Dazed | Spencer Reid FanFiction

Chapter 11: Charades*

         Spencer gulps and asks harshly "what do you want, Lila?" She shrugs and says "just wanted to catch up, honeybun. Is now not a good time?" Hotch harshly says "no, we have an emergency on our hands and you need to leave." Lila cuts her eyes at Hotch, I'm surprised she didn't instantly burst into flames at that action. She says "I'll leave my number at the front desk and you call me when you get a second so we can catch up." Hotch ushers her out the door and shuts it behind her before Spencer can answer. Spencer leaves the room hastily out a different door and I look to Hotch who nods with a bit of a warning in his stare.
I nonchalantly follow Spencer to an empty office. I shut and lock the door behind me and walk over to him wordlessly. I pull him into my arms and play with his hair gently. After a few minutes in a comfortable silence, Spencer says "I'm so happy you're here." My heart warms and breaks at the same time at his statement. I tell him "even if I didn't come on this trip you still would've had the team." Spencer nods "yeah, but they would make me feel worse when it comes to this stuff. You're the only person who doesn't make me feel like a baby for what happened with Lila." I shake my head and tell him "she abused you and that's not anything for you to be ashamed of right now. You got out of that situation and made the most of it." He nods and sniffs, rubbing his eyes harshly at the same time.
I gently pull his hands from his eyes and tell him "don't hurt yourself, Spence." He nods and I tell him "look I know this is going to be hard. I'm here for you. What we need to do is solve this case and engage in the charade that Hotch wants us to play." Spencer nods "I understand why he's being overly cautious with it, but I still hate it. I was excited to spend the time with you while I work and let you see me in action." I smile "I've done that plenty, bubs. Let's get to work and pretend we aren't madly in love." He chuckles and says "one kiss for the road? Now that I know it'll be the last one for a while?" I smile like an idiot and nod, closing the distance between us. He presses his lips to mine and we engage in a passionate kiss for about 30 seconds when I have to stop it before we get too heated.
Spencer and I leave the office and act as professional as possible, walking back into the conference room. Hotch looks at me and I nod. He nods back and says "okay, you all know your assignments. Get to work and meet back here when you're done so we can discuss our findings. Be safe." Everybody leaves and I exchange smiles with everybody leaving before smiling at Spencer as he leaves. It would be weird if I ignored his entire presence, that would give us away too.
After Spencer is gone, Hotch asks "do you know why Lila was here?" I shake my head "Spencer says they haven't spoken in years. She hurt him badly and he doesn't want to talk to her." Hotch nods "I know all about how she treated him. We will keep her away from him." I nod, feeling relieved. I tell him "he is very insecure about what you guys think about his relationship with Lila. He feels ashamed of it."
Hotch nods and says "we know and he shouldn't feel that way. We are protective of him because we care about him, not because we think he can't handle himself." I nod in agreement "I understand, he just responds better to me when talking about this specific topic." Hotch nods "that's the only exception I'll have until we catch this unsub." I nod, moving to get to work. Hotch and Emily get to work on the geographic profile while I look at all the evidence from the detectives and crime scenes and try to look for anything that stands out that I can help with. There isn't really any new information.
Spencer and Rossi come back from the medical examiner and I can tell by Spencer's expression that he has new information. He walks in and tells us "there was food in the stomach and lungs of the most recent victim." Hotch looks at the files and looks up as he asks "the asphyxiation victim?" Spencer nods and says "I think she was force fed to the point where she choked to death." Emily shakes her head "why go to all that trouble just to cut the tongue out post mortem?" I carefully look at the pictures and ask Spencer "do you know what kind of food it is?" He nods and says "it looks to be a combination of corn, chicken, fruit cocktail, and jello."
I look at Spencer as it dawns on me "she was the feeding coordinator wasn't she?" Hotch looks at me and says "yes, that's right." I look back at the files and find the information on the drowning victim. They were drowned in a tub in ice water. I look at the file and say "this person was an applied behavioral analysis therapist. Right now they are controversial to the autism community." Emily looks at their file and says "it looks like she worked on a lot of different things like sitting still for a group activity, social skills, play skills, and she specialized in helping with potty training. She especially worked with children with autism." I look at Spencer and Hotch as it dawns on me "the unsub is targeting people that either traumatized them or traumatized a loved one. I think the unsub is a parent of a child with autism targeting people they believe traumatized their child."
Hotch asks me "why can't it be the child with autism as an adult?" I respond "because I find it highly unlikely an adult with autism would use a variety of food consistencies in the murder of a person. This is very off from a routine and chaotic and disorganized. I would say this is more the behavior of an angry parent or a grieving parent than a person with autism. This is about the perception from a parent's standpoint." Hotch nods and says "I agree. When JJ and Morgan get back let's present the profile to the rest of the precinct."