*Small note: This episode does talk about rape it that is a trigger for anybody. If you watch the show then you probably already knew that but I wanted to make sure to put the warning in anyway.
Chapter 5: Plain Sight
Ariadne POV:
About two weeks after the Bale incident Spencer's 24th birthday had finally arrived. JJ had called to let me know that she had already gotten him a cake and that she wanted to have a mini party at the base. Typically when a member of the team's birthday comes up I tend to go a bit overboard on the celebrating, I can't help it though. My mom was usually too strung out to remember mine so I make it a point to never forget theirs.
Derek and I had gone out two days ago to buy Spencer this large obnoxious birthday hat that made the both of us laugh. I know that Derek had gone out to get him something else but I wasn't allowed to see it yet. I on the other hand had gotten Spencer a few different things, I like to spread them out throughout the day, typically saving the most sentimental and meaningful one for last.
I had brought the gifts in the day before so that Spencer wouldn't be able to see them and ruin the surprise. Once I made my way into the bullpen I spotted JJ holding a cake and putting candles in it, I quickly walked over to her to look at the cake. "JJ this is great! Thanks so much for doing this."
JJ just smiled and waved me off, "I was happy to do it, Reid is part of our little family so of course he's getting a party." It was still a major adjustment for me when it came to others showing acts of love and affection, I mean of course I did it all the time but I wasn't use to receiving it in return. It was a welcome change.
I turned my head to the side and saw Derek and Spencer get off the elevator so I looked up at Gideon and Hotch and waved my hands at them to hurry up and get into position. Yes, I did make them participate as well. Unfortunately Greenaway was darkening our doorstep this year and was involved in the festivities.
As soon as Spencer walked through the door we all yelled "Surprise!" Spencer jumped a little bit before he smiled and started to laugh. I walked over to him and enveloped him into a bear hug, "Happy Birthday amore" I tell him as I lean back to look into his eyes. They're bright and full of happiness, exactly what I wanted.
I let him go and grabbed his hand to lead him to the rest of the team. Derek must have walked over while I was hugging Spencer, that or my brother could teleport. I had him sit in his chair in front of the cake that JJ had lit and Derek plopped the ridiculous hat on his head. "Make a wish" JJ and I told him. Spencer then began to blow out the candles.
Or, at least he tried to.
"Come on man. Blow baby! Blow!" Derek cheered him on from behind with he grinned. Poor Spencer was trying really hard but they still weren't going out. I laid my hands on his shoulders and squeezed in encouragement.
"I thought you were full of hot air Reid" Greenaway says with a laugh. Joke or not that shit was rude. One of my hands flew off of Spencer's shoulders and collided with Greenaway's midsection. She jolted and turned her head to glare at me.
"Sorry, I twitched" I give her a sickly sweet smile in return. I put up with enough from her already but I draw the line at her doing or saying anything that could ruin Spencer's birthday. Derek continues to laugh and urge Spencer to blow out the candles.
Even though JJ is laughing she decides to end the joke, "They're trick candles Spence ok. They're gonna come back on every time." Spencer continues to try to blow them out though.
"Oh, mommy to the rescue" Derek says in a baby voice, a chuckle bursts out of me.
It's enough to make Spencer abandon the candles for a moment, "Mommy?"
All of us just continue to laugh and JJ begins to cut the cake. Spencer turns around and notices Gideon standing on the railing behind us and decides to go talk to him. I see Hotch by the phone, which probably means that we have another case. I sincerely hope not, I don't want Spencer to have to work on his birthday.
"Can I take this hat off" I hear Spencer ask from behind, I quickly whirl around to face him and Gideon.
"Don't you dare Spence! Derek and I worked very hard to find the biggest one we could. Wear it with honor" I say as I point a finger in his direction before turning back around to help with the cake. My hearing definitely improved from my time serving, we had to make sure to listen for a lot of different things. Some sounds meant the difference between life and death.
"Do you know that Ari and JJ are the only people in the whole world who call me Spence?" I can hear Spencer inform Gideon.
"That's cause I've trademarked your ass. Now come get some cake festeggiato (birthday boy)" I say without turning around.
"Yeah man its really good, JJ chose well with this one" Derek adds from beside me.
"What are you saying? Why can't you just speak in English?" Greenaway snootily said from out of nowhere. Fighting the urge to shove the cake in my hands in her stupid face is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. From the looks on JJ's and Derek's face they seemed to think it was a little rude as well.
"Italian is my first language, I've been speaking it all my life. That's like asking someone from Mexico why they need to speak Spanish. Se parli mai con me così ancora, spingerò il piede fino al tuo culo e ti soffocerai (If you ever speak to me like that again, I'm going to shove my foot so far up your ass you'll choke on it)" I spit out.
"Non piu (no more) Ariadne. Just leave it, you're fine" Derek says as he nudges my shoulder. The only thing I regret is how my attiude for Greenaway makes my team feel a little awkward. I suppose I could try to let some of my anger go, the last thing I want is for the rest of the team to think they need to choose between Greenaway and me.
Because they might choose her...
I quickly shake my head to get rid of my thoughts. My team is my family, they would never abandon me. I quickly handed Derek and Spencer a little plate with some cake on it, when I get like this distraction is key.
"Sorry guys party's over" Hotch says interrupting the rest of us. Just like I feared, Spencer's going to have to work on his birthday.
We are all gathered in the conference room waiting for Hotch and JJ to inform us of what's going on. We don't have to wait long because after about five minutes Hotch came in and announced that we were going to San Diego.
"Not for the surfing huh?" Derek quips from beside me. I think our sense of humor might just be genetic at this point. I raise my hand to give Derek a high five. Sure it's not exactly the best time and it may even seem a little insensitive but that's just the way I am, and the team already knows and accepts that for the most part.
"They're calling him the tommy killer" JJ says as she places photos around us, "six women raped and murdered in their homes during the last week."
"Six in three weeks is a lot, this guy's gotta have a pretty short fuse" I say as I look at the photos JJ put in front of me. "And it's seems to be getting shorter, the dates on these photos suggest that the first two were only eight days apart, and then the last four within two weeks."
"Rapid escalation" Spencer says from the other side of me, "Do you think he's regressing to a psychopathic frenzy?" Spencer should be eating cake and opening gifts right now, not trying to figure out the motives of a serial killer.
"No he's too controlled for that" Hotch answers and then gives us all a minute to look over the information. "See you on the plane" he says before standing up.
"Why the tommy killer?" Derek shouts out before Hotch can make it to the door.
"You know the rock opera? Well this unsub glues his victims' eyes wide open." All of us look up at Hotch's words and exchange disgusted looks. There are some truly sick people out there.
"He wants them to see him" Spencer says disturbed.
"And feel him" Gideon adds. A shiver runs up my spine, for some reason I have a really bad feeling about this case. I shake it off and leave the room to go collect Spencer's gifts. I guess I'll be giving them to him in San Diego.
Lately JJ had been able to come with us on the cases which was a bittersweet thing for me. I was ecstatic to be able to spend more time with her but by coming she was being put in danger along with the rest of us. The fact that she mostly stays at the station of wherever we are is the only reason I haven't called the directors to put in a request that she be stationed at Quantico permanently.
I was sitting next to Spencer behind everyone else since Derek was sitting in a one seater. The jerk knew I liked to use him as a pillow and yet he moved away. I can hear them discussing the case and going over more of the photos taken, JJ was on the couch opposite of us on the phone with the station letting them know when we should be arriving.
I reached over to grab my bag and pulled out my first gift for Spencer, I didn't wrap this one because I didn't think it was necessary. I fished it out of my bag and tapped Spencer on the shoulder to get his attention. He turned around and I tossed the t-shirt at his face, he froze for about half a second before he pulled it off his face and gave me a playful glare. "If you thought that I wouldn't give you your gifts because we have a case than you were wrong" I say grinning at him fondly.
"I shoulda known that not even a serial killer could deter you" he said as he opened up the shirt to read it. This was one of the more basic gifts that I had gotten him, it was light blue and had 'Registered Genius' printed on the front. Even though it's corny I just had to get it for him, sorta like how Derek and I needed to get Spencer the most embarrassing birthday hat ever.
Spencer put his hand on his face and began quietly laughing just like I'd hoped he would. With our occupation it's hard to find things that bring you joy when you see such horror all the time. "Thanks Ari, I'll make sure to wear it so that everyone else is informed" he says with a hint of mischief in his eyes.
"You better. What kind of best friend would I be if I didn't brag about you?" Spencer just looks at me tenderly and I know he's thankful for my comment. Even though he never says anything I know that he craves approval just as much as I do, so I tend to try to give it to him constantly.
"This was on the mirrors" Hotch's voice brings us back to the conversation behind us, as does the picture he holds up for all of us to see. "Fair lady, throw those costly robes aside. No longer may you glory in your pride. Take leave of all your carnal, vain delight-"
"I've come to summon you away this night" Spencer finishes without looking at the picture. When he realizes that all of us are staring at him he goes on to explain, "It's a ballad from the late 1600s. A dialogue betwixt death and a lady." Derek and I's eyebrows furrow in confusion while Gideon smiles at Spencer.
"A 17th century ballad?" Greenaway asks apprehensively.
"Hold up, I'm more concerned about what the hell betwixt means and why it's a word." I say interrupting the conversation while Derek just nods his head in agreement. Apparently it's not a good enough question to warrant an answer because the conversation continues on its previous course.
"What kind of person knows this ballad? Are we looking for a literature professor?" Great questions Greenaway, did you get through FBI training with this level of intelligence? Simply astounding, there are no words for my amazement.
Ha. I don't think so.
"Greenaway did you know they made this amazing new thing, it's called Google. People can look anything up and get an answer right away. It's some real new age shit. You should look into it, might do you some good" I state sarcastically. To the side of me I can hear JJ choke on the water she was drinking and as I look over at Derek he tries to look at me firmly but I can still see his shoulders shaking slightly in laughter. I feel a burst of unconditional love for my brother. Knowing that even though I'm being rude to his partner he's still choosing my side subconsciously and not defending her. Then again if she needs someone to stand up for her than she's not in the right profession. If you can't protect yourself than you have no business carrying a badge and a gun.
Greenaway's face takes on an indignant expression and she opens her mouth to retort but Spencer cuts her off. "We're looking for anyone with an internet connection actually." I've noticed lately that someone always cuts our arguments short, typically whenever Greenaway goes to respond. I wonder what that's about.
"You should see what comes in when you type the word 'death' into a search engine." Ohhh. I can't help but wince slightly at Spencer's comment. I understood what he really meant but I wasn't too sure that the others would. And by the look on JJ's face I was correct.
"Reid, no wonder you can't get a date" Derek jokingly points out.
Why would Spencer need a date? Is he looking for one? Why would he do that, he has me. I'm good enough company for him…right?
Ah insecurity, my old friend. How nice of you to join the party.
"Reid you stay on the messages, see if there's a deeper meaning" Gideon instructs while drawing detailed eyes on a note pad. The weird thing is he's actually really good at it, they actually look realistic.
Keeping Spencer at the station and not at a crime scene is a smart move. But for the first time I don't know if it's to keep him safe or because I want a break away from him to sort out my inconvenient feelings. I really need to get a grip on my emotions and to do that I need to have a break from Spencer.
Sometimes I wish I could just rid myself of human emotions entirely, that way I wouldn't have to constantly correct my unwarranted jealousy.
"You think they'll ever run out of new things to do to their victims?" My mood darkens at Greenaway's question and for once it's not because of her. There is no shortage of sick depraved things that a person with no conscience is willing to do.
"Well finding new ways to hurt each other is what we're good at" Gideon says absentmindedly.
The rest of the plane ride is spent in silence.
When we arrive at the task force center at the San Diego police department we are met with a very nervous commander. He introduces himself as Captain Griffith to Hotch while the rest of us immediately begin to set up in our newly claimed stations.
Gideon went straight for the three boards that held the information and photographs on each of the victims while Spencer went were the boards of the quotes from the ballad for each of the victims where located and JJ went to join him. Derek, Greenaway and I went to the boards where the maps were. It made this weird circle of different boards and our team was split up at every station.
"He strikes during the day in upper-middle-class neighborhoods" Derek says as he starts to move to the other boards. I just follow behind him, not really being able to contribute much didn't exactly leave me with very many options of where to go. However I was fairly decent with maps.
"It looks to be about a five square mile radius meaning that he most likely uses a vehicle. Otherwise you're looking for a pretty physically big and healthy male" I point out to Derek. All of a sudden there's movement in the corner of my eye and it seems to be approaching us. I quickly spin around to see a man in a suit. Okay maybe I'm a little on edge, we're in a police station, not exactly a place where the unsub would hang out.
"You wanna see that crime scene? It's still tapped off, the husband won't go back inside" The man tells us. The way he said it suggested that it was a rare occurrence. Well I mean can you blame him? His wife was murdered there, I wouldn't want to go back either. I don't see why that should be surprising.
Derek and I turn around to look at Gideon. It was his call, I really didn't care unless my brother was going. I knew that they would be safe at the recent crime scene, the unsubs don't typically go back since police are always crawling around. "Let's go." Well I guess we're headed to the scene not that I really minded. When I get moody like this I like to stay with my brother, he gives me a sense of comfort that I'm not able to find on my own.
He's like my own personal northern star, always leading me in the right direction.
"This profiling really works?" I'm sitting in the back of a car with Gideon while Derek sits up front with a map when the officer decides to make small talk. I'm not in a position where I can answer him, seeing as how I really don't know anything about profiling.
Derek spares him a quick glance before looking back at his map, "It's a tool."
"You can tell all about a guy from looking at the scene?" The officer asks while looking at Gideon and I in the rear view mirror. He's either in awe or he's skeptical, neither of which I blame him for. When Derek first told me about what he did it took him half an hour before I got the gist of it. And even after a whole year on this team I still don't understand everything about it.
"Well the scene's only part of it. We also use victimology, precedent, we can usually get a fairly clear picture of the guy" Derek finishes explaining while flipping through the different maps on his lap. I miss the good ole days where you found the bad guy and just took him out. I didn't really want to understand their motives or reasons for killing and hurting others, because no excuse they could come up with would be good enough.
"Our guys went over it pretty well" The officer says almost hesitantly and a hint of pride coloring his words. If your people went over it good enough you would have found him and we wouldn't have been called in. But we were, so what does that say about your guys? I'm feeling particularly irritated today and everything seems to be pissing me off.
Derek lets out a sharp chuckle, "I'm sure they did." If officer clueless over there wasn't in the car I would have totally high fived Derek. He somehow manages to express my feelings without coming across as a bitch. It's truly a talent, one I don't seem to possess.
Before clueless up there can get offended Gideon begins to translate, "Local officers aren't trained to look for the things we look for."
Clueless looks back at us through the rear view mirror. "What's that?"
"The unsub apparently" I mutter from my seat. Derek didn't give any signs of hearing me and neither did Clueless, Gideon however side eyed me with a stern glance. But for some reason I didn't have it in me to feel ashamed. Maybe just a smidge guilty though. Damn it. "Hate, insecurity, fear, anger, inadequacy. They're all things we can pick up at the scene based on the behavior and the process that the unsub went through. And from the process that this guy went through we can already tell that he will not stop unless he is stopped." There I gave a real answer now would you stop looking at me like that Gideon?
In reality I just sprouted off something I heard Derek tell me once.
And what do you know? Clueless just gave me a confused look. I'm Miss Cleo with the nicknames. Soon enough we pull up to the house, which is in a pretty decent neighborhood surprisingly enough. Instead of pulling into the driveway like normal people we parked on the curb. I don't understand the point of having to walk further than necessary, it's really just a waste of time.
God this round of 'figure out your feelings' is gonna be rough. You'd think I'd be better at it by now, seeing as how I do it every couple of months.
I wouldn't say that I'm heartbroken, because I'm not, I mean you can't really be heartbroken when you don't have a whole heart. I just feel empty almost. Like I'm missing something that should be there, almost like a longing for something I've never had. The worst part is that I'm not even really frustrated with Spencer I'm angry at myself for falling for him. I still can't seem to wrap my head around how I even fell in love in the first place. These moments just seem to drain me.
"You increased patrols in these neighborhoods when the pattern was identified?" Gideon's question brings me back to the conversation. I continue to stick by Derek while they continue to walk towards the house, I wanted to link arms with him but he was carrying a folder and looked like he was busy thinking so I decided to leave him be.
"After the fourth victim. Bosses cancelled days off, vacations." Oh I'm sorry, did the deaths of these women inconvenience you officer? I immediately scold myself for my thoughts. This is why I try to isolate myself when I get like this, I become a pretty nasty person to be around.
"Neighborhood full of cruisers and he still struck two more times" Derek's sentence is interrupted by Gideon's cellphone. We hang back and wait for him to answer the call knowing that it must be important since we're on a case.
"Attempt?" I pinch the bridge of my nose, god damn this man is moving fast. "Well we're already at the last crime scene. Let us know if you identify a suspect" and with that he hung up the phone.
"Suspect?" Yeah I'm going to have to stop you there officer, I have a few more pressing questions to ask.
I cut Gideon off when he went to reply, "How far was the last attempt from here?" I could feel my fingers twitching against my leg. I hadn't been taking this trip too seriously but now I had to, I had almost half off my team with me and a civilian. I had to get my shit straight, it's time to push away my pathetic little emotions and do the job I was assigned to do.
"Not too far from the station" Gideon replies as he turns his head in my direction. Huh? Are you telling me that this unsub was stupid enough to do anything near a police station? Well his dumbass deserves to be caught just on principal alone now. Clueless suddenly turns around and begins taking a couple steps in the direction of the car. Where did he think he was off too?
"Hey, hey, hey. Were you going?" Somehow Derek managed to phrase the question is a way that didn't question the man's sanity.
Clueless gave us a dumbfounded look as he pointed his thumb behind him, "Over there."
I crossed my arms over my chest, did the man actually not have any faith in his fellow officers? The attempt was made close to the station, if they didn't already send a squad to go take care of it then they are more incompetent then I thought. "Well units are already heading that way. We can get more accomplished here." It's probably a good thing that Gideon handled responding, considering the fact that Derek and I were looking at this guy like he had lost his mind.
"You're kidding me right?" What part of any of that confused you there Clueless?
"Do you think you're the only officer on duty or something? They just said that the attempt was made close to your station, therefore it only makes sense that they already sent people over there. Are you the only competent officer you're station has, or do you not trust your team? Cause I can guarantee that at least one member of our team is already on site and I trust them a hell of a lot more than I trust your guys. So I can promise you that your presence won't change a thing." Trying to say that without any anger or agitation in my voice was a very hard thing to do. But by the lack of scowls sent my way it seemed I had somewhat succeeded.
"If there's an arrest, what we find here will help you prosecute" Derek added helpfully. Because of the sunglasses on his face I couldn't tell if he was genuinely informing the guy or speaking plainly since the man seemed not to have very much common sense.
"This scene won't be pristine forever" Gideon said as he looked around.
Clueless took the keys out of his pocket and placed them in Gideon's hand, "Guys, knock yourselves out." He must really not trust his people, although I have to say Clueless has some balls. Not a lot of people get chewed out by me and still continue to do what they were doing.
"Hey, wait a minute" Derek says as he walks towards the officer, "The unsub went through the back, right?" As Gideon walks inside the house I stand by the door waiting for Derek.
"The family room. It's the window full of print dust" The guy says as he turns around and jogs back to his car. It just occurred to me he was going to take his car and leave us here. Well that's just fantastic.
"Gideon, I'm going around the house. Ari's coming with me." Looks like my brother has made my decision for me. Although it's probably for the best, he unlike the others knows just what to do when I get like this. In all honesty I think he's just trying to spare Gideon.
I silently follow my brother around to the back of the house, lost in my thoughts. I absolutely hate the fact that I fell in love, I hate the fact that I couldn't stop it or control it either. I mean falling in love is giving someone the power to destroy you, making it so that your happiness is dependent upon another person. I hate the fact that it's unfair, that just because you fall for someone doesn't mean they'll fall for you.
The fact of the matter is that love can break you. It's the kind of break that might not ever be fixable, the ones that come with scars you carry forever. And because you're broken you go looking for more love to try and fix it but it doesn't, it can't. People can't fix you, they can break you, but they can't fix you. It's something you have to do on your own but nobody seems to want to. I don't want someone to look at me and see something they need to fix. I don't want to love because it has the potential to shatter what little shards of a heart I have left.
However it seems that what's left of my heart and my brain have two very different thought patterns.
Which is ironic because one would think that by now my heart would have learned its lesson about falling in love, or just love in general. I thought that after Maria my heart would be too far broken to even try to love again. But yet here I am once again.
I absolutely hate it.
Derek and I walked around the side of the house till we came up to the side window which was already open. I couldn't tell if it was because the officers had opened it already or left it open from the unsub. Derek took off his sunglasses and looked around the window.
"It looks like it'll be a tight fit" Derek says while side eyeing me. Oh great. I'm going to have to crawl through this tiny window aren't I?
"Well Derek I hope you brought your lube cause I don't see how you're getting in without it." Now I know I'm gonna have to end up going through it but that doesn't mean that I can't have some fun before I do. That window looks way too small and it's up too high for my standards. Of course I'm gonna stall.
Derek stops all movement and turns so that his entire body is facing mine. He just stares at me for a couple of seconds, determining whether or not he wants to entertain me.
"Okay, okay, that was a good one I'll give you that. But I'll get you back, just you wait." I just gave him an innocent smile and tilted my head to the side slightly.
"Ohhhh no you don't" Derek said shaking his finger at me, "Don't you act all innocent. You just made a joke about lube, all bets are off now."
I couldn't help but laugh. I could practically feel the sadness and frustration melt away. I am so lucky to have my brother. Sometimes I just look at him and wonder what on earth I ever did in order to deserve him. Derek, Sarah, and Desiree are the only good things that ever came from my father.
I would be lost if they ever decided they didn't need me the way I needed them.
I decide to just get it over with so I take a couple steps back to get a small head start and jump so that my right foot comes down on the windowsill and both hands come to rest on the sides. I then bring my left foot from out behind me to rest beside my right foot before I swing so that I end up standing on the chair below the window.
Whoever designed this room deserves to be fired. The setup is ridiculous.
Once I step off the chair and onto the floor I turn around to smirk at Derek. I'm honestly looking forward to watching him try and get through this window. He's got wider shoulders than me and longer legs. Regardless of what happens it's gonna be funny.
Derek jumps without taking a running start so he ends up with his knees on the windowsill, one hand braced against the wall, and the other hand on the back of the chair in the room.
It's just too much for me and I start cackling.
Here is my six foot something brother who's upper body is hanging out a window and his feet are outside of it.
How could I not laugh?
"Okay. Not that easy to maneuver." Derek says looking around as if his whole mishap with the window hadn't just happened. I however would not be forgetting that for many years to come. "That means I'm a little bit athletic."
"Or he's small. I mean sure he's still have to be able to reach the windowsill but he might be small enough to still slip in without making much noise" I add. Although I'm not too confident in my scenario seeing as how a smaller person might not even be able to reach the window without some type of ladder.
I hear the sound of a door closing upstairs and know its Gideon simply because there is no criminal or killer that is stupid enough to come back to their crime scene while three federal agents are inside.
I follow Derek as he makes his way into what looks to be a kitchen and dining room combined. I notice that there are various vases of flowers around the room. It's such a beautiful house and it's so tragic to think that someone was killed here. This place, this home, which was once someone's safe place is now no more than a reminder of a loss that they should not have suffered through.
This world takes more than we give it and offers nothing in return.
"All right. He messed with something in here." Derek says as he opens up the microwave to check inside before promptly closing it.
"Yes because I too would hide the murder weapon and a list of all my plans in the microwave. Along with my name and address." I couldn't help but tease him. I mean what did he expect to find in there? "I mean it would be great if they did that but you know unfortunately killers have evolved" I snark.
I could hear Derek scoff but he didn't turn around. He knew all too well that engaging me in this kind of conversation would take up too much of his time. Pity, it would have been fun.
Derek opens up the folder filled with pictures and pulls one out. "Broken cappuccino machine. Took the appliances, which are upstairs. Why?"
I know that's he's not talking to me but sometimes it still trips me out. It used to make me so agitated because I thought he was quizzing me or something and I would never know the answer. Although sometimes he does ask me a question and I can't give him an answer because I wasn't paying attention.
Take now for instance. If that were a question that Derek actually wanted me to answer I would have to take a hard pass, mostly because I don't want to know the answer. I don't want to know why people do what they do, I just want to make sure they're off the street.
The rest is just pointless facts to me.
"Why would I take the time?" And there he goes again. I learned real quickly that my brother likes thinking out loud, in fact so does the rest of the team. Derek takes another look around the kitchen before he begins to head off into the second dining room. I just followed after him like a duckling.
Derek walked over to what looked like a weird like of dresser thing that looks like people would put alcohol in. "Here's where I got the china" Derek says while opening one of the glass doors a little wider. Well never mind then. Not the alcohol cabinet. Glad I didn't say that out loud, that would have been embarrassing.
Derek just continues to point at different things and talk about what was taken from there, off in his own world putting together the crime scene in his mind. While he did that I just stood in the corner of the doorway like a useless sidekick.
"Why wouldn't she hear me?" Derek's question brought my attention back to him. I hadn't heard the sentence before but I could guess what it was about. Why didn't she hear him taking apart the appliances in the downstairs kitchen of her own home? Of course I had a couple of guesses of my own.
"She could have been in the shower, watching TV or you know the obvious answer, which would be that she was already dead when he did it." This is one of the very rare times that I'm completely certain that some part of what I just said is right.
"Him doing it after makes the most sense right now" Derek says while looking around the room for the thousandth time. His tone suggested that while he had heard me he was thinking about something else.
I felt rather put out because I actually had a half way decent answer to one of his absentminded questions and he wasn't even paying attention.
What's a girl to do?
There was clearly only one solution to this slight against me.
I waited till Derek had turned so that his back was facing me before I made my move. I slowly crept towards him trying my best to keep quiet before I jumped up and latched my arms around his neck. I brought my legs up so that they were wrapped around his midsection and he grunted from the extra weight. His arms flew back to grab my legs so that I didn't fall backwards onto the ground.
Once he got me situated on his back, which was really just him double checking that he had a proper grip, he turned his head to the side to look at me. "You know a little warning might be nice. I could have dropped you and you could have hit your head Ariadne. You need to be more careful." He said while giving me a stern glance.
I love the fact that he didn't even question my actions, just worried about me getting hurt. "Sorry, next time I'll let you know when I'm sneaking up on you" I say as I let out a chuckle. I probably wouldn't but I wasn't going to tell him that.
I used one of my arms to reach down and grab the folder from the hand that was currently holding one of my legs in place. Once I had it grasped firmly in my own hand I brought it up so that I was holding it in front of his face. "Here you go. Express delivery of disturbing photos for one Derek Morgan" I say while making my voice deeper.
"Oh yes thank you so much" Derek responds sarcastically. Though he doesn't put me down so I know he isn't irritated at my teasing.
I have the best big brother in the world. He lets me have piggybacks around a crime scene because I'm in a bad mood. What other brother would let their sister do that? I'll tell you how many. None.
I guess Derek decides that he's done downstairs so he moves us towards the staircase and begins to hike me upstairs to where Gideon is in the master bedroom.
When we got there Gideon was just standing staring at the TV and I'm not gonna lie it was a tad bit creepy. "She had a workout video on. Step aerobics." He says without turning to look back at us.
"You know if we hadn't walked in right now you would be speaking to air" I quip from my position on Derek's back.
"Step aerobics? With the platforms?" Derek asks as though I had never spoken and was not currently carrying me around. I mean it's kind of nice in a way. I have two people to keep up the conversation so that I don't have to and I also don't have to walk, so it's a win-win for me. "Step up, step down, step up, step down?" Derek says while shifting his shoulders in the same manner.
Hey watch it Derek, you're jostling me around too much, I'm gonna get dizzy.
Gideon turns to look at us, "Where's the plat…" he stops once he sees our positions. I can almost see the thought process leave his mind as he continues to stare at us. I mean by this point in time he really shouldn't be too surprised, I'm always doing unconventional things. After all it was only a few months ago that I carried Spencer in a princess hold after Penelope asked how much I could bench press. Let's just say that Spencer is lighter than I thought because I lifted him with no difficulty.
The man needs to eat more. He's a literal twig.
Derek and I just continue to watch Gideon try to regain his previous thoughts. Derek looked like he could care less if Gideon were to scold us while I was waiting for him to say something. I already had an excuse planned and everything.
"Where's the platform?" Gideon finally gets out. I guess he's gonna breeze past it this time. Now I'm suspicious because that's not something he would typically do. Hotch on the other hand would have probably verbally handed me my ass for doing this at a crime scene.
Gideon and Derek turn to walk towards the bed which means that subsequently so did I. Gideon leans down on the floor and looks under the bed. Once he's done looking for whatever it is he's trying to find he looks up at us from his kneeling position on the floor. "He spent a lot of time here."
"What, so he vacuumed? I mean there's no marks from the platforms" Derek says while looking at one of the picture I held back up in front of him.
Gideon just nods his head in affirmation, "A lot of time."
"The broken things. Ariadne mentioned that she must have already been dead, incapacitated, or busy when he did that." Now I'm leaning more towards that fact that she may have just been dead at that point. "Cappuccino maker from the kitchen, dishes, vases, broken jewelry" Derek goes on to list as Gideon gets off the floor to sit on the corner of the bed.
Okay gross.
Someone was killed on that bed. Why are you sitting on it?
"Symbols" Gideon goes on to say, as if he's not perched on a murder mattress. "'Your riches, gold, garments, jewels bright'" Gideon begins to quote the words that are written on the mirror in what looks to be red lipstick, "'your house and land must on new owners light'" he finishes.
It sounds like someone's bitter about their social standing.
"Forget killing we've clearly got the next great poet on our hands" I mutter under my breath.
"Her riches" Derek says like he's trying to solve a puzzle. I'm going to have to take a wild guess here and say that it might have to be connected to the fact that she clearly has money. I mean look at her house for goodness sake, it's like a mini mansion.
"You ever feel like there's something obvious right in front of you and you just can't see it?" Gideon asks while looking lost in his own world, similar to how Derek looked earlier downstairs.
"Yeah, usually right before a woman dumps me" Derek jokes and I lightly tap his shoulder. We both know the reason most women dump him.
Cause they know they won't be the only woman in his life. Because none of them wanted to compete with me for his attention.
Mostly cause I win every time.
I used to feel bad about it but Derek told me that if they didn't accept my place in his life than it was never gonna work out anyway. I told him the same was true for me, I just didn't tell him the extent of it.
If I ever get into a relationship then they'll know from the get go that Derek is the most important person in my life and that they will always come second to him. The only people that will ever come before Derek will be any future kids that he or I have.
I subconsciously tighten my grip around his neck.
I wouldn't mind having a niece or nephew.
I decided to walk on my own two feet once we were back at the station. I was fine doing that kind of stuff around my own team but not around outsiders. I didn't want the team to come across as unprofessional because I was riding around on my brother's back.
Spencer darted out from the side of the entrance as soon as he saw Gideon, "The verses" he said while holding up a stack of papers for us to see.
"Found something?" Gideon asked, stopping to look at the papers in Spencer's hands. It looked like it contained a lot of words so I'm going to opt out of this one.
"Uh, not an answer, a question. I found the full text. He's pretty much following it to a T, at least the death side of the conversation" Spencer goes on to explain. "Why didn't he leave them at the first three murders? I mean this ballad is ten verses long, just on the death side. He's got plenty to work with. But if it's not part of his signature, if it isn't something that he has to do for an emotional reason, then, I mean, why start?"
Gideon looked at Spencer for a couple more moments before he got this look in his eyes that he gets whenever he's onto something. He then turns to look behind Derek and I. "JJ" At his words all of us turned around to see her sitting at one of the desks. "Find out when the press ran the first story on this unsub."
"When?" JJ asked Gideon confused.
"After which unsub." He clarified.
JJ just nodded and reached over to pick up the phone on the desk in front of her. At this point I was the one confused. I didn't know how on earth she was going to find this information. Like how did she just pick up the phone and know which number to call immediately? I would have thought that she would at least have to look it up first.
"What're you thinking?" Derek asks looking at Gideon skeptically.
"He wasn't getting enough attention" Gideon explains as he moves his hands around for emphasis.
Spencer nods his head at Gideon's words, "The police departments sometimes don't even realize they're looking at a pattern."
"Yeah until people like us slap them in the face with it" I mutter underneath my breath. Granted this unsub has a very weird way about his pattern. I mean the ballads and the conversations between death and a lady, and the fact that he considers himself to be death.
So no, I really don't blame these guys for wanting to keep their distance from all of this.
People start writing from the perspective of death in red lipstick on the victim's mirror?
If I wasn't getting paid for this I would have to take a hard pass.
"The first story ran the morning after the fourth victim was found" JJ tells us still holding the phone to her ear.
Okay no. I'm calling bullshit.
"How the hell did you find that out?" I exclaim looking at JJ disbelievingly, "you literally just picked up the phone without needing a number and in the span of thirty seconds they told you everything you needed to know?"
JJ is clearly some sort of mafia media boss and has favors owed by all of the news stations because that's the only realistic explanation for this.
"Sei assolutamente terrificante (You're absolutely terrifying)" I mutter as she just smirks in response.
"The increased patrols didn't start until the fourth victim either" Derek mentions while flipping through one of the files Spencer had handed him.
"Yeah, the police didn't realize what was happening, he writes his verse" Gideon continues the train of thought.
"And everyone knows that he was there" Spencer concludes.
I turned my head around when I heard faint footsteps behind us and spotted Hotch and Greenaway. They don't look to happy which means that whatever they found out wasn't going to be much help to us.
"The offender in this new attempt is a black male" Hotch tells us when they finally make it to the rest of us.
"Black male? Cross racial- that doesn't happen."
"What the hell?"
Derek and I both spoke at the same time. His words were more eloquent than mine but I wasn't gonna focus too much on that. "Are we sure that he's black or is this just someone making an assumption because it's the easier route to go down?" I ask looking over at Hotch.
I know full well what I'm implying and I don't regret it in the slightest. While everyone would like to just sweep racism under the rug, especially when it comes to people who work for the law, however it wasn't uncommon for officers have racial preferences. It sucked and was unfair as all get out but it was true.
"Why would that be the easier route to go down Ari?" I look up to Spencer at his innocent question. Sometimes it's easy to forget that even through Spencer is the smartest one in our group he's not exactly great with social cues.
I shared a look with Derek before trying to find tact to use for this kind of subject, "I just meant that it might be easier for people to blame a black male for the murder of white women rather than a white male."
Surprisingly it was Greenaway that took over to save me from the onslaught of questions I'm sure Spencer had for me, "This attacker wore a ski mask."
Well that changes things.
"Tell 'em we're ready" Gideon says while gazing at the victim board. How on earth are we ready? Either I'm missing a few dots over here or Gideon figured it all out in his mind and has neglected to tell us anything.
"For our profile?" Derek clarifies while displaying the same look I'm sure is on my face.
"We're gonna make Tommy contact us" Gideon remarks before walking off.
"Okay, while he goes and does whatever it is that he does you're coming with me." I say as I grab Spencer's arm and drag him over to where our personal things reside.
After spending time with Derek I felt better enough to realize that I still had gifts to give Spencer. As we walked into the break room, because that's the space they were able to give us, I let go of his hand and grabbed my messenger bag and pulled out his second present that I had been able to gift wrap.
I tossed him the square package and watched as he fumbled with it for a couple seconds before gaining a hold of it. He gave me a questioning look before I nodded at the package in his hands with a smile. Without any further questions Spencer started to tear open the wrapping paper.
I could tell the moment he saw what it contained because he stopped for a second before his eyes widened and his gaze shot up to mine.
"No way" He breathed out, "Are you serious? I haven't even gotten the time to sit down and watch most of them, we've been too busy." I could practically see him shake with excitement as he finished unwrapping his gift.
The complete First Series Doctor Who box set.
Yeah I know, I'm awesome.
"Well you were so excited that they decided to revive the show and I know that with all the traveling that we do it's hard for you to catch all the episodes, so I thought that this might make it a little easier to play catch up" I said while smiling at him. I knew how much that boy loved Doctor Who, I would have been remiss to not somehow include it in his gifts.
I suddenly had an armful of Spencer as he launched himself into my arms and bear hugged me. Giggling I just held on as he began to spin us around in the small break room.
He may not love me the way I do him, but this was good enough for me.
One of the only things I hate about giving the profile is when I have to stand up in the front along with everyone else.
And it's not for some stupid reason like 'Oh I hope I don't make a fool out of myself in front of all these people.'
I commanded my own team in the army, I'm not afraid to stand in front of a group of people and tell them what to do.
It's more like I know I don't actually deserve to be up here with them.
Every time I stand beside them it is a painful reminder that I'm not actually one of them. I'm not an expert on this field and so to have people look up at me and ask me questions feels like I'm ripping everyone off.
Needless to say I was not enjoying giving this profile.
"The unsub brought his weapons with him. Tape, glue, wire. He did not leave them at the scene, he took them when he left" Gideon begins to start giving the profile once he see's everyone is in their seat. "He has a kind of killing kit that he carries."
I hold myself back from snorting when he says killing kit. I don't know when he had the time to come up with it but I applaud the terminology.
"Organized killers usually have a skilled job, likely technology related, which may involve use of the hands," Hotch says taking over when Gideon stops. "The crime scenes are far enough apart that he needs a vehicle. This will be well kept, obsessively clean, as will be his home. He's diurnal-"
Hold on what?
What is diurnal?
Oh my god how does he come up with this stuff? Does he have a tiny dictionary on him at all times and does that 'word of the day' crap?
"The attacks occurred during the day, so the vehicle may be related to his work, possibly a company car or truck" Hotch finishes.
"We believe," I jump slightly as Derek begins to talk from right beside me. I didn't know that we were taking turns here. I sincerely hope that they don't land on me cause I've got nothing. "he watches the victims for a time, learns the rhythms of the home, and knows his time frame."
"You're not gonna catch him accidentally." Oh thank god! Hotch went back to talking so I know that I'm not gonna have to.
"He destroys symbols of wealth in the victims' homes" and pass it right back to Gideon. "He harbors envy of and hatred toward people of a higher social class. He feels invisible around them."
You know what that's life. The Queen of England doesn't acknowledge me and yet I don't go around killing people just cause I'm salty.
I can tell that Spencer's about to join in from my position between him and Derek. He begins to stand straighter and leans forward a bit when he does. "Class is the theme of the poem which he left the various crime scenes. A-at one point in the poem, the woman attempts to bribe death but he doesn't accept it. He says this is the one moment when riches mean nothing. When death comes, the poor and the rich are exactly alike." During Spencer's speech I see Greenaway walk into the door way in the back with some files in her hand and a strange look on her face that she directs towards Spencer.
Bitch better not think about calling him weird again or so help me God.
"So he's poor" Captain Griffith concluded from his position on one of the desks.
"Probably middle class. A decidedly lower class person would stick out in a highly patrolled neighborhood. This guy appears to belong there, he blends in" Hotch corrects from the front of the room.
"Why does he glue the eyes open?" Clueless asks while gesturing widely at all the victim's photos.
Oh no no no Clueless, my friend you really don't want to know the answer to that.
Out of nowhere Greenaway has moved from the back of the room to the side of Hotch in the front, "The unsub is an exploitative rapist. Most rape victims close their eyes during the attack, turn their heads. For some rapists this ruins the fantasy. For this type of rapist the goal is more related to the victim watching him than the act itself."
I shouldn't be surprised in the slightest. She really wants to stay on this team and impress the superiors, it's no wonder she rushed in to make sure she had a spot in the 'limelight'.
Her preppy goody two shoes teacher's pet attitude is really starting to piss me off.
Although during her whole explanation Gideon had put his head in his hands as though her words were making him physically ill. Which they should don't get me wrong, but Gideon isn't typically one to let things get to him in public.
"The verses, the staging, the aggressive language, 'I am Death,' this is a guy who while being in control at the crime scene almost certainly feels inadequate in the rest of his life." Hotch says redirecting the conversation from Greenaway's answer.
I can't help but let out a quiet chuckle as I lean my head towards Derek to whisper to him, because if I'm going to laugh than he is going down with me. "So do ya think the reason he feels inadequate is cause he's a dwarf? Might be how he fit through that tiny window too."
Derek let out a breathy laugh and leaned so that he could hide his smile behind my head. I do not regret anything about this, I might get in trouble later for laughing during a debriefing but it was too good an opportunity to miss.
Gideon goes on to say "That's why he couldn't wait for you to figure out what he'd done, why he needed to make sure all his crimes were counted. His victims, they represent whatever it is that's controlling him, and he wants that control back. He is under the thumb of a powerful woman who frightens him."
He wants that control back. Now to me that's a very funny statement, because did he ever truly have control in the first place? Chances are that this unsub never had control over anything, but he wants to, everybody does. Unfortunately it just takes some time for people to realize that they're not always meant to control anything.
"And a final point." Gideon says making sure he has the eyes of everyone on him before he continues, "He is white."
And because nobody can ever give us a break, immediately the Captain goes on to explain why it couldn't possibly be a white man. "We have witnesses that identify him as a black male."
"Then you're looking at two different crimes by two different people Capitano" I finally pipe up from my position in the corner. "The man who murdered these women was not black." I tense up preparing myself for a possible verbal battle from the Captain. If he wants to make this into a race war than he better be ready for me to come at him full force.
"The attacker was black. He is not the Tommy killer" Gideon tells him slowly, as one would with a child.
"Mrs. Gordon's husband came home at the same time that he always does. The Tommy killer would've known that" Hotch adds.
Hotch and Greenaway had told us what happened at the attempted rape call that they had gone to. Apparently people were all too willing to blame a black male as the suspect. Plus I felt immense sympathy for Mrs. Gordon, not only for what she went through, but because the only female presence she could gain comfort from had been Greenaway. I'm shocked the woman wasn't more traumatized after that.
"And Mrs. Gordon's attacker wore a ski mask." Oh god her self-satisfied smirk is back and in its full capacity. "The unsub knows when he walks into a house, he's going to kill the woman who lives there. If you're not leaving any witnesses, why wear a ski mask?" I know she's right but for the sake of me hating her I'm gonna pretend that that sentence had come from someone I actually admire.
"And he want the victims to see him anyway." Derek says this while mirroring my stance, arms crossed and head tiled to the side, as he stares the Captain down and arches one of his eyebrows.
Derek and I don't take anyone's racial shit.
There's a beat of silence where everyone stares at Derek and I as we continue to gaze steely at the Captain.
Hesitantly Hotch tries to steer the conversation back to safer topics. "Your attempted rapist is a garden variety disorganized young man."
"As the victim's age goes up generally, the attacker's age goes down. Mrs. Gordon is about sixty which puts her rapist at about twenty." Thank you Elle Greenaway for presenting us with the disturbing fact of the day.
And it's attempted rapist. He didn't actually rape anyone. Not to discredit Mrs. Gordon's trauma, but getting raped and almost getting raped are two very different things.
They are also two very different charges.
"And-and it takes years to develop the level of calm and sophistication that Tommy displays at a crime scene. And the rapist is far too young for that." I appreciate the input there Gideon.
"Mrs. Gordon told me that there's a young man who delivers groceries to their home. He fits a lot of what we're describing here" Greenaway adds while looking at the Captain.
Captain Griffith, or Captain Asshole just sighs hard and stands up, "Great. So we're back to zero on Tommy."
Okay I'm done.
"Were you asleep for the past ten minutes?" My icy tone quickly quiets the room. Every head seems to turn in my direction but I'm too angry at Griffith to notice. "What, you find out that the Tommy killer isn't black and you magically forget all that we just went over about his potential job, his social class, the kind of vehicle he drives, the kind of person he would be? But oh hey! If he's not black I suppose none of that matters, is that it? Guess what buddy, sometimes white people are criminals too, and you still have to put in just as much effort into finding him as you were when you thought he was black."
You could have heard a pin drop in that room.
I kept my eyes on Griffith's shocked ones. I suppose being Captain he wasn't used to people talking back to him.
I felt Derek move closer till my back was almost touching his chest and his hand came up to rest on my shoulder, a silent 'I've got you're back'.
Hotch cleared his throat and slowly people turned to look back at him. I didn't remove my gaze from Griffith until he too had turned to look at Hotch. I knew I was gonna get it later for my outburst but I'll be damned if I just stood there and said nothing.
"May I see you in your office for a moment?" Hotch says while gesturing to Griffith and walking towards him. The Captain was quick to follow, probably didn't want to stay in the same room as me.
While they walked away I could feel my hands shaking in my anger, the only thing that gave away the fact that I had been affected by his words and attitude. Gently Derek turned me around and laid an arm across my back as he used his other hand to tilt my chin up.
He said no words, not wanting anyone to hear, just asked a simple question with his eyes, 'are you okay?'
One corner of my lips lifted and I nodded my head.
I was okay.
I was okay because I had him.
After receiving the look that just screamed 'we'll talk later' from Hotch it was decided that Greenaway, Derek and I would go with a team to go arrest Mrs. Gordon's attempted rapist. He said something about how it would look more official with members of the FBI there for the arrest, but I knew it had something to do with the fact that nobody wanted to leave me in the same building as Griffith.
They came up with some backwards strategy to get this kid, who was straight up my age, and arrest him at night while he was packing up his delivery truck.
Greenaway went first behind him and Derek and I would cut him off in the front when he ran, because let's be real, they always run.
"FBI. You're under arrest." And there's Greenaway, that's my cue.
The kid turned and got about two steps in before Derek grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled him up and against the truck. And when I say he hauled him up I mean he lifted the kid up by the shirt and pinned him there.
It was awesome.
Since Derek was wrangling with the kid I decided to give him his Miranda. "You're under arrest for the attempted rape of Marcia Gordon."
"What?!" The kid said while simultaneously trying to escape Derek's steel grip on him resulting in his voice coming out like he was a still preteen.
I really don't see how I could have been anymore clear about the reason for his arrest.
Once he was in the back of the car we drove back to the station where JJ was standing behind a podium talking to a bunch of news reporters. Apparently the plan was to make the unsub believe that we thought that this kid was the Tommy killer, which in turn would piss him off enough to call the tip line where Penelope could get a location.
Interesting plan, but I'm on the fence about the success rate.
We pulled up and jumped out of the car Derek jerking the kid out with him with Greenaway and I walking behind him.
Reporters were shouting questions left and right but I paid them no attention. As long as they stayed out of my face I was fine.
The last thing I heard before we entered the station was JJ giving out her final statement, "I can now announce that our office has assisted in making an arrest in connection with the investigation. That's all I can say at this time."
I gotta hand it to her. Whether or not this guy takes the bait, I'm betting all I have that this whole scene did indeed piss him off.
Every single officer and member of my team except for Hotch and I were at a desk waiting for a phone to ring. Hotch took me off phone duty because and I quote, "If it was your phone he ended up calling I wouldn't put it past you to antagonize him or even yell at him and who knows what that would do."
I should feel flattered that he knows me so well.
"We're still waiting Garcia" JJ said into her phone. Derek just sat back in his chair while rubbing a hand in his eye like he was developing a headache. I had pulled up a chair and sat next to him just doodling on a pad of paper I had found at the one of the desks. Spencer on the other hand was solving a rubix cube for the twentieth time.
"God, I hate waiting like this." Quit your whining Greenaway. Do you think the rest of us like waiting?
"Do you think it's weird that I knew that ballad?" I heard Spencer ask Greenaway from the side of me. Greenaway was at the desk behind Derek and both Spencer and I were in chairs at the side of each of their respective desks.
Greenaway lets out a weird little chuckle, "I don't know how it is that you know half the things you know, but I'm glad you do."
I had subtly lifted my pencil in order to throw it at her but her semi compliment stopped me. I guess I could let her slide this time.
"Do you think it's why I can't get a date?" At his question my grip tightens on the pencil.
No, I would not do this again. I forced myself to loosen my grip and remain calm.
Out of the corner of my eyes I saw Gideon give me a strange look, I wonder what that's about? To my knowledge ever since I basically accused Griffith of being racist in front of his entire staff I haven't done anything.
"You ever ask anyone out?" For the first time in my life I'm actually glad that Spencer has Greenaway to ask these questions to. I mean I'd do it but it would be the most uncomfortable thing I'd ever have to do.
"No" Spencer relies after he takes a second to think about it.
"That's why you can't get a date."
Suddenly Clueless', whose name I recently found out was Martin, phone goes off and he frantically flags all of us over while he puts the call on speaker.
"You stupid, incompetent sons of bitches! I don't make mistakes! I am death you hear me?! I am death! You'll see now. Tomorrow. Mark my words, you will see" A male voice screams over the phone. "And while I am taking her, I'm gonna be thinking of you" he says right before he hangs up.
The pencil that was in my hands snaps in half.
I'm gonna bury this guy in a shallow grave once I get my hands on him. Screw jail. He wants to be death so bad, I'm gonna send him straight to the man myself.
"Anything?" JJ asks Penelope through the phone. All of us wait on baited breath for a response. "She says she got nothing" she announces.
"Nothing?" Derek exclaims while suddenly sitting up. I lay a firm hand on his shoulder to keep him grounded.
"We missed him?" Hotch asks shocked that such a thing could occur.
Everyone just sits back in their chairs exasperated. However if anyone tries to put this on Penelope I will beat them down.
If I was a lesser person I would have pointed out that I didn't think this was going to work in the first place. But I wisely kept my mouth shut this time.
The entire team split up into groups while we patrolled the neighborhoods in search of the unsub who said he'd be out today. I was with Greenaway and Gideon. You can tell that I was not in charge of putting together the teams. I'm pretty sure this is Hotch's punishment for yesterday's outburst. Derek and Spencer got to go together and Hotch for some odd reason got to go alone while JJ stayed at the station.
Gideon was driving and I had put Greenaway in the backseat cause I didn't want to have to look at the back of her head for the ride over. We had parked outside of the last house that he had been at and we just waited.
"That's the last place he watched. That house" Gideon says while staring out his window.
Greenaway pipes up from her banished place in the backseat, "Morgan said the family hasn't moved back in."
"Well when you're significant other gets murdered in your house you be sure to tell me when you move back in so I can make a note of how much time is acceptable" I say without turning around. What is it with people being so surprised that the family wouldn't want to live in that house again?
"It's the eyes" Gideon mutters quietly shaking his head.
"Excuse me?"
Word of advice Greenaway, don't try to understand Gideon's quiet ramblings, he'll make them known soon enough.
"It's the eyes Elle. Just something not right about the eyes." I think the fact that he glues them open is the main problem with the eyes Gideon.
"If you mean what he does to them, yeah, I agree." How much ass are you going to try and kiss here Greenaway?
"No. It's almost a classic move for an exploitative rapist to force a victim to watch. But we're missing something about it." He says finally turning around to face us.
A police car pulls up beside our car all of a sudden, its driver is not one I recognize from the station. "Can I help you folks with something?"
I almost laugh out loud.
Gideon handles it the adult way and pulls out his badge while telling the man we're FBI. The guy looks like he wants to leave as soon as possible and apologizes before he drives away.
"After the fourth killing P.D. doubled the patrol in these neighborhoods, then doubled them again after the fifth and sixth. Yet somehow he was still able to watch them, how could he not have been seen?" Gideon asks himself while shaking his head in a confused manner.
"Maybe he was seen" I chime in, "maybe he was seen and yet somehow belonged here and his presence wasn't questioned or even given a second thought."
"Is that an oriole?" At Greenaway's question I realize that she has spotted a bird on the electrical fence and I feel a strong urge to hit my head on the dashboard several times. Is this really a good time to be discussing birds?
"No, it's a black-headed grosbeak."
This time I actually hit my head on the dash.
"Orson Wells said all the birds who belong to our sex have prettier feathers, cause males have got to try to justify their existence. We spend all our time screaming 'Look at me. Look at me. Mommy, mommy, look at me.'" As Gideon talks he slowly stops before he gets out of the car.
Both Greenaway and I get out to follow him while he leads us into the previous victim's house and into her bedroom that we had been in the day before.
"He wanted them to see him. He's meticulous. Nothing is an accident. He vacuumed. Seeing is about domination-his creation" Gideon says while staring at the mattress in the middle of the room. "He positioned everything exactly the way he wanted it."
Gideon then does something that disgusts me to my very core.
He lays on the murder mattress in the exact same spot the victim was killed in.
I'm never hugging him again.
Even Greenaway looks confused and slightly grossed out. "If the eyes were so they could watch the attack, why are they all facing away from it? In that position they couldn't see him during." Gideon goes on to say.
Thank God for small blessings. These women were not subjected to being forced to watch him rape them, at least they could look at something else.
"He wanted them to see him afterward."
My blood runs cold at his words. What the hell? Greenaway and I lean down to see what Gideon's looking at. The electrical phone post.
That son of a bitch.
Once we had rang Penelope to give her all the information she needed to get us a name we called Hotch, Derek and Spencer to let them know that the unsub was a phone technician and that we were looking for a man named Franklin Graney.
Derek and Spencer had gone to the office where he was employed to see if he was there and if not where he had been sent to. The rest of us were just waiting on an address.
"He's on service calls in the area of Orange and Chandler" Greenaway tells us getting of the phone.
Gideon makes a swift U-turn that has me clutching my seat so that I don't go flying head first into the window.
"Get ahold of Hotch, tell him to bring the team and any S.D. cops he can round up" Gideon tells Greenaway while turning down a street after speeding through a couple stop signs.
If this job didn't kill me one day Gideon's driving might.
We saw a service truck parked outside on the side of the street and we quickly pulled up before we jumped out just as soon as Hotch pulled up.
"Fan out. Go through yards, go through telephone poles. He's around here." Gideon ordered. Immediately Hotch and Greenaway ran in opposite directions. I just looked at Gideon, there was no way he was going anywhere without me.
Gideon and I were walking down a driveway before we noticed an open gate leading into the backyard of a house. Suddenly we heard the sound of a baby crying.
The sound broke my heart and I jogged towards it, Gideon following behind me.
"Aah! Mama! Mama! Let me out, let me out" The toddler kept shouting while strapped in a high chair. Gideon and I both unclipped our guns and we slowly made out way into the house through the back door that had been left open.
The toddler's screams and whimpering were tearing at my soul and I ached to make him stop.
We saw the tool bag on the counter and knew we had the right house. The toddler saw us enter and screamed even more.
I couldn't take it anymore.
While Gideon continued to look around the kitchen in search of Graney I leaned down in front of the kid.
"Shhhh sweetheart it's okay" I cooed at him. "It's okay, I've got you, I've got you don't you worry. You're safe now. Let's go get Mommy okay?" As I spoke to him he started to quiet down, the tears still coming out of his eyes. He reached his arms up towards me and I knew there was no way on this god green earth that I could leave him down here all on his own.
I quickly clipped my gun back in place before I reached out and picked the toddler up and cuddled him close. He reached up and grabbed some of my hair in his tiny fist and rested his head in the crook of my neck.
I used one arm underneath him to securely anchor him to me and I used my other to grab my gun again. I placed the arm with my gun across his back so that even though I had both arms around him I was still able to aim the gun in front of me.
Gideon side eyed me as if he couldn't believe I had grabbed the child. It's a good thing I'm not afraid of any repercussions he could throw at me anyway. There was no way in hell I was letting go of this kid. I motioned with my head for him to keep going.
He got out his phone to quietly call Hotch and let him know where we were, "875 Orange Hotch. Back door."
As we walked through the house the child just kept in face in my neck and didn't make a sound. I think he was just happy that someone had grabbed him and he wasn't alone anymore.
Graney had planned to kill a mother and leave this precious child all alone in this house for who knows how long.
I was gonna shoot him for that alone.
From right below the stairs we could see that the bedroom had a distorted glass wall where we could see the shadow of a man walk past.
Slowly and quietly we made our way up the stairs. Once at the top we could hear Graney speaking to the woman he thought he was going to kill. "Never acknowledge me. Never…think of me."
Gideon took a step and the floorboards creaked.
Damnit.
Everything got quiet and we both quickly made our way to the door of the bedroom where we saw the women laying on the bed face down, mouth and hands duct taped, and Graney standing beside her with a gun pointed at the back of her head.
"I'll shoot her."
He says it with such calmness and confidence that anyone other than me might have believed it. However I knew that I was the faster shot and unlike him I was focused on one thing and one thing only.
I had angled my body so that the child's body was mostly out of sight and if he did remove his head from my neck he would be unable to see anything.
"No you won't Franklin" Gideon says while moving further into the room. Normally I would have to but with a child in my arms there was no way I was going to put him in harm's way. I could see the woman eyes relax a fraction at the sight of her son in the arms of an FBI agent. She knew that no matter what happened that at least her son would be safe.
"Yes I will" Graney insists.
It'd be your funeral.
"If you hurt her, I'll kill you" Gideon tells him. He wouldn't, he'd be a fraction too late because I'll do it the moment I see his finger even twitch on that trigger. "I'll just say we caught a low-life burglar. You didn't turn out to be Tommy after all. You will remain uncaught. After a while people will forget you. You'll be nothing."
Graney began to look slightly distraught at the news. Gideon pushed on while inching his way closer to them, "Once every five or ten years they'll do a TV show. They'll ask, 'What ever happened to that Tommy guy? Why'd he disappear? Then they'll stop talking about it all together."
I could hear Hotch and Greenaway walk up the stairs, no doubt eyeing the child in my arms with confusion like Gideon had.
At his continued taunting Graney began to look at his gun like he was second guessing his choices. "Put the gun down. Come on, walk outta here with me. I'll make sure your face is splashed across every newspaper and TV in the country. Tommy killer: Franklin Graney. Everyone will see you then. Bundy, Dahmer, Graney. Whole world will know who you are. It's up to you, Franklin. You can be famous, or you can be invisible."
The whole time Gideon was talking Graney was developing a sick smile on his face, taking Gideon's bait perfectly.
"You'll tell everyone?" Graney confirms hopefully.
Disgusting piece of human trash.
"I have a media specialist outside right now. It is your choice." Gideon's really laying it on thick with this one.
"Promise?" Graney's voice cracks as if he can't believe his luck.
"Yes, sir. I promise." Gideon tells him nodding his head swiftly.
Graney quickly outs down the gun and steps away from it with his hands behind his head. Immediately Hotch and Greenaway slip past me and go to help the mother and cuff Graney to lead him out of the house.
As soon as they get the duct tape off the mother she looks at me, "Thank you, my baby thank you." She begins to sob into the bed while Gideon strokes the top of her head and Greenaway cuts the duct tape bounding her legs off of her.
I would have let the child go to his mother if I thought that she would want him to see her this way, but I didn't, so I held on a little longer. Clipping my gun back in place I wrapped both arms around him properly and began to rock him until he fell asleep. I'd been a very stressful day for him and he was going to need his rest.
I gazed at the small face of the toddler. I'm glad we were able to save his mother and ensure that he would not have his innocence taken from him so soon.
Of course at the station both Gideon and Hotch had made it a point to tell me that I shouldn't have brought the child with me into the room, opting to tell me that I could have placed his safety in danger. I in turn had told them that if they thought for one second that the kid's life was in danger with me holding on to him than they clearly didn't know me that well.
I would have taken a bullet for that kid.
We were on the jet headed back home. Greenaway sleeping on the couch, Hotch and JJ sitting in one seater seats while looking over more files, no doubt future cases that we would have to get working on. Derek was sleeping with his headphones in, and Gideon, Spencer and I were sitting together with the table in front of us. They once again had a chess game set up on the table.
I reached into my messenger bag and pulled out the last gift I had for Spencer. I pulled out a white envelope and handed it to him without further ado.
Spencer takes the envelope and opens it to see a plane ticket and a cluster of photos of the whole team. I even included Greenaway. I know, the things I do for Spencer Reid.
"What's the ticket for? Got tired of me and decided to send me away?" Spencer jokes as he looks at me questionably.
I just let out a small laugh, "The ticket's to visit your mother and the photos are so that she has something of your life that she can see on a daily basis, so that she can remind herself daily that you are okay. I know how she worries."
Gideon and I were the only ones who knew about his mom so it was okay for me to talk about her in front of him.
Spencer's eyes got glossy and he wrapped an arm around me, pulling me closer to him. "Thank you" his voice came out raspy and he placed a kiss on the top of my head.
Normally I would have relished at the comfort that came with being wrapped in his arms but with Gideon sitting right in front of us watching it was hard. So instead I broke the hug and noticed that Gideon had his own gift to give to Spencer.
I nudged his head and motioned towards Gideon. "So I forgot to give this to you at the party" he says as he hands over a small blue gift wrapped package tied with a red string at the top.
Spencer smiled and takes the gift from Gideon's outstretched hands, "But you don't give birthday presents."
Gideon just gives him his own smile and shrugs his shoulders. He's got a soft spot for Spencer and I, we're like the kids he never had.
Spencer unwraps the gift to reveal a blue box. Once he opened that he found two tickets to a Redskins game nestled inside.
I won't lie, I'm a little surprised. Did he not know that Spencer wasn't really into that kind of stuff? "Wow… the Redskins." Case and point. Spencer, while sounding grateful, also sounded a little confused.
"It's a V.I.P. box. You ever been to a pro football game?" Gideon asks Spencer.
"No, I-I honestly didn't even know this was football" Spencer says, all of us letting out a laugh at his admission.
"You're gonna love it" Gideon tells Spencer. And he probably would too.
"We are. You're coming with me right?" Spencer asks looking at Gideon, his smile fading a fraction.
Gideon just shakes his head all the while keeping a small smile on his face, "No, someone else on the plane is a huge skins fan." He sends me an apologetic look.
Aw crap he knows something.
"Who?" Spencer is getting better at his lost puppy dog look.
"One of the only two people in the world to call you Spence."
Spencer then looks down at me, "Don't look at me baby boy" I playfully tell him ignoring the jolt of pain in my heart.
"JJ?" Spencer clarifies.
"She's a huge Redskins fan." At Gideon's words Spencer turns around to look at JJ from her position in the chair drinking coffee and reading through a huge stack of paperwork.
"Wh-what should I say?" Spencer nervously asks Gideon and I. Gideon doesn't say anything so I guess it's up to me.
"You walk up to her and tell her that you got the tickets as a gift but don't know anything about the sport but you heard she's a big fan. You then ask her if she would do you the honor of going to the game with you." I tell him. I can see Gideon give me a surprised look out of the corner of my eyes.
Spencer nods at me gratefully before getting up, "Checkmate" he tells Gideon while moving a chess piece before heading back towards JJ.
He finally got Gideon, what a momentous day.
I look up to see him staring at me with a sad little smile. "Okay spill it. What's with the looks you've been giving me?" I tell him tilting my head in his direction.
"You're in love with him aren't you?"
My world stopped for a moment but he carried on as if it hadn't. "And because you love him you got a little jealous of the date topic, which was the cause of your bad mood yesterday and now there's a bigger chance of it considering he's about to go on an actual date correct?"
He's sharper than I give him credit for.
"You know there are a few things you still miss old man" I teased him. Despite the morose topic at hand I couldn't help but feel slightly giddy. After all it's not every day the great Jason Gideon was wrong.
"Okay, well if I'm wrong than would you mind enlightening me as to which part I missed?" And in typical Gideon fashion he asks me to pour out my heart with a smile on his face.
"I'm not jealous anymore" I clarify, "in fact I could even go as far as to say I'm happy for him."
Gideon's eyebrows practically fly to the top of his head. "Really? You're happy that the person you're in love with asked your friend out on a date?" His tone developed a hint of disbelief.
"Believe it or not old man but I've actually got pretty good intentions. I have no illusions as to who I am and what I've done. Spencer is a kind soul, he's still so young and yet he's been through so much-"
"So have you. You've fought for your country, I'd say you probably have been through even more than him" Gideon says cutting me off.
A sharp short breath leaves and I suppose one could mistake it for a laugh of sorts. "I am broken beyond repair, and I am well aware of it. Spencer doesn't deserve to have to deal with my messes. So if he can find some happiness with JJ, or anyone else for that matter, than I am so happy for them. I'll be their biggest supporter. I don't want my feelings to stop him from getting his chance at peace. I already lost mine, I won't let him lose his too."
There's a certain gleam in Gideon's eyes that lets me know that he's analyzing something I've just said. "Who did you lose?" he asks after a few moments of silence.
Mari
I close my eyes and for a moment I swear I can see her standing there, safe and sound.
Like she should have been.
I open my eyes to stare into Gideon's.
"My heart. I lost my heart."
Yes, I left a part of my heart in a trench buried beneath the sand back in the Middle East. In the same place I lost Mari.
I feel the urge to cry, knowing neither will ever come back. No matter how hard I beg or scream.
I turn my head away to look out the window, an indication that I was done with the conversation at hand.
I watched as we flew above the clouds. Somehow I always felt closer to Mari in the jet, I always did the higher in the sky we got.
'This was gonna be one hell of a ride Mari' I thought to myself, 'I just wish you were here to do it with me.'
