One hour past open and I'm already sweating. "Melissa! I've got your dry cappuccino, extra hot mocha, and a cold brew ready for you!" I shout over the crowd that gathered in the café. How these people could all get up and tolerate standing in a line at 6am I will never understand. I quickly lid and hand out two more drinks to a Jonathan and David. Both of them seemed to be in the biggest rush of their life and almost spilled their coffee grabbing it from my counter without so much as a thank you. As I'm mentally rolling my eyes at them a woman comes barreling over to me to point and shout over my espresso machine. She had just ordered and she is trying to get her drink moved to the front of the line. I tried explaining to her that there's a line for a reason and if she had an issue she should try coming earlier so she wouldn't be in a situation that would cause her to be late for something. Obviously she didn't like that and started quietly cussing at me.
At that very moment one of my favorite regulars walked through the door. 6:05 on the dot just like every other day. Well, he didn't come every day exactly, but I could tell he came as often as he could. "Aaron!" I said, setting his usual order on the counter for him to grab. I made him a latte every morning. He didn't always show up to collect, but if that was the case I just drank it for him. Aaron smiled at me and gladly accepted his drink. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a $10 bill.
"Keep the change Willow, I can see you're a bit busy today," he smiled slightly at me as I stuffed the bill into my apron pocket. "See you tomorrow?" he asked as he took his first sip of the hot latte. He smiled into the cup before looking back at me for an answer.
"You know me, I'm always working! So yeah I'll see you tomorrow, Aaron. Hopefully it won't be so crazy." I waved him off before I caught the look at the woman who was asking to skip the line. Her eyes looked crazed as she saw me give Aaron his drink without him having to wait in a line for even a second. I smirked and shrugged at her, "he's one of my favorites." I finished up the next six drinks before finally getting to her order. Of course it was a chai with a crazy amount of modifications. She snatched it from me and stormed off. Ah, I love the morning rush.
The rest of the day went exactly as I would expect it to. By noon the Sunday rush had died down and work was actually tolerable. I was finally able to take my lunch break at 1 o'clock, which was the best thing ever. I had actually slept through my first few alarms this morning and I missed my chance to eat anything before coming into work. Normally that would not be a big deal; I could always graze on food at work throughout the day. Today wasn't one of those days, unfortunately. I had one person call out sick and another was a no call no show. That meant that myself and one other person had to pick up the slack and do their jobs too. Normally it took at least four people to run my café from open to close. With only two available, we both ended up with an almost 12 hour shift.
By the time I was able to close up the café and get home, I was exhausted. I throw down my backpack by the front door of my apartment and acknowledge my best friend. "Sup, Ronald." I said nonchalantly to my three-foot tall snake plant. It was the only plant I have ever been able to keep alive, despite my best efforts, so of course I would name him. Ronald, naturally, didn't answer me so I kept walking into my apartment to reach my favorite place, the kitchen. I pull out a frozen dinner box from the freezer and throw it into the microwave. Eventually this week I'll get to make an actual meal, but I was just way too tired to attempt one today. While my dinner was steaming, I took to my cabinets and began making myself a rum and coke to go with it. The drink was nothing fancy, but it did the job of making me relax a little. I ate my dinner while watching something easy on Netflix, trying to give myself a mental break before having to go back into work tomorrow and do the whole thing over again. I made sure to set my alarm on my phone, just in case I fell asleep watching TV accidentally.
Monday morning came earlier than it felt like it should. My alarm went off at 4am, signaling I had 15 minutes to get ready so I wouldn't be late for my 4:30am start time. While I'm walking to work I realize today is going to be a much colder day than yesterday. The breeze is going right through me and I can confidently say that this is the first time this season that autumn has actually felt like it. The wind picks up again, a nice tell for what this winter will feel like.
As I unlock the front door to the café and turn on the light above the bar, I am thoroughly chilled. My coworker and I get to work quickly, preparing the café for another day of customers. We both sort of hope that it will be a little busy today so we can warm ourselves up. Neither of us thought to even bring a sweatshirt into work today. Of course, a busy day is not was we got. By the time Aaron rolled in this morning, the clock on the register said 5:50am we had only helped four customers in the hour we had been open. "Morning, Aaron! How're you liking the chill this morning?"
Aaron smiles politely at me, the corners of his mouth barely rising as he does so. "I'm rather enjoying it actually. People seem to be staying indoors; there was no traffic on the way here. Plus, D.C. seems that much more cozy this morning. What do you think of it?" He asks that last question with one raised eyebrow as he digs through his wallet so I can ring him up for his latte.
I look down and smile. "I also enjoy it. I think I would like it more if I could actually go outside and take it all in, but with work and me magically forgetting my jacket today, I don't quite see it happening." I take the cash he hands me and start collecting his change. I can't quite tell what the look on his face means. His face is normally pretty stoic, but whatever emotion he is hiding behind that expression is super well hidden. He almost looks concerned, but I could be over reading him. As I hand him his dollar and coins he throws them all in the tip jar without breaking eye contact.
We're both looking each other in the eye, trying to decide what to say next to each other when my coworker comes up behind me. "Hey, Willow, love," she says while leaning down to me. "Finish his drink and then make yourself one and go on a break. Try to warm up a little, you're shaking!" She rubs my shoulders and walks off. I unfortunately blush a little, as I know Aaron heard what she said.
I start steaming the milk for his one pump vanilla latte, while prepping the almond milk for my hot chai latte. As Im preparing his espresso he puts his hands in his pockets and starts focusing on the floor. He looks like he has some difficult internal debate going on inside his head. His face is even more pressed together than normal. I am finishing his drink and about to announce that it is ready for him when he cuts me off, "Do you want to go for a walk? With me?" I stood there slightly stunned, not really sure where that question came from.
"What?" I asked dumbly, not able to form a sentence apparently.
"I got here a bit early because there was no traffic and I have some time to kill before I need to be in the office. You're also going on break and I just thought you would like to walk around the park across the street with me for a few minutes… to enjoy the weather," his voice and face are both confident but his body language is telling me that he doesn't normally ask his favorite baristas for a nice morning stroll in the park. I can see his hands fidgeting in his pants pockets. He looks down right nervous!
"Aaron, I would love to, but I'll be too col—"
"You can wear my jacket," he cuts me off. "I always run warm, it really doesn't bother me." He's looking at me now, expecting an answer to his question. I can see my coworker out of the corner of my eye with a shit-eating grin on her face. She clearly loved this for me. It's not like me to accept anything other than money from customers but I agree to go with Aaron. He seems like a relatively normal guy and it anything goes wrong my coworker has my location on her phone.
I nod to Aaron, accepting his offer. I turn to my coworker, "Hey Steph, I'll be back in—"
"Take your time I'll be okay! Tony comes in to help in ten minutes anyways so I'll see you whenever you get back!" Steph seemed way too giddy for me. Her face was all lit up and I could tell that she wasn't about to ever let this go.
I pour my chai in a to-go cup and follow Aaron outside. He takes his jacket off and wraps it around my shoulders, just as a huge gust of wind knocks me off balance slightly. With his hands already of my shoulders he's able to keep me steady with just the slightest bit of pressure. I smile up at him, silently thanking him for the jacket and his support. We begin walking together, coming up to a crosswalk, he presses the button and we both wait for the little glowing man to tell us its safe to cross.
"So how long have you lived in D.C.?" Aaron didn't seem like the small talk type but I'm happy to go along with it.
"I moved here about six months ago from Minnesota. I do like it here! It's definitely different, but not in a bad way," the little green man lit up and allowed us to officially start our walk into the park.
"Why did you move away from home?" he presses.
"I just needed a change, honestly. I've tried a few different states after I graduated high school. First was Montana, then Nevada, Vermont, Massachusetts, and now I'm here. I am hoping this one sticks though, it sure is pretty during the spring!" I look up to see him smiling and nodding along agreeing with me.
"It really is. So you obviously like traveling if you can tolerate moving around so much," he looks down at me and we make eye contact but I look away unable to look at his intense gaze any longer.
"Oh if I could go to every state at least once I would! Every continent too. Even Antarctica!" We both laughed at my enthusiasm. "What about you Mr. Always-In-A-Suit and gone for a few days at a time? I assume you have to travel for work. Do you like it?"
He looks at me with a puzzled look; like he was surprised I managed to put two and two together. A sudden and strong gust of wind blew us both off balance and I reached my arm out to take his elbow and mutter a quiet thanks as he didn't even hesitate to hold it out for me to grab. "I do travel for work. I unfortunately do not get see very much of where I am. I'm afraid all of my travels are very heavily centered around work." He paused for a moment, looking around and enjoying the leaves blowing in the wind. I took this time to look up at him and really take in the man I was walking with. His strong brow and stare normally scared off the other baristas and patrons alike, but I could tell that was just a mask. I mean it was a great and sometimes scary mask. He had never been rude to my coworkers, or me but he has no patience for other rude customers and he isn't afraid to tell them off.
His ability to stand up for us was one of the reasons he quickly became one of my favorite regulars. He looks down at me quickly, catching me staring at him. I smile and try to play it off like I'm looking at the clouds above him. I see the corner of his mouth twitch into a smile and we keep walking together.
"So," I inquired, "What do you do for work that lets you travel a lot?"
He looks straight ahead; taking longer than it should to respond to a question about your profession. "I work in psychology. I am an expert in behavior actually. I work as a… consultant. I help people figure out why certain people do certain things," his answer was slightly unexpected. I honestly would have pegged him as a finance guy. Something boring.
"Oh really! That's actually super interesting. No offense, but I totally thought you did something boring like finance or sales. But psychology! That's actually super cool!" we both look at each other and take long sips of our drinks. We seemed to have been reminded of them at the same time. "Mm, I don't know about you, but the barista who made my drink was definitely hand delivered by God herself, because this chai is perfect." I raised the drink in question towards him and he raised his.
"Eh, its just okay," he said stone faced and I panicked slightly, rethinking of how I made his drink this morning and running through to see if I had messed anything up. He saw my panicked looked and laughed. "Hey, I'm just messing with you. You're the best barista in that café and you know it." I did in fact know it. Everyone there was super great, but they were still too new to know how to perfect the steaming milk process.
We rounded a corner and saw that our walk was drawing to an end. We both slowed down slightly, trying to make it last longer. At least that's what I was doing; he could just be polite and stick with me. Honestly, I've always found him to be super attractive, but he was such a gentleman today that it really solidified the fact that I was into him. I hope Steph doesn't give me too much shit when I get back.
Slowly but surely, we made our way back to the café and it was time for us to part. With both of our drinks having been discarded, I no longer had something to hold and to and to absentmindedly distract myself with. Once we reached the door we stood there awkwardly. I looked up at him and gave him an awkward small smile and started to shrug his jacket off my shoulders. He quickly put his hands on my shoulders and turned me around so he could take the jacket off for me. I would be lying if I said his hands trailing down my arms didn't spark something in me. If he had noticed me shiver he didn't say anything.
"Well, thanks for the walk—" I started saying my goodbyes but his phone began ringing and he answered it so quickly it looked like his life depended on it.
"Hotchner," his face began to darken. "Yes, thank you Garcia. Gather the team. I'll be there in 10." He put the phone into his pocket and looked at me. "Sorry, that was work. I'm needed right away."
"Hey no worries! I should get back to work anyways. Have a good day Aaron!"
He nods and walks towards his parked car. It's a nice sedan. It was definitely more than I could afford, but it wasn't anything fancy. He speeds off and I head back into work, ready to spill the details to a very noticeably impatient Steph.
*BAU ROUNDTABLE*
One by one the team all file into the conference room. "Let's get started," Agent Hotchner says as he enters last. The team starts opening the files in front of them, listening as Penelope starts her presentation.
"Okay," Garcia begins, using the clicker to pull up photos on the main screen. "No jet needed for this case, its local. Over the last three days there have been three victims. All of them were women and under the age of thirty-five. They were abducted from either their home or work, and then found in an alleyway beaten and mutilated 15 hours later. C.O.D. was a single gunshot to the back of the head," Garcia keeps flipping through photos but has to look away at the graphic ones.
"Clearly the torture is what's important to this unsub, not the death itself," Reid says while barely looking up from his file. "Each woman was found with defensive wounds and sustained massive internal bruising. They all have rope burns on their wrists and ankles from being held captive. All of the victims suffered multiple stab wounds and a few second and third degree burns. It looks like our unsub also sexually assaulted them before killing them. He clearly wants our victims to suffer in every way imaginable."
"Damn," says JJ, clearly upset.
"What is it, JJ?" Hotch presses.
"I just knew the second victim, Amy. She worked at the farmers market next to my house. She was a sweet girl, always gave me a discount on her strawberries." JJ looks down at the file with her face drawn.
"Wait," starts Emily. "I know the first victim. Jaime was my favorite bartender. I haven't gone to that bar in a few months so I didn't recognize her right away, but that's definitely her. Does anyone know the third victim?" The team looks around the table when Derek throws down his file.
"Yeah," he says sternly, "I do. Anna works at my barbers shop. I've never seen anyone give as close of shave as she did. What is this Hotch?" everyone looks to the Unit Chief for an answer when Reid speaks up.
"Guys, look. The medical examiners all state that the victims had a word carved into the back of their neck. All of the women were found in different jurisdictions so no one put the words together, but they say 'CAN YOU SEE'," Reid looks around with a panicked look that is mirrored by the rest of the team.
"It's no coincidence that we all knew the victims in some fashion," Hotch starts.
"Someone's got something against us Hotch," Morgan chimes in.
"We need to figure out what this unsub's vendetta is and fast, before more innocent people get hurt." Rossi spoke for the first time, clearly just as upset as everyone else. "If he sticks with his timeline, the next victim will be abducted soon."
Hotch looks at the team before him. "Reid, Garcia, and Rossi, I want you all to make some calls and take some time to warn anyone you think might be the next victim. Think of people you see regularly and know a little about, but they don't necessarily know what you do for a living. People like librarians, waitresses, shop attendants… baristas. The rest of you, I want you to stay here and keep working on this. Focus on victim-ology and what try to figure out what the unsub wants us to see. Call me if you've got something." Hotch closes his file and stands to leave.
"Where are you going, sir?" Garcia asks.
"There's only one person I know who even remotely fits the profile for the potential next victim, I'm going to warn her." He dismisses the team and races out of the room.
Morgan takes a deep breath in, ignoring the way his Unit Chief runs out of the room. "Our unsub clearly has some balls. He takes them from both their home and work. He's not worried about being caught or recognized."
"He most likely uses a ruse to get the victims away from any family or coworker that might be nearby," Reid adds. "He's also likely social and does not have an issue blending into crowds." Dr. Reid finally stands and addresses the team. "Im going to go downstairs and start working on a geographical profile and make a few calls to my favorite book shop, lets hope that helps us see who he might go after next."
Emily nods and looks towards JJ, "I think we'll head to the medical examiners and see if we can find anything they might have missed." JJ agrees and they both exit the round table.
Rossi takes his phone out and begins making calls around.
"Baby girl," Morgan says, looking towards Garcia, "You and I are going to work together and search our old case files to see who we might have wronged in the past. After you call anyone you might think is next, of course." Penelope agrees and starts collecting their things. Now that everyone has a specific job they can actually start looking for the bastard.