Becoming A Profiler

The Art of Leaning In

Let's imagine a scenario. A person goes back in time with full knowledge of all murders happening over the course of a year. Most would say that this person needed to prevent the murders, to save the lives of the counted victims along with any possible new victims. They needed to save the day, afterall, otherwise why go back? Others might say if the victim cannot be saved, let them be avenged.

A grandmother had a ticking time clock above her head. Hours, maybe minutes left alive. Her murderer knew her location, steady walking with intent of killing her and absconding away with her grandson. The only witness to his crimes. A person with foreknowledge could save them, save the grandma's life and the boy's future trauma therapist.

That's not what Megan Quinn was doing.

Somebody could speed through the investigation. Give clues or hints to the right person at an earlier time, ensuring things happen in a happy timeline. A smarter, better person would ignore the line of questioning for Jess and Oley Maynor. They were red herrings, they should be ignored by people that knew better. A pair of actually innocent butchers, meanwhile an actual insane person was about to kill and gut a grandma across town.

Megan leaned forward, meeting Oley's eyes as he pleaded his innocence and his brother demanded the police leave them alone.

She studied human psychology and behaviors. Years as a child watching, observing, absorbing. The past few years she spent dedicated to mastering every human tick and nerve. Their psychology was a bizarre one, full of contradictions and errors aplenty. Some things worked on some but not others. Some people had no idea how any of it worked, and found it frustrating to navigate the rules made up by a society that was designed to hate them.

Megan tilted her head. She leaned in. Body language mattered so much, she'd learned. She could say the nicest, sweetest thing in her most sincere voice. If her body language didn't match, the words would often be ignored or misinterpreted. The nice ones think she's being sarcastic and funny as always. The others say she's flippant, rude, being petulant for no reason.

She studied this language too. She needed to, apparently, for her job. The only girl on the boys team, she got sent on a lot of the more emotional moments. They assumed she'd be good at connecting with people.

It's true, but still.

By leaning in to Oley, by maintaining eye contact, she encouraged him. Oley believed he was being listened to, earnestly. Someone finally looked at him, and understood. Or, that's what Megan tried to say with her posture.

If her birth mother knew she finally cared about posture, she might cry.

Megan did care about Oley. Not in the way one cares for friends, or loved ones. But also not in the way you care for a wounded animal. Oley was no animal. He's as human as anyone else on the BAU. Oley just stumbled a bit, as humans were known to do. His apparent cardinal sin being that he let everyone in town see the stumbling. A town this small along the Bible Belt? People noticed. No, Megan cared for him on the simple basis that he was human, and he needed people that cared.

A smarter, better person would've ignored this scene entirely. Their knowledge would be used to save people the moment the plane landed. So many lives saved, and no more tragedies to clean up.

But Oley and Jess would still be here in the butcher shop. In that 'better' timeline, Jess still works hard to hide his brother from the world that constantly spits on him. Oley stays inside, desperate to leave and be free from both this town and the crippling pressure of normalcy people keep expecting him to have. A normalcy his brain cannot comprehend, cannot fathom, cannot create. The brothers go back and forth on this cycle until that final straw. Maybe Oley freaks out in public, maybe the wrong townsperson finds out he's free and causes a ruckus, who knows? That path only comes with misery and grief for everyone involved.