CHAPTER NINE:
SPENCER REID'S MORAL DUTY
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It's on the way into work the next day that it hits him, and he almost kicks himself for being so ridiculously stupid -- and, honestly, as harsh as I feel to say it, it is a dumb move.
"Hotch!" he calls, racing across the bullpen.
Morgan and Prentiss call behind him, leaping from their desks to follow him, but he's clattering up the stairs with his hands on either banister, leaping three at a time, and two seconds later he's bursting into Hotch's office.
"Hotch," he pants in the doorway, and his boss looks up, confusion and concern written in his furrowed eyebrows, "it's about Nina. She was in Florence."
Prentiss and Morgan land behind him, and there's a chorus of unsynced What's?
He moves into the office, the others following him, and with a nod Hotch orders Morgan to draw the blinds. "She was in Florence," Spencer starts, closing the door behind them all. "At the cafe. I thought I was hallucinating -- I'd spent the afternoon watching video tapes for six hours, and the heat..." But he shakes his head, exasperated with himself. "But she called me last night, and confirmed that --"
"What? She called you?" Prentiss cuts in, as Hotch snaps, "She contacted you?"
Spencer gestures hurriedly for them to calm down. "I'll explain that in a minute, but it's not important -- this is urgent."
But it is important, at least to him, because he can't stop thinking about it and the mere thought of her, and her voice, and the fact she'd actually spoken to him, is driving him crazy.
"She confirmed she was in Florence, outside the cafe where we met Gina Bianchi and Mrs Russo," he nonetheless continues. "Now, this got me thinking. How the hell did she know we were there?"
"She's obviously monitoring us," says Morgan.
"No, they're monitoring us. Edelstein, the people who work for him, the people higher than us who are in his team," he rambles.
All three of them still look mildly confused, and he shakes his head, still exasperated with himself -- this time for being so unclear.
"Before me and Prentiss got on the jet to go to Italy, you said to us, Hotch, that someone -- a superior -- would be watching us to make sure we were discreet about the case." He glances at Prentiss. "And when we got there, I asked you, Emily -- don't you remember? -- I asked you, do you really think someone's watching us? And you said yes. Which leads me to believe that whoever was watching us that day, works for Edelstein and at least has indirect contact with Nina -- if not direct communication, on a phone or otherwise. It's how she got there so fast."
He inhales sharply. His lungs burn. Through that entire speech, he'd hardly breathed.
"Hang on a minute," Prentiss says, blinking slowly and holding up a hand. "She was there -- at the cafe, in Florence?"
"And you didn't say anything?" Morgan asks, incredulous. "Reid!"
"Like I said, I thought I was imagining it," he snaps back. He sighs loudly. "I know I should have said, but she was there one second and gone the next -- easy enough to be a trick of the eye."
Spencer looks at Hotch pleadingly, who remains stoic but allows him a nod of forgiveness. Relief flushes through him; it feels like a twine tightening around his heart has just been loosened.
"I doubt they advised her to come see," he continues. "It was probably curiosity -- she..." He catches himself, thinking of their phone call the previous evening. Thinking of, Does it turn you on just to say it?
She likes him, is what he was going to say. Inexplicably, she likes him -- he could tell from her voice. Well, how the hell do you add that to a profile? How the hell do you tell that to your superiors?
"She wanted to see the FBI agents tracing her, I guess," he says. "We do have that sort of reputation. People get curious." He shakes his head, telling himself mentally to get back on topic. "But her motivations aren't important. What's important, is the fact --"
"That she called you?" Morgan quips.
"No," he retorts sharply, his tongue bitter, "that we have a name. A contact. We can't go for Edelstein, obviously, but we can go for the middle man."
But Hotch is shaking his head. "We're after our unsub, Reid, not our own superiors," he says, trying to keep his voice even. But the room his heating, and so is Spencer's face.
"Even though they're her contractors--"
"Exactly!" His voice is loud, not quite booming but it's enough to make Prentiss flinch. "They're not our unsub, Reid. They're not who we're profiling!"
"Bullshit!" Reid snaps before he can even stop himself. Morgan and Prentiss retreat, share a look, but Spencer plants his feet and stares unwaveringly at Hotch. "Going after just Nina is wrong." Desperation tinges his voice and he takes a pleading step closer. "We have this guy, Hotch. Garcia can get a name of whoever was meant to be supervising us -- CIA, Homeland Security, who cares? -- and we can get him. The evidence is there --"
"It's not our job, Reid--"
"But it's the right thing to do!"
It's not our job. He's tired of hearing that. It had been the same thing the previous evening during the rant about Spencer making the visit with Mr Scott too personal.
Trying to restrain his infamous temper, Hotch swallows. "Reid." It's clearly taking immense effort to keep his voice even, and Spencer -- breathing deeply, face hot with anger -- is thrilled to know he's getting under Hotch's skin. Rightly so. "If we take that guy into custody, what do you suppose we do?"
"Get an address? Evidence against Edelstein?" He looks around him wildly, exasperated at the ridiculous question. "I don't know, Hotch--"
"We wouldn't be able to make an arrest. If we did, by the time we got to any address we're given -- Edelstein will have his lawyers ready for us at the door, briefcases in hand and suits ready for their court dates, and our unsub will be off the map."
"A new passport made," Morgan mutters behind him, "ten thousand in her hands in solid cash..."
Hotch nods at him once. "And it'd all be for nothing."
"We won't make an arrest then!" Spencer tries desperately. "Just take him into custody, just try to interview him, strike a deal -- we won't involve the press!"
"But he'll have contacts. People watching him. People in this building who know him and know Edelstein and know Nina," stresses Hotch, gesturing with a sweep of his arm toward the bullpen behind the closed blinds. "Even bringing this guy in for an interview could set off red flags we don't even know exist -- and Scott will be off the grid within hours if she gets too suspicious."
Spencer takes an unintentional step backward before he even knows what he's doing; the reasoning is solid, the argument is uncounterable, and he hates it; it feels like a shot to the chest, and his ego. Eyes soft with hurt, he looks between his three colleagues, all looking at him like he's being ridiculous.
"Emily," he says, trying to keep his voice even, "on the plane, when Hotch said we had to stay out of politics, you said it was ridiculous, you agreed with me--"
"Not this time, Spencer, alright?" she says quietly, and even though her voice is one you might use when taming a wild animal, it only burns his fury brighter. "We have to go for Scott, before we go for anybody else. Morgan's right. Everything has to seem normal, otherwise she'll run."
"She knows we're chasing her -- she's too arrogant to run," he tries to reason.
"Come on, Reid, you know better than that," Hotch says, tilting his head. "She's arrogant because she's smart. If we step too far, and she sees us cornering her, she will go completely off grid. She knows how."
"If she has to, she'll stop killing," Morgan says. "She's not a sadist. She's a..."
"Business woman?" Prentiss offers, half joking, and Morgan smiles half-heartedly and tilts his head as if to say, I'll take that.
"She can stop herself if she has to," he finishes, "that's all I'm saying."
"Fine," Spencer exhales. "We won't go after this guy. But -- I just -- ignoring the bigger issue isn't something I can just do. Nina is our unsub, but her contractors -- they can't be allowed to do this, just because they're rich and keep their hands clean--"
"Reid," Hotch cuts in, "We give the profile, and then we're done. Nina Scott is not our responsibility after that. Nor are the people she works for."
He almost can't believe what he's hearing: his own boss, dismissing a...moral duty. Letting the other guys walk free. Jesus -- it's the definition of unbelievable. Their profile might start and end with Nina, but the crimes certainly don't, so neither should their job. They're meant to but the bad guys away, aren't they?
Besides, there's practical issues -- a whole bunch of them. Motives, for example. It's been weeks since their first briefing, and no motive is clear yet.
And there's the issue of Edelstein, who they've known about for days -- ever since Spencer had reviewed the security footage -- but has somehow still got his job as a high up member of the executive branch. Which is disgusting. But it's an impossible issue to fix. Spencer already knows that going after Edelstein, even if he doesn't involve the press, will be like signing a death warrant for him and his entire team. If he announces what he knows about Edelstein, it'll be Nina on his doorstep.
That's probably why Hotch is saying all this, he realises suddenly. Moral duty or not -- there's risks involved with the case, and it's their lives. Hotch knows this, of course he does. If they press the wrong buttons during the investigation, they might just be heading to their execution.
But when has that ever stopped them before? Their lives for the job, that's the way it had always been. Hadn't it?
"And you're okay with that?" Spencer questions, looking at him sharply with eyes widened in disbelief. "You're okay with letting the other guys walk free?"
"It's not our job to put them away, Reid, so yes, I am." Hotch stares at him, just as unwavering as Spencer is, and his chest heaves with fury, before: "Go ask Garcia for that name. Give it to Prentiss and Morgan to follow up on, then come here, and you can write a full statement about your phone call last night."
"A statement?" he repeats in disbelief.
"You're a witness now, Reid."
"A witness? Jesus. That's fucking..." He shakes his head, frustrated; he needs to get out of that office, needs to be alone, now. "I never knew I differed so much morally with my own coworkers," is his last remark, before, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he crosses to the door and storms out, making sure to slam it behind him for good measure.
authors note:
yeet hello it's been a while. i've been hit by writers block and i really just needed to push through it, so here u go, have this mess that's mostly unedited but is filled with important stuff
an important theme is starting here: spencer's struggle between his morals (going after the contractors), and his job (going after nina), and the danger he's put in by doing either of those options. massively important stuff, so PaY AtTeNTiOn
hope y'all are doing okay (i am not™️ but that's fine) and feel free to rant about any issues in the comments! how are y'all doing? really? i am here to be ur therapist and also please talk to me i am missing human interaction
👁👄👁 pls let me know what u think
ACAB