Workaholic { A Criminal Minds Story }

chapter three

Gabrielle was making her way out of the facility, when she saw Hotchner walk by, visibly doubtful.
“New case?” she asked him, going over, frowning as he shook his head no.
“Reid has his firearm qualification exam tomorrow.” he explained. “But he still misses the target a lot.” he sighed, shaking his head. “It’s best to let him focus for tonight. Good evening.”
She gently waved, but headed toward the training room nonetheless.
 
The slender man was standing in front of a box, aiming at the target – but as she had been told by Hotch, he was missing a lot. She quietly went over, her Beretta 92FS Inox with wooden grips in hands. Pretending not to mind him at first, she aimed and shot the target, straight into the head, then heart, not missing. She then felt eyes gazing at her.
“You’re standing the right way, you just have to remain that way until the bullet reaches the target.” She told him softly, eyes remaining onto the target, not to stress him out by looking at him.
Hearing the gunshot, and then the bullet lodging itself near the head of the mannequin, she gathered he had applied her advice.
“Try to relax your shoulders more – if you’re too tensed, you won’t be able to really guide the bullet.” she added, before shooting twice, as if to show him.
Following her advise, Reid aimed, and this time, he reached the head.
Gabrielle smiled faintly, glancing over this time. “Well done.” she congratulated him gently, earning a soft, awkward smile back.
“Thank you Aspen.” he told her, before looking down at the gun.
“Trust yourself, and do what you just did tomorrow. You’ll do just fine Reid.” she promised him, reaching out, patting his shoulder faintly before retracting her hand upon remembering he was not a fan of closeness with people.
He seemed slightly embarrassed, blushing faintly and smiling. “I hope so.” He stated. “I think I have 50% of chances to pass it.” he added.
“That’s half of it – think about the fact you got chances to pass, don’t acknowledge the other side.” She advised him again, before hearing her phone buzz. “Sorry –” she apologized, before waving gently and walking off.
 

The next day, on her way there, she stopped by the local bakery, ordering two coffee, one for herself as usual, as well as one for Reid- hopefully to celebrate his success… Yet sadly, it was no success.
“Reid failed his exam, so let’s not mention it around him.” Gideon told them all, causing Gabrielle to frown softly – poor him, he deserved to pass it.
Reid eventually came in, quiet and emotionless – but it was clear he was upset, with himself. He was not used to failing at all, and knowing that he would not be allowed to carry a gun anymore must be tough. She saw Morgan go over, probably in an attempt to cheer him up, as he offered him a whistle – weirdly enough. As he left him alone, she quietly approached him.
“Reid?” she called out gently, offering a soft smile as she met his hazel orbs, that were filled with shame and slight disappointment. “There you go.” she placed the coffee down onto his desk.
“I didn’t follow the bullet, and I was too tensed.” he muttered at her, his hands annoyingly fidgeting with the pen onto the desk, before dropping it and moving to the whistle, eyes fixed onto the coffee she had brought him.
“It’s alright, next time we can train a little more together if you’d like.” she offered, trying to meet his eyes to reassure him – but he would not glance up, too frustrated.
“I look like a teacher’s assistant without a gun…” he muttered, but gave a soft nod, before opening his mouth to say something. But once again, they got interrupted, by a new case, including a LDSK, Long Distant Serial Killer, who had already made a few victims. The whole way there, Gabrielle focused onto her notes as usual. The unsub was always aiming for the stomach, which meant he was not intending to kill them, and if he was, it meant he did not want to be fully responsible. What bugged her was the fact that no one had seen anything – each time, the shooting took place into a crowded area, in a park, or at the restaurant. Firstly, they worked along the police station, but upon information being given to the media, they stopped. Because of it, one of the agent (who happened to be their main suspect) got killed.
The very next suspect they had turned out being a surgeon – but something was not working there… Reading her notes, Gabrielle shook her head softly as she looked over at Morgan since he was the one next to her.
“The surgeon does not fit the description – if this is a hero-homocide case, why would he injure three people, knowing that he can only operate on one at a time ? And he has recognition as a surgeon…”
“Perhaps he wants more – he is just as arrogant, and wants to be superior… Though I gotta admit I share your feeling.” He muttered and looked into the room as Gideon was interrogating the man. As he got out, his order flew right away. “Hotch, Reid, Aspen you got to the other unit and look for our guy there.” he told them.
           
While Hotch interrogated the nurse at the secretary, Gabrielle looked at the people around. It was already so crowded – it made no sense for a member of the unit to endanger people for recognition once they were saved.
“Phillip Dowd.” He suddenly said. “Reid go tell Gideon that this is our guy.” he ordered and looked around.
Seeing him start to sprint, Gabrielle grabbed his wrist. “Slow down – he may be around.” she murmured, green orbs looking to his hazel ones, as he pulled his wrist away softly, but nodded, walking slower.
She turned around to check Dowd’s file, just as she heard a gasp and the next thing she knew, Reid had a gun onto the back of his head. They quietly made eyecontact, her own gun raised and aimed at the man holding him hostage.
“Drop the gun or he dies.” He warned.
Slowly, reluctantly, both Hotch and Gabrielle let go of their guns, sending them over to the man. As their hands were handcuffed, the man ordered Reid to hand over his weapon, only making him feel worse, since the unsub openly mocked him for not having one. She tried to make eye contact to reassure him but failed, and was forced to sit by him.
A few minutes went by, and Gabrielle knew the three of them were trying to set up a strategy to avoid any casualties among the civilians.
It was Hotch who spoke the first – and what he said surprised her.
“You know why boy genius got his gun taken away?” He asked bluntly, causing Reid to look up with the saddest puppy eyes Gabrielle had ever seen.
“Why?” The unsub muttered, barely sparing them a glance. But Hotch knew that he was curious, and he managed to arouse his curiosity with this simple question.
“Because he failed his exam, and every year I have to listen to him whine about qualifying, twice a year, and he fails again.”
Despite knowing that Hotch most likely had a plan, his cold tone and blunt way of speaking was visibly hurting Reid, who bowed his head down in shame. But work went before compassion, and Gabrielle remained quiet.
“You think your life is tough? People are destroying my life.” The unsub snapped, visibly angered.
“Then put them in front of the barricade, that way when they blast in both our problems will be solved.” Hotch offered a smirk. And thanks to that simple sentence, Gabi gathered he was placing them out of gunshot – but why? He had no gun, had he ?
“You are one sick dude.” He chuckled, before starting to place people at each entrance of the room, as a barricade.
“How do you think I found you.” Hotch replied, making rapid eye contact with Reid.
Few more minutes went by, as the unsub was pacing nervously around, and Hotch was trying to think about how to act. He eventually spoke again.
“Can I ask you a favor?”
“You can ask.”
“Considering my chances of getting out of here alive are pretty slim.”
“So?”
“I wanna kick the snot out of this kid. He’s made my life miserable for three long years.”
Surprise was visible onto both Reid and Gabrielle’s faces. “Knock yourself out.” The unsub laughed, as Hotch got up and started kicking him straight into the stomach, causing him to whine in pain, curling up in pain.
“Hotch!” Gabrielle exclaimed, barely moving as she knew it was all part of a plan – just moving enough to make the unsub believe more into this – which only caused her to earn a kick with the cross of the gun into her temple.
“How smart are you now smart guy? It’s front sight, trigger press, follow through! It’s not that hard, a dalmatian could do it.” Hotch shouted, ending each sentence with a kick. And that’s how she understood – Hotch must had a gun hidden into his shoes, and by kicking Reid, the latter could reach for it. As Hotch parted away, leaving Reid visibly whimpering, Gabi quickly kicked the unsub to drag his attention, distracting him just enough for Reid to fire, headshotting the unsub.

Two hours later, they all were into the airplane, heading home. Reid seemed bothered, probably by the fact he had just shot someone, yet since Gideon went over and spoke with him, Gabrielle stayed out of it, resting.

Right as they arrived, a new case was presented to them. Two families had been found dead within the last two weeks. Thankfully, this case was a success as they arrested the unsub and saved another family. Yet not all cases went as smoothly… Elle happened to be caught into a hostage train – and the only thing that Gabrielle got out of this, was that she was starting to care a little too much (according to herself) about one of her coworker, who caused her heart to miss more than a few beats as he went into the train and ended up being a hostage himself. But she blocked any more feelings before they could show. She had to focus onto her job, and not onto something as useless as catching feelings.

___

Words : 1756