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SPENCER WAS GREAT at a lot of things that vivian wasn't. for instance, he was the smartest person she'd ever met. he could read a whole book in the time it would take for her to read a chapter.
but spencer was not great at shooting. or any form of combat, now that vivian thought about it. vivian was the opposite of that. combat was what she excelled at, which was one of the reasons she didn't understand why she had to stay back and research many of their cases (hotch had explained that it was something to do with her under-qualification and how she needed more experience, but she thought she was ready). she'd once fought a man off with a broken beer bottle and her teeth. she'd also won a fight with a raccoon for a piece of pizza, but that was a whole different thing.
spencer made a face as he fired the practice gun and completely missed the target again. vivian and he were both about to go up for reassessment of their gun qualifications/licenses, and vivian wasn't concerned. but spencer was. he was a horrible shot. he always claimed his contacts skewed his hand-eye coordination, but vivian thought he had a horrible aim.
"on swat, we broke shots down into three steps," hotch explained for what felt like the millionth time. "one― front sight. focus on the front sight, not on the target. two― controlled trigger press. three― follow through. after the shot, you come right back to the target. now what did you do wrong?"
spencer closed his eyes and vivian could practically see the headache forming below his forehead. "i didn't follow through."
"right. you came off the target to see where you hit."
"hotch, our firearm qualifications are tomorrow morning," spencer said nervously, stumbling over his words. he gestured wildly at vivian, taking off his headphones. "she'll pass with flying colors like she always does. i barely passed my last one."
hotch nudged vivian forward and she took the cue, picking up the gun. hotch began instructing her again, and vivian mirrored his words. "front sight, trigger press..." bang. "follow through." bull's-eye. it was right on target. she set the gun back down, stepping back with a grin.
"you follow those instructions, you'll hit where you want to every time," vivian said, radiating pride.
spencer fired again, and he managed to hit the target again! sort of. he hit the very edge of the target, not enough to get good points in his qualification exam. but it was progress, vivian thought. spencer still seemed just as frustrated, if not more now. "they're gonna take away my gun," he mumbled, resigned.
"a profiler is not required to carry," hotch tried to reassure as vivian and spencer began packing up and getting ready to leave.
"yeah? and yet you carry two of them," spencer pointed out, gesturing to hotch. he turned to vivian. "and you carry one even when you're off-duty."
vivian snorted. "spence, honey, at any moment, gang members could come bustin' down my door. of course, i'm armed. i don't feel like getting kidnapped and pimped out again, thank you very much."
