SSA Aaron Hotchner is stepping down from his Unit Chief position for a 6-month period due to an assignment in overseas. To his temporary replacement comes SSA Alexandra Barnes, Chief of the Child Abductions Unit. Both Hotchner and Barnes have their...
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The next day, I went back to the station but I stayed in the conference room. I didn't want to risk coming across my dad again. Jackson Morris has been in that interrogation room for 20 hours now and John has been walking around the station, getting his coffee, chatting with cops, etc.
Derek walks in the conference room. "We have 4 hours left to find more evidence on Morris until his lawyer takes him out. Meanwhile we have no murder weapon and no witnesses" he says as he sits down "We'll be lucky if we find something decent in the 22 minutes to charge him"
Lucky... That's it! Jackson was so pressed when I mentioned luck yesterday. He is arrogant, he thinks he's smarter than everyone because he took care of everything was preplanned, he wouldn't leave anything to luck.
"Hey, can you bring me Hotch for a sec?" I ask him
"Sure. But is there a reason you haven't stood up all day? Too much nighttime activities?" he teases
I chuckle. "Just bring Hotch" I insist
"Ok" he laughs as he leaves.
"Tell me you got something" Aaron says
"I think so. But I need you to let me go in there" I ask
"I'm not sure I should do that"
"Please. I will throw both of them off if I go in. I mean if he even recognizes me. I got it" i reassure him.
He lets out a breath "Ok. We have 20 minutes to charge him, I give you 10. And wear an earpiece so I can talk to you"
"Deal" I say and I get up.
I got this. He probably won't even recognize me.
I walk in the interrogation room "He's not answering any questions" my 'dad' immediately says.
I turn towards the glass "I told you so" I say, hoping I'm looking at Aaron.
"Nine minutes" he replies in my ear piece.
"Jackson, you remember me, right?" I ask as I sit
"Yes" he replies
"But you don't know me" I remind him "So, imagine I'm a high school drop out, working at a local hardware store for the last two years and I've been pocketing money from the register" I describe him
"What is the point of this?" 'dad' asks but I ignore him
"One day you're working late when your boss, Mr. Coleman surprises you and finds out you're stealing money. He says he's gonna file a police report. So you fight, and something in you snaps; you I grab the first thing you can find and hit him with it"
"You still have no murder weapon" his 'lawyer' reminds me
"I do. Here's a pic of Coleman's office that our technical analyst found on his Facebook from two months ago, and here is a shot that our CSI took of the same room two weeks after the murder. The Facebook shot has two nice, and heavy, bookends on the shelf in the background, whereas this shot only one. What happened to number two? You murdered Coleman with it, didn't you?" I assume
"I didn't" Jackson answers
"You lost all control and you beat him to death. There must have been blood everywhere, but you got lucky. You were in the office; it was going under painting so the floor was covered with plastic, easily wrapped and dispossessed. You never would have gotten away with it anywhere else"
"That's not what happened" he insists
"Don't say anything more" daddy comes to the rescue again but I keep ignoring him.
"And the cleaning crew would have heard the screaming but they weren't in for another hour. Lucky again!" I insist
"You're wrong" Jackson answers
"Keep going with lucky" Aaron says in my ear. But I take the bug out and I continue.
"You wrapped Coleman's body in the plastic and put it into a cart. It's a miracle there wasn't blood everywhere"
"That's not true"
"Now you're in the parking lot with a corpse. You panic and leave your phone in your office. You don't have your car keys, but Coleman's are in his pocket so you put him in his car and you take off"
"No"
"You can't believe what you've done. You're flustered. You have no GPS, so you just start driving"
"No!"
"Next thing you know, you're in the Pine Barrens, and it hits you: your uncle's cabin. He has a place there. You're the luckiest guy in the world"
"It wasn't luck!"
"Yes, it was. You got lucky at every turn!"
"No!" he stands up, slamming his hands on the table "I knew exactly where I was driving, I left my phone in the office on purpose, I was in his covered office by design, and I didn't use some glass award that any idiot would clearly see was missing. I picked up one of the heavy duty wrenches because none of the cameras sees that spot, I killed him with it, cleaned it and then sold to a random customer!".
It takes him a few seconds to process what he's just said, but eventually he sits back down defeated. I look at 'dad' and he has his head down buried in his palms.
"Thank you for your cooperation, Mr. Morris. I'll see you in trial" I say as I stand up.
I open the door and I let Morgan in to make the arrest as I walk out of the room. I immediately fall into Aaron's arms, not caring who might walk in.
He wraps his arms around me and rubs my back. I pull away when I feel ready and I kiss him.
"I'm so hard right now and I don't know if it is because of your skinny jeans, your brain or both" he admits causing me to laugh.
I stand by his side this time, but I lean to him and he keeps his arm around me "I told you, I love this brain" he says and kisses my head.
"Hey, I know I kind of overshared last night but can I tell you one more thing?" I ask
"Of course" he answers
"The only reason I went to law school was because I wanted my dad to be proud of me and maybe come back, but clearly he didn't. So last night, when you said you worked under him and with him, I was a little angry at you because I got jealous. He preferred you over me. All night, I couldn't stop thinking about what I could have done differently--"
"No. Don't do that, please. And I understand your angrer. It was totally reasonable" he says
"Stop being so understanding! I feel worse now" I complain and smack his shoulder. He laughs and kisses me again.
~~~
A/N: Yes, this is was adapted from the B99 episode with the dentist. I just loved it and wanted to use Jake's badass solve.
