✓ | 𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗘 · ͟͟͞͞➳ spencer reid

CHAPTER 45 ━━━

# ! | CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
- getting over it is easier
said than done

━━━ WHEN SPENCER GETS
to the round table forty five minutes after leaving the mall, Meryl is already there and changed into business attire, glock in the black leather holster that matches the belt threaded through her grey slacks.

Finding himself to be the final person to arrive he takes a seat quickly next to Rossi and grabs the file in front of him.

"Locals found the bodies of a Jane Doe and Raina Winchester while on a bus tour of Kualoa Ranch in Kaneohe, Hawai'i. Honolulu PD reached out to the FBI team there, and now they're requesting our help," Garcia says, pulling a face as they click through all the gruesome details. "Cause of death is blunt force trauma. Raina doesn't have a lot of info available. She's twenty nine, single, worked at the ranch for like a decade and a half. Shouldn't be too much longer on the Jane Doe identification."

Spencer is too busy burning his stare into Meryl's face, so the latter provides the facts. "There are between seven and a half and eight missing persons cases filed per one hundred thousand people there, making it the eighth highest ranking state. Just last year alone, almost a hundred cases were reported. Hawai'i is actually the most abundant state for climate diversity, housing ten of the fourteen different myriad climate zones."

"Woah there, Dr. Spencer Reid. This ain't usually your ballpark," Morgan jokes, "What's with the pop quiz?"

Meryl takes a stony glance at Spencer. "I know someone in the area very well."

"Right," Hotch interjects, "SSA Akela Kāne. She requested you by name."

Meryl bobs her head. "Went to UPenn together." Spencer can't help but roll his eyes. Great, just what he needs. They probably fucked at some point, too.

Hotch returns everyone's attention back to the case with a firm but insistent tone. "We've got a long flight ahead of us. Wheels up in twenty."

ೃ⁀➷

When they arrive at the base for the Hawai'i division of the FBI, they don't even make it to the door before a tall, muscular woman with glossy black hair, dark eyes, and a warm smile rushes to them and pulls Meryl in for a hug. She's around six foot even with copper skin and legs for days, muscles in her arms toned, presumably from surfing.

"Meryl, mea aloha!" the happy woman exclaims, "It's been too long! So unfortunate we meet again like this." Her voice is loud, laugh infectious, and Spencer's jaw clenches when she introduces herself as Agent Akela Kāne.

"Everyone around here calls me Kel, feel free to do the same. You can get set up here," Akela gestures to a table and a few evidence boards, one of which has a map with a few pushpins marking locations.

She informs them that she's going to go start a pot of coffee and then pauses at the doorway. "I'm really, really glad you're here."

Rossi whistles after she leaves. "Why do I get the feeling she was only talking to one of us?"

JJ smiles and takes a seat in a plush leather chair. "How long did you two date?" she asks casually, thinking it to be pretty obvious.

"About a year," is Meryl's nonchalant reply. "Met in college and then worked a case together back in two thousand eight."

Spencer keeps to himself, trying as hard as he possibly can to drown his coworkers out with the sound of his own thoughts as he assesses the various locations. Abduction sites were unavailable but the dump site was the same for both victims.