AN – Thank you for all the continues support with this story. Sorry about the lack of updates, I never seem to be home at the moment. So here's chapter 8
CriminalMindsLover08 – Thank you for the review. Henry isn't in it so much for the time being, but he does start making more of an appearance in later chapters and then you'll see his take on things. I'm really glad you liked the make up. Thanks again for the review. I hope you like the next chapter.
Chapter 8
"We've been working on this case for a month and a half now. We've only got half a preliminary profile. Strauss has told me that we all need to take a step back and work in some other cases." Hotch told the team. He watched as each of their facial expressions changed into ones of frustration.
"But he's still killing." Morgan argued.
"I know. The director wants to give it to another team." Hotch replied.
"So we just give up?" JJ asked.
"For now, I spoke to Agent Michaels who's taking over the case; he's agreed to let us keep a copy of the files to look over." Hotch told them.
"That's good, I know Michaels he likes profiles and can see the use in them." Rossi said to the team.
"So he'll let us keep working on it?" Reid asked.
"Quietly, yes, but if we get called on another case then we have to leave." Hotch answered.
"So where does that leave me?" Emily asked.
"You can keep your guest pass until the case is over. As far as the director is concerned it's not over, so you still have a job to do. If you want." Hotch explained to her.
"Okay," Emily replied. "I don't mind sticking around."
"Great, we'll have to move you to Michaels unit, but we can use you as a link between teams." Hotch replied.
Emily nodded.
The rest of the team still looked disappointed that they could no longer take an active role in catching this killer. But at least an agent took over who believed in the value of profiling.
XXX
Meghan closed the door of her locker, "I have no consent to let me out of here."
"That shouldn't matter, I can leave my car here and we'll just go out the back way." Scott replied.
"What kind of person has a party in the middle of the day?" Meghan asked.
"It's not a party, it's a gathering." Scott told her.
"That's sort of the definition of a party." Meghan smirked.
Scott took her hand and started walking, "Don't be a smart ass."
"Okay, what kind of gathering is it?" Meghan asked, putting emphasis on the word gathering.
"The kind of gathering," Scott matched her tone "that takes place during the day."
"That makes it sound like some kind of drug den." Meghan replied.
"Urgh, Meg why don't you trust me on this?"
"I do, it just sounds dodgy."
"It's not I swear. I just need to put in some kind of an appearance then we can do something else for the rest of the day." Scott said to her.
"Why don't you go and pick me up when you're finished." Meghan suggested.
"Because it may shock you but I want to spend time with you and show you off." Scott smiled.
"Okay, I'll go. But why do you need to go?"
"Why do you ask so many questions?" Scott said with a joking tone.
"I don't know, maybe it's in my nature." Meghan smiled.
"You know what they say, curiosity killed the cat." Scott said with a smile.
Meghan looked at him. "Yeah, but so does total blindness."
Scott shook his head. "I forget you're crap with old sayings."
Meghan gave his hand a squeeze. "So why do you need to go?"
"I have some things I need to give to someone." Scott answered.
"Like what?" Meghan asked.
"Like things."
"Illegal things?"
"No. Okay, in the centre I volunteer for you need to be over a certain age and I lied. They asked me to go to this thing… a meeting if you will, and it's during school and I need to drop off some of the stuff I took home." Scott told her in an exasperated tone.
Meghan looked at him with a small trace of doubt. "Why do I need to go to a meeting with you?"
"Because we're all going to be selling drugs and we need girls." Scott replied in a frustrated tone. "Happy now?"
"Very funny. I don't mind going, just be honest with me." Meghan said to him. She let go of his hand and faced him, "I need to go cancel on Stacey then."
"Isn't she going to be upset." Scott asked.
"Don't worry about her, she's always upset when I blow her off she gets over it." Meghan said.
"Well, I've never met someone with as much drama as her." Scott smiled.
"Yeah, she does if you take me out the picture." Meghan agreed, she still hadn't told Scott everything about Emily and her family she left her answers very vague when he asked. It wasn't that she didn't trust him because she did, she just didn't want to frighten him off.
"You don't have that much drama." Scott assured her.
Meghan raised her eyebrow, "I do."
"Okay, but yours is important. She has a different drama every day."
"You learn to put up with it."
"I'd just imagine it putting a massive downer on your day." Scott laughed.
"She's my friend," Meghan replied. "So I blow her off gently." She smiled, giving him a quick kiss on his lips. "I'll meet you in the bottom field?"
"I'll see you there."
XXX
It didn't take Meghan long to find Stacey, she was in the quad where she usually was.
"Hey stranger." Stacey waved, giving Meghan a hug. "I feel like I haven't seen you in ages."
"I know," Meghan agreed sitting down on the wall.
"So we're still going out tonight yeah?" Stacey asked.
Meghan bit her lip. "I'm really sorry…"
Stacey's face fell as soon as Meghan started to speak. "You're blowing me off again?"
"No, I promised Scott…"
"Scott? Meg ever since you got with him I haven't seen you." Stacey whined.
"It's not my fault." Meghan replied.
"Meg, you don't see any of your friends any more. You rarely turn up for class, you're always with Scott."
"So?" Meghan asked.
"So, he's got you wrapped around his little finger. When you were with Henry you always went to class and saw me and him equally."
"Jesus Stacey, you sound like my father."
"Well someone should try to talk to you." Stacey retorted.
"Just because you're jealous…"
"Jealous of Scott: Trust me jealous is the last thing I am. I'm worried about you." Stacey said sincerely.
"Well don't be." Meghan answered.
"Meg, can't you notice you've changed."
"What? Just because I'm not spending every minute of my life listening to you and your drama" Meghan asked angrily.
"My drama," Stacey replied in a shocked tone.
"Yeah your drama: 'Oh my aunt hates me' 'my aunts boyfriend may be a drug dealer but I don't know'." Meghan mocked.
"I'm the one with drama?" Stacey asked.
"Yeah." Meghan replied simply.
"So you whinging to me since you were eleven. You going out and getting trashed every night, staying over mine because you couldn't go home, moaning because you didn't have a mom, moaning because your mom came back. None of that was drama?" Stacey angrily asked.
"That stuff with Emily was different." Meghan defended.
"No it wasn't, you were being a spoilt little brat who was scared she wouldn't be daddy's little angel anymore." Stacey half shouted.
"You had no idea what that was like" Meghan bitterly said.
"No I don't. But I know if my mom or dad came back I wouldn't have been as much of an ass as you were."
"You can't say that, you have no idea what I was going through."
Stacey put her head in her hands and tried to calm her breathing. "Meg, just go with Scott. I don't want to see you anyway."
Meghan looked at Stacey, she felt guilty for their argument; but Stacey had no right to go on at her over the Emily thing. Meghan left without a word, leaving Stacey alone with her thoughts.
XXX
"So Stacey flipped with you?" Scott asked, putting his arm around Meghan.
"Yeah, I feel really bad though." Meghan replied.
"Don't be, it sounded like she was the one being unreasonable." Scott said to her.
"I think I should probably call her and apologise." Meghan mused.
"Why? She was out of line."
"I still feel bad."
"Look, I don't know what happened with you and Emily but Stacey shouldn't have brought it up in an argument." Scott told her.
Meghan took a deep breath. "My mom… Emily. I thought for most of my life that she was dead." She looked in Scott's eyes, seeing the confusion in them. "Last year, she came back home. She had to leave for our safety; she was being stalked by this guy that wanted to kill her."
"The guy on the tape with you?" Scott jumped in.
"Yeah, he shot Emily and nearly killed her." Meghan explained to him.
"So you call her Emily because it's too weird to call her mom." Scott said to her in a half question.
"I know it sounds stupid, but by calling her mom I feel like I'm betraying the person in my mom's grave." Meghan told him.
"I get that. Do they still have her grave?" Scott asked.
"No, they got rid of the headstone and the coffin; you know I don't even know if there was anything in it." Meghan laughed.
Scott gave her a kiss on the head, "I'm sorry you had to go through that."
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger." Meghan shrugged.
"I suppose. When my brother died, I felt so lost you know? I felt like my whole world had collapsed, my mom and my dad worked a lot so he practically raised me." Scott shared with her.
Meghan looked at him sympathetically, "How did he die?"
"He had a car accident. He fell asleep at the wheel and crashed." Scott briefly explained.
"I'm sorry." Meghan said.
"Me too," Scott said sadly. Meghan noted that he had lost his cheeky smile and the twinkle in his eyes had almost died.
"So are you ready to go in?" Meghan asked, looking at the run down building in front of her.
"Sure, do you want to wait in the car?" Scott replied.
Meghan looked at her surroundings outside of the window. Scott had taken her to a run down looking part of DC. Shops had windows boarded up and windows of houses were all smashed. "I think I'll come with you." She smiled.
"Okay." Scott said. He got out of the car and walked around to open her side.
Together they both walked into the building.
XXX
Emily saw she had a missed call on her phone at home. Michaels had sent her home to continue working on the profile. She had left a rather deflated BAU team, to work with another. She reached over and pressed the voicemail letting it play.
"Hello, this is Principle Owens. A few of Meghan's teachers have been expressing concern over her decreasing attendance and unusual attitude regarding her school work and behaviour in her lessons. Meghan has gone missing from school again today. I was wandering if it would be possible to speak to you or your wife about Meghan soon. Please call my receptionist and she'll sort out a time for you, thank you."
Emily rolled her eyes at the principle diplomatically calling Emily Spencer's wife. Emily took out her cell phone and called Meghan.
"Hiya," Meghan's voice chimed.
"Hi Meg, do you want me to pick you up from school today?" Emily asked carefully.
"Umm, no it's okay. Scott was going to drive me home. But thanks for the offer." Meghan thanked.
"Where are you Meghan?" Emily asked.
"In school. Why?" Meghan replied a bit too quickly.
'Liar liar' Emily thought. "Right, shouldn't you be in a lesson?"
"Um I'm going there now." Meghan said.
"Okay, so you'll be straight home?" Emily asked.
"I told you I'm going out with Scott tonight." Meghan informed her.
"Actually, I need you home tonight." Emily replied.
"But you said I could go out." Meghan argued.
"I know, but your dad and I both want you home. So I'm expecting you home." Emily lied.
"Fine, I'll see you at half past five." Meghan replied cheerily.
"It doesn't take you an hour and a half to get home." Emily said.
"Fine, I'll be home at four." Meghan huffed.
"Bye Meghan."
"Bye Em."
Emily shook her head, how stupid did Meghan think she was. Part of her thought to call Spencer, but another told her to deal with it quietly and if it got worse then tell Spencer. But she needed to phone the Principle first. She dialled the number.
"Principle Owens office." The receptionist answered.
"Hi, I'm Emily Prentiss-Reid. Principle Owens phoned me about my daughter Meghan."
"Oh, I'll put you through now." The receptionist said quickly.
"Thank you." Emily waited to be put through to the principle.
"Principle Owens speaking." Owens answered.
"Hi, I'm Emily Prentiss-Reid. You called about my daughter Meghan." Emily introduced herself.
"Ah, yes. Well like I said in the message, the staff are concerned about Meghan. She has been leaving school property during the day and missing lessons and has developed a very lazy attitude with her lessons." Owens explained.
"With all due respect, isn't it your responsibility to make sure my daughter stays on school grounds; especially with this killer out there." Emily said to him, she did not like the way the principle was speaking to her.
"I understand that, but we also need to keep the other pupils safe. We cannot give your daughter her personalised security team to keep an eye out." The principle replied.
"Of course. All I'm saying is that I'm sure if Meghan can get off the school ground, clearly your security isn't doing their jobs." Emily calmly argued.
"Um, I shall look into that. So what would you like us to do about Meghan?" The principle stammered.
"I hoped that I could speak to her before you go handing her out detentions." Emily replied.
"I'm afraid that the amount of times Meghan has skipped lessons is something that she needs to be punished for. I cannot authorise giving her special treatment." Owens explained to Emily.
"Okay. Well I'll speak to her anyway, could you not tell my husband about this incident?" Emily asked carefully.
"Dr Reid usually likes to know what is going on with Meghan's education. He has always been involved. Owens argued.
"Yes I know. But he's very stressed with work at the moment; and I don't want him to worry about something that is I'm sure very easily solvable between you and me." Emily subtly persuaded.
"Okay. It has been nice talking to you Mrs Reid." The principle agreed.
"You as well, goodbye." Emily said.
"Goodbye." Owens disconnected the call.
Emily sighed out loud; she then looked at the clock on the wall. It was twenty past two. Meghan wouldn't be home for another hour or so yet, she wouldn't be home from wherever she was with Scott. Emily was starting to worry about the influence Scott was having over Meghan. Meghan had barely spoken to Stacey since she started going out with Scott, she also was late coming home; she never missed the curfew, but she was always home just in time. The only thing was Emily didn't know how to approach the subject. Meghan seemed to be quite protective over Scott, and Emily couldn't decide if that was a good or a bad thing.
So what are we all feeling now? Please leave a review or favourite or subscribe. Thanks Rhian