Murder in the Forest: the Bigfoot Killings, Chapter 3

At the motel, the team talked briefly and was dismissed for the night. Seaver and Jareau watched TV for a half hour, talking as they drank Sprites from the machine in the hall.

"So, are you gonna call him?" teased Jareau.

Ashley pretended to be surprised. "Call who?"

Jareau looked at her, a twinkle in her eye. "He is kind of cute and sort of masterful, I guess, or protective and enticing. I bet he gets a lot of girls. Are you sure that you want to be one?

Seaver blushed. "I think he sees me as an individual. And if he's just looking to carve another notch on his bedpost, I think I'll spot that pretty quickly. Yeah, I think I may call him. He gave me his home number."

"Well, he's hardly going to want to talk to you on his official line, which may be recorded."

Seaver winced. "How true! Look, are you about to take a shower? Long enough that I can make a private call while you're in there?" She flushed at her companion's wry grin.

"Okay, I can take a hint. I'm nothing if not a romantic. Just don't get burned, Ashley. Morgan may be right about him."

Seaver rolled her eyes. "Don't repeat this, JJ, but I'm not a fan of Agent Morgan. I can work with him and I guess he usually means well, but he's a worse hotshot than Peter probably is, and he does have a racial chip on his shoulder, in my opinion. Maybe not always, but in this case, yes."

Jareau shrugged, undressed (the TV show was boring, anyway), and went to the shower.

Even before she heard the water come on, Seaver was dialing Blacklaws's phone. He answered on the third ring. When she heard his voice, a little thrill went through Ashley's veins and she said, "Guess who this is? And it isn't Candice or Doutzen or any of their coworkers."

He chuckled. "Probably could be, if you applied there. Or, maybe they'd reject you as having too good a figure. Those models are rather skinny. Anyway, how are you? I was hoping that you'd call. I say, are we in private?

Assured that they were, the two began an exploratory study of their backgrounds and personalities, as people do when a relationship begins, or may.

XXX

Down the hall, Rossi knocked on Hotchner's door. When it opened, he lifted a bottle of Scotch and asked "Nightcap? And maybe a brief conference?"

Hotchner nodded and opened the door wider to admit his friend. "I'll get us some glasses."

Sitting with Mr. Dewar's amber liquid and a splash of water in their glasses, they drank a toast to success in their mission and then Hotchner asked, "What's on your mind, Dave?"

They discussed the case so far, agreed that it was going better than expected and that they liked the local officers. They addressed the matter of Derek Morgan's pique, too, and Hotchner shrugged and said, "I'll talk to him once more if need be, and if that doesn't work and he becomes a problem, he can go back to Quantico and work on some other case. That would look bad for his career and I think he'll shape up. It shouldn't be a problem to keep him away from the guys he doesn't like here. We're all adults. I think we can solve our problems. Do you know who I feel sorry for? Those missing girls. I just hope they're still alive and that we find them in time."

Rossi nodded and lifted his glass. "Yeah, I'll drink to that!"

Be advised that our next scene introduces the kidnapped girls. It may be a little dark for the very shy or squeamish. But they're alive. Can they remain so?