I'm Not Who I Used To Be || G. Sanders

BONDING

It wasn't long before they were informed of a kidnapping. Having a stroke of luck, the bar, Tangerines, had security cameras.

Huddled in the middle of the conference room they wait as Garcia pulls up the security footage. They watch eagerly for hints as to who the killer could be.

"Garcia, stop."

The footage stops. Sara encourages her to rewind the tape a little. "There, that's our missing guy."

The camera shows two men forcefully putting a man into the truck. Though the two men underestimated the man's strength as he fought being put into the back of the truck.

Rose's eyes widen seeing something the BAU probably didn't see. Greg smirks at her, "care for a ride."

"I thought you'd never ask."

Caught off guard by the two Derek raises a brow. They were looking to enhance the footage but with the darkness on the street, they had no luck.

"What are we missing?"

She scoffs, "you forget what we do for a living." She points to an object on the screen. "The mailbox, they touched it."

"There have to be hundreds of prints on that thing."

Rose shrugs, "you'd be surprised. Besides, it rained mere hours before this happened. There's a chance their prints will be on it."

"Alright, go."

Rose and Greg go for their kits and out to their service car. Greg takes the wheel driving to their destination.

In the car, the only thing more deafening than a high-pitched squeal is their silence.

"Are you okay?" He asks her.

She bites the inside of her cheek contemplating on saying anything. "How much of the video this morning did you see?"

"Not much..."

She notices the hesitance in his voice. He's lying. "You have questions."

"Yeah."

"But..."

He sighs, "I know you. You don't like to talk about your personal life. Especially not about what all happened before you came here."

Her eyes focus on the road as he drives but she catches the glances he sends her way. "Yeah, I know. Okay, I'll make you a deal. You ask what you want, if I'm uncomfortable with it, I just won't answer."

"Okay, deal. The redheads, who are they? They popped up a lot."

She has visible tenses. "That um, that's Fred and George. They were a year above me and Aries. Close friends are all."

"Really?"

She huffs loudly, "fine, they were our best friends."

"Were?"

"There's a lot of shit that happened that you wouldn't understand. That war I told you about, it navigated its way into my childhood and school years. Fred... Fred was caught in the crossfire."

Greg goes mute choosing not to push the topic further. From the little she has said he can deduce that she means no good by that statement.

"What else you got?"

He shakes his head out of his thoughts peering over at the emotionless girl. "Oh um, the one with the light shined on him. Brown hair, mustache."

She giggles, "yeah, that was my dad. He was a curious thing really. He was a professor in my third year there. He and another professor were enemies of a sort. This other professor, Snape, always hated us. Harry, Aries, and I... like I said our fathers were the best of mates. Severus didn't like them and through school that hates passed on to us."

"Why?"

"I think my dad said at one point that there was a prank them gone wrong? I'm a bit fuzzy on the details."

Greg pulled up beside the bar in broad daylight. They grab their kits and walk over to the mailbox to begin their work.

"Go on, you don't have to stop asking questions now that we're here."

He clears his throat using rosin to find fingerprints on the mailbox. "You looked happy back then."

She smiles softly, "I was. Some good, some bad, can't complain." Though she really could.

"The other redhead. He looked like the other two but different. Younger."

"Yeah, that's Ron. He's their younger brother, best friend to Harry, a year younger than me. I and Aries were stuck to Harry like glue. We were bound to be Ronald at some point. He can be a git at times but we all love him. That kid, he's always confused... and hungry. Damn that boy always had an appetite."

Greg laughs with her as they continue taking prints and putting them into her kit. Not before sending pictures to the team back at the lab.

"And the blonde kid?"

Rose scowls at the description. "Unfortunately that weasel is a distant cousin to Aries and me. His mother is Narcissa Malfoy née Black. Teddy's grandmother's sister. The family tree is complicated, to say the least. Draco was a selfish asshole in school. He felt he was royalty and everyone should bow to him. Bullied everyone, he did. He's a better person now. He's got a wife and a son."

"Sirius doesn't look like he's aged a day since then."

"That seems to run in the family. He's like Tom Cruise, never ages. I should show you some of the pictures I stole from his home in England going back to his school days. Longer hair and less facial hair but he still never looked like he aged a day."

The corner of his lips tugs up. "What about your dad? Did he change much?"

"Surprisingly so. Funny enough he resembles that guy who plays in The Amazing Spider-Man. Oh, what's his name? Andrew Garfield, I believe. And Sirius, he looks a lot like that guy from Dorian Gray. I think his name is Ben Barnes."

Greg stops for a minute looking at the cheerful woman in front of him. His smile widens seeing the happiness spread widely across her face. His heart flutters at the sight. He questions inwardly if it was him who did that or the memories. Unbeknownst to him, he is the reason.

"Everybody has their celebrity look alike."

"You're not wrong, I've been told many times I look like that Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead or most commonly known on the earlier seasons of Supernatural."

"Now that I'm up close I can definitely see it."

"Really?" She quirks a brow.

He nods his head avoiding eye contact. "Y-yeah. I mean, Lauren Cohan is a beautiful woman but to me, you're more beautiful."

Her cheeks redden at the sudden compliment. "I appreciate that, thank you. You know, you're not too bad yourself." She teases.

He shoves her shoulder playfully. "Okay, okay, whatever," he says with a light laugh.

The two grab their kits once they're finished. They head back to the car and head off back to the lab.

Greg nervously asks as he drives, "is it wrong of me to ask about your relationships in high school?"

"No... I only had one."

"Oh, who was the lucky fellow?"

She inhaled heavily looking out the passenger window for a second. She looks back to Greg smiling sadly. "Fred."