An hour later, after two train connections and a short walk, Spencer stepped out of the elevator and put his key in the door of Grace's apartment.
She heard his arrival and turned from tending their dinner in the kitchen to greet him. They kissed and as Grace stepped back and broke eye contact, she suddenly laughed when her gaze set upon the right side of his head.
His eyes followed as she reached out with one hand and touched a finger to his hair, in the same place as Gabrielle had.
"You too?" he lamented. "One of my students did that earlier. What's so funny?"
He held still while Grace fiddled with his hair and then presented him with the evidence.
"It's glitter," she told him, "From the Milky Bath."
He sighed and protested, "But we showered after."
"Yes, but neither one of us washed our hair."
He conceded the point and stowed away his coat and messenger bag, and then made his way to the bathroom to wash up before dinner. Checking in the mirror, he plucked at several spots in his hair, removing more offending glitter and wondered just how many of his students had seen his hair sparkling. And not said anything! Rolling his eyes, he laughed it off and went to join Grace for dinner.
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"Okay," Garcia typed a reply to the email she'd just received. "But it would probably be better if you just called about this in the future instead of emailing here. You know the number."
Agents Lewis and Alvez came into her office and Garcia quickly minimised her screen before turning to address them, "What can I do for you?"
Tara furrowed her brow. She wondered what Garcia was hiding but instead she asked aloud, "I realise he's on his thirty days out of the field, Penelope, but I was wondering if there was some way we could get Reid up here. We want his input on something."
"Yeah, and since it wouldn't exactly be out in the field," Alvez skirted, "we thought it'd be okay to see what he thinks."
Garcia considered that for a moment before breaking into a smile. "I'm sure Emily would agree with that. But we don't wanna call him while he's doing his seminar."
Tara nodded in agreement.
"And I'm expecting a return text from him on something I asked him earlier, so I'll just ask him to come here when he replies."
"Awesome. Thanks Pen," Tara smiled and Garcia's phone rang.
The two women locked eyes for a moment and then Alvez touched Lewis' arm and he and Tara left Garcia's office. Hastily, the analyst grabbed the ringing phone.
"Garcia," she announced, and once she realised who her caller was, immediately lowered her voice. "Ah, hello, sir."
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"Thank you so much for your attention and interest and great questions," Reid addressed his class. "For those interested, my next seminar will be next Tuesday, right here at nine a.m. Have a great weekend!"
He clicked off the computer and made a mental note to thank Garcia again for her help preparing the Power Point presentation he'd just given. The class had been enthralled by geographic profiling and had kept him almost a half an hour longer than scheduled with its enthusiastic questions. Now, as the students shuffled out of the auditorium, he pulled his iPhone from his pocket and noticed he had several text messages.
He smiled as he read the one from Grace. Apparently Albert had been moved to a full care section at Hetherington's but he'd asked about Grace and Maureen in one of his lucid moments. They'd gone to see him during their break. He answered Grace's question about dinner then scrolled down to the next text.
It was from Garcia and asked him to stop by the office that afternoon. Puzzled but pleased, he tapped a reply, informing her he was on his way.
Fifteen minutes later, Reid stepped off the elevator on the sixth floor and made his way to Garcia's office. He knocked on the door and, receiving no acknowledgement, opened it to find the room empty. Reclosing the door, he turned and found Tara Lewis motioning him to the conference room.
At the round table, Reid found Lewis, Alvez and Garcia waiting for him.
"What's up?" He asked.
Lewis and Alvez spread the contents of a file on the table.
"We wondered if any of this means anything to you."
He stepped forward and picked up one of the files. After scanning it, he looked up and asked, "Did you ask the family about pets?"
"Pets?" Lewis inquired.
"I know it sounds crazy, but look at the victims. All three of them were shot point blank at close range. Ballistics reports indicate that the shells from all three victims came from the same gun. Obviously that's our connection. But what's the motive? And what's the connection between the victims?"
He paused to take a breath and laid three crime scene photos out on the table. Tapping the first one with a finger he continued, "Look at this first victim, George Davies. He was a retired postal clerk, found with a makeshift mask on his face held in place with a lot of duct tape." He motioned to the next one. "The second one, Chelsea Sorenson was a homemaker, and she had a dead mouse placed on her chest. And the last one, the most recent victim," he picked up the photo, "was Jason Seidenberg, an accountant, found barefoot, his running shoes ripped to shreds and spread out around the body. Yet all three died of multiple gunshot wounds, mostly to the chest. None of them knew each other, worked at the same place or moved in the same social circles. So what is the significance of these items found with the bodies?"
Waving the photo he held in one hand, he stopped to breathe again. Alvez and Lewis followed his reasoning but were stymied by the significance.
"I don't know," Alvez finally confessed. "What does it have to do with pets?"
Reid set the photo down on the table and referred to the first one again. "This one looks like a muzzle, taped down to hold the mouth firmly shut. This one," he pointed out the second one, "could be indicative of an pet's offering. Cats often bring home mice or birds they've caught to their owners. And this one—"
Alvez clued in and interrupted, "Dogs will often chew shoes, especially soft ones like slippers or sports shoes. That's what this one looks like."
Reid nodded approvingly.
Lewis picked up the thought, "So you think the unsub is someone who's angry with pet owners?"
Reid nodded again. "Talk to the families. Find out if they've had pets that have presented these problems. I'm thinking the unsub is an animal lover who was upset by particular incidents involving pets."
"We already profiled the killer as organised and methodical. Now he appears to be a justice seeker too," Lewis furrowed her brow as she spoke.
"We'll go interview the families of the victims," Alvez asserted.
"There will probably be more victims if we don't find him soo—" Lewis paused midsentence. She looked at Alvez, and tilted her head ever so slightly in Reid's direction. Alvez looked over at Reid and a smile spread across his face.
Reid noticed Garcia was also staring at him.
"What?" he asked uncomfortably when he realised they were staring at him.
"You know, you're infringing on my territory, Boy Wonder."
Alvez smirked and Lewis stifled a giggle.
"What? Because I'm thinking it's animal related?"
"Nooooo," she drew out the word as she stood up from her chair and stood right next to him. "The whole uniqueness aura. In my case, the floral adornments and hair decorations." She reached out and touched a spot on his jaw with one hand, brushing his long hair away from his face and showed him her now glitter-covered finger. "Your uniqueness has always been your smarts and your reading ability. The genius IQ thing. My uniqueness is my appearance. My hair, my clothes, my things. You're muscling into my territory, 187." She wiped her finger on his shirt deliberately.
Reid made a face and Alvez and Lewis pretended to be preoccupied with the files and the new angle Reid had just given them.
"I'm sorry Garcia. It's—" he paused. Wow, I'm not telling her it's bubble bath he scolded himself silently. "It's not intentional. I, uh, used Grace's hairbrush, there must have been some glitter on it."
Too late, he realised he'd just admitted in a roundabout way to staying at Grace's apartment overnight.
"Pets. We're on it," Lewis interjected, giving Alvez a significant look and taking his arm, headed towards the door.
"I'm a pet owner myself," Alvez admonished himself. "I shoulda thought of this," he agreed, tapping Reid's shoulder as he followed Lewis out of the room.
Garcia turned to Reid.
"You're sleeping at Grace's."
It was a statement not a question. Garcia tried not to laugh as she saw the blush creep up Reid's face. Feeling a little guilty, Garcia reached out to him.
"Reid—Spencer. Don't be embarrassed. I think it's awesome that you've found someone. Really. I think all of us probably feel that way." She was reluctant to bring up the subject of Maeve and stopped talking, stroking his arm affectionately instead.
"We stay over at each other's place all the time," he started. And that just told Garcia this has been going on for some time, he realised belatedly.
He bit his lip and was trying to think of something else to say as Emily opened the door and entered the conference room.
"Alvez and Lewis just told me—" she began and stopped short as she took in the sight before her. "You know, Reid, I expect the weird outfits and presentation from Garcia here. But glitter? In your hair? Really?"
Garcia reached up with one hand and flicked some more glitter out of his hair and then told Prentiss, "I'm afraid I've already embarrassed him, Emily. He picked this up at Grace's."
Prentiss' eyes rose. "Oh?"
Reid sighed. "She's my girlfriend. But you all already know this. We've become very close and pretty serious. And I guess there must be glitter in her hairbrush." He made a face, "I should get my own."
"Rei—Spencer," Prentiss attempted to smooth things over. "I was just teasing. And you know we do that out of love and affection, right?"
He looked from one to the other, Garcia nodding in agreement with Emily.
"I invited Grace to Girls Night Out with us," Emily told him. "I hope that's okay." She took in the surprised and somewhat anxious look on Reid's face and continued, "We're not planning the third degree, Spencer. We just want to include her as part of the greater BAU family. Because if she's important to you, she's important to us." She paused for a moment, then concerned, added, "I hope that's okay?"