Twisted Vengeance

Track

Hotch heard the gunshot from above in the warehouse. "We're going in!" For all he knew, his best agent, Spencer Reid was shot. Maybe he tried to bring Elle in and he was shot in the struggle. Maybe he was upstairs bleeding out because of him. Maybe he could save him. Maybe he was too late. But he never really thought of a possibility that maybe Elle was the one who was dead. But maybe he should have.

Morgan kicked down the door, even though it was already able to open. Kicking doors just seemed the most dramatic in this situation. The dramatic flare Morgan had whenever a door was slightly in his way was part of what made him Morgan.

The team swarmed the first floor, checking every corner. "Clear!" Rossi shouted. JJ shouted next. "Clear." Finally, Morgan said, "Clear." The team proceeded up the stairs, onto the second floor, and the chorus of clears only repeated as they saw it was empty.

The team ascended the final staircase running. Again, Morgan kicked down the door that blocked the room from view. They all knew to be prepared. They knew that they might be about to see the body of their friend. And they would. It just wouldn't be the body they thought it was going to be.

As soon as they entered they saw Spencer there, kneeling on the ground next to Elle. She looked almost as though she was sleeping peacefully. Another thing they saw was the unmistakable hint of a smile on her face. "I couldn't save her."

Spencer was sick to his stomach. Every part of him felt like he was breaking because no matter what she did, the person he knew would always be the person he wanted to remember. But the part he would remember most was the part he wanted with all of his being to forget, and that part was right now. Forgetting makes it feel like it never even happened. And if he didn't remember, did it ever really happen?

Morgan spoke first. "She wasn't always like this, so what the hell happened? Why is she dead and you seem unharmed? How did she-" He couldn't bring himself to say the words. But everyone was wondering. How did Elle die?

"I tried to stop her. I couldn't save her from herself. I tried, I really did. She could have ended it in any other way. I just wish it wasn't me up here, because maybe she'd still be around."

"Spence, did she really?" JJ spoke. "She really killed herself?" JJ was fighting back tears, too now. It wasn't the person who was really her friend anymore. This was a serial killer who tried killing her girlfriend. She tried killing the only one JJ had left to care about. Why, for the first time, was JJ completely empathizing with a killer?

He nodded. And then he finally broke. "You know, why'd she have to be a serial killer? Why couldn't she see how much this was going to hurt us? And now she's dead and we still don't know why that was the solution she picked. She could have called. And then she would be here. Why am I sad? Why do I care about a killer because a killer is always a killer. So am I happy or am I sad? Am I neither or am I both?"

"Reid, you're not the only one struggling with that. We need a forensics team to..." Hotch trailed off, hardly being able to say that they needed Elle's body to be taken away, examined, then shoved aside like a criminal. Because she was a criminal. But there's more to a person than what they've done.

"Garcia," Hotch said glumly, "I need a forensics team. Things went downhill, and we need some backup."

Immediately concerned, Garcia asked quickly what was wrong. "Oh my God, what happened? Is Reid ok? Is everything ok? I will, sir, but please tell me what's going on right now. Oh my God-"

"Elle's been- shot. She's been shot. We just need a forensics team and a medic right now. We checked her pulse, but she's already dead. I'm sorry, Garcia." ANd he hung up the phone before he could get a response. Garcia being sad was worse than being sad yourself. So hanging up the phone and living partially through denial was what happened.

"She just- got so sad, completely changed her mood, held up the gun, and shot herself in a matter of minutes. God damn it, shouldn't I have been able to save her? I'm a trained profiler, I'm supposed to save people because no one deserves to end up dead on a floor." Spence said.

"Nothing would have changed her mind. This is her final statement to this cruel, uncaring world. It was her end game. She knew our protocols, and that's what made everything go wrong. It was never your fault." Hotch said.

For Morgan, sadness was one thing that had sailed. Now it was his turn to be confused. "Why are we trying to pretend she wasn't a monster? Her? She's not the Elle I knew. The Elle right here deserves to die. The Elle right here got what she deserved."

"Morgan, don't say-" JJ began.

"Don't tell me what to say. I'm not going to lie and say that I didn't care about her. The Elle that I knew was gone and has been gone. The Elle that I knew died the day she killed the first person. So get a forensics team here. Because I'm done."

Morgan stormed down the steps of the warehouse, and Reid followed behind. The team heard the kicks of the door shambles as Morgan left. The remaining members of the team followed Morgan out the door. And they knew that they were saying goodbye to Elle for the last time when they stepped outside of that room.

Author's Note:

The story is almost over, and I am so excited to write the finale! Thank you to everyone who has kept reading this. I hope you enjoyed today's chapter. I'm sorry for how I ended the last chapter, though.