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North Mammon

Everything was so wonderful two days ago. I went to Spence's place for Halloween as planned. He was wearing this elaborate vampire costume complete with plastic fangs and white, pasty pancake makeup. He spent the whole evening handing out candy to kids, and speaking in this really bad Romanian or Transylvanian accent. We watched a couple of old B- horror movies that were funny rather than scary, and ate too much chocolate and popcorn.

I was on my way out the door at eleven o'clock when Spence just grabbed me and kissed me right on the mouth. I was so surprised I couldn't move and then my legs felt like they were going to collapse underneath me. He finally let go of me and I couldn't talk or even breathe. If it's possible for someone to blush underneath all that makeup, I'm sure that Spence was. He tried to apologize and I told him not to spoil it. Then I asked him where he learned to kiss like that. He wouldn't look at me and so I put my hand under his chin and pulled his face around to look at me. He said that the only girl he ever kissed was Lila, and he was afraid that I would be mad, but he really wanted to kiss me since the first day we met. It was so sweet - how can you get mad at a guy when he says something like that? His eyes lit up like stars and he laughed after I kissed him again. It was really nice and it felt like finally coming home.

My good mood lasted till Aunt Gina called me at work two days later. She told me that a friend of hers was on her way to see me at work. She wouldn't give me a lot of details even though I told her that we're busy and I don't have time for a visit. Aunt Gina said it was an emergency. I thought she was probably overreacting

I met Mrs. Homefeldt at the elevator and she so upset. She was from the next town down the line from East Allegheny. Her daughter and two of her daughter's friends had disappeared. The girls are soccer players and one has a full ride scholarship to Penn State. She was very upset and begged me to help her. How could I tell her no?

I took the request to the team, and Hotch basically said that without the invitation of the police, we couldn't help. I was way ahead of him and already had the paperwork. The team was pretty skeptical at first, especially Morgan. I sort of got angry and told them about how I was an athlete in high school, and how they wouldn't just cut school, do drugs, or smoke and jeopardize a scholarship. I lost my temper, but I just knew that we had to go, even though I didn't want to go back home because of work.

The cops weren't very helpful at first. They didn't think that the girls were missing. They thought they had just taken off. Hotch and I talked to Kelly Seymour's parents. I was so irritated with Mr. Seymour. He's talking about football and how Kelly felt left out. I was thinking that he probably thought his son, who's on the football team, was more important than his daughter.

The guys found cigarette butts across the street from one of the houses like someone had been watching. The DNA came back to their coach. Hotch asked me if I thought it was strange that the girls were missing and all anyone can talk about is the Championship game. So I told him it was football, didn't he know you can play it without girls. I was going for sarcasm with that statement. The truth was that I was so pissed off by the whole attitude. It was like being back in my home town when I was a teenager and I hated feeling that way again.

We found Brooke's car but no sign of the girls. Finally the cops decided that the girls really were missing. The guys gave the cops and the families the profile. They weren't happy when Gideon said it was someone in town. Brooke's father finally showed up and I had to take him aside to calm him down. He took off before I could stop him, and he went and attacked the girls' soccer coach. Derek had to take him down before he killed the guy.

We were talking to both of them when a driver of a garbage truck found the girls' soccer jerseys in the trash behind a motel where Mr. Chambers was staying. He and the coach ended up with good alibis. It looked like the kidnapper was tying to set them up.

We brought in the parents to find who the common person in their lives. They ended up sniping at each other and name calling. I lost my temper again and told them to shut up, stop fighting and help us. I think everyone was shocked into silence. Then it almost like some awful cue came to us from offstage. Garcia called us to tell us that one of the girls' cell phones had come on and they were right outside the police station. There were only two of them there and one had blood splattered on her face.

Polly identified their abductor from an old football team picture from thirty years ago. Brooke confessed to killing Kelly Seymour before Kelly could kill her. That man made them choose who to kill all because of a stupid football injury that cost him his career. He was the garbage man that 'found' the jerseys in the dumpster.

God… whatever happened to getting over your high school years already. What's the matter with people?

Hotch told me on the plane that I should be a profiler. I told him I was happy doing what I do and I really am. I don't want to be a profiler. I'll leave that to the rest of the team. They're the best. Hotch said that I did exceptional work on the case. It was the best compliment I've ever had.

I had all these case files I was looking at, and Hotch asked me what it all was, and I said I had to figure out where we were going next. He said, "We're the profilers, I thought we made those decisions." To which I replied, "Sure you do," and he actually smiled. It was startling and wonderful at the same time.

Spence called me after we got home. We talked for a long time. He said that he was really proud of me for how I stood up to Hotch and made the team take the case. He also made me laugh by asking me what Garcia meant when she said "bang bang for now," when he called her about the cigarette butts they found. I just laughed and said he should know better than to wonder what Garcia meant by anything.

I didn't sleep very well that night. I was up at the crack of dawn and just as I finished getting dressed, there came a knock at my door. It was Spence. I don't know how he knew I would be up, but somehow he did. He took me to breakfast at this little café around the corner from my place. We got a seat next to the east side window and we watched the sun come up. I asked him why he dragged me out for breakfast and he said that he just wanted to see me smile again. It was really sweet. Unfortunately, we had to go to work after breakfast, but I felt much better and ready to dig into work again. I should have asked him out a long time ago. Why did I wait so long? I know… I'm out of my mind!