Author's notes: This is the third chapter, it is one of the longer chapters, again it is betaed by flitshadowflame. I wanted to not only focus on Spencer's relationship with Morgan (his love interest), but also with the others in the group. The first part of this chapter would focus on Hotch and Spencer's relationship. In the second part we would be meeting the CSI team. The rating would not be raised for awhile yet, so hope you enjoy.
Hotch glanced down at the sleeping man - or child, as he sometimes thought of him - affectionately. When Reid had first joined the BAU, he had been awkward and uneasy with even the slightest of touches, but recently he had become more receptive, even initiating human contact on occasion.
He had hated the necessity of kicking Reid the night before and talking the way he had. He had thought that their relationship, built on trust and acceptance, would be destroyed. The awkwardness and uncertainty shown that morning by the young man only seemed to prove him right; but now, with him leaning willingly on him, Hotch felt that maybe all was not lost.
By the way Reid was talking and acting, it seemed that the full weight of the events the night before had not caught up to him yet. Hotch knew that when it did, it would be devastating; he just hoped that he would there to help the younger man. He had told his wife that he thought of Reid as a younger brother and she had agreed; the way Hotch took care of Reid reminded her of how Hotch actually took care of his own younger brother.
Hotch glanced to the front again and noted that Gideon and Detective Brass were still talking. Brass seemed a lot friendlier now that Gideon had opened him up. Hotch relaxed into his seat and listened to the both of them. Suddenly Detective Brass asked, "Is Dr. Reid asleep?"
"Yes. We had a very tough case last night and he was forced to kill our UNSUB. He must not have slept well last night," Hotch answered softly, not wanting to wake Reid.
"I understand. So, he's a doctor? Looks too young for it - in fact, he looks too young to be a FBI agent. How old is he, anyway?" The detective looked at Reid curiously through the rearview mirror as the agents laughed softly, having heard similar questions often in relation to the youngest member of the team.
"He just turned 24 recently. He was the youngest FBI recruit we ever had; he joined us three years ago and has been with us ever since. He's called 'Doctor' because he has a total of three PhDs, and is our very own statistics expert." Gideon answered with a smile, gazing fondly at the sleeping youth.
"Whoa, so he's a genius then?" The detective looked again at Reid.
"Yeah, but don't ask him that. He'll just tell you that there is no way to measure genius." Hotch answered, chuckling.
"Ah, modesty goes a long way. We'll be there soon, so you can wake your little genius up." Hotch nudged Reid before realizing that he was in a surprisingly deep sleep. He gave him a shake, and the doctor shot up like a rod.
"Wha...?" Reid rubbed his eyes tiredly, looking very adorable and childish.
"We're almost at the crime lab; thought you might want to take some time to gather your thoughts," Hotch told Reid quietly, Ried blinked and nodded to Hotch in understanding.
Soon, they pulled up in front of the building and got out. The second car pulled up beside theirs almost immediately, a laughing Morgan emerged from the front seat. He walked over to Reid and pulled the still groggy doctor into the building behind Detective Brass. The others shook their heads and followed, Reid just looked at Morgan in irritation as Morgan poked fun at him.
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They walked into the building and noted that the place was largely composed of glass, so everyone could see what the lab techs were doing in their individual laboratories. Spencer looked at all the equipment inside and the intricate work within. Thoroughly fascinated by the going ons, he tuned out Morgan's voice telling him about his discussion with the girls.
Finally, Morgan seemed to realize that Spencer was not listening to him, so he fell silent and followed the young doctor's lead through their new surroundings, if studying them with a little less interest. They eventually made it into a small meeting room and stopped outside. Most of the people within the fishbowl briefing area seemed to be asleep.
The only alert one in the room was an older man with brown hair and graying temples. He looked up from the file in his hands when he heard Detective Brass's knocking. He stood up and opened the glass door and gave the group outside a tired smile.
"The team has been up all night and is exhausted; I told them to take a nap. Why don't we move to the other meeting room and we can have our briefing there? Let me gather the things I need; I will meet you there in five." Grissom told Hotch, who was standing near the door. Before Hotch could say anything, Grissom was already back in the room and picking up papers. Hotch and the rest of the team stared at Grissom in bemusement before the detective's laughter snapped them out of it.
"He's always like this, drives most folks crazy. Follow me." Detective Brass led them along a hallway and entered a larger room with less comfortable chairs but more table space. All of them gathered around the table and started taking out their things. A moment later Grissom came in with two handfuls of papers.
"I am Agent Hotchner and this is Agent Gideon, Agent Greenaway, Agent Morgan, Agent Jareau and Dr. Reid." Hotch held out his hand to Grissom, Grissom blinked a little at the offered hand before taking it.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Gil Grissom." Grissom gave a little half smile. After letting go of Hotch's hand, Grissom begin to pin up pictures and crime scene photos on the board at the head of the room. The BAU team looked at the photos closely as they went up, and made notes when needed.
Finally, satisfied that everything was up, Grissom turned to the BAU team and studied them, when his eyes landed on the youngest on the team, he frowned a little, apparently picking up on the fact that he resembled the victims in some ways. Spencer was glad when he saw that the man was not going to say anything, though.
"All the victims seem to be wearing the same type of clothing." Gideon noted out loud.
Grissom nodded, "Correct. The cloth analysis produced nothing special on the material - all common, plain white cotton. But because the clothing was all handmade, we have come to the conclusion that the killer him- or herself most likely made the clothing. All the victims were dosed with arsenic one week prior to their deaths, but they did not die of the poison, they were suffocated. Because of the absence of any defensive injuries, we think that they were most likely subdued by the poison during their kidnapping and were then unconscious while they suffocated, approximately a week later. The bodies were all posed in a crossed arm position and all looked peaceful: the hair was neatly combed and the faces were made up. There were no signs of sexual assault or any other wounds on their body. The victims were found in dump sites near a graveyard. We cross checked the victims with missing persons and discovered that all the vics had disappeared just over a week before turning up dead. The killer has not made any contact and we have no suspects."
Gideon sat back in his chair, "The UNSUB is most likely a middle aged female. Judging by the care she took with her victims, she is probably a mortician, or has been one before. She has an extensive knowledge in drugs and poisons and their uses, and how to control the symptoms of poisons, so most likely she studied pharmacology or was trained as a medical personnel. She would seem to be a gentle and caring person, difficult to dislike and hard to agitate. She excels in everything that she does and has a meticulous personality. She likely suffered a severe trauma recently and is having trouble coping, that's what set off her recent behavior. She would have some kind of association with two people, one male and one female, and they would have wavy brown hair and hazel eyes with strong facial features, most likely siblings. Something would have happened to them that pushed the UNSUB over the edge of sanity. The UNSUB wants to find closure and is acting them out by taking such good care of the victims before killing them and later dressing them. She is most likely stalking the victims before kidnapping them."
Spencer had written down the entire disclosure in his notebook and he looked up to find everyone looking at him again. He bit down the urge to roll his eyes and looked down at his notebook, but before anyone could say anything, a tall black man knocked on the glass door. Grissom waved him in and he entered, taking in all the faces in the room.
"This is Warrick Brown one of my CSIs. Warrick these is the team from the BAU." Grissom said, Warrick nodded at the feds and they introduced themselves to him individually.
"The others have woken and are freshening up, they would be here soon." As if on cue, the rest of the team entered the room. Grissom introduced everyone, and Spencer had to sigh when all the other CSIs noticed him and stared at him a little longer then was polite.
"Forgive me, but you seem to look like the male victims." The other CSIs winced at their coworker's bluntness. Spencer remembered that she was introduced as Sara Sidle. He squirmed a little in his seat, wondering what to say.
"Yeah, he does. But we have already made him promise to be careful and he had agreed, so that should not be too much of a problem." Morgan answered for him, Spencer smiled a tiny smile in Morgan's direction in thanks and Morgan shrugged back at him. After that little glitch, the rest of the meeting was spent in discussion as Grissom updated his CSIs on the profile.