Two painfully slow months passed and Mara finally fell into a rhythm that is comfortable.
No Reid. No men. Only focusing on work. Rossi tried talking to her when she turned down their family dinners and drinks they went out on. He told her that not opening herself up to the team was going to lead to mistrust and that they loved and missed her.
She only scolded him for profiling her and left him there, heading home to the same apartment she had before she "died." The only thing she could entertain herself with were books. She'd spend night after night awake with her head in a book. She'd go to work exhausted the next day from staying up all night reading. At work, she'd be engulfed in a book.
Reid couldn't help but watch her bite down on her fingernails as her eyes slid over the pages so quickly. He watched her finish a book and then start another one. He knew that things were going to be different between them, but he hadn't expected her to cut him off completely.
Mara thought that it was easier to keep their relationship professional. Reid wanted to work towards forgiveness, he wanted to understand what she went through, he wanted to learn to love her again. He wanted his best friend back.
Instead, he essentially got the cold shoulder.
One thing she'd learned over the seven months in Italy was compartmentalism. When she was feeling the most upset and angry at how everything went down, she shoved it deep down in her heart and put everything into the case she was put on. When things got tough bring undercover, she also tucked that away in a box and didn't open it.
"We have a case." JJ said, walking past Reid and Mara and heading into conference room.
Reid noticed that Mara hadn't heard JJ, completely engulfed in her book. He set a hand on her shoulder, causing her to jump and pull her attention from the book in her lap.
"Round table's ready." Reid spoke quietly before heading into the conference room, taking his normal seat at the table.
Mara sat down too, opening the personal file and taking a look as Garcia clicked her remote, presenting the case. "Somerville Military Academy in Oceanside, Florida. Five boys were found hanging this morning. The bodies are at the medical examiner's now."
"There's no photos?" Mara asked, flipping through the file.
"School personnel thought they may still be alive, so they cut them out of the trees." Strauss said suddenly from behind them.
"Jimmy Burbage, Philip Mumford, Jerry Bowden, Jack Briggs, Tucker Calhoun." Garcia said, clicking the images of them onto the screen.
"So we're walking into a contaminated crime scene?" Morgan scoffed.
"They don't have anything solid?" JJ asked.
"'We're sorry' was carved into a tree branch nearby." Garcia offered.
"This happened on campus?" Mara asked.
"No, in the woods about an hour away." Hotch answered.
"How long were they out there?" Rossi asked.
"Six days." Garcia replied.
"Without supervision?"
"It was an outward bound mission for the upperclassmen." Strauss said.
"What drove them to suicide?" Reid asked.
"A freshmen cadet, Bailey Shelton, hung himself two weeks ago in his room," Garcia said. "Identical bed sheet, hangman's knot."
"Who takes sheets camping?" Rossi furrowed his eyes brows.
"They would," Reid said. "If it was the plan."
"Could be a domino effect." Mara shrugged.
"Campus would have been on high alert after the first one, so the kids wait until they're alone in the woods." Rossi said.
"They must have made some kind of pact." Mara said.
"And there's something else," Strauss said. "Six kids went on the trip. Only five were found. School officals confirm that Josh Redding is still missing."
"So maybe he chickened out of the pact." JJ said.
"Or was never part of it." Mara replied.
"And the campus is completely off the grid," Hotch said. "No internet. Garcia's coming with us."
"So am I." Strauss said.
Morgan's eyebrows furrowed. "Isn't Somerville the director's alma mater?"
"Yes," Strauss answered. "The academy had enjoyed a spotless reputation, so the hope is to keep the investigation in-house."
"I imagine there's a lot of concern for Josh," Rossi said, lightly scolding Strauss. "He's been in those woods almost a week."
"Wheels up in fifteen."
Once everyone boarded the jet, Mara took a seat, Reid taking the one next to her. Reid was the first to speak. "Socioeconomic breakdown's all over the map."
"So are the ages," Mara continued. "Students are twelve to eighteen years old, on the same campus, in the same dorms. Some personnel has worked there for a lifetime."
"Ron Massey has been superintendent for thirty years," Strauss said. "He's an alum, as is the majority of the staff there. Lieutenant Tawes has been his second in command, this whole time."
"These type of places have their own infrastructure," Rossi said. "If it ain't broken, they ain't gonna fix it."
"That's probably why they banned modern technology," Morgan said. "They didn't need it back then, they don't need it now."
"Bailey Shelton was only thirteen years old, he was one of the youngest students there," Reid said from beside Mara. "His death is probably the key to the others."
Once they landed, they met up with the leader at the academy. Mara helped Garcia get her equipment out while Reid got everyone's bags. Hotch and Strauss went to introduce everyone to the Colonel.
"Erin Strauss." Colonel Massey greeted her, shaking her hand.
"This is the team I spoke with you about." Strauss said, gesturing to everyone around her.
Hotch stepped forward, extending his hand for a handshake. "Agent Hotchner."
"This is Agent Morgan, Agent Jareau," he gestured to the two behind him before gesturing to the group at the trucks. "Doctor Spencer Reid, Agent Tate, and Penelope Garcia."
Mara set all Garcia's heavy equipment on the ground before her attention fell to the flag. "Shouldn't the flag be at half-mast?"
"We haven't told the boys yet." Massey replied.
"Do they know who we are?" Morgan asked.
"I'll tell them when the time is right," he dismissed their question. "I've called all the parents. They're driving from up and down the East Coast. Josh Redding's just arrived."
"I'd like to speak to them." JJ said.
"They're in the chapel." He said and JJ moved to the chapel and Reid took the bags inside while Garcia and Mara took the equipment in and started setting up.
Massey followed everyone inside, directing them where they were going to be setting up.
Hotch continued speaking to Massey. "Any leads on Josh?"
"He knows the terrain." He replied, his answer short.
"He's only capable of moving a mile an hour," Reid said, scribbling in a map as Mara stuck pins in the corners in the board. "Puts him in a sixty mile radius."
"We'd like to start with Bailey Shelton's suicide, do you have a copy of the medical examiners report?" Hotch asked.
"I don't, but there was no question that he hung himself."
Mara's eyebrows furrowed at his answer, turning to face him. Hotch continued, holding a finger out to Mara. "Well, the nuances can tell us a lot."
Mara shook her head and turned her attention back to Reid's hands scribbling all over the map, keeping her anger maintained. It didn't take a profiler to know he was hiding something. Mara was pissed that they came all the way out here to help find out why kids were dying and he was hiding stuff.
Reid noticed her behavior and gestured towards Garcia to take her attention off her anger.
"Mara, lend me a hand?"