Caution to the Wind

Chapter 10

Chapter Summary: Reid's incarceration has the team worried sick, and it's starting to take its toll. As much as Emily and Tara want to turn to each other for support, they know they can't. While Tara finds comfort in her hobbies and her family, Emily finds comfort in Fiona. Follows S12E15-S12E20.

It was the first warm day of the year, but Tara wasn't really enjoying the sunshine. She wasn't really enjoying much of anything since she'd come to the unfortunate realization that she'd somehow managed to fall in love with her boss. Still, with everything going on in her life, she had to find some way to keep busy and feel good, and that way sure as hell couldn't involve Emily Prentiss. So she found herself pulling up at her dad's auto repair shop at 10 AM on her day off, ready to get her hands dirty.

"Dad?" she called out.

Albert emerged from around the corner, wiping his hands on a rag. "This is a nice surprise," he said, "Come by to help out your old man?"

"Yeah," she said, "It's been a while. I've missed this place."

"Well, work keeps you pretty busy," he shrugged, "Where were you this time?"

"Philadelphia," she replied, "Got back last night."

"And instead of sleeping in, relaxing, you come spend some quality time with Dad," he said, squeezing Tara's shoulder and kissing her cheek, "I'm a lucky man."

Working at the BAU often didn't leave Tara with a whole lot of time to putter around her dad's garage working on cars with him, but it turned out to be exactly what she needed. The shop was familiar, comforting, reassuring. She could tell her dad about some of the things that had been weighing on her. She didn't tell him everything—they'd never had that kind of father-daughter relationship—but it felt good to tell him the things she did. He was a good listener and gave good advice, and having a project to work on while they talked made these heart-to-heart conversations feel easier and more natural. She also found it very cathartic to spend some time focusing on engines and suspension systems that she could fix, instead of everything going on in her life that she couldn't.

Spencer was on everybody's mind. Because of overcrowding at the D.C. jail, he'd been transferred to the Millburn Correctional Facility—a federal prison—where he'd be housed until his trial, which, for a case like his, could be another three months. Penelope was busy organizing visits and letters and care packages because, well, of course she was. They were all worried sick and desperate to get him out of there—a mind like Spencer's would go mad with the monotony of prison life, and a soul like his would be crushed by it. They all wished they could drop everything and spend all their time and energy working to save him, but there were still cases to work at the BAU. Right now they had a particularly grisly unsub in New York known as the Bone Crusher, and while they could spare JJ for one case so someone could stay back to be with Spencer, the rest of the team needed to give their full focus to catching this guy.

They knew who he was—Daniel Allen White—and Luke had built up a bit of a rapport with his mother, Miranda. But finding him was the hard part, and as night fell and Daniel remained elusive, they knew he was probably finding his next pretty young victim in one of New York City's countless bars or nightclubs, and knowing that another young woman was probably about to die a painful, gruesome death meant that the team wasn't having a very restful night. Emily and Tara both found themselves at the hotel bar after giving up on trying to get some sleep.

"Can't sleep?" Emily said.

Tara shook her head. "Not until we catch this guy."