"𝙱𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚗"
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ

"NOAH, I'm ready to prep you." JJ tells the teen.  Noah has been sitting outside of the briefing room while the BAU team discussed how Noah should approach the other kids.

"Okay." The girl says and follows JJ to a secluded office.

"I need you to listen to me very carefully." The blonde advises the teen.

"Okay."

"Don't antagonize them — it will drive them away.  You need to sympathize with them, try to convince them that telling the truth is the right thing to do.  They're not going to budge at first, but you just have to keep pushing it." JJ explains as Noah nods along, "They're gonna try to make it sound like you had something to do with all of this.  Just keep calm and know that you weren't a part of this.  Keep them on track and don't let them distract you with their stories."

"Tell them that you understand how they feel and you know why they did what they did.  I know that sounds awful, but it will help them trust you more." JJ says and sees the teen beginning to space out.

"Noah," She speaks and puts her hand on the teen's, "No one is expecting this to be easy for you." She reminds her.

"I don't wanna let anyone down." Noah admits.

"You're not gonna let anyone down." JJ insists and hears the door open. Emily walks into the room and smiles at the two.

"You okay?" Emily asks as she quickly notices the uneasiness in the teen.

"Mhm," Noah hums.

"Are you ready?" Emily asks.

"Yeah," Noah nods and walks out of the office with Emily and JJ.

The three walk to the room and see Hotch, Reid, and Morgan standing in it. She looks through the glass window and sees Gregg Henry, the son of Lily Henry. Emily and JJ keep walking down the hallway and turn the corner. They stop at a doorway that leads to the interrogation room.

"If you need to stop—" Emily begins.

"Say so.  You can hear everything I'm saying." Noah repeats Emily from when she confronted Nick.

"I believe in you." Emily tells Noah what she needs to hear.

"I trust you." Noah tells Emily what she needs to hear.

"Go ahead," Emily tells Noah and opens the door for her.

Noah walks into the room and looks Gregg in the eye. He seems surprised to see her.

"Noah," Gregg states.

"Hi," Noah sighs as she sits down.

"What're you doing here?" He questions her.

"More importantly," Noah says as she looks at him sympathetically, "What're you doing here?" She questions him back and sees that he has no response.

"Gregg, I don't know what's going on, but I need you to be honest with me." Noah requests, "Did you hurt my mother?" She asks.

"No," Gregg asserts.

"What about Jenny's Mom?"

"No,"

"Will's Mom? Ms. Holland?"

"No,"

"What about your Mom?" She asks and notices that he is hesitating, "Your Mom was so nice. I remember when she would pick you up from school. She even offered me a ride one time."

"She wasn't always nice." Gregg says.

"Neither was my Mom." Noah agrees with the boy.

"That's why you helped us." Gregg says and the team all look around at one another. Emily prays for Noah not to lose her patience.

"Smart girl," Rossi murmurs as he looks at the monitor that is showing Noah's face. Everyone looks at the screen and sees the teen smirking.

"Gregg, I know you all wanted me to help, but I didn't." Noah corrects him.

"You're lying because you know they're listening." Gregg blurts out.

"I know they're listening," Noah smirks, "And I don't care if they know that I think you did me a favor." The teen says, surprising the team. They know she is over-exaggerating, but they are shocked to see her coming out of her shell.

"No, Nick did you a favor." Gregg corrects the girl.

"Who did you a favor, Gregg?" Noah asks and sees the classic microexpressions of nervousness from Gregg.

"No one does favors for me." Gregg insists.

"So, you did it for yourself?"

"She was gonna drive me insane!" Gregg exclaims and it surprises Noah how fast the boy lost his temper.

"Hey, I get it. I guess we just solve our problems differently." Noah speaks and hears a knock on the glass. The teen stands up and walks out of the room, hearing Gregg call out for her as officers come in to take him away.

"How was it?" Noah asks the team as she walks into the viewing room.

"You laughed at him," Rossi smirks.

"How'd you know that was gonna work?" Reid asks the teen.

"I didn't." Noah says and looks up at Emily.

"Are you ready for another one? We can take a break—"

"I just wanna get it over with." Noah interrupts and watches Emily nod.

"Bring in Will Holland." Hotch tells one of the officers in the hallway and turns back to the teen, "You can use the same tactics on Will. He should give in just the same." He advises the teen and watches as another teenage boy is brought into the interrogation room.

—
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘬 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮

Will Holland fell down just the same as Gregg did. The team forced Noah to take a break to clear her mind for a bit. JJ is sitting in the break room with the girl, eating snacks and talking about random things.

"I was the captain of my soccer team in high school." JJ tells Noah, who asked about the blonde's high school experience.

"I hated the soccer girls at my school." Noah giggles.

"Why?" JJ asks, pretending to be offended.

"They thought they were better than everyone. They were kind of like the cheerleaders in the movies." Noah explains and sees JJ nod along.

"Well, I was nice." JJ defends herself.

"I see you as more of the mean girl type." Noah says honestly as Reid walks into the room.

"Oh, she was." Spencer tells the teen as he sits next to her at the table.

"I was not!" JJ exclaims, making Reid and Noah look at one another and shake their heads.

"Noah," Morgan catches the teen's attention as he walks into the room, "They're ready for you." He says and walks with the girl to the interrogation room.

"Remember what we talked about with Ethan. He's different from the others — you know him personally." JJ reminds Noah.

"I know." She tells the woman.

"Alright, let's get this over with." Morgan says and opens the door for Noah for the third time today.

"Ethan," Noah sighs contently as she looks into the familiar eyes.

"Noah," Ethan replies and smiles at the girl as she sits down across from him.

"I'm sorry about your Mom." Noah begins her trick.

"I'm sorry about yours." Ethan plays along.

"Whoever did this needs to go down for it." Noah tells him, "I mean it's become a household name."

"What has?" Ethan falls right in.

"The Matracide Marauders." Noah informs him.

"Really?"

"Yeah, and the group's gotten a lot of attention. Everyone's talking about it. You deserve to mourn your mother, not go down for her murder." Noah explains as she perfectly places her trap, "I heard that they already caught two of the guys. They think there are more, though."

"Who was it?" Ethan asks.

"Some guys who confessed — I didn't know them." Noah makes sure that Ethan knows that there have been other confessions.

"They're gonna go down in history—" She brags.

"Those random guys just took credit?!" Ethan suddenly snaps.

"Took credit?"

"My plan was genius!" Ethan shouts out.

"Your plan?" Noah asks and looks Ethan dead in the eye. The boy looks back at the girl and hears a knock on the glass. Noah stands to her feet and walks towards the door.

"Noah—"

"Do you know what that knock means?" Noah asks before she opens the door, "It means that we have enough for a confession. You'll go down for this, Ethan." She says and watches Ethan's face fall.

"Oh, and by the way, no one's calling you guys anything but heartless and insane kids." She tells him and walks out of the room.

"Hey," Emily says as she runs into the teen in the hallway.

"Did I do it?" Noah asks, which surprises Emily. She thought the teen seemed upset when she left.

"You did so good, sweetie." Emily giggles and smiles at the girl. The woman brushes a piece of hair behind the teen's ear and then walks her to the rest of the team.

"I need to prep you for Jenny Bray." JJ tells the teen as they all meet up.

"She's the most important." Hotch mentions.

"Why?" Noah asks.

"She's going to be tough. Out of the group besides you and Nick, she endured the most abuse. Although, apparently a lot of her abuse was emotional." Morgan explains as he reads over the profile of Jenny.

"Sympathizing with her is crucial to breaking down her walls." Rossi adds.

"And she's going to have walls. If anyone knows what's going through Jenny's mind right now, it's you." Morgan says to the girl.

"Okay." Noah nods along and lets herself into the room.

The teen wordlessly walks into the room and sits down across from Jenny.  Noah notices that Jenny has not looked up and probably does not know that Noah is the one sat before her.

"I told you, I have nothing to say." Jenny mumbles.

"Jen," Noah murmurs.  The blonde girl looks up at Noah and is absolutely in shock.

"Noah?!" Jenny exclaims, "What're you doing here?"

"I'm here because I wanna know what's going on." Noah vaguely explains.

"Noah, I don't know." Jenny tries to lie, but Noah sees right through it.

"Jenny," Noah tries to think of something to say, "I don't understand." She mutters.

"What's she doing? She's going off script." Morgan says as he looks around at everyone.

"I don't know." Emily mumbles and watches the teen closely.

"She broke me—" Jenny says as she becomes emotional.

"You're not broken." Noah tries to correct the girl.

"I am!  She tore me down constantly.  I feel worthless!" Jenny exclaims, "The one person in the world who's supposed to love me no matter what is the one person who broke me!"

"But that doesn't mean—"

"She hit me, Noah.  My own mother hit me." Jenny becomes emotional.

"I don't know why you're talking to me as if you're the only one." Noah interrupts the excuse, "There was one time where my Mom hit me so hard that I spent the whole day crying in my room.  And I wanted to be anywhere but in that house." Noah sympathizes with the girl.

"Or the time where she grabbed me by my hair and practically threw me down the stairs. I caught myself on the last few steps, but she came down and pushed me again." Noah tells her story and finds herself getting sucked into her old emotions.

"There was a night a couple months ago. I was driving with my Mom — just me and her." Noah begins and the team can feel the mood change, "It was dark out and we were on the back roads on the way home." The teen goes on as the team hears the realness behind her voice. She is not just telling stories to sympathize, she is telling them because she wants to get them out.

"And I thought...if I just...grabbed the wheel."

Emily feels tears in her eyes as she realizes what Noah is saying.

"I thought about how much trouble I would get in if I just made us hit a tree or something." Noah murmurs, "I thought that if I crashed and just got out of the car, then I would be free. I could run and never look back, then I wouldn't even be in any trouble."

"But I stopped myself because I knew that I would get out one day.  I knew that one day I would leave her behind." Noah says and stares at Jenny, "And if I was gonna escape from her, I wanted her to be alive to know that I chose to leave her. That I could make it without her."

"Well, I'm glad that you're stronger than I am." Jenny snaps at the teen, "Is that what you wanna hear, Noah?"

"I wanna know why you killed my mother!" Noah shouts, losing her patience.

"I didn't kill your mother!" Jenny argues.

"You knew about it and you did your part!"

"Noah—" Jenny says as she begins to cry.

"You said that you're broken?!  Talk to me when your older brother kills your mother and you had nothing to do with it, but all of his insane friends try to wrap you into it!" Noah yells and stands to her feet.  She leans over the table and looks Jenny in the eye.

"You strangled your mother to death.  You didn't get revenge on her..." Noah pauses, "You became her."

"She deserved it." Jenny admits and Noah heard the knock.

"And you deserve everything that's coming to you." Noah fumes and leaves Jenny to comprehend her confession.