#colonel josh | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

saiilorstars · 2 months ago

Text

Ch. 38: What Goes on Behind Closed Doors

[Story Masterlist] // [Aitana’s Masterlist]

Fandom: Criminal Minds // Pairing: Spencer Reid x OFC

Taglist: @ocappreciationtag @arrthurpendragon @maaaaarveeeeel @stareyedplanet @averyhotchner @foxesandmagic @kmc1989 @midmourn @caplanbuckybarnes

If you’d like to be a part of Aitana’s taglist, please let me know!

Also available on Fanfic ○ Ao3 ○ Wattpad

"I'm not trying to say I don't like her, but…" Aitana's whispers had both Penelope and JJ snickering behind her, "I feel like we would do a whole lot better if Strauss wasn't coming with us."

The three women stood in the bullpen huddled beside JJ's desk.

"Because you don't like her," Penelope patted Aitana's shoulder comfortingly.

"No!" Aitana flushed miserably. "I—"

"It's alright," JJ said, patting Aitana's other shoulder. "We all go through it."

"So when do I get past it?"

JJ's smile widened, giving the impression that there was no getting past it.

"Oh great," Aitana muttered. She trudged glumly towards the elevators, prompting the other two women to follow.

Strauss had helped deliver a new case for the BAU, a local one, that she was going to oversee herself. The cause involved a prestigious military school where she was good friends with the head. Somerville Military Academy was their destination in the sunny lands of Florida. The bodies of five boys were found hanging in the middle of a forest outside the school.

"There's still no sign of Josh Redding," Penelope informed the group on the jet. She was constantly vigilant on her laptop until they would land. As of now, Josh Redding was the only survivor of the mass suicide and yet was also their prime suspect.

"We'll join the search when we land," said Hotch, putting it as their top priority for the meantime.

"So, the Somerville Academy was founded during World War II?" said Morgan more as a question since it was one of the very few things the team knew about the school so far.

Penelope nodded her head from her seat. "It is hard-core old school. They don't even have a website. Socioeconomic breakdown's all over the map."

"Yeah, so are the ages," said JJ with a concerned face, "Students are 12 to 18 years old, on the same campus, in the same dorms." That, to her, was a huge mistake given the decent gap.

"Same personnel has worked there for a lifetime," Aitana added from her case file, albeit with a tone of reluctance. If the entire workforce at the school had been there for decades it meant there was a high chance of their loyalty being tied to the school and not the actual students.

"Ron Massey has been superintendent for 30 years," Strauss said, "He's an alum, as is the majority of the staff there. Lieutenant Tawes has been his second in command this whole time."

"These type of places have their own infrastructure. If it ain't broken, they ain't gonna fix it," Morgan said and saw Aitana agreeing with him.

"That's probably why they banned modern technology," Spencer concluded, "They didn't need it back then, they don't need it now."

Rossi had been reading more on the file and was startled towards the ends.. "Aggressive motto — "vivere est vincere."" He looked up at the others. "To live is to conquer. The school raises soldiers. Suicide is not part of that mantra."

"Bailey Shelton was only 13 years old. He was one of the youngest students there," remarked Spencer. If he was right, there were only a handful more students around that age in the entire school. "His death is probably the key to the others."

~ 0 ~

Despite the grim atmosphere of the school, the weather was perfectly sunny outside. Massey was already waiting for the team when they pulled up to the school.

Strauss was the first one out of the car and consequently the first to greet Massey. "Colonel Massey, Erin Strauss. This is the team I spoke with you about."

"Agent Hotchner," Hotch introduced himself and shook hands with the Colonel.

"This is Agent Morgan—" Strauss said, prompting the agent in question to shake hands with the Colonel, as well as the rest of the agents she introduced, "—Agent Jareau, Agent Serrano, Agent Prentiss, Agent Rossi, Dr. Spencer Reid, and Penelope Garcia." The last two only gave waves.

"So shouldn't the flag be at half-mast?" Morgan asked when he spotted the flag up high on its pole.

"I haven't told the boys yet," Massey said stiffly. The news shouldn't have been that much of a surprise.

"Do they know who we are?"

"I'll tell them when the time is right."

Loyalties, Aitana thought. It was all going to circle back to that.

"I've called all of the parents. They're driving from up and down the East Coast. In fact, Josh Redding's have just arrived," Massey said, gesturing to the couple across from them.

"We'd like to speak with them," JJ said, glancing at Aitana for confirmation they were on the same page. The brunette nodded.

"They're in the chapel," said Massey.

"And how are they?"

"As you'd expect."

"All right, we'll get started," Aitana announced, turning to JJ. At the same time, Massey called for a Cadet to guide them to the chapel.

The two agents followed the Cadet and were promptly left with Josh Redding's parents. The agents figured it was best to get straight to the point. The quicker they found Josh, the better.

"Why did you send Josh here?" Aitana asked cautiously. It was pretty common for troubled boys to be sent to military school and she was almost positive this was the case here too.

"Because he was getting into a lot of trouble," said Mrs. Redding.

There it is. Aitana merely nodded.

"And he was always angry and…"

"He was being a teenager," Mr. Redding interjected. Although he was just as upset as his wife, there was an undeniable accusation in his tone.

Mrs. Redding did take offense and snapped back at her husband. "You were gone, Will. All the time." She then looked at the slightly awkward agents. "He was nearly 6 feet tall by the time he was 14. With a bad temper, and he was punching holes in walls, and he wouldn't listen to me anymore."

"He could be belligerent," Mr. Redding only half agreed, "But this — this was extreme."

"Why?" asked JJ.

"We had to force him."

"I was afraid he was gonna hurt himself," Mrs. Redding said almost frantically. "Or someone else if we didn't get him some help."

"How was Josh taking Bailey's suicide?" JJ asked them.

"We only talked once after that," Mr. Redding replied, "Phone calls are a privilege here."

"Was that difficult for Josh?" Aitana went off on the fact that phones and texting were practically a teenager's life. The answer, however, didn't support that.

"Josh has never been much of a talker, but I think he felt a real responsibility for Bailey and the other boys in the hall."

"Did he ever tell you why Bailey may have killed himself?"

"No…"

Aitana and JJ sensed they were losing the parents once the tears started flowing in. They had the good sense to end the session there.

"So, what do you think?" JJ asked Aitana once they were alone. She was smiling strangely, something Aitana picked up on fast. "This is what you're training for, remember?"

Right. Aitana should have figured JJ would eventually start doing this. One year into college meant Aitana was one step closer to becoming the team's official liaison and with that it meant she would have to start conducting service hours.

"Truthfully," Aitana put her hands behind her back, her eyes falling over the rather dank chapel if anyone asked for her opinion, "It looks like the parents are against each other. Blaming each other for Josh ever being here."

JJ nodded in agreement. "I thought the same thing."

"Maybe that was also a driving factor for Josh's behavior here, whether or not he killed those boys."

"I concur. Let's see what the others got."

"Yeah." Aitana followed JJ out the chapel.

They regrouped with Penelope inside the library. The blonde already had most of her equipment set up and was merely waiting for company and instructions.

"That's going to fall on you," Aitana said when Penelope's fingers danced along some kind of device set up near the window.

"Shh!" Penelope waved her off, trying to focus on straightening the device. Aitana and JJ practically held their breaths trying to give Penelope the space she needed to keep working.

"Boo!" Someone exclaimed. Spencer grinned at the three women who had jumped at his call.

"Jeez, you scared us!" Penelope rubbed circles over her heart. "I thought you were a ghost!"

"You know, older buildings like this emit a low enough frequency that you can't consciously hear," Spencer started explaining on his stride in, "Because the sensory overload can't be explained, it wreaks havoc with your emotions, inducing fear, panic, and dread, hence the feeling of being haunted." He handed JJ a manila file which she then turned over to Aitana.

Penelope was entranced with the logical explanation. "What about the visions?"

"Your eyes overcompensate for what your ears are missing. That said, I do know a 3-year-old boy that once met a friendly apparition named Leverett Saltonstall."

"He was nice?"

"Very nice."

"So you don't think there's any ghosts or spirits?" Aitana cocked her head at Spencer. He shrugged; his expression was answer enough. "You're the biggest Halloween fan I know and yet you don't believe in spirits?"

"One thing is to celebrate Halloween and the other is to believe in the supernatural," Spencer said, trying to take the file back from Aitana.

She flicked the file against her chest, raising an eyebrow at him. "It's real," she said calmly, to which Spencer merely nodded. He was just passively agreeing with her, setting her more off. "Alright," she decided to prove him wrong, "I was in Mexico once, visiting my family and we took a trip to the cemetery to pay our respects to our family members who were gone. It started pouring rain while we were giving a few prayers to one cousin and we still had one more cousin to visit. My mother said that if that cousin wanted us to come by his tomb, he would help stop the rain. Guess what happened then?"

Aitana's smile widened when she saw Penelope's curious face leaning towards her with anticipation of what happened next. JJ looked between the two opposite sides, bemused at the whole situation. Spencer refused to look any kind of emotion; stoicism was the way to go.

"What happened?" Penelope finally broke the silence with her whisper.

"The rain stopped," Aitana answered without taking her eyes off Spencer. She saw the corners of his lips quirk and before he pronounced the whole thing a coincidence or perhaps a weather mishap, Aitana added: "It stopped right after my mother said it and the sun shined. It started raining again after we finished our prayers with our last cousin."

"Woah," Penelope whispered, eyes dazzling with fascination.

"What do you say to that, Dr. Reid?" Aitana raised an eyebrow at Spencer. She presumed he had a lot to say.

All eyes were on Spencer, that much he knew and felt, but it didn't compare to Aitana's gaze. Hers did something he couldn't really explain but was strong enough to make him doubt himself.

"Weather itself is a strange phenomenon," he finally said, albeit slowly, and clearing his throat, "It's-it's not uncommon for it to suddenly stop and start."

Aitana hummed. "If you say so, or you could just say it's unexplainable?"

Spencer's lips pursed then tightened as a smile tried worming its way out. Usually when someone challenged him, it was to compete or sometimes to shut him down but Aitana showed neither quality. She was playing, and for some reason it was a different type of fun for him. For that spark, it was hard to continue debunking Aitana.

Aitana took his silence as his admission of defeat. She let the file fall against his chest, thinking it was fair if she gave him the file if she won the conversation.

Spencer took the file into his hands, letting out a sigh admitting he was accepting of it. Not at all bad, he thought to himself on his way to the table.

The rest of the women turned to follow but not before Penelope and JJ exchanged knowing glances.

"You'd think the laundry room would be closer to the dorms," said Spencer as he grabbed a seat and opened the file. "It's on the opposite side of the campus instead of the basement."

"Leaves of 3, let them be," Rossi said just as he led a scratching Emily into the room. She was red all over her forearms.

"Oh, man. Poison Ivy," Penelope hurried to her bag. "Alcohol swabs, stat!"

"Thank you," Emily said gratefully, throwing a glance at Rossi and his smug face. "You know, if I've got it, so do you."

"I'm Italian. It knows better," he retorted plain and simple.

The others snorted.

"Where's Massey?" Rossi asked Hotch when the remaining of the team joined them.

"He's meeting with the victims' families," Hotch replied, "They're arriving now. Serrano, JJ, how are Josh's parents?"

"Upset," JJ said first, "They sent him here to keep him away from trouble."

"Not to mention they're blaming each other for Josh being here," Aitana added. "They're a straw from turning on the school, really."

"Tawes made it seem like these guys are the only family they have," Morgan said on his way to grab a seat.

"You make it sound like a cult," Strauss said irritably.

"Uh, it kind of is," Rossi clarified for her in case she had yet to realize it, and she hadn't.

Strauss didn't appreciate the accusation. Her tone sharpened. "This is a well-respected institution."

"They're not on trial," Morgan pointed out.

"The integral part of the investigation is going to be understanding what these victims lived every day," Hotch redirected the group before they got off topic. "And with whom. Bailey Shelton killed himself in Josh Redding's room."

"Was Josh in the room that night?" asked JJ.

"According to the records."

Penelope took her cue to start looking things up for them.

"Dave, you find anything in the woods?" Hotch's eyes fell over Rossi and Emily.

"Josh's tent was secluded. His things were left behind. He just took off," said Rossi.

Hotch nodded. "Massey said he never got any respect from Josh."

"And Josh's own parents said he was impossible to control," added JJ, thinking it was relevant.

"His course load indicates increased isolation," Emily started listing, "Isolated, smart, angry. That could be a budding psychopath."

Strauss raised an eyebrow. "What are you saying? Josh Redding killed his classmates?"

The team looked at each other grimly. Strauss drew in a breath, settling down on the next course of action.

"Then he's not missing. He's on the run."

"And he's had one hell of a head start," Aitana sighed, "What's it been — a week?"

"With all the skills he could ever need," Rossi said pensively.

~0~

The next day, the team regrouped with a different point of view for their case. Treating Josh Redding as the unsub changed their course distinctly starting with the fact they were no longer searching for a survivor but for a culprit.

The team set up in the library that morning with take out for breakfast and at least a half dozen coffee cups on the table.

"Ok, so how did he do it?" Emily asked the winning question. "How did Josh control 5 strong kids?"

"File under 'come back to later'?" Aitana cleverly responded but still hid behind her cup of coffee as reactions happened. It wasn't the most professional answer. Emily thought it was a fair thing to say.

Morgan took a different avenue. He thought of the smaller details. "Josh supervised the cadets both in the bunk and the laundry room. That could explain how the sheets got out."

"Yeah, so what does "we're sorry" mean if it wasn't written for suicide?" asked JJ, searching amongst the group for a good answer.

"What if Josh wanted them to apologize for something? For their sins?" Strauss chimed in. As far as her answers went, it wasn't the worst one yet.

"There's no record of bad behavior, but all of these guys were Alpha males," Penelope informed them. She was nose deep in her laptop with information on the students in question.

"They were all upperclassmen who might have bullied Bailey. The message was carved under Tucker Calhoun's tree for a reason," Hotch said, prompting Penelope to let out a low hiss.

"Yeah. We need to know more about that kid." She pulled up Tucker's personal file to go over again.

"What are you looking at?" Rossi asked Spencer as the brunette busied himself rather silently for the last half hour.

"The M. E.'s report. Bilateral fracture of the pars interarticular of the C2 vertebra."

Everyone took a moment for Spencer to explain it again but since he too was nose deep in his work, it took Penelope asking him to repeat it for him to notice.

"Classic hangman's fracture, but only one of the 5 victims had it."

That was certainly interesting.

"Which one?" Emily wondered.

"Tucker Calhoun."

Penelope's nose crinkled. "Jeez, who is this guy?"

"The others suffered rotational fractures, hanging was secondary," Emily concluded, "Staging the crime scene. Josh is more sophisticated than we thought."

"And vindictive. He wanted Tucker to suffer," added JJ.

"Makes one wonder why…" Aitana's eyes swept over the dank library. If this was the room full of education and it was in this kind of condition, she could only imagine how the rest of the school was like. One thing was for sure, if she had children she would never send them to this archaic school.

~0~

"Why the hell would Josh hurt them?" Mr. Redding was beyond irritated with the accusations against his son. Mrs. Redding was folding Josh's clothes in the room but her face was a deep scowl growing by the second.

Aitana and JJ felt quite awkward about the situation but Hotch kept the session going. Awkward or not, they needed to get to the bottom of things.

"Has Josh been more distant this year?"

"Well, his course load is extreme," Mr. Redding said curtly.

"Did he specifically complain about anyone to you?"

"I already told you no."

"Okay, well, you did say he was frustrated being saddled with the younger cadets…?" Aitana took her shot and almost immediately regretted it. Mr. Redding looked like he could murder.

"That boy Bailey cried himself to sleep every damn night," Mr. Redding snapped.

"Maybe Josh had had enough of that," JJ offered.

At the same time, Mrs. Redding threw the last piece of folded clothes into the duffel bag they brought. She turned around, glaring openly at all three agents. "He met him outside. Bailey's father couldn't come into this building. So Josh folded his clothes, his towels, everything, all so that his dad wouldn't have to walk past this room. That's what my son did. That's who my son is." She grabbed the duffel bag and handed it to her husband. The two of them stormed out of the room after that.

~0~

Penelope finished setting the last picture of their victims on the board for the team to see. Under each boy's picture was a number of high importance.

"No one told us about a point system," Emily said irritably. She and Rossi came to find out from one of the younger cadets who also told them Josh Redding was never supposed to be on the trip in the first place. He didn't have enough points.

"I'm not that surprised there's a system like that," Aitana remarked. She leaned against the edge of the bed, crossing her arms and taking in each number of points the boys had. "I went to Catholic school — they had something similar to that only we lost points too. For the stupidest things."

"What did you lose them for?" Penelope curiously asked.

Aitana's face scrunched. "My skirt was two inches shorter than permissible."

"You naughty girl," Emily snickered, causing the others to do the same. Only Rossi merely shook his head.

"Not like that!" Aitana groaned. "I hit a growth spurt, alright?"

"The first and last by the looks of it," Morgan's remark had the whole team laughing. Even Penelope and Spencer, the ones who rarely laughed at others, had to hide their laughs behind their hands.

"Derek Morgan, I hate you," Aitana declared with a very childish huff.

The only way that the laughter stopped was with Hotch's return. Together, they studied the amount of points the boys had. Unsurprisingly, Tucker Calhoun had the most points out of the boys.

"So who approves these points?" Aitana asked. While Hotch looked away, she grabbed a case file and smacked Morgan on the back of the head with it.

"Massey," Hotch replied, eyeing Morgan for the fact he was fervently rubbing the back of his head. The rest of the team were quiet witnesses.

"Well, maybe Tucker was his little pet," Rossi suggested, "Leader of everything."

"Steamroller types like that, they don't let anybody get in their way," said JJ, "Nothing was nice about that kid. It sounds like he strong-armed everybody."

"Well, then the points are for bad behavior, only they're not calling it that," Penelope said bitterly. She thought the whole system was horrible enough.

"We should look at the points of everyone who died in those woods," Spencer said, prompting Penelope to get back on the computer. "My guess is they were all bullies. Except for Josh.

In the midst of their search, the team got word that Bailey's father had been found murdered in the same woods as the previous victims. Emily and Rossi were sent to examine the scene.

In the meantime, they had discovered something very important. Chris Shelton had hung the boys, not Josh. It was easy to reason why he had done it — the boys bullied Bailey until he committed suicide but it made no sense why Josh had been part of the vendetta.

"We should focus on how he got out there in the first place," Aitana said over the phone. She walked straight into the library, giving an acknowledging nod to the others in the room. "Yeah, okay, see you then." She hung up and met the others waiting gazes. "Anyone want to take a crack at this mystery?"

"It's all got to connect back to Massey," Morgan said without a moment's thought. It was no secret he held quite a disdain for the Colonel. "A man like Massey sets rules but is the first to break them. He's been left alone to run these kids' lives and nobody questions him."

"Oh, man, that sounds so sad and scary when you put it like that," Penelope said, shuddering at the image.

"His policies are a combination of many other philosophies. I'm not sure where his actual leadership lies," Spencer said thoughtfully but clearly troubled with the lack of clarity.

"Only that it does…lie, that is," Penelope trailed off in hopes that Spencer would understand her. He didn't. "It's a joke."

"Oh," he straightened in his seat, "Good joke."

Morgan and Aitana smiled and shook their heads simultaneously.

After a couple minutes, Penelope discovered that the school did have a cellphone, a hidden one. "It's not listed under Massey. The account was opened by Tawes."

"If Massey's lying about something as simple as a cell phone, what else is he hiding?" It sounded a lot to the others like Morgan had long ago made his mind up about the Colonel and they couldn't really blame him.

"I don't think we should let you keep going one on one with Massey," Penelope voiced her concern.

"I'm good," Morgan said in a low mutter.

Aitana shrugged. "You're not wrong. That catholic school I told you about — surprise! The headmistress was the devil. I wasn't that bad of a student, you know? And yet somehow I wound up with detention way too many times."

"For all we know, you could've been a bad listener," Penelope wagged a finger at the brunette.

"I was not!"

"Or at least a violent one," Morgan said, pointing to his head for evidence.

"Oh please," Aitana crossed her arms, "You and Spencer do a lot worse to each other in your little prank wars."

Spencer bobbed his head, about to speak when Morgan called out to him. "Don't you dare agree with her. She's not as innocent as she looks. Half those detentions had to be well earned."

"Did not," Aitana insisted, "I literally got detention because the headmistress swore she saw a tattoo on me."

Morgan's eyebrows raised curiously. "And do you?"

Aitana adamantly refused such an idea but her mischievous smile betrayed her.

"Oh, you do!" Penelope pointed excitedly at Aitana.

Aitana put her hands behind her back. "I was...a teenager. That's what every teenager does."

"Not true," Morgan said pointedly as he 'happened' to walk by Spencer's chair. The latter felt the silent jab of Morgan's words.

"I was getting another degree — there's nothing wrong with that!" He exclaimed, frowning enough to make Penelope chuckle beside him.

"So what is it, then?" Morgan asked Aitana. "And where is it?"

Aitana's smile widened; nothing was able to take the mischief from her. "What it is: none of your business. Location...left to the imagination."

Penelope laughed like never before. Morgan then revealed that Penelope had once told them she too had a forbidden tattoo somewhere on her body.

"Alright, Pen," Aitana walked up to the table and high-fived the blonde.

"It's fun being spontaneous," Penelope told Morgan and Spencer as a means of reasoning for her choices.

Morgan shook his head with bemusement while Spencer seemed more reluctant to keep discussing the matter, even being in the same room while it happened.

"But don't you ever tell my parents about it," Aitana warned the trio, "They don't know about it."

"Aren't you 27?" Morgan raised an eyebrow at her.

"I'm Mexican — that means nothing to my parents." Aitana pretended to shudder at the idea of being caught.

~0~

Later in the day, JJ returned with Hotch from the coroner's office. While Hotch stayed back with Morgan in the hallway, JJ told the others about the interesting details the coroner had said about the boys.

"The M. E. said Bailey had blisters and burns, fingertips were raw, his trachea had internal scarring."

Penelope shuddered in her seat. She couldn't believe her ears. "That's awful." Everyone else agreed except for Spencer who had stayed relatively quiet for a few minutes. It was unlike him for the situation. He spoke after several minutes had passed by.

"Guys, that could be damage done inside an industrial-size dryer."

The whole team froze but no one looked more horrified than Penelope. She genuinely wished she had stayed behind in her office.

"That's how Massey's breaking these boys," Emily concluded. It was a crucial piece they needed to fit in their puzzle.

"But...but in all the materials it says they don't believe in corporal punishment," Penelope said weakly, still unable to believe it right away.

"Bailey writes about each of those boys and how they bullied him," Rossi said, gesturing to Bailey's diary they had acquired earlier in the day. His father must have read it and wanted revenge."

"Well does it mention Josh?" asked Aitana.

"Not at all."

"They why would Chris Shelton go after him?"

"What if Massey lied to Chris Shelton?" Emily introduced the new theory. "And set Josh up. And he convinced Shelton that Josh was responsible for Bailey's suicide."

"Plausible," JJ said but her tone hinted at a hole she still looked at. "That still doesn't explain how he found the secluded woods."

"Wait, where's Mr. Shelton's phone?" Spencer asked, already looking around for the phone.

Enily picked up the evidence bag off the table. "It's right here." She turned it on and went through the contacts. "It's got a couple of contacts on it, Somerville Academy being one of them."

Spencer intently watched her. "Any unknowns?"

"There's one unknown. It's a text." Emily opened up the message and saw a strange set of numbers.

"What are they?" Spencer still wanted to know the exact numbers on the screen.

"252-5727...and 802-8448." Emily looked up at the others, nose crinkling. "What?"

Something had gone off in Spencer's mind. He got up from his chair within the second and headed for the map on one of the boards. "Those aren't phone numbers. That's latitude and longitude." He tapped the spot they had labeled as the campsite for the boys.

By nightfall, the team had deduced that Massey was trying to take Josh out through Tawes. Time was of the essence.

"Massey was in his office," Emily told the group through the comms. when they took off in their cars. Only Penelope and Spencer stayed back to monitor them.

"He has no idea we're onto him," Rossi said plainly, "He's too arrogant to realize."

The three cars drove to their respective assigned locations. In the end, Hotch and Morgan's car was the lucky car to find Tawes and Josh, both seconds away from committing murder.

With Josh in custody, the team were able to straighten up the facts and form a tight case against Colonel Massey and Tawes.

~ 0 ~

"I am not telling you where it is." Aitana couldn't help but laugh at Morgan. He was tailing behind her as soon as they stepped out of the elevator. "Nor what it is!"

The team were returning to begin their paperwork before going home.

"I bet it's on the leg, isn't it?" Morgan asked, smirking down at the brunette. "That's where my guess was for Garcia."

Aitana paused by the desks and looked back at the blonde in question. "And was he right?"

Penelope shook her head. "Nope," she popped the answer. "I don't even have one."

Morgan's finger pointed directly at Penelope, eyes narrowing in flatout disbelief. "Don't even start denying it."

Penelope smiled in return.

Morgan's head then turned back on Aitana like a swing. "It's on your back, isn't it?"

Aitana rolled her eyes. "Not even close."

"Give it up already, jeez," Emily told Morgan with a shake of her head.

"I'm going to get it!" Morgan insisted, trying yet another location.

"No, it's not on my shoulder blade, Morgan," Aitana crossed her arms. "I do have some paperwork to finish. So sorry we can't continue this lovely conversation."

"I'm going to get it!" Morgan warned her, his finger already pointing at her.

Aitana rolled her eyes at him. "Why can't you be more like the others? Rossi didn't even ask about it."

"And he won't," Rossi clarified on his way past the group, causing a rumble of chuckles from the group.

"And look at Spencer – he hasn't even asked about it once." Aitana whacked Morgan's arm. "You're the nosy one here. Take some lessons."

Morgan huffed as Aitana took off for her office.

"Better luck next time," JJ patted his shoulder on her way to her desk.

"Please, everyone's curious," Morgan said, "It's human nature. Including you, Pretty Boy."

Spencer didn't appreciate being called out and much less the jab he got on the arm. "I didn't even say anything!" He'd purposely kept his mouth shut for a reason.

"Mhm." The way Morgan looked at him made Spencer feel like he was doing something he shouldn't. And he wasn't.

But he felt like his face was growing warmer by the seconds. He did not think of the places that famous tattoo was on — his flush certainly betrayed him.

12 notes · View notes