Mellifluous {Spencer Reid}

THIRTY-TWO.

THIRTY-TWO; OLD FRIENDS

"Who the fuck is Elle Greenaway and why do you all look like you have been slapped?" Rory was never one for subtlety, and it showed. Emily and Rossi shared an amused look before nodding. Hotch didn't even pause to correct her in her language, this worried her, he had never not yelled at her for swearing the whole time he had known her.

He takes a deep breath before explaining, "Elle was a member of this team many years ago, she left before Gideon. An unsub who was targeting us got into Garcia's computers and found her address. He shot her in her home, she almost died. A few months later she insisted on coming back to work. I, foolishly, let her. one of the first cases she worked after coming back was a rapist, as she was the best fit for an undercover position, we chose her to pose as a victim, so that we could legally arrest the suspect. She went off the hanger, arresting him prematurely, he immediately asked for a lawyer, who got him released. She was furious, he had gotten away with it, she was taking it out on us, when it was her fault. Anyways, she stalked him, and confronted him in a car park, she told us he pulled a gun on her and she shot him. we never found a gun."

Aurora takes a minute to process that information, sharing a shell shocked look with Emily. Spencer, JJ and Morgan just stare at the floor. "so what you're telling me, is that one of your agents shot a suspect in cold blood, and now she is killing men all over the country and you didn't report it? that doesn't sound like you Hotch" he sighs and looks down at the floor sullenly, "I know I made a mistake, but I refused to believe she did it, she never admitted it. Soon after she left, I followed her to her father's grave before she took off. Her resignation papers came in the mail a week later, I haven't heard from her since." Aurora and Emily make eye contact across the room, staring at each other in shock.

"So our unsub is an ex-FBI profiler... turned serial killer?" Rossi breaks his silence, stating the obvious Morgan nods in his general direction while still staring off into space "yeah... pretty much sums it up" Aurora grasps Spencer's hand in support, he snaps out of his trance-like state and looks up at her, the hurt reflected in his eyes, JJ hadn't moved since the video had played, Emily placed her hand on her shoulder, attempting to comfort the younger blonde agent, who was still completely shell shocked. It wasn't the time, but Aurora couldn't help but notice how cute of a couple the two would be, if only JJ wasn't you know.. married with a kid.

"so what now?" the local sheriff says from the corner of the room, they had completely forgotten he was there through the dramatic moment they had just endured. their heads snap around to the highly uncomfortable man in the corner.

"Now we find her" Hotch's face hardens all traces of sorrow and pain gone, the team knew he was about to make it his personal issue to catch her before she killed again.

--

The team had been staring at the same gruesome photos all day, determined to find even a shred of evidence against her, but alas, nothing. To say the team was immensely disheartened would be the understatement of the century, everyone, even Rory, who didn't even know the ex-profiler, was frustrated. "how is it she knows all of our tricks but we know none of hers?" JJ voiced as they walked down the hallway of the hotel they had booked for the time they were to be there. Morgan chuckles "that statement sounds eerily familiar" Emily and Rory both just look confused whilst the rest of the team had amused faces, Rory couldn't help but notice just how long it had been since anyone had smiled. "huh?" Emily asks, eyebrows raised, not knowing how in the 5 years she had worked with the group she didn't know what they meant, and Rossi came even after her, so she was even more baffled. "when you disappeared way back in the days of Ian Doyle, and we were trying to find out how to help you, Morgan said that exact statement. you were cutting us off at every turn" Hotch explains.