Fic: Co-Operation, Chapter 1/3 (Criminal Minds / Without a Trace, Reid / Morgan, Danny / Martin)
Title: Co-Operation, Chapter 1/3
Fandom: Criminal Minds / Without a Trace
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Danny Taylor / Martin Fitzgerald,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Notes: The connection to Without a Trace was previously mentioned in chapter 9 of Visitors of All Sorts.
Criminal Minds Main List
“Did you know that the murder of Marie Rogers was immortalised by Edger Allan Poe in his short story The Mystery of Marie Rogêt, where the crime was relocated to Paris and the body was found floating in the Seine?”
“Pretty boy…” Morgan suppressed the urge to roll down the window and show few hand signals at the driver of the car ahead of them. The long queue of cars hadn`t moved an inch in what felt like hours, but must have been only ten minutes. “Does that fascinating Reid-ism have anything to do with our case?”
“Young woman discovered mutilated in dirty water.” Reid shrugged. “There’s similarities.”
“Where did it happen?”
“Murder or discovery? She disappeared after leaving her job at cigarette shop in Manhattan, and was discovered three days later floating in the Hudson-river.”
“Our latest victim was discovered mutilated in her own bathtub.”
“There was water.”
“There’s no similarities.”
“I’m just trying to kill some time! Would you rather listen to my audio books?”
“What do you got?”
“I got…” Reid pulled his messenger bag from the backseat and pulled few CD-cases from the side pocket. “Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich unabridged, Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, read by-”
“I once saw a modern version of that. One of my old girlfriends rented it.” Morgan interrupted. “It was called The Screwing of the Tamed. The dialogue was kinda dodgy, but-”
“Are you talking about porn?”
“Adult entertainment.”
“Pornographic adult entertainment.”
“Is there any other kind?”
“And you assume that it served some culturally enlightening function due to it’s title?”
“I know the main plot, so it wasn’t a total waste of time. She got really hot when she saw the girls in their corsets-”
“We seem to have some free time here, so tell me about it.” Reid crossed his arms across his chest and shot Morgan a challenging glare. “Tell me what you learned about William Shakespeare’s masterpiece by renting a movie? What is the main story?”
“There’s this woman, who has a sister…”
“Right.”
“And then…” Morgan tried to mentally shake the corner’s of his memory. “She couldn’t find a husband, so her family set up an audition. Men came for a test run and her sister and mother were there too, to evaluate which candidate was chosen for the next round and then… Am I even close?”
“I’d say the filmmakers took some liberties with the story. How did it end?”
“One of the guys threw her on his shoulder and took her to the stables for some fun in the saddle while the stable boy watched. And the mom and sis got to keep the rest of the guys and there was a minor orgy on this huge wooden dinner table-”
“Your girlfriend chose that movie?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to tell me more about her and the movie? We’ve been stuck here for ten minutes and it doesn’t look like that state of events will change too soon.”
“Never thought I would say this, but... I think I’d rather listen to your audio books.”
“I got one of Edgar Allan Poe’s.” Reid shoved him one of the CD-covers. “The Telltale Heart.”
“I’ve seen a movie version of that too. It was called The Telltale-” Morgan swallowed down the next word and forced an innocent smile on his face. “Or we could just listen to the radio.”
-----------------------------------
Three hours later
“Mind if I ask you something?”
“Sure.” The man’s flirty tone made J.J. automatically revert to her “wide-eyed blond” mode. “About the case?”
“About your boss. Is he always like that?” Agent Taylor made a vague gesture at the hallway, where Hotch was currently ripping apart one of the rookie agents of the New York office.
“No. He’s pretty strict, but… I think he’s having a bad day. He’s harmless.”
“Maybe, but I could feel the temperature going down when you introduced us.”
“I think he was supposed to have his son for the weekend when we got called in for this case.” J.J. mused. “But I have to admit, I haven’t seen him like that for a while.”
“If he starts bossing Jack around, there’ll be World War Three going on under half an hour.” Taylor leaned casually against the desk.
“They already agreed that the missing persons will handle the latest missing girl, our team will take a look at the previous cases.” J.J. sighed. “Let’s just hope this case is over sooner than later. We’ve worked together for years, and that was the first time he’s ever told me off because of my cleavage.”
“That’s nothing, the brunette… Emma?”
“Emily.”
“She got told off for coughing too loudly in front of a witness. Little more uptight and he’d be like Fitzie when he joined the team.”
“Fitzie?”
“Martin.” A lopsided grin appeared on Taylor’s face. “Agent Fitzgerald. Anyway, we’ll let you know if that tip from the hotline goes anywhere.” He gave her a little smile and walked out of the conference room while Reid and Morgan were coming in, carrying several boxes of case files.
“J.J.?” Morgan observed her carefully.
“Yeah?”
“You’re a taken woman and a mother of one, get that hungry look off your face.”
“I was thinking about lunch.”
“Yeah, right…” He placed a box on the table and pulled the lid off. “Sixteen years and twenty-two similar cases.”
“Makes you wonder why no one realised the similarities earlier.”
“All the cases were handled by different teams.” Reid commented. “Some of them weren’t handled by the missing persons, because the bodies were found before anyone reported them missing or they were handled by the PD.”
“Well… better just get on with it. Morgan and I will take this box, you’ll take the other one.”
“Why is it always me-”
“Because you’ll be done with that before we’re even halfway through.” She grabbed the first few files and sat down to read. “And Rossi and Em are chatting up some retired agent, who handled the first case sixteen years ago, so they’ll be gone for a while.”
“Rossi and senior citizen… sounds like a great match. If they start talking about the good old days, he’ll be there all day.” Morgan chuckled. “At least Hotch didn’t go with him.”
“You noticed it too?”
“The guy’s acting like someone shot him in the ass with rock salt.”
“Does anyone actually use rock salt in shotguns anymore?”
“When we had that case up in the Rockies, every other hillbilly had one of those ready to go at all times.” Morgan reminisced. He noticed the look on Reid’s face and turned to take a good look at him. “Did Hotch say something to you?”
“What?” The file slipped from Reid’s hands and few papers fell to the floor. “No.”
“You know something.”
“I know a lot of things.” The genius was blushing like a ripe tomato. “Did you know that-”
“Don’t try that. What do you know that we don’t?”
“That’s a really broad question-”
“Pretty Boy, you know what it does to me when you try that…”
“You wouldn’t do it here!” Reid exclaimed with a look of horror overtaking his face. “There’s people everywhere! And J.J.!”
“Not that! What it does to me when you start splitting hairs about something.”
“You get annoyed?”
“Yeah.”
“And then you hide the sugar bowl from the break room?”
“Don’t force me to go that far.”
“I don’t know anything definite-”
“So you do know something.”
“It’s just a guess-”
“What guess?”
“Well, I guess… It may have something to do with Chad.”
“He’s not even here.”
“I mean he used to work in the New York office. In Missing Persons.”
“You’re leaving something out. What?”
“Like I said, it`s just a guess.”
“Spit it out before Morgan goes to full-on interrogation mood.” J.J. stated and leaned over the table. “Give us your best guess.”
“He had a fling with one of his co-workers.”
“You think Hotch knows about it?”
“You got a better theory or would you like me to continue?”
“No… So who was it?”
“He never told me a name, but… Jack Malone’s not really his type, and someone said he was divorced couple years ago, so I think we can count him out. Fitzgerald hasn’t been here that long, and I’m sure Chad said it was a he, so that excludes Spade and Johnson.”
“Taylor?” Morgan almost started laughing. He shot a quick look at J.J. “Your little flirt buddy?” His took a look at Reid, than glanced through the glass wall into the bullpen, where agent Taylor was talking animatedly with agents Johnson and Spade. Finally he spotted Hotch marching to the elevators, like a bull aiming for the red flag. Morgan`s gaze slid back to Reid and he shook his head in disbelief. “You, Hotch and Taylor? Seriously, that guy’s taste in guys is all over the place.”
Chapter 2/3