magnetic ◊ criminal minds

viii.

viii. damaged
( season three, episode fourteen )

UPON arriving at the office, Lyra was confused to see the door to Rossi's office wide open. Papers were scattered on the floor. Considering this was David Rossi, this was highly unusual. Prentiss, who arrived only a minute after Lyra did, was equally as confused.

"What the hell?" Prentiss murmured, exchanging a look with the redhead who had yet to sit down. Both women curiously made their way over to the office. They were worried. This was too unlike Rossi for them not to be. The office was in complete disarray. Naturally, the pair decided to get JJ and Morgan to check it out. "Hotch is in Connecticut, right?" Prentiss asked.

"With Reid. They left last night," JJ confirmed, leaning against the doorway. "They're doing a custodial interview. Chester Hardwick."

"Damn."

"He doesn't need anything else on his mind when he's dealing with a guy like Hardwick," Morgan said.

"Right, so what, we have to figure out what's up with Rossi?" Lyra asked. She gestured at the mess in front of them. "I'm not sure if you noticed, but he isn't exactly the biggest fan of us."

"Or us snooping," Prentiss agreed. JJ had managed to translate to the best of her abilities. Lyra was fairly impressed, if she was honest. "So, what do we do?"

"You got any idea what Rossi was working on?" Morgan asked JJ.

"Uh, I- I think Garcia might know," JJ responded. "He stopped by her place last night." She sounded hesitant, shy, to reveal this.

"What?"

"Why?" Prentiss asked.

"I'm really not supposed to say," Garcia said from in the bullpen. The four agents walked over to her. "Because he said he wanted to keep it between us."

"He might need our help," Prentiss pushed.

"He didn't ask anyone for help."

"Because he would never admit to needing help," Lyra signed.

"Penelope, Rossi is a guy who colour codes his handwritten notes in his notebooks, blue pen for evidentiary items, red pen for supposition and theory. The guy is a fussy, anal-retentive neat freak who never leaves anything out of place," Prentiss stated. She pointed at the office behind her. "I would say this is a scream for help."

"He's in Indianapolis on a twenty-year-old double homicide," Garcia said, caving. "He said it's time someone pays for it. And he was upset."

"Indianapolis?" Morgan repeated.

"Yeah. He took a commercial flight this morning, he picked up a Bureau SUV half an hour ago."

"The jet's available" JJ said.

"Let's go," Morgan said.

♢

Lyra was confident Rossi would be upset if he found out that she, along with Prentiss, Morgan and JJ, were headed to him to help. However, the perceived urgency was enough to override the concern for what would happen at that point. They were on the plane, already on the way. They would arrive shortly, and until then, they could look over this case.

"You know, there's not really much on this file, Garcia," Morgan said.

"Yeah, well, there's a latent fingerprint that's making its second run through AFIS as we speak," Garcia said over the laptop call. "As soon as we get results, I'll let you know. And then, there's also, apparently, some crime scene notes that Agent Rossi wrote up that I'm still spelunking for."