5. Backup

stand by me - kina grannis


Okay. Okay. I might have a little crush on Reid, I thought to myself at my desk the next morning. That was bound to happen. He was smart, nice, a great profiler. I was just warping my respect for his skills into something else. Perfectly understandable.


But now it had to stop. I mean, I couldn't have a full-blown crush on my coworker. That would be distracting. Even potentially dangerous. I leaned back in my seat. Plus, It would make things very awkward between us if he ever found out.


"Morning Maya," Prentiss said as she walked past my desk. 


"Hey," I said, "Come here a moment?" She retraced a couple of steps to stand by my computer.


"Did you know that Reid's middle name is Walter?"


"It's a possibility." She smirked.


"Well, just so you know, there's nothing going on there," I said quietly. Her face betrayed the slightest amount of doubt but she kept calm.


"I know. I was just messing with you," she said.


"Yeah, of course, but... Maybe just... You know if it was anyone else it'd be fine, but I don't want to screw with Reid. I'd don't know if he'd get it if he found out," I said. I flipped a pen around in my fingers. Prentiss's eyes, deep in concentration were drawn to the twirling pen and didn't leave them as she responded.


"No problem. I think JJ is waiting for us."


"I think we might be looking at a female unsub," Reid said. We were in the Denver police station. Emily was tacking you maps of the surrounding area on an evidence board. "Organized, meticulous. And all the victims are men who mistreated their wives: It could be a revenge killing."


I looked up from the case file. I hadn't thought of that at all. 


"It's possible," Rossi said. He picked up a photo of the lasted victim and examined it.


"Has Garcia found any connection between the victims?


"She's supposed to call any minute," Morgan said. As if on cue, his phone rang. 


"Was just talking about you, sugar," Morgan said into his phone. He pressed a button.


"You're on speaker. What's you find?"


"The only way I can tie them together is that they all were married scumbags looking for a house right before they were killed."


"That makes sense. They were all dumped within a block of an open house."


"House hunting... Can you check the real estate agencies-" Prentiss began.


"One step ahead of you," Garcia interrupted, "They all used the same one. It's called Moore Real Estate. I just texted you the address of its headquarters."


"Thanks, Garcia!" I said before the line went dead.


"Should we inform the public?" JJ asked.


"If our unsub is female then I'm afraid we'll scare her off. She might move and then we'll be out of luck," Hotch said.


"We can talk to the agency," I said, "Ask around?"


"She'll notice that too," Prentiss said.


"So we'll go undercover. Pretend to be buying a house, see who we meet," I revised. Hotch, as always, looked stern. Then he turned to Rossi.


"It's not a bad idea. We need to send a couple, to see if she reacts," Rossi shrugged. Hotch looked back at his audience.


"Davis and Reid will go," Hotch said decidedly, "We'll mike you, just in case." My heart skipped a beat before I could remind it that I didn't care, it was just work. But jeez, what are the chances that the day I decide to keep my thoughts about Reid strictly platonic is the day I have to pretend to be married to him. I glanced at him and he gave me a small smile as if to say "What'd'you know?" I raised an eyebrow in response and tried to ignore Prentiss staring a hole in the back of my head.


"Remember, Reid, you have to treat Maya like a misogynist cheating bastard of a husband," Morgan reminded before Reid and I walked into the open house.


"I know," Reid said, slightly exasperated.


"He's just telling you because he thinks you're too nice to remember," I said, putting a pacifying hand on his arm.


"She's right, Pretty Boy," Morgan said, "And don't forget we'll be right outside. Just holler if you need something."


"Do you think she's the one?" I asked Reid when we were closer to the house.


"She fits the profile," he said and motioned for me to go first through the front door. I shook my head.


"Far too nice," I teased. He gave me a look but went first.


"You must Mr. and Mrs. Garner," our suspect said. I smiled sweetly and began to say "Nice to meet-" but I was cut off.


"Yes. We spoke over the phone," Reid said. I almost smiled at his out of character behavior but I caught myself at the last moment.


"Let me show you around," she said with a bright smile. Reid grabbed my wrist and pulled me roughly toward him. Then he put his arm around my shoulder protectively. Who knew Reid was such an actor.


"The master bedroom is amazing. Very spacious. You get natural light from these windows." When she turned to me, I made a point of adjusting my skirt so that it revealed a large bruise on my shin. I had gotten that a few days ago when a fleeing suspect had pushed a rolling cabinet into me. She didn't know that. Her eyes flashed. 


"Why don't we go to the living room," she asked politely.


"Should we go? It looks like she's the one," I whispered to Reid.


"Up to you. We don't have enough for a warrant yet," Reid whispered back.


"Let's stick around a couple of minutes. She doesn't strike the next day when she calls back just the husband." And they always came, those assholes, convinced they were about to have the extramarital affair of a lifetime with a real estate agent.


"Right around here," she said. 


Then she opened a cabinet and pulled out a gun. Before I could react, Reid stepped in from of me. Which was stupid, because he was the one she wanted to kill. 


"Step away from him," she told me, "Do it or I'll shoot both of you right now." I stepped away from Reid, who glanced nervously toward me. I accidentally knocked into a coffee table, sending an empty mug tumbling down on the floor.


"Hands in the air." We complied.


Oh crap, what was her name? My nervous thoughts were flying through my head, dislodging the important stuff. We forgot to factor in the devolution. That's why she didn't wait to call Reid back. She was at the end of her rope. Which was not great news for us.


"Alice," I said, "Don't do this." She shifted their gun toward me.


Definitely not my first time at gunpoint, but certainly the first in a while. Ok. I could deal with this. 


"You don't understand," she said.


"I do understand," I said, "I understand that your father beat you as a child, that you had to take it all until you were old enough to escape." She kept the gun trained on me, clearly anxious that I was doing all the talking. 


"And to go through all that, just to marry a man who ended up being just as abusive, that must have been horrible." Her eyes went slightly out of focus. 


"I just wanted to be in love. And he killed my dreams. He hurt me every day. For four years." 


"I know, Alice. And you just wanted to make him pay for what he did to you."


"Is that so much to ask? After what he did?"


"But you don't want to hurt me, do you? I'm like you were."


"You're protecting him. If you were like me you'd step out of the way and let me shoot him." Ok, I thought, what do we have to work with? Reid said she wasn't the type to back down, that she'd go out guns blazing. That wasn't particularly helpful. The coffee mug I had knocked over was on the floor next to me. I wondered if I could reach it with my foot.


"No, I'm protecting you," I said, "If you do this you'll throw away any chance you have at leniency." I shifted my foot. At least Reid has enough sense to keep quiet.


Where was Morgan? They should have realized something was wrong by now, right?


"Please," I said, "Put to gun down." 


"You'll thank me later," she said and shifted her focus to Reid. The aim of her gun was still on me, but her eyes bored into him.


I slipped the toe of my shoes into the mug and, quick as can be, kicked it behind her. It broke a window, and, more importantly, made a loud sound. Like anyone inexperienced with guns, she dropped her hand as she instinctively turned around to see what the clamor was about. That was when I pounced. I pried the gun away from her, clicked the safety on, and slid it across the room to Reid. Pinning her down, I handcuffed her and read her Miranda Rights. Not that she was paying any attention to that. She was busy screaming at Reid.


~~~~~


"You'll pay for what you did. I'll see you in hell, you bastard."


"That was dangerous," Reid said after the show was over, "You shouldn't have done that."


"She wasn't going to back down."


"You should have waited for back up." He seemed almost angry. I didn't understand why. If anyone was going to get hurt, it would have been me.


"I had back up. You were right there." Reid opened his mouth slightly as if to say something, then closed it again.

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