jupiter aria bealiu

i sighed, running my fingers through my hair as i continued to fill out the paperwork in front of me. groaning in frustration as another one of my pens had officially run out of ink. i tossed it into the garbage bin across my office and grabbed another one out of the jar in the corner of my desk, picking the small gel ball off of the end of the needle tipped pen and scribbling more information down onto the paper in front of me. a small quiet hum left my lips as my pen glided smoothly over the thin piece of paper. as time went by, my humming became louder and had eventually evolved into a gentle singing. the jazzy romantic melody filling my small quiet office as the lyrics tumbled their way out of my lips. i smiled, putting the last piece of paperwork back into the file and onto the corner of my desk, picking up the case folder that had recently been placed in my inbox. i stood from my chair, still lightly singing as i swayed around the office.

"well, if i didn't know any better i'd think it was my birthday with this gift you're giving me, princess."

i snapped my head up, turning around to see morgan leaning against my doorway, his smoldering smile plastered on his face.

"may i help you, morgan?"

"we've got a case and jj wants you on this one with us."

i smile, shrugging off my coat, throwing it onto my chair and walking out of my office with morgan.

"awesome." i sigh, tucking the folder underneath my arm.

"okay. what is it?"

i shrug my shoulders, looking up at him.

"i don't think i'm making much progress with rossi. he still doesn't like me."

"and why do you think he doesn't like you again?"

"i think he only thinks i'm on the team because reid wanted me there. or because hotch likes me."

"just because lover boy vouched for you doesn't mean that's the only reason hotch let you on. yeah, hotch kind of has a soft spot for you but he let you on because you're a people reading genius, we had a spot open, and you give great road trip entertainment. you also took one look at our last case and told us who our unsub was like it was the most obvious thing in the world."

"well because it was. if you look at the behavior patterns you could totally tell-"

"yeah yeah we get it. we've got two geniuses." he rolls his eyes, making me burst our into a fit of giggles.

he opens the door to the briefing room and we both step in, my giggles ceasing as everyone's eyes fall onto us.

"morning guys." i smile, taking a seat at the round table next to spencer.

"morning, baby. you're looking absolutely radiant today." garcia smiles, winking at me from across the table.

"stop flirting with me like this. you know i can't control myself around you." i flirt obnoxiously, making garcia smile even wider.

"this is why you're my favorite. reid, i'll be happy to let you know that your girlfriend is now our girlfriend."

spence lets out a loud sarcastic laugh, shaking his head.

"first, she's my fiancee. not my girlfriend. it took me a long time to build up the nerve to propose so use the title liberally. secondly, while there are roughly 50,000 people living in polygamy in the united states, we are not part of those 50,000."

"wow. it really tickles my fancies when you talk in statistics." i say, lolling my head to my right and smiling innocently.

"oh ha ha." he mocks, pressing my forehead away from him before opening the case file in front of him.

jj then stands up and turns on the television displaying the case information, causing everyone to turn to the front of the room where the tv is placed.

"what're we lookin at, jj?" rossi asks, walking into the room

"charlotte, north carolina. so far, six victims have popped up. each the same way of death. a single bullet to the chest. but-"

"the vocal chords are split open." i gasp looking closer at the slides on the screen.

"yes. and it looks like our unsub's punctured what looks like it could be brail into each of the victims wrist. but cpd had a specialist look at the wounds and they can't seem to decipher what exactly it means." jj continues, switching the slides over to close up of their wrists.

i lean forward, squinting at the screen as i examine the puncture marks. their true identity almost immediately revealing themselves to me as i scribble down my thoughts onto the white notepad in front of me.

"each of our victims is 23-26. all brown eyed brunettes and between 5'4-5'6 , roughly 175-180 lbs., and music majors of some sort at queens university. so we can see that our unsub has a type."

"of some sort?" i ask, my eyebrows furrowed as i spread out the pages in the case file, my unorganized thoughts personifying themselves through my disorganized table setting.

"the first two victims were musical theater majors, the third vocal performance, and the last three music sciences."

i nod my head, jotting down notes as everyone kept talking and spewing out ideas. the room erupted in chatter but i kept to myself, scribbling away on the notepad as the thoughts in my mind moved thousands of miles a minute.

"whatcha thinkin' there, gorgeous?" morgan asks, standing behind my chair and leaning down to look over the things i had written on my notepad.

"yeah, you're awfully quiet beauliu." hotch notes, turning away from the board to look at me.

i look up at the group who's staring down at me and i sit up in my chair, clearing my throat before speaking.

"well, the victim's are all women and look to be dressed as if they were on a date. so our unsub is most likely male. and according to the geological locations of where the victims are being left, he's leaving them in places that have a big impact on the music culture in charlotte. victim one was left in front of the rabbit hole, that's where the blues society is based out of. victims two and three were left in front of and behind the fillmore, a popular venue used for pop or alt music. victim four, spectrum centre, the classical hub. victim five, bojangles coliseum, hip hop. and victim six, the neighbourhood theatre, rock. he's hitting every major genre. this is someone who's experienced in the music world or enough of an active local to care about the different music events enough to know the difference between these venues. so he either works in or around the music industry. he's confident enough to leave them in public places, but he's no sadist. so that can only mean that he's trying to catch someone's attention. he's trying to send a message to someone. the one shot to chest is quick and efficient so he just wants to get the job done. all these other things are done post-mortum. he's probably not one for brutality, probably not violent at all in his personal life."

prentiss nods her head impressively and rossi agrees.

"our unsub is most likely a good people person. wouldn't look like a killer on the outside. he's kind. but he's also a bit of a homebody. not one to go to parties, but enjoys group gatherings. it looks like the flaying of the vocal chords is done out of rage, so he's more jealous than angry it seems. and the brail could be some form of message that he's trying to send." he adds, looking over the papers on the board.

i pause for a moment, biting my lips before turning to rossi.

"actually...those aren't brail marks. those are chord charts. they're diagrams drawn on specific lines to show where to place your fingers. and judging by the looks of them, it's for a guitar, but i'm not sure. plus, the fact that our unsub is choosing music majors and then cutting open their vocal chords leads to the basic conclusion that our unsub has a sort of messiah complex. making him believe that it's his job to put people in their place. to judge them the way god would. i could also see a slight connection to obsessive compulsive disorder. our unsub is looking for something in these victims and he can't find it. it's not exactly what he needs so he deems them unfit. unworthy. which is why he rips open their vocal chords. he doesn't believe they deserve them. he's not jealous. he's judgemental." i continue, flipping through my notes and spinning in my chair.

"are we sure it's not just his signature?" spencer asks, biting away at the edges of his fingers and walking over to me, grabbing my notepad to read over my many scribbles.

i reach out, pulling his hand away from his mouth and grabbing my notes out of his other hand.

"no. it's not. if it were, he wouldn't have such a specific target. everything from the age range, to the height, to the physical attributes show that he's looking for something specific. he's looking to replicate....garcia do me a favor and cross reference the details of these women with popular singers. look across all genres. get it as close as you possibly can to how these women look. then send me what you get."

"you got it, sugar." she nods before walking out of the briefing room and upstairs to her office.

"alright guys, wheels up in 30." hotch says before walking out of the briefing room.

"you totally just disproved rossi's entire profile in less than five minutes. i could see why you think rossi doesn't like you." morgan smirks, grabbing his things and walking out.

spence walks up to me, placing his hand on the base of my spine and walking us out of the briefing room with emily and jj following close behind.

"you think you're gonna be okay working this case?" spencer asks, making emily and jj close in behind us.

"why wouldn't she be?" emily asks, glancing over at me

spencer looks down at me, rubbing his thumb softly along my back.

"i'm from charlotte. my brothers work in cpd. justin is the one who sent the request. and queens is my alma matter." i sigh, splitting from the group and heading to my office to grab my go bag.

i reach under my desk, grabbing my go bag and leaning on my hands. pausing for a moment as i look at my college graduation photo sitting between spencer and i's engagement photo and a family photo. casey and i had both hopped on top of adrian who had flown back to carolina for our ceremony. and my mother snapped the photo just as we had begun to collapse. wide smiles on off of our faces, a moment of pure, raw happiness caught and stuck behind a glass frame.

"you alright?"

i turn around to see spencer standing in the doorway. his hands in his pockets and a worrisome look etched into his face.

"i'm okay spen. i just...what if something happens to one of them? or rather, just casey." i ask, gesturing towards the photo of me and my best friends.

adrian, casey, and i had been best friends since we were children. adrian and i were neighbors and we had met casey in kindergarten. the photo had been taken when adrian has surprised us at our graduation ceremony when we had graduated from queens. i had graduated high school at 15 as a junior because i had enough credits so why not. and both casey and adrian were a couple of years older than me. casey had taken a few years off to travel, whereas i went straight to college. i first started out at duke. getting my masters in clinical psychology. then casey and i had gone to queens together, casey majoring in music education whereas i had enrolled to get my phd in clinical psychology with a highlight on music therapy and alternative medicine. whereas adrian had joined the marine corps right out of high school.

"hey. nothing's going to happen to them. they can handle their own. more than anything, the unsub wouldn't want them because adrian and casey don't fit the victim profile. don't worry, they're gonna be alright, baby."

my lips curved up at the nickname and i walked forward, leaning my head on his chest. he lets out a long breath and wraps his arms loosely around my shoulders. his hands combing through my hair and massaging my head lightly. i lean back to pull away but he pulls me back into him.

"spen? we gotta go."

"a 20 second hug can release enough oxytocin to lower blood pressure and reduce the stress hormone norepinephrine. so we've still got 7 more seconds to go." he says before leaning his cheek on the top of my head.

i smile into his chest before wrapping my arms around his torso.

"only you could make scientific facts romantic." i giggle.

"just for you."

i squeeze slightly before pulling away and looking up at my floppy haired fiancee.

"i love you, spen."

"i love you more than you could ever imagine, jup."