1 | TREPIDATION. [SPENCER REID]

FIVE.

FIVE ; ENDGAME.

The door opened about two hours after Spencer had left the room, awaking a groggy Quinn Carson. She blinked three times to clear her eyesight, her once blurry vision turning clear as she saw Agent Morgan and Spencer Reid. They sat down in the chairs across from the girl and no words were spoken until Derek Morgan cleared his throat. "When did you join the Horsemen?"

Quinn's gaze flicked to his, the left side of her mouth twitching into a partial scowl. Morgan watched as her eyes turned fearful. "I was twenty one."

"Were you abducted?"

"Yes."

Spencer swallowed before speaking. "There isn't a Quinn Carson on any missing persons list from any year."

"That's how good Masters is," Quinn shot back. Her eyes had fallen into slits, making the hair on the back of the doctor's neck stand up. "There's no record of me existing anywhere." She thought for a moment. "Besides the birth certificate. Lawrence didn't want that cleared for some reason."

"What made them want to pick you?" Morgan inquired.

A sigh left Quinn's mouth and she licked her lips. "I really don't-"

"Kid, we're trying to figure this out so we can help you," the agent said. The girl almost laughed at his words. "We want to find the rest of your team, but we want to help you as well."

"Help us help you," Spencer offered. Quinn could see the sincerity in his eyes. She inhaled through her nose and then opened her mouth.

"I'd just been accepted into Stanford Law," she began. "The interview had went so well. The man who interviewed me put a tape of a man in court talking to a prosecutor. He asked me to spot the lies the man told." Quinn paused, feeling her eyes start to burn. "It was such an odd interview but the man who conducted it seemed so pleased by me, so I just went along with it. I should have seen it then." Reid and Morgan exchanged a glance. The two looked back at Quinn who had started rubbing her fingers against her wrists. Nervous habit, Spencer noted. "The man in the video was Lucas Nelson and the man who conducted the interview was Joseph Lawrence.

"He saw something in me. Something trainable, coachable. Only later would I find out that he'd been stalking me for months. I hadn't even noticed or seen him once." Her voice broke as she thought of the days before she had joined the Horsemen, the days where she had been able to go about her life without any worry.

There were no words spoken between the three, the BAU agents taking in what they had just been told, Quinn Carson in disbelief over what she had just shared.

"Do you have any idea what their endgame is?" asked Morgan.

She shook her head. "Like I said earlier, Lawrence didn't trust me enough to tell me the plan." A humorous chuckle escaped her, glance falling on the men in front of her. "I guess he had valid reasons."

"You're doing the right thing, I promise," Spencer replied.

"The right thing for me or for you?"

The question struck the genius in such a way that threw him off guard. His brow furrowed and he leaned closer to Quinn. "What do you-"

"The Horsemen have connections across the nation," she explained, suddenly second guessing everything that she had told the FBI. The paranoia was haunting her. "I could help you and then as soon as I'm out of here I'm a dead man walking. How is this going to help me?"

"We're going to make sure you're safe," Spencer blurted. "You're not going to go to jail. We'll protect you."

Morgan glanced at Reid incredulously before saying, "That is, if you help us to the best of your ability." Quinn hesitated before agreeing, her moment of panic subsiding. "We'll be back in a little bit."

The girl nodded, watching as the men left the room. She saw Spencer look back at her before he left the room. He gave her a tight smile and opened the door, softly closing it on his way out. Quinn bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling back.

She wasn't locked in an interrogation room to make friends.

Spencer Reid was met by the disbelieving face of Derek Morgan as he entered the next room. "Kid, what the hell?"

"I-I don't know! I panicked, okay?"

"We can't promise the girl no jail time, you know that, right?" Morgan asked. "Besides, I'm still not convinced she's completely innocent."

"She's not a bad per-"

"Maybe she is, maybe she isn't," he interjected. "But she did say that if she was throwing us off, we wouldn't know it." Reid sighed with a nod, rubbing his hands on his pants. Morgan furrowed his brow. "What's it about her that makes you so faithful that she's not a killer?"

The doctor shrugged, looking back at Quinn through the window. "Nobody knew about Quinn Carson until recently. There has to be a reason that Joseph Lawrence kept her a secret and didn't give her identity to the public like the others." His eyes met Morgan's. "I don't think Lawrence thought she was as devoted as the others. So anyone saw Quinn, they wouldn't bring her in and ask her for information that she would most definitely give them."

"Like the information she told us," Morgan added, seeing where Spencer was going with this.

"Exactly," he replied. "So is Quinn Carson a killer? She may be. But if she is, she has a reason to back herself up. The fear the Horsemen established in her." Spencer nodded twice before shrugging. "So yeah, that's why I'm faithful to her."

Derek sighed, feeling himself finally side with Quinn Carson. "Okay, alright." A short chuckle left his lips before he placed a hand on Reid's shoulder. "It also helps that you think she's pretty."

Spencer's eyes widened as he watched Morgan's face light up with a grin. A pink tint was visible on his cheeks as Morgan retreated, eyebrows raised while he walked away. "What?" Reid said, voice an octave higher than usual. "No I don't!"

"Whatever you say," Morgan taunted.

"S-stop talking!" Spencer shouted, picking up his speed to catch up to his friend.

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short chapter but whatever !!! happy sunday !!

thank you all for the votes and the reads, i've said it before and i'll say it again, this story is so fun to write and plan out !! thank you for enjoying it!

love you tons!
-mags