❝ yeah, it was very clever. ❞

         AS THEY ALWAYS do, the team sat at the BAU round table as Penelope introduced a new case to them. They were expecting Spencer to come to work that day after adjusting to his mom living with him. Garcia pressed the buttons on her remote as a map of their next location appeared on the screen. "Palm Springs, California. A playground to Hollywood, currently a horror scene. One male torso, unidentifiable, if it wasn't for a woman who had some car trouble, no one would have ever found the body. And the coroner on site said that the dismemberment probably happened postmortem." She informed in a petrified manner.

         "The 2004 torso murders here in D.C. are still unsolved." Emily noted. Rossi chimed in, "We profiled the unsub in that case removed body parts as a forensic countermeasure to prevent IDing the victims. We figured he must've gotten locked up on another case."

         JJ remarked, "Well, he may be back and taunting us. Any potential victims on the local missing persons list?"

         "So far, there's been no reports of a missing male there in the last month." Penelope responded.

         "So, no missing persons and a chopped up body we cannot identify. Is Robert Durst in town?" Tara commented. "Nope." The team heard a voice say. Spencer walked in the room, continuing, "He's serving seven years on a weapons charge. Sorry I'm late guys, traffic was bad."

         "Any ID on the torso victim?" Emily asked. Penelope answered, "Uh, they don't have enough of him to do a query with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons Database."

         "He made a real effort to pull off permanent concealment." JJ voiced.

         "That could indicate a known link between the unsub and the victim." Tara suggested.

         Olivia spoke, "Or he hoped to hide the fact that a killer had just arrived in town."

         "It strikes me that he must be familiar with the area. I mean, you don't murder someone out in the desert and then bring the body back into a populated area." Emily told.

         "So the unsub was skilled enough to hunt, kill, dismember, and dispose of his victims all within city limits." Reid thought. Luke added on, "And escape without being seen."

         "And his tradecraft was on point too. He brought an effective cutting tool and had a secure location or vehicle to do the deed." Olivia read from her file.

"That kind of planning could indicate he's been fantasizing about something like this for quite a while." Tara replied.

"And if the reality didn't live up to the fantasy, he'll keep at it until he gets it right." Emily continued. "Wheels up in 30."

───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────

        Over the course of the next few days, the team figured out the unsub. The unsub was a homosexual man in a floundering marriage who started killing surrogates for his younger spouse who left him before he turned to killing others who just pissed him off. While they were working on the case, Spencer was still conflicted about the situation with his mom. Her new caretaker, Cassie, told him that she needs him there and that he's the only one that could really take care of her.

He didn't know what to do, but he's an intelligent man. He believed he would find a solution right away. Maybe he was going to get more medicine for his mother. Maybe that would work. On his way home, he decided to make just one stop. He went to Olivia's house.

His knuckles pressed against the wood three times, the porch light, the moon and stars illuminating his surroundings. He shoved his hands in his pockets as he waited for someone to answer the door. He could hear the footsteps growing closer as the door swung open, with Olivia smiling at him. He glanced behind her, noticing Rosie and Oliver animatedly reading from a booklet. "Hi! I thought you'd be with your mom." Olivia greeted.

"Yeah, but I wanted to stop by." He told her. "Um, I might be in Houston for a little while and I know that your birthday is coming up, so I wanted to be here for a little while."

"No, Spence, it's fine. You should be with your mom." She assured him.

"Spencer!" Oliver exclaimed. He then mumbled to Rosie, "Watch, he's gonna like my drawing idea." He approached him at the front door, stopping beside Olivia and holding up a sheet of paper. Light pencil strokes and outlines were drawn on the paper. "Look, for art class, I'm drawing an illustration of greek mythology. More specifically, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades. What do you think of it so far?"

Spencer examined the sketch held out in front of him, "Woah, Ollie, that's great! It looks really good." Oliver turned around and flipped Rosie off who thought otherwise, "Ha!" Olivia nudged his arm in protest of his actions, "Hey."

Rosie then walked towards the group with the booklet her and Oliver were reading from earlier. "Well, at least I was the one who got the lead role in the play. I'm playing Belle in our school's production of Beauty and the Beast."

"That's amazing, congratulations!" Spencer told her. Oliver snickered at his sister, "Nerd." Olivia turned to the two kids, "Okay, stop arguing and continue doing what you were doing." She then turned back to Spencer, "Do you wanna come in?"

"No, it's okay, I just wanted to stop by to give you something." He dug around one of the pockets of his messenger bag until he found the small object he wanted to give her. It was a dainty, golden ring that had a heart on it. Olivia's mouth was slightly agape at the sight of it as she began to familiarize herself with the jewelry. "Um, I found it in my apartment the other day and I realized I've accidentally kept this for five years and forgot to bring it back to you. But this ring actually provided me some sort of comfort when you and Anna were abducted. And I hope it brings you the same comfort it always did."

         It was the ring that Olivia had managed to slip off in the parking lot at the time of her abduction five years ago. It was a ring she absolutely loved and rarely took off except for that time. "I knew you were gonna figure out that something was wrong when you saw this." She grinned, as Spencer handed the ring to her.

         He had a matching grin growing on his face, "Yeah, it was very clever. That ring managed to make me frantically pace in the parking garage of the FBI building while Hotch watched."

         Olivia wrapped her arms around his neck, embracing him in a hug, "Thank you, this is a really great gift."

         "You're welcome. And happy early birthday, Via."

ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎︎
just in case some of you were wondering
what happened to liv's ring from adore
you lol 😁