To Woo A Genius
Chapter 7 – Closer
A/N: Hey guys, hope you've all been well. I've missed being on here so much, thank you for your patience as I've been dealing with things. I did invent a case for this chapter, it is completely fictitious with no intended resemblance to real life. TRIGGER WARNING: DISCUSSIONS OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING OPERATIONS Other than that, we are getting closer to ending of this particular story. I think my next CM multi-chap will be Luke and Garcia, or maybe Hotch and Garcia. Either way, Penelope is going to be the leading lady in the one and I'm so excited to write for her. In the meantime, ENJOY! R&R PLZ!
Four women, all brunettes, abducted in the Miami. The team canvassed the abduction sites and determined the UNSUB was a local and probably not transporting them anywhere. They gave a preliminary profile to the police and had Garcia running down a few leads. "Look we've done all we can do for now," Hotch pronounced. "We should get some rest and start fresh tomorrow."
Due to holiday travel, the hotel was booked up which meant that Reid and Morgan had to double, with a few knowing glances shot their way for good measure. At the moment, Morgan was in the shower while Reid sat on the bed going over his case notes. "Hey do you think the unsub is stalking his victims?" he called over to the bathroom.
"Seems unlikely," Derek replied. "Like you said, none of the women seem to have any overlap. What would he be stalking them for?"
"I don't know." The water cut off and Reid dropped his voice a bit. "There has to be methodology in here somewhere otherwise every brown-haired woman in the state of Florida would be at risk."
"And we'd have a lot more victims," Derek concluded for him as re-entered the room.
Reid looked up and paused at the sight of Derek, fresh from a shower, with only a towel on. "Wow."
Derek chuckled, "Like what you see baby boy?"
"Definitely. Which is odd because I've seen it before but I seem to have a new appreciation for it." Reid leant back against the head, letting his head tilt for the best view. Now he understood Garcia's words about savouring it. Letting his eyes trail over every contour and muscle, committing every line to memory. He did look away to give the man some privacy to change but couldn't stop smiling.
Morgan crawled onto the bed to nip at his neck, "Such a sweet thing. I'll have to repay the 'appreciation' some time."
"I'm sure you will," Spencer playfully pushed at him and Derek tugged him down to lay flat on his back under him.
Reid looped his arms around his neck, "I really could get used to this."
"Good." Derek began to lower himself –
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Morgan! Reid!" Rossi shouted through the door. "We got a lead and we have to move now!"
The team split into three SUVs, heading back to the precinct. Hotch had them all on conference call, "Tell the team what you told me Garcia."
"Sir. I put out my feelers out on the dark web and I think I picked up a trail. A lot of the…shall we call them 'vendors' on this side of the interwebs use a lot of double speak to avoid easy detection so I ran the full descriptions of the women in question and got a hit. There is a site called 'The Chocolate Shop' whose purveyors purportedly sell wholesale chocolate. Now this could be literally anything not sanctioned by Uncle Sam but just stick with me. The first victim Veronica Hastings is a brunette with very fair skin and about 160 pounds. On the same day, there was a posting of 'stock' for quote 72 kilos of 'milk chocolate with nougat'. The second victim Joanna Bradley, tan skin and weighed 140 pounds; same day, posting for approximately 63 kilos of 'caramel milk chocolate' and well you get the picture."
"Garcia please tell me there haven't been any sales," Emily implored.
"On that account I have good news, I've been monitoring the website and as of yet, no buyers. The accompanying bad news is that there have been other sales and some glowing customer reviews that are downright horrifying to think about too much."
"If we bring them down, there's a chance we could bring everyone home," Rossi comforted her.
"I hope so sir," Pen said quietly.
"What do we have for a location mama?" Derek tried to bring her back.
"Right. Based on some of the reviews, it seems like they'd need readily available access to water for some of the drop offs. A boat is not unusual obviously but a customer did make a docking joke, referencing a marina. So I cross-matched one of the reviews with the date of sale on the site then checked marina logs. It was a workday during the late wet season so not many people would be out. In fact, only 20 boats were out there in total. 15 came up clean, 5 are kind of sketchy in that the owners did not list an occupation, 2 of those are individuals with criminal backgrounds but only one, Joe Hass, was charged with assault and attempted kidnapping. And all that info has been sent to you."
"Thank you Garcia, phenomenal work," Hotch said.
"Get home safe." The tech cut out.
"We're going to gear up at the precinct and move in hot," Hotch told them. "Derek and I will take the front, Rossi and Prentiss in the back, and the rest of you are on the perimeter. Do not shoot to kill unless absolutely necessary."
Derek took Reid's hand and squeezed, "Roger that."
In the locker rooms at the precinct, Spencer watched Derek pull on his tactical gear with a frown. He didn't have as much being on the outside but Morgan had layers of Kevlar that was meant to protect him from the worst. Every case was dangerous, in fact they'd faced scarier situations that this but that didn't stop Spencer's heart from pounding in his ears. Derek glanced at him and tried to smile, "Like what you see baby boy?"
Reid's jaw tightened, "Don't. Please don't."
Morgan closed his locker and checked to make sure they were alone. "Everything will be fine sweetheart."
"I very much want to believe that but -"
"No buts," Derek held his face. "We're going to bust this asshole, go home and watch Harry Potter until we fall asleep. That's it. Just please, don't go anywhere without back up and don't drop your guard until the scene is clear. We stick to the plan."
"That goes double for you," Reid said sternly.
"Yes sir," Morgan seemed to struggle with himself for a minute before bringing their foreheads together. "You know I luh- I will always come home to you."
Reid swallowed thickly, "Yeah I know." Without thinking, he tipped his head up and caught Derek's lips in a tender kiss. The two agents melted into each other and the world slid away. Neither of them had ever considered that euphoria could be this calm and serene. Derek was not much of a man of faith in that moment, he knew, this was his heaven. Nothing could accurately describe just how right it felt being with his beautiful genius. But where words failed Derek, Spencer was abundant with them. There was so much he wanted to say but all of them required him to stop kissing and that just wasn't an option. Eventually they did have to part but not without Morgan stealing a couple extra pecks for the road. "Time to go to work."