Only Human ༯ Spencer Reid

2.2

Aaron seated himself. "Okay, JJ," he said, "What do we got?"

JJ was quick to collect herself. "Triple homicide in Sioux City, Iowa last night," she explained and three faces popped up via the remote in her hand. "Victims' names are John and Camille Bailey, and their 20-year-old daughter Macy," she said. "The parents were both tied up and brutally slaughtered with an ax; Macy was found strangled in her old childhood bedroom."

Derek stood next to Skylar's (well, his) chair, placed a brewing hot cup of coffee in front of her and on top of that a tablet (also his, apparently), and then suggested, "How about we let the new one give it a try?"

Skylar's head snapped around. "What?" She asked.

Morgan chuckled. "Come on, profiling is like an instinct," he said. "What does your gut tell you when you look at the crime scene photos?"

To puke, she thought, but she didn't say it out loud. Instead, she straightened her suit jacket and narrowed her eyes over the photos on Derek's tablet.

"Well, there's two different MO's," she stated as a matter of fact, "The slaughtering of the parents with an ax and the strangulation of the daughter, which could mean two different unsubs."

He met her eye with a satisfied smile. "I like you, sweetheart," he said. "That wasn't so hard now, was it?"

Skylar opened her mouth, but before she could say something seemingly smart or confident, a grin broke out on her face and she blushed profusely. Like a teenage girl; completely unprofessional.

"I already told Garcia to get you your own tablet," Hotch told her.

She let her eyes roam around and landed on Spencer's old-fashioned paper file. She wanted that. Not him, of course, just that. She disliked staring at a small screen all day, destroying her eyes with the shrill blue light that would eventually force her to get new contact lenses.

"Actually," Skylar leaned in closer to her female colleague, her finger pointing to Spencer and said, "Can you get me one of those?"

He looked up at her, a look of surprise on his face. He only got a cocked eyebrow in return, one that said: Surprised, aren't you? If he was going to act like a child, nobody could stop her from giving him a taste of his own medicine.

JJ was confused at first, but after having witnessed the intense eye-contact, she knew she shouldn't bother. "Yeah, sure," she said, "you can have mine. Here," and she handed her the file.

Skylar smiled. "Thanks, but don't you need it?"

She waved her tablet around. "I actually go both ways," she said. "Anyway, the ME's report agrees that we are, in fact, looking for two unsubs, but that's not entirely why Sioux City PD called us in—"

"Their seven year old son is missing?" Emily asked, shocked at the sudden turn of events. Children being involved always set the stakes much higher than just the homicide itself.