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SEVEN SECONDS
Season three, episode five.
(3x5)
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LUCY BYRNE HAD A FLAIR FOR PATTERNED TIGHTS. Cropped sweater-vests and essentially anything with ribbons on it, she also had an affinity for. She held strong feelings for her ruby flats that stemmed far deeper than simple adoration (she became immensely sour any time they got dirty) and she liked all things bows and glitter (no wonder her and Penelope got along like a house on fire).
Nude colours, modest wear and all things office attire, she thought one thing: ew. Which explained the disgruntled twinge of her normally somewhat doey-eyed face as she stared at herself in her bedroom mirror. She envied Garcia for her ability to weave around the uniform laws of the BAU.
How will people know I'm interesting if I look as exciting as a white-painted wall? Boring, she grumbled, wading her sequin-encrusted brush through her hair, delicately placing a thick black hairband on top. Lucy fawned over shiny shoes, but these black heels, along with the black pencil skirt, she could already envision herself paddling her way about the bullpen of the BAU, much like a penguin.
She click-clacked her way into the bathroom of her dingy one room apartment (she decorated with love as much as she could, but not even that could bring life to such a soulless place of living), and stared in a mirror once more. Bags to carry shopping for a family of ten, the purplish tint below her eyes seemed to have darkened throughout the night. Or perhaps her eyes were playing tricks on her. But, still, she smeared concealer beneath them, and padded over it with pink fingers.
A lipstick application later—she had recently purchased a one in the shade 'lady danger' which appeased her—the sound of her ringtone (Gavin DeGraw's I Don't Want to Be — her and Penelope avid members of 'Team Jake', JJ an almost indifferent admirer of Lucas. That's a minor ew on Lucy's part) bounced off the walls of the white-tiled room.
"My Luscious Lucy-Loo, you better get your perfect little A down here toot suite, it's absolutely freezing!" The buttery-smooth voice of a one Penelope Garcia rang through, a very welcome wake-up call. With a phone at her ear, she weaved her way through her apartment, glancing out the window as she flung the curtain of her living-room open, the sun glaring down on her. Penelope always seemed to be cold, no matter the weather.
"Aye-aye, cap'n. I'm on route," she grinned sweetly, teeth always on show when Penelope was near. Snatching her keys and her bag, filled heartily with what was necessary and a bunch of useless nothings, she flew out the door.
Car-rides with Penelope were never anything far from comfortable. Amy Winehouse's 'Tears Dry On Their Own' flooded the car, while Lucy applied mascara to her lashes, her bag in her lap, the clutter within clacking together as the car bumped along the road. Most of the ride consisted only of little chatter and humming along with music that played.
As the pair emptied the car and walked arm-and-arm into the elevator leading to the office, one finally spoke. "Don't you look all business today?" Penelope mused, flicking her eyes momentarily from the path ahead of her to her dear comrade, who only huffed at the comment.
"No kidding. It's taking me every ounce of strength to not take this heel and stab myself in the heart with it," she grumbled, rubbing her eyelid where mascara had smudged. "I'm dressed like a heartless soul, might as well be one."
"Oh, hush. I happen to adore this look on you. Very Rachel Green-esque," Penelope waved away her rather dark confession.
"When she's working at Ralph Lauren?"
"When she's working at Ralph Lauren."
Lucy gasped at the admittance, and grew bright and cheery, "really? That's her best era."
"Fitting that you omit that energy then, my favourite little profiler. Don't tell Derek I said that." The elevator dinged open as Penelope booped Lucy's blush covered nose.
"Oh, so long as the compliments keep coming, I won't tell a soul."
It took mighty strength not to spill all in a mocking brag to a tired Derek Morgan (much of Lucy and Derek's issues stemmed from their inability to not mock each other). Bursting into the bullpen as Penelope darted her way into her lair, Lucy, with every intention to merge her bum with the seat of her cluttered desk opposite Derek, suddenly forgot that thought.
"Good Morning, Doc," she sweetly greeted as she walked by him, all traces of the mischievous girl from before vanishing.
"Morning," he sent a lopsided smile back, before startling, as if remembering what the gentlemanly thing to do was. He glanced at the mug of coffee he had been mid-pour before she came around. "Coffee?"
"Oh, yes, please."
"I'll bring it to your desk."
"Two sugars and-"
He interjected, "-and a little bit of cream. I remember."
Had she not already been coated in blusher, he may have noticed the deepening of her cheeks (okay, yes, she's knows. Eidetic memory, he remembers everything, but a girl can't control those pesky butterflies at the supposed gesture, okay?).
She smiled. "Thank you," her passing of gratitude was spoken quietly as she sauntered to her desk, plopping down with a sigh, sinking into her chair and fiddling with her computer before Spencer sat a mug on her desk and made his way over to his own desk without as much as a word.
They had a system, one Lucy had one day decided she must be content with. Because, other than memorising each other's coffee orders, the informal interactions seemingly ended there, especially following Gideon's sudden departure. Spencer had only grown quieter. They say opposites attract, but Lucy's loud personality may just be a tad too loud for Reid's quiet, all teenage-like infatuations aside. And she could be okay with that, though fawning over even the littlest of interactions regarding him seemed to be the guiltiest of her guilty pleasures (but, hey, Penelope instigated her antics, so Lucy put her largely at fault for her frequently flustered state).
The steady bustle of the office continued until JJ moved through, waving a case file in her hand and ticking her head towards the round-table room. "Case," she said, and the twinge of urgency Lucy easily detected meant only one thing. This case most likely pertained a child, and those were always the most difficult ones.
Lucy knew this. And so, as the SUV halted by the large entrance of the anxiously bustling mall, she strapped on a stoic face (her work face, she had internally labelled it), knowing it would be for her best intention to remain entirely professional, no matter the cold running through her veins, at the thought of a missing girl. Six years old. She shivered, but couldn't let it show.
"We've been in lockdown for almost twenty minutes. My teams already in motion," James Franklin, the Director of the Bureau's Rapid Deployment Team, greeted Hotch as the team flooded in, Garcia pulling up the rear with a suitcase of equipment.
"Another female, same age, same time of day, taken from essentially the same location," Prentiss listed off, and Lucy pondered. It was likely they were dealing with the same unsub regarding the case of the murder of a young girl the week prior. But nothing could be ruled out this early. Lucy refused to jump to conclusions when it came to work. She was meticulous in her job, completely contradictory to how she thrives in her personal life.
The team got all the info they needed from the Director—security footage gathered of Katie Jacobs entering the building but none of her leaving, and he mentioned the paging of the six year old over the intercom, but no reply. Spencer made an important point that the perpetrator of Jessica Davis's death took her from the mall, wishing for privacy and time alone with her. Lucy flagged that thought in her mind, storing it.
Concluding that the offender wouldn't stray from his MO, the team knew that he would not leave without his victim. "So, if Katie's still under this roof, so is her abductor."
With that note, the team dispersed. Garcia reported to the mall's Security Office, Spencer and Morgan hunted for the Head of Security, Emily and JJ were assigned to talk with the parents of Katie, and Hotch motioned for Lucy to follow him and Franklin.
In Hotch's esteemed opinion, which he kept very much to himself, Lucy, though prone to making an uncomfortable conversation all the more uncomfy with her awkward quirks, was near the most methodical girl he'd met. Not to mention the brilliantly keen eye she possessed.
If he missed anything—anything—Lucy would pick up on it, and vice versa. They were a tag-team of sorts, though Lucy would never comment that aloud (fear of a stern talking to regarding workplace etiquette, and she'd already gotten a few.)
As Hotch and Franklin talked over the Jessica Davis case, Lucy scanned the faces of the people coming down the escalator next to them. Signs of worry, of confusion, sympathy, signs of indifference. She searched for agitation, twitches in anxious wait, guilt, but none had it ridden in their faces.
"I joined the Bureau to help people, not to stand over another dead kid today."
Lucy agreed, "hopefully, we won't have to."
"It's all chance, you know. Wrong place at the wrong time. No logic. No sense," he said, forehead creased, a sigh escaping his lips. And Lucy thought, maybe. "How does a parent reconcile that?"
"They never do," was Hotch's reply.
Much pondering would be done on a case like this, with so many potential perpetrators. Last seen at the arcade by her cousin. She left, and he hadn't seen with who. Where would she go? Lucy wondered. And how had no one saw?
The task of covering all the ground in the mall continued, but still not a trace of Katie. The calling of her name, Katie Jacobs, hit Lucy's ears almost twice every five seconds. Surveillance footage, albeit blurry, was found by Garcia, showing a snipet of Katie leaving the arcade, though her parents did not identify anyone else in the frame.
Lucy sometimes envied JJ's constantly proven ability to talk and comfort the parents on cases like this. Lucy readily sympathised, and sometimes even let their pain sink into her stomach, but she could never find the words to let them know. So she remained Hotch's second pair of eyes, that now watched Katie's Dad attempt to soothe her pain-struck mom.
Their eyes were tired, their cheeks puffy, wrinkles of exhaustion prominent, hair tussled. They couldn't be soothed. What else would you expect from someone related to the girl, let alone her parents?
"How could someone have just. . .taken her. In front of all those people?" Her father wanted answers, and grew more restless as the seconds ticked by.
JJ was calm in her reply. "That's what we're trying to figure out."
"And how are you gonna do that?"
Katie's father left with Hotch and JJ led the mother to a separate room, both to be debriefed separately. It was more efficient that way. Lucy sent Garcia a tired look, offering her a comforting pat on the shoulder before finding business elsewhere.
Her heels clacked tiles as she made her way through the mall's second floor. She spotted Spencer and Morgan, outside the deserted arcade, where Katie was last spotted by her cousin. A security officer accompanied the two agents.
Lucy reached Emily as she was questioning the cousin, and it seemed futile. Evidently, for reasons Lucy could not yet decipher, the boy was holding back. And the tension only worsened when Katie's uncle, her Father's twin brother, became lippy with attitude.
"He wasn't exactly paying attention."
The young boy argued back, "yes, I was!"
"You'd think after all my years in retail, I'd hate the mall, but it was convenient," Katie's aunt spoke, and Lucy's only stared blankly back at her. The ease in which she spoke, the poise with which she stood, it was all. . .very peculiar.
Lucy blinked, a false smile spreading. "Right, sure."
"She was right next to me. I swear!" The boy continued to argue his case to his Father. The bickering between them continued for a few moments more—the Uncle accusing the son of becoming distracted, the boy arguing his innocence on the matter, the mother stating where she had been, shopping for her husband. And then Katie's aunt teared up.
"I should've stayed near the kids. Now I wish we never left the house this morning."
Things became all the more uncomfy when the uncle hypothesised, that perhaps Katie wasn't really missing. Perhaps she was lost in a book in a corner somewhere, or playing dress up in a store. Lucy stared at him, much like she did to the Aunt minutes prior. "That's unlikely, sir. Excuse me."
Lucy motioned for Emily to follow her. They moved away from the family of three, out of earshot. "He's holding back. Something. Maybe he'll talk more if he's separated from his parents."
"You read my mind," Emily agreed, crossing her arms as she glanced back at the three. All stood together, but still seemingly separate.
"What are we thinking?" Suddenly Morgan was behind her shoulder, Spencer lingering behind his. Emily shrugged, "well, the boy's not telling us something, at the very least."
Lucy looked to Derek, "maybe you two can take a crack at him. He can't even look us in the eye without blushing. And besides, he might open up to someone he feels he relates to. Take him back to the arcade, ask him about what he was playing, whatever. And you—" she looked at Spencer, who nodded at her, implying he was listening, "talk about how it's normal to be thirteen and awkward around girls. Build a rapport."
His eyes widened, though just by a fraction, and his cheeks were suddenly a slight shade darker. But he nodded nonetheless, coughing away the lump in his throat. "Uh, yeah, yeah, okay."
Lucy looked to Morgan, ensuring they were all on the same page. When she received his nod of confirmation—though he felt incredibly eager to tell her something along the lines of, 'I know how to do my job. You're not my boss'—she motioned to Emily. "We'll go see if Hotch or JJ got anything from Katie's parents."
The duo made way, and Emily couldn't hold the snickers back any longer. "What's got you all giggly?" Lucy asked, curious and concerned for the unannounced laughs from the girl next to her.
"You just have a strange way of making the guy you like feel liked."
Lucy blew a loose hair from her face, and snorted, characteristically unaffected by Emily's indication that she 'liked' Spencer. "Uh, yeah, I'm working on burning that bridge. But let's stay focussed on the case at hand."
*****
Katie Jacobs was still missing. Minutes ticked by like seconds and her parents grew more vexed as time was stolen from them. JJ, being the comforting shoulder that she was, encouraged Katie's mom to send a message to their unsub through the mall's PA system.
Lucy stood between Emily and Spencer, Morgan on his other side, as Katie's mom's voice echoed through the building. "My name is Beth Jacobs. 45 minutes ago, our daughter Katie went missing. She's only six years old. Last month, she started first grade. Katie is our only child and we love her very much. We just want her back safe."
Lucy analysed the area, scanning every face her eyes met, looking for any indication of guilt or remorse. There was none of that. There was sympathy, a few women even teared up. And there was that same indifference in some people, simply tired and eager for this to be over. She huffed as she came out empty.
Spencer looked down at her, following a sudden thought that maybe she would find this difficult to listen to. He certainly did. The lump in his throat told him that. Emily had that look in her eyes, the one that said everything she was feeling. He thought maybe Lucy may need even a simple smile in reassurance, for comfort. He could envision JJ standing beside Beth Jacobs, with a tight look about her, knowing how difficult she found these things, even after doing them every other day. He assumed Lucy would be the same. He should have known, from working with her for almost three years, her and JJ were far from the same.
It seemed she was so invested in solving the case, she had no room to allow any feeling into the equation. He didn't know how he felt about that.
"The other day, Katie told me that she was ready to ride a big girl's bike. Without training wheels. And I promised her that she could do that on her birthday," Beth's voice became more and more strained as holding back sobs became more difficult. Lucy felt sick, but her lips remained in that steady line. "Please, whoever you are, I hope your listening. We just want our daughter back to us safely. Katie is just a little girl. She's just a little girl who deserves another birthday."
Seven seconds. That's all it took for a young girl to go missing. To vanish. The newly recovered security footage proved just as uncertain as the one from before. "The only stores in that direction are bedding and stationary stores. Katie's a kid, she wouldn't be interested in that."
"Unless it wasn't a store that caught her eye," Hotch mused.
"I once followed Todd Cortal the entire length of Silver Beach because he had a kite." Garcias input was always welcomed in Lucy's eyes.
Hotch met eyes with Lucy, "the right bait might lure her away from the crowd." Lucy nodded, reading what he was thinking. The aunt and the uncle, they needed to be questioned further.
*****
The search for Katie was growing colder, even the search dogs couldn't catch her scent, much due to a vent from the food court overwhelming their senses. Whether that was intentional or not on the unsubs part, it was unknown. If it was intentional, that meant whoever took Katie knew the place well.
"I'm his mother, for Gods sakes."
Lucy clasped her hands in front of her as she stood before Susan Jacobs. "Your son is talking with two of the other agents now. Whatever's making him forget what happened could be exacerbated by your being there. I think it's best he's talked to alone. He might be feeling a bit responsible for what happened."
Susan sighed, clutching her purse tighter, "one minute you're having a lighter engraved for your husband, and the next minute Katie's name is being paged. I never thought something like this could happen to our family."
Lucy halted. She knew that feeling all too well. She had thought that same thing enough times too. She could only nod, and for the first time that day, her composure was on the line. "No one ever does."
The woman before her pursed her lips, as she peered into the arcade across from them. "What are they doing to him, my son?"
"It's called a cognitive interview. It's a sensory method of questioning. It may help him remember some details that he may have forgotten. Something that happened before he realised Katie was gone," Lucy informed her. The conversation seemed to end there, for Susan was becoming vexed, either at her sons interrogation or the entire ordeal, or maybe she was simply exhausted. Lucy nodded one final time and excused herself.
She met up with Hotch, who held a plastic bag in his hand. Evidence. "What you got, Boss Man?" She asked, and he held it up for her to have a look, though he pursed his lips at the nickname. Boss Man. A necklace. "It's Katie's?"
"Yeah."
She peered at it closer. "The clasp. It's damaged. Like it was ripped off in a rage." She looked to Hotch, and felt validated when he seemed to agree.
"This is personal. This may not be related to last weeks abduction after all."
*****
Searching continued. Morgan and Reid were tasked with searching Katie's home, and JJ posed an important question to Beth Jacobs—"is there anyone you would consider a threat?" Hotch took to questioning Katie's father, with questions regarding their relationships with their neighbours. Until that conversation became sidetracked when Hotch had questions regarding their marital status. The father wasn't all too pleased with that.
Now he stood on the phone to Morgan, who had uncovered something very important. A doll, Katies doll. But the hair had been ripped, the clothes had been torn and the face had been scribbled on. "Most likely by someone under the same roof," Hotchs replied to Derek, and Lucy, who had been standing idle by with crossed arms, narrowed her eyes, and glanced over her shoulder to the Jacobs family, Emily talking with the uncle.
"Because her father didn't buy her the necklace." Emily, perhaps sensing something was wrong, met eyes with Lucy, who portrayed in her face something grave. Hotch said to Morgan before hanging up, "get back here as soon as you can."
Emily had made her way over and stood side-by-side with Lucy, both looking to Hotch for their next orders. "We need to separate the boy and his father. Two rooms, now." The pair nodded immediately.
Hotch and Emily paired up to question the uncle, and Lucy, though momentarily betrayed by Hotch for tossing her aside (they were supposed to be a duo, man) was stood by the door of the room Jeremy sat in, twiddling his thumbs with anxiety, Spencer by her side.
"Is it a good idea for me to go in with you? I mean, the kid got flustered every time he looked at me or Emily. He's not exactly confident around women." Understandable for a thirteen year old boy.
Spencer shrugged. "Hotch gives the orders, we should follow them." He opened the door and made a face that clearly stated: please don't disobey our boss and get me in trouble by association. "After you."
She sighed, but obliged.
Before she even got a chance to greet Jeremy, he was eager to get answers. "What's going on? Did you find Katie?"
Spencer took a seat in front of the boy, whilst Lucy held back a bit. She was still under the impression that Jeremy would talk more if it were just him and Spencer. She stuck with her gut.
Jeremy's questions went unanswered. "Jeremy, how old are you?"
"Thirteen," the boy answered, though confusedly.
"Thirteen. Wow. You know, when I was thirteen, I was starting to notice girls, too. I was curious, but I was, like, really awkward. So, it was super-hard for me to talk to them. And I found that incredibly frustrating," Spencer spoke with a small smile on his mouth, and Lucy couldn't help but grow a little softer.
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because I think I understand you," Spencer said, "you're in the arcade, a pretty girl walks in and you get distracted by the scent of her hair, right?" When the boy further questioned the point of these questions, Spencer replied. "So, you're becoming a man. Believe it or not, it happens to all of us. There's nothing wrong with that at all. And these video games that you play allow you to explore your violent side, right? I mean, clearly you're intrigued. My only question is whether or not you acted on these curiosities. You've experimented yet?"
Jeremy was growing red in the face, and he looked slightly over his shoulder to meet Lucy's eyes. She sent him a look as non-threatening as she could. She wasn't good at this but, talking to kids. "Shouldn't you be looking for my cousin right now?"
"We are looking for your cousin right now," was her reply, as she made her way closer to the metal table the other two sat at, stopping behind Spencer's chair, placing her hands on the chair back.
"Why are you asking me these questions?"
Spencer retaliated with, "why are you avoiding them?"
The boy quieted down again, face flushed. Again, biting at his cheek. Lucy leaned forward ever so slightly and softened her voice. "Hey, Jeremy. You know what we do for the FBI. We study human behaviour. Like, the way for the last minute you've been pushing your chair away from us. Or how every once in a while you bite your cheek. That tells me that what you're hearing is making you uncomfortable. You're distancing yourself from us. Or maybe you're trying to hold something back."
"Yeah, same thing happened when we were inside the arcade. I think you were doing it because maybe you remembered something more than what you told us," Spencer added on, and the Jeremy's eyes flickered from hers to his before he looked at the ground, quiet.
"No," he was adamant. "I told you everything."
Spencer leaned forward onto the table, biting his lip as he pondered. "I don't know. I think something else happened inside the arcade, something you haven't told anybody yet."
They were getting nowhere, and Lucy grew just a tad impatient. She excused herself, thanking Jermeny for his time before she made her way back out to the corridors of the mall. She met JJ and Morgan in a deep discussion regarding Susan's composure at such a stressful time.
"What's going on?" She asked them upon arrival.
"Susan. She's calm enough to just sit. She hasn't paced at all. Nothing," Derek answered, before narrowing her eyes at him. "Aren't you supposed to be with Reid?"
Lucy just about registered his question, but much of it was disregarded as she looked towards Susan, who was, as was already noted, sat down with her hands in her lap. She narrowed her eyes in thought. "Yeah, I was, I just. . ." She trailed off, thinking back to earlier.
"You'd think after all my years in retail, I'd hate the mall. But it was just convenient."
Emily's heels clacked behind her in an urgent pattern, and once she met eyes with her, she knew she had a thought. It was the same as hers. "What mall did Susan work in?" She asked her, and Emily just nodded, an indication that they were thinking along the same lines.
"I don't think she's telling us everything, and this could get dicey," she said, breezing past them to Susan, the other three following close behind her. "Susan," she addressed the woman, and immediately Katie's parents spoke with urgency.
"What is it?"
"Did you find her?"
"No, not yet," Emily bluntly replied, ushering Susan to walk with her.
"Is it about Jeremy?"
"No," Emily said, turning to Susan, "I need to speak with you. Can you come this way?"
"Richard?" Beth asked.
As soon as Susan was pulled aside by Emily, Beth, perhaps intuiting what was going on, rushed to hear the conversation. Morgan and JJ were quick to block their path. Lucy placed a hand infront of Beth's husband incase he made any plans to make a beeline for his sister-in-law.
"Anything you can say to her, you should be able to say to us," he spoke sternly.
"I understand, sir. If you would just wait here—"
Emily spoke briskly, "what you didn't tell me was you used to work in this mall. Years ago."
"Susan? Do you know something?" Katie's mom was near tears again, and Lucy could only understand why. Her words were laced with a desperation to have her little girl in her arms.
"You know this building like the back of your hand," Emily spoke with authority, her words growing in volume. Susan's eyes glossed over. She had been caught out. "Earlier, you made sure to separate from the group."
"Someone tell us something! Oh, my God, Susan. What do you know?!"
Susan stuttered, staring at nothing. Her mind was blank. She had nothing to say. Emily expressed a deep sigh, "come on, let's go." Susan was dragged away by Emily for questioning, and Beth Jacobs was losing it. Again, understandably.
"Susan, what did you do to Katie?!"
*****
This was not supposed to happen to my family. Susan Jacobs had said that to Lucy's face earlier. Only she hadn't meant what Lucy at the time thought she meant. She felt stupid for not expressing her distrust of the woman earlier on. Lucy hated feeling stupid.
The search for Katie was almost concluded. That girl will be found whether Susan talks or not. She needed to be found. Hotch barked orders, sending men to certain individual seasonal storage units within the building.
"Katie?! Katie!"
Hotch searched. Morgan searched. Lucy followed suit. They would tear the room apart if needed. Every box. Every shelf. She looked and looked and looked. Then Hotch spoke, with even more urgency than before, "I've got her! I've got her!"
"Hey, we need a medic!"
Lucy caught a glimpse of her as she weaves her way through the discarded boxes and junk. Her heart felt heavy. How innocent and young, how tiny Katie looked. How tiny Katie was.
She kneeled in front of Hotch, who had lay her down gently on the ground. Lucy awaited instruction. She felt for a pulse. "I can't find it. I can't find a pulse."
"Tip her head back, open her airway. Ready? One, two, three-" Lucy took every word on board, because she needed to make this girl wake up. She needed to be okay. Her parents needed her back.
A medic alerted her. "Coming through. Medic, coming through." She moved aside, and could do nothing now but hope. "Come on, Katie," she whispered to herself. "Wake up."
Katie coughed, and spluttered for air, and Beth Jacobs released the breath she had been holding in, crying in relief, holding her husband dearly. She was alive. She's alive. Lucy made way, allowing the parents their space as the medics ushered Katie out safely.
JJ allowed Lucy to place a consoling hand on her arm, having taken notice of the tears in her eyes. Tears of relief. The pair shared smiles and their eyes conveyed one message. Thank God.
*****
Garcia was the only person Lucy wanted to see after the case was concluded. JJ seemed to be on the same page, as the two walked briskly to the Security Office, where Garcia and other security personnel were clearing up.
"Susan consoling Katie's mom is an image that's going to haunt me for a while," JJ admitted, holding the glass door open for the other two girls. Garcia agreed, "well, we could have been left haunted by a lot worse."
Lucy nodded, and for the first time since they had been assigned the case, a genuine, toothy smile clouded her face. "Indeed. Our work here is done. Now, I can't wait to go home, stuff my face with takeout, express my love for my dear pet hamster, Freddy, and catch-up on episodes One Tree Hill."
"Oh, that's a good night," Garcia agreed.
"Yeah, this job really interferes with the important stuff, like staying on top of some good ol' television," JJ chuckled, in the midst of putting her coat on as the three neared the exit of the mall.
"Yeah, well, you've certainly missed a good few episodes. What, with you still thinking Lucas Scott is to die for and all," Lucy poked fun at JJ, who suddenly grew defensive, joking back.
She had gasped, throwing her arms up in exasperation. "All I said was, 'he's okay' and suddenly I'm obsessed with him? And what about you? Huh? You're obsessed with Peyton Sawyer and she's hardly a saint."
Lucy pointed an accusatory finger at JJ, and Garcia walked between them with an amused smile. "Don't turn this around on me, young lady. Three reasons why Peyton Sawyer is the live of my life. 1. She's gorgeous. 2. She's got the whole mysterious and edgy thing goin' on. 3. . . She's gorgeous, hello?"
She joking pinched JJ's cheek as the automatic doors opened for them, outside awaiting them were the rest of the team. "Besides, I always had a thing for blondes."
JJ laughed, her head tilting back in amusement. "You're seriously sleep deprived. You're crazy."
Garcia spoke to the rest of the group, bag on one arm, suitcase of equipment in the other. "I don't know what's going on. Boundaries have been crossed."
"Yeah, no kidding. But, hey," Emily started, and the group held onto her every word as they made their way to the SUV's parked in the lot, expecting her words to be somewhat profound. "Why are we surprised? Have you seen Luce on a night on the town? Flirts with anything with a pulse?" Emily yelped upon the contact of a punch to the arm.
"You just wish it was you I had my eye on. And not anything, okay?" She looked over her shoulder to Derek, and spoke in a loud whisper, "bald guys aren't really my type."
"Phew. And here I was, worried you would make a move on me next."
She narrowed her eyes at Derek, not feeling it necessary to quit the banter then and there. "Oh, you know me, confidence to burn, moving through suitors likes it's a buffet."
Derek smiled, though the guileful glint in his eye should have prepared her to brace herself. He wrapped an arm around Spencer, who had been somewhat uninvolved in the conversation (thank God, he had thought), though the arm was quickly shrugged off. "And who would be next on that list? Pretty boy, here?"
They need walk no more, as they reached the SUV's, and quiet chatter broke loose. Spencer, silently interested to see how Lucy would respond to Dereks words, observed as the two simply stared at each other. Lucy read Derek's eyes to say, 'go on. Flirt away. I dare you."
Lucy never backed down from a dare (Hotch had sternly advised her to take more regard for her own personal safety).
She looked at Spencer, who jolted with nerves at her sudden attention and simply stated, "you're cute." She smiled at Derek, "happy?"
Derek shrugged, "eh."
She scowled, "you better hope eyes grow on the back of your bald fucking head. I'm going to seriously harm you."
"Byrne, enough."
"Sorry, Dad." She saluted Hotch as she opened the door to the SUV Garcia had hopped into.
"Lucy, that's enough."
The door slammed shut. Derek glanced at Spencer, who seemed quiet unsure what to do next. "You're cute, huh?"
"I guess so."
*****
Chapter one finished! Lucy quite literally is if you put Jake peralta's daddy issues, Gina linettis unhinged nature and Jess days awkwardness in a blender. Also she's so daisy jones coded because she's a ducking icon. Her and Hotch 🤞🤞
Ultimately, especially throughout the first act, she's giving these vibes and these vibes only:
I'm so so so excited to write her and Spencer's little ting. It's a rollercoaster for sure. I'll establish early, I'm a girl with a love for a good cliche. Don't be surprised if this book is full of em. Also, as already you've probably noticed, Lucy is unashamedly crushing on our favourite pipe cleaner with eyes, but she's burning that bridge. That's right, she's getting over him!!! (spoiler alert:she won't).
Also her and Derek are pure sibling rivalry I love it.
Let me know what you think please! I love interacting with comments so don't hold back!!!!!
Chapter 001: summarised through memes:
Lucy when Garcia says she's her favourite:
Lucy to Derek / Derek to Lucy:
Hotch before giving Lucy a stern talking to regarding her own personal safety:
Lucy when Spencer's being all cute (she's disgusted with those pesky things called feelings):