The grand finale, just in case anybody actually reads this.
I found out the way your mind works and the kind of man you are. I know your plans and expectations - you've burbled every bit of strategy you've got. I know exactly what you will do, and exactly what you won't, and I've told you exactly nothing. To these aged eyes, boy, that's what winning looks like! (James Goldman, The Lion in Winter)
"All we need to do is to get her away from Spence," JJ said. They have been arguing the strategy for hours with no result. There just seemed to be no good outcome, no way to make Elizabeth surrender without anyone dying.
"Take me with you," begged Maeve. "Please, I will stay in the car, I promise, you won't even know I'm there, just take me with you."
"No." Hotch seemed very determined about this matter. "It's bad enough that we let you stay here. Spencer would never forgive us if we took you in the field."
"Besides," JJ added, looking pointedly at the baby Maeve was holding, "we won't ever put both Joanna's parents in danger."
"It's eight o'clock," Rossi glanced at his watch. "The message should come any moment."
"So we just try to convince her that we have Anna in the car, while we try to get a good shot?" Blake seemed less than impressed.
"We can't take an actual child out there," Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose.
At that moment Maeve's phone beeped. She had a text from Spencer with an address. Garcia's magic told them it's an old warehouse on the edge of Fredericksburg, rented by one of the members of the Children of Eden church.
The team cleared out, leaving Maeve standing there with Joanna in her arms, feeling absolutely miserable. She slowly walked to Garcia's office, put Joanna in her cot, thanking God that she was such a quiet baby, and pulled Spencer's old FBI jacket from her bag. She had her parents pack it too, just in case.
"Garcia, can you do me a favor? Look after Jo and if I don't come back, make sure she doesn't waste her life, okay?" she smiled.
"Where-where are you going?" Garcia stuttered.
"I can't just sit here. And I need one more thing. Can you do it for me?"
Garcia looked on the verge of tears. "What is it?" she asked shakily.
"Nothing hard," Maeve assured her. "Just a call."
Spencer Reid was a clever man and he figured out a long time ago that his chances of surviving this encounter are slim. He knew that his team would never trade a child for him, meaning that they will try to find another way out. That will probably result in a gunfight with him right in the middle of it.
Not looking good.
He felt absolutely calm and his brain was already listing all possible explanations why he doesn't feel fear. He even remembered Diane Turner's theory about spontaneous cell death after the mind makes the decision to die.
But I don't want to die, he realized. I know I probably will, but I will fight for every second. Did Maeve feel like this when Diane held her?
He let Lisa tie hands in front of his body with zip ties, lead him out of his room and out of the building. It took a while for his eyes to adjust to the bright light, but when they did, he saw his whole team, guns ready, waiting for them. They were in front of an old warehouse on what used to be a parking lot.
"Where is she?" Lisa yelled.
"She is in a car in the back. Release him and we'll take you to her," said Rossi.
"No! You are lying! I want to see her!" Spencer felt the barrel of the gun dig deeper in his temple. Lisa was much smaller than him, so he stood twisted in a very uncomfortable position. She seemed to realize it too.
"On your knees," she commanded. He obeyed and felt the gun pressed to the back of his head. Lisa must have been crouching behind him to be shielded from the guns.
Suddenly a shot echoed through the parking lot. The agents were looking at each other, trying to determine who did this, until Morgan shouted: "On the roof!"
"You didn't think I would come alone, would you?" Lisa taunted. "Don't try anything or Colton will stop you."
Spencer felt the blood draining from his face. A sniper. She brought a sniper.
The next thing he saw was even worse – Maeve, dressed in an FBI jacket that was way too big for her, stood only a few steps behind the front line and was whispering something to Blake and Morgan.
No. No! No no no no! What are you doing here? Who let you come? Aaron Hotchner, I am going to kill you or haunt you at the very least! Get her out of here! She doesn't have to see this!
"Okay, okay, we are going to bring her here, just wait a moment," Rossi tried to play for time, but Spencer already saw this was not going to work.
"I told you to bring her at nine!" Lisa barked. "I know you don't believe I will kill him, but I will!"
Oh they believe you all right, Spencer thought.
"We know." Maeve's voice sounded calm and decisive as she walked right between Rossi and JJ into the open space between Lisa and the FBI. The agents missed their chance to stop her, the position she was in now... any sudden movement and Lisa could panic. "You remember me, don't you? My name is Maeve, you have been calling me. I will send Spencer a phone," she said, showing her the little box in her hand. "Elizabeth, is it okay?"
"Why?" Lisa seemed confused.
"Because the bedtime story he told our little one wasn't finished," she explained. "I know you will kill him, but I want him to tell my baby the rest of the story first."
Spencer didn't see, but Lisa must have nodded, because Maeve slid the phone across the asphalt and it stopped against Spencer's knee.
"Penelope is going to call you soon," Maeve said. "She is a funny one, weaving by day..."
Unraveling by night... Spencer remembered the Odyssey immediately. Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, was stalling her suitors by weaving a shroud during the day, but unraveling it during the night. The message was clear – tell a story. Buy us time.
He picked up the phone and it rang seconds later. He put it on speaker to make Lisa more invested in the conversation. She hadn't stopped him yet, that was a good sign.
"Hello?" he said.
"Hi, Reid." Garcia sounded really uncomfortable with the whole thing.
"Is the baby safe?" he asked.
"Yes, safe and sound and with me, listening to Papa."
He took a deep breath. You are Scheherezade now – tell a story, save your life. "Hey, kiddo. I told you about the king of the Silver Country and how his youngest queen saved him. But there was another queen, not so lucky. She was expecting a baby when the traitor took her. She later escaped and gave birth to a beautiful little princess. This queen loved her princess very much. She took her to a friendly kingdom, played with her every day and bought her pretty toys.
But the evil guards from Prince's country found them again and they were jealous because none of their princesses were as beautiful or as smart as this princess of the Silver Country. They took the princess away, even though the queen cried and begged them not to.
The queen was very brave and smart and she wasn't going to give up. She found the old traitor and wanted to trade him for her princess. It was more than a fair trade, to exchange someone as worthless as the traitor for someone as perfect as the little princess."
It was time to stray from the fairytale and Spencer knew that it could cost him his life. It also might help him get into Lisa's head. Besides, there were things he needed to say in case something bad happens in the next few minutes.
"What the queen didn't know was that the traitor had married a beautiful queen too and had his own princess. And even though he was just a worthless evil traitor, he loved his wife and daughter very much. They were the very best thing that he had ever had. There were days when he woke up and couldn't understand how a traitor like him ended up with such a perfect queen and even more perfect princess. He had seen some dark things and did some dark things too, but the bad memories seemed to hide when his queen smiled."
Spencer paused. He saw Maeve smiling at him through the tears. Don't cry, he wanted to tell her and he knew that she would answer: You are crying too.
"So what happened next?" asked Garcia on the phone.
"The story isn't over yet," said Spencer. "I don't know what the queen will do. But whatever it is, make sure that the princess from the Silver Country knows that her mother loves her very much." He sighed and added: "And you can tell the traitor's princess that her Papa loves her too."
Lisa reached over his shoulder and hung up.
"I can't let you go," she whispered. She sounded like she was crying too. "Not until I have Anna."
"Her grandmother calls her Mabel," Maeve said to keep the conversation flowing.
"It's the name Cyrus wanted to give her," Lisa sobbed. "I always wanted her to be Anna."
"I can see that he meant a lot to you. Colton... he talks a little bit like him, but it doesn't feel right, does it?" Maeve was manipulating her like an experienced profiler.
"No, it does," said Lisa quickly. Too quickly.
"You don't have to pretend anymore, Elizabeth. I understand you," Maeve smiled, but Spencer saw the quick glance she cast at the roof of the warehouse.
"You do?"
He felt almost sorry for the girl. In many ways she was just a confused kid, who had a knack for picking the wrong guy and making all the wrong decisions. The worst of them was to go up against the team that hunted serial killers for living and was aided by Maeve Donovan.
Maeve's smile disappeared and a kind, understanding mother turned into a goddess of vengeance. "No. I don't understand a woman who doesn't come to see her daughter for three months just because she found a new boy toy." She made a step towards them. "I don't know how can a woman make grand statements about the meaning of family and separate a father from his little girl just to get her way."
"Stop right there!" Lisa shouted.
"And most of all," Maeve took another step, "I have no idea how a woman can leave her child crying for days and still call herself a mother."
She seemed unstoppable, like Nemesis, like a Fury coming for Orestes, but Spencer was waiting for the gunshot, for Maeve falling down, for the blood and the inevitable pain. Apparently Lisa was too because she made no real attempt to stop Maeve.
"Don't move!"
"Or what?" Spencer had never seen Maeve so sure of herself. And so full of hatred. He had no idea that his sweet girlfriend was capable of the expression she had now – cold, stone mask with absolutely no mercy behind it.
"He will shoot you!"
"Who will?"
Spencer felt Lisa turn to look at the roof and dared to sneak a peek too. Morgan was standing there, provocatively waving at them, while two other agents handcuffed Lisa's sniper.
At the same time, only much closer, just behind his back, Blake said: "Make a move, girl. I dare you."
Spencer felt Lisa's grip on him loosening and let his instincts take over. He curled in a ball and rolled to the side. When he looked up, Blake was already tossing Lisa's gun away and someone else was bringing the handcuffs.
"Are you okay, Spence?"
JJ was standing right behind him with a worried look.
"Yes, I'm fine," he replied. "Can you please tell me who let Maeve come here and while you're at it, give me my gun back. I need to shoot my Unit Chief."
"I think she let herself," JJ smiled and untied his hands. "You can chew her out after Hotch is done with her," she pointed to where Hotch and Rossi seemed to be taking turns in yelling at Maeve, who listened with a very unconvincing sheepish expression.
"Okay, how did Morgan get there?" he pointed at the roof. "I saw him down here, talking to Maeve... Oh crap!"
"When Maeve saw the sniper, she asked Garcia to send her the plans of that warehouse and she found another way in." Blake joined them. "She showed me and Morgan and we were able to sneak up at them."
Spencer was still confused. "Why you?"
"Don't know," Blake shrugged. "I guess we were the most likely to be rebellious. But it wouldn't have worked if you hadn't distracted her with the story, Scheherezade."
"You're welcome. Excuse me for a moment," he muttered and walked to the group consisting of Maeve, Rossi, Morgan, and Hotch.
"We should arrest you for this!" Hotch was saying. "This is an unprecedented..."
"Come on," Morgan was apparently taking Maeve's side. "It's a good thing she did it."
"No, it's the most reckless, stupid, irresponsible..." Rossi seemed to run out of the words to describe Maeve's actions.
"Idiotic," Spencer supplied.
They all turned to him and he saw the relief in their eyes. He smiled at them, trying to tell them that he was fine, and turned to Maeve.
"You are impossible," he told her.
"I think you mean improbable," she corrected him.
"No, I mean impossible. Impossible to deal with. You are a nightmare, woman!"
"I saved your life!"
"You came this close to making Joanna an orphan!"
"But I saved your life."
"Do you know how much paperwork I will have to fill out because of this? You can get the whole team suspended!"
"I did save your life, you know."
"And leaving Joanna with Garcia? Do you know how terrified she must be right now?"
"I think she's too young..."
"I'm talking about Garcia! Is there anyone in the five miles radius whom you didn't piss off or scared to death or both?"
"Look here, Mr. Righteous," Maeve yelled back, "you just got the taste of your own medicine. I listened to you telling a psycho with a gun to shoot you instead of me. What I did was pretty mild compared to that. This was the only viable plan because we were the only people who could distract Elizabeth for long enough to let Morgan and Blake do their work. They wouldn't let me, so I didn't ask."
"And you didn't see the hundred things that could go wrong? Or did you just hope to be lucky?"
He didn't give her the time to answer and just pulled her into a kiss instead. He poured all his anger, all his relief and fear and remaining adrenalin into it. She was taken by surprise at first, but she returned his kiss with the same passion. He lifted her off her feet and she held on to him like he was the only thing that held her tethered to the ground. All the tension seemed to disappear when he took a deep breath and his nose was flooded with the smell of jasmine. It still did the strangest things to his body, but it didn't scare him any more.
Unfortunately he couldn't hold her forever. He let her go, ignoring Morgan's wolf-whistle, and looked deep into her eyes.
"Next time, consider every outcome and if there is one, just one, that includes you getting hurt, don't do it," he told her.
"I did consider every outcome!" Maeve did her best to sound offended.
He laughed and hugged her with one hand. Together they slowly walked to the cars. After a few steps Maeve very quietly muttered:
"The sniper was a surprise."