Lacuna [Book 2]

fourteen

fourteen; don't ask him anything about halloween...

I walked into the school, Ellie's hand in my own. I opened the door and guided Ellie into the building. We both walked to the principal's office and the secretary smiled at us. "You must be Hadley LaMontagne and you." She said looking to Ellie and smiled. "You must be Ellie. I'm Mrs. White, I'll be showing you the classrooms." She said and Ellie nodded. I bent down, and put most of my weight on my leg. "Hey, you'll be out later today and we can finish your costume for Halloween." I said and she smiled and hugged me. 

"Have a good day." I said and she gave me a small wave and left with the secretary.

I walked through the bullpen's glass doors and Sofia came up to me and showed me a file. "Hey, these came through yesterday. I didn't know what to do with them." She said and I grabbed the file and saw that it wasn't a file at all it was some testing done from a piece of clothing we got from a crime scene. I looked up at Sofia and just shrugged. 

"I'll fax over the results to the laboratory, thank you." I said and she nodded and walked into the office. I saw Penelope with a stack of files in her hand and she walked over to me and handed me one. I sighed throwing my head back slightly.

"Sorry, my love." She said and handed me the case file. I sighed and went to walk into the bullpen. I saw Spencer, Emily, Rossi and Derek in there already. "It just so happens I have 2 tickets." I heard Spencer say and I looked over at him.

"The phantasmagoria or the Edgar All Poe thing?" I asked and he shrugged giving me a smile. "I don't know yet." He said and I laughed. Alyssa came in and she gave all of us her best smile and sat down.

"We're going to Detroit." Hotch said turning on the TV and Spencer glanced up at him. "What? But it's a Halloween weekend." He said and Emily snorted.

"Arson investigators have noticed a 3-year trend. In the day's leading up to Halloween." Hotch said informing us about the new case and Spencer raised an eyebrow. "Devil's Night." HE stated and Hotch began informing us.

"This UnSub is killing only these 3 days out of the year." He stated and Rossi looked at him. "How's he doing it?" He asked and I opened the file and read the report. "He's burning his victims alive." I said and then read down to the new victim.

"Tony Torrell. He lives in the suburbs..." I said reading and then looked down at the actual autopsy report.

"His body was found 20 miles away in the Rivertown District." I said and then Spencer looked at the team and began info dumping.

"You know, Arsonist are typically white males between the ages of 17 and 25 who can't stay away from fire. But they target dwellings, not people." Spencer said and Alyssa looked over at him with her mouth a bit open. "And you just- know that?" She asked amazed by him and he gave her an awkward smile.

"He does it all the time, it's cute." I said and then looked down at the fire. "So maybe he's not an arsonist. Fire is simply his weapon." I said and Hotch nodded, agreeing with me.

"Wheel's up in 30." He said and we all got up from the round table. I looked over at Spencer and smile at him. "Why are you more in love with Halloween than a kid is?" I asked and Emily butted in the conversation. "Don't ask him anything else about Halloween. He will keep going." She said and I laughed. The three of us walked out the room and Emily looked over at me. "So what's Ellie being for Halloween?" She asked and I shrugged. "She hasn't told me yet. But, we were going to go after I got out, but the case." I said and she nodded and then a thought came to me.

"Oh shit. I have to call Gemma. I have to see if she can pick Ellie up from school." I said and pulled out my phone, sending her a quick text.

"Maybe you guys should get a dog. Like a really cute one and name him Max." Emily said looking over at Spencer and I. I rolled my eyes and licked my lips. "A dog? Emily, I'm not even home like 95% of the time." I said and she shrugged not caring.

"How's Ellie doing in school?" Derek asked and Spencer answered. "She texted me and told me it was good. She met this girl named Sarah, who's she's getting along with." He said and Emily smirked looking over at him. I looked over at Spencer's coffee and flared my nostrils, disgusted by the smell of pumpkin spice.

"Is Ellie the reason you actually answered my call? Wow. I'm impressed. Spencer Reid is actually using a phone." She said and I laughed and glanced over at her. 

"I know, right? The other day, he texted me. It's crazy." I said and even Hotch let out a little laugh. Spencer rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I only text Ellie, you guys just happen to be texting me at the same exact time and I just have to answer." He said and I rolled my eyes.

"Right." I said and Hotch began looking down at the file. "Every single victim has been through an immense amount of pain." He said and Derek nodded. "I'm sure that's what get's him off." He said and I sighed. 

"I'm going to ask Garcia to notify us when someone's gone missing. Where's Walton?" Hotch asked and I looked over at Sofia was reading a book. "He's working at the Laboratory with a team there for something. He'll be back next case." I said and he nodded and closed his file.

"So, why do you hate Halloween so much?" Emily asked me and I raised an eyebrow confused. "What- I didn't say I hated it." I said and Derek smiled. "Baby girl, you keep looking over at Spencer's pumpkin flavored coffee like there's a rat in it." He said and I shrugged. "It's smells nasty." I said and Spencer glared at me like I just spit in his face.

"Christmas is way better." Alyssa said chipping in and I smirked at her. "Exactly." I said agreeing and Rossi chuckled. "You only like Christmas because you were born on Christmas Eve. Double Presents." He said and I shrugged.

"And the snow. We never got snow in New Orleans. It was just rain. Or fall weather... But double presents were always a good thing." I said and laughed, thinking back to all the memories from when I was a kid.

Spencer stood up and sat next to me as the team began speaking amongst themselves. " Speaking of the holidays... What's the plan?" He asked and I shrugged.

"Well, we can go visit your mom before Thanksgiving, so she can meet Ellie. We can spend that week before Christmas in Las Vegas and then Christmas we can stay at the house. " I said and he nodded and looked back down at my phone to see if Ellie has texted me.

Spencer grabbed the phone and gave me a look. "She's fine, Hads." He said and I nodded. "I know. But I want to make sure she's okay." I said and he gave me a small smile. "She is. She's in school. The safest place for her while we're away." He said and I glanced down at the phone once more. He grabbed my phone putting it in his pocket, and I glared at him and flaring my nostrils. 

"Why are you still checking your phone? She's fine. She texted me already." He said and I breathed out getting annoyed. I looked at the Doctor with an un-amused look and he gave me a soft smile and leaned in to kiss my forehead. "Sorry. But in ten minutes you'll get it back." He said and stood up, I rolled my eyes and began talking with Alyssa.

a/n:

q: can you give us a hint for the new book you're writing?

a:  it's a hotch x OC. and it has a certain bau agent in ittttt.... hehehe

alsoooo

thank you guys for 400+ reads on this book! and for the reads and comments on my other book. i love replying to the comments :)))