Present Day— 2015

Spencer Reid

I wasn't trying to, but I overheard the whole conversation.

I carefully looked over my shoulder to peek at the petite girl holding an even smaller girl in her arms, arguing with Amber, the front desk clerk.

"I don't care if he is already working on another case right now, I need to speak with him," she argued in a low voice, her arms adjusting the child. "I don't understand why I can't just talk to him for five minutes."

"Ma'am, Agent Rossi is currently busy. You're more than welcome to take a seat and wait for him, but I can't guarantee when he will be out to speak with you." Amber said, her jaw visibly clenching as the young girl huffed and took a seat.

I felt a presence behind me and turned my head to meet the eyes of Derek Morgan.

"What's going on over there?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest.

"It seems the woman holding the baby wants to talk to Rossi..." I said, looking back over to the girl. I glanced up to Hotch's office, watching Dave exit the small room. He buttoned his blazer as he took the stairs back down quickly, his eyes scanning the first floor as he realized the whole floor was staring at him.

"What? Do I have something in my teeth?" he asked, sucking on his top teeth.

Before anyone could reply, the girl in the waiting room loudly scooted her chair back, grabbing all of our attention. She quickly stood up and started to walk towards their direction, having spotted Rossi through the glass.

"Agent Rossi," she called, picking up a diaper bag from the floor next to her chair.

Amber quickly stood up to tell her she couldn't enter, but Rossi stopped her. "It's okay, let her in."

I looked over at him and asked, "You know her?"

Rossi didn't answer, but ushered her in and told her to take a seat at his desk. She quickly put her diaper bag and purse down in the seat next to her and placed the toddler on her leg while she rifled through her purse.

"Thank you for seeing me," the girl said, her words quick as she struggled to find what she was looking for. "They've started again." she said, pausing to look Rossi in the eye.

He raised his eyebrows and quickly glanced over at the few of us who were still looking their way. I shrugged my shoulders as I watched her closely, noting her arm that was wrapped around the baby's stomach was also the hand that was anxiously picking at the inseam of her jeans, nervously trying to find what she was looking for.

My curiosity peaked as she finally pulled out multiple crinkled up letters from the bag, handing them to Rossi. He took them from her and slowly looked over them. My nerves began to rise as I knew I could read them all at the same time Dave could read half of one, but stayed quiet, trying to figure out who this girl could possibly be.

As Rossi read over the letters, I studied the girl who anxiously bit her lip and bounced her leg that was not supporting the toddler.

She had frizzy ginger hair that reached past her back. The wave in her hair suggests she probably didn't brush it this morning, directing my next observation to her face. Her eyes were green with a hint of exhaustion, small circles clinging to her pale under eyes. She had a sprinkle of brown freckles over her button nose, trailing to both of her pink cheeks. She was objectively beautiful.

Rossi cleared his throat as he tapped the three pages together against the desk, straightening them up. "I'm not really sure what you expect me to do here-" he looked at her quizzically as he tried to remember her name.

"Sabrina," she sighed. "Sabrina Woods."

I racked my brain trying to think of the exact case I had read years ago that included that name. My mind whirled as I tried to pick out the pieces, seeing written names and case numbers in front of me.

Rossi raised his eyebrows again, this time looking back down at the pages she had handed him.

"Sabrina," he started. "I don't know what you want me to do. The guy is in prison." he said sympathetically, and handed her the letters.

"You don't understand," she said slowly. "The man who killed my family is not in prison. You got the wrong guy." Her voice came out in a tremble as she tried to speak low as not to disturb the BAU's workspace, and I immediately remembered where I had heard her name before.

"You're Riker and Annabelle Woods's daughter," I said quietly, her head quickly turning to look at me. Her eyes visibly widened and her nose scrunched slightly as she looked at me, her pink lips turned down in a slight frown. Just as quickly as she'd turned to face me, she turned back towards Rossi and let out another breath.

Rossi shook his head and ran a finger over his beard as he usually did when he was thinking.

"What makes you so sure we got the wrong guy?" he asked her. "These letters could be from anyone; An ex-boyfriend, a friend playing jokes on you? We can't just go off some harmless letters." She shook her head and grabbed the letters from the desk, stuffing them back into her bag, swiftly grabbing her purse and the diaper bag from the seat and standing up with the small girl in her arms.

"I thought since the police wouldn't help me, you would," she said, throwing the bags over her shoulder. "But clearly, I was wrong."

She moved out from the seat and pushed past the lot of the bureau that had huddled away from the desk to listen in, and I watched her roughly wipe her face as tears fell from her eyes. She quickly walked through the open glass door of the BAU, her long hair flowing behind her and was out of sight.

We all glanced at Rossi, who was still staring after her, his eyes landing on us.

"What? Am I just supposed to assume we were wrong in the profile and take the girls word for it that we got the wrong guy, sixteen years ago?" he asked, shrugging his shoulders.

Derek and I shared a look and I leaned back in my chair, mind reeling over the old case details.

"Do you still have the case files?" I asked Rossi, turning in my swivel chair to log into my computer.

"I'm sure Garcia can access them in the online records," Rossi answered, walking towards me. "Why?"

"I think we should take a look at it, just to see if there was something your team might have missed." Rossi's face contorted a bit as he thought it over, and wondered if it were cocky to think he couldn't have been wrong.

I wish she wouldn't have taken the letters with her, as I would've liked to read over them. I got up from the desk and walked over to Garcia's office, Morgan close behind me. I knocked on the door as I gently opened it, seeing Garcia flinch away from her boyfriend, Kevin.

I awkwardly bit the inside of my cheek and folded my fingers together in front of me, throat clearing. Morgan laughed behind me, pushing his way through the office.

"You gotta be slicker than that, babygirl." he snickered, taking a seat in another one of the rolling chairs.

"Don't worry about me, I'm plenty slick." Garcia sniped back, winking over at him.

I cleared my throat again and began to ask, "Um, Garcia, do you happen to have access to any of the old case files for the Woods murder?"

She pushed herself away from the table in the room and rolled over to her computer in her chair, and started clicking away at her keyboard.

"I have a few different case files for Woods..." she began, and I quickly informed her of the rest. "Ah, okay. Yes, I do have them. I will send them over to your tablet now."

I thanked her and walked out of the room, my fingers wringing together as I wondered how to get a copy of that letter from the ginger haired girl.

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AUTHORS                                    NOTE.

Hey everyone, sorry for the short chapter, I just really wanted to get this out there, and I will be uploading the next chapter ASAP.

PS- did you like the cast? ;)
edited 10/18/21
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