Sixteen: Jealousy
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"His clothing matches a missing persons report. His name is Tyler Stolts and he was abducted 23 months ago." Morgan explained what the medical examiner had told the pair as they walked back into the station, through the door frame of their separate room to work.
"He went missing in October of 2008." Liv added. The majority of the team present was seated around a table, littered with papers and case files, except for Reid, who watched the white board intently until their entrance.
Liv found a seat next to Prentiss, her eyes flickering to the seat across the table, occupied by a focused Hotch. His eyes kept on a report in front of him from the police station as she lowered into her chair, minding no interest to Liv's hands as they shuffled for a certain file on the table.
Liv felt the presence of Morgan next to her, leaning over her shoulder to place down her cup of coffee, just like they always seemed to do for each other. He gave her a comforting look, probably paying too much attention to any glancing between her and the man across the table. Yet it wasn't until then, after Morgan retreated to where Reid stood, that when Liv looked at Hotch, his eyes were no longer on his paper. Instead, they were following Morgan as he traveled across the room with a look of intention, only to snap back to gaze at Liv with a look of displeasure. When he saw that she was already looking, his gaze didn't break. Instead he continued to watch her with a look that if she didn't know better, she would think meant he had something to say to her.
Something about Hotch's trailing glare on Morgan made Liv shift in her seat uncomfortably, staring at him across the table with a look of boredom. She didn't speak either, only wrapped her hand around the disposable cup of coffee that had been given to her, swiftly lifting it to take a sip all while she watched. He didn't like that very much.
They settled into quiet chatter, throwing out possibilities and forgotten facts of the case, trying to connect the newest body found to what they already had. The only issue was, they had only stumbled on the second grave by accident. There was no way to know how many victims he had claimed, not until Reid stood up suddenly, catching everyone's attention. "I went back ten years matching reports of missing children with Daniel and Tyler's victimology, and this unsub may have taken twelve victims." He announced to the room.
"How do you know it's the same guy?" Morgan questioned with suspicion.
"The dates an locations of the abductions create an unmistakable pattern." Reid said simply, and they all knew better than to challenge him.
"If he's been abducting children for 10 years, why weren't we called in before now?" Prentiss asked, still sitting beside Liv.
Reid nodded quickly, anticipating that the question would eventually come. "The thing is, he walks the entire trail end to end, and each way takes approximately six months."
"So the crimes are years apart and across state lines." Liv breathed out. It was a scary thought, the idea that this unsub had been claiming victims, little boys, for years. And know one even knew to look for him. "No one even knew he existed."
"Exactly." Reid agreed. He placed the map he had been studying down in the middle of the table, allowing everyone to lean over it as he explained more of his theory. "But in the last two years, he's stopped traveling so far. I think something's affected his mobility. For the past two winters, he's returned to this 30 mile radius."
Thirty miles was plenty of ground to cover, but it was better than the entirety of all 2,200 miles of the Appalachian. There wasn't much they could do at the moment considering the setting sun, but luckily for them, there was no one they were on a clock to find. However, they all knew it was just a matter of time before another child disappeared.
Some of the team dispersed to tell the local authorities the same thing Reid had explained to the team, starting the organizing of a search tomorrow morning. If they were lucky, they could find where this guy hid out before another child had to be taken. But considering how long he had been taking children off anyone's radar, it wasn't super likely.
Liv sipped her coffee, pressing her back into the cushions of the padded seat she sat in. They just had to get through the night, and then they could finally start making real progress.
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Hotch paused in the doorway as he turned to walk back into their separate room to work on the case. He was expecting to see a few others scattered about the place, but when got inside, he saw only Liv to be present, head down on her arm against the table with hushed eyelids.
He clung to the door frame as her chest rose and fell, watching a peaceful look washed across her face that he hadn't been seeing recently. He ignored the pang in his chest at the idea that he had contributed to that at all.
Liv was in a daze when his strong hand shook her shoulder, her cheek pressed against her arm that was sprawled across the table. Beneath her were open files and crime scene photographs, all things she had been reviewing before she dosed off. Blinking away her blurry vision, she looked behind her to see Hotch's figure towering over her.
"I see that coffee didn't work for you." he said quickly, continuing before she got the chance to wake up anymore or retort. "We heard news of two more missing kids."
"Two?" She asked, rubbing her eyes at the same time. She felt slightly blushed at the embarrassment that she had fallen asleep, let alone that he had found her that way.
"A boy and a girl." He stated, still towering. She felt uncomfortably small under his height, and his strong gaze.
She straightened her back in attempt to feel bigger, it making little the difference. "Girls aren't his preference." She stated in confusion.
"No, they're not." With that, he started to move towards the door. "Lets go, the rest of the team will meet us at the scene and we can start to organize a search."
She quickly stood, scrambling to tuck things back into their place before just abandoning them all together. Liv grabbed her things and hurried after his retreating figure, noticing too late that everyone else was gone, and she was left to ride to the abduction site with Hotch alone.
Liv sat in the passenger seat of the SUV, awkwardly twiddling her thumbs as Hotch was beside her at the wheel. She tried not to contemplate the silence, overthinking whether it was peaceful or uncomfortable. Hotch pulled out from the station, turning on the the road as she listened to the growling engine, the car growing to feel increasingly smaller with every minute. In a hopeful attempt to offer something besides awkwardness to the drive, she turned the radio up slightly and pretended to be busy listening to the popish tune that it played.
Hotch's hand reached out and clicked against the dashboard, changing the music.
"Why'd you change the song?"
"I don't like that kind of music."
Liv swallowed a sigh and turned to look back out the window, busying herself with the blur of trees instead of the music that Hotch apparently couldn't tolerate. She had no idea why acting professional was so hard for her, or why everything he did was slowly starting to drive her crazy. Maybe it was because with every move he made, he did so still willingly rejecting her. The car came to a stop at a red light, jolting at the pressure on the brake. The second it turned green, it jolted again, quick to move forward.
"Do you always drive like this?" Liv snapped in annoyance. Really, she didn't care that he had changed the music, or that he was hard on the pedals. Not in the grand scheme of things, really. But she was mad at him, and therefore, she was annoyed by everything he did.
"Like what?" He questioned in response, eyes glued to the road.
"Like your life depends on it."
He pressed the gas harder. "Someone's does."'
She suppressed the urge to say anything else, pressing her back into the cold leather of the seat and looking only at the passing trees. Once they got there, she jumped out of the car without another word and started towards the buzz of officers. Among reaching those that were already there, worse case scenario the missing kids had been gone for 12 hours by now, which was less daunting when taking into consideration the probability that the unsub was travelling with some sort of health issue. Still they were quick to organize a search and scrounge up more than enough volunteers, preparing to set off into the woods.
Liv stood next to Prentiss and Morgan, zipping up her jacket in attempt to keep out the cold chill. They were beginning to separate people into groups to search different parts of the surrounding land, the three of them waiting to see where they were needed. Prentiss joined a group made up of the sheriff and a number of volunteers, Liv and Morgan taking a more lacking group to strengthen their numbers. They discussed the lay out of the land, ignoring the sound of barking dogs and police radios, trying to establish a specific strategy.
"Tate." Hotch's voice interrupted the two agents, sneaking up on them in surprise. "Take the sheriff's group."
"Prentiss is already over there." She responded, nodding in her direction. Hotch stood there, brow furrowed, in his brown zip up jacket, undoubtedly having many more useful places he could be inserting himself.
"Then switch." He said sternly, not bothering to hide the way his eyes scanned both the agents before turning and heading back towards the search's organizer.
Liv went to speak on it to Morgan, but could tell by the way he easily shook it off that he was not fully aware of Hotch's sour attitude. Instead, she let out a sigh and stalked over to another search group, sending Prentiss on her way and familiarizing herself with a different plan. She tried to expel him from her mind altogether once they took off, only focusing on the crunching of leaves beneath her boots and the hope for a response to their desperate calls for the missing kids.
A search dog sniffed along the foliage in front of her, having picked up a scent off of one of the children's clothes. The children's names were called out, followed by silence, time and time again as they sifted through wilderness, walking deeper into thick trees and vines. They did so for what felt like forever, obviously trying hard to persist for the sake of hope.
Liv ducked under a low hanging branch, stopping once she noticed her shoe had come untied. By the time she had tied it, she saw the others a good couple of yards in front of her. She moved to try to catch up, only to stop at the sound of a twig snapping from behind her. She snapped her head around at the sound, trying to find where it was from, only to be met by the still woods.
"Robert?" Liv called out one of the kids names. "Ana?"
She heard nothing but now distant barking and fading voices, feet still glued in their spot out of suspicion. The crunch of leaves echoed.
Liv crept along, unable to help the chill that set through her at her sudden lack of company, hand tracing the gun on her hip in case she had stumbled upon something she was not supposed to. She brushed away leaves and foliage as they hung in her eyes, carefully tracing back her steps where the sound had come from. For all she knew, it could just be a squirrel.
She ducked around a tree trunk, hand immediately dropping from her side once she saw the shoe of a child sticking from a nearby bush. "Ana?"
She brushed back the greenery around it to expose the terrified looking little girl, wild blonde hair riddled with sticks and dirt. Liv immediately softened her expression. "It's okay sweetheart, I'm here to find you."
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Liv rubbed her temples as she sat in a chair in the station, the little girl and her parents in a room that was not far from her. Hotch was inside at the moment, trying to get any useful information out of the child in hopes that they could use it to find her brother. In the passing time, Liv inspected her boots, caked with dirt and mud, until she heard the door click shut.
"Ana says the unsub had a limp." Hotch shared as he walked towards her.
"That's good, that lines up." Liv nodded her head along, trying to ignore the exhaustion that was pulling at her eyelids.
Hotch stood, not saying anything, but just watching for a moment, as if he was contemplating his words. Liv would've thought more about what was happening in his mind if she weren't so tired from the day, and from trying to read him constantly. In the moment, she conceded that she would just never know, and thought only of the next time she could get a nap.
"You did good work today." He said softly, letting his eyes trail her tired features. There was nothing he felt like he could do with the overwhelming feeling of wanting to protect her, so he settled on, "You should get some rest."
Liv stood in response, looking far too unaffected by his words for his liking. "I would, Agent Hotchner, but we still have another kid to find."
Her shoulder just barely brushed past his as she walked away, heading instead to join the rest of the team in their case room.
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A/N
Don't fret my dear readers, we're about to get our spice back.