"She haunts me because I know she's out there, but that's just it- she's out of reach."
In which Spencer Reid falls in love with fellow FBI agent, Lillian Crawford.
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Quantico, Virginia. 6:34 PM.
Convincing Lillian to accept the help she was offered took some time. It had always been her issue and she was always the only one to deal with it. But her friends weren't going to leave without her, so she felt like she didn't have any other choice.
Spencer called the bureau once they managed to convince her. He got Hotch on the line immediately, said Lillian's parents' murderer was after her, and it was all he needed to hear to accept to take on the case without delay. They always put their own first anyways.
That made Lillian feel somehow guilty. There must have been more important cases, worse people to catch, and she was taking their time away. She would be the reason why someone else would die and no one tried to prevent it.
It went without saying that her mind was flooded with negative thoughts of all kinds, but it got worse the second she set foot in the BAU's debriefing room, where the board was already being filled, her colleagues all present there to show their support.
"Why am I on the board?" She asked immediately, sounding frantic, her eyes not leaving the picture of her pinned in the middle of the chaos. It made her feel like the eye of the storm.
Even worse, she felt like a victim and a suspect at the same time. It isn't a gratifying feeling to have your picture on a board like that one.
"Hey, it's okay. It's okay. Come with me." Amelia led her back out, trying to calm her down as the other agents exchanged glances. They knew it wasn't easy.
"Take it off." Gideon told Derek, who nodded, reaching to pull the picture off the white board.
Slowly, she was led out of there and towards the resting area. She was clearly too panicked to even be able to look at the pictures. Spencer wanted to follow after the girls but he felt awkward about it. He didn't know how to help, so he was just sticking around. Because of what she said, he thought she didn't care that they died, so her reaction felt strange to him. But what did he know, he wasn't a witness to his parents' murder.
That's how she found herself sitting in a room, away from her colleagues, as they were being caught up with what they knew in the debriefing room.
"Did he call her everyday?" Gideon asked Penelope who was checking the call records to see if she could find something, and she nodded in response. "At the same time?" She nodded again.
"5:12 PM." Spencer recalled. "Does that mean something to him?"
"Lillian said that's the time of death." Max replied, staring blankly into the void.
"... Time of death of her parents? He calls her every day at the time he killed her parents?" Penelope stared at her colleagues, horrified.
"That's some next level taunting." Liam commented.
Derek agreed. "It's like he's reminding her of what he can do. He's saying he can do it again."
The members of the BAU and CASMIRC'S units exchanged glances, all of them unsure on how to approach their friend about the situation. Lillian is going to hate being treated like a victim, but someone needed to talk to her to find out more.
"That would mean her sisters are in danger." Watkins frowned.
"No, it's okay, Lillian told me she has a contact in witness protection that took the girls in temporarily." Rivera passed a hand through his hair.
There was some solace in the newfound knowledge that the girls would at least be safe and out of reach.
"Garcia, pull out everything you can on the case." Hotch instructed.
"Sir, yes, sir." The usually cheerful blonde obeyed, typing away on her computer.
"Paul and Jean Crawford were small business owners, murdered in March of 1998. The crime scene was a complete bloodbath but the cause of death was determined as gunshot wounds, execution style. No signs of effraction, no bullets found on the scene, no witnesses except... Lillian, and oh my god, her baby sisters, Meredith and Nicole. The police of Maple Grove marked Matthew James Myers as the suspect after the girls' testimonies, and he fell off the earth immediately."
"I don't get it. Why torture them like that if he was just going to put a bullet through their skulls?" Derek asked.
"Maybe he wanted something from them? In which case, either he got it or-" Connor suggested.
"Or they didn't give it to him, and he no longer had a use for them." Liam completed.
"But what? He was already dating their daughter." Derek asked.
"Money?"
Garcia spoke up. "The Crawfords weren't that well off. They were a middle class family."
"And nothing was reported stolen either." JJ added as she was reading Penelope's screen, standing behind her.
"He might not even have wanted anything. It could be a simple act of rage. We need to talk to Lillian to find out more about this case. She's our only eyes inside this case." Hotch looked at Gideon, who nodded before leaving the debriefing room.
Rivera tapped Reid's forearm to signal him to follow after, which he did hurriedly.
"The Crawford's case was closed. Is it really necessary to open it back up? This is going to destroy Lillian." Amelia hesitated, worried for her best friend.
The members of the BAU haven't known Lillian for too long, but they felt bad for what she was going through. However, she was one of theirs, and they were going to help, no matter what it takes. Even if that meant opening old wounds.
The CASMIRC unit, on the other hand, have worked with her for the past year and a half, they were already aware that some topics were taboo and better left untouched.
It was never nice to dig in a colleague's past, it felt like reading a diary that didn't belong to you.
•
Lillian knew what was coming when Gideon walked through that door. She hoped it wouldn't need to happen if they were satisfied enough with the case info, but of course they needed more. Of course they needed to hear what she saw.
She did see Spencer's silhouette lingering in front of the door, which did bring her a sense of comfort.
"Do we really need to?" She sighed, as Jason took a seat in front of her while her friend sat next to her.
"You don't have to." Gideon shrugged. "It can help."
The blonde woman bit on her lower lip, considering, before she let out another sigh. "I don't... I don't remember that much. I preferred to forget all about it."
"You remember more than you think."
Spencer was very worried with everything that was happening. He knew her parents' death didn't affect her too badly because she became busy trying to build a life for her baby sisters and herself, but Myers was never caught. Lillian spent the past seven years in fear that her nightmares could catch up to her and they finally did.
"Will you stay with me?" She sighed, giving in. The method would work, but she didn't want to go through that alone.
"I'm not going anywhere." Gideon reassured, watching her intently.
She repositioned herself on the couch, sitting directly in front of him and took a deep breath. "I'm ready." She told him.
