Back in Garcia's lair
"He's off again!" Garcia pointed dramatically to the monitor that displayed Reid's current location.
Three heads whipped round at lightning speed, the poker game they had just finished setting up was suddenly forgotten.
"You sure about that Penelope?" JJ asked, tipping her head and squinting at the dot on the map.
The group carried on staring at the map waiting for Spencer to move.
"Come on man, come on prove me right" Derek muttered to himself.
As if answering Morgan's prayers the dot crawled forwards. Everybody leaned forwards in anticipation eager to get a better look at the map.
"Can we speed him up somehow?" Morgan asked after a minute of watching the dot hardly move. Garcia rolled her eyes at him, and Emily and JJ sniggered at the pair.
"No can do sugar lump this is a live feed no fast forwarding to the good bit I'm afraid"
"What's he doing at this speed, walking down the highway?" JJ asked concerned.
Garcia typed a few keys on her computer before answering her.
"No reports of a pedestrian in the vicinity of the tracker"
That offered little comfort to the confused group.
"Highway patrols are reporting clusters of traffic building up just after where Spencer appears to be" No one quite knew what to do with that information.
"Has anyone ever seen Spencer drive?" Emily asked evenly.
"Now that you mention it, no I've not seen him drive" Morgan admitted.
"How about you baby girl?"
She shook her head after a few seconds in thought.
"I know he's got a car or at least he did and I've seen him getting out of it a couple of times but never actually driving it" JJ answered.
"Maybe this is just how he drives then" Emily shrugged, trying to solve the riddle.
"Yeah five miles an hour sounds about right gives the kid time to process every variable" Morgan joked.
"Can you pull up the CCTV feed so we can see what he's up to?" JJ asked sweetly.
Garcia stopped and spun round in her chair to face her guests.
"Look you know me, I could have the feed pulled up in under a minute but not without setting off a few built in alarms. Normally I'd send through my authorisation codes and that would be that. But this isn't exactly to do with a case and it's not like we even have an active case I could slip the code from. To get the feed I need one of two things: either an authorisation code that come from Hotch or Strauss" That statement caused Emily and JJ to make disgusted sounds, picturing the response they'd get going to Hotch or heaven forbid Strauss and asking for help to spy on their friend.
"Yeah fat lot of good that will do. So what's the other thing that you need?" Morgan asked.
"Give me time. Without a case I'd have the time to get the footage and cover my tracks in a couple of days. With a case maybe a couple of weeks?"
"Well that's that then" Emily smiled "Our only option seems to be to wait for the footage"
"Any information on where he's heading?" JJ asked changing tactics.
"He's driving through a pretty pricey part of the city right now. We're talking gated communities, private facilities, the works" Garcia explained.
"So his dates got money, the player" Morgan's grin was as large as a Cheshire cat's.
"Morgan" Emily chastised, giving him a playful elbow to the ribs.
"As long as they're nice and treat Spence right I don't care where they live" JJ smiled.
After an agonisingly long time the tracker on the screen stopped. For just a moment the room was deadly quiet before it roared back to life with everyone excitedly swept up in the madness.
Garcia got to work typing into her computer. Suddenly a box popped up that covered her screen. She growled but carried on typing, only for the box to pop back up followed by another.
"What's going on baby girl?" Morgan tentatively asked, watching his friend grab one of her cat shaped stress balls off her desk and give it a not so gentle squeeze.
"The good news is I've got Spencer's current location" She wrote it down on a sticky note and stuck it to Morgan's chest.
"The bad news is, I don't know who lives there" Her voice was downcast.
"How come?" JJ asked not use to seeing the technical genius fail.
"I'm being blocked, that's what all the pop ups were about" She explained.
"Like up to no good, possibly criminals, blocked?" Emily asked suspiciously.
"Oh no nothing like that" Garcia signed "From the coding I can see who put it there. It's put in place by federal agencies to protect high ranking individuals within the agencies. CIA, NCIS, Homeland security. Even us, FBI use them for the top brass. It's a long list of well connected and well protected individuals."
"Wow" JJ whispered.
"How does our shy bookworm get mixed up with someone like that? Emily asked in disbelief as Derek was still too shocked to talk. Whatever he had expected to find out this most certainly was not it.
Morgan slowly reached down to pluck the paper with the address from his top. There was one lowtec way he could think of to find out who lived there.
"I'm thinking a drives in order. I'll drive past the house see who lives there with my own eyes" He was more determined than ever. Standing up and fishing in his pockets for his car keys, he was stopped by Garcia's voice.
"Not so fast, you're forgetting one house is in one of the most secure gated communities in the area. None of us are getting in without a warrant"
As one the roomed groaned. Morgan crumpled deflated back into his seat, his hand slammed into the desk causing the computers to jump.
"Its a start" JJ attempted to be positive "We know he's meeting up with someone and we know where. Penelope is the block something you can get past without bringing whichever federal agency set it up down on us?"
"Well yeah… I think so but just like the traffic cam feed it's gonna take time and I mean lots of time for this. These aren't normal blocks, they're designed by the government to specifically keep people like me out. One wrong move and we could be facing some awkward questions" She trailed off.
"If you're still up for it baby girl then I say we continue" Morgan responded, causing Garcia to nod her agreement.
"Yeah I'm more intrigued than ever to found out what he's up to and who with" Emily smiled loving the mystery of the whole thing.
"No good has come from Spence keeping secretes from us in the past, just until we get to the bottom of this and know he's safe I'm in" JJ worried.
"So its settled" Morgan clapped his hands together "Baby girl your on getting that block taken down we'll" he stuck his thumb out to indicate to himself, JJ and Emily "See if we can get any helpful info out of the kid without him catching on. One way or another we'll identify who Spencer's been meeting"
With that settled the group started to chat away about their plan and how they would put it into motion. Before Emily stopped and turned to Garcia with a quizzical look on her face.
"Penelope there's something that i don't fully understand, do you mind explaining it to me" She tried her best to hide the smirk that she could feel tugging at her lips.
"What's that hun?"
"Well I was just wondering with the CCTV cameras and the home owner records you said that you needed time or an authorisation code but with the tracker you pulled it up in seconds?" JJ and Morgan shared a look as realisation dawned on them. Garcia on the other hand was firmly avoiding looking at anyone, playing with the hem of her dress and squirming in her seat. "So I was just... you know wondering how you managed that so quickly?"
Garcia murmured something under her breath that nobody caught.
"What was that?" JJ asked grinning.
The technical analyst let out a dramatic sigh before meeting their gaze.
"Fine" She huffed knowing she'd been caught. "But you have to understand that after the whole Hankel nightmare I just needed to know that you guys were safe so I spent the couple of weeks they gave us off to recover putting trackers on your phones so that something like that would never happen again"
"Baby girl you've been tracking us all for years?" Morgan's face was a mask.
"Its just for emergencies I swear" Suddenly remembering what she had been doing minutes ago she added "and possible emergencies"
The three scowled and silence filled the room holding strong for only a couple of beats before Emily, JJ and Morgan as one burst out laughing. Garcia relaxed immediately knowing there was no hard feelings.
"We're just messing with you" Emily wheezed between laughs.
"We'd expect nothing less baby girl, you always have our backs even if we don't know it" He gave her a dazzling smile.
"But maybe don't tell Hotch about it" JJ added with a smirk.
After the round of giggles had subsided the group disbanded for the evening still wondering what was going on with their friend. Lot's of wild theories were thrown about as they walked to their cars but none as wild as the truth. That their quiet, geeky friend was currently moving in with the ice queen of the BAU all with the help of one David Rossi.
So the new chapter has finally come together, let me know what you think.