Chapter 29

Washington MedStar Hospital
Washington DC

"Son of a bitch!" Spencer said. "He has been spying on me! He admitted it!"

"Shapeshifter?" Emily asked.

They rolled it back and played it again. Yes, it was Sin, crouching there in some kind of sleek, black and purple bodysuit. "They said there were biological differences." Spencer said. "But information about them was still classified by their DOD. I haven't been able to get in close enough to get that."

"How many are there in DC?" Hotch asked.

"Three that I know of." Spencer replied. "I'm not a shapeshifter." Surely he would know by now if he was.

As they watched Sin rolled Spencer over and checked to make sure he was still breathing. Sin pulled Spencer's phone from his pocket and sent out a message, then he started administering what looked like first aid. "He saved your life there." Emily said.

"He was there to protect me. It's an alien thing." Spencer replied. He ought to be upset about this, but he wasn't. It actually felt…good. "That cat first arrived after I had that discussion about sexuality with Essa."

"Are you pissed at this?"

"No. I should be, but I'm really not. I don't know why."

"According to the timeline three minutes after that call someone pounded on the side of a DIA surveillance van parked outside the Martian Consulate." Hotch said. "It was members of the consulate staff who told the agents that there was a medical emergency and the agents were driving."

Ten minutes later, about how long it would take to get to the consulate to Spencer's apartment if you were driving really fast, Nar pushed through the door Sin had unlocked. With a jerk of their head and a sharp order from the nurse Sin immediately shifted again, this time into something small with wings that fluttered up to a dark corner of the ceiling and hung there. Then Essa was coming in with gear, and DIA agents, followed closely by paramedics, and it all went predictable again.

But Emily spotted something. "Spencer, you wore gloves when you first came home."

"Yeah."

"They would have wiped off the toxin before you could touch it."

"Very likely."

"That's a narrow window. There's a bank across the street from you, isn't there?"

"And hotels on either end of the block."

"I'll get Garcia to start looking at security cameras. Hotch, you said that there were only faint traces of the toxin on the doorknob."

"Yes." Hotch replied.

Emily ran back the recording to Nar coming in the door, and pointed to the thick gloves they were wearing. "We need to get those gloves."

"On it." Hotch said. He headed for the door.

Emily was already sending a note to Penelope. "We need to get security on you." She said to Spencer.

"I'll ask Lira. I'm sure she will help." Spencer replied.

"You'd rather have aliens then FBI?"

"Dorian said she didn't know who she could trust in her unit. How do we know who we can trust outside of our unit? I don't think we can even trust Witness Protection right now."

Emily sighed. "You're right."

"Besides, the Q government have more options to increase security if need be."

"Need might be. If the Russian Mob has moles inside the FBI I don't know where on this planet is safe."

"If all else fails there's always the option of not this planet."

Emily stopped typing into her phone and started at him. "Okay, that is the option of last resort."

"True. I was going to start with seeing if they would let me stay in the consulate building. It has much better security than my apartment, and I could more or less keep my life going. Could you had me my pants, please."

"Sure, why?"

"I'm about to sign out AMA, as soon as I have a talk with Sin."

"Okay, I get the talk with Sin but why are you leaving?"

"Essa said there are biological differences between Commoners, Companions and Nobles. Companions are shapeshifters, which you would think would be of paramount importance and power in a society. But they dedicate their lives to protecting Nobles, they have for thousands of years."

"So what so special about Nobles?" Emily asked. "No offense but it's probably not just brains."

"I don't know." Spencer said. "They keep saying it's classified. And right now there is one person in the…in the galaxy I trust to give me a straight answer."


Hotch had it easy. Nar was at the nurse's station, talking to the staff there. Hotch stepped up and explained the situation, topical poison, doorknob, gloves. In reply Nar flipped open their med kit and revealed the gloves they had been wearing in a storage compartment. "I'd been in fencing practice, I didn't stop to take them off." They explained. "I switched to disposables on scene and and haven't stopped with those yet."

The gloves in question were thicker than usual, made of some sturdy, spongy material. Perfect for trapping the poison. "That likely saved you. Would you be willing to testify to the sequence of events?" Hotch asked as he got another agent to bag the evidence.

"You'd have to go through channels, talk to my command, but I don't have a problem with it."

"You know, that might paint a target on you, given the people we're dealing with."

Nar smiled. "They can try."


Before Spencer could leave he had to talk to Sin. He was dressed and sitting on his bed when the other came back. "So, I have a question." Spencer said to open. "Do you really prefer Sin? Or would you rather Tristan?"

That stopped the other man in his tracks. "You know, before the war I actually would have said whichever you like." He replied. "But now…think I'm going to stick with Sin. So how mad are you?"

"I'm not. I should be but I'm not. I just want to know why?"

"I couldn't help it." He dropped into the seat by the bed. "Pheromones or whatever it is. I'm no scientist. Look, a friend has been doing some reading about the history of this planet, and I know it has a lot of negative issues with the concept of eugenics, but our history isn't their history. You and I are the result of a three thousand year old breeding program. I was bred to be able to protect a Noble, apparently specifically you, and to feel real shitty if I'm not. You were bred, among other things, to be okay with that, to feel good when that happens so you don't fight it. Now I don't know why the Elder Kings decided to go that route but it's worked for us for three millennia and thirty some odd years of war. You can fight it if you want but I'm not."

Spencer considered that. He'd seen this movie as well, where you spend all sorts of time and energy fighting destiny and fate and only end up right back where they started. "You've seen a small fraction of my life." He said. "We deal with some of the most twisted psychopaths out there."

"I have to admit, Terrans do do crazy better than anyone else in the galaxy."

"Sometimes they follow us home."

"As long as they're not in armor."

"Are you really okay with dealing with that?"

"Yeah. I liked being a cop. Helping the victims, stopping the bad guys, it's pretty satisfying. It's not like I can go back to being a soldier, they're demobilizing the navy as we speak. And I really don't want to spend my life guarding diplomats. And I know you're about to say you ramble. You fixate on thing, you hyperfocus, you go off on random tangents that bore people to tears. You and every other Noble, you're not even as bad as some. I grew up in a house with five other Nobles close to my age, and they've all gotten married since. If there isn't a Noble going off about something it's not home."

Spencer was going to say exactly that, but he stopped. "All right, we'll give it a try. But there is one thing."

"That's okay, I have a one thing too."

"You first." Spencer said.

"This is the point where I say I go where you go, no matter what." Sin replied. "But truth? This planet is amazing. Terrans have packed more differences, more cultures and philosophies and artists and foods and everything else on to this planet than anywhere else in the galaxy. From what we can tell before our team got to New York exactly seven Q ever visited here, and they all landed in practically the same region. I want to see as much of the rest of it as I can while we're here. I want to get some exploring in."

Spencer considered this. Travel? It wasn't like he didn't. England had been great that one time. France was amazing. "We can do that. We will make that happen."

Sin beamed out a smile. "All right then. What's your one thing?"

"You're not sleeping in my bed."

That shocked the other man. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want you there just because three thousand years of breeding told you you have to. If you're there it's because we both want it. No other reason. And not while I'm still…processing all this. I need to slow this down."

Sin opened his mouth to object, and closed it again. "Fair enough."

"Now, the first thing we need to do is convince Essa to let me leave this hospital."

"Why?"

"I need to go talk to my mother."