very talented."
"I have crime scene investigative training," Jane nodded, pulling off her gloves. "I'll check the house a bit more before I go."
"The CIA assigns an agent two or three aliases at most," Rossi is writing on the board as Jane walks in. "Any more than that and it's difficult to keep the names straight."
"This guy's juggling 10," Reid scrolls through the pages on the laptop, and Jane pulls up a chair next to him.
"Being all these people, that's gotta start fracturing him somehow," Rossi points out, and again there are more eyes on her.
"What?" She asks, eyes swiveling between Hotch and Spinner.
"Anything to add?" Aaron asks, tilting his head.
"On the name thing?" She asks a little incredulously. "Well, names are like shoes. You gotta break them in before they feel right. The less you tie to the name, like memories or events, the less comfortable the shoe. 'Hart' was a shoe I wanted to wear - a pair of comfy combat boots, say. But if he's juggling a whole closet then his toes are going to be pinched."
Rossi and Aaron both look thoughtful, nodding. Spinner is smiling a smug little smile at her.
"If his memory is strained, it could be causing him to lose control," Spinner gets back on topic after a moment.
"We have the current aliases," Hotch agrees. "We just need to know who the clients are."
The boat is far nicer than Jane had ever been before. Except for the dead body on it, that is.
"Checkbook is dated, but there's no name," Jane touches the legal pad lightly with a gloved finger. "No name ..."
"The unsub got that close to getting his money, somehow failed, and then did this," Emily extrapolated, standing with Rossi over the body.
"And this is overkill," Rossi gestured. "He bashed his head in. He's completely unhinged and devolving fast."
"It's the name," Jane repeated, standing and replacing the covering over Mickelson. "Date, pen, no name. Y'all were right, he can't keep them straight. Probably snapped when he gave the wrong one and had to flounder."
"Only he doesn't know he's devolved this much," Emily realized. "He's still trying to go to work - and he doesn't know he's in danger of losing it at any minute."
"How many names has he got left again?" Jane asked grimmly.
"Jane, did you get anything from the morgue?" He asked the doctor, pulling a chair next to where she was glancing over a file.
"Blookwork under the fingernail of the first victim has yet to come back, but if this guy has been as careful as we think then it's not going to lead us anywhere recent," Jane shook her head, closing the folder. "But they're rushing it through anyway, even if the results are most likely going to come in too late to be of any use."
She turned to face him with an expectant look on his face and Hotch steeled himself for the conversation to come.
"I know you talked to Morgan," He started for her, extending his wrist to her. "And I know you're getting frustrated."
"That's one way of putting it," She grumbled back. "Why won't you tell me anything?"
"Because if we say exactly what we're doing then it might stop working," Hotch replied cryptically. "Jane, I want you to think. For the past couple weeks, has anything felt different?"
"Felt different?" Jane echoed. "What do you mean?"
"Think, when we asked you about names - was there anything different about how you answered?"
"I …" Jane blinked, and Hotch knew that he was getting into dangerous territory. "No?"
"Jane, you used a metaphor," Aaron smiled at her. "That's not something you do, not like that."
"So …" Jane's mind is racing behind her brow. "You're doing something. Making me … something."
"We're not making you anything," Hotch shook his head, stepping closer. "We're just trying some things out."
"And when Spinner stares at me for no reason or you ask me questions for no reason?"
"Just ignore the looks and answer best you can," Hotch smiles, gathering himself to stand. "C'mon, we have a profile to give."
When the case is over, Emily slides next to her in the jet.
"I think Goldman had a crush on you," She smiles, and Jane immediately wants to sink into the seat. Or through the bottom of the jet and straight down to the ground far below.
"Ew," She shuddered. "Just - no."
"I dunno, I think you would've been cute together," JJ chimes in. "He's shy, you're … you."
"No, complete that thought," She twisted around, deadpan. "I dare you."
"I mean, you did smile at him," Spinner adds his two cents, and she's mandating vaccinations for all of them. "You don't do that often."
"I smirked," Jane corrects, trying to bury herself into her charts. "And I smirk. Deal with it."
"O-kay," Hotch swooped in to save her, even if he was fighting back a smile himself. "Leave her be."
Morgan was still singing 'sitting in a tree' behind her, but the rest of the team shut up.
After Jane went home, they gathered in the Round Table Room.
"So I read over the journal that Robert gave us, and with Garcia we added it to the rotation," Reid reported, as Hotch - the last to arrive - joined them. "Her likes and dislikes in terms of food and entertainment should be easy to address. Garcia and I have that."
"I'll take a look at old skills and hobbies," Emily offers, looking over the online file. "At least on the not-art part of it."
"I can take the artistic and more social areas," JJ follows up.
"And I'll be asking her questions about it all," Hotch finished. "But that's going to be the easy part."
"Yeah, the tough part is ours," Rossi nods to Morgan. "We need to play the dead card."
"I still don't completely understand what you're doing," JJ admits, glancing between the two men.
"I'm going to be meeting with Robert Leon quite a lot to try and begin to emulate him," Rossi explains. "And Morgan will be looking into how Gabriel Ryden acted when he was still alive."
"The idea is that if we jog something in her memory by doing something she'll recognize, knowing that we already remind her of people from her past, then she'll begin to remember more." Morgan crossed his arms. "And Reid would look into Casey Ryden if he wasn't such a poor actor."
"Excuse you, I'm a great actor," Reid objected without heat, grinning at the deadpan looks he got back.
"Sure you are, kid," Morgan laughed. "Sure you are."
Jane opened her apartment door, stepping into the dark foyer. She fumbled for a moment, juggling her case files until she turned on the light.
She dumped everything on the couch Aaron convinced her to buy, ducking her head to pull her satchel off -
"What -?"
On her wobbly table was a single black lotus flower, its petals drooping with the strain of being too long out of water after being cut. An envelope stuck out under the stem, and oh-so-carefully she slid it out.
She took a deep breath and carefully tore it open.
'They said she was you. It was a lie. You'll always be real to me.'
It wasn't signed.
Swallowing roughly, she grabbed the lotus and shoved it down her sink drain, turning on the garbage disposal and turning the faucet on its strongest flow to drown the ugly plant.
Leaving the water running, she grabbed a box of matches and set the note aflame.