THERE SHE GOES . . . ━︎ criminal minds

four . . .

PLAIN SIGHT;
season one, episode four.

Grace hurried into the office, not late, just a little after everyone else. She held up a large, wrapped gift in her hands, grinning brightly at an embarrassed Spencer, who was wearing a hat shaped like a birthday cake. Elle, JJ and Morgan were already crowded around his desk, grinning excitedly as Grace walked over.

She ignored the stares of the other three and just smiled sweetly at Spencer. She didn't want to ruin his birthday by being a little late, so she focused solely on him, "Happy 24th birthday, smarty-pants, you finally joined the club!

After giving Spencer his gift - oddly, nobody else had gifted him anything, so he seemed extra grateful - JJ had brought out a big birthday cake (that Grace had made herself) with twenty-four candles on top. He tried to blow them out. They came back. Grace laughed happily at the practical joke her and Morgan were playing, feeling only slightly bad at the fact Spencer wouldn't understand at first, "Come on, man, blow, baby, blow!"

Elle grinned, "I thought you were full of hot air, Reid." Grace laughed excitedly again as her and Morgan high-fived behind Spencer's back. He smiled, listening to the sound of her laugh. Her happy laugh. JJ put her hand out to the man, "They're trick candles, okay, they're- they're gonna come back on every time."

Morgan leaned forwards, pulling Spencer's hat down, teasingly, "Aww, Mommy to the rescue." JJ pulled a sarcastic face at the man, sharing a laugh with the other two girls as Spencer frowned in a confused way. Unfortunately, Hotch called over to them all, "Sorry, guys. Party's over."

JJ and Hotch met everybody in the round table room, images being placed onto the table, as each person received their own file on the case, "We're going to San Diego."

Morgan put down his cup of coffee, "But not for the surfing, huh?" Grace shook her head, a flash of a small smile appearing on her face, disappearing as quickly as it appeared.

"They're calling him the 'Tommy Killer'." JJ sounded disgusted as she spoke the name that the public were calling this unsub. Hotch continued, "Six women raped and murdered in their homes in the last three weeks."

Elle's eyes opened wide in shock, "Six in three weeks?" Grace flicked through the file as Hotch explained to everyone that the cool down period of this unsub was getting shorter and shorter.

"You think he's regressing into a psychopathic frenzy?" Reid questioned, momentarily glancing up at Hotch from his file.

The older man shook his head, "No, he's too controlled for that." He stood, not wanting to waste anymore time, "See you on the plane." He began to exit the room, but Morgan called after him, "Why the Tommy Killer?"

"You know the rock opera?" Morgan furrowed his brows.

Grace sighed, disgust pooling in the pit of her stomach, "He glues their eyes open." She swallowed thickly as she stared down at the images of the victims that were spread across the table, her own eyes meeting with the wide, glued-open eyes of the victims in the photographs.

✵︎ ✵︎ ✵︎

Everybody got settled on the jet, individually looking over the case files for a while, trying to each get their own opinions on everything. Grace looked up at the sound of Spencer clearing his throat, obviously trying to be quiet, "Yeah?"

He put the file down on the table that was between them, clasping his hands together as his forearms rested atop the file, "I, uh . . . I know you only have tendencies, but I've been reading up on OCD this week, and I, um, I've been reading a lot about the theory that the cause of it may actually be because of a traumatic event that somebody's endured. They either haven't had closure about it, feel guilty about it, or simply just haven't gotten over it yet-"