✓ | sick of losing soulmates [SPENCER REID]

12.2

"Who?" Iris demands, grabbing Garcia's shoulders

"Doyle!" she cries urgently.

Iris glances, wide-eyed, at Derek, and then quickly turns back to Garcia. "Show us, Garcia," she orders, already placing her hands on the woman's arms, bustling her back in the direction she came, "quickly."

"I'll call Hotch," Morgan says, already pulling his phone out.

Iris almost tells him that they could just go see him now, but then she remembers: Hotch is on temporary leave on some secretive mission in the desert. She's not quite sure what it is, but he's been away for awhile — and it's definitely been a lot to get used to. She's not used to working without Hotch around (and even though she complained about his militaristic attitudes while she worked with him, she kind of misses him).

"Good luck," Iris says grimly, pulling a face over her shoulder as she leads Garcia in the direction of the bullpen. "Try to break the news gently."

She knows he's gonna be more than a little pissed when he finds out about their secretive work.

☆ ★ ☆

"And that's when Agent Morgan made the order to move in on Doyle?" Chairman Cramer asks,

"It was a group decision, sir," Iris clarifies. "And it was the right thing to do. We had approval from Hotch — sorry, our Unit Chief, Aaron Hotchner." Nicknames aren't meant for places like this, as she's been forgetting.

"However, you, Agent Remington, aren't supposed to be moving in on anyone," he says, briefly glancing down at what is, undoubtedly, the contract Iris sighed when she first lost her leg but decided to keep working for the BAU.

Exasperated, and knowing she's going to be in trouble for this, she says, "Yes, that is true, but this case was an exception — "

"No case is an exception," Cramer says sharply, jabbing his finger at her.

Iris leans forward. "Of course it was," she hisses. "Not only had one of my fellow agents had been targeted and killed by this man, but he was an international criminal. I am perfectly capable of running and fighting on my leg, despite that contract you're looking at, and my superior officers needed as many people working on moving in on Doyle as possible. I was there, so I went."

Cramer lifts a hand in a conciliatory gesture, briefly closing his eyes as he orders, a little exasperated, "Calm down, Miss Remington."

"This is calm, and you can call me agent," she says. "And if you seriously believe one contract I signed years ago is more important than arresting an international criminal, then not only do you and I seriously differ morally, but maybe you shouldn't be in the position you are, considering you're supposed to be serving your country, and all."

☆ ★ ☆

"You got any movement?" Iris speaks into mic connected to her earpiece, running along her jaw (she feels like a real badass with that thing).

"Negative," says the sniper positioned above their van, on the roof opposite Doyle's apartment block. "No movement."

Iris glances down to the laptop screens positioned opposite the bench on which she, Morgan and JJ sit, which confirms just that. The footage of his windows, his balcony, and doorway, all show no signs of anyone being in the building.