There were times where Aitana felt a lot more of a burnout student and these days, she was definitely feeling the burn. She had been out of the BAU for two weeks to fulfill her classes and a few projects here and there. She eventually returned to the BAU when she felt like her absence had been way too long, but she was still struggling to balance her schoolwork and her job.

San Francisco would have looked a thousand times prettier if she was running on a full night's sleep. She would kill for a coffee right now and then maybe she wouldn't be that irritated with everything.

"The Zodiac killer my ass…" she muttered at the television screen in the conference room.

Penelope, who was on a video call with Aitana, gasped and laughed. "Ooh, somebody needs a cup of coffeeeee," she sing-sang.

Aitana whimpered behind her hands. "I know." She dropped her hands and glanced at the open door that led into the precinct's bullpen. She got up from her chair and went to close it before any of the detectives heard her less than professional language.

"Still tired then?" Penelope said when Aitana returned to her spot at the table. The brunette plonked down on her chair and leaned back to continue resting.

"Well, the jet wasn't exactly the best place for sleep so…yeah, I'm still tired," Aitana replied.

"How's school?"

"Like a bitch.

Penelope's eyebrows raised. "Can tell." The vocabulary change was a big teller.

"My quarterly exams are now and I've been studying like crazy. I'm taking any moment I can." Aitana grabbed her textbooks on the table as evidence. "That, coupled with my dance competition next week is killing me! I don't have a head for anything."

"And yet you're here working," Penelope gestured. "Alone?"

"Nah," Aitana reached for the t.v. control that was just a bit on the edge of the table. She had to stretch a couple seconds. "I got a text from JJ that they were coming back. Emily and Spencer are here too."

"Oh, they're back early from the conference," Penelope remarked. They had been gone for several days which led to a severe understaffing problem within the BAU, prompting Aitana's return as well.

"Rossi and Morgan are on their way back too so we'll all be together quite — oh…" Aitana leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms and legs as she watched a man deliver a very entertaining show.

"What? What!?" Penelope did everything in her power to get a glimpse of whatever Aitana was looking at. Unfortunately, it failed.

"I'm supposed to have a conference with the media in an hour but it looks like someone beat me to it," Aitana said, "This guy's claiming the Zodiac killer is his cousin."

"He's not, right?"

Aitana snorted. "We are not dealing with the actual Zodiac killer, Pen."

"How do you know?"

"It's just simple math, Penelope. And logic. The actual Zodiac killer would be an elderly man. He couldn't possibly have the strength to take down two young people in the car. First of all, he would have a hell of a lot of trouble getting to that hill."

"Sounds like you've thought this well," Penelope said.

Aitana shrugged. "Just thinking. With a frazzled brain but whatever."

Penelope chuckled. "I'm sure you're just fine."

Aitana hummed. She paused when she saw Spencer come into the screen. "Oh, the team's here," she told Penelope then turned the laptop around to finally quell the blonde's curiosity.

"...oh, yeah. Well, for the record, a CD was not sent to the police this morning, and the 'Tragic Overture' was written by Brahms, not Wagner, so luckily, —" Spencer threw a irritable look at the civilian beside him, "—I guess it's not your cousin."

Both Aitana and Penelope snorted.

'The FBI would greatly appreciate it if people would stop making false claims to get their 15 minutes of fame. Thank you…'

"Hmm, I am willing to bet my entire exam grades that Spencer isn't having a good day either," Aitana said afterwards when her laugh allowed her to get a word in.

"That's not very often," Penelope remarked, "I wonder if the conference was bad then?"

Aitana agreed with the thought. It wasn't always that Spencer snapped at anyone, even annoying people like the civilian on t.v. It was a strange sight. "I'll have to ask Emily or something."

~ 0 ~

Aitana had gotten both sets of parents of the victims to come to the precinct to talk to them. She didn't get very much from either set of parents. Both sides were just as upset about the murder and Aitana couldn't blame them.

"No, they weren't being stalked," she reported back to Hotch on their way to the conference room. "Both sets of parents said that neither of their kids felt like they were being stalked."

"Alright," Hotch said, opening the door for them. "We should still go through their social media just in case."

"Yeah, okay," agreed Aitana.

The two walked in and found Spencer working at the table with a decent stack of papers.

"Hey there stranger, I saw you did my job today," Aitana greeted him playfully. He only paused his work out of confusion. Aitana chuckled. "Saw you on t.v. earlier. Penelope did too."

"Hm," Spencer shrugged. Aitana didn't miss the grimness that flickered across Spencer's face. Whether or not Hotch saw it too was left unclear.

"Reid, how's it going?" He came over to Spencer's side to see the progress on the papers.

"Computers slow me down, so I prefer paper, but I wasn't expecting all these comments." It was true; Spencer's pen was making marks every now and then at an incredible speed.

"The computer was slow?" Aitana gaped for a second and shook her head to snap out of her stupor. "What must we look like to you, hmm?"

Spencer stopped again and looked up at her. It took Spencer a couple minutes to be able to focus back on the papers. "I think I just found a cipher from the unsub…" He told the pair a couple minutes later. "The symbols buried in the spam are the same ones the Zodiac used in his first message back in 1969."

"What does it say?" asked Hotch.

"Killing is the most fun you can have 98 minutes below the horizon in magic city with President Garfield. Happy hunting." Even Spencer seemed confused with what he read.

"I think it's time to call Penelope," Aitana announced. She went for the landlines and dialed Penelope's number.

"The oracle is in!" Penelope's chirpy voice filled the room seconds later. "How may I assist?"

Hotch got straight to the point. "Garcia, to what specific location does magic city refer?"

There was a pause while she typed.

"Birmingham, Alabama!"

"98 minutes below the horizon…" Spencer reread the line before asking Penelope another question. "Garcia, what time is sunset there, tonight?"

"6:22!"

"98 minutes there would be 8 p.m.," Spencer told the others after a quick calculation. What's dedicated to President Garfield in San Francisco?" He then asked Penelope.

"President Garfield…" Penelope searched quickly, "There's a statue of him in Golden Gate Park."

"That's where he's going to hit next," Spencer said, rising from his chair.

The team moved out quickly. They needed to be ready by eight and it was already past five. Two young UCs were positioned at a bench in the aforementioned park pretending to talk as a couple. Everyone else was positioned around the park in teams to await the unsub. At around five to eight, a van was starting to pull up behind the 'couple'.

"It's a lone driver," Morgan informed the others through the comms.

Indeed it was just one driver coming out of the car. He was dressed in a black hoodie and seemed to be holding something in his left hand.

"Move in!" Hotch gave the order.

A swarm of agents and detectives surrounded the driver, including the two UCs who pulled their own guns. The driver's hands went up in the air, jumping.

"Drop it!" Hotch ordered the man.

"I'm just the messenger!" The man exclaimed as he let a paper fall to the ground. "I'm supposed to deliver a letter!"

It was an envelope that fell to the grass. Being the closest to it, JJ reached down and picked out up. Her eyebrows raised with apparent confusion as she read the cover. "It's...for Reid."

Hearing his name, Spencer moved over and took the envelope from JJ. He ripped it open to find a message inside. "'You're not as smart as you think you are.'"

"Who sent it?" Hotch demanded from the man.

"I don't know! I just deliver it to the address when I'm supposed to!" To his credit, the man did seem scared beyond belief. This wasn't their unsub.

"If the unsub's not here, where is he?"

That was the million dollar question.

~0~

The very next morning, the precinct got a report of another double homicide. It was at a park and the death hour was around the same hour the FBI had been at the other park last night.

"Tara Hanson was a teacher. Alec Wyseck was a lawyer," Agent Lin of the field office explained to the other agents. "They had dinner at a nearby restaurant and were taking an evening stroll. The M. E. said Alec's throat was slit and he was stabbed twice in the back. Tara was stabbed 20 times in the abdomen and torso. Overkill on the female again."

"She's a brunette, like Nicole Puli," Hotch studied the woman's corpse. She had the same characteristics as the previous female victim. "They both could have been surrogates."

Agent Lin took out a small plastic bag that held a necklace with the name 'Kiki' on it. "He left this on the park bench."

"It's Nicole's," JJ recognized the necklace. "Her nickname was Kiki."

"Hey," Rossi called as he, Aitana and Morgan walked up to the trio, "The courier service said the envelope was left with cash in their drop box."

"The messenger himself had a clean record," added Morgan, "He's a star employee."

"This was a targeted message for an individual," Aitana said, barely stifling a yawn.

"Very different M. O," said Spencer, he and Emily coming to join them. "It's a high vantage point. The victims chose it for the view, the unsub so he could see if anyone was coming." His cellphone went off and seeing that it was Penelope, he stepped away to answer it.

"Hey, boo, I tracked the ISP of the user who entered the spam comment to an Internet cafe, but he used a prepaid credit card, so I don't have an I. D."

"All right, thanks, Garcia." Spencer wouldn't say it out loud but it was virtually useless information without the name of the unsub. He turned back to the group.

"...he used the same code that was broken years ago in a riddle we cracked in seconds," Emily was saying, "He knew we'd solve it. It was a decoy."

"No, it's a taunt," Spencer said grimly, "He wants to prove that he's smarter than everyone. And we fell for it." He fell for it. He thought he'd been smarter and caught the unsub on a careless mistake but it turned out the unsub planned it. "If he's trying to compete with me, then it means he's most likely within 5 years of my age. The question is why."

"But the message might not have been meant for you, Reid," JJ said slowly, presuming what kind of thoughts were running through Spencer's head at the moment.

Spencer certainly took JJ's comment almost indignantly. "A letter was hand-delivered to me last night."

"The comment to the paper was written at 9:03 a.m," JJ countered, "We weren't even in the city yet, so how would the unsub know you'd be involved in the case?"

"You did give your name to the press later that day, and you said yourself he knew we'd be in the park," Emily chimed in. The coincidences weren't very concrete.

"If he's doing his best to emulate the Zodiac, killing in such quick succession would be a mistake," Aitana said, purposely having stayed quiet to withhold any other yawns. "The shortest time span for a Zodiac was two weeks?"

"Maybe the unsub doesn't have a choice," Rossi said suddenly, still thinking about it, "Maybe he's experiencing a time pressure that he has no control over."

It certainly made sense.

~0~

While the team delivered the profile, Penelope did her due diligence and continued scoping out the local cafe areas around them. By the time the team was done, she had a few more possible locations where the unsub might come around next. She still had no name but the locations she came up with did have cameras just in case they got lucky. During their on-street search, they split up to cover more ground.

"Where did —" Aitana could no longer hold in her yawn. "Wasn't there three of us?"

Beside her, Emily smiled teasingly. They walked the street at a quick pace and somehow Aitana hadn't fallen asleep yet. She was a walking zombie. "No sleep yet, huh?"

Aitana shook her head. Another yawn came through. "When I'm not working, I'm doing homework and studying."

"Anything we can help with?"

"Not unless you feel like doing dozens of readings and picking out the important bits for tests?"

Emily's face said it all.

"Yeah, didn't think so," Aitana chuckled. "But seriously, weren't there three of us?"

At that, Emily nodded. "Yeah, there was. Do you feel like there was something wrong with Spencer today and yesterday?"

Aitana snorted. "I'm not that sleepy, Em. Of course there's something wrong with him. I just don't have the social skills to take it head on right now. I barely have the skills to dress myself right now. In fact, I didn't mismatch right?"

Emily laughed as the brunette looked at her current outfit. "No, you're good."

"Goo—" Another yawn slipped through.

Emily laughed a second time. She patted Aitana's shoulder. "C'mon, you need a coffee stat." And seeing their missing partner, she stopped abruptly, causing Aitana to bump into her. She pulled the door open and motioned Aitana to go in. "Double shot espresso for me, please."

Aitana nodded. "Triple for me," she said, covering her mouth to yawn again.

Emily wondered just how tired Aitana was to walk right past Spencer's table without noticing him. Hopefully the coffee would help her.

Emily walked up to Spencer's table and sat down without him even looking up. He was still working on the stack of online comments, specifically the comment of the unsub he missed.

When Emily got the sense Spencer was willing to let them sit there all afternoon in silence, she cut it. "Are you gonna tell me what's up?" Still, Spencer kept working. Enily wondered if the pen movements were even real. "Reid, it's me, c'mon."

Finally, Spencer's pen stopped and he raised his head. "Do you ever wonder if you lived up to expectations?"

Emily's eyebrows raised. It wasn't a question she was expecting. "Mm...I beat them. I figured I'd be a bored socialite by 25."

"I thought I'd cure schizophrenia by the time I was 25."

Emily immediately knew what it was now. It was no secret that Spencer wished he could cure severe illnesses like that, primarily the disease that was slowly taking away his mother from him.

"You know, when I was a kid, people told me that I could do anything…"

"You're afraid you've let people down?"

"No, I'm afraid I've let myself down."

"By not curing schizophrenia?"

"No, just because…" Spencer let out a small sigh. However idiotic and perhaps stupid it sounded, he needed to get it off his chest. "I don't know why I'm in the FBI."

Emily nodded slowly. "I see. You're a genius, but you have the same job as me, Morgan, JJ, Aitana."

"Yeah, exactly — no!" Spencer laughed lightly. "That's not what I'm saying. It's just sometimes—sometimes I kind of get this feeling like maybe I should have done something more with my life."

"Hold old are you?" Emily would've laughed if it wasn't for the situation. Leave it to Spencer to have a midlife crisis early on. "Twenty-nine?"

"I'm 30…"

Emily paused, eyes widening.. "No way. We missed your birthday? Well — why didn't you tell us?

Spencer pursed his lips. He didn't find it to be such a big deal. It wasn't the first time people missed his birthday and besides, they were short staffed and on a case at the time. He couldn't be extreme by pointing out that it had also been his birthday too.

Emily set that aside for the time being, but she was making a mental note of this unfortunate situation. "The fact of the matter is you're young. There's still time."

"By the time Nicola Tesla was 30, he'd already invented the induction motor," Spencer remarked.

At the same time, Aitana came by with two cups of coffee. "Nicola Tesla?" Her nose scrunched. "Everything he built wasn't even given proper credit." She looked between the two who were surprised by her comment. "Yeah, I know stuff too."

Emily smiled, shaking her head.

"And I totally forgot to get sugar, excuse me." Aitana started for the counter again, leaving behind the two coffee cups.

"You know what?" Emily started again, grabbing Spencer's attention. He'd been looking after Aitana. "You might be right. You don't hear that much about child prodigies once they grow up. In fact, most of them turn out average."

"That's not true," Spencer said, eyebrows knitting together. "Are you trying reverse psychology with me?"

"I'm just telling it like it is," Emily raised her hands in defense.

Spencer rolled his eyes. She made him sound ridiculous.

"And you know what? Life is not always about academics, genius," Emily said, leaning forward on the table. "Sometimes there's other things that can make you feel accomplished. In fact, there's plenty of things besides academics, Spencer. Have you ever thought of that?"

Judging by the look on Spencer's face, the answer was 'no'. "All my life, I've just thought about the things that I could fix," he admitted. Fix was always a huge part of his vocabulary, if not all his vocabulary when it came to aspirations and dreams.

Emily thought as much too. "It's okay to want to fix things. I bet that's how a lot of people got started but it's not everything in life. There's other things. There's traveling—"

"Because I already don't do that enough," Spencer cut in with a teasing smile.

Emily deadpanned him but soon lost against her own smile. "Vacation is different. Seriously, when's the last time you took vacation? Gone somewhere outside D.C. just because you wanted to?"

Spencer thought about the question for a couple minutes. He honestly couldn't remember. "I think I'm always working…"

"Aha," nodded Emily. "Well, here's another one, when's the last time you've gone out on a date?"

The thinking process was even shorter with that question. Spencer shrugged.

"Aha," Emily shook her head. "There's more, Spencer. I promise. You can't get stuck thinking about what you did or didn't fix. It's not healthy and you know what? You deserve more than that."

Spencer's head lowered, as did his gaze. "Thanks," he said quietly. It wasn't often he heard things like that. He was aware of his tendency to focus on logic and academics. It was what he did best — everything else was harder. He was pretty sure whenever he did those other things, or attempted to anyways, people would either laugh or think he was weird. Neither option led to appealing consequences so he tended not to try anymore.

"And you know, I bet there is one person you could think to ask out…"

As soon as Emily said that, Spencer let out a low groan. "Don't." The conversation had been going so well…

Emily treaded cautiously for the sake of not losing her honest credibility. "I mean it. You're beyond smart, you can see things too. You and Aitana just...click. I've seen it. Everyone's seen it."

Spencer made to shake his head but ended up catching sight of Aitana at the counter. She was ordering again. Even when she was absolutely exhausted, she still managed to smile brightly. She herself was just a bright, breezy person. If you were around her, there was no way you could be gloomy. Maybe that was the reason he always gravitated towards her.

"Think about it," Emily insisted, albeit gently. This wasn't teasing anymore, this was an actual discussion she wanted to have with him and she needed him to understand that. "You deserve to be happy and you deserve to have someone who makes you happy."

This time, Spencer's gaze lingered on Aitana purposely. She was accepting a new cup of coffee. "What if she doesn't even like me like that?" The words tumbled out of his mouth in a breathy tone, like he was already nervous...like he was already going to ask Aitana.

Emily smiled at him. "I don't think that'll be a problem."

Spencer still wasn't entirely convinced. He stopped altogether when he saw Aitana coming towards them.

"One for you," she presented Spencer with the additional cup she ordered. "I cannot be held responsible for what I remember and don't in my state but I think we should all focus on the fact that I did buy another cup for you." And to top it off, she yawned.

Emily's smile widened at Spencer. He flushed.

"I — you didn't have to," he said quickly.

Aitana shrugged. "No big deal." She then grabbed her cup and took a big gulp.

"Wasn't that hot?" Emily asked with a touch of concern.

Aitana shrugged again. "Honestly at this point, I don't think I'm lucid enough to determine that."

"That — that is concerning," Emily decided, exchanging a look with Spencer. He couldn't help his growing smile.

Aitana nodded. "Yeah, and it also concerns me that those —" one of her fingers lifted off her cup to point at Spencer's paper, "—are strangely becoming more understandable to me. They look like words." She took another big slurp of coffee.

"Yeah, I think I should take you back to the hotel," Emily said. She lingered only to take a peek at what Spencer had scribbled so far on the papers. "Let me see it!" She snatched the papers abruptly, startling Spencer.

"What are you doing!?" He immediately said when she started making her scribbles.

"Well, you just told me yourself that you're washed up. I should take a look at this!"

"Who's washed up?" Aitana asked, taking another drink of her coffee.

"Spencer says he's washed up."

"That's not what I'm saying. It's — seriously, what are you doing!?" Spencer tried taking the pen back at least but Emily swatted his hand away.

Aitana snorted. "Spencer, you are not 'washed up'."

"Exactly!" Emily exclaimed.

"That's not what I meant!" Spencer cried.

"I mean, if that were the case then what must you think about us?" Aitana gestured between herself and Emily. "Don't offend us."

Spencer rolled his eyes. Neither woman was listening to him and most of his attention was on Emily anyways since she continued to mess with his notes. "Give it back!" He finally managed to snatch his paper back and just as he was about to reprimand Emily for her extra notes, he realized it actually helped. "Wait a minute, that's it. The real code is in the words!"

"Huh, so I was right. There were words in that thing. That's another point for me, Dr. Reid. What's our current score again?" Aitana went for another drink when Spencer took that as well. "Hey!"

"You're done," he announced as he handed the cup to Emily.

"Yeah, officially cut off," Emily agreed.

Aitana was a pouting mess leaving the shop. They met with Hotch and JJ who'd been going through the other coffee shops to tell them the news. From there, they headed to the China Weekly Post to gather the latest edition and read the unsub's actual message, which wasn't very much.

"That's the point," Spencer told JJ who'd made the comment. "The unsub has to be beyond smart to write a code like this — profoundly gifted! An I. Q. Of at least 160."

"That changes the profile, then," said Hotch.

"The unsub could still hold a menial or low-level job," Spencer said, meaning to add another reason for the unsub's actions. "It's frustrating. Many believe that beyond an I. Q. Of 120, success is determined by other factors."

In the meantime, Emily was dialing for Penelope and when the one answered, Emily handed the phone right over to Spencer. He was on a streak and nobody wanted to interrupt it. "Garcia, I need you to compile a list of people with I.Q.s of 160 or above in the region. Which is kind of slumming it, 'cause folks can get in with a measly I. Q. Of 130. Also check old school records. We're looking for someone who's in his 20s or 30s!"

"Yeah!" Penelope exclaimed. "Hit you back when I got something!"

"All right!" Spencer said, hanging up and almost tossing Emily her phone back.

"You know this message seems more like ire than anything else," Aitana said, this time managing to stifle her yawn. She and JJ were rereading the encoded message. "'You could do some much better.' So...telenovela. And I should know, I've watched thousands of them."

"It does give that vibe, doesn't it?" JJ said thoughtfully. "And the manager didn't even know who left it. All he said was a white male."

"So descriptive," Aitana rolled her eyes.

"The writer's a genius, but the recipient would have to be, too, in order to decode it," said Spencer, "That can narrow it down."

"Maybe that's the problem," Aitana said with a wry smile, "The person's jealous of their smart friend or partner or whatever because they're dating someone who isn't smart like them."

Before anyone could make a comment about Aitana's supposition, Hotch got a call from Rossi and Morgan that they had a new victim.

~ 0 ~

In a short matter of time, the team deduced the unsub had not only killed a cab driver but also kidnapped somebody in the same car. They split in an effort to gather more information but each one came up with zero.

"We went through all the surveillance footage near the newspaper. There's nothing," Emily told the others when she and JJ met them in the precinct. One whole afternoon wasted on useless video feed.

"Nothing from the bystanders either," Aitana reported as well, "Nobody saw a damn thing even though the cab driver literally picked someone up in a crowded area."

Hotch could only do so much at that point. He gave the women a motion to take a break, only after they all turned around they came to the same sight.

"Has he moved since we left?" JJ asked Hotch in a quiet whisper. Hotch shook his head.

Spencer was sitting cross-legged on a chair directly in front of their evidence board. It was the same position he'd been in earlier in the afternoon, hours ago.

"Spence, you ok?" JJ called gently as they approached him.

"Nothing is accidental," he muttered. "Nothing this unsub does is accidental. The message in the "China Weekly Post" was on page F-4. Why F-4?"

"That's where the classifieds were," Emily shrugged.

"It's more than that."

"You think 'F-4' stands for something?" Aitana raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe…" Spencer got up from his seat and hurried to the table where the newspaper sat. He tossed the useless papers until he found the brief excerpt the unsub left. "See, F-4 is a chess square!" He turned to the others, eyes wide as he finished making the conclusion.

"This is a...chess game?" Aitana repeated. She tapped the side of her head. "I'm sorry, I'm beyond sleepy, did I hear that right?"

Spencer nodded. "He's specifically playing the game 6 of Fischer versus Spassky in 1972, one of the greatest chess matches ever played. The murder locations correspond with the final 3 moves of the game!" To make his point more clear, he left the newspaper behind and picked up a marker. He drew lines on the evidence board pinpointing the locations of the murders."

Bearing that in mind, when they called Penelope, they asked her to modify her list of Zodiac case experts down to those who played chess.

"Yeah. Ok. List is getting smaller and smaller!" Penelope was happy to report until her list went down to absolute zero.

"All right, open it up to high-level amateurs as well," Spencer instructed her.

Half an hour later, Penelope was even happier to report she found a good match. "Get ready to love me more!" She chirped. "I did a search of chess players rated 2, 200 or higher, which would make them Masters but not necessarily professionals. I cross-referenced that search with Zodiac experts and came up with two former chess prodigies and best friends who used to write about the Zodiac in their junior high school newspaper. And I get bonus points because they both have IQs over 160."

"Where are they?" Spencer immediately asked.

"In San Francisco! Caleb Rossmore is a city parks employee. Harvey Morell is an engineer at a Chinese computer firm. He's about to get married, and, yes, I just emailed you all this information right now."

The group grabbed the nearest tablets to open the file up. They went through the two young men's pictures before coming across Harvey's fiancée.

"The fiancee Marisa Devon looks like the two female victims," Emily blinked at the picture of the woman. The dark hair and eyes were a perfect match. "They were surrogates for her."

"Caleb could be jealous of his friend. Or what if he's afraid of losing Harvey?" JJ theorized, prompting Spencer to agree.

"If he was a child prodigy, he may no longer feel special as an adult. He could be trying to hold on to him."

"Harvey's engagement could have been a trigger," Rossi said.

"Reid, I know Spassky conceded the match, but what would the next move have been?" asked Hotch.

Spencer stiffened. He had not thought about that yet. "Uh, Spassky would have been checkmated or he would have lost his Queen."

"Meaning Marisa is in danger," Morgan said, "We need to start looking, and fast."

"Well, Spassky's Queen was in square E-8, so that would land us in Richmond," Spencer said, sparing a glance at the map to double check that he was right. He was.

"Garcia, is there a connection between that location and the two men?" called Hotch.

Penelope made them wait a dutiful moment before being able to answer. "Bingo! Harvey's dad worked there as a chemistry teacher in the sixties. And... oh, uh, Caleb lived there in 2008. He worked at the Powerlinks Gym on Second and Hill and the Dragon Temple Restaurant at 636 Mason."

"All right. JJ Morgan, you go to the gym," Hotch started assigning locations, "We'll check out the restaurant. Serrano, you get the pictures of Caleb and Harvey to Zablonsky and his wife, see if they recognize them."

"What? Why me?" Aitana all but pouted.

"Because it would be complete negligence to let you handle any kind of weapon in your state."

Hotch's bluntness was sometimes pretty useful. Aitana was sure nobody else would've told her that to her face.

"Yeah, alright," she mumbled. A yawn slipped through, ending any kind of desire to argue the matter.

She maintained contact with the team throughout the whole time. She felt productive in that she'd gotten a positive ID on the two men from the Zablonskys. They had interviewed the detective about the Zodiac when they were kids. With the help of Penelope, they were able to dig up more on them. At that, Penelope also made sure they were all patched in at the same time.

"It turns out they wrote a crime beat column in the newspaper for high school," Penelope informed the groups, "One of them stole the photo left at the first crime scene."

"And my money is Caleb left the message for Harvey," Aitana chimed in, "'You could do so much better'". I thought it was for a jealous partner but a close friendship like that can rival it any day."

"But how did Caleb know that Harvey wouldn't turn him in?" asked JJ from their car.

"Caleb has something on him or he's holding the fiancee hostage," Hotch answered easily.

"The missing person in the backseat," Emily made the conclusion first.

"If she's a bride-to-be, she's gotta be on a tight schedule," Aitana said slowly, "Which means...Penelope?"

"Yes?" The blonde in question waited for instructions she knew were coming.

"Let's find out if she had a schedule and if she kept to it!"

"Oh — I like it! I've never been one to think about marriage but I'm good to check out what the schedule would be like!"

"You two do that and call us back," Hotch said, feeling like that was going to turn into a whole other conversation neither group wanted to be a part of.

"Yes!" went the two women in question. Their lines died a second later.

In a short matter of time, Aitana and Penelope went down Marisa's schedule and came to the spot she'd missed.

"She would never just not show up," Aitana shook her head. It was a dress fitting — no bride in their right mind would ever miss that!

"Agreed," Penelope hummed. She dialed them back into the comms. of the rest of the team and together, they informed them they were most likely searching for Marisa as well.

"They're not at the restaurant," JJ informed shortly afterwards.

"It means they're here," Morgan said.

They were only just entering the Powerlinks Gym when they heard commotion. They found Caleb pointing a gun at Harvey and Marisa, or more specifically towards the latter. It was like the team had suspected — Caleb wanted Marisa gone. But as soon as they saw themselves surrounded, Harvey tried his absolute best to keep things under wraps.

Spencer managed to pull the wraps after revealing some things to Caleb, mainly the fact Harvey was planning to leave the country without telling him. After that, Caleb had no qualms revealing where their long ago victim's corpse resided. By the time the team returned to the precinct, Aitana had already assembled the required paperwork and team to retrieve the bones of the young victim.

"I'm not that asleep," she told them with a triumphant grin when they returned.

Of course, it was easier to stand by that when she wasn't in the jet, trying to finish her readings so late at night. Emily was entertaining herself from the opposite seats watching Aitana slowly fall asleep.

"I bet you $20 she won't wake up even when we land," she told Spencer with a smug grin. She was sure she would win.

Spencer sat beside Aitana and snuck a glance at the brunette. She had fallen asleep with her pink highlighter in one hand and her book in the other. It was threatening to fall off her lap.

"I don't think that's a very fair bet," he said to Emily. He would lose, no doubt.

Emily's smile widened. She knew very well he was right. "So, did you think about it?"

Spencer's first instinct was to look around the jet and make sure nobody had overheard. Leave it to Emily to pick the most confined area to talk about that. Thankfully, JJ was asleep on the other side, Morgan had his earphones on and Hotch and Rossi were engulfed in their own conversation at the end of the jet.

"C'mon," Emily said, "Did you?"

"I don't — I don't know," Spencer finally said, "It's not something you can decide on in a couple hours." He really couldn't. With the case, he hadn't really given much thought to the situation anymore. "Plus...I don't even know if it's...real…"

Emily snorted. "Oh, please—"

"It's not a joke!" Spencer exclaimed lightly. He glanced at Aitana to check she was still sleeping. She was. Thoroughly. "We're friends. That's how we've been. Maybe you're just getting into my head."

"I doubt anybody could get into your head, Spencer," Emily said with a shake of her head. "God knows none of us can, even if we tried."

"I don't mean it like that, it's just...I don't want to do anything because I'm being influenced. It can happen subconsciously, you know. Nobody deserves that."

"So what are you going to do, then?"

Spencer shrugged. "I don't really know." It was strange saying those words when he always had plans for everything. The only thing he could think of for the time being was to just wait. He didn't know what he was going to 'wait' for but it felt like the only thing he could do for now. See where things could go - if they could go anywhere.

Emily didn't seem very convinced but she wasn't going to push and cause a disaster. If a disaster were to happen, it wouldn't be because of her.

A couple minutes passed when Aitana made a shift, still very much asleep though. Spencer reached over her very carefully and took the book in her hand before it fell. He then slid her highlighter out of her other hand.

Communications. Such an expansive major and, honestly, not one of Spencer's favorites given that it involved establishing relations with countless groups of people. He was never good at that and he doubted he ever would be.

He started reading the page Aitana left off on and highlighted what he thought would be important to know for the upcoming exams. Aitana told them all about the readings she'd already done so Spencer had a good idea of what she was looking for.

Emily rolled her eyes at him from her seat. He was so oblivious that even he didn't see it.

Aitana moved again and her head lulled against Spencer's shoulder. The latter stiffened for a couple seconds. Emily watched with nothing but amusement.

"Shut. Up," Spencer commanded her.

"It could be a sign…" Emily sing-sung for them.

"No such thing," Spencer dismissed the theory without so much of a look in Emily's way. Still, after a couple minutes of reading again, he was smiling.

~0~

For the next couple days, Aitana was gone again. The team handled a few more cases in her absence, all luckily short and not so far from them. After their current case from Montana, the remaining team came back pretty tired. The idea of having to do paperwork now wasn't very appealing.

"Hey, Spencer?" Emily called the brunette as she joined him in the bullpen. He was about the only one left at the desks from the team. "Hotch wants to talk to you."

"Eee…" Spencer made a face, leaning back in his seat.

Emily didn't take his reaction well. "What's wrong?"

"He probably wants to talk to me about why I've been kind of weird lately." Spencer had done his best to sit through his thoughts and work them out before it became too apparent to the others. Apparently, he hadn't been fast enough.

"You are making a difference, you know, one person at a time," Emily said, sending him a small smile.

"Thank you." Spencer put his pen down after a moment's thought. "You know, I've been thinking a lot lately about why I stayed after Gideon left, why I didn't take any of those other offers."

"Nothing is accidental," Emily reminded him and he nodded.

"And I realized, I don't know, there's just something incredibly right about being here, with you guys." He'd run many scenarios in his head as part of 'working through his thoughts' and when he came across the ones that didn't involve any of his friends, it all seemed very...pointless. No breakfasts with Penelope, no visits to JJ's and seeing Henry, no back and forths with Morgan in their pranks, no challenges with Hotch nor Rossi, and no fish hunting with Aitana. Wherever he imagined himself outside the BAU, it didn't seem to matter if he didn't have his friends.

Emily smiled at Spencer. "Well, I'm glad to hear that. Otherwise this would have been really awkward."

"What would have been really awkward?" Spencer asked, making another face.

Emily made a gesture for him to stand up. He did, albeit slowly, and followed Emily up the small steps. She led him into the conference room and suddenly, everyone was yelling.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Spencer genuinely jumped in fright before realizing what was happening. He laughed both out of embarrassment and happiness, but for the first couple minutes it was more embarrassment. He felt lucky he was being engulfed in hugs because otherwise they would've noticed it.

"Almost 40 now," Morgan teased him.

Spencer mimicked Morgan's tone with a laugh to match. "You're older," he reminded Morgan with a smirk.

"We have presents!" Penelope exclaimed in a sing-sung manner as she waved Spencer over to the table. It was indeed full of presents. Spencer didn't think he needed any of them but he knew better than to argue with Penelope about them.

"And I have the caaake!" Aitana came rushing into the room with a pink box in hand and a white spatula tucked under one hand.

Without knowing it, Spencer was slightly happier being surprised with Aitana's sudden presence. She'd been gone for a while again!

"Yay! You made it!" Penelope cheered as Aitana joined them.

"With cake!" Aitana reiterated. She presented Spencer with the pink box with the widest grin her face could make. "I hope you like it!"

"I'm sure I will," Spencer said, taking the box from her and putting it down on the table. As soon as he did, Aitana was throwing her arms around him.

"Happy birthday! I'm so sorry I missed it!" She cried.

"It's alright — you weren't even here," Spencer said, eyes falling on the others who seemed equally guilty over the matter. "We were on a case too, guys. It's fine, really."

"Still," Aitana pulled away from him, revealing an overly concerned expression, "I never forget my friends' birthdays. It might as well be sacrilege for me."

"I swear it's okay," Spencer said with a chuckle, "If you let me open the cake instead of Morgan, all will be forgiven."

"'Instead of Morgan' — what?" Aitana looked back to see Morgan peeking inside the cake box. "HEY!" She smacked Morgan's hand with the spatula and brandished it at him. "Hands off, it's not yours!"

Morgan's hand recoiled to his chest. "What the hell!?"

The others burst into laughter, including Spencer. He'd never seen Morgan so stunned before.

"That hurt, sprinkles!"

Aitana scoffed. "Please, my mother used to hit us with a wooden spoon. Of course if you ask her now, she'll deny it. This—" she waved the spatula beside her, "—is plastic. You'll survive."

Morgan was downright horrified with what he had heard. "We will unpack that later," he warned Aitana.

Aitana rolled her eyes, disregarding such warning. She turned back to Spencer, offering him the spatula. "All yours."

"Uuh, thanks…" Spencer said, struggling not to laugh again. (Morgan didn't look happy at all). He pulled the box closer to him and opened it — he lost against the laugh that time.

The cake was smothered in chocolate icing and rainbow sprinkles. Candles of 30 were placed right at the center.

"Happy birthday!" Aitana cheered, prompting the others to do the same. "Don't worry, it tastes just like a donut!"

Spencer had no doubt about it. He presumed it was a product of her parent's bakery.

"Where's the lighter?" Rossi asked the others. Aitana gasped.

"Dammit, I forgot, it's outside with my bag!"

"Why's your bag outside?" asked JJ curiously and slightly puzzled.

"Because I dropped it in the bullpen when I was coming in and since my hands were full, I couldn't really pick it up, could I?"

JJ had certainly not expected that kind of answer. "O-kay…"

"I'll go get it!" Aitana said quickly. "Open presents in the meantime!" She hurried out the room.

But the others didn't, instead choosing to converse while they waited. Spencer would've gladly been invited but his gaze seemed to linger on the doorway as he waited.

He didn't know at what point he decided to walk out himself, all he knew was that he was walking. Emily saw from the side and smiled with bemusement. He really was too much sometimes.

Spencer found Aitana in the bullpen just as she said she'd be but she was on the phone, picking up a pile on the floor he assumed was her belongings that'd fallen out of her bag. The closer he got to her, the easier it was to hear her conversation but not at all easy to understand. She was speaking in Spanish, and it sounded fast.

"Si, ya se. Llego al rato para verla…" Aitana was picking up the last of her things and putting them in her bag. "Mamá, ya se. Si voy a llegar a tiempo. Adios!" She groaned after hanging up. She wasn't expecting to turn around and bump into Spencer. "Woah!"

"Sorry!" Spencer exclaimed, feeling utterly ridiculous now. What if she thought he was following her?

Aitana merely chuckled. "No worries. I have the lighter." She started rummaging through her bag. "I got held up with my mother's call, sorry."

"No, no, that's fine. Um, are you okay? You sounded, um, upset…"

Aitana nodded but this time her smile struggled to stay.

"Aitana?" Spencer called again. She shook her head.

"No, it's your birthday — well, it was, but I forgot," she muttered. "Like a terrible, horrible friend."

"You weren't even here!"

"That's not the point—"

"And neither is this because we both know you're just making up excuses to not talk about it," Spencer said, hoping Aitana wouldn't get offended. He may have been overstepping.

She sighed. "It's my grandmother," she finally said. "She's coming tomorrow. I told my mom that I'd be coming over to see her."

"Oh, for your competition this weekend?"

"Yes, and I know we talked about it before but I'm still nervous about seeing her again."

"Right," Spencer remembered immediately. The famous grandmother who was coming over from Mexico was made out to be a scary judge.

Aitana passed a hand over her hair. "For one thing, I don't know what I'm going to tell her when she asks why I never called her nor visited her for 3 years. That'll be fun. And then I'll have to figure out how to explain all the other holes in the 3 years I was gone."

"Aitana," Spencer cut in the moment he could, "This sounds less about the competition now and more about your time in Witness Protection."

"...it does, doesn't it?" Aitana bit on her bottom lip. She had no idea when that happened. "But I am still nervous about the competition. I guess it's like one big melting pot."

"I get it," Spencer assured her, bringing one hand over Aitana's shoulder, "But it's like I keep saying, I'm assuming that your grandmother loves you regardless. I think you should breathe — you should always breathe."

Aitana giggled. It was startling for Spencer but nonetheless gratifying.

"I'll try to remember that, I promise," Aitana nodded, "But it's just things that I keep thinking about and it comes out in snarks. My mother's already threatening me if I bring any of that when my grandmother gets here."

"I think you should have some cake," Spencer's suggestion came so nonchalantly that Aitana had to laugh again.

"Well, I do have the lighter," Aitana reminded him, "But I think you should probably blow the candles out. I don't want anything to do with the number '30' — blegh!" She pretended to shutter, prompting Spencer to laugh this time.

"You know you're next, right?"

"Don't you dare talk about that! There's still 3 years left before that happens!"

Spencer plucked the lighter out of Aitana's hand. "Well, let's go, then. I hear sometimes distraction is a good thing when your mind is clouded."

"Speak from experience, then?" Aitana raised an eyebrow at him. "It's no secret you've been pretty unhappy lately. If it counts for anything, I think you're pretty great."

Spencer didn't think that such simple words could have a big effect. He didn't know what to do with himself for a couple minutes.

Aitana smiled at him. "I'm just saying, I think you're being hard on yourself. It's okay to question your life choices but don't go pulling yourself down."

"I do feel better," Spencer said, clearing his throat awkwardly. His face felt warm. "I've been thinking and…wherever I picture myself, it doesn't feel the same if my friends aren't around."

"I'm happy for you," Aitana said, her smile widening, "Really. So…cake?"

"Yeah, of course!" Spencer forgot all about the cake in these minutes. He flushed. "Yeah, yeah, let's go." He motioned Aitana to take the lead.


A/N:

I adored this chapter but hated the episode because wtf do you mean everyone forgot Spencer's 30th birthday?

As always, I have AO3/Wattpad accounts under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow :)