Philophobia

Twenty; Ben Franklin's Song

July 13th, 2010
1:30 pm
La Plata County, Colorado

It has been around two months since Eliza had joined the BAU and the team was thriving. The tension between Hotch and Strauss was at an all-time low, which created more time for the team to work from their home base. The relationships between team members were better than ever, with going to team dinners when out on cases, frequent shopping trips among Blake, Garcia, Eliza, and occasionally JJ when she was free, and drinks at rotating local bars. Despite the new job, JJ was around to check in on her team and make sure they were alright. Eliza had also been working hard to cultivate relationships with each team member.

Rossi has begun to think of the agent as a daughter, and often stopped by her office to talk about anything and everything in Italian. His skills weren't up to par with her, but their conversations were often the highlight of his day. As for Hotch, he appreciated Eliza for making sure Strauss didn't question his every move. Of course, it also helped that she spent time with Jack when he was away for a case and his sister-in-law was at work, and Jack loved Eliza's 'cool accent' as he put it.

Blake and Eliza had grown close as well, mainly because of the assistance Eliza had once provided in the class she taught. Eliza had been a guest speaker and helped instill the importance of linguistics in Blake's students through her knowledge of languages. Eliza and Morgan just got on really well, especially as they both hovered around Garcia and Reid so much. They acted like siblings, picking on one another, and making fun of stupid things the other did.

Eliza and Garcia had become best friends over the course of the months. They spent the most time together, especially when the rest of the team traveled somewhere without them, which was becoming more common. Garcia also loved to talk about Eliza and Reid's relationship, which she had told Eliza that she 'shipped to the end of the earth.' Eliza wasn't quite sure what that meant but accepted the compliment.

As for Eliza and Reid, they grew closer every day. They spend almost all their time outside of the BAU together. Dates at restaurants, at one another's apartments, or the museum fueled their relationship. It wasn't all that difficult to hide their relationship from the team, despite the amount of time spent together. They just had to avoid being seen too close together around Morgan, who was already suspicious.

At the current moment, Eliza and Reid sat in a black car belonging to the Child Protective Services, one of their actual agents upfront. The woman drove them down a mostly dirt road as they headed for a compound where they would be conducting interviews with the child members of a church. Originally, Blake was supposed to accompany Reid into the complex but was pulled at the last minute for an emergency task force that required her linguistic skills. Not wanting to send Morgan or Rossi, both of whom were intimidating and didn't have the ability to not look as though they worked for the FBI, Hotch was forced to choose between Garcia and Eliza. For obvious reasons, Eliza went.

The three were listening to a voice message as they drove, the reason for the investigation. "He comes into my bedroom and lays with me. He says it's God's will. I'm only fifteen! And I'm not the only one. Please help me!" Reid shut off the recording device. He was sitting in the middle of the back row pretty forward in his seat so that he could be apart of the conversation upfront.

"What else can you tell us about the 9-1-1 call?" Reid asked Nancy Lunde, who was driving the car.

"We believe the 'he' that they are referring to is the church's leader, Benjamin Cyrus," Nancy informed him.

"Benjamin Cyrus," Reid said as he flipped through the pages of the file. "No criminal record, no record at all, really. Do you know anything else about him?"