Tangled Up in You (The Story of Us Book 2)

Chapter 28- To Catch a Copycat

Aaron clears his throat before speaking. "Reid, Dave, you two seem to have the most information about the cases so you work with Director Sharp to go through the old case files to see if there's anyone that would want to get back at Amanda or who would be able to get intimate knowledge on the case in Terrace Heights. Morgan, you and Garcia get the video from Amanda. You only need to watch the court case. Prentiss, go with them. I want you and Morgan to look at the people in the courtroom. What witnesses the defense called, the reaction of the jurors. They didn't connect the murders until the trial had already started so he probably had a defense for why Amanda was lying."

"What are you going to do?" Reid asks him softly, worried about how this might be affecting Hotch as he knew that just as Spencer had, he would connect the dots that with Milton's MO, the other victim was Kristen.

"I'm going to try to set up an interview with the other two surviving victims while Amanda tries to compile a list of suspects which I can guarantee she's already started in her office." Spencer nods but Garcia frowns.

"But sir, Amanda never named the other survivor in the Milton case."

"I was there that summer," Hotch confesses. "I know who it is." With that, he walks out of the room and heads to his office to grab his keys, and heads to talk to Kristen while everyone sets out to do their selective tasks. Garcia volunteers to get the video from Amanda and walks to her office knocking softly.

"Come in," Amanda calls as she writes another name down on the list of people that knew details about the Milton case. Garcia enters slowly and closes the door before the tears that she had been holding in begin to fall. Amanda looks up and stands quickly, moving to Penelope and pulling her into a comforting hug.

"How can you do that," Garcia whimpers. "You've been through so much and you keep it to yourself and still manage to comfort everyone around you. Even when we're crying about what you've gone through and how you've had to handle it all yourself." Amanda sighs before leading a sniffling Garcia over to her couch.

"I didn't do it alone, Penny. I had Kristen and then after what happened at MIT I had Harrison but you want to hear a secret?" Penelope nods as Amanda pulls away. "The first time, it didn't really affect me because I knew it wasn't my fault but I felt like I had failed for not protecting my friend. Then, in Massachusetts, I knew it was my fault because I had put myself in that position because I hated it at MIT, it was so boring. So I had these terrible nightmares and my home life wasn't great so the worse they got the worse the beatings got so I learned to soothe myself."

"That's horrible," She cries and Amanda rolls her eyes.

"I haven't gotten to the good part yet, dork." Garcia chuckles quietly as Amanda continues. "I was scared to go to Caltech because I would have to share a dorm room and my nightmares were bad so I thought it was going to be horrible and I was so far from Kristen. But then, on my very first day, I bumped into someone while trying to memorize the map. I felt awful because it was my fault and I thought I was already messing up so I rambled my way into an apology before offering him my hand and helping him up which was when I realized how cute he was."

By this point, Penelope is grinning. "I introduced myself as Amy because I wanted to be someone else, like a different name would erase the trauma and he introduced himself as Spencer Reid." This makes Penelope giggle which makes Amanda giggle as she continues. "Then, I got to my dorm and found out that I didn't have a roommate because they had dropped out and I went to the library and looked Spencer up in the school system. I was going to take criminology and was already enrolled in the class but it was at the same time as psychology which Spencer was in so I audited Psych 101 the first day to talk to him."