𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙾𝚍𝚍𝚜 | 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚍

A Bad Case of Allergies

"𝙏𝙚𝙡𝙡 𝙢𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙘, 𝘿𝙧. 𝙍𝙚𝙞𝙙."

————-««»»————

Aitana sneezed twice before she walked into the conference room. She sneezed a third time as she placed her things down on the round table. By then, she had already claimed both Emily's and Penelope's attention. And when she sneezed for the fourth time, Morgan and Spencer paused too.

"Oh sprinkles, are you getting sick?" Penelope said with wide concerned eyes while Aitana grabbed her seat.

"Just allergies," Aitana waved it off while she sniffed.

"You have allergies?" Emily raised an eyebrow at her.

"I could."

"If you're not feeling well, maybe you should go home," Morgan suggested.

"I feel okay," Aitana said a bit fast. Her first mistake. "It's just allergies." She sneezed again, barely making it into her arm. "I got some new flowers for the house too. That probably didn't help."

"Actually, cut flowers are rarely a cause for allergies," Spencer said, "Pollen typically comes from grass, trees, and weeds."

Aitana sneezed again then drew in a deep breath. "Yes, thank you, Spencer," she said in a strained voice and another big sniff.

Spencer awkwardly scrunched his face. Clearly, she was trying to convince them that she wasn't getting sick. "People also tend to sneeze many times in a row because they're trying to clear their nasal passages," he said, and she eyed him suspiciously like she was waiting for him to also agree with the others that she was indeed getting sick. "Typically the third or fourth sneeze is just your body's way of making sure all irritants were expelled safely from your nose."

Aitana couldn't keep her narrow-eyed look on him for long, especially when it seemed like he was trying to help her. "Thank you. See?" She glanced at the others at the table. "Just getting rid of something in my nose, as Dr. Reid said."

The other agents rolled their eyes but kept their comments to themselves for the time being. Minutes later, Hotch, JJ and Rossi joined them. Penelope got straight to the point with a school shooting case that happened years ago.

"High school bombing in Boise, right?" Morgan asked. He vaguely remembered the headline on the news. "School shooter and school bomber."

Penelope nodded her head. "A kid named Randy Slade shot 3 students and then set off an I. E. D. in the cafeteria via cell phone, killing himself and 13 kids total, but not before posting all of his plans online."

"It was one of those 'Where were you?' events. My whole campus was glued to the tv," remarked JJ.

"Well, last night, Principal Givens—who was the principal during the shooting—was killed by a bomb modeled exactly like the old one," Penelope said.

"It feels like the unsub wants to attack the man who kept the school together after the bombing," Rossi said. "It's a pretty symbolic target."

"And this week is the 10th anniversary of the massacre," Penelope informed the group. "And today is the first day of a 4-day event to commemorate the bombing at the school."

"So this guy's going to—" Aitana sniffed, "—strike again. Commemorating it won't be enough for the unsub." They could only hope to get there quick.

~ 0 ~

On the plane ride, the group delve deeper into the original school shooting to better understand the unsub they were working with now.

"Randy Slade carried his bomb in his backpack," Morgan said as they went through the files, "This guy hid his in Givens' clock radio."