SEVEN

unedited



SEVEN. HEAVENLY WATERS


"THEY'RE CONSTELLATIONS!" Emily burst in, making a beeline for the nearest computer. With a swift search in the most accessible engine, she found images for the Heavenly Waters.


Daisy and Spencer looked at each other in deep thought. Spencer nodded to the letters and Daisy rushed over, sorting through them fiercely to find the names of the star patterns. "I remember the Heavenly Waters, I used to be obsessed with space when I was a kid and...aha! Here, June two-thousand and six...the air was salty as I sat by the ocean this morning. He was talking about Delphinus, the dolphin."


"Wait, a dolphin?" Spencer paused, his pen in midair. "One of his origami pictures was a dolphin, right?"


"Yeah," Daisy hummed, walking up to his side. "It looks like he completed six of the nine, and she's doing his last three. That's how she's continuing his legacy. But there's more to it..."


"I've almost got this cracked," Spencer muttered, scratching his chin as he reached out for another sip of coffee. He and Daisy seemed to move in tandem despite their short time knowing each other, and soon enough, Daisy had accidentally walked into Hotch with new information, Reid close behind her.


"Sorry, sir," she muttered, before placing the papers next to Emily. Hotch stared at her for a moment, but chose not to say anything. "They weren't just close. This...Dove and Ryan...they were in love."


Spencer pulled over one of his whiteboards while the team gathered around him. Rossi put his hands in his pockets. "How'd you crack it?"


"Daisy and I profiled the author," Spencer began, and Daisy smiled softly at the use of her first name instead of her last. "Cortland Ryan was on death row with several high-ranking members of the Aryan Brotherhood."


"He got the code from the Aryans?" JJ asked Daisy.


"Either that or he read a fuck-ton of sixteenth-century literature," she replied softly, and her eyes widened when she realised she'd sworn out loud. She made eye contact with Hotch and flushed a bright shade of red. "Sorry."


"The Aryans liked to use a cipher based on a four hundred year-old code written by Sir Francis Bacon," Spencer finished for Daisy.


"So it's a binary code," Morgan noted.


"That's as far as I could get," Daisy wrapped her cardigan around herself. "Spencer managed to figure out the rest. You've got a real genius here."


"That's our boy," Morgan beamed over at Spencer, who rolled his eyes.


"Bacon used a twenty-one letter alphabet. This one's twenty-four. Each letter is assigned a bit string of five binary digits. This combination yields thirty-two possible encodings. Normally, you'd use a computer to run all these combinations, but it was quicker just to do it longhand until I found the right one."


The team was left in a stunned silence. Emily made the first move, reaching over and poking Spencer's cheek. "He's so lifelike."


Daisy snorted and Emily flashed her a cheeky grin as they turned to follow Spencer to the letters.


"Now we don't have a complete record of their correspondence, but Daisy was able to make a chronology. The woman he calls 'Dove' established contact shortly after the trial."


Emily picked up one of the letters. "My dearest Cortland, thank you for writing back to me. The day the verdict was read, we shared a silent moment. I knew then there was a force willing us together. Every time I see you, I feel warmed as if by the sun, and yet I fear if I come too close, I'll be consumed by your fire."


"Ever since your visit, I am crazed with thoughts of you," Daisy recalled, the disturbing words of Ryan's reply were branded into her mind. The team looked over at her as she remembered the response to this particular letter. "Already you've entered my dreams. Each time you appear to me, I'm embraced by a feeling of trust and belief, as if I've known you all my life."


Hotch picked up the next piece of paper. "As always, I am touched by your words, but I long to see you again. Days pass quietly, one into the next, I can think of no one else. If only they would let us marry, I could finally hold your hand, kiss your lips. Here is my face, my body. They die with you; the only man who will ever truly see me. Take heart, my love, I will bring a part of you back into the world, and forever you will watch over us from the stars."


"What do you think she meant by that last line: 'I will bring a part of you back?'" Emily looked over at Daisy curiously.


"She did dig up his grave," Daisy suggested, feeling goosebumps rise on the back of her neck as she remembered the empty coffin.


"And the murders," Derek nodded. "She brought him back to life."


"What if she was talking about his child?" JJ piped up.


Reid hummed. "Well, she did say 'us'."


"Watch over us from the stars," Daisy walked over to Hotch and peered over his shoulder at the letter. She hardly noticed how their arms brushed against each other, she was far too concentrated to think about it. Hotch, however, swallowed and held the paper out so that she could see it better, though he didn't say anything.


"She used the semen samples to plant evidence, not to get pregnant," Rossi interjected.


"Maybe she did." "What if she did both?"


Hotch and Daisy spoke at the same time, and the latter quickly quieted down, deciding that she'd had enough glares from her boss for the day. She tucked her hands in her pockets and looked over at Emily, who chimed in. "If she had his kid, we might be able to track her through birth records."


"Agent Hotchner," the Sheriff broke into the group. Daisy stumbled back to let him pass through and consequently bumped into Hotch once more, though this time he placed his hand on the small of her back and redirected her to the right so that she didn't cause a scene. "We just got a report of a woman attacked in her house by a female assailant."


"Is she okay?"


"Sounds like it," the Sheriff answered JJ's question. "But I can't say the same for the attacker, though. Neighbours heard cries for help, pretty soon half the block was on her."


Hotch ran a hand down his face and shoved through the group, hoping to settle the case once and for all.


★☆


Hotch did not settle the case once and for all.


After finding Shara Carlino attempting to murder someone using a completely different M.O from the Unsub, the team had to read through the files of young women who had lost their baby in the months following Ryan's death.


"Hannah Dreyfus was in an auto accident," the Sheriff tossed aside one file. "She could barely walk. Shannon Conway moved away when the plant closed a year ago."


"Any other names you recognise?" Morgan asked.


"No," the Sheriff muttered, shaking his head. "I don't...whoa."


"What is it?" Hotch picked up on the change of tone quickly.


"Well, this one here sounds familiar, but I can't really place it," Daisy looked over and saw him point at a name. "Chloe Kelcher."


"Kelcher?" Daisy looked up at Spencer with furrowed eyebrows. "I know that name."


"Me too," Spencer hummed, walking over to the evidence boxes. He filed through the papers until he found what he was looking for, and opened the folder to show her name in perfect lettering. "Chloe Kelcher. She was on the jury."


"Well, that makes sense," Morgan said, while Hotch appeared to be thinking rather intensely. "She would have been exposed to the case evidence, seen firsthand what he did to his victims."


"That's when she fell in love with him, sitting across the courtroom everyday," Hotch muttered. 


"Well, it's one thing to have a relationship with a killer, it's another to become one," the Sheriff pointed out. 


"There might have been something that set her off," Daisy piped up.


"I think I know what it was," Hotch said, flicking through the file until he found what he was looking for. He held it out to Spencer and Daisy. 


"It's a death certificate," Spencer examined it closely. "Micro-vesicular Steatosis. Her baby died at the hospital."


Morgan jumped up and grabbed the gun Daisy had discarded on the desk. He tossed it towards her and she caught it with ease. "You remember how to use this thing?"


Daisy fixed her holster and exhaled with a smile. "Sadly, yes."


Hotch opened his mouth to say something, but Daisy stopped and stared him in the eye. 


"Is there a problem, Agent Hotchner?" she asked, her voice careful but still with a sharp wit. 


Hotch narrowed his eyebrows suspiciously at her, before sighing through his nose. "Of course not."


★☆


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