"Classic." Prentiss spoke as she took another bite of popcorn. The girls had just finished watching She's All That.
"Agreed. I love romantic comedies though. Love is beautiful and love in the midst of our team…" Garcia trailed off, laying out on her couch.
Prentiss and J.J. snorted, Natalie let out a shy laugh. She wondered if they knew about her feelings for Reid. She was sort of guessing they did but wanted them to say it.
"Ah. I think we all know who Garcia is talking about." J.J. chimed in, the girls all a little loose-lipped from the wine.
"We do, don't we?" Prentiss asked, raising her eyebrows at Natalie.
"What are you talking about?" Natalie asked cooly. She felt a little silly and giddy. She wanted to spill so bad but she was a little terrified to let it out in the open without telling Reid first. She didn't want the whole team to know before him but with the alcohol, it created a more relaxed state for secrets to spill.
Garcia started poking at Natalie, "I think you know. Nat, come on. Come on." Garcia continued poking Natalie with her index fingers.
Natalie sighed, "I think I do but I don't know if I should spill the tea."
"You, of course don't have to share. Although, I think Garcia might go nuts if you don't." J.J. replied.
Garcia gave a bold smile, desperately wanting Natalie to admit what Garcia had thought.
"You two are around a bunch of profilers. We may have heard a phone conversation before we picked you up too." Prentiss told her.
"OH!" Garcia squealed, "I miss the cuteness conversation with boy wonder and other girl genius!"
Natalie's eyes grew wide as did J.J. and Prentiss, "What?" The three exclaimed.
"Remember, I read your file. I know. Natalie is a certified genius too, I.Q. of 168, Reid's is 187." Garcia exclaimed, revealing what the elephant in the room had been.
Natalie didn't confirm the Reid comment but she confirmed the genius comment.
"Wow. I'm not surprised." J.J. announced.
"It all makes sense!" Prentiss yelled, excitedly.
"My lips are sealed on the other one." Natalie pretended to zip her lip and throw away the key.
The girls all giggled. They talked for a few hours before finally falling asleep to the sound of each other's giggles.
********RRRRIIINNGGGG*******
"Make it stop!" Prentiss yelled.
"Why would you yell?" J.J. asked.
Natalie's eyes opened as she realized the sound of her own phone ringing, she answered.
"Hello?" Natalie asked, sleep evading her voice.
"Hi Natalie. Would you be able to meet me in about twenty minutes?" Natalie registered Rossi's voice on the line.
"Uh, yeah, what's up?" She asked.
Rossi was a little puzzled by the hesitant response, "Just want to check up on you."
"Oh. Well, I appreciate that, Rossi. However, I am going, to be honest, the girls and I drank a lot of wine so if we meet, I need coffee to sober up a little or just for the hangover I feel." Natalie said, flatly.
"Please stop yelling." Garcia said putting pillows over her ears.
Rossi heard that and laughed, "Hello!" He yelled into the phone, Natalie jerked the phone away from her face quickly as to not create ringing in her ears.
"Okay. If you're with them, I think you're okay. We will catch up another time. Get some rest and sober up. You need it drinking with those 3." Rossi told her.
"Thanks. I really do appreciate it. Bye Rossi." Natalie responded.
"Bye Natalie." He hung up.
A few hours later, the girls were at the local coffee shop after sobering up a bit with sunglasses on, looking a little like they were in some kind of disguise.
"Rossi doesn't hang with just any of us." J.J. told her.
"Yeah but I know him really well, remember?" Natalie countered.
"Yeah, we know. It's just weird to hear Rossi do that. We all normally have to ask him." Prentiss said.
"We know he cares, he just has his own way to express it." Garcia shared.
"He's never really done what he did today with me, I think it was because he knows what that case was like for me and Rossi is kind of like dad figure to me as he is to the rest of the team apparently." Natalie joked.
The girls laughed and continued sipping their coffee and attempting conversation until they all needed to head home since they would be back at the B.A.U. in the morning.
The team sat at the round table in the conference room as Garcia shared the details of their latest case,
"Last night, this girl Gina Bryant." She clicked the clicker for Gina's image to display across the screen, "flagged down a police car in St. Louis. She was wearing nothing but a dirty nightgown. She was barefoot and she told them, she had been kidnapped when she was 8." Garcia sighed, upset that the words had to be spoken.
"That girl has to be 19 or 20 now." Morgan commented.
"18. And they confirmed her identity." Garcia clicked again, an image of Gina as a young girl displayed. "She was a foster kid who disappeared 10 years ago."
"She's been in captivity this whole time?" J.J. asked compassionately.
"Long term hostage, that's rare. Another Ariel Castro?" Rossi asked.
"Funny you should say that, not funny hahah, funny weird. She told the police that she was held captive with this girl, Sheila Woods." Her image now on the screen. "15 years old who disappeared from Nashville two years ago. She said there was another girl too but all she knows about her is that her name's Violet and she was older." Garcia spilled out.
"I'm guessing you checked the missing children's database?" Natalie asked.
"Affirmative. No record of a Violet anywhere." Garcia replied.
"Did Gina say anything about her captor?" Reid asked, his voice sensitive.
"Just that his name was Tom and he was an older white dude."
"Where were they being held?" J.J. asked.
Garcia clicked to show an image of an older house,
"This house. Gina took the cops there. They found Sheila. She's at the hospital, very ill with something to be determined. Violet was nowhere to be found."
"Probably safe to assume she's with the unsub." Hotch chimed in.
"Who owns the house?" Prentiss asked.
"That's where it gets weirder. This woman, Clara Riggins." An elderly lady appeared on the projector. "She's M.I.A. but her checking account is active. She pays her bills on time and if my math is correct, she's 108 years old."
"I might be going out on a limb here but I'm going to bet she had nothing to do with this." Rossi spoke up.
"The real question is, where is the unsub and this other girl Violet?" Morgan questioned.
"Yeah. That's what's we're going to find out. Wheels up in 30." Hotch said as he folded his file to remove himself from the round table.
Natalie swallowed. Young girls in captivity, no doubt sexual abuse took place. This is exactly why she joined the F.B.I. She tried her best to keep that in mind as the team got ready to leave.