Criminal

The Assignment

I'm a little stressed out to say the least. Prentiss gets straight to the point. "Another woman was found dead in a neighborhood just a few streets over from some of the other killings. She's blonde, same type as the others." I blink. We need to hurry up with this case. The longer we take, the more women killed. I twirl my hair thinking maybe I will just dye it.
There are exasperated sighs as we leave the conference room, heading into cars to go to the crime scene. As we're walking to the cars, I get nervous at the prospect of sharing a small space with Morgan. At the last minute, I jog over to JJ and ask her to switch with me. "Why?" She asks, her eyes darting back and forth from me to the car suspiciously. "I just... wanted some variety." JJ keeps the skeptical look on her face but says, "right, okay I'll switch with you."
It turns out riding in a car with Reid and Hotch is even weirder than my last car would have been. There's a strange silence on the way over. Hotch is the one driving, of course, and apparently he doesn't like the radio because it's turned off. Meanwhile, Reid is looking over the newest file while nervously chewing on his pen. I break the silence "You must be hungry" I say to Reid. "Huh?" He looks down at his pen, sighs, and takes it out of his mouth. "Oh, I get it" he says smirking a little bit. "No, I just really want to go over this case before we get to the crime scene." He goes back to the file he was reading. I guess my attempt to break the silence only worked for a solid forty-five seconds.
We get to the crime scene and I'm surprised to see that it's about four miles away from the Griffith observatory. I've always wanted to go there, I used to be obsessed with anything to do with stars. This case is different than the others. There's something missing with the information, we just don't know what. A police officer walks up to us with a frantic looking man by his side. "I was there! I was there when it happened! You gotta tell me what happened to Bella!" Reid and I eye each other and I take initiative.
I lead the man over to a park bench and have him sit down. "Bella?" I ask with sympathy. "My girlfriend! We were with each other, walking back from a date!" He's talking so fast that I can barely understand him and there are tears streaming down his face. I reach over and run his shoulder. "Alright, I need you to calm down. We're going to figure out what happened to her."
We take the man back to the police station and Hotch interviews him in a quiet room. It turns out that the man was near Griffith observatory with Bella, the victim. He walked back to his car for a minute to grab a jacket for her, and when he came back, she was dead. He went to the police station as soon as he heard.
I sit down on a less than comfortable seat. Prentiss walks over to me. "Are you okay?" She asks. This is the most empathetic version of herself I've seen so far. "Yeah." We sit in silence for thirty seconds, an obvious frown on my face when I blurt out, "I just want to help, you know?!!" Prentiss looks taken aback. "You are helping! You helped that man when he came up to us yelling, and actually, if there's something you really want to do, go talk to Hotch. I think he has an assignment for you, but he thought about giving it to JJ. Go take initiative!" She says. My eyes brighten a little and I jaunt over to Hotch.
"Yes there is something I would like you to do." says Hotch after I ask. "If you're up for it." "Anything! I want to help!" It dawns on me that whatever he wants me to do might be more difficult than what I'm ready for. " I want you to go on a date with Reid."
There's humor in his eyes, while my jaw is on the floor. "Excuse me?" I prod. "Not a real one, a steak out. I want you and Reid to have a picnic next to Griffith Observatory and you'll be playing the victim, so your safety is not guaranteed. However, Reid will be there to protect you and Morgan will be parked in a van a few blocks away." He continues, "Reid is going to leave you for a minute and that will give the killer a chance to come get you."
Wow. Am I up for this? "We are going to give you a Walky-Talky, a gun, and even a whistle, but as soon as the unsub touches you, we will have him in custody." I look up at Hotch. Everyone can read me like a book , including Hotch apparently. "I can give this job to someone else, but I just thought that you might want to help. It's your choice, are you up for it?" I muster up all the courage despite being able to hear the sound of my own pounding heart and say, "I'd be honored to do it." Hotch smiles at me, a look on his face that says, "I have faith in you"