A.N. New chapter, yay. Some transitions may be rough, I blame the show. The camera will pan and sudenly someone will have changed locations, or will be in the middle of a phone call. Nbd in a TV show, but hard to deal with in a fanfic. Ah well, I did my best. Also to answer a question a few people have asked: will this just be rewritting the episodes. Yes and no, right now it's sticking really close to the episodes, but as Spencer and Derek get closer and stop being stupid about emotions things will change more and more. Sorry if it's a bit dull for now, I threw in some extra fluff at the end of this chapter as an apology. Reminder that as always the more people review the higher up on my priority list the next chapter goes! Also I'm on my summer break now (yay), but I'm also working 35 hours a week so hopefully time between chapters will be a bit quicker.
Loves' Denial
Chapter 5-Episode 2 Part 2
Hotch and Spencer are down in the chemistry lab. Some of the chemistry students had reported to Dean Turner that they'd figured out how the devices were made, and with a lack of other leads they'd decided to look into it. Spencer, who was not a fan of social interaction, was fiddling with a lightbulb. Hotch made his way over to the younger agent.
"Reid. Since you're their age, why don't you do the talking" he suggests. A glance at his boss' face shows him that no is not an option. Resigned, Spencer moves to stand in front of the students.
"Hi- hi, guys. Uh, my name's, uh, Dr. Spencer Reid. I'm a, uh, agent with the- the B.A.U., the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the F.B.I., which, um, it used to be called the B.S.U., the Behavioral Science Unit, but not anymore. They changed it to the B.A.U. Um, it's part of the N.C.A.V.C., the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime which is also part of this thing called the C.I.R.G., the Critical Incident Response Group, and-" Spencer rambles.
"What he's trying to say is we'd love to know how you can help us" Hotch cuts in while Spencer shoots him a deeply grateful look.
One of the students stands up and esters to the lightbulb Spencer's still holding. "May I, please? Thank you" he says when Spencer hands it to him. He holds the lightbulb up. "See this? Drill a hole in the side and fill it with gasoline and whatever's good and flammable. Turn the light on. Boom. That is what went down isn't it?" he says.
"This stuff's all over the net" a nervous looking female student pipes up while playing with her ring. "Wanna know how to make a Molotov cocktail that sets itself on fire? Potassium, sulfur ad normal sugar. Sugar-sugar which is" she gets cut off.
"Not exactly plutonium. You could get this stuff anywhere" the male student finishes.
"Sugar from the supermarket" the female student agrees.
"But you don't need to be a Chem student to know that" Hotch observes.
"Do you think it's a Chem student?" Zhang asks the boy.
"You want to know what I think?" he responds. "I think" he holds the lightbulb up to his forehead, "it would be a good time to take a semester off". He finishes by handing the lightbulb back to Spencer.
The Next Day
Spencer sat outside leaning up against a tree contemplating the situation. He'd heard about the "for Karen" call that had come in the night before. Silently he watched the large exodus of students off campus or the semester before voicing a concern to Gideon, who had come to stand beside him.
"What if the unsub is one of the students leaving" he questions.
"No, he's not done yet. He's not going anywhere" Gideon counters with certainty. "Keep thinking" he orders.
"You mean, out-outside the box?" Spencer asks. "That's what Morgan's always telling me. He says that's why I can never beat you at chess".
"Well he's probably right" Gideon admits.
"But, I mean, in this situation what exactly is the box?" Spencer wonders.
"The standard profile of a serial arsonist. If everything you know goes in the box, what's left?" Gideon prompts.
"What you don't know. The unknown" Spencer supplies.
"Sometimes you have to get creative. Even if you think it's utterly unlikely, you have to think of things nobody else thought of" Gideon explains.
"Like a stutter" Spencer suggests slyly.
"Yeah, exactly" Gideon agrees.
Later with Derek
Derek was on the phone with Garcia hoping she'd managed to get something new out of the recorded message. Honestly, he was rather sick of all the worthless, and therefore pointless, interviews they'd been doing with Karens. Hopefully, another day of that wouldn't be on the menu.
"Ok, gorgeous, I've put this thing through every audio filter I've got. There's only one thing I can tell you for sure. This guy isn't saying "Karen". It's more like "Karone"." Garcia says. Derek feels a wave of relief, no more Karen interviews, before annoyance at all the time they'd wasted today sets in.
"Garcia, what the hell is Karone?" He demands.
"If I figure it out does it earn me a night of passionate lovemaking?" Garcia asks.
"Most definitely sweetness…with Reid" Derek jokes back, ignoring the slight stab of hurt and jealousy he gets picturing Reid with someone who was not him. He says bye to Garcia before turning his attention to the aforementioned team member, who was standing across the room from him.
"Hey Reid" he calls, getting a slight thrill when the other's attention is immediately turned on him. "Garcia says it's not Karen. It's actually something more like-" he cuts off as Gideon rushes into the room.
"Charown" Gideon finishes for him, much to his surprise.
"Charown?" Reid asks sounding adorably confused.
"Charown. I do it because of charown." Gideon repeats, which seems to explain everything to Reid.
"That's Hebrew" Reid notes.
"It's God's word in anger" Gideon specifies while Reid agrees with a 'yeah'.
"The motive is now religious?" Asks Elle, who had just come in carrying containers with dinner for the team.
"Well you know, in a lot of religions, God is related to fire" Reid points out.
"Well, Braham is fire in Hinduism, and the Jews see God as a pillar of fire, and Christians worship God as a consuming fire" Hotch muses.
"Ok, so we're lookin' for a theology major" Derek says as Elle tosses Reid a container of food, which he catches only to stare at. "Maybe he's punishing the other students for their sins" Derek suggests.
"I don't want this" Reid says quietly in the background while setting the food container down.
"What-what's the most sinful place on campus?" Elle wonders.
"Come on Elle. When I was in college, that was everywhere" Derek responds with a slight scoff.
"A fraternity?" Hotch suggests.
"A campus bar?" Elle says.
"No. Because that's not consistent with the previous targets" Hotch shoots the ideas down.
"What about the idea of baptism by fire? Aren't we all supposed to be tested through fire in revelations?" Derek points out.
Gideon, who up to this point had been focused on writing on the white board decides to pitch in, "look, it's good, it's goo, but let's please not jump to conclusions. Religion may be a part of it, but it's not necessarily the prime compulsion" he points out.
"Gideon, rush to conclusions, jump to conclusions. Who cares?" Derek argues, his frustrations coming out.
"We are running out of time" Elle agrees solemnly.
"Compulsion" Reid murmurs to himself, unheard in the background.
Later with Spencer
Spencer stared at the video of Matthew Rowland's death. There had to be something, some clue, in the video that they hadn't noticed yet. He tuned out Matthew's pained screaming and his roommate's panicking, trying to focus on what else he might see or hear. Sighing slightly to himself he rewinds and re-watches the video again. Still having found nothing new he stands and walks over to the whiteboard Gideon had been using earlier.
"Outside the box" he murmurs to himself as he erases everything on the board except the word fire. That he circles just as Gideon sticks his head through the doorway.
"Keep thinkin'. It's like chess. Don't look at just the next move. Try to look three moves ahead" Gideon advices before ducking back out and closing the door.
Spencer intends to do just that. Heading back over to the computer he once again rewinds the video watching as Matthew heads towards the door. Remembering something off the team had noticed he rewinds the video to the start again, but this time he zooms in on the doorknob, which turns three times jut before the fire starts.
"Three times" Spencer says aloud. Quickly he jumps up and makes his way to the faculty building and to the office of Professor Wallace, the last arson victim and casualty. Smudging some of the soot away from the door he reveals the office number: 3. He then turns and goes back to Matthew Rowland's dorm room. Searching the boy's stuff, he quickly finds a copy of Matthew's schedule.
"Professor Wallace, Tuesday, 3:00" he reads. Putting the paper down he heads out to where he thinks Hotch and Gideon will be. Thankfully he can see both in the room when he arrives.
"I know why the profiles never fit" he announces as he enters. "You were right to tell Morgan not to rely on precedent. The fires have been completely task oriented".
"So, once they're set the unsub is done?" Hotch clarifies.
"Exactly, the unsub is not a classical serial arsonist. He's someone who uses fire because of a completely different disorder" Spencer tells them.
"Which is?" Gideon prompts.
"An extreme manifestation of O.C.D., Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. He does everything in threes, and if I'm right he'll have to kill again" Spencer finishes. Hotch and Gideon share a look before following Spencer back to the computer he'd been using to watch the video earlier.
"There's a form of O.C.D. called Scrupulosity" Spencer starts once they've gathered around the computer.
"Religious obsession and compulsion" Gideon says.
"An obsessive fear of committing sin, which creates so much anxiety that he's compelled to do something to ease that anxiety" Spencer explains.
"Like setting fires" Hotch murmurs.
"Where's the behavioural evidence?" Gideon asks.
"Right here" Spencer says starting the video. "All right. Remember the night of the three fires? We saw the doorknob turning against the lock" he reminds them as the zoomed in footage plays. "But he's not trying to get in. He's compelled to turn the doorknob three times" he summarizes.
"Well, what about the fires? The first ones were single fires. If the unsub was O.C.D., shouldn't they have all been in threes?" Gideon questions.
"They were in threes. A trinity of threes. The first fire occurred on March third" Spencer responds.
"Three pm, third day, third month" Gideon realizes.
"It's that convergence of threes that causes the overwhelming anxiety. Obsessive compulsives ease the anxiety by performing the compulsion" Spencer explains.
"What about the other fires? Professor Wallace?" Hotch asks.
"Office number 3. I checked for more patterns of threes. His class was on Tuesdays" Spencer replies.
"Third day of the week" Hotch mutters.
"Matthew Rowland was in that class. It was his third class of the day. If we looked into each of the fires we'd find a lot of patterns having to do with threes because our minds are incredibly adept at seeking out patterns. But to the unsub, once that pattern hits" Spencer pauses to snap his fingers. "Bam-he sets a fire" he finishes.
"But if the target was always people, why did no one die in the first few fires?" Hotch wonders.
"They were failures. Up until Matthew Rowland" Spencer responds. Hotch frowns and stares thoughtfully into the distance.
"What is it?" Gideon asks him.
"I think I know who it might be. And it's not a he, it's a she" Hotch reveals.
"Who?" Gideon demands pulling out his phone and dialing.
"Clara Hayes" Hotch says once the call has connected.
"Clara Hayes. A chemistry student. I'll get you her records now" Dean Turner's voice tells them from the phone.
"First get campus security out and find her. She could set her next fire within hours" Gideon advices. Turner makes a noise of agreement before hanging up.
"How do you know it's her?" Spencer asks once Gideon is off the phone.
"When we were talking to het and her classmates I noticed something-a ring on her finger. And she kept turning it" Hotch starts.
"At intervals?" Spencer guesses.
"Of three" Hotch confirms. "And she counted off the ingredients of a light bulb bomb" he adds jogging Spencer's memory.
"And the word "sugar"" he realizes aloud.
"Yeah. And she kept repeating it. Once she started, she couldn't stop" Hotch elaborates for Gideon.
"Yeah, it's palilia. It's the involuntary repetition of words. Howard Hughes had it when his O.C.D. worsened" Spencer explains.
"Clara and her classmates were working on a project about gravitational pull" Hotch remembers.
"The three-body problem" Gideon says seriously as they all share a look.
With Derek
Derek and Elle stood in front of the average looking door to the apartment of one Clara Hayes with a security guard just ahead of them. They all have their guns out just in case, and the guard opens the door and barges in shouting. Once he's done a sweep he calls back the all clear. Derek and Elle take that as their cue to put their guns away and enter the apartment. Derek looks around the place. The walls are covered in paper: handwritten notes, printed verses, and strange pictures. The word 'Fire' was a common theme throughout.
"Oh, you gotta be kidding me. O.C.D.? I'm thinking more like OMG" Derek says as he takes it all in.
"O.M.G.?" Elle asks.
"Oh, my god" Derek elaborates.
"'A fire is kindled in my anger, and shall urn into the lowest hell.' Deuteronomy" Elle reads from one of the notes.
"And again, the fire of heaven came down and killed them all" Derek adds from another.
Looking around a bit more Elle spots a picture of a man on a boat, "I do this for Charon" she murmurs. "That' Charon" she adds louder indicating the image. "That's the Greek mythological ferryman of the dead". Derek barely notice his hands dialing out a number he knew by heart, but he feels a wave of comfort when Reid's voice greets him from the other side. Automatically Derek turns the phone to speaker to Elle can hear whatever info Reid may have as well.
"It's also the name of Pluto's only moon" Derek says before looking a bit further. "Paradise Lost, 'Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with the blood of human sacrifice and parent's tears" he reads.
"Moloch was the demon sun god of the Canaanites. In order to keep from incurring his wrath, the people would sacrifice their children to him by burning them alive" came Reid's voice from the phone. They could also hear the sound of printing paper and then came Hotch's voice.
"16-year-old survives inferno. The mother Ellen Hayes called it a miracle. "My Daughter was tested by God. He tested my child and she came through blessed." Look at the house number".
A moment passed with only the crinkle of paper before they heard Gideon saying "333". There was silence for a moment after that pronouncement before Hotch got Derek to confirm that had not been in her apartment before he hung the phone up for the time being.
"Hey Morgan, you know what magical thinking is?" Elle asks a couple of minutes later.
"Obsessive thoughts. It's like a superstition. It controls them" Derek answers.
"Kinda like 'step on a crack, break your mother's back'" Elle muses.
"Except she actually believes it" Derek points out.
"God tested her with fire, and now when three 3s show up around another person" Elle starts.
"God tells her to test them" Derek says holding up a bottle filled with a blueish liquid to examine. Just then his phone starts to ring. Putting the bottle down he notes that it's Hotch calling and answers it.
"Hey Hotch" Derek greets only to be cut off by his boss.
"Have you found anything that could tell us the next fire site yet?" Hotch demands.
"We're working on it, man. I don't think she would have left behind a day planner that says, 'set next fire here' in it" he answers.
"Just find whatever you can" Hotch responds with a sigh.
"I understand. Wait till you see this place" Derek replies. Just then Elle calls his name so he says, "I'll call you back" to Hotch and goes over to see what she'd found. He freezes once he was close enough to see, and immediately dials Hotch back.
"Hotch, we've got a problem" He says as soon as the phone is picked up. "There must be thirty homemade bombs in here".
"Morgan, seal the building, get everybody out of there, and walk away" Hotch orders and Derek makes an agreeing noise before hanging up and co-ordinating with Elle to do just that.
Everything after that was a rush of adrenaline and panic. Trying to clear all the buildings around campus and get everyone to safety. Derek, along with everyone else, is relieved when Clara is found and stopped just in time to prevent another fire and likely more deaths. The team meets up, and does a debrief, that is for Derek a total blur, with Dean Turner before they head back to the plane and home. For reasons he can't, or maybe won't, understand Derek keeps checking to make sure that Reid is alright. When he'd seen all those bombs and had realized Clara could be anywhere with any number more his thoughts had immediately jumped to the younger agent. Even as he tries to rationalize to himself that this is because Spencer is the weakest member of the team physically he can't seem to stop stroking the name-Spencer's name-on his wrist. And he realizes that even though Reid isn't his and he's meant for some other Spencer Reid out there he's still going to do all he can to protect this one. Of course, being so wrapped up in his own thoughts Derek doesn't notice the object of them constantly watching him out of the corner of his eye-as if afraid that Derek would disappear if he were to stop for even a second.
Faulkner once said, "Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself."