Paranoia - s.reid

Unfortunate

"They're charging Rose for the murders of Colette, Dina and Joanne."

Liz froze in shock. Sure, they had enough evidence, but that was the worst part. The highest chance that her sister would go to prison, whether she committed the crime or not. She shook her head. "No, there has to be some mistake. Okay, Rose, we're going to get through this."

Rose allowed a single sob to escape before tightly gripping her sister's hand. "What am I going to do, Liz? What am I going to do?"

"I'm going to get you the best lawyer, anyone you want. If you want me, I'll be your lawyer. It's up to you. I'm going to get you through this, okay?"

"Okay. I want you. I want you to be my lawyer, no one else. Just you."

Liz nodded before being pulled away by Spencer. "This is bad. This is the worst."

"I've told the team, they're working on it now. You want me to with you to reactivate your license to work the case?" She turned sheepish.

"I reactivated my license before London."

"What?"

She sighed. "I didn't know what was going to happen with us, I needed a backup. So I decided, if I had to leave the BAU, I'd activate my license and practice law."

"God, Ellie, and you didn't think to tell me?"

"I'm sorry, okay? Can we not argue right now?" Both of their phones went off. A case. Liz walked over to the prison cell holding her sister. "I can take you to the office and you can remain in custody there, but I can't release you until your arraignment."

"What's an arraignment?" The blonde asked, her eyes still holding the weigh of her tears.

"It's basically where you'll be read your charges, you plead either guilty or not guilty and they could keep you in custody or release you pending your trial. I have a case right now, but you can stay in my office, okay?"

"Alright."

Liz made sure to wrap her cardigan around her sister's handcuffed wrists, smiling at anyone who passed by. The team were waiting by the entrance to the office, eyebrows tensed and frowns etched on their features as the three approached them. JJ spoke first. "I'm so sorry, Rose."

Rose just smiled sadly, waving her off. "It's okay, at least I've got her." She nudged her sister.

"I've given Anderson my ID card to unlock my office so he can drop by and give you some food, you can use my computer but don't touch any files or anything. Just stay safe, don't make any trouble." Liz spoke, escorting Rose to her office and unlocking it.

"Yeah, go solve your case and then we'll get back to my issue."

"I can stay behind if you want."

"No, go. I'll be fine."

-----

Everyone tried to ignore the obvious strain in Liz and Spencer's relationship during the case. On the jet home, they finally decided to speak about what was going on. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you about my license."

"Why didn't you deactivate it after we got better?"

"I genuinely forgot, things were going so well with us, I didn't want to think about it. I guess it's a good thing I didn't deactivate it now." Spencer brought Liz to his chest, kissing the crown of her head.

"I'm sorry."

The team were back the day before Rose's arraignment, where Liz was certain she could prepare in a night. She sat with her sister in her office, going over everything through a cognitive. "Close your eyes, tell me exactly what happened."