Untouchable Ch 21: Elephant’s Memory (S3E16)
Warnings: murder, mentions of terrorism, mentions of drugs and addiction
Ch 20 | Ch 22
~ ~ ~
“I’m proud of you,” Spencer said, speaking up for the first time on their drive.
“You’re proud of me?” she asked, startled.
“Yes,” he argued. “Look at you! You’ve got a car now. Twenty-four years old, teaching two college classes and working for the FBI.”
“I’m more proud of you!” she shot back. “A full year sober! I can’t imagine how difficult it has been for you.”
“Thank you for coming with me.” Spencer sunk slightly in the passenger seat.
After the death of Ryan Phillips in front of the two of them, Spencer had been struggling with his cravings again. He hadn’t relapsed, of course, but he was plagued by nightmares and a lack of motivation. When he admitted this to Lydia, she’d suggested he look up some support meetings nearby. Tonight was going to be his first time attending the Beltway Clean Cops group.
“I’m more than happy to come along!”
The two of them sat in the back of the room, listening calmly to different people talk about their situations. Spencer had just gotten the courage to take the stage when Lydia got a text from Hotch.
Briefing in 30. Can’t get ahold of Reid. Please tell him.
Lydia dropped her head into her hands. Could it not wait just a few more moments? He had barely started speaking aloud and Lydia could see him trying to ignore the buzzing phone in his pocket.
“Hi. Uh… My name’s, uh, Spencer, and I’m uh… I don’t really know what I am.”
“Hello Spencer,” the crowd greeted.
“This is my- This is my first meeting,” he sputtered, his eyes locking with Lydia’s every few seconds. “I guess I, uh… I know I had a… a problem with Dilaudid, but… I stopped. My girlfriend helped me to stop about a year ago. I thought it was over, but recently I’ve really been… your literature uses the term ‘craving’. It started about a month ago. A- A suspect was murdered in front of me. A kid. And I thought that I could save that kid, but I couldn’t, and… Sorry.” He pulled out his phone, rejecting another call from their boss. “I’ve seen a lot of that stuff before, but for some reason that kid’s face is really, uh… stuck in my brain. You know? It’s really- I can’t… And I want to forget… about him. And I just want to escape.”
Once again, he pulled his phone from his pocket and stepped away from the microphone, mumbling his apologies. Lydia got up and ran around to the side door to follow him out.
“I’m sorry,” she said as they met up and started walking to the car. “I didn’t want to interrupt you-”
“It’s fine,” he breezed. “Let’s just… get this over with.”
~ ~ ~
“Sorry we’re late,” Spencer announced as he and Lydia jogged into the conference room..
“Do I want to know what you two were up to?” Morgan teased.
Lydia was quick to cover Spencer’s secret for him. “You sound as if going to the movies is scandalous.”
“Movies, hm?” Rossi joined. “Tell us what the movie was about.”
“Wouldn’t know. We didn’t get to finish it.”
Both boys gave the couple a look. Spencer started to shrink in his seat, but Lydia kept up her stance, not wanting them to push for anymore answers.
“I know it’s late,” Hotch interrupted. “I know we’re tired, but we’ve got two dead cops.”
“Alright.” JJ opened up the file in front of her and continued briefing the team, pointing to what looked to be a massive house fire displayed on the scene. “The resident, Rod Norris, was DOA. They’re still trying to ID the remains of the second victim, whom they believe is his 16-year-old daughter Jordan. From the condition of the remains, she would have had to have been inside the house, close to the source of the blast.”
“Clearly they used the bombing to set the officers up for an ambush,” Emily noted.
Spencer nodded. “It’s a well-established terrorist tactic. The first wave takes out civilians, the second wave takes out first responders.”
“The locals are thinking terrorism?” Morgan asked. “In West Bune, Texas?”
JJ nodded. “Not exactly a tier-one target, but DHS did issue a terror alert for the border states yesterday, just due to the timing and nature of the attacks.”
As the team argued about the chances of this being an actual terrorist attack, Lydia looked over her file. An explosive went off in Rod Norris’s house, and when two cops arrived on the scene, they were shot. Hotch probably wanted her working on identifying the explosive and seeing if there is any evidence to recover from the house.
Simple enough.
~ ~ ~
“The blast was localized here,” Lydia announced as she walked onto the scene. “The room was sealed off. There’s plastic and duct tape on the doors and windows.”
“Cordite,” Rossi added as he smelled something on the ground. “Gunpowder.”
Reid was looking through his file. “Yeah. They found a dozen canisters, it says.”
Rossi and Prentiss put their heads together, determining where Jordan and Rod were standing when the explosion happened. Lydia ran her fingers over the door frames. Whoever set this up wouldn’t need to clean up their evidence. There was no way she could recover anything out of the pile of ashes that used to be the Norris house.
“They didn’t care about the rest of the house,” Spencer said, more to Lydia than the others. “The whole thing’s designed to focus the blast on whoever came through that door.”
“If that’s true, something had to trigger the blast,” she reasoned.
Emily held up a charred box of cigarettes. “Rod Norris was a smoker.”
Lydia glanced at the floor where all the gunpowder had been set. Drop a hot cigarette on that? Kaboom.
“I’ve been working with you profilers long enough to know that no terrorist is going to watch Rod Norris long enough to know that he was going to enter through this door and be smoking a cigarette at a specific time,” Lydia replied. “This is too personal.”
~ ~ ~
The more they learned, the more the case reeked of personal problems.
Their unsub was a boy named Owen Savage. His father was one of the responding officers on the Norris scene. He’d staged the explosion to kill Jordan Norris’s dad and look like Jordan had died too. Then, when his father showed up, he shot him and his partner. They were pretty sure that Jordan wasn’t a part of the murders and was either a hostage or was completely unaware of the situation. She had been dating Owen for a long time, so it was likely she had agreed to leave with him, without checking in with her father.
Lydia had been talking with Garcia about the teens’ families when she saw Spencer storm away out of the corner of her eye. He had just… left.
Finishing up her conversation, she ran over to Hotch.
“Did you send Spencer away?”
“Have you seen how he’s been acting?” Hotch snapped.
She wasn’t surprised to hear that Spencer was moody. Leaving that meeting so suddenly was hard for him and he was still dealing with Ryan Phillips’s death. Working on another teen-involved case was probably not helping.
“Lydia, you two promised-”
“This isn’t a relationship thing!” she defended before he could say anything else. “He’s dealing with something else. The only reason I’m involved is because he told me about it. Please just…”
“Talk to him,” Hotch ordered. “His passive aggressive attitude is going to get him into trouble. The town’s already pissed we’re here.”
Lydia nodded, switching topics. “I heard that Officer Lett’s wife freaked out on you guys earlier. I’m sorry.”
“The police are under a lot of pressure to find who did this. They don’t need some angsty teen from the FBI telling them they’re stupid as well.”
She blinked. “He called someone stupid?”
“Talk to him,” Hotch repeated, ignoring her question.
“Yes, sir.”
~ ~ ~
“Has she calmed yet?” Lydia asked Emily.
They had been able to get in contact with Jordan Norris and tell her about what Owen had done, convincing her to run away from him and join them in the station, but she still didn’t fully trust them. It’d taken much persuasion and a lot of promises not to hurt Owen for her to give up where he was hiding. And now she was sobbing, half in fear, half in shame, in one of the private rooms in the station.
“No,” Emily replied, bluntly, on her way to get the girl another cup of water. “Did you hear from Hotch?”
Lydia nodded. “Owen wasn’t at the ranch. He left a note, I guess, about returning his mother’s necklace.”
Emily simply shrugged. “He can’t have gotten far. I’m sure the rest of the team will find him.”
She walked back to the grieving girl, who JJ was currently comforting, leaving Lydia alone in the bullpen of the station. That is, until Spencer came rushing in, brushing past her to get to their evidence boards.
“Spencer?” she called, already on his heels. “Why are you back?”
“They think he’s going to his mother’s grave,” he breathed, yanking a photo from the board and then looking around for Jordan.
“Isn’t he?” she demanded, seeing that the picture he had grabbed was the photo of Owen’s mother that he kept on his laptop. She was smiling, pointing to her necklace, which said ‘Hope’.
Hotch had assumed by Owen’s note that Owen was taking that necklace to his mother’s grave, as a way of ‘giving it back’ to her. But when Spencer interrupted Jordan and JJ’s conversation, throwing the photo in the young girl’s face, Lydia understood what he was thinking.
“He was gone when we got to the ranch. I want to save his life, but I need to ask you a question. This necklace-- he gave it to you?”
He spoke so fast, it was hard to differentiate between sentences, but Jordan took a second to process what he had said, then nodded. “I left it at the ranch.”
“He’s coming here,” Spencer said, already on his way out of the station.
Lydia jumped in front of him, already holding up a hand to stop him. “He’s going to do everything he can to get to Jordan.”
“I can’t let him do this, Lydia,” he hissed, trying to push past her. “It’s a suicide mission. I won’t let him die.”
“I know this is hard for you,” she told him, still maintaining eye contact to keep him in place. “But I can’t let you do this alone. Tell me the plan, and we walk out together.”
He glanced at the door, clearly anxious to leave before Owen got there. But his eyes were somewhat relieved to tell her what he was going to do. “Leave your gun. He wants to go down shooting. If we don’t have weapons, he has no reason to kill us. The only thing he wants more than death, is to apologize to Jordan so… I have to make it clear that that’s still an option.”
Lydia was already pulling her gun from its holster, setting it down on the desk beside her. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
He nodded, sternly, and unarmed, the two of them walked out of the station, side by side.
The sun was unbearable outside. The two of them could barely see Owen’s dark figure approaching down the block, but the shotgun across his chest was hard to miss. Lydia’s hands were already up, her palms facing outwards. Spencer followed suit as the boy saw them approaching and aimed his weapon in their direction.
“Reid!” Prentiss screamed, leaving the station just in time to watch them walk into danger. “Ambers!”
The two of them ignored her, Spencer stepping forward to speak. “Owen, we don’t have guns on us. My name is Spencer, this is Lydia, we’re with the FBI, and we’re here to help you.”
“Yeah?” he cried. “I need you to stay back.”
There were tires squealing behind them and Lydia finally glanced behind her to see a black SUV with Rossi, Morgan, and Hotch inside pull up behind them. As Spencer continued, they threw open the doors and positioned themselves behind them, guns at the ready.
“I know the only reason you joined the wrestling team was for your father. I know that he blamed you for what happened-”
“Stay back! Right where you are!”
“-I also know the only reason you killed Rod Norris and Kyle Borden was to protect Jordan. I know the harder you tried, the worse it got, and it felt like everyone just stood there watching you suffer, and not a single person even tried to help.”
“They didn’t,” Owen sobbed. “They didn’t.”
“I know you want to escape… and forget. Believe me when I say I know… I know exactly how that feels.”
Lydia, listened to him speak. This case with Owen was really hard for him. She knew that he was dealing with cravings, but the way he spoke to Owen made her think it was something more. She’d never imagined that highschool was easy for Spencer. He was only 12 at the time. But there was clearly something specific on his mind.
Lydia kept glancing back so that she could position herself between Owen and the rest of the team. Hotch was going to kill her later. She was certain of it. But she was convinced that they were more likely to shoot Owen than Owen was likely to shoot her or Spencer. And for Spencer’s sake, she’d do anything to keep Owen from dying.
“Owen, there’s so much more for you out there,” Lydia finally spoke up.
“No. No, I’m already dead.”
“You aren’t dead,” she promised. “If you die, you’re going to leave Jordan. And right now, she’s in the station begging us not to hurt you.”
“You don’t want to leave her like your mother left you,” Spencer agreed.
“Ok.” Owen’s head shook wildly, trying to keep the upper hand on the situation. “Bring her to me. Bring her outside.”
“I can’t bring her outside,” Spencer quickly told him. “But, if you put the gun down, I swear to god, I’ll take you to her. I promise, nobody will hurt you. You’ll say goodbye to her, and you’ll give her the necklace. Alright? So what do you say? Let’s put the gun down. Let’s go inside.”
Lydia could see the battle in Owen’s mind, so she added, “Owen, Jordan loves you so much. If not for your sake, come in peacefully for hers. She’s been through so much, don’t let her live with this on her conscience as well.”
Finally, he nodded, reaching underneath his overcoat and taking the strap of the shotgun off his shoulder. Pointing it away, he stepped forward and put the weapon softly on the ground.
Now that he was unarmed, Lydia stepped to the side and let the team see Owen, his arms already above his head.
“They have to cuff you now, Owen,” Lydia told him calmly, trying to maintain eye contact with him so he didn’t see all the FBI agents running towards him and freak out. Spencer moved the gun aside and stepped up next to her. “You did so good, Owen. I know this is scary, but just stay calm. I promise we’re taking you to Jordan right now.”
“You two okay?” Morgan asked as he grabbed Owen's arms and locked them behind his back.
Spencer nodded, patting the boy down and pulling a knife from his belt as well as his mother’s necklace. “We’re fine.”
Lydia turned and finally made eye contact with Hotch. A very, very pissed off Hotch.
~ ~ ~
The night had hit fast and the whole plane was quiet. Lydia leaned into Spencer’s shoulder, her mind drifting with everything that had happened on the case. As much as she had to be worried about, her mind kept coming back to the same point: despite how stressed he was, Spencer told her the plan. He let her come with him. And that said volumes about the trust between the two of them. She knew that. She could see it so clearly now.
The strong connection she felt to him in the moment, couldn’t even be broken when Hotch sat down across from the two of them, his face a state of unwavering seriousness.
“You two knowingly jeopardize your lives and the lives of others. I should fire you both.”
Reid bit down on his lip nervously. “You have to understand that this was entirely my idea, sir.”
“Ambers?” Hotch addressed. “Do you believe Reid deserves the blame for this?”
“No, sir.”
Despite his clear anger, Lydia knew that Hotch wasn’t going to fire them. In fact, she doubted they’d get much punishment at all. He was good at understanding the intentions of his team.
He looked at Spencer again. “You’re the smartest kid in the room, but you’re not the only one in that room. You pull something like this again, don’t expect lenience from me. The same goes for you, Lydia. Am I clear?”
Spencer nodded immediately, “Yes, sir,” with Lydia following suit.
“It won’t happen again.”
“Thank you,” Spencer added.
“What were you thinking?”
Lydia dropped her hand over her boyfriend’s and waited patiently for him to answer. She may have followed him into the line of fire, but in the end, it was his decision, which would have happened with or without her.
“I was thinking that that would have been the second time a kid died in front of me.”
“You’re keeping score.” Hotch shook his head in warning. “Just like Owen.”
“It was my turn to save one,” Spencer joked, without much of the humor.
“It doesn’t work like that.”
“It should.”
Lydia listened intently to their conversation. This was obviously a talk the Spence needed to have with his boss on his own. They both needed to address the death of Ryan Phillips.
“I know it’s painful when the person you identify with is the bad guy,” Hotch told him and Spencer’s eyes fell to his intertwined fingers with Lydia.
“What does that make me?”
“Good at the job.” For the first time that night, there seemed to be a hint of a smile on his face.
Lydia leaned back onto her boyfriend’s shoulder as the unit chief stood up, but he continued to speak to them as he stepped into the walkway of the jet.
“I know it’s none of my business, but when we land, I think you should go and catch the rest of that movie.”
Lydia almost stupidly asked him what he was referring to, forgetting all about the cover she had set up for them at the beginning of the case to excuse their tardiness.
“He has to know that was a lie,” Spencer mumbled into her hair.
“No doubt,” she agreed. “But I think he knows that whatever it was was important to the two of us. That’s all that really matters, right?”
“Right,” he whispered, tiredly drifting off against her side.
Tags: @kris-stuff, @wooya1224, @arthurmorrgans, @anotherr-fine-mess, @eddysocs
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