"Why is it that Reid's the one running late?" I turned and asked JJ Emily quietly. "I mean where could he possibly be?"
It was fairly early in the morning; most of us would just now be getting out of bed to head into the office at this time instead of sitting around the table getting ready to get our next case. As soon as my phone started ringing on my night stand I was wide awake and jumping out of bed.
After letting my heart rate slow down since the phone ringing had nearly given me a heart attack.
Everyone, minus Reid, was sitting around the conference table clutching tightly onto their cups of coffee trying not to notice the matching dark circles under their eyes. Hardly anyone was speaking as they tried their hardest to mentally relax before throwing their minds back into the abyss.
"I'm so sorry," Spencer yelled as he ran in taking a seat between Emily and Rossi. Reid must not have noticed the strange looks he was getting from everyone on the team and if he did he didn't say anything.
"What've we got JJ?" Hotch asked gently rubbing the bridge of his nose.
Clicking the remote in her hand JJ brought several crime scene photos up on the television set hanging on the wall. "Authorities outside of Miami are dealing with the disappearance of several individuals, today the body of one of the missing was found in a marshy area that was inhabited by alligators.
"Miami and alligators?" Morgan asked raising an eyebrow at JJ. "You do realize it's spring break for many college students right now?"
"Yeah, that's why the local authorities are requesting us now before this thing gets too far out of hand because all the victims are college students on spring break."
"I don't blame them," I added flipping through some of the details of the case. "With that many potential victims the UnSub basically has a huge victim pool right there at his disposal, and when the kids head back to school he can quietly leave with them. Not the kind of spring break I'd want to be a part of."
"Sam's right," Hotch began, his voice flat and emotionless, "This UnSub can easily go back to their daily life after all the parties die down so we have to work quickly. Also since the UnSub is dumping the bodies for alligators means there could be many more victims that we don't know about, we need to hit the ground running. Everyone meet at the airstrip in twenty."
/0/0/
We were on forth day on the case and we were just as close to solving this case as when we stepped on the plane to Miami, the only problem was that another college student was missing. Ever since the story first broke on the news we were also now dealing with the constant stream of people who realized that their friends might be missing instead of just passed out somewhere.
It wasn't until Reid noticed that all of the victims had at one point spotted the day they disappeared in the same area, hoping to find a connection we contacted the one person that could find our missing puzzle piece.
"Quantico's very own Goddess of Information, how fast do you want to be impressed?" Garcia's voice filled the conference room with her own special way of greeting the team. Sometimes I wondered if she just sat up at night and came up with new snappy remarks to use on us.
"Hey Garcia," Reid greeted her, "I need you to do something for me."
"Name it boy wonder." Reid's face burned red as a result of Garcia.
"Garcia, we need you to pull up a list of males between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty-five," Reid continued. "Also the UnSub has to have access to boats in order to dump his victims so far in the marshes."
"You guys are definitely going to have to give me more than that," Garcia groaned through the intercom.
"Garcia, this guy is familiar to this area so he has be local and probably grew up around here," Emily added. "He's probably also going to also have a criminal record and a violent history."
"I'll look into this my pretties and see if anything sticks out, Garcia out." With that the line went dead and everyone was fairly silent, well except for the lead detective on the case.
"Where can we get one of those?" Detective Hoyt asked, staring dumbfounded at the now silent phone.
Garcia just had that effect on people when a person heard, or met her for the first time. It had happened to me, I was about ready to start calling it the 'Garcia effect.'
"Luckily there is only one and she happens to be on our side." Rossi let out a light chuckle as he placed his notebook back in the inner pocket of his blazer. Something about the way Rossi put his notebook away made me think of my father, he was always taking notes whether he was working or not.
Paying attention to Rossi almost made me miss Hotch direct JJ to schedule a press conference for later today so we could get our profile out to the media before this could get any worse and people started questioning what we were doing down here.
"I'm on it Hotch," JJ assured him before getting up and leaving the room and the rest of us sitting around the table hoping we would get lucky.
/0/0/
"Jerry, you don't have to do this," I assured a young man waving around a gun. Considering the confined space of the bait shop the last thing anyone wanted was for this guy to start firing shots, even if they were at himself.
Of course all the credit had to go to Garcia and Reid on cracking this one and bringing us here to this small bait shop, which was owned by the UnSub. The UnSub Jerry Rennolds was not a fan of the annual Spring Breakers and how their partying would regularly disrupt his business or the fact that he had been teetering on the ferge of a psychotic break.
Luckily we found the Jerry before he could abduct another victim and before the college students returned back to school. Now we had to deal with a man that was on the verge of taking his own life.
Over the UnSub's shoulder I saw Morgan and Rossi lurking around a corner, Rossi started coming up behind the UnSub when he started fearing he was inching closer on taking his own life.
"Put the gun down," I yelled, my right index finger resting lightly on the trigger of my own gun making sure to aim for his leg. "I'm not going to tell you again, put the gun down."
Once the UnSub turned his gun towards me Morgan dove for the man tackling him to the ground. "What is wrong with you?" Morgan yelled sliding the gun across the floor so he could get Jerry in handcuffs.
Rossi and I walked out of the bait shop as Derek finished squaring things up with the local authorities, Rossi headed over to JJ and Reid while I continued walking until I was far enough from everyone so I could regain my composure. With my eyes closed I removed myself from the area even if just for a split second.
Sure, it hadn't been the first time I had been threatened by a weapon but something about the whole thing never got any easier, especially when you're facing a serial killer instead of a Mob boss.
My thoughts were inturpted as footsteps got closer from behind, my eyes flew open and I whipped around when a now familiar voice spoke to me.
"Are you alright?" Hotch asked as one of the local detectives walked the UnSub to a waiting car. He placed a hand on my shoulder for reassurance. Absent mindedly I melted into his touch feeling safe and comforted by such a simple gesture.
"Yeah," I answered with a forced smile. "Yeah Hotch, I'm fine."
Hotch must have noticed my eyes lingering on his hand on my shoulder because he quickly let his arm fall to his side giving me an apologetic look.
"Who's ready to get out of here and go home?" I heard Emily ask from somewhere behind me.
"You have no idea," I answered her as I headed back to our SUV's; I turned back towards Hotch, gently reaching out and touching his arm. "Thanks Hotch."
A softer side of Hotch? What do you think about the future of Sam and Hotch? Let me know what you think please either here or on the blog. This case is not a big part of the story and it is my first attempt at writing an original (and quick) case so please be kind.
This story also has its own blog which will feature extra outtakes and info on the characters here and there so please visit http:/afterdarknesscm(dot)wordpress(dot)com