Natalie

Chapter 14

The team was in the middle of discussing the profile when Spencer's phone rang. He quickly grabbed it from his pocket, and declined the call, not even realizing it was Natalie. It was going to take some getting used to on Spencer's part to remember that Natalie was fifteen and couldn't live fully independent as much as she wanted to be.

Hotch entered the room looking frustrated, "Garcia got no where with the prints,"

Morgan sighed, "So, we have three bodies and no evidence,"

"What if those fingerprints were left intentionally?" Emily spoke up. "Think about it, CSI found them in obvious places. It's like the unsub was trying to throw us off because he knew those prints wouldn't come up anywhere in the system,"

"So, we're looking for someone who has no record, and isn't working anywhere that takes fingerprints. Isn't that a lot of people we're searching for?" Rossi asked.

Spencer thought for a moment, "Not necessarily... we profiled that he was a physically fit, well educated, and well stablished man. So, we could leave out lower paying jobs, and even then, there aren't many that don't fingerprint anymore. Did you know that you needed to be fingerprinted to become a priest? And that-"

"Get to the point Reid," Hotch interjected.

"Physically fit could lead to arrogance, no offense Morgan,"

Morgan shot him a look.

"Well established could mean money, and who in a major company is the one person that everyone can ID, but you don't need to fingerprint them?" 

"Are you seriously suggesting that a CEO of a company committed these murders?" JJ asked.

This theory only helped narrow down the profile, but they were in Boston, where there had to be hundreds of CEO's, and that doesn't include the ones who live outside the city. It did make sense though, arrogance that he could get away with it, and money which suggested being a CEO. And CEO's definitely thought they could get away with everything.

"I guess we'll deliver the profile tomorrow then," Hotch stated, knowing Reid's theory was probably right. Unfortunately, it was too late in the day to give the profile because most of the officers had already went home. He decided that this was a good time for the team to settle down in their hotel rooms.

Spencer checked his phone real quick, realized that Natalie texted him.

Hello? You said to call. 

"Shit," Spencer muttered.

Hotch glanced at Reid as the rest of the team filed out, "Everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine," Reid lied.

"How's she adjusting?" Hotch asked, pushing the issue.

Spencer sighed, "I'm not sure to be honest, she had her first day of school today. I told her to call me about it and I completely forgot,"

"I'm sure she had a good day," Hotch reassured him.

"Do you think I jumped the gun?" Reid looked directly at Hotch, something he rarely does.

Hotch didn't answer for a moment. Then, he looked at Reid, and shook his head, "I did, but there was definitely no talking you out of it," he picked up a few files, and put them in his briefcase. "Look, all I know is that a fifteen year old girl now looks up to you for guidance. You need to stop second guessing yourself because it's too late for that," Hotch gave Reid a pat on the back, as he left the room.

Spencer knew that Hotch was right. There was no going back now, not that he wanted to. It was just a hard transition. He quickly collected himself, and then grabbed his phone to text Natalie back.

We were delivering the profile. I'll call you in an estimated 13 minutes, once I get back to the hotel.

Texting was not Spencer's strong suit, so it definitely took him a few moments to send that message. He figure Natalie would get it in time to answer his call. 

Kk

From what Spencer learned about teenage texting lingo, this was a good sign. He knew that if he received one singular 'K', sometimes with a period, that could be a problem. This wasn't always the case though. Apparently, receiving a simple 'ok', specifically in lowercase was a problem, but it wasn't the same as receiving 'okay' which ranked higher in the...I'm rambling to myself

When Spencer arrived at his hotel room, he threw his stuff down on the desk chair, and sat on the bed. It had been a long day, and this case wasn't even close to being over. He was hoping these long cases wouldn't become a trend. 

Spencer took his watch off, and looked at the time. It actually took him only ten minutes to get back to the hotel. He then grabbed his phone, and dialed Natalie's number. It rang for a few minutes before he heard her voice from the other end.

"Hey, you told me to call after school,"

"Yeah, I did it honestly slipped my mind. I'm really sorry," Spencer said.

"Well two things. One, I'm not mad so, don't apologize. And two, it didn't slip your mind because nothing slips your mind," Natalie stated, very bluntly.

"Okay, so I knew it was you calling-"

"Spencer, you don't have to explain yourself. You said you guys were giving the profile,"

Changing the subject to get out of this awkward conversation, Spencer asked, "How was your day?"

"Well, it didn't start off very good, but then it got better. I met a couple people. There was this one girl named Britney, she was nice," Natalie replied.

They talked for another twenty minutes. Spencer was happy to hear about Natalie's first day at school. As much as he wanted to talk to her more about it, he knew that both of them needed to get some rest. 

When Spencer hung up the phone, he placed it on the nightstand, and quickly changed into comfortable clothes. Most people didn't realize it, but Spencer didn't wear dress pants to bed. He set his alarm for an early time of five a.m, and then let his head hit the pillow. Hopefully, he could go home by the end of tomorrow.