𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍𝐀𝐆𝐄 𝐃𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐁𝐀𝐆 ǃ ➫ 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙧 𝙧𝙚𝙞𝙙

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝟷 - 𝚏𝚛𝚊𝚖𝚎𝚍

he sat down. "does this look familiar to you?" hotch put a plastic bag on the table. in it was a knife stained with a dark red substance, which leah instantly recognized to be blood. she cringed. "i do. it's a knife from my kitchen."

"so you understand why you're here then, correct?"

hotch's stern expression scared her. "hotch," she paused, her expression displaying her vulnerability, "you know i didn't do this, right?"

he looked at her and sighed. "look, i know you were with jack this morning and i know you left around 1pm to go to your job. shayne was killed sometime this afternoon. his body was found in an alleyway almost directly in between your home and the strand, making things not look very good for you right now."

leah's face dropped in sadness, shaking her head. how could he think she could kill him?

"leah, i don't think you did this. i know you, and this feels like a framing. i'm just telling you what i know." hotch stood up and took a key out of his pocket, unlocking the handcuffs connecting her to the table. "and no matter what anyone else here thinks, i know you're not a danger to yourself or others when you're in this room. i know you're smarter than that. now, i'm gonna go figure out what the next steps are. i'll be back."

he started to walk out of the room before turning around once more and saying "i believe you."

leah didn't say a word as he left the room. her brain racked with anything, everything. if someone was framing her, who could it be?

and then she thought more.

the first time she met daniel porter. she was in her junior year of high school. shayne liked him a lot. he talked for ages about how cute he was, and about how excited he was when daniel asked him out a few weeks later and all they did was make out in shayne's bedroom for hours. she remembered how hurt shayne was the next day, when daniel ignored his "hello" as they passed by each other in the hallway. she also remembers how days later, daniel asked her out. and of course, this caught her by surprise. he has not even a week ago been interested in her best friend and now, after ignoring him, had the audacity to go for her?

it was one of the only examples of male attention that leah got in high school. but nonetheless, she declined his offer to go out with him. this sent him into a fit of rage. it wasn't abnormal. she remembers a countless number of times where he would have aggressive outbursts in class. she remembers overhearing from the school nurse one day after one of these examples how she thinks he had borderline personality disorder, but public school being the way they were at the time, nothing was ever done. no parent was ever contacted, at least not to her knowledge.

and then it finally hit her. shayne, not even a week ago was talking about how he reunited with an "old friend." he didn't give much away, which wasn't normal since shayne usually told her everything. the secrecy could mean...

she believed in the possibility that the friend he spoke of was daniel porter. maybe, just maybe, it was him who killed shayne. i mean, it would make sense. the outbursts of rage that slowly escalated over the few years of high school she had with him, by the age they are now without medication or therapy of some kind, his bpd would have spiraled. it all was connecting. the outbursts, the disorder, shayne's abnormal secrecy-

"what are you thinking?"

leah snapped out of the trance her thoughts had put her in. she jumped, turning towards the door to see aaron one more, this time accompanied by a skinny man who she didn't recognize. she made eye contact with the stranger, studying his face before looking to aaron and responding to his question.

"you trust me, right?" she asked. "obviously you do, you wouldn't let me take care of jack if you didn't. you know about my...background and about how i overanalyze and have a very good recall with certain memories?" hotch nodded.

"i think i know who did this."

and so she explained everything. it took a while, but by the time she finished it, hotch was convinced. and whether she was wrong or not, he would've left to visit daniel porter's place nonetheless. he would do anything and interview even the innocents to prove leah didn't do what she was accused of.

"reid," hotch stated, looking towards the stranger. "i'll take morgan and rossi over to porter's house and ask him some questions. you stay here with leah."

he turned back to leah before leaving. "are you okay? i know there's no way you did this, and if there were then i'm one hell of an fbi agent for letting you take care of my son. i'm going to try to get you out of this. your description of porter sounds very similar to our original profile before we found your prints on the knife, so i believe you. can you just stay here until i get things sorted out?"

"yeah, whatever," leah responded. "only if you raise the price next time i babysit." aaron smiled and laughed a bit. "yeah, yeah. just be nice to reid, okay?" leah waved him off as he left the room.

she sat down in the chair and sighed before looking up at the skinny man who was still in the room.

"reid, was it?" the man looked up a bit, locking eyes with her. "oh, uh, yeah," he replied awkwardly, taking a seat across from her.

leah stuck her fist out towards him, and he looked at it questioningly. "you're supposed to bump it," she teased. "you don't look like the type to like the generic handshake, so i thought this would suffice."

surprised by her comment, spencer finally raised his fist, bumping his to hers slowly, smiling a bit. how did she know-

"how old are you?" she spoke with curiosity. "you look too young to be an fbi agent." "i'm 27, actually." leah's interest peaked much more. she was almost his age and he had already been an fbi agent for a while. she hope that one day she'd be standing in his place.

she read his laminated card the was clipped to his bag. "doctor spencer reid. nice name. it's nice to meet you, and although i wish i could be introducing myself under different circumstances, my name is leah gray."