i walked into the office to see garcia sitting at my desk.

i knit my eyebrows as i approached her,"hey, babe, what's going on?"

she put her hand on her heart, the nickname endearing,"aww, you called me babe, that's so cute!"

i shrugged, not even realizing that i had done it. it was kind of a new york think to just call people pet names,"oh...yeah, well it happens. but uh, why are you at my desk?"

she frowned,"reid failed his qualifications to carry a gun."

"so?" i questioned, not seeing the big deal,"i hate guns."

gideon turned to me from the coffee machine, "you hate guns? you carry one, and it's not required that you have one."

"well," i leaned against my desk, letting penelope stay in my chair,"it's a high risk job, i need to be ready to do things that i don't want to do."

gideon nodded,"well, reid can retest in two weeks. until then, he has a lot more weapons that he can sideline an unsub with."

elle shook her head,"it's not that, i just think he might be a little sensitive about it."

suddenly spencer walked in, making a beeline to his desk, obviously upset. i frowned, seeing him like that made me feel bad for him.

it was probably hard for him, being so incredibly smart, but not able to pass a particular test.

•

we had been given our new case: and ldsk. two weeks, three shooting incidents, six victims, all shot in the abdomen. only one fatality, but the man who died had a three year old, which made my heart wrench. des plaines found no link to the victims.

"a long distance serial killer? how many of these have we caught using a profile?" i asked as we all looked at the case files.

"none," gideon told me, but i still wasn't sure, "but we can."

"it just seems like a long shot," i started, then quickly realized what i said and immediately covered my mouth with my hand in surprise, "i'm so sorry." i expressed, but it came out muffled.

derek and elle snickered, but spencer spoke up, hopefully getting the attention off of my inappropriate pun,"any ballistics?"

"he's using frangible rounds, which fragment on impact, making ballistics comparisons impossible." hotch informed us.

i rolled my eyes, do these guys have to think of everything? can't we get a dumb serial killer, maybe get home to see our wives and children. or roommates and dogs.

"the good news is, all of the park victims are gonna make it," jj walked into the room,"the bad news is, none of them saw anything. however, one of the patients does have an intact bullet lodged in their spinal cord."

i sucked in my breath, knowing that wasn't good,"but it didn't sever the cord, right? no paralysis?"

jj shook her head,"not yet, but there's a disagreement among surgical staff on whether or not they can remove the slug without paralyzing the patient."

"well with no witnesses and no tangible evidence..."

"the profile is all we have to go on."

•

gideon, elle, and i walked into the hospital's skill lab, where they were having the meeting to discuss our spinal cord victim. the chief of the hospital had escorted us into a room with a screaming match between two surgeons.

i looked at them with raised eyebrows, surprised they were getting so angry over one surgery.

when they realized we were in the room, they promptly stopped, clearing their throats.

"forgive us," the older doctor apologized,"we were just reviewing the case at hand."

dr. wilson turned to us,"this is dr. neil ernstadt: our chief of surgery and our trama specialist, dr. barry landsman." she looked at the battling surgeons,"these are the fbi profilers, agents gideon, greenaway, and harris-tran."

gideon smiled and went to shake their hands. dr. ernstadt let him, but dr. landsman had a problem with it.

he took a step away and shook his head,"you'll have to forgive me, i don't shake hands," he held his hands up,"my hands, you see?"

i knit my eyebrows together and scoffed. now that i knew about his rude and narcissistic behavior, i wouldn't touch his hands if he asked me to. gideon backed off respectfully.

"so as psychological profilers, what are you looking for?" dr. landsman asked gideon, not even looking at elle and i.

he didn't seem to be interested if you weren't immediately showing you were important. gideon was obviously our leader, so we might as well have not even been there.

"how the victims were shot," he answered,"it could reveal the shooter's signature behavior."

dr. ernstadt walked over to where the x-rays were placed, showing the chest and abdomen,"the separate wound channels blossom from entrance wounds. you can see the trauma is extensive."

i nodded, walking closer to the x-rays to review them myself,"the intact bullet is lodged between the l4 and l5 vertebrae. any attempt to remove it would most likely leave the patient paralyzed."

"and how would you know that?" dr. landsman turned to me sharply, annoyed that i would voice a medical opinion.

i raised my eyebrows, surprised at how angry he had become,"one of my dads is a world renowned neurosurgeon. i grew up in a o.r. gallery."

he shook his head, scoffing,"that doesn't make you a doctor."

i threw my hands up, his words preparing me to break his precious little hands,"i don't remember saying i was a doctor."

"she's right," dr. ernstadt stepped in, trying to ease tensions,"about the paralysis."

"in your opinion!" landsman snapped.

"in my opinion." ernstadt said with gritted teeth.

dr. wilson cleared her throat, trying to get landsman to calm down,"what significance does the bullet have to building the profile?"

"well, even if we can't get a ballistics match, we can get a rifle type, and the specific type of rifle the suspect uses, that could be very significant to the profile." elle explained.

she glanced at us for a moment before looking to landsman,"you believe you can safely perform this surgery?"

"i know i can."

•

part of the team sat in the hospital conference room, waiting for landsman to come out of surgery.

we had established why the shooter shoots between 2:55 and 3:15. something to do about police shift changes, so there's less blue on the streets at that time.

"why do you look so mad?" spencer walked over, taking a seat next to me.

"cause landsman is a fucking prick." i looked up at him.

"the surgeon?" reid asked, not sure how i had drawn that conclusion.

i nodded and rolled my eyes,"he's a total narcissist, thinks he's the smartest person in the room."

it was then he entered the room, not even pausing before walking to gideon and dropping a bloody bullet in a bag in front of him,"hope you find it useful."

he started to leave the room, but my question stopped him,"how's the patient?"

he turned to me, smirking,"he should make a full recovery. as i said he would. tell doctor tran he's met his match."

as soon as he turned i fake lunged, raising my arm my arm over my chest, like i was gonna backhand him.

"huh," spencer nodded slowly, looking at me,"prick."

i smiled in amusement, glad that he agreed.

•

gideon and hotch stood in the sergeant's office, organizing the re-enactment of the park shooting. after there had been a fourth shooting, as a restaurant, we had given the profile. but we needed a better understanding of what was going through this guy's head.

reid had walked by my desk a total of ten times, looking completely uncomfortable and annoyed.

"what's wrong with you?" i looked up at him from my seat.

he stopped in his tracks, turning around to look at me,"what?"

i chuckled, thinking about how cute his pacing is. and then shaking my head for thinking that.

"um, you're pacing. a lot." i told him.

he sighed, almost surprised that i had noticed. but who wouldn't notice a lanky genius moving swiftly by them a million times.

he took a the chair that sat on a desk behind me and pulled it up, sitting next to me,"look at me. without a gun i look like..." he tried to think of something,"a teacher's assistant."

i laughed, probably a little harder than i should have. but it was just so accurate. spencer huffed and started to stand up, but i grabbed his wrist. i felt a jolt of electricity run down my spine, but i tried to ignore it.

"no, wait, i'm sorry." i started, still slightly laughing.

"no you're not." he rolled his eyes, but sat back down.

i let go of him and and composed myself, for his sake,"look, i understand your struggle-"

"how?" he cut me off,"we are the exact opposite, laine."

i knit my eyebrows together, not sure what he meant,"what?"

he sighed, glancing to the left before voicing his reasoning,"you have a gun, people take you seriously, you don't annoy every person you've ever come into contact with-" he stopped, getting so frustrated with himself that he couldn't even speak.

my heart wrenched, feeling sympathetic for him. it wasn't about a gun, it was about how he was going to be perceived without one. he already felt that no one took him seriously and being gun-less just added insult to injury.

"you've never annoyed me, spencer." i said lightly. i had no idea how to console him, because he's right. i don't understand his struggle.

his eyes met mine, his hard gaze softening. i wasn't able to help with the gun situation, but i hoped he at least new that he wasn't annoying. it's one of the worst feelings. to feel that just your personality and presence sets people off.

"thanks." he said quietly, not able to break eye contact with me.

i felt like i was tethered to him, in this moment, and neither of us wanted to break that connection.

•

i stood in the park with a video camera, about a hundred yards away from spencer. i was portraying jerry middleton who was playing with his son in the park when he was shot. spencer was playing tim reilly, who had a kite while he was shot.

"i can't see the sudan from where i am, hotch." i said into the walkie talkie.

"got it. everyone move to position two." he voiced.

spencer and i walked to our positions, now standing about four feet apart.

"hey, spence, you doing alright?" i asked casually, holding my camera where i should be facing.

he shrugged,"it's a nice day. you?"

i looked around, seeing all the cops walking about the park. it made me uneasy to know that there was currently a sniper rifle pointed at me, but i trusted officer mccarthy not to shoot me.

"i don't know. could be worse, i guess." i answered, not having anything overly ecstatic to say.

...

jj ran up to spencer and us, and i smiled hoping that the remake was over.

"don't panic," she started, immediately causing my heart to start racing,"someone leaked the profile to the media-"

"what?" i asked in confusion,"we specifically said not to, that it'll risk lives, why would anyone-"

spencer looked at jj skeptically,"that's bad, but why would we panic?"

jj looked down at her heels, sighing. my anxiety raised,"jj?"

"it was a cop who leaked the profile. we think he's the unsub." she said.

"well, did you guys get a name?" i asked, still not seeing why we would panic about this. finding the cop would make me feel great, not scared.

she muttered meekly,"officer mccarthy."

my heart dropped as reality sunk in,"officer mccarthy? the man with a sniper rifle pointed at us?"

she nodded and i took a deep breath. i wasn't prepared to die, mrs. rodriguez just learned how to shake my hand.

"is there a plan?" spencer asked, trying to remain calm.

jj nodded quickly, telling us exactly what was gonna happen. it should all go well, as long as none of us are shot in the abdomen.

•

mccarthy was not our unsub. it was something we had learned when, right as he was arrested, someone shot him in the head. it was our actual unsub, not letting anyone take credit for his work. i couldn't stop picturing it. how quickly his life had been taken away from him.

it just made my will to take down this dick, greater. we had to get him, i'm tired of his power trip.

"we know if the killer has no contact with his victims, he will contact the media." gideon told us as we tried to figure out what was going on.

"and he hasn't done that." elle added.

"so he has to be having contact with his victims."

i bit the inside of my cheek, trying to think of how that was possible.

"garcia nailed down the geographic profile. the crime scenes are centered on two separate locations-" morgan walked back into the room after a conversation with penelope.

"it's hospitals," i shot up from my seat, walking over to the map,"he's committing hero homicide."

everyone's eyes glowed as they started to think over my prognosis.

"wait, what's that?" detective calvin asked us.

reid answered from where he was leaning against the wall,"the best-known case was hospital nurse richard angelo. he would inject toxins into his victims, then wait for them to crash so that he could run to the rescue and save them. he killed twenty five people, and that's just what we know of."

"if he attacked them, to save them, then why'd he kill twenty five people?"

"wasn't very good at it." gideon remarked.

calvin chuckled at the words,"so what's the profile on this guy?"

morgan shrugged, answering her question, "arrogant, conceited, feels superior to everyone around them."

calvin snorted,"that's every surgeon i've ever met."

i bit my lip, looking down at the ground. she was right.

"hey, laine, who's that surgeon that you called a prick?" spencer asked from across the room.

my head shot up as i glared at spencer. what's he snitching for?

i thought i would be in a lot of trouble, but instead i heard a soft chuckle from gideon.

"landsman." he said, already knowing who i was talking about.

•

"i was in my office at three, you incompetent fool!" landsman's voice boomed through the skills lab, causing all of us on the outside to whip our heads.

gideon had gone in to speak to him about being the unsub, trying to catch him. it didn't seem to be working.

he continued to scream out his alibi,"if you don't believe me, you can go ask dr. hannah pate in the er! i'm not the only one who thinks i'm a god."

i raised my eyebrows, today's lunch threatening to come up.

"well, laine, reid, let's take a walk to the er." hotch suggested, though it was more of an instruction.

i nodded quickly,"yes please, get me outta here before i punch this man."

"is your father anything like that?" hotch asked me as we walked.

i scoffed,"god, no. chris tran is one of the country's highest ranking neurosurgeons and let's everyone know that they're just as valuable as him. before surgeries, he'll always thank the scrub nurses and tell them how vital they are to the process."

"good guy." spencer nodded, impressed at the humility my dad had.

"yeah and landsman is an aspiring, self indulgent, narcissist, who wishes he were one of the greats, but he never will be." i shrugged, the words seeming overly mean, but it was just true. some people are just made to be surgeons and others have to learn.

"and that's your unbiased opinion?" hotch asked jokingly, something i wasn't aware he could do.

i chuckled lightly as we approached the er, chaos raining down. er's are always like this, adrenaline pumping, racing the clock as people circle the drain. i considered taking after my father and going into the medical field, but i couldn't seem to get behind being inside of people.

we walked to the nurses station, hotch holding his badge up. hotch asked the, slightly sweaty, off kilter, male nurse for pate, who scurried off to find her.

"the motivations for hero homicide are excitement, power, and respect," reid recited from the abscess of his mind,"and even though landsman's not a star, he still gets respect."

"racing against the clock is exciting." i shrugged, not thinking much of what he was saying.

"maybe not exciting enough, that's why he shoots three at a time." reid stated, but that didn't sit right with me. there was an error in the logic.

i tugged on my necklace, the one that read lainey in silver letters, trying to focus more on what was wrong with landsman's motivations, "but he can only operate on one person at a time. the excitement's the same."

hotch and reid took in what i said as we really took a moment to watch the er. nurses were running around like crazy, trying to get things for doctors, stitch kits, iv fluid, you name it. they all had multiple patients and were hustling to stay on top of everything.

"not if you're here," hotch muttered,"not if you're an er nurse."

reid gasped, realizing a small fact,"policemen and er personnel are on the exact same twenty four hour shift."

i sucked my teeth as realization set in,"he wasn't shooting because of the amount of cops on the street, he was shooting because he has the second shift. contact with the victims."

"i've gotta tell gideon." hotch pulled out his phone, only to be stopped by a nurse.

"no phones in the er." she instructed.

hotch sighed, grabbing his fbi badge and lowering his voice, so he wouldn't incite panic,"we're fbi agents, and we believe that one of your staff members might be the sniper. the man we're looking for works second shift, and he would have transferred from arlington about 2 weeks ago."

she shook her head,"we haven't hired any personnel in the last two weeks."

"are you sure?" hotch asked.

"yeah," she answered, getting annoyed at our hounding,"i've got patients-"

"he's in his thirties," i called out, causing her to stop as i continued,"he's vain, rude, arrogant. he works out. he shows up to work late. he blames others for his mistakes, doesn't take responsibility for his behavior. all of his coworkers detest him."

she looked up, trying to think. when it seemed she had come up with a name, she went pale,"it's philip dowd. h-he picks up shifts at arlington."

"is he here today?" i asked quickly, my heart racing.

she let out a shaky breath, tears forming in her eyes. i could tell she was about to panic.

"your patients need you calm," i reassured her, grabbing her shoulders,"now tell me, do you see him?"

she turned her head, looking around the whole room. she shook her head no.

hotch nodded,"okay, laine, go tell gideon. go."

"yeah." i answered, trying to walk calmly as i made my way to the hall that led to where gideon was.

i saw the male nurse from earlier, and before i had any time to think or even take in the rifle he carried, he knocked the blunt end of it into my jaw, sending me to the floor.

"ow, fuck!" i grabbed my jaw, tasting blood, i tried to get up, but the fall disoriented me.

•

"get up!" dowd yelled at me, after he had taken hotch's gun.

i scoffed and sat up, turning to him and spitting out blood. i could already feel the bruise starting to form.

"now!" he pointed his weapon at my head.

i looked with wide eyes and scrambled to my feet, not quite ready to end it all. i walked over to them, wiping away the blood that dribbled from my mouth. it was disgusting, all i could taste.

"you," he gestured to reid with the gun,"take your partner's gun and give it to me."

reid looked at me, his hand going to my hip shakily. i sighed, knowing i now had to use my
people skills to get him to not shoot me and my partners in the face.

reid grabbed my gun, his hand brushing the side of my stomach, a detail i would think about a lot if my face wasn't throbbing and blood wasn't running down my chin.

he had hit me excessively hard, and my blood is abnormally thin, so it would just keep coming. i wasn't sure when it would stop, but i'd really like it to.

he handed it to our unsub, while he demanded the security guard to zip tie our hands.

keith, the guard, gave me an apologetic look as he tied my hands. i would have to think of another way.

once he was done with our hands dowd demanded him to,"step back."

when he did, dowd hit keith in the temple,
knocking him out effectively. he didn't even stir as he hit the ground.

the hostages in the er gasped in fear, and i finally remembered they were there. so much for trying to be a hero.

"get on your knees!" he yelled at reid.

spencer immediately dropped to his knees, fearing for his life.

"have a seat." dowd instructed us, not being nearly as demanding. he clearly thought spencer was a weak link, probably because he didn't have a gun, so he was asserting his dominance.

i lowered down to sit back on my knees as hotch did the same.

"you're bleeding a lot." he smirked at me, happy to see it.

i rolled my eyes as i answered,"i have angiohemophilia, it's gonna take awhile."

spencer looked at me with concern, knowing exactly what that meant. it was a condition that led to excessive bleeding in the gums, prolonged nose bleeds, longer menstrual cycles, and easy bruising.

"well, that explains why so much of your face has already bruised," dowd smiled sickly at me, like it was a game. and he had won. he turned to spencer, pointing the gun at his head,"now, what kind of agent doesn't carry a gun?"

...

"your partner wants to help me, but he doesn't know it," dowd told reid and i, referring to hotch, as he had just suggested to barricade the door,"go ahead, tell em, but leave anything out and bleeder, here, gets a bullet in her frontal lobe," he pressed the gun to my forehead.

i grimaced as i spit blood onto the floor in front of him. i wasn't scared of getting shot in the head, though there was only one end result to that situation, i was scared for what hotch would say next.

he looked at reid and i harshly,"they knew he was in here, they knew he was armed and dangerous, and they knew that he was gonna fight till the last round, and they sent me in here with an unarmed kid who can't shoot his way out of a wet paper bag and a helpless girl who could bleed out if i poke her with a pin."

dowd moved his gun from my head,"they set you up."

hotch and dowd then began to bond, and it hit me. hotch was acting. he was putting on a mask for this guy. to make him think that they were exactly alike.

it was so obvious i almost laughed at myself for not seeing it as soon as he spoke. dowd dragged me onto my feet, pulling me away to get a nice view of the scene about to unfold.

i watched as hotch began to kick the shit out of reid and i yelled, just to make it a little more believable. it wasn't obvious to the unsub, but he wasn't making contact with reid's body. reid still did his best to feel the blow, moaning and groaning.

"you're hurting him, hotch!" i shrieked, trying to add to the facade.

he finished and dowd started to laugh. he threw his head back and hotch gave me a signal that said 'go! now!'

i swung my arm's, knocking his gun off of his target and kicking him as hard as i could in the knees, sending him staggering around as he tried to regain balance.

reid grabbed hotch's sock gun and a shot rang out. the sound of a body hitting the ground made me let out a deep breath.

it was over. spencer had taken the shot at his head.