As always, it was easiest for Spencer to avoid his own personal troubles by losing himself inside of work. The grief he felt over knowing that not just one brother, but two were now locked away in the Cage, was pushed down as far as he could force it and buried underneath work. And if he found himself wanting to wrap his wings protectively around his team, his newfound human family, well, no one had to know about that. They couldn't see it, anyways, and it caused no real harm. It made him feel better to keep his wings out and around the team as they headed off to their next case.
This was a case that Spencer knew he could help on. There was a missing girl, last seen with two twenty year old boys, Sydney Pearson and James Barrett. She was reported missing the next morning when she didn't meet her friends, almost three days ago. The boys claimed she'd been dropped at her hotel, but there was nothing to confirm that. Both boys claimed that they'd had consensual sex with her but without a body, there was no way to prove that. The two boys were at the station being held for questioning and there was only so much longer that they could legally be held. What they needed most here was to find the girl—dead or alive. Sadly, they all knew the likelihood of which one it would be.
But Spencer could help find her. One look into the minds of these boys, if they really were the Unsubs, would tell him what he needed to know.
Aaron wanted to hold off on it. He wanted a chance to talk to the Unsubs before they invaded their privacy this way. Spencer couldn't say he was surprised by that decision. The team's reaction when he'd first told them he was able to read minds had been…not happy. He'd had to spend quite a bit of time reassuring them that he didn't intentionally seek out any of their thoughts. "It's not like that." He'd explained to them. "I don't just reach in and start digging around. Human minds are just, open. For the most part, I can shut it out, though some thoughts will still slip through. But for the most part I just sort of tune it all out, like I do with prayers." That had led into a discussion of prayers that had been both interesting and a bit reassuring. Once he'd explained to them that angels could hear prayers, and that any prayer with his true name in it went straight to him no matter what, he could now console himself with the fact that any of his teammates that got in trouble would now have a way to contact him, no matter what, and he would be able to latch on to that prayer and find them wherever they were. That had reassured not only him, but them as well.
But they all remained a little cautious about the ethical side of mindreading, and so when they first arrived on scene, Spencer found himself sent with Dave to go to the bar where the girl went missing. The look that Dave gave Aaron said that he wasn't entirely approving of their Unit Chief's decision either, but he held his tongue. Besides, Spencer rationalized to himself, even if he looked in their minds and found what they did with the girl, if they were unfortunate and she was dead, they needed to be able to have evidence to prove the boys did it. Just having her body wouldn't be enough. So, Spencer went with Dave, and he did his job.
However, when they got back to the station, Spencer could see that things weren't going well. Aaron sent Dave off to speak with one of their suspects, and the discreet look he gave Spencer told him to go along as well. Spencer gave a small nod to show that he understood. Then he turned and set off after Dave.
He forgot, sometimes, just what it was like to see the kinds of things now that he could see in someone's mind. The last time he'd been on earth, in a vessel, had been a long time ago by human standards. Hundreds and hundreds of years. The last visit he could remember was during what he was pretty sure had been the early 1500's. Michelangelo had been painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling at the time. He and a friend had sat, invisible, and watched as it was brought to life. That was the last time that Spencer could remember being on earth while he still had his grace. Things had gone bad shortly after that. So, having his grace back, being himself once more, he was pretty much learning, just as his team was learning, about how things would go and how he might be affected by things.
When he stood outside the interview room and watched through the glass as Dave spoke to their suspect, the archangel had to fight back his temper. He wasn't even trying to hear what the suspect was thinking. His smug satisfaction about what he'd done was coming through loud and clear.
"Reid?"
The careful voice came from just behind him, but Spencer didn't turn to look. He'd known as Derek had come in the room. He'd felt him. There was no one else with him and there were on cameras here in the room so Spencer didn't worry about what he said next. He was as safe as could be in here. "He did horrible things to her." Another thought came through, the image loud and clear with it, and Spencer shuddered, body and grace. "He hurt her, pretty sure she was drunk enough to not remember it all, and then they took her back to her hotel and dumped her there. He wanted to do more, though. He wanted to do so much more. He got off on it all. This, it's just a beginning for him. Now that he knows that feeling of power, he'll go out and he'll rape again. He won't even want to try and stop himself."
One of Derek's hands settled on Spencer's shoulder. He had to be able to feel the tension there. Maybe he could even feel a hint of the power crackling underneath the surface. Spencer was fighting hard to control it. But if he did, he didn't let it stop him. He stayed there at Spencer's side and held on to his shoulder in a familiar, reassuring gesture that he'd done so many times before.
Spencer took comfort from his friend's presence. He drew in an unnecessary breath and blew it back out slowly, blowing out a little more of his tension. "He didn't kill her. But I want to check out his friend."
"All right, kid."
A ghost of a smile brushed over Spencer's lips as the two turned away from the viewing window. "You do realize I'm a being that is older than your mind can even begin to comprehend, don't you?"
"Yeah, well, you still look like a kid to me, kid." Derek teased, ruffling his hair, laughing when Spencer scowled at him. Without realizing thing about it, the archangel reached out with a wing, using it to push at Derek's shoulder lightly. He had to fight not to laugh when Derek stumbled and immediately began to look around to try and figure out what had done it.
Spencer was smiling as he slipped out of the room. That smile didn't last.
One look at the other suspect's mind and Spencer was moving. He found Aaron already coming down the hallway towards the interview rooms and he quickly hurried up to his boos, who must've seen something on his face because he excused himself from the officer he was with and moved off to the side of the hall so that he and Spencer could be discreetly out of the way. Spencer wasted no time. As soon as they were close, he lowered his voice and said "I know what they did with her, Hotch. Barrett wasn't involved, it was Pearson. Kate left her phone in the car and he used that as a ruse to get back into her room, then he took her and went out on the inlet and dumped her. That's why he was late for work. You'll see in his boat, his GPS was ripped out so he could try and cover his tracks."
"We need to get search and rescue in the air, now, before it gets dark. They'll have a better chance of seeing…anything." Aaron said immediately. Neither one mentioned the high chances that nothing would be found. She'd been out there for days already. Three days, out on the water. Chances of surviving that were almost nothing. But Spencer had hope. He had to have hope.
"Hotch, how are we going to…?" He trailed off, one hand gesturing around the station in a way meant to encompass all the officers here, who had no idea who Spencer was and wouldn't just accept his word that this was where they needed to look.
To his surprise, Aaron actually smiled at him. "Leave that to me. Go gather the others, let them know we'll be heading out." That said, he turned and hurried away, leaving Spencer staring after him feeling absurdly grateful for the friends he had.
Moments like this were when Spencer truly saw his Father's hand in the world. As he stood on the beach and heard the detective telling Aaron "They found her, clinging to a buoy. She's alive!" he felt his lips stretch into a wide grin. Though he knew his Father hadn't been home for a very long time, that He didn't reach out and touch humanity the way that humans thought He did, he still tipped his face up and said a silent 'Thank you'.
For every moment of peace that they found, it seemed that there was always something waiting in the wings to ruin it. This time, it came in the form of JJ's transfer.
"No." Emily said, pushing up from her chair.
They'd known about the Pentagon wanting her; they'd worried about it this whole case. But JJ had reassured them she wasn't going anywhere. Judging by the look on her face, that was no longer an option. The team, minus Aaron and Penelope, stood in the otherwise empty bullpen and watched as JJ came up to them, a sad look on her face that told the story clear as a bell. Spencer could feel her misery, her angry, and he hated it.
Derek stepped forward, looking almost devastated. "Wait a minute, I thought Hotch was supposed to…"
"It's above his pay grade." JJ interrupted. "Strauss's too."
Grief ate at Spencer's insides. They were a family here, this little group of people that he loved. The only family that he let himself have right now. He'd thought it would be better here. Thought that he'd be safer. Yet it was happening all over again. He was once more losing someone that he loved. Another sibling, this human woman that was like a sister to him, was being taken away from them. "They can't just take you away." He said softly.
He wasn't the only one who looked heartbroken. "So, we do nothing?" Emily asked.
JJ shook her head. "It's done."
"It can't be that simple." Derek protested. His voice was low and slightly angry in that way of his that he used to cover up other emotions.
Smiling sadly, JJ shrugged. "It is."
"This job is hard enough." Derek said with a furious look around at the others. "What are they trying to do, bury us?"
Emily let out a laugh that carried no hint of humor to it. "You're too good. That's the problem."
"It's true." Dave agreed. "You're on everybody's wish list. Our loss is somebody else's gain."
None of that mattered to Spencer. Not the job JJ had here, not the job she was going to, not the opportunity this presented or any of the reasons why this was happening. All he knew was that he was yet again losing a part of his family and it hurt no less that it was only a member of his adopted family here. "They can't just take you away." He repeated again.
The look that JJ gave him was heartbreaking. Her eyes were red-rimmed and he could see the tears building there. She reached out to him, leaning in for a hug, and Spencer couldn't help himself. He'd become more tactile recently and he knew the team had noticed it. No one complained, though. JJ didn't now as he pulled her into a hug. She let herself get folded into his arms and her head came to rest briefly against his shoulder. Though she couldn't see it, wings wrapped around her as well, sheltering her in an embrace that no one, save his Father, could've broken into. In that moment she was the single most protected human in existence—and it still wasn't enough. He couldn't keep her here no matter how badly he wanted to.
They pulled apart just enough for her to look up at him and Spencer could see just how much this was hurting her. It was that pain that had him swallowing down his own. He needed to help her, not make this harder for her. So he swallowed down his pain and fought back his own hurt and instead focused on giving her what little peace he could. He brought his hands up to cup her face and he held her there for a moment as he leaned in and pressed a soft kiss against her forehead. He added just a touch of grace as he whispered a blessing in Enochian against her skin. When he pulled back and looked down into her eyes, he smiled. Some of the pain had faded there, some of the burden of her grief eased. "What was that?" She asked him, her own lips starting to curve like she couldn't quite stop her smile.
"Just a little blessing." Spencer said.
When he finally let her go and watched her walk away, he whispered part of the blessing in his mind once more. Be safe, little sister.