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"Call him, if you're so worried about him."
Austin was playing with the Cobb salad she'd ordered at the food court in the mall. The tone in her best friend's voice made her look up from the greens, bleu cheese, hard boiled eggs, chicken and other toppings that she'd drenched in French dressing. She taken a total of three bites in the last twenty minutes, but the salad was pulled completely apart by her constantly playing with it.
"I've already tried to call him seven times in the last three days. He never ignores me. He always calls me back."
"Always… as in two times after you sent him back his own business card with a lipstick kiss and then you called him."
She focused her eyes back on her salad and blinked hard against frustrated tears. "You don't understand!"
"I understand better than you think I do. You went through a horrible experience at the hands of a serial killer. Kenny says that something like that can make you very vulnerable. He said that in a high stress situation like that, you'd think you were falling for the white knight that saved your life when in reality -"
"Stop it! I don't want to hear a load of psycho-babble from Kenny the "shrink in training," and his traveling couch."
"Don't attack Kenny just because you don't want to hear the truth. You barely know this guy. You met him in a club."
"So what, every guy in a club is a budding serial killer. He's an FBI agent for God's sake."
"That's my point exactly. You talk about this Dr. Reid all the time." Her friend was using her fork to punctuate her points. "According to you, he's cute in a nerdy teacher's aide kind of way. So that tells me he doesn't willingly hang out in bars. Supposedly, he's some kind of genius. You remember the geeks in school; they didn't know how to get the girls. I think he just momentarily charmed you and you felt sorry for him. Then he saved your life and now you think you're falling in love with him."
"That's not what I'm saying -"
"I know you Austin. We've been best friends since we were seven. You always do this, flame up into passion and then you find something wrong with the guy and that's it. This time I'm telling you to be careful. You don't know this man. Just because he's an FBI agent, doesn't mean he won't flake out on you. Obviously if he hasn't called you back, it's because he's trying to tell you something. I'd be pissed if I were you. He could at least call you back and tell you he isn't interested. "
"Shut up Lisa!"
"Just think about what I said." She reached over and smoothed back a stray hair from Austin's face. "A long distance relationship wouldn't have worked anyway."
"How would you know?"
"Don't you remember Larry?"
"Yeah, what's your ex-husband got to do with anything?"
"Don't pout, it's not attractive."
"Don't treat me like a child. I know Spencer. He'd never treat me like this on purpose. Something's wrong and I'm going to find out what it is."
She left the table and her friend who was shouting after her. People were staring at her as she pushed past the crowds that were collecting for lunch in the food court.
She pulled out her phone and called a number that she had researched the night before when something began to tell that something wasn't right with Spencer. The phone rang, she argued with the person that answered for ten minutes. They hung up on her. She slapped the phone together and slammed into her car. Angry tears fell as she slammed her hands down on the steering wheel and the horn gave a startled blat.
This was crazy… She was freaking out over someone that she didn't really know. She could count on one hand the number of times they'd spoken on the phone. Was Lisa right about her? Was she falling in love with the idea of being rescued from a serial killer?
She looked at her phone again. She could call him again. She put the phone in her purse and started the car. Lisa was right; he didn't want her now that her usefulness to the case was over. He didn't know how to relate to girls, and he probably saw her was a nuisance and someone that would get in the way of his job and his life as a genius.
---
Reid put the case file on the coffee table. He hadn't opened it yet. It called to him the same way a case did when JJ or Agent Todd gave them something new to work on. It was the call of a mystery that really interested him. The victims called out to him because of their suffering and pain, but he loved a good mystery. Was this a good mystery too, or was it a joke. Perhaps he was dreaming and once he opened the file he'd wake up.
He lay back on the bed at one end of the room and closed his eyes. They wanted him to open the file so he would ignore it.
What if someone out there really needs you?
Well that was kind of egocentric. He wasn't the only one in the BAU that could solve cases. The others on his team were perfectly capable of handling a case without him. He found that this knowledge didn't sit very well with him.
There is no 'I' in team.
He wished that inner voice would pick a side in this internal argument and quit confusing him with its equivocation.
You should open the file. Someone could be dead!"
Yeah, someone could be dead. It washis duty as an FBI agent and a member of the BAU to look at it. He could figure out a way to get out of this mess after he looked at the case.
He opened his eyes and looked at the clock. It was midnight and another day was beginning. He was so tired. He couldn't do anything tonight. He would look at the folder in the morning. That was soon enough to look and to see what kind of joke Calloway was trying to work on him. After all Calloway was just like every other bully he'd ever dealt with in his life. The best way to deal with them was to refuse to play the game.
He closed his eyes again and Austin's face surfaced to the top of his thoughts despite trying to keep her buried until he figured a way out. What if she tired to contact him and was angry that he didn't call her back. He felt in his pocket for his phone and slammed a fist down on the bed when reminded that the phone was gone.
Please don't let her give up on me.
Then quit sitting there like a bump on a log. Do your job and he'll let you out of here.
Sure he would!
He went to the couch and picked up the file. He opened it read it and looked at the crime scene photographs that were included.
"Oh God!" He whispered.
---
Austin finished her glass of bourbon and picked up the phone. The call she made to Quantico netted her another argument with the base security. No they wouldn't give her Reid's address or Agent Hotchner's phone number. It was against base and FBI policy.
She slammed down the phone and got up to pace the room. Something was wrong! She could feel it in her bones. She looked at the phone and thought of what Spencer had said that last time they spoke. What had he called the place his mother lived in? She thought hard for long minutes till the name "Bennington," was pulled out of her memory.
The result was the same. They wouldn't let her talk to him or his mother. They wouldn't say if he'd been there or what was his mother's condition. They claimed all kinds of family and patients rights. She threw the cell phone across the room that time. It was almost midnight. She should just get to sleep and forget about this till the morning. That's what any sane and rational human being would do.
She crossed the living room to pick up the phone and suddenly a name that Dr. Reid had mentioned a lot floated up out of her tired and abused memory. Someone called Garcia that was a computer tech with Spencer's team. She remembered because he always spoke of this woman with fondness as though they were best friends. Maybe Garcia would know, and she bet that computer techs didn't have all the layers of security. There was only one way to find out. She'd call this Garcia in the morning and find out where Spencer was.
She'd show Lisa that it wasn't just a case of hero worship. She had real feelings for him and when he came to see her, Lisa would see that. It would all be okay because he had rescued her. Now, if he needed it, she would find him. Because something was wrong and she was going to find out what it was?