My Life Had Stood
Chapter 27: But Let A Splinter Swerve
Shelly smirked, staring into the sandy-haired man's eyes. Her own were cold as the man fell back on the bed, his expression frozen in shock. Her gaze moved from the man's face to the watch he wore - six minutes past midnight.
"Sweet dreams." Shelly whispered, and removed the needle she had poked into the man's arm. The unlucky man had thought it was drugs: 'something to make them both feel better', she had told him as she'd pierced the needle into his vein.
She hadn't told him it was tetrodotoxin, a poison more deadly than cyanide.
Wiping off the needle before placing it on the bedside table, Shelly took a moment to view her victim again. Unlike her previous victim, this one was so much more satisfying. She hadn't had the chance to linger over Jeremy Yaegar when she'd poisoned him in that club.
So this one she planned on enjoying.
"Shhh." Shelly straddled the dead man's chest and pulled out a small pair of scissors from her purse. Her eyes icy as she made the first cut.
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A Few Days Later:
Spencer fidgeted, Alsie standing with him in the elevator as they headed up to the BAU. Four days had passed since the petite brunette had told him about her connection to James, and Spencer had finally convinced her that Rossi should be told.
"...do you think he'll be angry?" Alsie whispered, fingering her visitor's badge nervously. It was the first thing she'd said since she agreed to go meet with Rossi. She grabbed Spencer's hand as she did so and shyly looked up at him.
Spencer blinked, thrown off by the unexpected touch. He glanced down at her, reading her demure and anxious expression easily. It was enough that he stopped himself from pulling his hand away. Instead he squeezed hers gently, hoping she would understand it to mean not to worry.
"...I..." Alsie started to say something further, but faltered as the elevator reached their floor. Immediately they both broke the hand-hold as the elevator doors opened.
"This way." Spencer said, leading Alsie towards where Rossi's office was. Just before meeting up with Alsie that morning, he had called Rossi and asked if they could meet before work officially started. He hadn't told the senior agent what he wanted to talk about, only that there was someone who had to speak with him.
Spencer paused, his brow knitted as he saw Hotch leaving Rossi's office, the latter not far behind.
"Reid, good, you're here. Head to the conference room, we just got a case..." Hotch spoke as he noticed Spencer, pausing once he noticed Alsie behind the younger agent. He gave Spencer a questioning look. "Who is this?"
Before Spencer could respond, Rossi noticed Alsie.
"You..." Rossi froze, feeling a mix of surprise, shock, and disbelief as he recognized Alsie. It had been years, but once he saw her face and the timid smile, he remembered her. It'd been she who had been the one at the book signing, not James as he had assumed. "You're the one who asked me to sign that book for James..."
Alsie grimaced as Hotch and Rossi both stared at her, with Hotch becoming more intrigued after hearing what Rossi's said. Her hand twitched, and she wished briefly that she had delayed this meeting for a day or so more. Or that the elevator had taken longer to reach this floor.
"Um, this is Al - um, Allison Schmidt." Spencer spoke up, drawing some of the attention away from Alsie. He sensed her discomfort at being the focus of the two other agents' attentions. "She's here to talk about James..."
Hotch, upon realizing the situation, suggested that Rossi and Alsie speak privately in Rossi's office. He then motioned for Spencer, who seemed reluctant to leave Alsie's side, to stay back.
"I should go with..."
"Reid." Hotch interrupted Spencer, while the younger agent watched Alsie and Rossi head off to talk. "Please explain exactly who that was and how you know her. And how she knows about James."
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Rossi stared across the room at the petite woman. The moment he had set eyes on her, he'd recognized her. It had been her who'd been at the book signing years ago, and it had been her who got him to sign that book for James.
He suddenly felt better at not having recognized James at that book signing - there'd been no one to recognize. This woman, Allison Schmidt, had been the one he met that day, not James.
"You're Allison - Alsie Schmidt?" Rossi began, his eyes roaming over her face at the same moment he remembered what Spencer had confided in him about. It was so many weeks ago, back before they discovered James. And though it had slipped his mind, he remembered Spencer talking about an Allison.
"...yes." Alsie replied, though only after a brief pause. "I'm Alsie. Um... I'm sorry." She added the last bit quietly, and glanced up at Rossi. "I should've told you back at the book signing, but I...I wasn't sure and then it didn't seem important to James, so I...I..."
"Wait...slow down." Rossi interrupted after Alsie started talking fast, and without explaining the most important thing. "First, explain to me how you know my son, James?"
"Oh, um...he and I, dated...until three years ago." Alsie replied, crossing her arms. Her eyes were mostly hidden from Rossi's view by their height difference as well as strands of Alsie's hair that refused to remain tucked behind her ear.
Rossi recalled that she had had it styled the same way at the book signing years ago, and that her demeanor had been reserved and quiet.
"You dated James?" Rossi asked, bewildered. Not because he didn't believe her, but rather it was difficult to imagine, knowing what James was. Though it wasn't impossible that his son had had a relationship with someone.
Rossi glanced over Alsie's brown hair and eyes, as well as her petite frame - this woman before him matched James' victim type in every way. It seemed bizarre that James hadn't made Alsie a victim, but had instead dated her.
"Yes. For around eight almost nine years." Alsie mumbled, her crossed arms gesture loosening. Rather she dropped them and folded her hands together in front of her abdomen. Having averted her gaze to her hands as she'd spoke, she once more shifted it back to Rossi. "I..."
"It's all right, I'm not going to snap at you." Rossi reassured her, then took a moment to think. His thoughts jumbled as he tried to reconcile what he knew of James' criminal profile with Alsie's revelation. There was one possibility that came to him as he fixated on how closely this woman matched James' victim type. "I just want to understand some things...you started dating James in...?"
"Near the end of 2003...until mid 2012." Alsie replied. She hesitated, her hands still clasped together in front of her stomach. Part of her wanted to simply tell Rossi everything, including what happened three years ago. She bit her inside cheek.
Rossi's eyebrows rose, the suspicion he had partly confirmed by that time-frame as well as the fact they hadn't found any victims matching James' M.O for that same time period. James had stopped his assaults for those years because he had found a target he'd decided to keep.
"A..." Rossi opened his mouth to question Alsie further, but he stopped. Though there were more questions to ask to understand his son's criminal profile, he couldn't ask them. He didn't want to know more, nor did he want to question Alsie such personal questions. Especially since she was clearly very uncomfortably.
"...you had a grand-daughter." Alsie blurted out before Rossi could fathom another question. He simply stared at Alsie, dumbfounded by the information. It took a few moments before he managed to respond.
"Grand-daughter? I..." Rossi fumbled over his words, the idea of a grand child the first joyful thing to come out of this whole situation. His shock nearly gave way to exuberance until Alsie's verb choice struck him. "...wait, I 'had' a grand daughter?"
"...she...she..." Alsie faltered, gasping while trying to hold back a sob. Her eyes red and moist from tears that fell despite her trying to hold them back. She wrapped her arms around herself and sat down, the painful memories of three years ago engulfing her thoughts.
Rossi felt his stomach clench, understanding Alsie's painful expression. It mirrored that of Carolyn, and himself, when they had been told James had died. That same devastation.
He took in a deep, steadying breath and tried to respond. Only to be thrown off when Alsie winced and touched her right temple. It lasted less than a second, after which she shook her head slightly as though to flick aside whatever had made her wince.
It had the reversed effect however, and she suddenly hissed in pain and covered her eyes.
"Are you all right?" Rossi asked, momentarily bewildered. Not simply because of the suddenness if the pain, which he was sure was genuine, but because for the briefest of moments it reminded him of someone. Just as quickly that recognition vanished, replaced by concern.
"..." Alsie mumbled something, her eyes still squeezed shut and covered by her hands. Rossi barely made out her mumbling that the lights were too bright, upon which he went to shut the window blinds.
"Dave..." Hotch entered the room, having come to talk to Rossi about starting the case the team just got that morning. And to offer Rossi a choice to sit this one out so he could talk more with Alsie. Spencer had told him enough for him to realize that such a talk would be necessary.
Hotch's brow rose in concern at Alsie clutching her head in pain. He started to approach her, but was beaten there by Spencer, who had followed him to the room.
"Alsie. Are you..." Spencer crouched down in front of Alsie, his voice soft and quiet. He quickly noted how she clenched her eyes shut and how she held her head. He didn't even need to hear what she mumbled to realize she was having a migraine. And a severe one at that.
"Reid, what..."
Spencer interrupted Hotch with a gesture that they should keep their voices low. Followed by a request for them to dim, if not turn off, the lights in the room.
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A/N:If anyone's curious my twitter is: JLAdkin801, I've started to tweet more often usually game stuff but I also post update news about this fic.