To Solve

Chapter 3: L.D.S.K.

His morning Spencer was at the shooting range with Hotch, practicing. Spencer had been missing the mark all along.

"On SWAT we broke shots down into three steps" said Hotch. "One: front sight, focus on the front sight, not on the target. Two: controlled trigger press. Three: follow through, after the shot you come right back to the target. Now, what did you do wrong?"

"I didn't follow through," Spencer murmured, putting his gun down.

"Right. You came off the target to see where you hit."

"Hotch, the firearms qualification is tomorrow morning. I barely passed my last one."

Spencer removed his earmuffs. Hotch shoved Spencer aside, drew his own gun, and aimed at the target.

"Front sight, trigger press, follow through," Hotch repeated, pulling the trigger, hitting the paper man's head.

"You do those three things, you'll hit your target every time."

Spencer tried another time and missed again.

"They're going to take away my gun," Spencer complained.

He was grumpy because he would probably fail tomorrow and wondered how Parker could do it. His better half had never problems with their gun qualification.

"Profilers aren't required to carry," Hotch tried to reassure Spencer.

"Yeah, and yet you carry two of them," Spencer replied.

Hotch grabbed his second gun, which he wore on his ankle. He shot the target three times again and hit the center three times.

Then he put his gun back.

"When I joined the BAU, Gideon said to me, "You don't have to carry a gun to kill someone.""

"I don't get it."

"You will. Good luck tomorrow," Hotch said, leaving Spencer to practice on his own.

~~~~

Parker had their qualification bevor Spencer, so they were there when Gideon walked into the office that morning.

"Reid failed his qualification," Elle reported directly.

"Well, he can re-test in two weeks."

"Yeah, but he's going to be embarrassed about it," Parker said before glancing at Derek. "So let's not mention it."

"Yeah, let's not, huh?" Gideon agreed, looking at Derek as well.

"Not a word," Derek said.

Almost as if on cue, Spencer walked into the office grumpy and sulking and sat down at his desk.

Though Parker didn't want Spencer to be in a bad mood, you couldn't help but think how cute he looked when he was sulking.

Derek got up from his desk and joined Spencer.

"Hey," Derek said. "We're all here for you. I'm serious. If you ever need anything..."

Derek hung a whistle around Spencer's neck.

"–Just blow on that."

As Derek walked back to his desk, Spencer tossed the whistle carelessly to the side.

"Was that really necessary?" Parker grumbled.

"It's just a joke," Derek defended himself.

Parker sighed, putting the file back on the desk before leaning back in the chair.