𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛.

    Like a dust devil in an Arizona desert, Melanie Lamont was losing her sanity to the thoughts that her mind conjured up.

     She hadn't meant to make a recluse out of herself, but there was very little that she could do to prevent it. Melanie's sole purpose of joining the BAU in the first place was to bring justice to her sister, and she'd be damned if she let anything else get in the way of that.

     She deprived her new apartment of any decorations that would make it feel more like a home — her home. Truth be told, her apartment located on Mabel Lane wasn't hers yet, despite the month in which she had already been living it.

     Instead, her home was decorated with a single large board with red yarn and thumbtacks stringing together a vision board of every minuscule amount of evidence on her sister's disappearance that she possessed.

     The sender of the letter remained dormant, almost as if they were taking time to relish in the way that Melanie began to lose her mind to the case all over again. Luckily for her, the sender hadn't left her entirely in the dark. They managed to sneak new photographs of Louise's current appearance into the case file along with a lengthy poem translated from French.

     She wasn't sure how the sender managed to add anything to the case file without being recognized; a frantic check–in with Garcia revealed personnel to be the only individuals who entered in and out of the storage room. Melanie stood in the center of her living room, staring at an image of her sister. Louise had gone from a soft featured woman to one who wears a thin and lifeless face.

     Her heart broke all over again each time she stared at the new images of Louise.

     Pins danced up her spine as a knock at her door sounded, forcing her to turn the board around and press it against the wall. Out of sight meant that it was out of mind for the time being.

     Melanie rushed to open the door, exhaling through her nose as her eyes landed on an all–too–familiar brunette.

     "Hi," Spencer greeted her, running his hand along the strap of his book-bag. "Can I... um. Do you mind if I come in?"

     Melanie pressed her lips together, raising her eyebrows and dropping her gaze to the floor as she pulled the door open even wider to let him in. He took a single step inward, taking in the underwhelming nature of her apartment.

     "I really like what you've done with this place," he offered her a sly comment. Spencer centered himself in the middle of her living room, slinging his bag onto her couch and shoving his hands into his pockets.

     "You have a habit of making yourself at home, you know that?" Melanie huffed, crossing her arms over her chest. She was annoyed. Not at Spencer in particular, but he just so happened to interrupt the very small amount of time that she had to redevelop her investigation.

     "Is that a problem for you?" he replied, turning to look at her.

     "Right now, yes." 

     Spencer shrugged. "Normally I wouldn't overstep like this. It's not my place–"

     "You're damn right it isn't," Melanie spoke, her words coming out harsher than she intended for them to.

     "–But I know that you need somebody," Spencer immediately responded, continuing his earlier sentence. "And I'm more than willing to be that somebody for you."

     "You don't know what you're talking about, Spencer."

     "Don't do this with me, Melanie," his voice raised as he spoke. Spencer's eyes were enlarged and full sympathy for her. He gulped, ensuring that he thought about what he was going to say before he said it.

    Melanie's eyes dropped to the floor and she tapped her foot on the hardwood floor before she crossed to the other side of the room, Spencer's gaze following her as he smoothed out the wrinkles in his pants. 

     "Look. I don't know everything, you're right. All that I do know is that I miss you," Spencer spoke, his voice growing softer with each word he said. "I think you know that I understand you more than you'd like to admit and it scares you. Hell, it scares me too. But running away from us won't fix anything — we're your family. We can help you."

     Melanie raked her hands over her hair as she took a seat on the couch, Spencer mirroring the action. She shook her head, allowing her elbows to rest on her knees.

     "The file that I was looking at in the storage room. Did you read it?" she finally asked after piecing together his cryptic dialogue, raising her gaze to meet his.

     Spencer hesitated for an agonizingly long three seconds before nodding, his dark brown eyes flicking between Melanie and the floorboards. The brunette woman kept her eyes on him, not faltering for a moment.

     "You think she's alive, don't you?" he asked. He pointed at the investigation board that was pressed against her wall. "And that's how you're going to prove it?"

     Melanie shrugged. "Well. I guess the cat's out of the bag, right?" she huffed.

"It was in front of me for months on end and I hadn't been able to piece it together until then," Spencer continued, his eyes avoiding hers. "Melanie Lamont is simply an anagram for Amelie Beaumont, your birth name..." his voice trailed. He figured that now was not the time for an a–ha moment.

     He pulled his lips into his mouth, tapping his finger on the end of his knee. "We can help you find her, Melanie. You– You don't have to hide from us. We've seen where that ends."

     Melanie straightened her posture. She knew that this was exactly how he'd react. "I don't even have a prepared case to present. It's a shot in the dark."

     "I'll help you," he said without hesitation, leaning towards her. "I can work with what you have. Louise's disappearance has a vast amount of improbabilities that the DST used to disprove your theories."

     Spencer stood up, flipping the board around to reveal the various pictures that scattered it. Within a matter of seconds, he had memorized every inch of it.

     "I can't ask you to do that," she replied.

     "Good thing you don't have to ask me then," Spencer assured her. He turned back towards the board, taking a black marker into his grasp and scribbling down any notes that he'd already made.

     Melanie stood dumbfounded, both terrified and thankful that she had someone in her new world who understood the magnitude of her old one. She cleared her throat and sniffled a single time before speaking: "And, uh... Spencer?"

     "Hmm?" he hummed, craning his neck to look at her.

     "I missed you, too," she admitted.

     Melanie took long strides towards her cubicle, dropping her go–bag beneath her desk and taking a seat after.

     "Looks like somebody had a long night,"  Derek spoke up, sending a wide grin towards Melanie.

     She replied with a weak smile as her eyes darted towards Spencer's desk for a split second. They'd spent the entire night developing their case.

     "Do I sense a hint of jealousy in that tone?" Penelope piped up.

     "Me? Jealous? Of the newbie? Nah," Morgan dismissed the comment.

     Before anyone could add to the conversation, Hotch exited his office and leaned against the railing surrounding the team's desks.

     "Lamont, please come see me," he announced to the room.

     Melanie stood up from her desk, brushing off the eyes that followed her as she made her way up to his office.

     The team all made individual expressions that read 'yikes' as their eyes trailed her.

     "Yep. Definitely not jealous of the newbie right now, baby," Morgan added, looking up at Penelope.

     "What do you think is going on in there?" Reid sighed as Hotch shut the door behind Melanie.

     "Worried that your girlfriend is in there getting fired?" Derek challenged. "Don't stress it, pretty boy. I'm sure it's no big deal."

     "What? She is not my girlfriend!" Spencer said through a defensive squeak.

     The team side–eyed each other as Spencer readjusted his position in seat, practically breaking a sweat under their collective gazes.

     "Alrighty then," JJ began. "They'll just have to meet us in the round table room. We just got assigned to a case."

     "Greeeeeat," Derek whined.

     "What can I do for you, sir?" Melanie asked as she made her way into Hotch's office, nearly jumping out of her skin once her eyes landed on Erin Strauss. "Ma'am," she added.

     "Agent Lamont, I've concluded that you haven't been fulfilling your responsibilities to par with what is expected of you," Strauss began.

     Melanie pinched her eyebrows together, her mouth falling agape. She cleared her throat before speaking. "Forgive me ma'am, but I'm extremely confused."

     Strauss straightened her posture. "Let me clarify, then. Your work in the field has been underwhelming for the past month. Your assessments and paperwork have only been completed at a bare minimum level."

     Melanie maneuvered her jaw to the left as she tilted her head. She knew that Strauss was full of shit. Whenever something went wrong with the team, she always needed to find a certain person to blame. A person to target. A person to make a villain out of.

     Hotch stepped to stand beside Melanie,  crossing his arms over his chest to mimic her body language. "Erin, I understand very well that you are alarmed by the amount of pressure that has landed on your shoulders, but what I don't understand is your need to target one of my agents directly."

     Strauss's face twisted into a disappointed frown. "Do you not find it to be questionable how the person who watched Agent Prentiss die is now displaying warning signs of an agent who is unfit for duty?"

     Melanie's gaze flickered between Strauss, Hotch, and the window as she attempted to conceal her emotions. She didn't want to give Strauss the satisfaction of her visible reaction.

     Hotch shook his head. "I don't find it questionable at all. I would take full responsibility for any wrongdoings on Agent Lamont's part, but I don't see any. Forgive me for my lack of understanding, but if you don't have any solid proof of Agent Lamont's 'inability' then I'm going to have to ask you to allow us to join our team."

     Strauss sighed, folding her arms over her chest. "We'll continue this conversation once your team returns." With that, the blonde woman exited the room.

     "Thank you–" Melanie began to speak.

     "You don't have to thank me. I meant what I said. You do your job and you do it well," he assured her. "As Strauss said, this won't be the last that you'll hear of this conversation. I'm certain that she'll be watching your behavior closely and I'd advise you to put your best foot forward and behave accordingly."

     Melanie paused before nodding. "I understand, Hotch. Thank you again."

Notes.
i hate to make spencer catch on in only the seventh chapter but let's be real, that man is a genius.

this chapter is all over the place even though it's the shortest chapter I've ever written for this fic.

don't be too harsh on the weird evidence board I made LOL, I'm definitely not an artist 😭

+ I kind of just want to talk about the lack of *actual* cases in this book and the amount of time jumps. I find that writing about cases that aren't important to the plot to be repetitive so that's why so many time jumps take place 😭 So for yours and my own clarification, she's known them for about six months at this point.

alsooo I just believe that Spencer would be the type of man to be very willing to compromise/be on good terms with someone he's interested in, so that's why I'm writing him that way. I'd love to hear your feedback though 🤞

as always, ty for reading and interacting!! <3