When The World Ends

Chapter 8: Dominant Female (Smut)

David tentatively put his hand up. "A partner?"

"Exactly!" I nodded at him. "A partner. Now, with that in mind, what changes?" I looked around, tapping my foot. "Come on, I know you all have voices."

A student who tried to hide in the middle of the class raised their hand. "You have to consider the dynamic between the partners."

"Yes! Now, what's the most common dynamic?"

Several hands went up. I pointed at one on random.

"One partner is dominant and the other is submissive." They said. "This may be two men or one man and one woman, but partnerships are generally less common with women."

"Correct." At least they listen, even if they don't talk. "Now, consider all the facts of the case again. The past of the unsub and the victim's partner, the dynamics already at play here. What are we looking for in the partner?"

A few shy hands. Again, I chose one at random, just happy the class was engaged.

"Probably a female partner, unless the unsub is bisexual or otherwise sexually divergent." They continued when I nodded. "This is not a new relationship; there's mutual trust. But the partner diverged."

"No, she didn't." David suddenly.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Sorry for interrupting, it's just," he stumbled a bit, looking at his classmate he'd cut off. "This was all assuming the male partner is the dominant. If we instead assume the other, likely female partner as the dominant, then her actions make more sense."

"Go on." I smiled a little.

"She didn't tell him about the entire plan, she just told him what he wanted to know. It's like what you do with code breakers; no one ever has the entire key. Information on a need-to-know basis." He was looking at me as if for confirmation, but I just let him continue. "Let him think he's off the leash, while she's playing towards her endgame on the side."

We're mixing metaphors now, but okay.

"This leaves us with two likely possibilities for her motive. Either she has something against the victim and/or the victim's partner, or she's just a plain sadist. The latter is less likely considering the targeted nature of this, though possible if that's what was necessary to get the male partner to agree."

"Very good, David." I faced the entire class again. "Now that David's monologued for a while, I'm going to add some extra information. Male unsub is in one state, female unsub is in another; neither are near the victim. Assuming the female unsub has not yet reached her endgame, what's her next move?"

No hands went up.

"If you're going to be a profiler, if you're going to make it at all in the FBI, you need to think like a criminal. Go on, put yourself in her shoes. What do you do?" I waited, but no one spoke up. "Okay, let's backpedal. Who is the female unsub's target?"

"The victim, possibly the victim's partner as well." Abby said.

"Good. Now, you're the female unsub. Your partner has been arrested, so you must assume he's told them everything. Any plans you shared with him are now jeopardized. But you're not done, you're a sadist, you want to watch them suffer. What do you go after?"

"Expand the circle." Someone said. "Protection is focused on victim's immediate family. Go outside of that, someone who's not protected by proxy. Someone who's more vulnerable."

Not what I was thinking. Shit.

"Now think about the unsub's actions in the past; not killing, drugging, psychosexual attacks. Who makes the most sense?" Please, help me here.