NO GOOD DEED || S. REID

1.4

SLEEP HAD ALWAYS BEEN HARD TO COME BY so when Katharine woke up several times during the night, she wasn't surprised. Disappointed, maybe, but definitely not surprised. It had to have been around the third time she had tried to fall back asleep when she figured that sleep wouldn't come and she'd just have to suffer through the next day.

Unfortunately, Katharine couldn't bring herself to do anything productive in the time she could have been sleeping. Instead, she had chosen to lay flat on her back and allowed her thoughts to drift off to one Doctor Spencer Reid. The man, much to her chagrin, hadn't left her mind since the incident from the day prior because of course it had to be him. Of course, he was the first person she would subconsciously reach out for and of course, the nagging voice in the back of her mind had to remind her that she was here for business, not pleasure.

Katharine knew that whatever feelings had started to bloom in her chest wouldn't go away, at least not voluntarily. But she also knew her usual tactics wouldn't work. She couldn't very well go about ignoring the man, especially not when she was supposed to be working with him in a professional capacity.

So, she decided, she'd fight to keep their relationship one-hundred percent professional. She'd treat him like she treated the other agents of his team, as a coworker and nothing more but God was he making it hard.

From the second Katharine stepped back into the police station, he had her full attention captured with his random but educational spiels and his partly rolled-up sleeves though she couldn't fault him for that. They were in Arizona in the wintertime, it was almost like the officers didn't know how to handle the cold at all. The heat was on full blast the entire time and even Katharine would admit she worked up a sweat just by standing near a radiator.

But it also didn't help Katharine's case when Spencer had handed her a coffee, not even moments after she'd walked through the door. She took a sip, trying her best to keep a smile from appearing on her face. Five sugars, just how she liked it.

"We should interview the approved visitors today," Katharine said when everyone finally assembled in the conference room.

"I thought we decided that our unsub wasn't one of the original suspects?" Emily questioned, flipping through her notes. "That we would be looking for a red or black leveled mutant?"

Katharine nodded slowly. That's what she had thought as well, at least up until she got frustrated and accidentally caused her phone to shut down due to the pure will she had forced into the tiny device. "We are," Katharine affirmed, "but last night I accidentally shut my phone down through sheer will alone. It's not uncommon for mutants to be able to move between levels, especially if placed in strenuous situations."

Spencer leaned back in his seat. "She's right. After the first development of abilities at puberty, most mutants don't change color levels but there have been some inhumane studies done that show that when a mutant is under extreme duress it can sometimes cause their abilities to spike. It's a survival instinct."

Hotch moved across the conference room, making his way back to the door as he gave orders to his team. "JJ, Rossi, I need you to return to Helena McHale's home. Try to see if she can remember any of her son's friends suffering a recent tragedy of sorts that might have triggered this. It wouldn't have been something reported to SHIELD or to local law enforcement but it might have made its way through the grapevine to her. Prentiss, Morgan, I need you to give Peter Alston a visit, see if you can get him to come in for another round of questioning. Reid, Katharine, with me."

Katharine was quick to wrap up her things, shoving her notebook into her bag and snatching the coffee cup off the conference room table. The team dispersed, all heading in their own separate directions. They worked like a machine, each person, each part, their own yet when they came together... it was almost like magic.