Shadow Dancing: Chapter 1

By Helena Fallon

A darker look at the BAU. We like to believe that we know our colleagues, but do we?

Disclaimer: This is purely a work of fan fiction and no infringement of copyright is intended. I have borrowed characters to play with a few of my own, and my interpretation of the BAU characters do not necessarily strictly follow the canon.

"Are you all right?" the concerned female asked in his ear.

"Yeah," he replied trying to convince himself and swallowing back the stomach bile that was threatening to take over again.

"Have you told anyone else?"

"I rang Hotch first, he said he'd inform the correct people and I was to stay here and wait for him and the authorities."

"Do you want me to come?"

"No…no…I just wanted you to know I'd be later than expected and what had happened," he replied but he had known she'd offer.

There was a pause but he needed to tell someone outside the Unit.

"He left a note addressed to me, he knew that I'd be the one to come looking," he said bleakly not able to speak his name.

Susie bit her tongue and felt her anger rise up from deep within her. But then she forced herself to suppress the volcano of emotion that was threatening to erupt; now was not the time.

"You knew there was a possibility didn't you?" she gently asked wishing she was there to hug this man who had rung her.

There was a pause and a sigh before the honest answer, "Yes," he said softly.

She could hear sirens in the background and relief flooded through her that soon he would no longer be alone with this burden.

"Here's Hotch, I'll be back when I can," he said and the connection was broken.

"Take care, Spencer," she said to herself and replaced the phone's receiver.

"The selfish bastard!" she exploded to the quiet house, "Just typical of Gideon!"

The next few hours were ones that left both Spencer Reid and Aaron Hotchner feeling numb with the enormity of the consequences of Jason Gideon's actions and the mess that others had to sort out.

Hotch had followed the rapid response team, and the autopsy vehicle, up the winding forest track to Gideon's cabin retreat. Reid had warned him that the cabin's generator had been disconnected so there was no electricity. Hotch had passed on the information so that the team would bring arc lights to record the scene as quickly as possible and to allow for the swift removal of the body.

Hotch was grateful that Rayner Simpson was a very experienced senior agent. Reid stood in the glare of his car's headlights as Simpson told the young agent that there was no need for him to enter the cabin again. Rayner Simpson instructed his people to record the scene and take charge of the weapon and any papers that might be relevant.

"I have the letter he left for me," Reid offered it to Simpson who carefully put it into a plastic wallet and then placed it into an evidence bag.

"Thank you, Agent Reid. Was there anything else that you have removed from the scene?" Simpson asked gently, recognising the shock that was reflected in the white face.

"Sorry, his badge was on the table beside the letter and I picked it up too… You'll need it…" the young agent replied and reached, with his right hand, into his nearest jacket pocket and brought out the standard F.B.I. identity badge in it's leather casing.

Simpson opened another evidence bag and Reid dropped it in.

"I'm sorry but I was sick at the bottom of the steps…I didn't want to throw up inside," Reid confessed apologetically.

"Of course you didn't, none of us would have. You've done well, Agent," Simpson re-assured but gave a nod to Hotchner signalling that he was done with this man.

Hotch had been standing beside his agent while this had transpired and now he touched Reid's arm to get his attention.

"You have done all the right things Spencer, we all did. Will you be all right while I go inside and take a look myself?" Hotch softly asked.

Reid briefly nodded, "Of course, I'll go and sit in my car," he said in a distant voice. He still could not believe what he had seen despite his worries about Gideon's non-show in Milwaukee.

Hotch entered the cabin and the strong arc lights revealed how bare it all was. Gideon had planned this well. All his personal belongings had been removed so that the book shelves and walls were bare. The kitchen area only showed the basic cooking equipment expected of a holiday let. The generator was not working and Hotch realised how Reid had come up here alone in the night to find a dark uninviting cabin. The Unit Chief could easily imagine how Reid had used his flashlight to see his way. The door had been unlocked and Reid would have known from the smell that there was a dead body as soon as he entered, but he would have used his light and sought out the source of that putrid smell. Hotch imagined how Reid would then have bravely gone over to the body lying on the once beautiful patchwork cover that graced the double bed. The agent would then have returned to the living room area where he had already seen, with his initial flashlight sweep, the gasoline lamp on the table, with a box of matches beside it, together with the letter and badge. Hotch was angry; Gideon had manipulated all of this and it was calculated to maximise the distress for the finder.

"Surely he didn't need to do it this way?" said Simpson at Hotchner's side as they looked down at the body on the blood soaked bed; the head shot away. There was blood and brains splattered over the nearby wall and furnishings.

"Poor guy, I hope that he can get over this," Simpson added and Hotch looked bleakly at him before answering,

"God I hope so, Reid didn't deserve this...He had tried to help Gideon but he was obviously beyond that…I'll be outside with Reid." Hotch answered but he felt a mixture of cold anger and weariness wrap around him. Hotch mentally shook the feeling off because it was important to turn his attention towards his caring and dutiful agent.

Hotch walked across to Reid's old Volvo. He could see him staring vacantly into space and decided that he shouldn't be left alone to drive back home that night. Hotch went over to the passenger door and got in.

"Have you rung Susie?"

"Yeah, I rang you first…that was after I was sick the first time. Then after speaking to you, I emptied my stomach again…I was shaking so much that I couldn't call her for a few minutes…When do you think they'll be an inquiry?" Hotch noted the factual honesty and the need to cling to the formality of what was to come.

"It will start tomorrow with senior agents being appointed, but as soon as the autopsy has been done then his body will be released for burial…That will probably be quick…the Jews tend to speed things up…"

"Will someone have called Stephen?"

"Not called in this case, the Head of the nearest Field Office will personally go and tell him," Hotch replied. He thought it typical of the caring Reid to think about Gideon's son.

Reid nodded his acknowledgement of the information but his mind was thinking about other recent matters. The Milwaukee case was bad enough with Strauss insisting on taking control and going with the team because she had suspended Hotch over the Flagstaff campus case. Gideon had misjudged the Unsubs intentions in that one but then profiling was not as perfect as outsiders liked to believe. However, Strauss had used the incident to further undermine Hotch's position by claiming that he had not control over his Unit.

There were many rumours in the Section, but the general consensus was that Section Head Strauss wanted Hotchner removed from the BAU so she could make her own appointment and feel more in control of the Unit. Then there was also the matter of Prentiss who didn't seem to be comfortable with recent developments but she had kept the reasons to herself. Reid had formed his own ideas and suspected that Strauss was somehow involved because Prentiss had arrived in an odd way to the Unit, without either Hotch or Gideon expecting her.

Susie had very definite ideas about Strauss but the main one was "I don't trust Strauss so watch your back with her." Susie was a woman of few words, and didn't play the gossip game, but if she gave a warning then Reid was not going to ignore it.

Reid hated the internal politics of the Bureau; there were power struggles because there were so many strong personalities amongst the agents. Some agents particularly wanted prestigious positions in the organisation and pushed themselves forward, and mixed with the right senior managers, in the hope of being noticed for the promotion ladder. Reid didn't consider himself particularly ambitious within the organisation but felt as long as he was interested in the work, and felt he was making a valid contribution to the Unit, then he was content. But then he also knew that with his wide abilities, and academic interests, he could leave and begin a new career anytime he wished.

However, Dr Reid's position was different to the majority of agents. Reid also knew that the Bureau had come to him, wanting his abilities, and bending the rules to prove they were serious about the offer. It helped being a genius, a genuine genius, and not a person who had been hot housed as a child or just gifted in one particular area. Spencer Reid was a rarity because as a genius he had a wide range of gifts in many areas and across academic disciplines. He had been a sponge for knowledge from a baby; he had been an early talker, could sing tunes he'd just heard and was playing the violin by the age of three. He had been a child who was constantly asking questions that quickly depleted the knowledge of the adults around him. His mind was still constantly seeking the answers to more and more knowledge because the more he absorbed about the world, the more he realised how very little he genuinely knew about the vastness of the world's diversity of understanding and the people within it. But Reid had a very useful ability for the BAU and that was the ability to see the connections between seemingly random facts. The consequence was that at times his colleagues thought they were working with a human computer.

"Spencer have you heard anything I've just said?" asked Hotch staring at him and wondering what was going on inside his head.

Spencer guiltily started at his Unit Chief's voice.

"Sorry I was miles away," and then he thought that he ought to explain a little further, "I was thinking about how Strauss will react to this."

"Did you come to any conclusions?" asked Hotch.

"No doubt she will try and blame you in some way. She likes to take all the credit when things are going well but she's quick off the mark to distance herself from trouble."

"Ah you've noticed," Hotch said ruefully, "But I do have some support within the upper echelons so don't get too carried away with the idea that Erin Strauss is all powerful. I still have a few cards up my sleeve and I've been watching my back for some time so don't worry about me," re-assured Hotch.

"I'm sure that she's been pressuring Prentiss in some way," Reid suddenly said and Hotch stared at him with surprise at that unexpected statement. Although the Unit Chief quickly recovered and thought that he shouldn't really feel surprised that Reid had picked up on something that most of his colleagues had failed to notice.

"Keep your suspicions to yourself, Spencer, I think I may be able to win that battle," Hotch cautioned.

Reid knew when to hold his tongue. He trusted Hotch. There were three people that he thoroughly trusted when it came to the Bureau and those were Susie, Hotch and Felix and they were the three people that probably knew him the best.

"I think I ought to drive you home or Susie will be swooping down here like some soaring eagle seeking its prey…or in your case her mate."

You think of her as an eagle?" asked Reid a little perplexed at Hotch's imagery.

"She's fearless and has got claws…If you must know, quite a few of the Bureau think she can be a bit scary. I can imagine her ancestors... walking beside those pioneering wagons and striding out ready to cope with any emergency that might crop up with sound common sense."

Reid couldn't stop the smile, "Yeah, I've drawn a few cartoons with her as a pioneer," he confessed, "But then Susie really works in a predominantly man's world and does have to work under a lot of pressure to get results too."

Hotch nodded, but he suspected Susie would kill him if he allowed Spencer to drive home alone tonight.

"You know it's been a while since I've driven an old car like this one," Hotch said admiring the dashboard and trying to familiarise himself with the layout.

"You'll crash my car…You are not going to drive my car," Reid firmly asserted and Hotch sat back with surprise at this change that had come over his agent.

"I told you I'll be all right and there won't be that much on the road at this time of night. If you're really worried you can shadow me home," said Reid firmly and Hotch felt out manoeuvred but also respected the younger man. Sometimes even he forgot that although Reid looked as if he'd blow away in a gust of wind, he had in fact a backbone of steel and a determination to do the right thing that matched his own.

"Right, I'll go and tell Simpson that we're going and then I'll follow you home just so I can sleep without worrying." Hotch tried to make it sound light but Spencer knew that not every senior agent would have taken the trouble.

Hotch left and Spencer had an idea and reached into the glove compartment where he found a bag of mints that Susie had bought on a long drive they had made a couple of months ago. Despite taking travel sickness pills, she still often felt sick on long car journeys and she would suck mints to help. Spencer was grateful for the few mints he found because they would freshen up his mouth on the drive home.

Hotch was true to his word and shadowed him all the way home and drove smoothly past his house when Spencer pulled the Volvo into the drive. The lights were on in the kitchen so he knew Susie was up and waiting.

End of Chapter 1