A Long Way From The Playground

CHAPTER 32

After settling down in Penelope's office, we go back and forth for a while to distract us both from the god awfulness surrounding our lives right now when the phone rings, startling us both. I look down and see that it's my cell phone ringing with Aaron's name on the ID, without even thinking twice, I answer and bring it up to my ear.

"Hey, what do you-"

"We have a problem, a big one. I know this is going to be hard, but I need you to focus Ellie. 110% can you do that for me?"

" Yeah yeah, what do you need?"

"It's not what I need right now. Prentiss called and let us know the lab was clean, but when I got to the house.."

"What is it? Was it not the right address or something?"

"Ellie, Spencer's been infected with Anthrax..." Aaron says and the notepad I had been holding to take notes on, slipped from my hand and clattered to the floor, causing Penelope to look back at me with confusion written across her face.

"W-what?"

"Ellie, focus, I know you wanna help him right? I'm going to give you what we know so far and I need you and Garcia to dig into it okay?"

"Um y-yeah j-just give me a second to grab my things again...go ahead.." I reply shakily, listening closely as he relays the information that Spencer had given to them from inside the house. I quickly scribble everything down and hand it over to Penelope who plugs it into her computer to begin her research.

" Listen to me, I know you're worried, I am too. But I'm not there and I need you giving it your all okay?" Aaron orders over the chatter and chaos in the background of the call. We hang up shortly after and I choke back a sob at the thought of our boy wonder stuck in the house with a deadly toxin. Penelope looks back over at me and notices the tears streaming down my face as I try to control my breathing.

"Wha-?" Penelope begins to ask.

"Spencer." I choke out, cracking my knuckles and flexing them repeatedly to relax myself.

"What about him?" Penelope gasps, blinking back tears.

"The house, t-the air was on when he went inside a-and he didn't see the t-tube on the floor. He's been infected." I explained, looking over at Penelope with tears in my eyes. She muffles a sob and starts fanning her face to stop the tears from falling down onto her rosy cheeks. I stand up from my perch on the edge of her desk and walk behind her, placing my hands on top of her shoulders and squeezing gently in support, knowing that she was still going to have to deal with all of this information and still sort through and find our unsub. Bending down so my face is next to hers, I whisper some encouraging words in her ear and leave after giving her one more hug as I make my way back out into the bullpen. I go back up to the conference room and decide to rewatch the video from before with Nichols and the senate to see if anything in there stood out.

After rewatching the video a few times over, Penelope comes rushing into the conference room with Aaron and The General in tow, shouting ' I got it, I got it, I got it ' over and over again. I look up just as Penelope plops down a file on the desk next to me and I snatch it up, flipping through the document.

"Chad Brown, went to school at the University of Maryland for Public Policy, worked on and off in the phd program for 5 years and hasn't held a steady job since he worked at The Book Front owned by Albert Franks. He applied for a civilian position at Fort Detrick 4 different times." Penelope notes, going over the basics to our unsub.

"These are his employment applications, he could never get past the psych evals.." I murmur, sliding the file towards the two men as JJ walks in the room and stops behind me, leaning on the back of my chair.