Disclaimer: See my profile

The Last Word

I should have been more careful with this journal. Not that anyone just picked it up and read, but - well let me start at the beginning.

Last weekend Hotch told us we were off the on call list, including me and Garcia. So Spence showed up at my door at the ungodly hour of eight am on Saturday morning with coffee. It's a very good thing for him that he's cute; otherwise I might have pulled my gun and shot him for waking me up. Also, the weather is getting colder and he was wearing his favorite dark brown corduroy jacket and his purple scarf. I love that scarf. I decided to forgive him and take the coffee he was carrying in a cardboard tray.

We went to the living room and were having a nice chat, when I excused myself to go answer the phone. It was a stupid telemarketer. I hung up on the girl and when I got back to the living room I didn't see one of my shoes I'd forgot to put away last night and tripped over it. I fell down, almost hitting my head on the edge of the coffee table. Spence jumped up and came over to help me. It made me laugh that for once it was me falling over my own feet. At least it was funny till Spence stood back up, hit the table and knocked a stack of books over, including my journal that I'd left there Friday night.

He got really red in the face and tried to help me pick up the books. He picked up the Journal and just looked at me with a look I'd seen before when we worked together. He dropped it on the table like it burned his fingers and went back to his seat on the couch.

So I told him he could read it if he wanted to, even though I was really nervous at what he would think. I know what you're thinking; that I'm nuts, but there was something in his eyes at that moment that told me to trust his reaction.

I gave him the book and he read it in less then two minutes. There was this really strange look in his eyes when he finished reading the journal. I tried to make him tell me what he was thinking, but he said it was nothing. I wanted to push the issue, but he'd removed his glasses and was rubbing at his eyes. The infection he's had for the last few weeks is healing, but there were times that he was in some pain, usually after we'd worked for hours on end. It distracted me from the journal. We had breakfast together and I talked him into going to the mall with me.

We got a case Monday morning in St. Louis. We had competing serial killers to deal with there. One called himself the Hollow Man and the other one was called the Mill Creek Killer. The Mill Creek Killer would attack a certain type of woman that he would bludgeon to death and then leave in the woods. The Hollow Man used a .45 and hollow point bullets to kill prostitutes.

I interrupted something weird when I went to get Hotch for the briefing. There was a dark haired woman in his office. He didn't look happy that she was there. I heard him say "I didn't approve this transfer Agent Prentiss," when I left his office. Are we getting a new agent? If we are, why didn't Hotch look very happy? Not that it's easy to tell when he's upset, but I digress.

While we talked about the case on the plane Spence had that look on his face again, the one from the weekend. He was rubbing his eyes again too. Usually, I try to keep a bit of distance from him when we're working. Not because everyone doesn't know about us, but because we're both professionals. So it was a surprise to me when I sat down on the arm of his seat and asked him what was wrong. He said that it was strange to have two serial murderers operating at the same time.

Hotch assigned him to look at the handwriting on the letter the Hollow Man sent to the press giving himself a name. I talked to the reporter that had received the letter and asked him not to write about the Hollow Man.

Then the most recent victim of the Mill Creek Killer was found a few hours after we arrived. I went to the crime scene with Gideon and Morgan. She had fresh lipstick and her hair was combed when we found her. I didn't think anything could be worse than just killing them, but sex acts with the dead bodies made me want to throw up. I kept it back though and did my job.

The Hollow Man was enraged by the lack of writing about him in the paper so he killed two prostitutes in broad daylight. He left a newspaper displayed between them. Jim Meyers, the reporter came and confronted me. He felt responsible for the deaths of the prostitutes. I had the fun job of trying to calm him down.

Spence was working on the handwriting analysis and he explained a bunch of personality traits for the killer. He seemed so sure of his conclusions that I had to play devils advocate for a minute. I reminded him that my handwriting is always different and he had an answer for that too. He has an answer for everything. It's a bit annoying!

Another girl went missing and we were able to find her in the woods where the other women had been found. The guys went to wait for him, but Jim Meyers was all they found. Apparently the Hollow Man told him where to find the body. We had no idea how the Hollow Man was getting this information till Spence figured it out as usual. He may be annoying, but he when he's right you can't be mad if it helps the case.

The killers were communicating in the classifieds. Garcia couldn't track them because they'd used cash. Gideon decided to use their relationship against them. Spence wrote a message imitating the Hollow Man to the Mill Creek Killer. I wasn't surprised that he could write it, but it was a bit creepy. It told the Mill Creek Killer that the Hollow man was leaving a gift for him at his dump site. We had to move fast because he tried to grab a woman off the street, but she screamed and got away.

We got a young police woman to pretend to be dead in the forest and the guys grabbed the Mill Creek Killer when he went to see his gift. Gideon talked to him and got him to admit that he'd killed those women.

I did a press conference saying that we had caught the Mill Creek Killer and that we didn't think the Hollow Man's kills were connected. I said we weren't interested in him anymore. I know that Hotch was trying to make him angry, but I don't know if Hotch thought the guy would come to the police station. But he did and was able to use a cop to get to us.

I'm trained to deal with having a gun pointed at me or someone I work with, but it was the most intense moment I've had with the team so far. I'm the unit liaison; I don't go getting into the fray with the guys. I'm glad the guys and a bunch of cops were there to take him down.

Spence was looking at me and I tried to tell him with my eyes that everything was okay. I think he knew because he was very calm on the flight home.

We went to get coffee after the plane landed. We went to his place to drink it and talk. Actually, I was the one rambling on about the case and the two competing killers while Spence didn't say anything. He surprised me just like Halloween, by kissing me. I think I spilled coffee all over his carpet, but I'm a bit fuzzy on that part. Kissing him tends to make my brain shut down.

When he finally let me breathe again, I could see that same look in his eyes and I made him tell me what was wrong. He said that he loved me. I was stunned; I never thought I would hear him say that to me. I said I loved him too. He said he already knew that, and I said, "How did you know?" He said it was in my handwriting.

So of course I had to smack him for analyzing my handwriting. He only laughed and said that he needed every advantage with a pretty girl like me. So I asked him again, for the umpteenth time, why he looked so thoughtful. He said he wondered if I'd always love him or would I find someone else when the spark wore off. I told him the spark was always going to be there. He said "I hope so, Agent Jareau." Then he kissed me again and made me forget everything, again! Why does he always get the last word?