Criminal Minds: Danika

Death Row Inmate

I get to the building and park my bike in my normal parking spot. I head inside only to see Booth standing by my desk, talking to Hotch.

"What now?" I groan, wanting to be done with him and his team of lab rats.

"Agent Booth here was wondering if he could borrow one of the Agents for a case. I agreed and said he could take you." Hotch answers and I roll my eyes.

"You have to be kidding me. I just had to answer questions in court for them." I groan.

"And managed to insult everyone in the room, yet got a guilty verdict for the defendants." Hotch points out and hands me the file.

"Plus, you've worked with him and his people, you know them better than the rest of the team." Hotch says, but I know it's going to have to do more with something like keeping me out of the line of fire.

"The fuck is this? He's already in jail? What do you want me to do with this." I scoff seeing that their killer was already arrested.

"He's saying he's innocent. I want you to go and talk with him, get a read on him." Hotch explains.

"Why is this guy even being heard out? He's been in prison for years?" I ask about the prisoner named Howard Epps.

"Because a woman named Amy Morton, who is a defense lawyer, took pity on him. A pain in my ass." Booth grumbles the last part, and I quirk a brow seeing how this woman gets on his nerves.

"Then I definitely have to meet her." I sneer and he narrows his eyes at me.

"Seriously? That's what's gets you to agree? Witnessing my suffering?" Booth asks as he follows me out of the bullpen.

"Who'a suffering?" Derek asks as he stops us in the hallway.

"He is. Some chick is getting him to look into a case of some guy. A chick he doesn't like." I sneer.

"Yeah, that will do it. Watching someone else suffering tends to get her interest peaked." Reid agrees.

"You know what someone like that's called?" Booth asks.

"Easily bored." I shrug as we get in the elevator.

"Sadistic." He argues and I chuckle.

"Stop being so dramatic."

"I wanna know how the hell you ever got in the FBI in the first place." He huffs and shakes his head.

"By saying please." I joke and he gives me a side eye.

"Doubt it." He counters and we get to his car.

We get to his department and I meet with Bones and a red headed woman, who I assume is Morton. She's wearing a black suit with a shirt black skirt. She sees me and sizes me up but clearly doesn't know what to think of me yet. Bones simply nods at me and I nod back.

"My name is Amy-." Morton starts and puts her hand out for me to take.

"I know who you are. You're the girl who thinks that this sociopath didn't bash in a 17 year old girl's skull." I scoff and she narrows his eyes.

"How can you possibly call him something like that when you've never met him?" She asks appalled.

"It's called my job." I state with a blank stare.

"Well, maybe you should actually talk to him before actually judging his character." She huffs and walks out of the room and I roll my eyes.

———

We head to the prison and I watch Booth's interaction with Epps. He sounds genuine when he says he's innocent. He even brings up that what happened to the victim was terrible and someone has to pay for it. But since he's what the police has, that he's the one who has to suffer even though he's innocent. He shows fear in his eyes when he talks about dying, that you're paralyzed, stuck in pain, unable to scream. I can see why Morton believes he's innocent.