✓ | 𝗔𝗣𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗗𝗜𝗧𝗘 · ͟͟͞͞➳ spencer reid

CHAPTER 36 ━━━

# ! | CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
- she commits to the case

━━━ JANUARY PASSES WITH
no notable events. Spencer and Meryl go on a smattering of dates and sign a workplace relationship form, which one Penelope Garcia witnessed the signing of with absolute glee.

They work a few cases, all of which are horrible, of course, but none particularly gut wrenching. February tenth finds the whole team in Brooklyn, New York, where Rossi and Murph are feeling right at home. Their case had been regarding the murder of seven women, all with signs of remorse. After a rigorous search and interview process, the team was almost certain they had their killer in custody, they just needed a confession. Hotch and Prentiss gave it their best shot but the man in question, an old rugged mobster by the name of Zane Armando, had shut down.

After that, the unit chief had breezed out of the interrogation room with a rare half smile on his face. "Meryl, I'm going to need to ask you to call in a favor."

"Yes, sir," is her automatic reply. "Who do you need?"

He looks her in the eye and raises a brow. "Aphrodite."

ೃ⁀➷

As Spencer forcefully grabs Meryl's shoulders and leads her down the corridor to the holding cell where Zane is being kept, she reintroduces herself to this position. Except this time, she didn't need to be cool and collected. She was a strung out, loud, narcissistic asshole this time around.

"This some kinda Make-A-Wish deal?" Her speech is slurred as Spencer guides her into the cell, biting back a laugh. "Yeah! I get it, you got, what? Osteo-whatever the shit or something? Wanted to walk a bad guy into jail, eh? Go drink some milk, kiddo," Meryl says just a bit too loudly as Spencer locks the door and then leaves without a word.

Zane, a tall, stocky man, appraises his new, smaller company. He is about to speak, but Meryl beats him to it. "Who the hell is you?" She'd fallen right back into the brash, foghorn "hood rat" accent as Morgan liked to call it.

The street gremlin says nothing so Meryl throws herself down next to him and digs two star shaped pill looking things out of a plastic bag in her pocket. "Loosen up, pal. We're gonna be in here for a minute."

The team watched and listens to this unfold through the mic up her shirt and the pinhole camera in the lock on the door. Spencer's eyes widen. "Why does Meryl have ecstacy?"

Rossi just smiles and Hotch pinches the bridge of his nose. "When I told her to get back into character, I didn't mean drug deals." Emily laughs, "Come on, it's probably just a prop. No way Meryl would risk tripping on the job."

Back in the cell, Zane looks at this disheveled woman in her baggy pants and fitted white tank top and raised a brow. "How do I know it ain't been stepped on?"

Meryl rolls her eyes and then breaks each tablet in half, chewing a half from each one. Zane then takes the others. Apparently, when you own a pharmaceutical company, it's not that difficult to produce some pretty convincing fake drugs.

"So," she asks after crossing her legs up on the bench next to her and inspecting her chipped fingernail polish, "the hell are you in here for?"

Zane eyes her up. "No chance in hell. You go first."

Meryl narrows her eyes. Tanline on his ring finger, smile lines on his face. He subconsciously moved whenever she did. This man was a grandfather, and that gave her the in she needed. "Blew up a couple bratty ass kids and now suddenly I'm some bad guy. Little bitches had it coming if you ask me."