If Flowers Were Mirrors

A/N: I apologize in advance for all of the line breaks, but I wanted to separate all of these sections. Hopefully it means easier reading for you guys. Enjoy!

"Damn!" Morgan exclaimed after they entered the house of the latest victim. He and the others watched as Gideon went on a near rampage, questioning the police officers about how the murderer was able to enter the house without their noticing. The officers on the other hand, insisted that no one had entered or left the house without them seeing. Gideon wasn't about to agree with them.

"It's pretty obvious that someone got in, officers. There's a woman in there, dead." He said his hands wringing together as an emotion akin to rage seemed to radiate from him. Gideon didn't appreciate serial killers getting away with their craft right under his nose. Not that any of the others did either, but Gideon always seemed to take it the hardest when someone died on his watch. Either way, the officers standing in front of him weren't going to forget this event anytime soon. The team was quick to head to the crime scene when their most senior member gave them a look from where he stood. Quickly they headed to the second floor and entered the crime scene, well aware of what to expect.

Just as the others had been, the woman was laid out on her bed, hands folded over her stomach. Her fingers clenched around a yellow flower with an inner tube that was shaped like a trumpet with frilled edges, and outer petals in a ring around it. The entire flower was gold. Prentiss leaned over it while Reid prepared to take a picture for Grace.

"It looks like an ordinary Daffodil." She commented as she looked for anything out of the ordinary. Morgan nodded in agreement as he too took a look.

"Yeah, it looks like the ones my mom grows in her front yard—hardly looks like anything exotic, not like the other two." He said. Reid on the other hand gave a sigh that neither confirmed agreement or otherwise.

"Well, it could be a Daffodil, but it doesn't really matter if it's exotic or not does it?" he said to the others as he snapped pictures to send to their unofficial agent.

"It's what it means that matters." He finished as he sent the final pictures off.

Unfortunately, they would have to wait for a moment, seeing as Grace was in the middle of a meeting with the bank.

Grace was sitting in the office of a loan officer, palms sweating as she waited for the final verdict on whether or not she would get the funds to open her own business. Despite her inexperience as a business owner, the woman sitting ahead of her had made a point of praising her work with established shops in Philadelphia. This only slightly reassured Grace as the woman flipped through the rest of the information she had provided. She risked a peek outside the office only a few times to make sure Aydan was where she had left him.

After all he had been through a year ago, Aydan had moved on in his young life, remarkably well. His moods hadn't changed any and aside from a few a nightmares, he had hadn't seemed to have changed from the happy little boy Grace had raised. He wasn't plagued by anything detrimental, though she noticed he had become more cautious of being unattended. Staying near her while they were out in public, but never withdrawing. For this, Grace was relieved and proud. At the moment he was drawing on the paper she had brought to keep him occupied. Having just moved to the Quantico area, she hadn't yet met anyone she was willing to entrust with the care of her son. Other than of course those of the BAU team, who were currently indisposed. She gave a small smile and looked back at the loan officer who was busily pulling papers together for her to sign. She began this process and was neck deep in paper, oblivious to what was happening just outside the door.

Aydan on the other hand was quite aware. The little boy was happily drawing on his paper, his feet swinging several inches above the ground, when his mother's purse began to ring. The little boy looked at the bag and then towards where his mother was sitting. Finally he gave a slight shrug and searched the purse for his mother's phone. He looked at the screen as he'd seen his mother do a thousand times before, he sounded out the letters (having learned to read earlier that year) and realized it was Reid calling. He answered the phone smiling.

"Hello?"

"Hello?" A surprised voice replied.

"Hi, Spencer."

"Aydan, what are you doing answering your mom's phone?"

"Why are you calling it?" A silence at the other end of the line proved a point well

made. Reid couldn't seem to argue though he remembered what he had called for in the first place before he attempted it. Aydan was a five year old, it would just make Reid more of a nerd.

"Could you put your mom on the phone for me?" Aydan looked up at the window to see his mother working hard at a pile of papers in front of her.

"Umm… No." There was another silence. Reid's reply was questioning and gave away how painful it was that he had to say it.

"Please?"

"I can't because mommy's trying to get someone to give her money."

"Giving her money… Oh! The loan, right… Well—I guess that means I have to leave a message with you, can you do that for me?" Aydan wiggled on the bench he was sitting on, thoroughly excited at this new task. It was this movement that caused Grace to look up from the mountain of papers she was signing. She watched her son as he continued talking on her cell phone. Who was he talking to? What was he even doing

"Yah!"

"Ok, tell your mom that we're sending her more flower pictures and she needs to let us know what they are and what they mean as soon as possible, did you get that?"

"Yup, um, Spencer?"

"Yes, Aydan?"

"When are you coming home?"

"As soon as I can, Aydan. As soon as I can."

"Good, bye Spencer."

"Bye Aydan."

Aydan shut the phone and put it back in his mother's purse, promptly starting his drawing once more. Fifteen minutes later his mother left the office she had been shut up in. She thanked the woman profusely, shaking her hand as she left. When she finally reached her son, she was exhausted. Aydan however, was rearing to go.

"Hi, mommy." Grace smiled and took his hand as they left the bank.

"Hi, baby." The little boy looked up at his mother and tugged on her hand a little.

"Did they give us money?" Grace laughed as they pushed the doors open to the bank and headed for the car. She looked down at him and nodded.

"Yep. They gave us money." Aydan smiled and did what could only be compared to the Peanut's Happy Dance. Grace couldn't help but laugh and was more than happy to join in when he gave her a big smile. After a few seconds of dancing, the two headed home. Aydan sharing the message he had gotten from Reid.

"Mommy, what does Asparagus have to do with flowers?" Grace looked up from the photos she was looking at and gave Aydan a puzzled look.

"What, sweet pea?" she asked. Aydan pointed at the words beneath the picture he was looking at. They had Grace's notes and books spread out across the table and were looking at them to match them to the photos Reid had sent them

"As-per-uh-gus." He sounded out, trying to make sense of vegetable with a flower. Grace looked to where he was pointing. She smiled at his innocent mistake.

"Oh, honey, that's Aspargales. It's the—category name of the flower we're looking for. And, I think you've found it." A moment later she called Reid, giving Aydan a big hug and a kiss on the forehead as the phone rang. When he answered, it wasn't a surprise to find out what the flower was implying.

Reid's phone clicked shut as he turned to face the group waiting in the office. They had been waiting impatiently for Grace to call back, but it had taken much longer then expected. Gideon had been pacing for the last thirty minutes and Reid had been afraid he would explode. The others were staring at their notes, tossing ideas back and forth. They had searched the crime scene and still come up clueless. At the sound of Reid's phone shutting, everyone in the room turned their eyes on him. After a moment of audience shock, Reid cleared his throat and gave a brief overview of what Grace had said.

"It is a Daffodil, also known as a Narcisscus Flower. Not surprisingly, it means egotism." Morgan's head fell back and he let out a loud groan.

"Fantastic." The rest of the group agreed.

Square one was becoming a rather familiar place.