twenty-nine; warm comfort
"I won't lie. It-It happens in the industry and we put a stop to it when it does." The mortician said putting hand sanitizer on his hands.
"You don't report it to the police?" Hotch asked and I looked at the older man. "Well, we like to keep that sorta thing quiet." He said and I crossed my arms over my chest.
"Sir, a killer is dressing up his dead victims and violating them. Maybe quiet isn't the best way to go." I said and he looked up at us.
"He dresses them up?" He asked and I nodded."Does that mean something to you?" Hotch asked and the man nodded. "We hired an apprentice a while back. Odd guy. Even for this buisness. I didn't like the attention he paid to the female cadavers. I come to find out, he liked to do their makeup and put a wig on them and such." He said and Hotch looked down at me.
"Can you describe the wig for us?" He asked and the man nodded. "I can show it to you." He said and he walked to the back and pulled out a box.
"We cleaned out his locker after his termination, and there she is." He said staring down at the wig. Hotch pulled out a pen from the inside of his coat. He pulled out the wig with the pen and looked at me then at the man. "I need this man's name." He said and the man nodded going to get the man's name.
I stood at the station and Leilani came in holding doughnuts and coffee. I looked up to her as she handed me my own box, I smiled and sat down eating the doughnuts and reading a cold case file. Morgan and Leilani were talking and Spencer pulled up a chair next to me.
"A new cold case?" He asked and I nodded. "Yeah. It's an unidentified cold case from 1987. Susan Adams was found floating in the water on the Potomac. But it doesn't really strike me as a cold case, ya know?" I said and he nodded, looking at it briefly.
"I don't know, it's just not really screaming cold case to me. " I said and Spencer smiled at me. I looked at him, giving me a toothy smile and I put the file down. "What?" I asked and he shurgged.
"Nothing, you're just beautiful when you're focused." He said and I blushed, and then a question came to my mind.
"What would you think if the BAU had their own forensics floor? Like were DNA machines and our own fingerprinting machine was?" I asked and he nodded. "It would be a good idea. I know Hotch was talking about having more interning go on, since you have the PhD." He said and I sighed, raising my eyebrows.
"I guess. I'm not a teacher. And with Leilani here I just- I don't know." I said and he tilted his head looking at me.
"What is it?" He asked and I shook my head. "Nothing, I'm just being weird. Doughnut?"I asked shoving the box towards him and he grabbed a glazed one.
I heard Hotch's voice and I turned in the swivel chair to face Hotch. "So what do we think? Why is the UnSub keeping Brooke alive?" He asked looking at all of us. "Maybe he needs them alive to effect their transformation. On the phone she sounded like she was drugged and being locked up. These are control mechanisms in cases of sexual slavery, mind control." He said and my phone rang, and I groaned, looking at everyone.
"Excuse me." I said and I saw Billy's contact on my phone. I picked it up and sighed.
"Billy I'm working on a very important case right now-" I said but he cut me off. "Hadley, we need to talk." He said and I looked back at everyone and walked further away.
"What's wrong? Is it Henry?" I asked and he said no. "It's about us, Hadley." He said and I felt my heartbeat quicken. "What?" I asked and he sighed. "It's about mom." He said and my heart dropped and then my anxiety was quickly filled with anger. "Billy, I don't give a damn about that woman." I said and he talked over me.
"Hads there's something you should know." He said and I shook my head. "I'm sorry. But right now, I'm on a case." I said and hung up. I closed my eyes and I looked at Hotch. "I think I'm going to leave early." I said and he nodded. "We'll be there later. Have Reid take you." He said looking down at some pictures and I nodded as Spencer walked behind me and we went into the black SUV.
"How long is Seattle from here?" I asked and he looked down at his watch. "45 or so minutes." He said and I looked over at him. "45 minute road trip?" I asked and he nodded and we began driving to Seattle.
Seattle Grace Hospital, Seattle, Washington.
I stepped out of the black SUV with Spencer and I began walking into the hospital, my hand intertwined with Spencer's as I wasn't afraid of being caught in a relationship with my co-worker.
We walked into the hospital together and I looked at the nurse at the front desk. "How can I help you ma'am?" She asked and I looked at her. "Hi, I would like to speak to Callie Torres, Derek Shepherd and Mark Sloan." I said and she nodded, and began typing on the computer, she looked back at us and smiled. "Lucky for you, they just got out of a surgery. They should be down in a couple of minutes." She said and I nodded, and Spencer and I walked over to the chairs.
I heard footsteps from behind us and I stood up, seeing my old doctors. Dr.Sloan, Shepherd and Torres stood there and smiled at me. "Hadley!" Dr. Torres said and walked over to me, hugging me. She pulled away and looked down at my left leg- well the prosthetic. "Look at you, you look amazing." She said and I smiled at her. Spencer shook hands with Dr. Sloan and Shepherd and Dr.Shepherd gave me a hug. "How are you feeling?" He asked smiling at me and I smiled. "Good. I feel good. "I said and Mark nodded over to me. "Now that face is amazing." Mark said and I laughed.
"What are you guys doing in Washington?" Dr.Torres asked and I picked at my thumb. "We're on a case, and I just wanted to come by and say hi to my favorite doctors." I said and Callie widened her eyes.
"You're already back to working?! That's amazing, Hadley." She said and I smiled, looking at her. "Thanks, but we're going to have to leave in a bit. It was nice to see you guys." I said and she nodded, smiling and I said goodbye to my favorite doctors.
One the drive back, sat in the passenger's seat and Spencer drove. I held his right hand as he kept his left one on the wheel. The street light shone bright and I was hungry and tired. I wanted to finish this case and go home and sleep in my bed. Spencer's thumb started to circle over my hand and I felt this calming and I focused on the soft music playing and we stopped at a red light.
"How's interning?" He asked and I looked up at him and nodded. "It's good. Leilani is smart, very smart and she know's a lot." I said and he nodded, and then brought up school. "And how's getting the BA in psychology? You haven't said anything about that." He said and I sighed. "Yeah, it's exhausting." I breathed out and he chuckled.
"Hey, did I leave my sweater at your apartment the other night?" I asked and he began driving again. "Yeah, I think so."He stated and I nodded, thinking about his apartment.
It sucked going from Hotch's apartment to Spencer's. But it was nice that Penelope knew, because she'd always cover for me and say that I slept over at her place. I just felt bad for keeping our relationship a secret from Hotch, even though it wasn't allowed. I was planning on eventually telling JJ and Emily about it but I had to get ready to tell Hotch, and I don't think I was ready to take that step. Plus, we were doing okay, with our secret relationship anyways.
We found out that the guy who was embalming his victims- Roderick, and we stopped him before he could actually start the embalming process on Brooke, and then after we returned the blonde haired girl back to her mother, we took the jet back to Quantico and we all stood in the elevator. My hand brushed Spencer's and I smiled softly, to myself. The elevator doors opened and there stood Strauss, standing with her hands crossed over her chest.
If Strauss didn't scare me as much as Hotch did, but she did have that attitude everyone disliked, and I knew that the attitude like that I absolutely hated. We all stepped off the elevator and stared at her, waiting for her to say something. But a woman with blonde hair stepped out from behind her holding a file. She looked up at us, her stare lingering on me.
"Adeleine?" Rossi asked looking at the older woman and her face dropped. "Dave?" She asked and Will came out from the desk, holding a sleeping Henry in his arms. "Mom- dammit." He said and I widened my eyes looking at Will. "Mom?" I asked and all eyes were on Will, to me to Rossi.