Love and crime

11- The nightmares

Darkness surrounds her like a prison. Her heart is racing. Something stops her from moving. When Quinn looks down she sees that she is tied up to a chair. Something about this moment feels familiar, but she can't tell what. A sudden noise makes her flinch. Her eyes can't get used to the dark and she feels panik paralysing her. The noise comes closer. Quinn tries to move, but she is held back by the ties.
"Quinny," she hears close to her ears. She turns in horror. It was her fathers voice.
Someone else screams her name. It was a scream of pain.
"Spence?" She could hear the terror in her voice.
"He is not going to help you," comes from her father again. This time she could feel his breath on her face, but when she turns there is nothing.
Then she hears Spencer scream again. He is screaming for help and the thought of him in pain kills her. Quinn yells his name, with no answer.
Suddenly a light over her head is turned on. In front of her she sees Spencer. He has bruises all over him and looks panicked. Another figure steps out of the dark. He holds a gun and points it at Spencer. Quinn screams at the sight of her father pointing a gun at Spencer.
While she is trying to get out of her ties he laughs.
She looks into Spencer's terrified eyes. All she wants is to get him out of pain but her father just laughs at her.
A shot is the last thing she hears, before everything turns dark.
"Quinn?" She feels someone's hands on her and tries to push them away. Helpless she hits in the direction she thinks the hands are coming from. When she opens her eyes Spencer is leaning over her.
Realisation and relief calms her. She looks around the hotel room, then back to him.
"I'm sorry if I woke you."
"What?", he looks confused,"Are you ok?"
She looks at him, with no bruises or pain, just Spence. "I'm fine."
"Did you have a nightmare?"
She nods.
"Do you want to tell me about it?", his voice was calm and soft. She feels better already.
"It was just about my father."
"Oh," he looks worried.
"Do you think you can stay here? Just for tonight."
"Of course," he smiles.
Feeling his body close to hers, Quinn feels save and calm. Like nothing can hurt her.
"I had those nightmares too," Spencer whispers.
"What happened?"
"I was captured by an unsub."
She turns in the dark to look at him, waiting for him to continue.
"He had a personality disorder. Somehow he replicated his father's personality in himself."
"What did he do to you?"
Spencer is quiet for a while, before he answers. "He tortured me."
And before he can stop himself, he tells her everything. All about what happened there and what happened after it. It feels good to tell her, opening up a part of himself he tried to burry for years.
"I am so sorry for what happened."
"It's ok," he pulls her closer. It is quiet. This time the dark is not scary it's just there. "It's ok now."
Quinn listened to his heart beat and softly smiles in the dark.
"Spence?"
"Yeah?" His voice is sleepy and quiet.
"You are stuck with me. I just want you to know that."
She can feel him smile.
"I love you too."

"Ella Ryan? Oh yeah I know her. She was one of my best students. She had straight As and never missed a class." The Professor looks at the two Agents in front of him. "Wait, what happened to her? Is she alright?"
"She was found dead in her apartment two days ago," Reid explains.
Professor Daniels gasps in surprise. "Wow. I'd never think something like this would happen here."
"She is not the only one," Quinn admits, "Vivian Meyers, Chloe Johnes and Annie Simon have also been found dead this month."
The teacher turns around in shock. Reid and Quinn exchange meaningful looks. They watch the Professor as he tries to hide his sweating. He is small for his age and his blazer and shoes are way to big for him. He awkwardly moves in his clothes as if he doesn't feel comfortable in them. The analysing eyes of the two agents rest on the teacher that tries to control his panic.
"I had them in some of my classes. All of them where good students. I think I never saw them all together though. I am sorry if that doesn't help you. But I know that Ella had a friend here. I can give you her room number." He moves his glasses further up his nose in a quick move, then leaving his hand on his lab, not knowing how to act.
Quinn nods. "Thank you."
After leaving his office Reid turns to her. "He was lying."
She laughs. "It was like from a textbook. Avoiding eye contact, biting his lips, sweating. He knew these girls and something tells me he is not supposed to know them the way he does."
"Are you suggesting he had a romantic relationship to all of them?"
"Possible."
Reid nods. "That might be another connection between the victims."
"Maybe that's what our unsub was jealous about. She is jealous of not being "chosen" by the teacher. And that makes her so insecure and jealous that she kills them."
They stop at one of Ella Ryan's friends dorm. Quinn knocks and a few seconds later the door opens.
"Hi!" A girl smiles at them nicely. Her blonde hair is held together by a ponytail. She looks like a model, her outfit perfectly fit and not to overdressed for a campus.
Spencer hesitates and Quinn notices the way he looks at her. She is obviously pretty. Effortlessly, as Quinn could never be. For her only the job was important, she didn't put a lot of thought to her own beauty. The only thing she knows is that she doesn't like the person that looks back at her in the mirror. Her eyes were too big, her nose too small and her hair was always hard to style. She hates make up, didn't think it was necessary, especially not if there were more important things. But now all she thinks that she is not pretty enough for Spencer.
The awkward silence brought her back. Quinn tries to smile. "Hi, my name is Quinn and this is Spencer," She introduces them.
The girl giggles. "Are you two a couple?"
Quinn blushes. "No- no we are not." She feels Spencer looking at her, which only makes her even more embarrassed.
"That's good to know", she looks Spencer up and down before holding out her hand, "I'm Sam. Nice to meet you." He blushes but doesn't shake her hand and she grins,"What can I do for you?"
"Did you know Ella Ryan?" Quinn asks, trying to get Sam to look away from Spencer.
Her smile fades. "Yes we were friends. It is so sad what happened."
"Do you think you can tell us about her?" Spencer asks.
"What? Are you like, the cops?" Sam asks stepping back.
"No, we are just old friends," Quinn lies,"But since high school we haven't seen a lot from her, so we just want to know how she was, here."
Sam looks suspicious. Then she turns to Spencer and smiles. "You can come in."
They follow her inside. Her room is clean and filled with stuff. Everything is coloured in different shades of pink and Quinn can feel her eyes hurting from the bright colours. She doesn't like this room and wants to get this done as fast as possible.
"Ella was so sweet all the time. She helped me with my homework and also helped decorating my room."
She turns to Reid. "Do you like it?"
He smiles kindly. "Yes."
Sam grins happily and Quinn rolls her eyes. "Is there anything else, about Ella?"
Sam sighs. "Everyone loved her. She had like a bunch of friends and she was the teachers favourite, but not the annoying kind, you know? She also had a boyfriend I think. Larry or Luie-"
"Luis," Quinn interrupts.
"Yeah. He was really cute, came over a bunch of times, brought her flowers and stuff. Really romantic."
"Who were her friends?"
"Oh, I think their names where Vivian, Cloe, Annie and I forgot the rest. They hung out in a group."
"Do you know if Ella had any enemies around here?", Spencer asks.
"Enemies? No, as I said everyone loved her and her friends. Why do you want to know that?"
"Just curious."
Sam shrugs, her attention back on Reid.
"So, Spencer. Do you have a girlfriend?"
"Thank you for telling us more about Ella. We have to go now," Quinn interrupts annoyed. Sam shoots her an angry glance.
"Thank you," Spencer smiles at her. Quinn turns to leave but Sam takes out a small paper and scribbles something on it. She folds it and presses it into Spencer's hand.
"Call me." Sam smiles mischievously and holds his hand a little too long. He awkwardly smiles back.
After leaving the place, Quinn looks at the ground angrily. "She didn't help us at all."
Reid laughs. "Well now we know that Ella an the other victims were friends."
"We knew that already. This was such a waist of time."
Spencer smiles knowingly. "Are you jealous?"
"What?! No," Quinn looks at him,"Why would I be jealous. I don't care if you flirt with some pretty girl."
Spencer stops and turns her to look at him. His voice is soft and his face is so close to hers that she forgets about the world around them. All that matters is the person in front of her. "You are the most beautiful girl in the world to me and nothing or no one can change that."
She smiles happily. "Ok."
He smiles back but Quinn can see that something is bothering him.
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
"Spence. I know something is wrong. Just tell me."
He looks away, looking for the right words.
"I just don't know how long we can keep doing what we are doing?"
Quinn feels her heart drop. "What do you mean? It's working, isn't it?"
He shakes his head. "But we can't do this forever. Quinn, I want to be with you in public, without worrying that someone could find out."
"So what do you want to do?"
"I don't know. Tell Hotch?"
She shakes her head. "Relationships between colleges aren't allowed, what if he fires us or transfers one of us to another unit. I don't want to be separated from you."
"But what if he doesn't. Maybe he understands and allows us to be together."
Quinn nods. "That would be great but against the rules. If we talk to him about it, it's just going to get complicated and things will change. But I don't want things to change." She steps closer,"Spence, I love you and I don't want to be without you. By making it real to everyone else we might destroy what we have."
"But keeping it a secret is just holding us back."
"From what?"
"Well doing normal couple-things. Like going on a date or... kissing in public," Spencer says awkwardly.
"Kissing in public?" Quinn smiles mischievously.
"You know what I mean."
Her expression gets serious again. "Yes, I do."
She looks around, thinking. "What if they already know?"
"Why would they know?"
"Because they analyse behaviour for living, genius."
Suddenly Quinn's phone rings and she flinches. She looks at the message. "Hotch wants us back at the police station."