[4.7]

"anderson got a bracelet before me"

It was rather late when Morgan's phone rang. He hadn't been busy — he was spending his Saturday working around his house, which had been a bit neglected with all the cases they had had. However, he was tired after all the hard work, so when his phone rang, dread settled deep within him. He closed his eyes and prayed that it wasn't Hotch or Rossi calling with another case.

Morgan was surprised to see that it was Florence calling him, which was a bit odd. Other than sending out the occasional meme tailored to fit their personalities, Florence didn't tend to talk to any of them outside of work. None of them did. They saw enough of each other in their cases.

"Hey, Sunshine," he greeted. He furrowed his brow when he heard loud music and people in the bathroom. "What's up? And where are you?"

"Um," Florence paused and he could hear the hesitation in her voice. "A - actually, I didn't mean to call you. I'm sorry for bothering you."

"Woah, woah," Morgan said, not letting her hang up. "Is something wrong, Ren? And if you hang up on me, I'm just gonna keep calling you back."

"It's stupid," she mumbled so quietly that he almost couldn't hear her over the background noise.

"No it's not, so why did you call? You can tell me anything, Baby Girl."

"It's just, uh, I - I'm at this party and I rode with other people and just feel really uncomfort—"

"I'm on my way," Morgan said, already grabbing his jacket and keys. "Send me the address."

Florence sighed in relief. "Thank you."

His phone beeped and he checked over the address that she sent him. "I can be there in twenty. Do you want me to stay on the phone with you?"

"No, um, I'm - I'm gonna just wait outside on the porch. Seriously, Derek, thank you."

After Florence hung up, Morgan pressed down on the gas even harder. She sounded very uncomfortable and nervous, so he was anxious to get there as quickly as possible. Morgan managed to make it to the address in seventeen minutes by going slightly over the speed limit.

His mouth dropped when he pulled up on the front lawn. The music was so loud that he could hear it through his closed windows. There were kids running around drunk, a few were passed out on the grass, and in the distance, he could spot a couple of kids putting something up their noses that he was doing his best to ignore.

Florence was standing alone on the porch, with her arms wrapped tightly around herself and she was looking at the ground. Morgan hopped out of his car and marched up to her. When she spotted him, she visibly relaxed and met him halfway. She may not have wanted a hug, but Morgan wrapped a protective arm around her anyways.

"You alright?" he asked her.

She nodded quickly. "I just wanna get out of here."

Once Morgan and Florence were back in his car, he slowly started the trip to her apartment. She turned up the heat on her side of the car and went back to hugging herself. Morgan glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"So, you wanna tell me about it?"

Florence nervously bit her lip before sighing. "I just, I thought I would try to make some friends. I met a group of people at this coffee shop and they seemed nice. I hung out with them a few times, and then I got asked to go to this party. I shouldn't have ridden with them. As soon as I got here I wanted to leave. It's definitely not the kind of party I'm used to going to. I know it's stupid but they made me feel really uncomfortable and I just didn't feel... safe."

"It's not stupid," Morgan stressed. "And, you don't have to go into specifics about tonight if you don't want to, but just know that you can always call me to come pick you up. Never feel like you can't come to me for help. I'm glad you called me and I'm glad you were smart enough to recognize that you were in an uncomfortable situation and leave it."

Florence chuckled to herself. "Yeah, before I joined the BAU I probably wouldn't have had the street smarts to call someone to come pick me up."

"Kinda sounds like you're admitting that some of Hotch's lectures get through that thick skull of yours," he said, smirking. "I'll keep that to myself though."

"Thank you," she said, leaning her head against the window. "For coming to get me even though it's your day off. I know you probably had better things to do."

"I'll do anything for you, Baby Girl, and don't you ever forget that."

"Thanks, Chocolate Thunder."

Derek laughed loudly as she stole one of Garcia's nicknames for him. "So, you've been trying to make some friends in the area? That's good."

"Yeah, except apparently I have a bad judgment in people."

"Your last group of friends dared you to hack into the Pentagon. I don't think you've ever had good judgment in people."

"That is, unfortunately, a good point," she muttered, chuckling.

"Hey, in a few weeks, Rossi and Reid are going to Stayer University to do a lecture. I can ask if you can come along and maybe run the PowerPoint. There will be kids close to your age there. Maybe you can make some friends."

Florence thought it over for a moment and shrugged. "Couldn't hurt. Ro-Ro won't mind if I tag along."

"Ro-Ro?" Morgan asked, chuckling. "Rossi lets you call him that?"

"He suggested it. I think he was getting jealous of all my nicknames for Hotch," she said, smiling to herself.

"Hopscotch and Ro-Ro. I'd watch that buddy cop movie," Morgan said. He pulled into the parking lot and turned to Florence. "Here we are."

"Thank you for picking me up. You were the first one I thought to call."

"You know I'm gonna rub that in Hotch's face on Monday, right?"

"Knock yourself out," she said, laughing. "I have something for you."

Then she pulled something out of her bag and handed it to him. It was a friendship bracelet made out of different colors of green thread. He took it with a grin.

"It's about damn time. I was beginning to think that I'd be the last to get one. Garcia, Reid, and JJ have been flaunting theirs around," he said, shaking his head.

"Rossi has one too," she added, which made Morgan scoff. "I gave it to him after our second pasta night."

"You have pasta nights with him? Why don't we get to come?"

"He's teaching me how to make handmade pasta," she explained. "I'm still very bad at it though. He says that once I've perfected my technique — whatever that means — we can invite the team over for dinner and I can cook for you guys. He keeps his bracelet in one of the card slots in his wallet because it clashes with his designer watch."

"So, Prentiss and Hotch are the only ones without theirs?"

"Yeah. I gave Anderson his two weeks ago."

"Anderson got a bracelet before me?" he asked in disbelief. "He's not even on the team."

"What can I say? We have a lot of deep talks when you guys are off on cases," she said, shrugging. "Seriously, Derek, thanks."

"You've thanked me like twenty times, Ren. It really was no problem," he said, smiling softly. "Want me to walk you up?"

"I think I can make it," Florence said. Then she paused. "Maybe stay in the parking lot until I get inside."

"Of course. Would've done it anyway. Have a good night, and I'll see you Monday where I'll be rubbing my friendship bracelet in Prentiss and Hotch's faces."

|||

Just as the team finished up a missing child case in Las Vegas, Reid decided to stay behind and look into an unsolved murder from his past. Morgan and Rossi opted to stay behind with him while everyone else returned to Quantico and helped from there.

Florence did what she was best at — digging up intrusive information on people's personal lives. Even with using her less than ethical methods, she was displeased to learn that there was nothing juicy about Reid's father, who had been their main suspect based on Reid's memories. With Hotch and Prentiss in their office, Garcia called Morgan to fill them in.

"Yeah, talk to me, Baby Girl," he greeted.

"I'm not interrupting boy time at Crazy Horse Too, am I?" she asked. One look on her phone told Florence that that was the name of a strip club in Vegas.

"You know that's not my thing," Morgan said in his usual flirty tone. "I'm more for in-room entertainment."

"I can't help you but I do give good phone," she shot back.

Hotch and Prentiss shared a look while Florence groaned. "I'm a child."

"You have sexy Lord of the Rings fanfiction open in one of your browser tabs," Garcia shot back smirking. Hotch and Prentiss looked down at Florence in surprise while she sank lower in her chair.

Morgan chuckled over the line before bringing them back to the task. "Let me hear what you got."

"Reid, we've been all up in your father's business," Garcia told him.

"What did you find?" he asked.

"Well, let me tell you first what I did not find. No kiddie porn, no membership to illicit websites, no dubious emails, no chat room history, and no sexy Lord of the Rings fanfiction."

"What about his finances?" Reid asked, ignoring the joke.

"We went back ten years," Hotch told him. "No questionable transactions that we can find."

"Well, he did buy a ticket to see Celine Dion 6 months ago," Prentiss joked. "But I think we can overlook that."

"He's smart," Reid told them. "Is it possible he kept things under the table?"

Hotch paused for a moment, knowing that it would be difficult to convince Reid of his father's innocence. "Well, of course. But from what we can tell, Reid, he doesn't fit the profile."

"We can tell you other things about him if you want to know," Prentiss offered.

"I'm listening."

"He's a workaholic, he actually logs more hours than we do. He makes decent money, but he doesn't spend a lot of it. He has a modest house. He drives a hybrid. He doesn't travel much. He stays away from the casinos. Um, and according to his veterinary bills, he has a very sick cat," Prentiss told him.

"He appears to spend most of his free time alone, he goes to the movies a lot, and he reads. And from his collection of first editions, it seems his favorite author is—"

"Isaac Asimov," Reid said, cutting off Hotch. "I remember that one."

"He does have one other major interest. On his home computer, he's archived, like, a ka-jillion things on one common subject," Garcia told him.

"What?"

"You, bud," Florence said. She knew it wasn't what he wanted to hear. "He's got, like, everything that's been published online about you. Every article you've been quoted in, pieces you've written for behavioral science journals, and he even has a copy of your dissertation."

"He's keeping tabs on you," Rossi noted. "That's saying something."

"Yeah, he googled me," Reid said. He sounded annoyed. "That makes up for everything. I'm going to get some air."

"You guys still there?" Morgan asked after a few moments.

"I thought we were giving him good news," Garcia said, frowning.

"What else can we do?" Hotch asked.

"Yeah, look up a name for us, if you would. Gary Brendan Michaels." Florence was already typing in his name.

"You like this Gary guy for the Riley murder?" Prentiss asked.

"Somebody does," Rossi said. After they explained everything they had learned. Everyone got to work.

Shortly after Hotch and Prentiss left, JJ came to the office and introduced them to Jordan Todd, who was shadowing her for when she went on maternity leave. She seemed nice enough, Florence thought, though she kind of couldn't get over how young Florence was.

After digging up everything on Michaels, Garcia called Morgan to fill him in.

"Talk to me, Garcia," he greeted.

"So, this Gary Michaels you asked me to track down seems to have peeled himself right off the grid."

"What did he do? Skip town?"

"Feels it. Maybe he took a new name, too. Everything in his name laps from non-use in the year after the Riley Jenkins murder."

"Maybe he didn't want to stick around for the investigation," Morgan guessed.

"In addition to the indecent exposure wrap, he also had some lewd behavior — trespassing," JJ said while rubbing her belly.

"Trespassing?"

"At a nursery school."

"Hard to believe the cops never pegged this guy as a suspect," Todd said. Florence nodded in agreement while poking the straw in her new Capri Sun.

"Any other avenues to find him?" Morgan asked.

"You betcha. They swabbed him in '85 for the exposure beef," Garcia said. "So I'm sending up balloons through ViCAP and CODIS."

"If he's offended again over the past twenty years under a different name—"

"Which, considering his type, he probably has—"

"He will pop up somewhere." JJ and Garcia told him. Florence quietly sipped on her Capri Sun and watched JJ, who subtly winced, which was odd.

"All right. Keep me in the loop," Morgan said.

"Later." Then Garcia focused on JJ, also noticing her discomfort. "What's with the wincing? You ok?"

"Fine," JJ said, brushing them off.

"Are you sure? I noticed this earlier," Todd stated.

"Earlier? How often?"

"Um, in the last hour, I'd say every ten minutes," JJ said as if that was nothing.

"JJ, why didn't you tell anyone?" Garcia asked, sitting up.

"Oh, shit," Florence finally realized. "Are you about to have this baby?"

"No," JJ said firmly. "I am not due for another three weeks."

"Newsflash!" Garcia exclaimed. "You're in labor."

"No, no, no. Because Reid needs us right now," JJ insisted.

"You need you, right now. Come on, get up," Garcia said, helping her out of the chair. Todd and Florence followed as they walked to the elevator. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm not a doctor. I don't even play one on TV, but I believe young JJ's going into labor."

"Are you ok?" Prentiss asked, rushing to her side.

"I'll get the car," Hotch announced, quickly leaving.

"I need to call Will," JJ said.

"From the car, honey," Garcia said. "Breathe and walk. Breathe and walk."

"Agent Todd, I hope you're ready because your job starts right now," Prentiss said, looking back at Todd.

Florence awkwardly patted her on the shoulder as she continued to sip on her Capri Sun. "You can come back and chill with me. I'll have to hang back in case Reid needs something."

Reid, Rossi, and Morgan ended up not needing her tech sources. They were able to prove, with the help of Reid's parents, that Michaels did abduct and murder Riley Jenkins. It was surprising that Reid's mother had played a part in it, but it was understandable given that Reid had been a potential target as a child.

Florence agreed to wait for them to get back to Quantico before going to see JJ — it's not like she was going to skateboard all the way to the hospital. Plus, it would be several hours before the baby would be born. Reid ended up offering her a ride to the hospital once they had received word that the baby had come.

Reid knocked on the door and he and Florence poked their heads in. "Is there room for two more in here?"

"Spence, Ren, hi," JJ greeted, looking up from the baby. Florence saw that blue blanket wrapped around him and grinned.

"Wow. Congratulations," Reid said, shaking Will's hand.

"Thank you."

"How is it that I just went through fifteen hours of labor and you look worse than I do?" JJ asked him, smiling.

"Don't be ridiculous. You look beautiful."

JJ shared a look with Will before he cleared his throat and turned to the others. "Well, I could sure use some coffee. Anyone else?"

"Sure," Hotch said, still smiling at the baby.

"My treat," Will added.

"Eh, I don't drink coffee," Florence said, not taking the hint.

Prentiss rolled her eyes and pulled her by the shoulder out into the hallway. "You're like oblivious to everything, Ren," she said, chuckling. "Garcia said you barely picked up on the fact that she was in labor."

"Y'all are the profilers, not me," she said, shrugging.

"Hey, Florence, I've got something for you," Will said. She turned and grinned at him expectantly.

"You're not really going to give her twenty dollars just because she correctly guessed that you'd have a boy," Garcia said, chuckling.

Will chuckled and handed her the money. "I'm nothing if not a man of my word. Besides, I can't be too torn up about it. Also, that Nerf blaster you bought for Henry's baby shower was way more than twenty bucks."

"How much was the—"

"Hopscotch, as a fully functioning adult, you don't want to know what my Nerf budget is," Florence cut him off. Then she kissed the twenty-dollar bill dramatically. "Mama's got enough money to buy another Harry Styles candle."