sᴇᴛ ɪɴ sᴇᴀsᴏɴ ᴏɴᴇ
╰┈➤ [ ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 2,466
『 Angel POV 』
The 'before job' jitters had hit me while Hotch was going over things with his team. Derek's coat around my shoulders started warming up but the air conditioner right above my head wasn't helping. It blew cold hair directly onto my head and after a couple of minutes it started to ache from the cold.
The jitters weren't due to nervousness, I wasn't nervous about what I needed to do. Hotch had given me specific instructions, not much room to improvise which was probably for the better. The only worry I had was disappointing the team, failing at the job I was given.
As much improvising sounds fun, there's a killer that they need to catch. Everytime I go on one of these cases, where I possibly will have to kill the unsub, I look forward to it in a way. I look forward to killing the unsub, putting down someone who has done terrible things.
That's something I haven't even told my legally assigned therapist, as I am supposed to tell her "every intrusive or bad thought" that I have. If I did I would be out of a job and in a mental hospital, stuck, for life. I still don't know how they let me into the field, especially after the results of my mental evaluation.
From what Gideon had presented about me, they most likely believe that I'm something I'm not. An expert in my field and a person with good morals. That was the biggest reason I wouldn't join a team, no matter how much I liked the people. There was always a reliability on other people, and people relying on you.
I hadn't completely been honest about not being on a team, I had been on a team. I was in a group of four unbelievably smart and intellectual women in the undercover task force. It had been a couple years since the team had broken up. It wasn't just due to budgeting like they had said it was, it was definitely due to the last case that we had gone on before we shut down.
I zone out of my thoughts after I get a tap on shoulder, the material of Derek's jacket sent noises to my ear and I immediately turned around. It was Derek himself, holding a couple of microphone packs along with many small wires.
"Ready to mic you?" he asked, shaking the wires around a little to get my attention, "You alright darling?" he asked after not receiving an answer from me, the word darling rolling off his tongue so naturally.
"I'm good," I half-lied, I wasn't good but I wasn't bad, "Just mentally preparing...you can mic," I brushed his jacket off of my shoulders and it fell onto the chair, "Go for it." I nodded once he hesitated to touch my arm.
"So," he started to clip the wires onto to overall I was wearing, "Mentally preparing, huh?" the sound of the clip piercing through the jean material made an uncomfortable noise, making both of squirm, "Sorry." he quickly mumbled.
"You're good," I laughed as I pressed down on my ears a little, trying to drown out the noise that just sparked, "Yeah, mentally preparing..." I thought for a second, watching him finish up, "I don't really know what that means." I laughed.
"I know what you mean," he pushed his back against his chair, admiring his wiring job, "Our jobs are far from easy... especially yours," I nodded along, "It's always difficult to tell if things could go wrong...that makes a lot of people panic," he finally made eye contact with me, "Always worrying about family and all that."
"Well," I cleared my throat, "I don't uh exactly have a family," I poorly explained, "So that's never been a worry for me, personally," I shurgged, "I've already lost everyone around me..." I zoned out to the corner of the room as memories started to hit.
I've suppressed trauma, pushed it down, making sure it never escapes into my life but recently it's been harder. It's been harder to ignore it, to push it down. I've been fighting a current, a current that keeps pushing but then pulls back. I have had it in control for years now, but it has progressively made me more miserable.
"You have people," Derek said, making me look back at him, "Even if you don't know it," he tilted his head, "From what I could tell Gideon would be very happy if something happened with you," he shrugged, "I don't know you, and profiling you is extremely difficult," we both laughed, "But I can tell you know what you're doing..."
"Yeah," I shrugged back at him, "I should probably go," I started getting up from my chair after clipping Spence's ankle holster under my pant legs, "I'll see you after?" I asked Derek, he had been assigned to stay in the office with Elle as direct communication.
"Yeah," Derek nodded, "You will..." he paused to look at me even though my focus had shifted once again, this time out the door and into the hallway where Spence was standing, fidgeting with his hands, "You'll be okay." Derek placed his hand into my upper arm, sending shivers up my shoulder from the unexpected touch.
"I know," I broke my focus from Spencer, "This isn't my first rodeo." I laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood as best as possible as I stood up, his hand immediately flying off my shoulder.
『 Main POV 』
After Angel's "good lucks" with Derek in the big glass room she grabbed his jacket, which he had offered her and went out the door which has been propped open by one of the chairs. She started walking into the main office space and then started to walk slightly more left towards Spencer.
"Oh," he gasped once she came up to him, he hadn't noticed her until she was inches away, "Hey," he cleared his throat, closing the files in hand, "Everything okay? Did Morgan mic you?" he looked down at her, looking for any kind of wires.
"Yeah, he did," Angel nodded, "And he did a great job," she added once not noticing any wires as well, "So...are we ready to go?" she asked him after an uncomfortable pause, "I hear your my ride." she smirked.
"We-well Hotch is," he stammered through, avoiding eye contact with her as best as he could, "But yes, I'm in the car...as well," he finally caught her eyes, "He's uh," he cleared his throat, "He's waiting outside."
"Alright then," Angel snickered at his stammering and nervousness, "Shall we?" she asked, stretching an arm out pointing to the front door, receiving a quick nod from Spencer as he gathered his stuff.
Reaching the small red car they picked out to use, they could spot Hotch sitting in the driver's seat, staring down at the office white steering wheel in front of him. He threw out a single nod to Angel and Spencer once he noticed them, turning his sunglasses towards the steering wheel once again. Spencer went to the back seats where they had a small radio set up to communicate back to the office to Derek, Elle and Gideon.
They had a couple or locations pinpointed in their geographical profile of the unsub that Spencer had created earlier that day. After driving through two of them with no luck, they reached the third location. It was spread through three blocks, a hunting zone for the Unsub since it was conveniently for him and unfortunately for the victims a hot spot for picking up women in the area.
They had Garcia pull the live security footage for the three blocks and report to them from a phone call on what was happening. Derek had called in as well, Garcia was sharing the footage back at the office. All of them waited until they saw an unbelievably dusty, grey, pick up truck pull up to one of the blocks.
They had to send out Angel immediately at risk that someone were to get there first and their plan would be completely torn apart. Once she got the cue, Angel took off her jacket and threw it into the back, Spencer caught it and placed it carefully.
"We'll be there the entire time," Hotch reassured as he handed her an extremely small and see through ear piece that she immediately put it, "Press this once he drives off," he pointed to one of the things Spencer clipped to her overalls, "It'll give us your location immediately."
"Yup," Angel looked down to the button on the inside of her overalls, "Got it," she nodded to Hotch as she shut the car door, the window staying open, "Good luck." she smiled to Spencer who hadn't said a word since they drove away from the last failed block.
He still didn't say anything, he nodded to her as he fidgeted with the radio on his right, pressing the buttons and driving to connect to it as best as possible. Angel took the nod and started walking, she made sure she walked around a little, spotting the area out.
"Hey there," the ear piece started talking, Derek's voice hitting her ear which sent her into an immediate smile that she tried hiding as best as possible, "Start circling back to King's Street," he directed her, King's street being where the Unsub parked his car.
"Incoming person," she said into her microphone as she noticed a woman in front of her, she was wearing almost exactly what Angel was, but her overalls had been shorts that cut up very high, "Any...ideas?" she mumbled into the microphone slowly as she started to get closer.
"Talk to her," Elle said back through the ear piece, "We see you through the security camera...try conversating a little and get away as soon as you can." she instructed.
As she was instructed, Angel cautiously made her way to the women who still hadn't noticed her. She finally did notice Angel, lifting her head and looking directly at her, her eyebrows furrowing as she tried to recognize Angel.
"You new?" she finally said something, "I don't think I've seen you around..." she put her hands onto her hips, shifting her weight onto her left leg as she tilted her head at Angel.
"Yeah, I'm new..." Angel thought through a response as she fidgeted with her badge in her pocket, "Not planning to stay long though..." she pulled out her a badge slightly, just the corner of it peeking out of the demin.
"Listen, I swear I don't have any-" The women started quickly saying as her expression dropped and she had started backing up, "I'm just trying to get some cash-"
"I'm not here for you," Angel quickly cut her off, "This is actually wasting my time quite a lot," She sighed, "Have you seen the pick up here? The really nasty looking one?"
"Yeah..." She cautiously responded, "What about it?" she stopped backing up, letting her arms fall to her sides now.
"Do me a favor, for the safety of any other girl," Angel explained, "Make sure no one goes to it...and I mean no one," Angel looked around, "What?" she asked once she saw the horror on the girls face.
"... Claire just went to it," she spit out, "We didn't know-" she huffed quickly as Angel's face dropped and she started walking away, her hand reaching to her microphone, making her the team heard what the women had said.
Angel didn't wait for instructions, neither she knew she had to act quickly. She knew the profile of the Unsub, she knew what he did to his victims and she couldn't have an innocent women go through that. She was remembering what the team told her, about the car as she ran through the blocks, picking up her speed.
The team has been desperately trying to communicate with her but she had blocked them out, the only one who wasn't worried was Gideon. He trusted Angel to do what was right, but the rest of the team was immediately on high alert that the original plan had gone incorrectly.
"Angelina," Gideons voice rang through her ear piece, "You're doing it again," he pointed out, "You're completely blocking out everyone," he explained as Angel ran through the blocks, her breath starting to get heavy as she tried desperately to find the disgusting pick up, "Go back to Aaron, we will regroup and think where we went wrong."
"I found him," she ignored his instructions, noticing the car that has still been standing still on the side of the completely empty road, "Jason, I am not leaving her," she explained as she carefully approached it, looking for mentioned Claire.
Something was extremely off about the pick up. It had been described so much, it was in fact extremely dusty but as she went closer, there was no Claire and their profile was wrong. The driver's seat wasn't empty, inside was a man, a very big man with greasy thick hair and an atrocious beard that ranked of cigarette smoke and beer.
He had a basketball ball hat over his head, his unbelievably loud snoring proved he was asleep even more. Something was extremely off to Angel but everything was immediately explained as someone came from the other side of the truck.
"Damn," A women's voice said as she walked through the side of the car, Angel immediately reached for her gun, "You got me..." the women appeared, it was the same one she had seen earlier, the one who had created Claire to get Angel exactly where she wanted her, "...almost." she giggled as she hit the side of the truck, immediately waking up the man.
He groaned, pulling his hat up on his head but as soon as he saw Angel standing right in front of him, his expression changed into a sadistic smile as if he already planned what he was about to do in that second that he had seen her. He pulled the door away from himself, relieving his long thick legs that he swung off to the side of the open door, jumping out onto the pavement.
Angel stood her ground, hadn't moved or flinched. Even when he had come extremely close to her, and the woman behind her, cornering her in. Angel narrowed her eyes as she planned her next move. She came up with an idea, one that she knew the team would not be supportive with, but she knew it was the only way to get away and trap them.
She had to give in and play victim.