Line Of Fire •L.A•

22. Copycat Killer

Two weeks after that night, Felicity takes a seat at her desk and although she'd never admit it to herself or anyone else she glances at her watch to see how long it'd be until Luke shows up to work. Tara walks over and she quickly looks up from her watch." Hey, Tara."

"Hey, Felic-" she interrupts herself with a yawn." Oh gosh sorry."

Felicity chuckles." Long night?"

"You have no idea." She mutters groggily but she brightens up a little bit when she sees Luke walk into the pen. Felicity does as well but for different reasons. She'd given up on pretending to be over him.

"So Alvez I heard you got smoked." Tara grins at him before pulling out her phone and showing felicity a text from Matt. He has made sure to text someone on the team so they could make fun of Luke.

Felicity finds herself grinning as well.

He laughs like he knew this would come up." I did NOT get smoked."

"Well we've taken in calling Simmons a bus driver because..." Tara does a dramatic head tilt. "He took you to school."

Luke grins." He kinda did." But he quickly starts to defend himself again." But he's also been off the last month so he's slept in, he's-"

Rossi, Felicity and JJ all raise their eyebrows at him. JJ leans forward." Woah woah woah, he's got a newborn baby and four kids to corral. I don't think so buddy."

"Seriously you got more sleep than Matt has in the past month." Rossi chimes in.

Spencer looks up from his desk." It's actually not a exaggeration. Research studies have shown that the first twelve months of a child's life, parents sleep less than 59% of the recommended eight hours a night."

Luke settles down in his defeat as Spencer keeps using statistics against him." Hence losing the equivalent of on average 50 nights of sleep."

"Do you have any stats that maybe would help me?" Luke mutters.

Spencer shakes his head after a few seconds. Felicity grins." Face it, Lu. You're getting old."

He glares at her but it softens when she turns away. She doesn't notice.

Before they can tease him anymore, Penelope enters the room looking solemn." It's happening again." She motions to the briefing room." We gotta..." she trails off as everyone makes their way upstairs everyone knowing exactly what she means.

Once everyone is situated, Emily starts briefing them. Images flash on the screen of two boys. "There was a double homicide this morning in Des Plaines, Illinois. It appears our victims Marco Salazar and Benjamin Blake were shot by a sniper while playing basketball in a neighborhood court."

"Des Plaines, Illinois?" Spencer asks quickly, his eyebrows sketched in familiarity.

"I know what's in your noggin and what's in your noggin is correct to be in your noggin because two days ago a gentleman named Brian Nichole was shot in a parking lot by a sniper." Penelope answers, her voice solemn.

"Is this a case you guys have worked before?" Felicity asks, eyeing Spencer who looks distraught.

"It's like the Phillip Dowd case we worked in Des Plaines 15 years ago." JJ answers staring at the file in her hands.

"It is. All single shots to the victims torsos, all in public places and no one sees the shooter. He's a ghost."

"Well there's no way it's the same long distance serial killer because..." JJ starts.

Spencer is quick to cut in." Because I killed Phillip Dowd 15 years ago."

Felicity raises her eyebrows in disbelief. She had never met Reid 15 years ago but Penelope had shown her photos. It was hard to believe that the scrawny awkward agent with perfectly combed hair in the pictures was the same person sitting across from her. And it was even harder to believe that he had killed someone.

"So you think it's a copycat L.D.S.K?" Emily asks forcing Felicity out of her thoughts.

"Well typically L.D.S.Ks are skilled marksmen with a god complex."

"And they pretty much revel in taking people's life from above and afar." Luke adds in. Felicity catches his eye but quickly looks down at her file.

"Well copycats are out to prove their superiority by making a bigger bang." She mutters quickly. She can feel Luke's eyes on her.

"Or to ride the wave of the infamy created by the original killer."

"But in this case, the original killer Phillip Dowd is a distant memory, this is not much of a... wave to ride." Spencer squints at the tv screen showing the victims as if it'd tell him all the answers.

"Dowds original MO was to shoot his victims and then race back to the emergency room where he worked because he thrived in trying to save them."

"Typical hero homicide. But we're not seeing that here."

"No we're not but this unsubs victimology is remaining consistent enough to suggest that his next victims will most likely to be three visitors to the local parks."

"I'll make sure Chief Wagner has his officers stake out the park." Emily says before turning to Penelope." Penelope will you let Matt know that it's all hands on deck." She turns back to the rest of the team." We are wheels up in 20."