Chapter Text
It was a rare moment at the BAU: The aftermath of a bittersweet but oh-so-necessary conclusion to a case that had haunted everyone in the room for over a year now. After a mandatory two weeks off, there were the first three days back in the office to deal with. Reports were typed up, and everything was fresh… the grinding horrors of their jobs being relived on paper over and over. But with the submission of the final reports to Emily’s desk, the team was finally able to take a breath and soak in freedom that came with the death of The Chameleon.
Rossi’s laugh was the first sound to greet Penelope’s ears as she walked into the briefing room, arms full with a double-decker tupperware cake stand full of brightly colored cupcakes. It had been so long since he’d laughed like that—deep and full, from the stomach, a wide smile gracing his face. He somehow looked 10 years younger than three weeks ago. Penelope grinned along ear to ear, her heart fluttering to see her friends basked in this aura of contentedness.
“Okay, so I brought three kinds,” she stated to whoever would listen as she slid the cake stand onto the table and uncovered it. “Chocolate, vanilla, and carrot.”
“Carrot?” asked Spencer, squinting his nose a bit.
Penelope rolled her eyes. “There’s plenty of vanilla for you, Boy Wonder.” Reid nodded and smiled happily then reached across the table to pluck a vanilla cupcake with sky blue icing off the tray.
She was filling the cupcake orders of her friends when Luke slid to her side, leaning casually against the table and waiting for her to give Emily her cupcake.
“Can I help you, Newbie?” she said, her voice low, as she turned to him. He looked worse for wear than the rest of the team, taking her by surprise. His beard was rugged, longer than usual, and his hair was wild. The dark circles under his eyes gave away his lack of sleep, and Penelope couldn’t help but let her concern show on her face before quickly putting her mask back on and raising an eyebrow at him.
“Just here to get a cupcake, Ice Queen,” he shot back, a smile playing on his lips. “Did I hear you say carrot cake?”
Penelope would have tried to come up with something witty, but she was so excited that someone was trying her carrot cake cupcakes that she skipped past it. “Here!” she said, placing a cupcake on a paper plate and handing it to Luke. He lifted it to his eye level and examined it suspiciously.
“Cream cheese icing?”
Penelope scoffed. “As if there’s any other way.” He nodded and took a careful bite.
“Not bad,” he said after chewing carefully, trying not to smile when Penelope smacked his shoulder. “Hey!”
“They’re better than okay and you know it, Luke Alvez,” she said with a huff.
Luke held his free hand up in surrender. “Okay, okay, you’re right. They’re great, Garcia.” The last part he said with sincerity, almost causing a blush to rise on Penelope’s face. Her breath caught for a moment and finally she nodded, spinning on her heel and turning her attention to JJ and Emily’s conversation behind her.
Luke stepped back and wandered towards the back of the room, taking a moment to lean against the wall and look out the window as he ate his carrot cake. Despite the cheery mood in the BAU today, the skies outside were grey and tiny raindrops were fluttering from the sky. He found himself zoned out, eating robotically and thinking about the thing that had been bothering him the most lately: Penelope’s Russian stalker. He wasn’t sure why the knowledge of that particular situation was causing so much panic in his thoughts, though he liked to think he would have reacted similarly if it was anyone on the team in that position. They were, after Roxy, his best friends… But Penelope. She was different. Penelope Garcia was the reprieve the team needed from their cases. Her bright outfits, knick-knacks, bubbly personality—everything was practically tailor-made to bring the BAU back to earth when it seemed like they couldn’t quite crawl out of hell. And those cases where she had to involve herself more deeply—like, of course, the stalking case of one of her students a few months ago that she had thrown herself so fully into—those cases broke her in ways that the rest of the team was desensitized to.
That case, of course, was the reason Luke had even found out about the stalker, and he almost regretted it. He almost preferred the ignorance. Lukehad always been protective; knowing about the stalker and not being able to do anything about it was eating away at him. More than once over the mandatory two-week leave period he’d had to stop himself from dialing Penelope’s number just to check in, to make sure she was still there. Rationally, he knew she was okay… Rossi had a security system installed in the small house she’d recently purchased, nervous to think of the most vulnerable member of their team alone, completely unarmed. Besides, he’d overheard JJ and Emily making plans with her for their break, and they would know if anything was amiss. She’d apparently been dealing with this guy for years now; if he hadn’t escalated yet, it would take something to trigger the behavior, and Penelope would recognize the shift. She may not have been a profiler, but she was smart, and had picked up enough working with the team that she would be able to sense when danger arose… at least, that’s what Luke had rationalized to calm himself down one late night after a particularly harrowing nightmare.
Matt eyed his friend. Luke was outgoing; to see him standing alone in the corner was enough to give him concern, but once he took in Luke’s appearance it grew even more.
Tara noticed his distraction and let out a large breath of surprise when she took in Luke’s appearance as well. “Wow, he looks terrible, doesn’t he?”
Matt nodded slightly, looking back to Tara. “Yeah. I figured he’d get some rest over the break, but he looks worse.”
“Have you talked to him about it?”
“No,” Matt sighed. “He’s not really…” He trailed off, trying to find the right descriptor. Luke had a habit of being both outgoing and open and incredibly secretive and closed off at the same time.
“I know what you mean,” Tara nodded in agreement. “You know, I don’t think he ever really had time to process the breakup with Lisa or the death of his ex-partner with everything that’s been going on. Maybe it’s all catching up to him.”
Matt internally chastised himself. He’d completely forgotten that Lisa had left; he was a shit friend. “Yeah, I bet that’s it. I’ll talk to him,” he assured Tara, who nodded and turned to correct something Spencer was saying to Rossi, much to Spencer’s chagrin. Rossi pulled out his cell phone to fact check and Matt smiled before walking to Luke.
“Hey, man,” he said, searching his face. “You good?”
Luke sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m good.” He paused. He wanted to tell Matt about the Russian; Matt had almost as many international contacts as he did. Whereas Luke’s were sorely lacking in Eastern Europe, Matt had several that might be willing to do a favor… But he was wary of breaking Penelope’s trust. He could tell she was definitely warming up to him, and he would go as far as to say that the tentative friendship they’d built was nearly as strong as his with Matt. Besides, he didn’t have much to go on—not even a name, and the only person he knew who could backtrace into Russian servers with ease was the one he was trying to keep this from. He didn’t think Penelope would appreciate him nosing around her life.
“I don’t think that’s true,” Matt responded. He gave Luke the same look he gave his kids when he could tell they were lying. Even worse was that he knew how good Luke was at his poker face; if he was letting something slip, he almost certainly wanted someone to know, if only subconsciously.
Luke shrugged. “It’s not… there’s not really anything that can be done,” he admitted.
“Done for what?” Luke rarely danced around something like he was now, and it was making Matt suspicious. “Is it Lisa?”
Luke’s eyebrows shot up, and he moved to stand up straight from his position leaning against the wall. “Lisa? Why would you say that?” Matt gave him a look, and he sighed. “Yeah, whatever. A non-denial denial. I know.”
“So it is about Lisa.”
Luke paused before speaking. In some ways it was tangentially related to Lisa; it wasn’t until she’d broken the news to him that she was moving out that he’d started to let himself feel something for the blonde woman laughing with her friends at the table. And he had certainly loved his ex, but the tension of Phil’s murder was sinking them both. The breakup was the right decision, for both of their sakes.
He was saved from having to answer by the clink of a pen against Rossi’s coffee mug. Luke and Matt moved towards the round table while Rossi stood to address the team.
“Every time we have a case, it reminds me how each and every one of you is instrumental to this team,” he began. “It’s no secret how much this case was eating at me, and being able to close the file on Everett Lynch has reminded me how to enjoy the presence of all of you, of my family, and myself without being lost in my own world of this case. Now, I believe we all should raise a cupcake to the BAU,” he said with a chuckle, leaning across the table and grabbing a second chocolate cupcake. The rest of the team followed suit, and Rossi raised the mass of frosting. “Salute!”
“Salute!” the rest of the team responded to the call, raising their own sweets and digging in, except for Spencer and Tara, bickering between who got the vanilla and who got stuck with the carrot cake.
Emily felt her phone buzz in her pocket and sighed. It never failed that whenever they were enjoying a nice moment, they were needed. She rose from her chair and slipped out of the room, trying to be inconspicuous. There was no reason to ruin her friends’ fun until she knew for sure they were taking a case. She briefly tried to recall what area code was 603 before picking up the call.
“Prentiss.”
She listened diligently to the police chief on the other end of the call, becoming increasingly sure that they would be leaving within the hour as the call went on. She recognized the case—she and Spencer had phone consulted with the Chief a few weeks back, when the first victim was found. Hearing that the body count had risen to five in a matter of three weeks and showed no sign of slowing down meant they had to get there, and quickly.
“We’ll be there sometime this afternoon. I’ll have my liaison call you to let you know what we’ll need when we’re in the air.”
“I can’t thank ya enough for doing this,” the gruff voice responded. “Whatever you need, I’ll personally make sure ya have.”
“No need to thank me, Chief,” Emily responded curtly. “I’ll go brief my team. You can expect that call from the liaison within the hour.”
After swift goodbyes, Emily headed back to the conference room and gave Penelope a grim nod from the doorway. She felt a pang of guilt as her friend's face fell—of course, this was the job, and she knew she shouldn’t feel guilty, but being the one to take the smile off Penelope’s face was never fun.
“Which one?” Penelope asked quietly as she joined Emily on the catwalk.
“New Hampshire.”
“Oh no… Another one?”
Emily gritted her teeth. “Four more.”
“Four,” Penelope repeated, seeming to detach herself from the word. “Yeah. Okay, I’ll go get the presentation ready. Five minutes.”
It was more like seven minutes, but Luke was late as well, sliding into his seat just as the tech got the presentation up on the display.
“You’re headed to Burlington, Vermont,” she started, repeating the introduction she’d given dozens, if not hundreds, of times before. “The Chief of Police needs help finding the person responsible for the murders of five people within the last three weeks.”
“Wait, the consult?” Spencer looked to Emily for confirmation and she nodded. “That’s an unusually fast timeline for an unsub whose first murder seemed so standard.”
“The timeline is escalating, too,” Penelope stressed as the photos of the five victims came to the board and the BAU tablets, Spencer flipping to his paper copy of the photos. “The first victim was the only one for ten days, and then, according to the coroner, there were two within a week, and three within the last six days.”
Rossi’s eyebrows went up. “Why didn’t they call us back after the next murder?”
Penelope scrunched up her nose and flipped to the next set of photos, trying to keep her face pointed forward so she wouldn’t have to look at them again. “The police didn’t know about them. They only found bodies two through five within the last two days in a mass grave site about three miles outside of town off of one of the lesser known hiking trains.”
Tara scrutinized the faces still on the screen. “Besides being young women, these victims don’t have much in common in their appearance. The unsub’s crossed racial lines,” she remarked, looking at the smiling Asian girl looking so alive in her photo, contradicted with the photo of her body after being found, like a broken puppet. “Did they have anything in common?”
“Actually, yes,” Penelope replied. “All five girls were avid hikers. They would regularly go on hikes in the wilderness surrounding Burlington.”
“Alone?” Matt asked, surprised.
“No, never, according to their social media. Actually, it seems like each girl had a group that they tended to hike with—and before you ask, no, there’s no overlap in hiking partners. Which makes it even weirder that they were found with full packs for overnight hikes and in all their gear.”
“None of them planned to go hiking?” asked Luke.
Penelope shook her head. “Yeah, and that’s another weird thing—besides never going hiking alone, all the girls’ families insisted that they would never go hiking without telling someone their itinerary.”
“So either somebody is lying, or these girls all changed their behavior radically within weeks of each other,” Luke continued.
“You don’t have to be a genius to know the odds on that one,” Rossi remarked.
“Well, we’re not going to be much help from here at the speed this unsub is going,” Emily chimed in. “Wheels up in 20—and bring something warm, the Chief said there’s going to be a cold snap over the next week.”
Emily touched Luke’s shoulder before he could file out of the conference room with the rest of the team. “Luke, hold up a sec,” she said softly. He already knew what this was going to be about and turned in her direction a little too abruptly. “Luke, are you okay? Do you need more time? You can take another week; we’ll be fine—”
“I don’t need more time off,” Luke retorted roughly. He regretted his tone instantly; Emily was just looking out for him, and he knew as well as anyone in the office that he looked like he’d been up for a few days. “I just… Wanna get back to normal, okay?”
Emily was unphased. “Alright,” she said simply, letting him turn and speed walk out the door. Luke wasn’t always good at sharing, probably stemming from his days on the fugitive task force, or perhaps his confidential military work from his earlier days. His recent outbursts were a source of concern for her, but this seemed much different—less angry, more defeated. In some way that was scarier to her, but she tried to put it out of her mind as she refocused her energy on preparing for the case. Whatever Luke was struggling with, she knew he would put it aside for the sake of the case, and right now there was a community that needed their help.
Penelope hated this part. She was scanning through the victims’ vital records and social media pages, trying to find something that might be helpful, but so far everything seemed innocuous. It didn’t help that she wasn’t sure exactly what she should be looking for until the team got on location and started getting a feel for the situation. She kept looking for a reason to tap into the jet’s communication system just to check in but couldn’t find one.
It was a strange and disturbing to think about, but occasionally she caught herself wishing that there were more serial killers in DC—or, more accurately, that all the serial killers would come to DC. At least during cases where the team could base out of the BAU offices she was able to check in on them herself, in person, instead of through a video call. She tried not to think about how dangerous their cases could be, and her anxiety began to spike as her heart clenched softly. The some of the most terrifying moments of her life were the ones involving a dangerous takedown, and all she could do was sit in her cave and wait, hoping and praying that every one of her friends would come out on the other side unscathed.
A beep and a red notification signal suddenly sounded on one of her side monitors. She brought it up and looked at it suspiciously; the sender was listed as “Unknown,” which already gave her pause. Not only should the programs she had in place have automatically traced the unknown sender, but her notifications weren’t on—whatever the email contained had forced a notification through.
She weighed the pros and cons quickly before deciding to go ahead and open it. She knew what she should expect; there was only one person she knew of who had this level of techno prowess, as well as the experience with her own security systems to let it slide through.
The messages lately had gotten more intense and more descriptive. She only read the text once before jamming her fingers onto her mouse to get it off of her screen and shoving her eyelids closed, trying to breathe deeply and keep the nausea that swept through her system at bay. Penelope wanted on some level to stop opening the emails, stop reading the messages that persisted no matter what safeguards she put in place, but the thought was scarier than the alternative. At least when she read the messages she could better gauge his state of mind, and use whatever information she could find after its delivery to keep tabs on Alexei Stanovich. After that one, though, she might have to rethink that.
She was still a little nauseous when she heard the ping from the team calling in from the air and answered quickly. JJ’s face appeared on her monitor.
“Hey, are you okay? You look at little pale.”
She nodded quickly. “Yeah, just… looking at the crime scene photos.”
JJ nodded understandingly. “Well hey, we had some things we want you to check out.” She sat the tablet on the small table so Penelope could see the team. She could have slapped herself when she caught her eyes darting around, seeking out Luke’s face, finding it before she could stop herself.
“Hey, Garcia,” Matt started. “This guy is way too organized and precise for this to be his first go around. Can you do a search for any cases involving female hikers in the last…” He looked to his teammates and shrugged. “Five years?”
“Of course I can do a search, biceps,” she said, already starting to type parameters into her search engines.
“And look at neighboring towns as well,” Emily added. “Burlington is on the state line, so look for anything relevant in New York.”
“Ah, yes, the time-tested switching jurisdictions trick,” Penelope remarked. “On it. Anything else?”
“That’s all for now. Thanks, Garcia,” Emily said as JJ grabbed the tablet again.
“Penelope,” JJ said before the other girl could sign off. “Wait. Hey, are you sure you’re okay?”
Penelope plastered on her best smile and focused on the octopus mug sitting just under the monitor. “Yeah. I’m great. I’m gonna get started on this search.”
“Alright,” JJ responded slowly. “Well, we’re landing in about 20 minutes. I’ll send you a text when we get to the station, okay?” Penelope gave a small sound of approval, then ended the call before anything else could be said.
Luke was reclined on one of the jet’s couches, eyes closed, trying to get in a few minutes rest before they landed. He couldn’t (or wouldn’t) help but overhear JJ’s brief conversation with Penelope. He knew the two of them were extremely close, and Penelope’s response to her friend’s gentle questioning was unusual for her. He wasn’t close enough to see for himself during the brief team call, but wondered about JJ’s observation that she looked pale… she seemed fine when they’d left the BAU.
He tried to push those things from his mind and blank out, listening to the dull whir of the plane moving through the sky and the letting the tiny tremors of the cabin calm his heartbeat. He groaned audibly when the ding of the pilot’s seatbelt signal rang through the cabin and straightened up, pulling the belt out and hooking himself in.
Reid came to set himself next to Luke and did his own belt. He said nothing, just looking at the other man with his eyebrows up expectantly.
“Don’t start,” Luke groaned, putting his head in his hands. “Kid, I love you like a brother, but if you ask me if I’m okay right now I will slap you.”
“Alright,” Spencer said simply, sitting back and folding his hands in his lap. Luke looked and him tentatively before nodding and sitting upright himself. That was something he’d grown to appreciate about Spencer in recent years; while Reid was and always had been staunchly loyal to and protective of his team, he was also the least likely to prod until he needed to.
The landing was uneventful, and as the team deplaned to pick up the three FBI SUV’s on the tarmac, Spencer held Luke back. “Is it Penelope?” he asked quietly.
Luke’s sleepy eyelids opened wide on hearing this, and he took an involuntary step back. “What do—” he sputtered, quickly checking that the rest of the team was out of the cabin before hissing at Reid, “What are you talking about?” He caught his mistake immediately—a non-denial denial, yet again.
Reid shrugged. “I’ve just been getting, uh, vibes lately,” Spencer said, obviously uncomfortable using the colloquialism. “I’m not—I’m not gonna tell anyone or anything.”
Luke exhaled a short breath and nodded. “Because there’s nothing to tell. Okay?” He didn’t wait for Reid’s answer before turning and stepping out onto the jet stairs to join the rest of the team. Spencer stuck his hands in his pockets and observed Luke’s tense body language, then stepped out of the plane.