The Element of Surprise

About Face - Part 1

Erasmus wrote, what else is the whole life of mortals but a sort of comedy, in which the various actors, disguised by various costumes and masks, walk on and play each one his part, until the manager waves them off the stage?

I quirk a brow at Spence's desk. It's littered and decorated with spooky Halloween decorations; fake cobwebs, plastic skulls, tiny pumpkin stationary holders, and masks. When it comes to holidays, the young doctor isn't messing around and goes all out. Literally. My own desk is quite festive but isn't nearly as colorful as my fellow profiler's. Just the usual black paper bats that I stuck along the divider that separated my desk from Spencer's, a fake severed hand that held my rings and bracelets when I grow tired of them, and a lonely ghost ornament whose only purpose is to keep my paperwork from flying - it's a paperweight, really. Still, I tried my best to embrace the spooky season spirit.

But I'm yet again outdone by the one and only Doctor Spencer Reid.

I stifle a laugh when an odd figure enters the bullpen, handing candy to the employees passing by while grunting like a true Frankenstein. The masked monster sneaks up to Derek, who's completely lost in his work, and growls eerily into his ear, "I'm going to kill you!"

Derek jumps and nearly tosses the paperwork five feet into the air, "Reid!"

That did it. Emily and I crack up simultaneously at Mr Tall, Dark and Handsome's skittishness at this time of the year.

"Happy all hallows eve, folks," Spencer greets us and removes the Frankenstein mask. I count back from three, timing how long it'll take him to hit us with the fun fact of the day. Three, two, one... "To paraphrase from Celtic mythology, tomorrow night all order is suspended, and the barriers between the natural and the supernatural are temporarily remooooved!" Drawing out the last word to sound eerie and ghosty, he reveals a fake shrunken head and dangles it in my face.

"See, that right there is why Halloween creeps me out," Derek comments, waving a finger at Spencer and the plastic head in his hand.

"What?" I breath in disbelief, "Don't tell me the strong and muscular Derek Morgan is scared of Halloween."

"I didn't say I was scared, I said I was creeped out," he says rather defensively, "There's a difference there, dream girl. You should look it up."

I grin at the nickname - that's a new one. Derek is knows to be quite the charmer, especially towards Penelope and me. He is also known for his flirtatious nicknames and reserved a 'carefully selected few' for me; Twinkles, Bombshell, Sugar Mama, and Wonder Girl are only a few of them. The nicknames started around a week after I joined them on their case in Portland. Judging by the fact that I'm now officially part of The Team, I'd say it went pretty good. It was the first time I got within a few feet from an actual body. It didn't affect me as much as I thought it would, still I felt sympathetic towards the families who were left behind.

A week after Portland, we received another case regarding a missing child in a shopping center. We all thought it could be related to a recent kidnapping which resulted into a child being murdered in the most brutal way imaginable. During that case I couldn't help feeling I've been thrown into the deep end of a pool without any knowledge to swim. Knowing that a little girl's life was at risk had me struggling to keep focus, the metaphorical water dragging me under and filling my lungs. Fortunately, the girl was found and her aunt and uncle arrested for kidnapping and molest. That was my first look at how sick and demented people could be.

Following two weeks after that, we had to deal with two more serial killers who targeted entire families. They worked as partners, one beating the parents to death while letting the children watch while the other killed the children via injection, offering them a painless death. We would have never solved the case as quickly if one of the children of the last family didn't survive and escape. She provided us with the necessary information to capture one of the killers and used him to get to the other. In the end, we uncovered a foster family prone to abusing the children they took under their wing. I still wonder if they knew they were shaping those kids into mentally ill killers rather than obedient individuals.