Fic: "Unsub" by kyrdwyn [PG-13, Hotchner/Reid]
Title: Unsub
Author: kyrdwyn
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid
Genre: Slash, AU
Word Count: ~7,770
Sequel to: The Profiler
Beta: darkhawkhealer took a look at it.
Spoilers: "The Fisher King 1 & 2", "Aftermath", "The Big Game", "Revelations", "Jones", "
Featuring: Josh Cramer from "Natural Born Killer" and "Honor Among Thieves"; Dan Torre from "Minimal Loss" and John from "Elephant's Memory".
Summary: "I'm here to turn myself in, Morgan," Spencer said.
This, thought Spencer Reid, was ridiculously easy. He glanced at the woman with him on the elevator, who was reading an FBI logo folder. She glanced back at him, nodded in a disinterested manner, and went back to her folder. Spencer wasn't offended. He'd deliberately dressed to appear as harmless as possible, blending in with the FBI agents entering the building. His visitor pass, issued by the agents downstairs, assisted in his ability to appear harmless. Still, he figured that someone would have recognized him by now.
The doors opened on the sixth floor and Spencer gave a nod to the woman before heading out. He paused, glancing through the glass doors of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. He could see Morgan and Elle at their desks, and the newer agent, Prentiss, at Reid's old desk. With a pang of regret, Spencer turned to the right, toward JJ's open office door. Too many people in the bullpen if an agent got trigger-happy. Morgan and Elle wouldn't, neither would Gideon and Rossi, but he was taking no chances with Emily Prentiss or the other agents in the room.
Swallowing, knowing a lot of factors rested on JJ's reaction, he approached her office. He could see her inside, her head bent over a file. Taking his hands out of his pockets, he reached out and rapped lightly with his knuckles. "Hi, JJ."
Her head snapped up, eyes widening. "Reid," she said, disbelievingly. Her right hand twitched toward her firearm. Spencer made no moves, his arms at his sides, palms open.
"I'm here to turn myself in," Spencer told her.
She blinked at him. "Reid," she said again, this time questioningly. This time her hand did drop to her holster, and Spencer heard her unsnap it.
Spencer extended his arms, showing her he wasn't armed. "No tricks, JJ."
She finally brought her Glock up to aim at him, the other hand reaching for her phone, hitting the speed dial and activating the speaker to hear the other person without having to hold the handset.
"Morgan."
"Morgan, Reid's in my office. He says he's here to turn himself in." JJ never took her eyes off Spencer.
"What?" Morgan's surprise was genuine.
"I'm here to turn myself in, Morgan," Spencer said, loud enough that the speaker would pick him up.
Silence met his announcement, then noises came through the speaker, like a handset banging against a desk, as if dropped. Spencer heard people talking loudly, and the doors of the BAU opening. He raised his hands into a classic surrender position, not taking his eyes from JJ. She didn't take her eyes from him, either.
"Reid!" Morgan's voice echoed down the hallway. "Move slowly into the hallway. Keep your hands up."
Spencer complied, leaving his hands up, standing in the middle of the corridor. Two agents he didn't know came around the corner to face him, weapons aimed at him. JJ had come around her desk to stand in the doorway of her office, her gun never wavering.
"On your knees," Morgan ordered. Spencer knelt, wincing as his right knee, hurt during the past few months, protested. He still didn't speak, not seeing a reason to.
The two agents moved in closer, and Spencer's right wrist was grabbed and pulled down to the small of his back and a waiting set of handcuffs, a motion repeated with his left wrist. Morgan jerked him to his feet as JJ and the agents facing Spencer lowered their weapons.
Spencer was turned so that he faced his former teammates. Morgan's expression was hard, as if he were divorcing his emotions from his job. Gideon looked upset, even as he lowered his weapon. Rossi was studying Spencer, trying to make some sense of what was happening. Elle looked betrayed. Prentiss face was expressionless.
"Spencer," Gideon said softly. Spencer looked back at him, not saying anything.
"Take him to the interview room," Rossi ordered. Morgan pushed him forward, Spencer stumbled on his feet, but got his balance back and walked past his team, past the glass doors to the bullpen, and past Garcia's office. The technical analyst had a hand over her mouth, tears in her eyes as she watched Spencer walk past. He wanted to reassure Garcia that it would be all right, to let her know he wasn't what they suspected, but that would give away the plan before it was time. Spencer couldn't risk that, even to comfort a friend.
Aaron's life depended on Spencer's silence right now.
In the interview room, Morgan shoved Spencer into a chair, attached his handcuffs to the table, and left the room without saying a word. Spencer shifted, getting more comfortable. He knew he would be there a while. He had to be.
He regarded the one way glass. It was an interesting experience, being on this side of the interview. He wished he could say it was the first time he'd been in handcuffs, but that 'honor' went to Tobias Hankel.
Spencer kept his gaze steady on the glass and wondered who they'd send in first. Most likely Agent Prentiss. She didn't know him, hadn't met him, and wouldn't be as emotionally involved in this case as the others were. A voice drifted from the room on the other side, and Spencer had to repress a smile, recognizing the cadence of Morgan's voice, even if he couldn't make out the words.
"--don't even know the man's name!" Morgan's voice became clearer as the door to the interrogation room opened and Agent Prentiss entered, file folder in hand. Spencer glanced beyond her to see if one of the others would join her. Gideon, maybe. Or Rossi. Neither of the men would let Morgan or Elle into the room just yet. The three of them had been too close.
The door closed as Agent Prentiss sat down in the chair across from him. "Mr. Reid, I'm Emily Prentiss," she said. "Or do you prefer Dr. Reid?"
Spencer gave her a small smile. "Either is fine. I know Agent Gideon preferred to use Dr. Reid, but then he was often trying to ensure that people didn't mistake me for some university undergrad who had just stumbled into the police station by accident."
"Well, Mr. Reid, I'm going to presume you know why you're here."
"As I turned myself in, Agent Prentiss, I believe your presumption is correct."
"So you're admitting to helping the serial killer know as The Profiler?" Agent Prentiss watched Spencer carefully, and he could see that she wasn't buying the sudden confession. Good for her, Spencer thought.
"I merely turned myself in, Agent Prentiss. I'm not admitting to anything other than that I am wanted by the FBI. After all, if all alleged serial killers confessed, wouldn't the DAs be out of a job?"
Opening up a folder, Prentiss started placing pictures of the victims on the table. "Those four were killed while I was with the BAU," Spencer pointed out, gesturing as much as he could while handcuffed. "I don't see how showing them to me is going to accomplish anything. I've seen them before, so no shock value; and as the BAU were on other cases at the times of the murders, it's not like I have any past accomplishments to relive with those, as I couldn't have committed them. They're just pictures."
"Do you think this is a game, Dr. Reid?" Interesting that she'd changed from 'Mr. Reid' to 'Dr. Reid'.
"No, I don't, but let's be honest, Agent Prentiss, we both had the same teacher. If you want to get information out of me, you'll need to try something that's not in Agent Gideon's lecture notes."
Prentiss sat back in her chair. "He must really be something, this boyfriend of yours, to make you drop a promising FBI career to become his sidekick in serial killing."
"He is something, Agent Prentiss. Right now, that something is 'not here'," Spencer said with a smile. "As for where 'not here' is," he said, speaking before she could, "I don't know." Which was true. While Spencer knew Aaron was with Assistant Director Heatherly's team taking down the FBI agent who was the true serial killer, he didn't know if it was at the man's house, or somewhere else. For all Spencer knew, they were walking into the bullpen with their Kevlar vests on, if the killer were part of the BAU. He didn't know who the suspect was, by his choice. He wouldn't be able to inadvertently tip the true unsub off somehow. Granted, Spencer walking into the FBI would spook the unsub, but he or she would still feel that they had enough time to cover their tracks if they didn't think Spencer would implicate them. "And you're welcome, by the way," he said, looking Prentiss in the eyes.
Prentiss blinked at him. "I'm sorry?" she asked.
Spencer gestured to where she sat on the other side of the table. "If I hadn't left to join The Profiler, you would still be in that St. Louis field office, Agent Prentiss. Actually, I chose you as my replacement and hacked the records to put your name at the top of the applicant list. There were others who had better qualifications, but I wanted to make sure my replacement was someone who applied to the BAU because they wanted to do the job, not view it was a stepping stone to an Assistant Director's office." He grinned at her. "I've been impressed with what I've seen over the past several months. I knew you'd be the right fit, and I'm glad Gideon and Rossi saw that."
That startled her, visibly. Spencer kept watching her, not letting his gaze waver. He hadn't actually hacked the records, but he'd made it clear to AD Heatherly that Emily Prentiss should be considered at the top of the list. He'd suspected from the beginning this would be the end of his BAU career, and he wanted to make sure his replacement was qualified.
"Do you expect me to thank you by letting you go?"
Spencer snorted. "If you let me go just because I put your name at the top of the list, then you don't deserve the job." He shifted in the chair, glad that at least this time, his hands were cuffed to table above his waist. His shoulders had ached for days after Tobias Hankel. Still, he'd have to convince Aaron to give him a massage after this.
The door to the observation room opened and Gideon entered, his expression one of disappointment. Spencer gave his former mentor a smile. "Gideon," he said, glancing at his watch. "Wow, ten minutes. I thought you'd been in here after two."
"What happened, Spencer?" Gideon asked. "Why didn't you come to me, if something was so wrong that you needed to run off with a serial killer?"
"Right. Why would I? I was your 'perfect' protégé. Genius of a profiler, no emotional entanglements, no history to mar my conclusions, my profiles, able to pull out random facts at the drop of a hat. I wasn't supposed to let what happened to me drive my work - unlike the rest of you. I have nightmares, you look at me like I've let you down. I get kidnapped by an unsub with dissociative identity disorder, and you let him kill me. If Garcia hadn't understood the message I sent, I would have been buried alive in that damn cemetery in Georgia." Spencer snorted, watching as Gideon paled and Prentiss looked shocked. "And let's not get into the Dilaudid addiction I developed as a result of that. The one you conveniently ignored for months? The one that Elle finally dragged me to rehab for? She and Garcia got me through the hell of detox, Gideon, while you did nothing."
"Spencer --"
"I see you didn't tell Agent Prentiss any of this, judging by her expression. How was she supposed to be able to profile me when you were holding back information from her, Gideon? How much information did you and Rossi and the others keep from her? Great way to make her feel welcomed on the team." He turned to Prentiss. "Maybe I should apologize for recommending you in my place. I didn't realize Gideon would have been so parsimonious with information." He sat back in the chair, waiting.
Gideon looked as if he wanted to say something, then turned around and walked out of the room. Prentiss turned to watch him go, and Spencer stayed still. He didn't want anyone to think he was going to try anything, like attacking Prentiss. That wasn't his goal. Giving Aaron and Heatherly time to get the true unsub was.
Rossi appeared in the doorway, looking hesitant, a rarity for the older profiler in an interrogation. Spencer wondered if it was an act for Spencer's benefit. After all, Rossi was one of the founders of the BAU, along with Gideon and Max Ryan. Yet from the beginning he'd always been a little distant with Spencer, as if he were unsure of what to do with a twenty year old FBI agent with an eidetic memory and an I.Q. of 187. He sat down next to Prentiss, eyes flickering over Spencer. "Spencer, I--" He stopped. "Spencer, we need his name."
"Whose name?" Spencer asked knowing full well who. Aaron Hotchner. A name Spencer was not going to give them.
"The Profiler. The man who killed all these people," Rossi gestured to the pictures still on the table. "The man you helped." Rossi looked sad. "It's not too late, Spencer," he said with a sigh. "I know it seems that way, but you don't have to go to jail for the rest of your life, we can get you help --"
"I will not be locked up in mental institution for the rest of my life. I'd prefer solitary confinement in a prison," Spencer said coldly. "I think you know why."
"Spencer, this isn't a game. You know that - you obviously feel some sort of remorse because you left him and turned yourself in. If he threatened you, if he turned on you, we can help you." Rossi looked earnest, and Spencer repressed a sigh, hating seeing this concern for him. Gideon had been a lot easier to respond to in character, if only because Spencer had a lot of lingering resentment for how he'd been treated by his mentor. Resentment that made it easier for Spencer to accept the undercover assignment when AD Heatherly had offered it to him.
"Dave," he said, getting a startled look for the use of the other man's first name. He'd rarely used it. "I appreciate the concern," he said sincerely, "but he didn't turn on me, he didn't threaten me. And I don't regret any of the choices I've made." How could he? This assignment had given him Aaron, and though it hurt him to lose his friends, he could not regret falling in love with Aaron Hotchner.
"You look surprised, Hotch," Assistant Director John Heatherly said as the elevator doors closed behind them. "Didn't think you'd get past the security guards?"
"No," Aaron said honestly. "Surprised my picture isn't on a listing somewhere."
"Today's guards were handpicked. They knew to expect us," Heatherly said. The elevator stopped on the third floor, and they got out, heading into the OPR offices. Two agents and one analyst were waiting for them in the analyst's office, all men Hotch had worked with on other special undercover operations for Heatherly.
"Good to see you, Hotch," Dan Torre said, holding out a hand. "Bet you're glad this is almost over."
"Not over yet, Dan," Aaron replied, shaking Dan's hand before taking the Kevlar vest Josh Cramer was holding out. Not over until the suspect is caught and Spencer is back with me. "Do we have eyes on our suspect?" he asked as he fastened the Velcro straps. Torre and Cramer were already in their vests, and Heatherly was putting on his. The AD wanted to see this one through personally.
Kevin Lynch tapped on his keyboard and brought up the cameras that viewed the BAU bullpen. "He's still at his desk." A few more taps, and another monitor lit up with a view of the suspect's computer screen. "He's working on his report on the apprehension of Agent Reid earlier. It went without incident," he added, glancing at Aaron. "Reid didn't resist, and no one fired a shot."
"Good," Heatherly replied. "That was the point."
"We couldn't predict what our suspect would do," Cramer pointed out as he checked his weapon. "We still can't."
Heatherly paused in inserting his ear piece. "That's why we had most of the agents in the BAU in training today," he reminded Cramer. "And why Agent Reid turned himself in, to ensure the rest of the BAU would be occupied with his interrogation. Less chances for casualties." He checked his weapon. "You all know how much I hate rogue FBI agents," he said. "I want this guy apprehended, and I want it done without casualties if at all possible. Understood?"
Aaron nodded along with Cramer and Torre. Lynch nodded as well, as he would be monitoring the cameras to warn them of any potential problems.
"Good. Let's go." Heatherly turned away, heading out the door. Aaron gave Kevin's shoulder a friendly squeeze before following Heatherly and the others to the staircase. They didn't want to take a chance on getting trapped in the elevator and their suspect leaving the bullpen. Aaron followed Heatherly up one of the staircases, Torre and Cramer taking the other, so they'd have teams on either side of the bullpen.
Aaron didn't like having to take the suspect down in the FBI building. The BAU bullpen only had two entrances - the etched glass doors and one door from the hallway. If they were spotted, if someone tried to play hero . . . there were too many things that could go wrong.
They exited the staircases, weapons at their sides. The agents they passed stopped and stared, not expecting to see four armed FBI agents making a raid in their own building - and definitely not expecting the Assistant Director to be leading the group.
A flash a color caught Aaron's eye, and he looked, seeing Penelope Garcia standing in a doorway, a folder held to her chest, utter shock written on her face as she looked back at Aaron. Her eyes glanced to Heatherly and the others, and then back to Aaron and his FBI-stenciled vest. Aaron didn't have time to stop as she retreated back into the office she'd emerged from. He could only hope she wasn't alerting anyone else to his presence. "Garcia spotted me," he murmured into his radio.
"On it," Kevin responded.
They were outside the doors now. Aaron and Cramer opened the doors, letting Heatherly and Torre enter the bullpen, weapons up. "James Anderson," Heatherly called out, "put your hands up and step away from the computer."
Anderson looked up. His hand twitched near the keyboard. Aaron moved his index finger from the guard to the trigger, not trusting the man. This man was a serial killer, abusing his FBI credentials and training to find other serial predators and murder them. This man was why Aaron and Spencer had gone undercover as a serial killer, taking credit for Anderson's deeds, hiding Anderson's culpability, letting him kill more people while Heatherly and the rest of the team hunted for him in the Bureau. Aaron wouldn't be too bothered by Anderson's death in the bullpen, but he preferred Anderson to answer for his crimes alive. Plus, that would clear Aaron and Spencer completely, allow them to return to the Bureau if they wanted.
The few remaining agents in the bullpen had their weapons out and trained on Anderson. A few were giving Aaron sideways looks. They must know of his wanted status, and might even know that Spencer was here being interrogated.
"I have Anderson's computer locked down," Kevin said in their earpieces. "He can't do a thing on it now."
"Put your hands up, Anderson," Heatherly said again. "You are under arrest."
"There's a serial killer standing behind you, Director," Anderson said.
"The only serial killer here is you, Anderson," Torre replied. "And we've got the proof."
"Last warning, Anderson." Heatherly's voice was steady, but Aaron saw his finger slip to his trigger.
Cramer had ducked around to enter the side doorway, coming into the bullpen behind Anderson. Aaron saw the man glance around, realizing there were armed FBI agents on all sides, and all of them were now aiming at him. Anderson slowly raised his hands, and Torre and Cramer moved in, Heatherly and Aaron following, keeping their weapons aimed at him as Torre handcuffed the agent.
"What is going on here?"
Aaron lowered his weapon, now that Anderson was cuffed, and turned to look at the blonde woman who'd entered. Aaron recognized her from the initial briefing he'd had on the BAU - Section Chief Erin Strauss, Agent Gideon's superior. She'd been investigated by Heatherly and Spencer as well before Spencer had joined Aaron undercover.
"Agent Anderson is under arrest for the murder of thirteen people in eight states, crimes all attributed to the serial killer known as The Profiler," Heatherly said as Torre and Cramer began escorting Anderson out of the bullpen.
"I thought Agent Reid had turned himself in," Strauss said thoughtfully, keeping her gaze on Aaron.
"My apologies, Chief Strauss, I don't believe you've met Agent Hotchner, one of my undercover specialists," Heatherly said, coming to stand next to Aaron. "We suspected for a long time that The Profiler was a member of the BAU, but until we could get the BAU to focus on an outside suspect, we couldn't do an internal investigation without alerting the agents investigating the cases. So the FBI provided a suspect." Heatherly turned to Aaron. "You should go get Agent Reid out of the interrogation room now that Anderson's in custody. I'll need his report on the matter."
Aaron slid his weapon back into its holster. "I don't think Agents Gideon and Rossi are going to let me walk in there and walk out with Reid. I'm more likely to be shot on sight by Agent Morgan," he added.
"I guess I should go with you, then. Strauss," he said, nodding at her before they left. Once out of the bullpen, Heatherly spoke into his cuff mike. "Lynch, lock down Strauss' computer now. Do not let her erase anything. I've got a feeling she knows more than she let on."
"On it," Lynch replied as the two men stopped outside one of the interrogation rooms. There were only two on this floor, Aaron recalled, and Cramer was standing guard outside one of them.
"Ready?" Heatherly asked.
"Yes. I don't like the idea of Spencer being in that room," Aaron replied.
"Spencer, hmm?" Heatherly said with a quirk of his lips. "I thought things might be that way. Be interesting to see how that works out for the two of you, so long as you're not expecting to work in the same unit in the Bureau."
"Neither of us are expecting to stay," Aaron said truthfully. "You saw the reactions of Strauss and the others."
"We'll see about that," was Heatherly's comment as he opened the door to the interrogation room and walked in, Aaron right behind him.
Rossi had left, frustrated with Spencer's refusal to say anything. Prentiss was still trying to get a reaction, although she wasn't deviating much from Gideon's methods. This time, though, Spencer could tell she was using them deliberately, trying to provoke him into revealing something. He had to give her points for style, even if it wasn't effective.
The door opened, and Elle walked in, taking the chair Rossi had vacated. She gazed at Reid with a neutral expression. "Elle," he said, nodding at her.
"Spencer," she replied, glancing down at the table and the pictures of the victims still spread out. "I thought you were worth saving," she said, glancing up at him.
"Who says I wasn't," Spencer replied calmly, even though it hurt to hurt Elle. She and Garcia had been his only anchors when he was coming off the Dilaudid. He'd gotten her through the aftermath of Randall Garner. She was the closest thing he had to a sibling, and betraying her was worse than it was with Garcia or Rossi or Morgan.
"If I'd known you were going to become a serial killer, I might have left you to drown in your own vomit," Elle snapped.
Spencer tilted his head. "I could have left you to drink away your resentment at Gideon and Rossi over being shot by Garner," he responded, hating every word. "You were worth saving. You're still worth saving," he said, glancing at her left hand and the small St. Michael charm still attached to her watch, the charm he'd given her as a gift when she'd come back from leave after being shot.
Elle jerked her hand from the table, hiding the watch and the charm. "I don't know that I want to owe my life to a serial killer."
You don't, Spencer wanted to tell her. I've only ever killed as an FBI agent, same as Aaron, same as you. Instead he kept his mouth shut, dropping his eyes. They'd take it as a sign of remorse, which it was, but not remorse for being a killer.
Prentiss leaned forward, but before she said anything, Morgan's voice, raised in anger, came through the one way glass. "What the hell?!"
The door opened again, and Spencer sat up, the irritation of the handcuffs minor as Aaron walked calmly into the room, ignoring Prentiss and Elle as he crossed to Spencer's side, a handcuff key in his hands. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Fine," Spencer replied, amused that Aaron was wearing a dress shirt and a tie under his Kevlar vest. Heatherly walked into the room just as Prentiss was reaching for her weapon.
"Agent Prentiss, you don't need that," Heatherly said. Both women glanced at him as Gideon, Rossi, JJ, and Morgan came in behind him, all with frowns on their faces.
Aaron had the handcuffs unlocked and Spencer stood, looking down at where Aaron was gently rubbing his wrists where the handcuffs had left marks on Spencer's skin. "Did you get him?"
"We got him," Aaron said, giving Spencer a small smile. Spencer smiled back, leaning into Aaron's touch. He fleetingly wished Aaron had been in Georgia after Hankel. Aaron's embrace after that ordeal would have been comforting, a reassurance that he'd survived hell.
"Director," Gideon said, "these men are--"
"These men are FBI agents who have been undercover on an assignment authorized by my office, Agent Gideon." Heatherly moved, putting himself between the BAU and Aaron and Spencer. "Specifically, they were instructed to draw your attention to them and away from the actual Profiler serial killer. That man was arrested less than ten minutes ago in the BAU bullpen. He was one of your agents, Agent Gideon, but not the one you thought," Heatherly added with a glance at Spencer.
"Who?" Prentiss asked.
"James Anderson," Aaron said, not letting go of Spencer's wrists. Spencer raised his eyebrows. Anderson made sense, unfortunately.
"Anderson?" Elle asked. Spencer knew what she was thinking - Anderson was the agent who'd left her at her house to be shot by Randall Garner. She had to be wondering if leaving her there had been deliberate.
"Anderson," Gideon said thoughtfully.
"Strauss' pet," Rossi said disgustedly.
"We're looking at her, as well," Heatherly said.
That was news to Spencer, considering he hadn't found anything during his investigation while he was still at the BAU that would point to Strauss being involved.
"Huh," JJ said. "Didn't see that coming."
"So, what, Reid and this guy just get to walk free?" Elle asked.
"'This guy', Agent Greenaway, is Agent Aaron Hotchner, who has been one of my finest undercover agents for the past ten years."
"Hotchner?" Rossi asked. "You applied to the BAU back then, didn't you? You pulled your application before we could get the interview set up."
"Because I went undercover," Aaron said.
"Because I pulled him into an undercover operation," Heatherly corrected. "Same way I pulled Agent Reid into this undercover operation."
"You could have said something, kid." Morgan ignored Heatherly and Aaron, focusing on Spencer.
"Oh, yes, because telling you that I'm on an undercover operation to catch the BAU agent who is preying on serial offenders using BAU information is so conducive to ensuring that the unsub doesn't find out about the undercover operation," Spencer said sarcastically. "Besides, we couldn't be sure that you weren't the unsub, Morgan."
"Reid, come on, you didn't think--"
"How many times do we listen to wives, friends, neighbors of unsubs say that they never knew, never thought their husband, friend, neighbor was a serial killer? We catch them, Morgan. How hard would it be for one of us to hide their tracks? Hell, Anderson hid his tracks for a year before we finally caught a break - you never suspected him."
"We were too busy suspecting you," Prentiss said.
"Which was the point of the operation," Aaron said. "Because the more time you spent on chasing me and Agent Reid, the more overconfident Agent Anderson grew, thinking he was outsmarting the BAU, outsmarting the top criminal profilers on the planet, and literally getting away with murder under their own noses."
"Most of which he was able to do because of Section Chief Strauss," Torre said from behind the group. They all turned to see him standing in the doorway, a thick folder in his hands. "Lynch found these on Strauss' computer. Recommendations for psych evaluations from Agents Rossi and Gideon. All of which were denied by the section chief as not being necessary, and she cleared him for duty every time."
Heatherly took the file from Torre and leafed through it. "Interesting." He looked up. "Agent Reid, I'd like you to handle the questioning of Agent Anderson."
Spencer blinked. He wasn't sure how to respond. Part of him didn't want to - he just wanted to take Aaron and go back to their hotel, maybe a nicer one this time, instead of the dive their undercover personas had required, and curl up together in bed for a week. Or two. Maybe a month.
"Sure," he said, finally. The job came first. He knew it, Aaron knew it, and they could curl up in bed for a month afterward. He took the files that Heatherly handed to him and started reading though it, absorbing the information.
"Take Agent Greenaway with you," Heatherly said. "Agent Hotchner and I will deal with Section Chief Strauss. The rest of you will not interfere. That is an order," he added with a glare at all of them. "I do not want to see any of you anywhere other than Agent Gideon's office. If you interfere in my investigation, I will put you all back in field offices on rookie training assignments, understand?"
Nods followed Heatherly's statement. "Good." He turned back to Aaron and Spencer. "Whenever you're ready," he told them.
Spencer looked at Aaron, then Heatherly. He needed to bring Elle up to speed so she wasn't going in there blind. "I need a moment with Agent Greenaway."
"Fine," Heatherly said. "I'll be outside." He glanced at the others, who followed him out of the interrogation rooms and into the hallway.
Aaron lingered. Spencer smiled at him. "Go get Strauss," he said, reaching up to clasp Aaron's upper arm gently.
Aaron smiled in return and leaned in, pressing a chaste kiss to Spencer's cheek. "Be careful. I'll see you later."
Spencer smiled. "See you later."
Elle watched Aaron leave the room. "So, it seems not all of it was an undercover operation. Some of it was just under covers."
"Yeah," Spencer replied. "That wasn't expected, Elle."
"Neither was you leaving us, Reid."
"One of us was killing people, Elle. Serial offenders or not, it made all of us look bad." He ran a hand through his hair. "This wasn't something I did lightly. I know I'm not going back to the BAU. I'm probably going to be turning my credentials and gun in once we're done with Anderson's interrogation."
"Reid --"
"I'm done, Elle. I'm done." Spencer leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets. "I never wanted to hunt friends, never wanted to have to look at you, at Morgan, at Gideon like you were unsubs. I know things about all of you that I never wanted to know. And I won't be able to forget them. But I'm not going to let the Bureau use that information, not now that this case is closed." He sighed. "But I meant what I said, Elle. You were worth saving. You're the closest thing I have to a sister. I'd like . . . I'd like to think there's a chance for us to be friends again." He didn't look up at her, not wanting to see the rejection he was sure would be on her face.
"If I had been the unsub," Elle finally said, "would you have done anything differently?"
"No," Spencer replied. "I knew going in that I could have to arrest or kill one of my friends. I'm relieved it wasn't one of you guys, but the possibility was there, and I wouldn't have done anything differently. The job comes first, Elle."
Elle glanced away, then back. "If he hurts you, I will personally remove his balls with a blunt pen knife and feed them to him."
Spencer burst out laughing, knowing Elle wasn't kidding, but at the same time relieved that she would openly admit she cared about Spencer, about whether or not Spencer was hurt by Aaron. "I'll, ah, let him know that."
Elle gave Spencer a smile. "Shall we go remove Anderson's?"
"I hope you mean figuratively. Maintenance would kill us if we got blood on the walls."
"I'll send you out of the room before that happens," Elle said, gesturing toward the door.
Spencer grinned and headed out. "Let me tell you what we found," he began, wanting to bring Elle up to speed.
"Please, do, genius boy."
Strauss signed her name to the resignation letter and handed it to Heatherly. Aaron watched her, wondering what had made this woman so paranoid that she had kept a man with psychological issues in the BAU, letting him kill people right under the FBI's noses, just because he kept her informed on the workings of Gideon's team.
At least she didn't get her claws into Agent Prentiss, Aaron thought. She'd tried, apparently, but Spencer's request to put Prentiss at the top of the BAU list made it harder for Strauss to manipulate her - unless Prentiss had totally botched her interview, she'd been a lock for the job. So Strauss had turned to Anderson after getting the first of many psych eval requests from Gideon and Rossi.
Heatherly wasted no time in calling security and having Strauss escorted out. "We could have stopped him months ago," Heatherly said, sighing.
"Unlikely. Without the resources of the BAU he wouldn't have been killing serial offenders but the odds of him killing others were extremely high."
"Not going to give me the exact odds, are you?" Heatherly asked.
"That's Spencer's specialty, not mine," Aaron said with a small smile.
Heatherly chuckled, then sobered. "You've been working undercover jobs for the better part of ten years, haven't you?"
"Yes, sir, I have. And I'm done. Consider this notice of my intent to retire from the Bureau." This last case had been the hardest, had been the worst he'd ever worked on, considering he was hunting fellow FBI agents. But it had also been the best, considering he'd met Spencer.
"I need a new Section Chief," Heatherly said, as if Aaron hadn't spoken. He looked directly at Aaron.
"I hardly think the FBI brass is going to promote me to the job, given that their profilers thought I was a serial killer for the past several months. Not to mention what those profilers will think of having me as a boss."
"You're too good of an agent to lose. I know it's more than likely we'll lose Agent Reid after this, and I think it's a damn shame, but I know he's not going to want to go back to the BAU, and I doubt he's going to want to be assigned somewhere else. Definitely not to my unit." Heatherly gave Aaron a look. "I'm tempted to lure him into staying by putting him on a special profiling team headed by the new Section Chief, but I think there might be a fraternization issue there."
Aaron looked away. "Sir --"
"I don't care, Hotchner. I know life undercover has it own set of rules. But what I can overlook while you two were undercover I can't overlook while when you're in the office. I'd rather not lose either you or Reid as agents, but if I can only keep one of you in the Bureau, you're the only person I can put in as Section Chief. Reid just doesn't have the experience."
"Neither do I."
"Your record speaks for itself. And you and Reid know the issues facing the BAU now. I can't think of a better person to step into Strauss' place. Talk it over with Reid, at least. I'll just need an answer by tomorrow morning."
Aaron finally nodded. He would admit the offer was tempting, if only to get out of undercover work. Still, it was unexpected, and definitely something worth talking to Spencer about.
"Good. Shall we go see if Reid and Greenaway are done?"
Aaron nodded, and they headed back toward the interrogation room. Aaron still got curious looks from the personnel they passed in the hallways, but he ignored them. The news would be traveling around the FBI grapevine soon, he knew.
Spencer and Cramer were standing in the observation room. Through the window, they could see Anderson sitting in the chair, hands cuffed to the table, head down. "Where's Greenaway?" Heatherly asked.
"Ladies room," Spencer said, glancing at Aaron. Something in his eyes told Aaron it wasn't a simple bathroom break. "I sent Penelope Garcia to check on her. She, ah," Spencer pushed a lock of hair behind his ear, "Agent Greenaway was the trigger, sir. Agent Anderson was the agent who had escorted her home during the Randall Garner case. His guilt over not staying with her, letting her get shot, led him to start using the resources of the Bureau to take down other serial offenders before they could attack other members of the unit."
"Damn," Heatherly said. "He admitted that?"
"As soon as Reid and Greenaway walked into the room," Cramer said. "They didn't even need to say anything. We've got it on tape. All Reid here had to do was sit and look pretty." He gave Spencer a grin that he returned with a scowl.
"Good," Heatherly said. "Cramer, get Torre and take Anderson to a holding cell. I'm going to go check on Agent Greenaway. Hotchner, bring Reid up to speed on what's happened with the Strauss situation. I want all of us in the BAU conference room in half an hour." Heatherly headed out, and so did Cramer.
Aaron turned to Spencer. "Strauss resigned."
"I thought she might. It sounded like we had enough on her to make her life difficult."
"Heatherly offered me her position."
Spencer blinked, his eyebrows rising. "Wow. That's, ah, that's unexpected." He paused. "Are you going to take it?"
Aaron shrugged. "I think that depends on what you want to do. If you want to stay with the FBI, maybe go back to the BAU, I'll turn it down. Assuming you want to continue our relationship."
The look Spencer gave Aaron promised many slow deaths for saying such a stupid thing.
Aaron smiled, reaching out to push another lock of hair behind Spencer's ear. "So, then, we have to decide who stays and who gets to make the big bucks in the private sector."
"That's easy," Spencer said, leaning slightly into Aaron's touch. "You stay, I'll go. You know I planned on this being my last case as an FBI agent. I've been disillusioned with the Bureau and some BAU personnel for a while now. I want to do something else before I end up as bitter as Gideon." Spencer smiled. "Besides, if I stay, you won't take the job, and I think you're perfect for it."
"Supervising people who've spent the past year thinking I'm a serial killer who corrupted you?"
"They know the truth," Spencer said.
"So, what will you do?" Though they had talked about leaving the Bureau, they hadn't really talked about details, as if not mentioning them would keep the case from going south, turning plans into jail time or cemetery plots.
"I'll figure something out. But, Aaron, you know I'm not staying, no matter what you decide."
Aaron wanted to pull Spencer into his arms, but knowing that Torre and Cramer would be back any moment kept him from doing so. "You could be my kept man," he said with a slow smile.
"There's an idea," Spencer replied with an answering smile.
A knock on the door sounded, then it opened and Torre entered, Cramer following. "We're here for the perp," he said, all business.
"He's all yours," Aaron said, leaving the room. Spencer followed him. "I suppose I should tell Heatherly I'm taking the job."
"Before we meet with the others, yeah." Spencer paused by the men's room door, then went in, glancing at Aaron. Aaron followed, seeing Spencer check each of the stalls before coming back and pressing Aaron against the outer door, hands on Aaron's shoulders, taking his mouth in a frenzied kiss of reassurance. Aaron clung to Spencer, one hand in his lover's hair, letting his own need for reassurance take over.
"It was all I could do to not imagine what was happening, if Anderson would try to resist, if you'd be injured," Spencer whispered against his mouth.
"I kept wondering if Morgan would decide a bullet was easier than prosecution, if Anderson would think a bullet was better than risking his secret getting out," Aaron whispered back. "I can't lose you now, Spencer."
"I know. I can't lose you either." Spencer rested his forehead against Aaron's. "We can't stay here long."
"Never thought I'd be making out with my lover in the men's room at Quantico," Aaron said with a small chuckled, shifting so he could kiss Spencer again. "Might have to do this more often once I'm the boss."
"Mmmm. Only if you're making out with me," Spencer said, tugging on Aaron's lip with his teeth. "'m the jealous type."
"So am I."
A knock on the door had them stilling. "Five minutes, boys!" Garcia's cheerful voice rang out. "And you're not off the hook, Reid." They heard her heels clicking as she walked a way, and Spencer huffed out a laugh.
"I missed her," he said. I missed all of them went unspoken, but Aaron heard it.
"I know." He kissed Spencer's forehead. "Let's go explain everything. Almost everything," he amended, thinking of his and Spencer's relationship.
"Then can we find a hotel with a hot tub in the room?" Spencer asked as he straightened his clothing and hair.
"Perfect," Aaron replied, smoothing his shirt and tie. He opened the door and gestured for Spencer to precede him. This wasn't going to be easy - he doubted Spencer's old team would appreciate Aaron taking the job, Aaron taking Spencer away from them again - but he and Spencer would be together, and after all they'd been through, that was all Aaron needed.
Author: kyrdwyn
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: Aaron Hotchner/Spencer Reid
Genre: Slash, AU
Word Count: ~7,770
Sequel to: The Profiler
Beta: darkhawkhealer took a look at it.
Spoilers: "The Fisher King 1 & 2", "Aftermath", "The Big Game", "Revelations", "Jones", "
Featuring: Josh Cramer from "Natural Born Killer" and "Honor Among Thieves"; Dan Torre from "Minimal Loss" and John from "Elephant's Memory".
Summary: "I'm here to turn myself in, Morgan," Spencer said.
This, thought Spencer Reid, was ridiculously easy. He glanced at the woman with him on the elevator, who was reading an FBI logo folder. She glanced back at him, nodded in a disinterested manner, and went back to her folder. Spencer wasn't offended. He'd deliberately dressed to appear as harmless as possible, blending in with the FBI agents entering the building. His visitor pass, issued by the agents downstairs, assisted in his ability to appear harmless. Still, he figured that someone would have recognized him by now.
The doors opened on the sixth floor and Spencer gave a nod to the woman before heading out. He paused, glancing through the glass doors of the Behavioral Analysis Unit. He could see Morgan and Elle at their desks, and the newer agent, Prentiss, at Reid's old desk. With a pang of regret, Spencer turned to the right, toward JJ's open office door. Too many people in the bullpen if an agent got trigger-happy. Morgan and Elle wouldn't, neither would Gideon and Rossi, but he was taking no chances with Emily Prentiss or the other agents in the room.
Swallowing, knowing a lot of factors rested on JJ's reaction, he approached her office. He could see her inside, her head bent over a file. Taking his hands out of his pockets, he reached out and rapped lightly with his knuckles. "Hi, JJ."
Her head snapped up, eyes widening. "Reid," she said, disbelievingly. Her right hand twitched toward her firearm. Spencer made no moves, his arms at his sides, palms open.
"I'm here to turn myself in," Spencer told her.
She blinked at him. "Reid," she said again, this time questioningly. This time her hand did drop to her holster, and Spencer heard her unsnap it.
Spencer extended his arms, showing her he wasn't armed. "No tricks, JJ."
She finally brought her Glock up to aim at him, the other hand reaching for her phone, hitting the speed dial and activating the speaker to hear the other person without having to hold the handset.
"Morgan."
"Morgan, Reid's in my office. He says he's here to turn himself in." JJ never took her eyes off Spencer.
"What?" Morgan's surprise was genuine.
"I'm here to turn myself in, Morgan," Spencer said, loud enough that the speaker would pick him up.
Silence met his announcement, then noises came through the speaker, like a handset banging against a desk, as if dropped. Spencer heard people talking loudly, and the doors of the BAU opening. He raised his hands into a classic surrender position, not taking his eyes from JJ. She didn't take her eyes from him, either.
"Reid!" Morgan's voice echoed down the hallway. "Move slowly into the hallway. Keep your hands up."
Spencer complied, leaving his hands up, standing in the middle of the corridor. Two agents he didn't know came around the corner to face him, weapons aimed at him. JJ had come around her desk to stand in the doorway of her office, her gun never wavering.
"On your knees," Morgan ordered. Spencer knelt, wincing as his right knee, hurt during the past few months, protested. He still didn't speak, not seeing a reason to.
The two agents moved in closer, and Spencer's right wrist was grabbed and pulled down to the small of his back and a waiting set of handcuffs, a motion repeated with his left wrist. Morgan jerked him to his feet as JJ and the agents facing Spencer lowered their weapons.
Spencer was turned so that he faced his former teammates. Morgan's expression was hard, as if he were divorcing his emotions from his job. Gideon looked upset, even as he lowered his weapon. Rossi was studying Spencer, trying to make some sense of what was happening. Elle looked betrayed. Prentiss face was expressionless.
"Spencer," Gideon said softly. Spencer looked back at him, not saying anything.
"Take him to the interview room," Rossi ordered. Morgan pushed him forward, Spencer stumbled on his feet, but got his balance back and walked past his team, past the glass doors to the bullpen, and past Garcia's office. The technical analyst had a hand over her mouth, tears in her eyes as she watched Spencer walk past. He wanted to reassure Garcia that it would be all right, to let her know he wasn't what they suspected, but that would give away the plan before it was time. Spencer couldn't risk that, even to comfort a friend.
Aaron's life depended on Spencer's silence right now.
In the interview room, Morgan shoved Spencer into a chair, attached his handcuffs to the table, and left the room without saying a word. Spencer shifted, getting more comfortable. He knew he would be there a while. He had to be.
He regarded the one way glass. It was an interesting experience, being on this side of the interview. He wished he could say it was the first time he'd been in handcuffs, but that 'honor' went to Tobias Hankel.
Spencer kept his gaze steady on the glass and wondered who they'd send in first. Most likely Agent Prentiss. She didn't know him, hadn't met him, and wouldn't be as emotionally involved in this case as the others were. A voice drifted from the room on the other side, and Spencer had to repress a smile, recognizing the cadence of Morgan's voice, even if he couldn't make out the words.
"--don't even know the man's name!" Morgan's voice became clearer as the door to the interrogation room opened and Agent Prentiss entered, file folder in hand. Spencer glanced beyond her to see if one of the others would join her. Gideon, maybe. Or Rossi. Neither of the men would let Morgan or Elle into the room just yet. The three of them had been too close.
The door closed as Agent Prentiss sat down in the chair across from him. "Mr. Reid, I'm Emily Prentiss," she said. "Or do you prefer Dr. Reid?"
Spencer gave her a small smile. "Either is fine. I know Agent Gideon preferred to use Dr. Reid, but then he was often trying to ensure that people didn't mistake me for some university undergrad who had just stumbled into the police station by accident."
"Well, Mr. Reid, I'm going to presume you know why you're here."
"As I turned myself in, Agent Prentiss, I believe your presumption is correct."
"So you're admitting to helping the serial killer know as The Profiler?" Agent Prentiss watched Spencer carefully, and he could see that she wasn't buying the sudden confession. Good for her, Spencer thought.
"I merely turned myself in, Agent Prentiss. I'm not admitting to anything other than that I am wanted by the FBI. After all, if all alleged serial killers confessed, wouldn't the DAs be out of a job?"
Opening up a folder, Prentiss started placing pictures of the victims on the table. "Those four were killed while I was with the BAU," Spencer pointed out, gesturing as much as he could while handcuffed. "I don't see how showing them to me is going to accomplish anything. I've seen them before, so no shock value; and as the BAU were on other cases at the times of the murders, it's not like I have any past accomplishments to relive with those, as I couldn't have committed them. They're just pictures."
"Do you think this is a game, Dr. Reid?" Interesting that she'd changed from 'Mr. Reid' to 'Dr. Reid'.
"No, I don't, but let's be honest, Agent Prentiss, we both had the same teacher. If you want to get information out of me, you'll need to try something that's not in Agent Gideon's lecture notes."
Prentiss sat back in her chair. "He must really be something, this boyfriend of yours, to make you drop a promising FBI career to become his sidekick in serial killing."
"He is something, Agent Prentiss. Right now, that something is 'not here'," Spencer said with a smile. "As for where 'not here' is," he said, speaking before she could, "I don't know." Which was true. While Spencer knew Aaron was with Assistant Director Heatherly's team taking down the FBI agent who was the true serial killer, he didn't know if it was at the man's house, or somewhere else. For all Spencer knew, they were walking into the bullpen with their Kevlar vests on, if the killer were part of the BAU. He didn't know who the suspect was, by his choice. He wouldn't be able to inadvertently tip the true unsub off somehow. Granted, Spencer walking into the FBI would spook the unsub, but he or she would still feel that they had enough time to cover their tracks if they didn't think Spencer would implicate them. "And you're welcome, by the way," he said, looking Prentiss in the eyes.
Prentiss blinked at him. "I'm sorry?" she asked.
Spencer gestured to where she sat on the other side of the table. "If I hadn't left to join The Profiler, you would still be in that St. Louis field office, Agent Prentiss. Actually, I chose you as my replacement and hacked the records to put your name at the top of the applicant list. There were others who had better qualifications, but I wanted to make sure my replacement was someone who applied to the BAU because they wanted to do the job, not view it was a stepping stone to an Assistant Director's office." He grinned at her. "I've been impressed with what I've seen over the past several months. I knew you'd be the right fit, and I'm glad Gideon and Rossi saw that."
That startled her, visibly. Spencer kept watching her, not letting his gaze waver. He hadn't actually hacked the records, but he'd made it clear to AD Heatherly that Emily Prentiss should be considered at the top of the list. He'd suspected from the beginning this would be the end of his BAU career, and he wanted to make sure his replacement was qualified.
"Do you expect me to thank you by letting you go?"
Spencer snorted. "If you let me go just because I put your name at the top of the list, then you don't deserve the job." He shifted in the chair, glad that at least this time, his hands were cuffed to table above his waist. His shoulders had ached for days after Tobias Hankel. Still, he'd have to convince Aaron to give him a massage after this.
The door to the observation room opened and Gideon entered, his expression one of disappointment. Spencer gave his former mentor a smile. "Gideon," he said, glancing at his watch. "Wow, ten minutes. I thought you'd been in here after two."
"What happened, Spencer?" Gideon asked. "Why didn't you come to me, if something was so wrong that you needed to run off with a serial killer?"
"Right. Why would I? I was your 'perfect' protégé. Genius of a profiler, no emotional entanglements, no history to mar my conclusions, my profiles, able to pull out random facts at the drop of a hat. I wasn't supposed to let what happened to me drive my work - unlike the rest of you. I have nightmares, you look at me like I've let you down. I get kidnapped by an unsub with dissociative identity disorder, and you let him kill me. If Garcia hadn't understood the message I sent, I would have been buried alive in that damn cemetery in Georgia." Spencer snorted, watching as Gideon paled and Prentiss looked shocked. "And let's not get into the Dilaudid addiction I developed as a result of that. The one you conveniently ignored for months? The one that Elle finally dragged me to rehab for? She and Garcia got me through the hell of detox, Gideon, while you did nothing."
"Spencer --"
"I see you didn't tell Agent Prentiss any of this, judging by her expression. How was she supposed to be able to profile me when you were holding back information from her, Gideon? How much information did you and Rossi and the others keep from her? Great way to make her feel welcomed on the team." He turned to Prentiss. "Maybe I should apologize for recommending you in my place. I didn't realize Gideon would have been so parsimonious with information." He sat back in the chair, waiting.
Gideon looked as if he wanted to say something, then turned around and walked out of the room. Prentiss turned to watch him go, and Spencer stayed still. He didn't want anyone to think he was going to try anything, like attacking Prentiss. That wasn't his goal. Giving Aaron and Heatherly time to get the true unsub was.
Rossi appeared in the doorway, looking hesitant, a rarity for the older profiler in an interrogation. Spencer wondered if it was an act for Spencer's benefit. After all, Rossi was one of the founders of the BAU, along with Gideon and Max Ryan. Yet from the beginning he'd always been a little distant with Spencer, as if he were unsure of what to do with a twenty year old FBI agent with an eidetic memory and an I.Q. of 187. He sat down next to Prentiss, eyes flickering over Spencer. "Spencer, I--" He stopped. "Spencer, we need his name."
"Whose name?" Spencer asked knowing full well who. Aaron Hotchner. A name Spencer was not going to give them.
"The Profiler. The man who killed all these people," Rossi gestured to the pictures still on the table. "The man you helped." Rossi looked sad. "It's not too late, Spencer," he said with a sigh. "I know it seems that way, but you don't have to go to jail for the rest of your life, we can get you help --"
"I will not be locked up in mental institution for the rest of my life. I'd prefer solitary confinement in a prison," Spencer said coldly. "I think you know why."
"Spencer, this isn't a game. You know that - you obviously feel some sort of remorse because you left him and turned yourself in. If he threatened you, if he turned on you, we can help you." Rossi looked earnest, and Spencer repressed a sigh, hating seeing this concern for him. Gideon had been a lot easier to respond to in character, if only because Spencer had a lot of lingering resentment for how he'd been treated by his mentor. Resentment that made it easier for Spencer to accept the undercover assignment when AD Heatherly had offered it to him.
"Dave," he said, getting a startled look for the use of the other man's first name. He'd rarely used it. "I appreciate the concern," he said sincerely, "but he didn't turn on me, he didn't threaten me. And I don't regret any of the choices I've made." How could he? This assignment had given him Aaron, and though it hurt him to lose his friends, he could not regret falling in love with Aaron Hotchner.
"You look surprised, Hotch," Assistant Director John Heatherly said as the elevator doors closed behind them. "Didn't think you'd get past the security guards?"
"No," Aaron said honestly. "Surprised my picture isn't on a listing somewhere."
"Today's guards were handpicked. They knew to expect us," Heatherly said. The elevator stopped on the third floor, and they got out, heading into the OPR offices. Two agents and one analyst were waiting for them in the analyst's office, all men Hotch had worked with on other special undercover operations for Heatherly.
"Good to see you, Hotch," Dan Torre said, holding out a hand. "Bet you're glad this is almost over."
"Not over yet, Dan," Aaron replied, shaking Dan's hand before taking the Kevlar vest Josh Cramer was holding out. Not over until the suspect is caught and Spencer is back with me. "Do we have eyes on our suspect?" he asked as he fastened the Velcro straps. Torre and Cramer were already in their vests, and Heatherly was putting on his. The AD wanted to see this one through personally.
Kevin Lynch tapped on his keyboard and brought up the cameras that viewed the BAU bullpen. "He's still at his desk." A few more taps, and another monitor lit up with a view of the suspect's computer screen. "He's working on his report on the apprehension of Agent Reid earlier. It went without incident," he added, glancing at Aaron. "Reid didn't resist, and no one fired a shot."
"Good," Heatherly replied. "That was the point."
"We couldn't predict what our suspect would do," Cramer pointed out as he checked his weapon. "We still can't."
Heatherly paused in inserting his ear piece. "That's why we had most of the agents in the BAU in training today," he reminded Cramer. "And why Agent Reid turned himself in, to ensure the rest of the BAU would be occupied with his interrogation. Less chances for casualties." He checked his weapon. "You all know how much I hate rogue FBI agents," he said. "I want this guy apprehended, and I want it done without casualties if at all possible. Understood?"
Aaron nodded along with Cramer and Torre. Lynch nodded as well, as he would be monitoring the cameras to warn them of any potential problems.
"Good. Let's go." Heatherly turned away, heading out the door. Aaron gave Kevin's shoulder a friendly squeeze before following Heatherly and the others to the staircase. They didn't want to take a chance on getting trapped in the elevator and their suspect leaving the bullpen. Aaron followed Heatherly up one of the staircases, Torre and Cramer taking the other, so they'd have teams on either side of the bullpen.
Aaron didn't like having to take the suspect down in the FBI building. The BAU bullpen only had two entrances - the etched glass doors and one door from the hallway. If they were spotted, if someone tried to play hero . . . there were too many things that could go wrong.
They exited the staircases, weapons at their sides. The agents they passed stopped and stared, not expecting to see four armed FBI agents making a raid in their own building - and definitely not expecting the Assistant Director to be leading the group.
A flash a color caught Aaron's eye, and he looked, seeing Penelope Garcia standing in a doorway, a folder held to her chest, utter shock written on her face as she looked back at Aaron. Her eyes glanced to Heatherly and the others, and then back to Aaron and his FBI-stenciled vest. Aaron didn't have time to stop as she retreated back into the office she'd emerged from. He could only hope she wasn't alerting anyone else to his presence. "Garcia spotted me," he murmured into his radio.
"On it," Kevin responded.
They were outside the doors now. Aaron and Cramer opened the doors, letting Heatherly and Torre enter the bullpen, weapons up. "James Anderson," Heatherly called out, "put your hands up and step away from the computer."
Anderson looked up. His hand twitched near the keyboard. Aaron moved his index finger from the guard to the trigger, not trusting the man. This man was a serial killer, abusing his FBI credentials and training to find other serial predators and murder them. This man was why Aaron and Spencer had gone undercover as a serial killer, taking credit for Anderson's deeds, hiding Anderson's culpability, letting him kill more people while Heatherly and the rest of the team hunted for him in the Bureau. Aaron wouldn't be too bothered by Anderson's death in the bullpen, but he preferred Anderson to answer for his crimes alive. Plus, that would clear Aaron and Spencer completely, allow them to return to the Bureau if they wanted.
The few remaining agents in the bullpen had their weapons out and trained on Anderson. A few were giving Aaron sideways looks. They must know of his wanted status, and might even know that Spencer was here being interrogated.
"I have Anderson's computer locked down," Kevin said in their earpieces. "He can't do a thing on it now."
"Put your hands up, Anderson," Heatherly said again. "You are under arrest."
"There's a serial killer standing behind you, Director," Anderson said.
"The only serial killer here is you, Anderson," Torre replied. "And we've got the proof."
"Last warning, Anderson." Heatherly's voice was steady, but Aaron saw his finger slip to his trigger.
Cramer had ducked around to enter the side doorway, coming into the bullpen behind Anderson. Aaron saw the man glance around, realizing there were armed FBI agents on all sides, and all of them were now aiming at him. Anderson slowly raised his hands, and Torre and Cramer moved in, Heatherly and Aaron following, keeping their weapons aimed at him as Torre handcuffed the agent.
"What is going on here?"
Aaron lowered his weapon, now that Anderson was cuffed, and turned to look at the blonde woman who'd entered. Aaron recognized her from the initial briefing he'd had on the BAU - Section Chief Erin Strauss, Agent Gideon's superior. She'd been investigated by Heatherly and Spencer as well before Spencer had joined Aaron undercover.
"Agent Anderson is under arrest for the murder of thirteen people in eight states, crimes all attributed to the serial killer known as The Profiler," Heatherly said as Torre and Cramer began escorting Anderson out of the bullpen.
"I thought Agent Reid had turned himself in," Strauss said thoughtfully, keeping her gaze on Aaron.
"My apologies, Chief Strauss, I don't believe you've met Agent Hotchner, one of my undercover specialists," Heatherly said, coming to stand next to Aaron. "We suspected for a long time that The Profiler was a member of the BAU, but until we could get the BAU to focus on an outside suspect, we couldn't do an internal investigation without alerting the agents investigating the cases. So the FBI provided a suspect." Heatherly turned to Aaron. "You should go get Agent Reid out of the interrogation room now that Anderson's in custody. I'll need his report on the matter."
Aaron slid his weapon back into its holster. "I don't think Agents Gideon and Rossi are going to let me walk in there and walk out with Reid. I'm more likely to be shot on sight by Agent Morgan," he added.
"I guess I should go with you, then. Strauss," he said, nodding at her before they left. Once out of the bullpen, Heatherly spoke into his cuff mike. "Lynch, lock down Strauss' computer now. Do not let her erase anything. I've got a feeling she knows more than she let on."
"On it," Lynch replied as the two men stopped outside one of the interrogation rooms. There were only two on this floor, Aaron recalled, and Cramer was standing guard outside one of them.
"Ready?" Heatherly asked.
"Yes. I don't like the idea of Spencer being in that room," Aaron replied.
"Spencer, hmm?" Heatherly said with a quirk of his lips. "I thought things might be that way. Be interesting to see how that works out for the two of you, so long as you're not expecting to work in the same unit in the Bureau."
"Neither of us are expecting to stay," Aaron said truthfully. "You saw the reactions of Strauss and the others."
"We'll see about that," was Heatherly's comment as he opened the door to the interrogation room and walked in, Aaron right behind him.
Rossi had left, frustrated with Spencer's refusal to say anything. Prentiss was still trying to get a reaction, although she wasn't deviating much from Gideon's methods. This time, though, Spencer could tell she was using them deliberately, trying to provoke him into revealing something. He had to give her points for style, even if it wasn't effective.
The door opened, and Elle walked in, taking the chair Rossi had vacated. She gazed at Reid with a neutral expression. "Elle," he said, nodding at her.
"Spencer," she replied, glancing down at the table and the pictures of the victims still spread out. "I thought you were worth saving," she said, glancing up at him.
"Who says I wasn't," Spencer replied calmly, even though it hurt to hurt Elle. She and Garcia had been his only anchors when he was coming off the Dilaudid. He'd gotten her through the aftermath of Randall Garner. She was the closest thing he had to a sibling, and betraying her was worse than it was with Garcia or Rossi or Morgan.
"If I'd known you were going to become a serial killer, I might have left you to drown in your own vomit," Elle snapped.
Spencer tilted his head. "I could have left you to drink away your resentment at Gideon and Rossi over being shot by Garner," he responded, hating every word. "You were worth saving. You're still worth saving," he said, glancing at her left hand and the small St. Michael charm still attached to her watch, the charm he'd given her as a gift when she'd come back from leave after being shot.
Elle jerked her hand from the table, hiding the watch and the charm. "I don't know that I want to owe my life to a serial killer."
You don't, Spencer wanted to tell her. I've only ever killed as an FBI agent, same as Aaron, same as you. Instead he kept his mouth shut, dropping his eyes. They'd take it as a sign of remorse, which it was, but not remorse for being a killer.
Prentiss leaned forward, but before she said anything, Morgan's voice, raised in anger, came through the one way glass. "What the hell?!"
The door opened again, and Spencer sat up, the irritation of the handcuffs minor as Aaron walked calmly into the room, ignoring Prentiss and Elle as he crossed to Spencer's side, a handcuff key in his hands. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Fine," Spencer replied, amused that Aaron was wearing a dress shirt and a tie under his Kevlar vest. Heatherly walked into the room just as Prentiss was reaching for her weapon.
"Agent Prentiss, you don't need that," Heatherly said. Both women glanced at him as Gideon, Rossi, JJ, and Morgan came in behind him, all with frowns on their faces.
Aaron had the handcuffs unlocked and Spencer stood, looking down at where Aaron was gently rubbing his wrists where the handcuffs had left marks on Spencer's skin. "Did you get him?"
"We got him," Aaron said, giving Spencer a small smile. Spencer smiled back, leaning into Aaron's touch. He fleetingly wished Aaron had been in Georgia after Hankel. Aaron's embrace after that ordeal would have been comforting, a reassurance that he'd survived hell.
"Director," Gideon said, "these men are--"
"These men are FBI agents who have been undercover on an assignment authorized by my office, Agent Gideon." Heatherly moved, putting himself between the BAU and Aaron and Spencer. "Specifically, they were instructed to draw your attention to them and away from the actual Profiler serial killer. That man was arrested less than ten minutes ago in the BAU bullpen. He was one of your agents, Agent Gideon, but not the one you thought," Heatherly added with a glance at Spencer.
"Who?" Prentiss asked.
"James Anderson," Aaron said, not letting go of Spencer's wrists. Spencer raised his eyebrows. Anderson made sense, unfortunately.
"Anderson?" Elle asked. Spencer knew what she was thinking - Anderson was the agent who'd left her at her house to be shot by Randall Garner. She had to be wondering if leaving her there had been deliberate.
"Anderson," Gideon said thoughtfully.
"Strauss' pet," Rossi said disgustedly.
"We're looking at her, as well," Heatherly said.
That was news to Spencer, considering he hadn't found anything during his investigation while he was still at the BAU that would point to Strauss being involved.
"Huh," JJ said. "Didn't see that coming."
"So, what, Reid and this guy just get to walk free?" Elle asked.
"'This guy', Agent Greenaway, is Agent Aaron Hotchner, who has been one of my finest undercover agents for the past ten years."
"Hotchner?" Rossi asked. "You applied to the BAU back then, didn't you? You pulled your application before we could get the interview set up."
"Because I went undercover," Aaron said.
"Because I pulled him into an undercover operation," Heatherly corrected. "Same way I pulled Agent Reid into this undercover operation."
"You could have said something, kid." Morgan ignored Heatherly and Aaron, focusing on Spencer.
"Oh, yes, because telling you that I'm on an undercover operation to catch the BAU agent who is preying on serial offenders using BAU information is so conducive to ensuring that the unsub doesn't find out about the undercover operation," Spencer said sarcastically. "Besides, we couldn't be sure that you weren't the unsub, Morgan."
"Reid, come on, you didn't think--"
"How many times do we listen to wives, friends, neighbors of unsubs say that they never knew, never thought their husband, friend, neighbor was a serial killer? We catch them, Morgan. How hard would it be for one of us to hide their tracks? Hell, Anderson hid his tracks for a year before we finally caught a break - you never suspected him."
"We were too busy suspecting you," Prentiss said.
"Which was the point of the operation," Aaron said. "Because the more time you spent on chasing me and Agent Reid, the more overconfident Agent Anderson grew, thinking he was outsmarting the BAU, outsmarting the top criminal profilers on the planet, and literally getting away with murder under their own noses."
"Most of which he was able to do because of Section Chief Strauss," Torre said from behind the group. They all turned to see him standing in the doorway, a thick folder in his hands. "Lynch found these on Strauss' computer. Recommendations for psych evaluations from Agents Rossi and Gideon. All of which were denied by the section chief as not being necessary, and she cleared him for duty every time."
Heatherly took the file from Torre and leafed through it. "Interesting." He looked up. "Agent Reid, I'd like you to handle the questioning of Agent Anderson."
Spencer blinked. He wasn't sure how to respond. Part of him didn't want to - he just wanted to take Aaron and go back to their hotel, maybe a nicer one this time, instead of the dive their undercover personas had required, and curl up together in bed for a week. Or two. Maybe a month.
"Sure," he said, finally. The job came first. He knew it, Aaron knew it, and they could curl up in bed for a month afterward. He took the files that Heatherly handed to him and started reading though it, absorbing the information.
"Take Agent Greenaway with you," Heatherly said. "Agent Hotchner and I will deal with Section Chief Strauss. The rest of you will not interfere. That is an order," he added with a glare at all of them. "I do not want to see any of you anywhere other than Agent Gideon's office. If you interfere in my investigation, I will put you all back in field offices on rookie training assignments, understand?"
Nods followed Heatherly's statement. "Good." He turned back to Aaron and Spencer. "Whenever you're ready," he told them.
Spencer looked at Aaron, then Heatherly. He needed to bring Elle up to speed so she wasn't going in there blind. "I need a moment with Agent Greenaway."
"Fine," Heatherly said. "I'll be outside." He glanced at the others, who followed him out of the interrogation rooms and into the hallway.
Aaron lingered. Spencer smiled at him. "Go get Strauss," he said, reaching up to clasp Aaron's upper arm gently.
Aaron smiled in return and leaned in, pressing a chaste kiss to Spencer's cheek. "Be careful. I'll see you later."
Spencer smiled. "See you later."
Elle watched Aaron leave the room. "So, it seems not all of it was an undercover operation. Some of it was just under covers."
"Yeah," Spencer replied. "That wasn't expected, Elle."
"Neither was you leaving us, Reid."
"One of us was killing people, Elle. Serial offenders or not, it made all of us look bad." He ran a hand through his hair. "This wasn't something I did lightly. I know I'm not going back to the BAU. I'm probably going to be turning my credentials and gun in once we're done with Anderson's interrogation."
"Reid --"
"I'm done, Elle. I'm done." Spencer leaned against the wall, hands in his pockets. "I never wanted to hunt friends, never wanted to have to look at you, at Morgan, at Gideon like you were unsubs. I know things about all of you that I never wanted to know. And I won't be able to forget them. But I'm not going to let the Bureau use that information, not now that this case is closed." He sighed. "But I meant what I said, Elle. You were worth saving. You're the closest thing I have to a sister. I'd like . . . I'd like to think there's a chance for us to be friends again." He didn't look up at her, not wanting to see the rejection he was sure would be on her face.
"If I had been the unsub," Elle finally said, "would you have done anything differently?"
"No," Spencer replied. "I knew going in that I could have to arrest or kill one of my friends. I'm relieved it wasn't one of you guys, but the possibility was there, and I wouldn't have done anything differently. The job comes first, Elle."
Elle glanced away, then back. "If he hurts you, I will personally remove his balls with a blunt pen knife and feed them to him."
Spencer burst out laughing, knowing Elle wasn't kidding, but at the same time relieved that she would openly admit she cared about Spencer, about whether or not Spencer was hurt by Aaron. "I'll, ah, let him know that."
Elle gave Spencer a smile. "Shall we go remove Anderson's?"
"I hope you mean figuratively. Maintenance would kill us if we got blood on the walls."
"I'll send you out of the room before that happens," Elle said, gesturing toward the door.
Spencer grinned and headed out. "Let me tell you what we found," he began, wanting to bring Elle up to speed.
"Please, do, genius boy."
Strauss signed her name to the resignation letter and handed it to Heatherly. Aaron watched her, wondering what had made this woman so paranoid that she had kept a man with psychological issues in the BAU, letting him kill people right under the FBI's noses, just because he kept her informed on the workings of Gideon's team.
At least she didn't get her claws into Agent Prentiss, Aaron thought. She'd tried, apparently, but Spencer's request to put Prentiss at the top of the BAU list made it harder for Strauss to manipulate her - unless Prentiss had totally botched her interview, she'd been a lock for the job. So Strauss had turned to Anderson after getting the first of many psych eval requests from Gideon and Rossi.
Heatherly wasted no time in calling security and having Strauss escorted out. "We could have stopped him months ago," Heatherly said, sighing.
"Unlikely. Without the resources of the BAU he wouldn't have been killing serial offenders but the odds of him killing others were extremely high."
"Not going to give me the exact odds, are you?" Heatherly asked.
"That's Spencer's specialty, not mine," Aaron said with a small smile.
Heatherly chuckled, then sobered. "You've been working undercover jobs for the better part of ten years, haven't you?"
"Yes, sir, I have. And I'm done. Consider this notice of my intent to retire from the Bureau." This last case had been the hardest, had been the worst he'd ever worked on, considering he was hunting fellow FBI agents. But it had also been the best, considering he'd met Spencer.
"I need a new Section Chief," Heatherly said, as if Aaron hadn't spoken. He looked directly at Aaron.
"I hardly think the FBI brass is going to promote me to the job, given that their profilers thought I was a serial killer for the past several months. Not to mention what those profilers will think of having me as a boss."
"You're too good of an agent to lose. I know it's more than likely we'll lose Agent Reid after this, and I think it's a damn shame, but I know he's not going to want to go back to the BAU, and I doubt he's going to want to be assigned somewhere else. Definitely not to my unit." Heatherly gave Aaron a look. "I'm tempted to lure him into staying by putting him on a special profiling team headed by the new Section Chief, but I think there might be a fraternization issue there."
Aaron looked away. "Sir --"
"I don't care, Hotchner. I know life undercover has it own set of rules. But what I can overlook while you two were undercover I can't overlook while when you're in the office. I'd rather not lose either you or Reid as agents, but if I can only keep one of you in the Bureau, you're the only person I can put in as Section Chief. Reid just doesn't have the experience."
"Neither do I."
"Your record speaks for itself. And you and Reid know the issues facing the BAU now. I can't think of a better person to step into Strauss' place. Talk it over with Reid, at least. I'll just need an answer by tomorrow morning."
Aaron finally nodded. He would admit the offer was tempting, if only to get out of undercover work. Still, it was unexpected, and definitely something worth talking to Spencer about.
"Good. Shall we go see if Reid and Greenaway are done?"
Aaron nodded, and they headed back toward the interrogation room. Aaron still got curious looks from the personnel they passed in the hallways, but he ignored them. The news would be traveling around the FBI grapevine soon, he knew.
Spencer and Cramer were standing in the observation room. Through the window, they could see Anderson sitting in the chair, hands cuffed to the table, head down. "Where's Greenaway?" Heatherly asked.
"Ladies room," Spencer said, glancing at Aaron. Something in his eyes told Aaron it wasn't a simple bathroom break. "I sent Penelope Garcia to check on her. She, ah," Spencer pushed a lock of hair behind his ear, "Agent Greenaway was the trigger, sir. Agent Anderson was the agent who had escorted her home during the Randall Garner case. His guilt over not staying with her, letting her get shot, led him to start using the resources of the Bureau to take down other serial offenders before they could attack other members of the unit."
"Damn," Heatherly said. "He admitted that?"
"As soon as Reid and Greenaway walked into the room," Cramer said. "They didn't even need to say anything. We've got it on tape. All Reid here had to do was sit and look pretty." He gave Spencer a grin that he returned with a scowl.
"Good," Heatherly said. "Cramer, get Torre and take Anderson to a holding cell. I'm going to go check on Agent Greenaway. Hotchner, bring Reid up to speed on what's happened with the Strauss situation. I want all of us in the BAU conference room in half an hour." Heatherly headed out, and so did Cramer.
Aaron turned to Spencer. "Strauss resigned."
"I thought she might. It sounded like we had enough on her to make her life difficult."
"Heatherly offered me her position."
Spencer blinked, his eyebrows rising. "Wow. That's, ah, that's unexpected." He paused. "Are you going to take it?"
Aaron shrugged. "I think that depends on what you want to do. If you want to stay with the FBI, maybe go back to the BAU, I'll turn it down. Assuming you want to continue our relationship."
The look Spencer gave Aaron promised many slow deaths for saying such a stupid thing.
Aaron smiled, reaching out to push another lock of hair behind Spencer's ear. "So, then, we have to decide who stays and who gets to make the big bucks in the private sector."
"That's easy," Spencer said, leaning slightly into Aaron's touch. "You stay, I'll go. You know I planned on this being my last case as an FBI agent. I've been disillusioned with the Bureau and some BAU personnel for a while now. I want to do something else before I end up as bitter as Gideon." Spencer smiled. "Besides, if I stay, you won't take the job, and I think you're perfect for it."
"Supervising people who've spent the past year thinking I'm a serial killer who corrupted you?"
"They know the truth," Spencer said.
"So, what will you do?" Though they had talked about leaving the Bureau, they hadn't really talked about details, as if not mentioning them would keep the case from going south, turning plans into jail time or cemetery plots.
"I'll figure something out. But, Aaron, you know I'm not staying, no matter what you decide."
Aaron wanted to pull Spencer into his arms, but knowing that Torre and Cramer would be back any moment kept him from doing so. "You could be my kept man," he said with a slow smile.
"There's an idea," Spencer replied with an answering smile.
A knock on the door sounded, then it opened and Torre entered, Cramer following. "We're here for the perp," he said, all business.
"He's all yours," Aaron said, leaving the room. Spencer followed him. "I suppose I should tell Heatherly I'm taking the job."
"Before we meet with the others, yeah." Spencer paused by the men's room door, then went in, glancing at Aaron. Aaron followed, seeing Spencer check each of the stalls before coming back and pressing Aaron against the outer door, hands on Aaron's shoulders, taking his mouth in a frenzied kiss of reassurance. Aaron clung to Spencer, one hand in his lover's hair, letting his own need for reassurance take over.
"It was all I could do to not imagine what was happening, if Anderson would try to resist, if you'd be injured," Spencer whispered against his mouth.
"I kept wondering if Morgan would decide a bullet was easier than prosecution, if Anderson would think a bullet was better than risking his secret getting out," Aaron whispered back. "I can't lose you now, Spencer."
"I know. I can't lose you either." Spencer rested his forehead against Aaron's. "We can't stay here long."
"Never thought I'd be making out with my lover in the men's room at Quantico," Aaron said with a small chuckled, shifting so he could kiss Spencer again. "Might have to do this more often once I'm the boss."
"Mmmm. Only if you're making out with me," Spencer said, tugging on Aaron's lip with his teeth. "'m the jealous type."
"So am I."
A knock on the door had them stilling. "Five minutes, boys!" Garcia's cheerful voice rang out. "And you're not off the hook, Reid." They heard her heels clicking as she walked a way, and Spencer huffed out a laugh.
"I missed her," he said. I missed all of them went unspoken, but Aaron heard it.
"I know." He kissed Spencer's forehead. "Let's go explain everything. Almost everything," he amended, thinking of his and Spencer's relationship.
"Then can we find a hotel with a hot tub in the room?" Spencer asked as he straightened his clothing and hair.
"Perfect," Aaron replied, smoothing his shirt and tie. He opened the door and gestured for Spencer to precede him. This wasn't going to be easy - he doubted Spencer's old team would appreciate Aaron taking the job, Aaron taking Spencer away from them again - but he and Spencer would be together, and after all they'd been through, that was all Aaron needed.