ii. Won't Get Fooled Again


"So they're treating you well?" Persephone sighed impatiently, listening to the worry in her mother's voice.

"Yes Mummy, they are treating me well." Persephone told her while stepping into the elevator on her way to the BAU. It was the beginning of her second week there. The job was relatively uneventful, plenty of coffee runs and filing mostly while observing the work the agents did. They worked as consultants on cases they couldn't fly out to, creating preliminary profiles to help guide police departments.

"Have you made any friends?" This question made Persephone roll her eyes.

"This isn't school Mummy."

"So you haven't made any friends then?" Violet Holmes's pushed. At this point Persephone was just putting her on mute mentally. "because I know you've always had a problem with that and I want you to know that it doesn't make you weird or different-"

Persephone got out of the elevator on her floor and cut her worrying mother off. "Okay, I've got to go, I'll call you when I can."

"Swear?" Her mother questioned with a sigh.

"Yes, I swear." The blonde hissed.

"Okay be careful, I love you."

"Yes, yes, I love you too. Bye!" Persephone buried the words out and hung up before the conversation was forced to be any longer. She should have moved to Australia, then the time difference would make it too difficult to have conversations like that. The blonde started walking into the bullpen only to have her attention caught by JJ rushing to the conference room.

"Guys, conference room now."

~~~

The team sat at the table inspecting the files but sprung into action when Hotch and Gideon entered the room. Gideon walked to stand beside Reid, picking up the photo of the bomb.

"Pipe bombs." He dropped the photo down before Morgan handed him two more photos, the top showing the cardboard box the bomb was in.

"Packed in cardboard boxes," Morgan added. Persephone looked over at the picture from her seat next to Reid.

"Package bombs." Hotch interrupted.

"Sent through the mail?" Gideon questions.

"No. The other picture in your hand is of the switch that ATF found. The same mechanism for both bombs. Mercury-activated." Morgan answered, shaking his head at the question.

"What does that mean?" Elle asks, opening her notebook to write something down.

"There are contacts to a detonator on either end of a bent tube full of mercury," Reid explained.

"What it means is all you have to do is tilt the package to detonate it." Morgan clarified.

"So, they couldn't have been sent through the mail. The bomb had to deliver them himself." Elle concluded, looking at everyone.

"Exactly. Strange way to commit an act of terrorism." Hotch commented. Morgan took a swig of his coffee as Hotch continued, "Why go to all this trouble to kill just a few people?"

"Cowardice? The need to feel powerful and bigger than he is?" Persephone leaned forward, placing her fingers over her lips as she pondered out loud. There wasn't enough to deduce anything about the unsub really.

"Let's recommend not raising the terror alert level for now. No reason to spread panic." Gideon advised shrugging calmly; inwardly, Persephone thought they also shouldn't raise the alarm because it would likely increase the Unsub's ego, which could accelerate their timeline.

"We got news" Persephone straightened up, hearing JJ, the liaison walked over to the TV and turned it on. "This is just a local channel, but the coverage is everywhere now – CNN, FOX, MSNBC, Al-Jazeera – you name it."

"So much for not spreading panic." Persephone sarcastically muttered, watching the TV screen.

Everyone paid attention to the screen; on it is a female news reporter standing distant from the recent bombing, firefighters and cops behind her.

"According to doctors, he's badly injured but in stable condition in the ICU. Now, neighbors say that they heard a blast at about 10:30 this morning, and police arrived shortly...."

Gideon started to speak over the reporter, "If DHS doesn't raise the terror alert now, they'll look weak."

"Make sure Homeland Security knows that this is everywhere," Hotch ordered, JJ nodded her head. Everyone started returning to the files when suddenly, as the reporter spoke, an explosion went off.

Snapping her attention back to the screen, Persephone watched blankly as the people on the scene back away from the fiery inferno on live TV for millions of people to see.

"I just felt that...Are you...Are you alright? Is everyone all right? Do they need help?"

Persephone couldn't but quickly examine each person on the screen, based on the types of explosions these bombs were causing, it was likely that this caused another casualty.

"Looks like we're going to Palm Beach. Let's meet at the airstrip in 20." Hotch said, gathering the files and heading out of the room.

~~~

The team, except Morgan, who had stayed behind to work on the bomb fragments, were now on the jet heading to Palm Beach as Hotch was debriefing them on the case.

"Bombings occurred within three miles of each other. The first victim was a 74-year-old widow, Barbara Keller." Hotch explained as he walked into the main portion of the plane.

"Two hours after that, Clurman got hit in his driveaway, and 45 minutes later, well, we all saw that." Hotch sat across from Gideon. "Jill Swenson, a 34-year-old housewife who lived across the street from Clurman. Of the three, only Clurman survived."

"Any connection between the victims?" Reid questioned while looking up.

Persephone studied the photos of the victims, she could already tell they had very little in common.

"One. Clurman was a partner in a $10-million condo development deal in which Keller was an investor, and a few weeks ago, the whole deal went bust."

Narrowing her eyes, Persephone noted how all of it points to Clurman having something to do with the bombing. After all, he was the only one to have survived an attack and is the only connection between victims. Although Jill was only his neighbor so it wasn't clear if she was the target or not,

"Went bust, how?" Elle wondered from the other side of the plane.

"Geologists discovered that the land was on methane, and the condos never got built. The land became worthless, and Clurman lost a lot of people, a lot of money." Hotch explained.

Reid raised his brows as he made a suggestion. "So maybe one of them was mad enough to take aim at Clurman."

"No. Mrs Keller was one of the people who lost money due to the condo deal going bust. If that were the motive, she wouldn't have been targeted." Persephone disagreed looking at Reid who couldn't hold her gaze as her attention was purely on him.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's a little too early to theorize about motive." Gideon shrugged, observing photographs of the crime scenes.

"Then, where do we start?" Elle queried.

"From the beginning. What do we know about bombers?" Gideon quizzed them.

"Mostly male loners. History of criminal activity. About 50 per cent of all bombings are actually the product of vandalism." Reid rattled out, looking from Hotch and Gideon and then back to Persephone and Elle.

"And more often than not, bombers end up accidentally blowing themselves up. So, the first suspects you always look for in a bombing case are the victims." Hotch noted.

"Clurman was the only male. Losing a large business deal like that, it could be a powerful stressor." Elle pointed out. Persephone shook her head slightly, disagreeing. Clurman was not the Unsub.

"Well, then there's the crime scene." Persephone watched as Gideon opened the file in front of him. "Clurman was the only victim who didn't get hit at his door. Why? What was different about this one?" Silence enveloped the jet as Gideon observed the photo of Clurman's destroyed car.

~~~

"Before Clurman passed out," Hotch started as the group inspected the crime scene, "all he told cops at the time was that he saw the package sitting on the stoop outside his kitchen door."

"Why didn't he take it in?" Persephone questioned while bending down to look into the car itself "Was he late for work?"

"Why didn't it go off until he got to his car? It's like 50 feet away." Reid asked, looking over to the blonde.

"So roughly 15 meters." She translated for herself out loud.

"Joe Reese, one of Clurman's investors, was here before the bomb went off. Cops have ruled him out as a suspect, but he said he saw Clurman get in the car with the package." Hotch filled them in.

"So maybe Clurman wasn't receiving a bomb at all. Maybe he was on his way to delivering one." Elle speculated.

"And he drops or tilts it, and it goes off by accident." Persephone looked over to Reid and shook her head again.

"It would have been safer to walk instead of use a car. If he was the unsub, he'd know that."

"I'd like to talk to Clurman. In the meantime, let's get a warrant to search his house." Gideon walked off, he gestured for Reid and Persephone to follow.

~~~

Persephone stood between Reid and Gideon while looking down at the body of Mr. Clurman as he laid in a hospital bed. His leg was missing from his body, leaving half of his body with deep burns and pain that would follow him for the rest of his life.

"What can you tell us about the package, Mr. Clurman?" Gideon softly questioned the injured male, Clurman having a nasal breathing tube on and his legs, including his amputated left leg, raised.

"I thought I knew what it was. A pot for an orchid, I collect them. I ordered the pot through the mail." Persephone nodded slightly at that; that tracked, it made sense for Clurman to take the package with him to his car if he already expected it.

"Why didn't you take it inside?" She asked.

"It was for my office. I was going there anyway, thought I'd take it with me." He explained with a shrug of his stiff shoulders "That's the last thing I remember."

"You had an argument with Joe Reese." Gideon informed and the man looked at him in confusion. "Do you remember that?"

"Joe was there?" Clurman appeared confused.

"He was angry, he accused you of blowing him off." Gideon recounted. "Any reason he'd want to hurt you?"

"Joe?" Clurman slowly shook his head. "No-I mean, he's a confrontational guy, but if he wanted to kill me, he'd just beat me to death." Persephone couldn't help but smirk at this comment

"A lot of people were angry about that deal falling apart, and they were angry at you. I don't know; how does that make you feel?"

"I felt awful." He admitted with a sad expression. "I thought those condos would make a lot of money for a lot of people, myself included. I thought that geologist was legit, He didn't even take samples. He scammed us."

Clurman's remorse was evident. "All those investors who lost their money. But Barbara..."

"Barbara Keller?"

"The first victim." Reid piped in.

"What about her?" Gideon inquired.

Clurman slowly shook his head "It's just such a shame. Such a nice lady, you know? It was such an easy sale." He took another hard breath in. "Sometimes I felt like I took advantage of her because she was old and lonely. Now she's dead and I feel terrible."

Clurman yelped in pain as Gideon leaned closer to see if he was alright. "What is it?"

"Ah! My foot." Persephone looked down at his foot, specifically the one that was amputated; phantom pains.

"I'll get you some help," Gideon whispered and left the room, Reid and Persephone followed shortly after.

Gideon called Hotch. "This isn't our guy. His answers were coherent even while he was sedated. He's got a sense of humour, displays empathy"

"Not to mention he has a hobby unrelated to bomb-making." Reid added in a loud voice so that Hotch could hear them as they walked down the hospital hallway.

"Clurman has no indicators that would suggest he'd be a bomber, no need for recognition, and he's not a recluse." Persephone stated.

"What about the materials we found?" Hotch's voice asked from the phone as Gideon shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we'll see if the fragments match at the bomb scene, but I doubt they will."

All they could do now is wait for Morgan to finish reconstructing the bomb.

~~~

The team had been waiting at the Palm Beach police station for any news from Morgan when Hotch ushered the team and Detective Morrison into a private room. He showed them an open laptop with images of different bombs, all identical.

"Morgan emailed these over. The three on the left are the bombs from yesterday, the one on the right from the evidence room at Quantico."

"They're all identical. Made with steel reinforcement rods." Reid noted, observing the structural make of the four bombs.

"Adrian Bale." Gideon stated. Persephone furrowed her eyebrows, the name rang a bell.

"Who?" One of the detective's questioned as Hotch let out a breath.

"He held our agents in a standoff in Boston last year." The unit director explained. "He took out 6 agents and a hostage with one of his bombs."

"So you're thinking he's behind this?" Elle questioned as Gideon moved to sit at a table and take a long sip of water. Persephone could see how much Adrian Bale was haunting Gideon.

"Possibly. But he's in prison. He's got kind of a cult following like Charles Manson; it could just be a copycat." Reid speculated.

"Could also be a student of some kind. Inspired by Bale. Trying to be his legacy." Persephone suggested.

"There's one way to find out." The detective said with a shrug of his shoulders "Let's put the screws to this guy."

"No, no, no-Bale's too smart." Gideon said while pulling the water bottle away from his lips "If we want information from him, we have to handle him carefully. Even then you have to assume that road will lead nowhere."

"You're saying the connection to Bale doesn't help us at all?" The detective questioned and Gideon shook his head in disagreement.

"No." he breathed before sending a small smile. "I'm just saying let us handle Bale."

"Look, we just heard from local Texas P.D." The man admitted with a shake of his head. "You were right about Clurman's nephew. He admitted the bomb stuff was his, which is great for the Clurmans, but it leaves us with zero suspects-So what do you suggest my men do now?"

"Proceed from the profile." Gideon stated, causing the man's eyes to go wide. "I didn't know we had a profile."

Persephone let out a small laugh that caused everyone to turn to her. She pushed herself off her position leaning against the wall. "Of course we have a profile."

~~~

Gideon paced back and forth in the main portion of the police office. "We're dealing with a bomber. We're talking about someone who's non-confrontational. If you bumped into him in a café, he'd apologize, even if it wasn't his fault."

"We would classify this bomber as highly organized, based on the meticulous design of his bombs." Hotch continued. "It means above average intelligence. He probably has a skilled job, a trade, one that allows him to work alone. That's how he was able to make a sophisticated device without raising suspicion. Furniture maker, jeweller, et cetera."

"Background in explosives?" Someone questioned.

"Background in explosives?" Detective Morrison piped up.

"No, not necessarily. You're thinking about a type who likes to blow things up. Gives them an emotional or sexual release, death; secondary."

"Then what's this guy doing?" A male African-American cop in uniform questions.

"Murdering." Gideon responded as though it should have been obvious to them. "Bombs-just weapons and these attacks, they are not random."

"Well, how do you know that?" Someone asked.

"By process of elimination." Hotch took over. "We know bombers fall into a discrete number of categories according to motive. There's the terrorist whose aim is to spread fear. We'd expect him to strike in a populous area, like a subway. There's the politically motivated bomber. He makes a statement by choosing a symbolic target, like an abortion clinic. Then there's our Unsub. He made bombs designed to kill, and he chose his victims specifically by placing the bombs at their stoops. That tells us he has a direct motive. Statistically, he bombs for profit or to conceal a crime, and it tells us how we're going to find him; through the people he killed."

"Somewhere among the three victims, there is a direct motive. Keep digging. Thanks," Gideon finished.

"If you have any questions, we'll be around."

"You'll be around. I'll be in prison. Somebody's got to talk to Bale." Gideon walks through all the officers. "Persephone, Reid, you're with me."

~~~

Reid and Persephone stood in silence as they watched Gideon speak to Bale. Persephone wasn't bothered by the silence, intently focusing on the conversation in front of them but she could feel Reid glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. He's been acting like this since she started at the BAU. The genius kept looking at her but avoiding any form of contact with her. She hadn't spoken a word directly to him since they met. It was getting annoying at this point.

She sighed. "What is it?"

"Er..um..." Spencer really didn't expect her to notice or speak to him and he really didn't want to have to explain that he had been trying to come up with a smooth way of starting a conversation. He racked his brain for anything to speak about. "Did you know that Persephone is the name of the Greek mythological daughter of Zeus and Demeter who was the goddess of spring growth. After she was kidnapped by Hades to be Queen of the Underworld, it was decreed by Zeus that she would spend six months of the year with her mother, allowing crops to grow, and six with her husband, thus accounting for the seasons. The meaning of the name is disputed. While some sources say it means "bringer of death," others indicate that it may also mean "dark blue" and "bringer of light"."

Persephone did in fact know all of that but she just stared at Reid blankly, this was a genius? "And... that's relevant now...?"

Reid swallowed and looked down at his feet, now shuffling them awkwardly. "It's not, never mind."

Persephone just nodded and looked forward again. Luckily, Gideon was leaving, she quickly followed to get out of that situation.

Gideon called Hotch. "Bale may be part of this, but he's not in control of it. If he were, he would have taunted me with specifics."

"So, what's our next move?"

"I'll let Bale know the Unsub's using his designs."

"Bait."

"Yeah, exactly. If Bale wasn't part of it before, he'll sure want to be part of it now." Gideon hung up the call.

Reid stopped them with his hand as they approached the prison's electric door. "I'm going to stay behind and monitor his mail, calls, visitors, any contact that he has with the outside world."

"Good. Even if he doesn't know the Unsub, he may want to try to contact him."

~~~

Gideon was washing his hands at the sink in the jet as they flew back to Palm Beach, his phone on speaker with Reid. Persephone had been sitting in the main area, close enough to hear what Reid and Garcia had found in Bale's prison computer logs.

"186 emails. Through the ISP, we were able to track down the names and some of the addresses, but none of them are in Palm Beach."

"How about occupations?" Gideon asked, having splashed his face with some water.

"Wasn't a required field, so really only about a third of them are filled in."

"Well, the Unsub takes pride in his work. He would fill it in."

"You're right. Let's see. We have trucker, physician, antiquities dealer, store owner, orderly...." Antiquities dealer reminded Persephone about Barbara Keller, Mrs Keller was a collector of antique coins.

"Wait. Antiquities dealer?"

"Yeah. Why? What is it?" Reid asked from the phone. Persephone pulled her phone out to inform Hotch.

~~~

"So far, nothing from the search." The detective leading Gideon, Elle, Hotch and Persephone back into the station told them.

"What do we know about Walker?" Gideon questioned as Persephone thought about what they had been told. They found the Unsub, camped out in his garage building his tools of destruction, before driving through the door hitting his wife with the car in the process

"He's a quiet career criminal." Detective Morrison started explaining, "Spent four years in prison for a series of forged cheques when he was in his early 20s. He's now 46. For the past 18 years, he owned a store which sold coins, maps and historical documents. We raided the place as soon as you gave us Walker's name." He shook his head. "Most of his inventory was fake. Forgeries valued in the millions."

"But the walls had started to close in on him." Persephone snaps her attention to Hotch. "We talked to some of his clients, and he was in debt up to his ears and promising stuff he didn't have time to forge."

"Then Barbara Keller found out that the coins he had sold her were fake. She threatened to out him." Elle reveals.

"And if she had, all of the forgeries would've been discovered. He would have done 20 years."

"So, he had to shut her up?" Persephone asked, befuddled, looking at everyone with her hand out. "He planted all these bombs just to kill one little old lady?" She couldn't help but be angry. This was her first case? The reveal of a painfully boring and pathetic forger murdering people to cover his tracks. She was hoping for something more...sophisticated to be honest.

"And to throw us off, he made it look like it was much bigger than it was," Hotch answered.

Persephone's head snapped to the office's entry, hearing a commotion. "You hear me? I said stop now!"

"Please help me." A man begged before pulling the coat off to the side to reveal the bomb latched to his body. The officers quickly pulled their guns while the agents looked at the man in shock.

"Everyone back-now." The detective said with a stern voice. "We need bomb squad in here."

"Please it's not me." The man stated while his whole body seemed to tremble with fear.

"Don't come any closer. Put your hands up and walk slowly back out." Detective Morrison orders, but the male raises his hands in surrender.

"I can't. He'll kill me."

"Who will?" Gideon asked, keeping his voice calm.

"I don't know. He held a gun to me, put this on me. He said you'll know who he is."

"What does he want?"

"A helicopter, a passport." The frightened male gestured with his head outside, breathing heavily. "He's watching. Once he gets what he wants, he's got instructions to defuse the bomb."

"Walker's close by."

"Let's get snipers around the perimeter."

An officer used his radio to communicate Morrison's instructions. "Let's get snipers on the roof." Gideon and Hotch moved a little closer to the bombed male.

"Hey, we understand, and we're not going to leave you." Gideon waved his hands, trying to diffuse the tension.

"Please. Take it off."

"Well, we need to figure out how the bomb's put together first," Gideon explained.

"Tracey, you're in" A man took photos of the bomb wired to the male.

~~~

Hotch, Elle and Detective Morrison went into a separate room to speak to the bomb specialist leaving Gideon and Persephone with the wired man. After some conversation, they coulld see Hotch shaking his head towards them. They didn't have a way to remove the bomb.

Persephone didn't visibly react but Gideon sighed and lowered his head slightly.

The victim noticed. "What is it?"

"We need to go outside."

"No. He said he would kill me if I went back out. He made sure I told you that."

"Then we need to isolate you," Persephone stated, keeping calm eye contact with the scared male, Gideon was doing the same.

"Why?" The man looked desperate. "There's nothing you can do? Is there anything?"

Gideon just shook his head.

The man's face twisted in distress, his breathing even more uneven than before.

~~~

They isolated the victim as best they could. He was now sitting on a chair in a mesh cage at the main office in case the bomb went off. Frankly, Persephone thought the attempt was pitiful, a mesh cage was hardly going to be able to contain the type of blast this bomb could cause.

"I don't get it." Elle mumbled in confusion. "If this guy's a hostage, then why hasn't Walker tried to negotiate with us?"

"Maybe he's scared or maybe he hasn't figured out what his next move is yet."

"We got a beat on Walker." Morrison called out, pointing to the location on a map. "Sniper spotted him in his scope, He's sitting in an office building across the street. It looks like a storage room with a small window facing us."

"We could surprise him." Elle suggested.

"Good idea." Hotch acknowledged. "If he feels cornered, he might give himself up."

"Why do you say that?"

"Bombers are cowards." Persephone explained. Hotch gave her a look of approval before laying out the plan.

~~~

Persephone leaned against the desk as she stood with Gideon listening to Hotch speak through the walkie-talkie.

"We're entering the building," Hotch informs Persephone and Gideon over the radio.

"Be careful. At the very least, we know he's got a gun." Gideon advises Hotch, hearing a simple copy from the other male.

"We're approaching the door now."

"Copy that." Detective Morrison replied, picking up the police radio before glancing at the FBI agent and intern.

"So, bombers are cowards, huh?"

"Yeah, every last one of them."

Suddenly, the phone rang. Gideon quickly pressed the answer button.

"Yeah," Gideon answered.

"Gideon, it's me." The voice of Morgan sounded out, "I just found an email Bale sent Walker two days ago. Listen to this. My only regret is giving myself up, and for what? To be stuck in a cage for the rest of my life. Don't make my mistake. If they catch you, whatever you do, don't let them keep you." Morgan read out.

Persephone's face fell as the realization hit her. She snatched the radio from Morrison and shouted into it. "Get out of there now! Now!"

She could hear the sound of Hotch ordering everyone to move and then an explosion. "He's a forger! How didn't we see this happening? He's copied everything about Bale!"

She was beaten by a mediocre player in The Game. It was embarrassing. Gideon tried to comfort her. "We couldn't have known Persephone. It wasn't part of the profile."

The intern just turned away and rolled her eyes. They could have known. They just focused on the bombings themselves rather than the profile of Walker.

Gideon sat on the floor of the quarantined cage with the victim while Persephone sat at a free desk. Morrison was trying to get in contact with the team who went to arrest Walker. Eventually he succeeded. "We're fine. Everybody made it out. Everyone but Walker. Is the hostage okay?"

"He's fine for now." He turned off the radio and spoke to the bomb specialist. "How much time do we have?"

"Two hours, 24 minutes."

"With Walker dead, I'm all out of options."

"I've got one." Persephone focused on Gideon, who is now looking at the victim, lost in thought.

~~~

Persephone handed paperwork with JJ at the station while Gideo and Hotch spoke to Bale. She wasn't happy about it but didn't argue. It was her job. She wasn't a field agent, only an intern, a glorified administrative assistant.

Within very little time, everyone was crowded around the cage to watch the disarming, Bale included.

"I've isolated the wires connected to the actual device. We've got one shot at this. It's either the... Blue wire or the red wire," The bomb tech asked.

"Which do we cut, Bale? Red or blue?" Gideon asked Bale who took a deep breath before answering.

"Red," He stated simply.

"You know if you're lying, this thing goes boom, you get nothing, right?"

"Yes." If we cut the red, it's over. You get to spend your time in a cushy asylum, bushes, trees, visits, nurses... And we get this man out of here alive."

"I don't see how I could be any clearer," Something wasn't right. It seemed Gideon also thought so from the way he was staring straight into the bomber's eyes.

"17 seconds," Hotch reminded them.

"Cut the blue." Gideon ordered, causing everyone to look at him with panic.

"Are you sure?"

"Do it." He ordered again, no waver in his voice. The tech cut the blue wire, and the bomb stopped at 3 seconds. Everyone relaxed in relief except Bale.

"All right. Shouldn't take long to cut this thing off now." The bomb squad member informed them as he got to work on removing the bomb.

Hotch aggressively grabbed Bale by his collar and shoved him out of the room, pissed that Bale had lied. Everyone else but Elle, Gideon and Persephone followed.

"How'd you know?" Elle asked Gideon, moving to stand beside him.

"Bale said it himself earlier. Specifically that given the opportunity of pressing that button, he'd have no choice. All he did was take his word for it." Persephone answered, recalling back to the conversation she watched at the prison.

~~~

"So your first case. How was it?" Kevin asked Persephone during their scheduled session later that week.

Persephone who was still standing after their greetings threw herself down dramatically onto the couch. "Awful!"

Kevin looked concerned and leaned forward. "How so?"

The teen rolled her eyes and explained everything while facing the ceiling. "It was a sheep in wolf's clothing! I was sure that it was going to be interesting but it ended up being ridiculously boring! And we got tricked by the unsub, a pathetic, simpering forger!"

The therapist raised an eyebrow. "You stopped this man from killing anyone else though. Saved lives, aren't you happy about that?"

Persephone shrugged. "He probably would have stopped eventually. He was an idiot who planned on ending the spree in death. Boring."

Kevin took note of her reaction. "Are you bothered by the deaths that happened? Any feelings about them at all?"

The blonde looked at him for the first time since the session started. She had a deadpan look on her face. "Why would I have any feelings about it? It's not like there's anything I could have done to prevent them."

"Most people would feel sad for the life wasted, for the grief of the families, for the trauma Mr Clurman had from having a leg blown off."

"As I said, there's nothing I could have done about it. It's not like feeling sad for them would help anyway." She shrugged again.

Kevin took note of this again and moved on from the topic, seeing that it wasn't likely that there would be much more she would say about it. "And how are you finding your team?"

Persephone shifted to become more comfortable on the couch. "Everyone is fine I guess. I haven't spoken to them much to be honest. JJ did tell me that Reid's birthday is coming up and that they'll be giving him some gifts."

Kevin nodded. "Well that's something. It might be good if you try to create some relationships with your colleagues. Maybe you could get a gift for this Reid?"

Persephone made a face that Kevin noticed. "What?"

"He's weird."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well we never speak. I know that he keeps looking at me when I'm not looking at him. He avoids me whenever possible. But seems fine with everyone else. And when we were watching Gideon speak to Bale at the prison he just told me the origin of my name for no reason. It's weird."

Kevin hmmm'd. "How old is Reid?"

"Uhh... 24."

"Ahh so a genius as well then? To be in the FBI with doctorates? Have you considered that he may be shy? Or socially awkward?"

Persephone pouted. "Doesn't mean that it's not annoying or weird."

"No, no it doesn't." Kevin agreed. "But maybe it would be good if you made more of an effort so he can feel more comfortable around you. You should try to speak to your colleagues more for reasons that aren't work related."

A/N: Not my best work but I honestly find this episode to be super boring but had to start here for my plans. Persephone is kinda a huge bitch at times but she's a Holmes, what can you expect? 

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