The precinct might as well have been in flames. The BAU had the opportunity to watch their chief get yelled at by the U.S. Marshal. Delilah Carrero had managed to slip from the BAU's fingers.
"Don't you think one of us should go in there?" Morgan was watching the whole argument unfolding and was just barely restraining himself from going into the meeting room to argue himself.
"No, there's no point," Rossi shook his head. "They've already made their minds up about us. The best we can do is find Delilah and Marlene."
"We may have that now," Emily announced behind the group. She and Spencer had just finished their conversation with Penelope about the candy stores.
"Garcia said that one of the candy stores had a fire about two weeks ago," Spencer came right to the front of the group. "That's one week before the first homicide." He gave them time to reach the same conclusion he, Emily and Garcia had.
"One week to stalk Delilah and learn her schedule," JJ was the one to say it out loud. One week for stalking, the next week had the two murders and then finally going for Delilah and Marlene.
"Coincidentally, the fire was said to have started over night, reasons unidentified for now," Spencer added. They knew the reason.
"We assume this is where Marlene is and it's where Delilah is headed to," Emily said.
"Then we have to go there," Morgan dropped his folded arms to his sides.
"Great, who gets to tell them?" Rossi nodded to the meeting room. He wasn't interested in doing it.
Because inside, things were not going any better.
"Delilah has put herself in danger!" Lewis was raging and pacing in front of Hotch. "I pulled her out because she was next on the list! There were 3 witnesses and one was murdered! Is that what you want?"
Hotch wasn't going to fall for any of those guilt-laced questions. "Miss Carrero took that decision all on her own. Despite not knowing her exact age, I can safely assume that she's not a child."
Lewis stopped to glare. "Your agents were responsible for her! You made yourself responsible!"
"Yes, and we still are which is why I'd rather do my job than stand here and listen to you," Hotch retorted. "It's been an hour of this so I know that my team already has a proposed plan. Would you like to continue this or…?"
Lewis watched him gesture to the bullpen where sure enough the agents were watching. "We need to find her."
"Agreed," Hotch motioned Lewis towards the doors. "Shall we go do that?"
Lewis' face expressed more jabs but he was very right about the time. It was the only reason he came out of the room with Hotch. As soon as the two men emerged, the rest of the team gathered together again.
"Delilah Carrero may look like a sweet girl but trust me when I say that she is very skilled," Lewis started and claimed all the attention. "Before any of this, she was working for the criminal justice system and believe me when I say that when armed, she can make her target." That being said, his eyes darted towards Emily and Spencer. "Did she take any of yours?" The two in question shook their heads. "Alright, the good news is that she won't go back to her place for the weapon she owned. It would take too much time."
"Knowing that she's skilled means she has a higher chance of staying out of trouble," Hotch said. It did count a lot in these situations. "Was Garcia able to find out which of the stores Marlene would be in?"
"Uh, yeah," Emily nodded. "We think it's the store that went up in flames. Reconstruction hasn't started yet so it's the perfect spot to hide out for now."
"I'll go talk to the Chief," Lewis said but before he left the team, he said one more thing, "You know what these men did in plain sight. If they get a glimpse of Delilah, they will not hesitate to kill her."
"I don't think they will," Spencer's opposition stopped Lewis halfway to the office.
The man turned around, his expression half incredulous that he'd be challenged in this manner. "Excuse me?"
"I don't think that's the case," Spencer had no problem repeating himself. "If anything, it'll give her some time. It's like we said before, this whole time the target has been Delilah. They had a chance to take her since the moment they found her three weeks ago, but they didn't. They're toying with her."
"I'm not sure that's any better—"
"I didn't say it was. I said it would buy her some time."
Lewis frowned. He looked over to Hotch but it was unclear if it was to ask for some backup or instigate a reprimanding. Either way, Hotch did nothing about it. With a shake of his head, Lewis left.
"Hey, Hotch," Morgan called in a quiet voice so that only the team would hear, "We're doing this our way, right? Guy like that…" he glanced at the Chief's office, "...he's only going to get in the way and we don't have a lot of time to waste."
"That's very true — while they wouldn't shoot Delilah on sight, it doesn't guarantee how long they'll keep her alive," Spencer said.
"Okay, boy genius, he's gone," Morgan made a gesture for him to bring it down but Spencer was quite serious with his words.
"We don't know if having Delilah means they'll let Marlene go or kill her for being a witness. They already did it once!"
"Okay, so let's make our move," Rossi said. He had no problem going ahead with or without the support of the precinct. They were there to do a job, after all.
Hotch gave the final nod.
~ 0 ~
Delilah was talented at being sneaky. She grew up with two older brothers and traditional parents. She had some extensive background in being sneaky.
The street leading up to the dulceria was a street that Delilah was extra cautious about. She wasn't sure if the quick-witted BAU had already began the hunt for her and since they had the entire precinct at their disposal, any one civilian could be a UC. She made herself blend in by simply walking in plain sight. That was the key to a lot of missions. Hide by not hiding.
She eventually came across the dulceria and stopped a few paces back. She wasn't too familiar with the building's schematics but maybe it wouldn't matter as much. The fire had taken down a lot of its structure.
You're going in blind, the nagging voice in her head was persistent in its attempts to make her think logically. There's no backup.
Delilah shook her head and by extension the voice too. She couldn't afford to think logically when a young girl's life was on the line. She had a decent plan that involved a good yelling in the end if she made it out alive. If.
Oh, it was a punch to her stomach. Six months in Witness did that to her. She was so lonely that maybe, deep inside, she had come to terms that dying was better than continuing to live the way she was. Whatever it was, it made her go it through the front entrance.
She tried her best to be quiet, hoping that maybe there was a chance to retrieve Marlene and get out, but that all died the moment she heard the clicking of a gun behind her.
"Dammit," her eyes fell shut for a second.
"Took you long enough to get the message," Michael Sade was behind her when she turned around. "I was beginning to think that maybe, just maybe, we'd gotten your middle name wrong."
It was strange to say that Delilah didn't feel scared. She was too angry to be scared. There stood one of the men responsible for the drastic changes she had to make in her life.
"You shaved the beard," she said first. Michael was tall but what really made him distincitable was the dark brown beard he had six months ago. Now, there wasn't even a mustache. He looked like any other ordinary man.
Michael smirked at her. "What's it been? Six months?"
"Since you committed mass murder? Yeah, maybe around six months."
"Oh, you got funny." Michael forced Delilah to turn around and held his gun at the side of her head. "You know it's so much nicer to finally get to know you in person instead of having to research you."
Delilah crinkled her nose at his closeness. The gun pressing to her skin wasn't the biggest issue right now. If she was right, he would toy with her for a while. She still had time. "I always knew that one of you had to have had decent tech skills. No way in hell you would ever figure out my middle name without some basic hacking."
"Dulce," Michael hummed. "Very different. And sweet." He laughed lightly. "Get my joke?" He gave Delilah a moment to answer but she did nothing of the sort. "Well, at least you got an upgrade because Delilah is much better, don't you think? No one wants Dulce as their neighbor, nor friend."
"Where's Marlene?" Delilah demanded.
"Ooh, right, our special guest," Michael dragged the gun to the back of Delilah's head. "Walk," he ordered. "And if you make a single move she dies. I'm not alone here."
Delilah moved where he instructed her to. She tried taking everything in for later. The air was still raw with the scent of ash and burnt candy. Everything was full of soot and the ground was slippery from it. Eventually, she saw Marlene where the cash register counter once was. She was tied by the wrists behind her back and gagged.
"Marlene!" Delilah rushed towards the girl only to stop when a second man emerged from the darkness behind Marlene. This wasn't Jordan like she originally suspected. She cocked her head to the side. "Danny?"
She recognized the man's mugshot from the previous investigation she was a part of. Danny Hale was known to be an expert at robbery and murder. Amazing resume. He was tall with a fresh buzz-cut and clenched jaw...and with another gun aimed at Marlene.
"Okay, okay, clearly I'm outnumbered but I am the target," Delilah said, slowly raising her hands in the surrender gesture. "Let Marlene go. She has nothing to do with it."
Marlene was in tears and downright scared. She couldn't talk but she was following the conversations as best as she could. Delilah met her gaze several times and she tried her best to show that she had this and that it would be okay.
"Oh sweetheart, you think we gave a crap about this girl?" Danny tapped the butt of his gun against the back of Marlene's head. "She was a means to an end."
"And now I'm here, so she can go!"
"If she goes, then it'll be dragged as a corpse."
Marlene whimpered instantly. Delilah ran for the girl and dropped in front of her. "It's okay, you're going to be okay."
"Yeah, don't make promises you can't keep," Michael warned.
Delilah looked back with a glare. "Just shoot me instead. Marlene has no idea who I am nor why we're here. She wouldn't be able to tell the cops anything."
"Not true, she'd know that this is your fault," Michael pointed at her with his gun. His eyes flickered to Marlene. "I swear to you that this is her fault. Delilah's not her real name. Everything you know about her is a damn lie."
"Lies that I was forced into for my own safety!" Delilah snapped. "I was put into Witness Protection because you wanted to kill the only people who could put you in prison! No matter how you try to spin it, I'm not going to feel bad that I had to cover up my name."
"So what if we shoot her, then?" Michael gave a nod at Danny and suddenly Marlene felt the cool tip of a gun pressing to her head. "Would you feel bad then?" Delilah glowered. When Michael knew that she knew he was in charge, he moved onto business. "I need to know where the other witness is. Carol Grant. Where is she?"
"I don't know!" Delilah heard the clicking of Danny's gun. "I really don't! They don't tell you where other witnesses are going!"
Michael groaned. "Annoying. We struck out with you, you know. Found you by accident. Me and Danny were heading over to meet the others. And who do we find coming out of a gas station?" Delilah cursed her luck right at that moment. "We couldn't leave then. We had to watch you, learn when it'd be the best chance to make our move."
"Didn't take long," Danny laughed behind the women. "And then we got bored so...someone had to die."
"You don't kill because you're bored," Delilah shook her head. "You make plans. You chose that couple for a reason."
"Ooh, she's smart, isn't she?" Michael asked Marlene. "You know she's a cop, right?" Just as Delilah was about to say something, Michael hopped the side of his head with a sarcastic laugh. "Oh no, sorry, an agent. And to our misfortune, a material witness in what I heard was a gruesome murder spree."
Marlene turned her head in Delilah's direction, her teary eyes begging Delilah for some truth. Delilah gave her a nod. "I'm sorry. I never wanted to bring you into anything like this. It's why I never made friends."
"Not true," Danny smirked. "Clearly."
"Enough!" Delilah exclaimed. "You got what you wanted! I'm here! And even if you don't get to the third witness what does it matter? Without me in the picture, the cops are 2 material witnesses short. Their case grows weaker against you. So just let Marlene go and just kill me already."
"What do you say?" Michael looked over at Danny. "Should we get it over with?"
"I'm not sure, boss…" Danny dragged his gun back and forth over Marlene's head, "Sounds kind of boring. Doing it so quickly?"
Michael nodded. "Yeah, I think you may have a point. So that leaves the question…" his eyes found Delilah's and Marlene's. "What should we do in the meantime?"
~0~
The only burned-down candy store was fairly easy to discover. After long, long arguments everyone managed to come together to create an orderly plan of extraction. Their first attempt would be to create a simple distraction tactic to pull Delilah and Marlene out of harm's way.
The agents divided themselves in two groups to take the front entrance while the second went in through the back. JJ would then organize the remaining officers with them to take positions by the open windows and slits large enough to allow someone in or out. The building was in a chaotic state after all.
Morgan and Spencer were side by side on their way in from the back entrance. The closer they got to the actual store, the more noises they started to hear. Amongst them was Delilah's and she was arguing. It was hard to decide whether or not it was good to hear her arguing. On the one hand, it meant she was relatively unharmed but on the other hand...she wasn't armed and she was arguing with known murderers.
Delilah had already been tied like Marlene sans the gag. "Eventually, people will come and you're going to be surrounded! Your best bet is to leave right now!"
Michael laughed. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"It doesn't matter what happens because there's still 4 others — I won't be going home for a very long time. If ever."
Michael took a deep satisfaction watching Delilah come to terms with that all over again. His only regret was that he couldn't see the first time she realized that. A sharp clang of a pipe broke the silence that'd fallen over.
Danny whirled around behind, gun aimed at whoever had dared to trespass. "You think it could be the cops, boss?"
Michael wouldn't put it behind them to actually try something. "Go check it out. Whoever it is, even if it's a damn beggar, shoot 'em."
Danny nodded and went off. Delilah glanced at Marlene when it was just them three. Michael assumed what could be going on and since he wasn't about to let anyone take him, he stormed up to Delilah and yanked her off the ground.
"You're staying with me from now on," he declared.
"From where I stand, you're the one running out of time," she said simply and plainly. Whatever would transpire, it would end fast.
As it was, Danny was making his way to the back of the store with his gun aimed ahead of him. Like Michael, he wouldn't be taking any chances. First moving thing he saw, he would shoot at. He abruptly stopped when he heard another noise on his left. He turned fast only to hear a click behind him.
"One move, and you're done," Morgan warned.
Danny stayed right where he was. Spencer appeared from the direction of the sound Danny had heard and quickly disarmed him.
"If you shoot, Michael takes care of the girls," Danny warned the two.
"So there's just two of you," Spencer nodded, flashing a smile at the man. "Thanks for the heads up."
Danny didn't take the sarcasm well. His body jerked the moment he went for the punch but he never made it. Morgan fired behind him. Danny dropped to the ground dead.
Michael heard the gunshot and immediately pulled Delilah's body in front of him. One arm was around waist, holding onto her tightly. "I swear to God if he's dead—"
"He is," Delilah rolled her eyes. "I told you that would happen if you didn't get the hell out of here!"
"I'll listen from now on, sweetheart. I promise," Michael pulled her with him towards the entrance. "But you're coming with me."
Delilah struggled to break free from his grip. "I'm not! Let me go!"
Michael only made 3 more steps before he came face to face with Hotch, Emily and Rossi. "Out of my way," Michael warned as he pressed his gun to the side of Delilah's head.
"We can't do that," Rossi said.
"You don't move, then she gets it," Michael pressed the gun harder against Delilah, making her wince.
"And then you get bullets from three agents," Hotch pointed out. "I don't think that's what you want either."
"I am not going to jail!" yelled Michael. "I've come too far to let that happen!"
"Maybe we can work out a deal—" Emily started when Michael snorted.
"I'm not an idiot, agent," he spat. "You know how many important people I took out back in D.C.? There's no deal coming my way."
He was absolutely right, but no one would admit to it.
Delilah had stopped fighting a while ago and Michael hadn't even realized it. She was studying her possibilities and was taking every detail into account. She heard Marlene's quiet little whimper, something that Michael wouldn't take into account due to the three agents in front of him. He was going back and forth with them about his escape.
Delilah managed to turn her head slightly to the left and caught movement from Marlene's legs. It was now but with both of her arms tucked between her back and Michael's chest, Delilah used the only weapon she had at her disposal.
"Michael!" she yelled suddenly and once again turned her head to the left to bite his arm around her waist.
"The fuck—" Michael yanked his arm off her, pushing her so that she was forced to turn around. He took aim on her but before he took the shot, Hotch did. With a bullet to the clavicle, Michael was forced down.
Emily pulled Delilah back and made sure that she was alright. Rossi and Hotch took care of Michael. Delilah waved Emily' hands away from her. She was more focused on Marlene anyways but to her relief, Spencer and Morgan were helping the girl stand up.
"Where's Danny?" she asked, but Emily had no idea. "There-there was another man—"
"He's gone," Morgan said to her.
Delilah grimly watched Michael be taken away. Even if one was dead and the other was in jail, there was no way this was over for her.
"Delilah?" Marlene's trembling voice pulled Delilah's attention off Michael.
"Oh God!" Delilah ran towards the girl. "I am so sorry! I'm so sorry!" She wrapped her arms around Marlene so tightly that she might've been blocking some air.
"I-I don't understand what-what was all of this?" Marlene hugging back was a good sign that Delilah took so graciously. "Your name's not Delilah?"
Delilah stepped back from Marlene with a more troubled face than before when they were actually being held hostage. "Um...I…"
"We should get you checked out," Spencer suddenly said to Marlene. "The medics are outside."
Marlene was too out of it to put up a protest. Delilah silently thanked Spencer for the interruption.
"You should let one of the medics check you too," Morgan motioned her to follow Marlene and Spencer.
"I'm fine," Delilah languidly waved him off.
"No, you're not," Morgan turned her around.
"No, I'm not," she quietly agreed.
~ 0 ~
"You're right, there's no way you're getting a deal," Emily paced in front of Michael's table in the interrogation room, "But I wonder if you're really going to let your partners get away with it." Michael lifted an eyebrow at her. "You're all responsible for what happened in D.C. but you're going to take the fall? C'mon," Emily stopped pacing to face the man, "You're not that big of an idiot."
Michael said nothing initially. He raised his head to meet Emily' gaze and revealed the bemusement he had for all of this. "It's plain and simple," he finally said minutes later.
"Yeah, what is?"
"I name them and then it's really all over but if I don't…" Michael leaned forwards on the table, "Then Delilah—" he rolled his eyes at the fake name, "—is forced to keep living in the shadows. She and the other witness will always have to look over their shoulders."
Emily glowered at the man. "But you'll go to jail."
"Who's to say one of my men won't come for me?"
Emily scoffed. "You really think you'll get a chance to escape from prison? Don't make me laugh," she turned to leave.
"Say goodbye to Delilah for me, will you? I know Jordan is waiting for Danny and I to come," Michael smirked when Emily stopped by the door. "And when they realize what happened, they'll really start hunting Delilah again."
Emily wanted nothing more than to wipe the smirk off his face. It took every last part of her to get out of the room. "He's not giving anything up," she said to the others.
"Yeah, we got that," Morgan mumbled. "What else do we have?"
"Nothing," Hotch said.
"So Delilah really will have to move again," Spencer sighed lightly. "And she'll have to get a new identity. Again."
"There's nothing we can do," Rossi glanced through the interrogation room window. Michael was certainly pleased knowing what he was doing. There was no man power that would ever make him change his mind.
"Hey," JJ walked up to the team, "I just finished talking to Lewis and the Chief. Marlene is going to be fine and Delilah is back in her hotel room."
"I feel like we need to apologize to her," Emily looked at the others. "At the very least explain what happened here. We owe her that."
"You'll need to be quick," JJ warned. "Lewis mentioned they were leaving soon."
Emily glanced at Hotch for his say. He had nothing against it. Emily took off as soon as she was given the 'ok'.
"Emily?" she heard her name just as she was reaching the entrance. Spencer was sprinting to catch up with her. "Can I...can I, uh…"
Emily smiled knowingly at him but this time she kept her comments. "Let's go," she pushed open the door.
~ 0 ~
Marlene was taken care of in the hospital due to the ligature marks around her wrists and ankles. It was there that Delilah eventually met with her to really get to talk to her. She explained however much she could in hopes that Marlene would understand the situation and not be completely angry (as she had a right to be).
Marlene sat at the edge of the hospital bed and listened to everything Delilah said. "I can't believe it," was the first thing she had to say. "I...I would've never guessed."
"Good, that's sort of what I was going for," Delilah smiled lightly. "I should've never made you a target—"
"You didn't, they did," Marlene gently corrected her. "I think you took your job of being secretive very seriously. I just thought you were too shy to make friends or get a boyfriend. I never thought it'd be because you're in Witness Protection."
"Still, I'm very sorry about everything," Delilah lowered her head with utter shame.
Marlene reached over to touch Delilah's arm. "It's not your fault." Delilah thanked her repeatedly for that. "So...what happens now?"
Delilah swallowed hard at the question. She'd been thinking about it ever since she was taken out of the store. "I, uh...I blew my cover."
"So you have to move again?"
Delilah shrugged. "Not unless we can get Michael to give up the location of his other partners."
At that moment, Lewis and two other men approached them. Marlene saw them first and quickly pointed Delilah to them. Delilah turned and put all of her faith on Lewis that somehow they'd gotten Michael to say something.
Lewis levelled Delilah with a straight face.
~ 0 ~
Spencer and Emily reached the hotel soon and made their way up to Delilah's floor. They were mighty surprised to find the housecleaner already inside. The moving must be happening now.
"Delilah?" Emily called as they entered the room.
Spencer spotted the maid coming out of Delilah's bedroom. "Excuse me, where's the guest?"
"Already checked out," the woman said. "Called in an hour ago."
"They didn't even bother coming back?" Emily frowned.
Spencer knew the answer to that when he spotted Delilah's journal still sitting on the coffee table from earlier. He walked over and saw even the chocolate marshmallow lollipop was still next to it just like they had left it.
"She's gone," he said quietly. Emily looked in his direction and saw what he was staring at.
"I need to clean the room," the maid said with an edgy tone. "Will you be taking her things?"
"Uuh…" Emily knew that Delilah had brought over the bare necessities until the case was over. It was nothing of importance, except…
"Just this," Spencer had gingerly picked up the journal and after a moment's thought, the lollipop as well. "We'll hand it back to her when we find her," he told the maid who carelessly waved at them to leave.
Emily said nothing until they were back in the car. "Spencer, we can't take that—"
"If we didn't, then someone else would have," he said reasonably. "I don't know what Delilah wrote in this thing but it was important to her from the start." He barely hid his smile when he remembered the way they'd first met Delilah. Jumping up and down for a journal meant it had to be special. "She's from D.C. so maybe one day she'll come back."
Emily was still unsure. "I don't know, Spencer. Maybe we should just give it to Hotch. Maybe he could find Lewis—"
"They're gone, Emily," Spencer's tone was sharp and he may have possibly gripped the journal in his hand. "Lewis doesn't even like us. He's not going to take any calls from Hotch."
Emily watched him for a second before deciding that, as usual, he was right. Lewis made his disdain for them very clear before any of this happened. Even if they did call, he wasn't going to answer. Delilah was long gone by now.
By the time they returned to the precinct, the journal was tucked away in Spencer's messenger bag. No one noticed it and if they did, none of them would say anything. Hours later would find the team climbing into the jet to return home. It'd been a long case so it wasn't long before most of them fell asleep.
Spencer was one of the few to still be awake. It was hard to sleep when he felt like they hadn't really solved anything. People had died. Marlene the barista was probably going to be traumatized for a very long time. And Delilah?
No, not Delilah.
The fake name was an insult at this point. He may not have her real first name but he had the second closest thing: her middle name Dulce. After everything she'd gone through, she deserved to be remembered with some truth to her and not with the details of a fake identity. By this hour, she was probably long out of California and was on route to some far off state. She would be starting all over again. Solitude all over again and for God knew how long.
They hadn't solved anything. Not even close.
Spencer pulled out the marshmallow lollipop from his bag. It was such a silly thing to carry around and yet he'd done it. Why? No idea. But he didn't really feel that gnawing from his mind to figure it out. It was strange — after all, figuring things out was what he was best at. The sweet candy was something he didn't have to figure out, simply enjoy.
Before he knew it, he started unwrapping the lollipop. He was careful to make it quiet so no one would hear but he nearly lost the battle when he saw the clown face the wrapper claimed the lollipop would have.
'The clown picture is misleading but the sweetness is indescribable. When you go home, you should have it.'
The lollipop was nothing like what the wrapper advertised. The squishy blue gumdrops for eyes weren't symmetrical with each other — not even close — and the red smile-shaped gumdrop was lopsided. It was the silliest candy he'd ever held. And yet…
He took a small bite from the top and chewed slowly. He had chocolate before but this taste was strikingly different. It was sweeter, a bit more natural if he had to describe it. Funny, Delilah — Dulce — couldn't come up with a way to describe it and he had in a few seconds.
He felt a bit funny that he wouldn't be able to share that with her.
A/N:
Alright folks, this is where things finally start unraveling for our sneaky girl and boy genius!
P.S. As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"