𝑇𝑒𝑛.

Melanie pulled up to a bank in one of their team's signature black SUV's, JJ sitting beside her and Reid fuming like a teenager in the backseat after being forced into the second row.

All three of them examined the scene of the crime. Police personnel and S.W.A.T. vehicles were planted around the property, every person clutching their weapon at their hip. The remainder of the BAU team were already waiting for them. JJ didn't waste a second before leaping out of the passenger seat and running towards her husband, Will. His partner had been shot dead that morning by a male bank robber, Will instinctively shooting back and injuring one of the male robbers. Both himself and his two accomplices were now holding hostages in the establishment.

"It's definitely them," Will said as he attempted to look inside the tinted windows of the bank. "I only saw the King and the Jack but I figured the Queen was in there, too."

Hotch nodded while leading his team towards the front of the building. "The Media is calling them the face cards. Seven bank robberies in seven months, they've killed one person at each robbery," he began.

"MO?" Melanie asked.

Hotch peered over his shoulder before he answered. "Single gunshot wound. Each of the victims have bled out."

"Serial killers with a thirty day cooling off period and we're only just hearing about them now?" Emily speculated.

"Headquarters characterized them as robbers first and killers second," Hotch continued to inform them.

"Considering that they leave their victims to bleed out, I doubt they aren't getting some type of release from the kill. They enjoy watching the chaos they create," Melanie guessed, offering her theory to the team.

Reid nodded. "No one kills seven people without extreme psychopathic tendencies."

"You don't say," Melanie mumbled under her breath.

"I disagreed with the original assessment but I was overruled," Hotch explained.

"So, why are we here?" Rossi questioned.

"Because Crisis Negotiation is overseas," Hotch said through a sigh.

"What more do we know about him?" JJ asked, tucking her hair behind her ears to avoid the wind waving it in her face.

"They're organized, they're efficient, and each strike lasts about two minutes," Hotch answered as he continued to lead the people trailing him towards the black van that Garcia had been working out of.

"They have to be scouting their banks in advance," Morgan hypothesized, his eyes on the bank entrance. "Why haven't we been able to ID them off of surveillance footage?"

"They hack the security feed and turn off the cameras," Hotch answered. "Both in the initial canvas and in the robbery. Once their masks come back on, we're allowed to watch."

"No distinguishable traits? Tattoos?" Melanie asked Garcia as the team watched the surveillance footage covering the interior of the bank.

"I can't find any," Garcia answered, her fingers tapping away on her computer as she attempted to get another angle. "Oh, God!"

Melanie sighed, placing a comforting hand on Garcia's shoulder. Men, women, and children surrounded the perimeter of the bank while the unsubs were located in the center. "They're using the hostages as shields."

"This was the first time they've been interrupted. What went wrong?" JJ asked, to both herself and the team.

"It's a big bank," Emily added. "It's possible they couldn't round everyone up before someone triggered an alarm."

"Could be." Melanie considered Emily's theory while creating more in her mind. "Or maybe they called the police on themselves."

"What good would it do them?" Prentiss asked, evidently not following the theory.

"One of the three could be a mole," she shrugged. "My guess is the Queen. She's emotionally detached from the two men and hasn't taken a moment to check in with either the Jack or the King. They're still letting us see inside and giving us even more of a tactical advantage. She might just want the public to see how she'll still manage to evade capture despite being surrounded."

"It's a long shot but I can't say I disagree," Hotch acknowledged her theory. "Garcia, work off of the emotional nature of the Jack and the King. There's a good chance that they are related."

"Emily, Reid, and JJ, I need you to look at past bank robberies, that'll be our victimology" Hotch ordered. "Dave will handle negotiations and Lamont and Morgan will strategize tactical options with NPD."

Morgan and Lamont exited the van and began to make their way over to the group of officers who were awaiting instruction. As much as Melanie enjoyed Derek's presence, she couldn't help but wish she had been assigned to the same task as Emily. After attempting to pry for information that could have related to Louise's disappearance, Emily refused to give any information unless she knew the reasoning behind Melanie's concern. Although that left her in the dark, it also meant that there was some sort of information that Prentiss had been keeping from her.

She'd do anything to get it out of her somehow.

Reid pulled Melanie aside by the sleeve of her black shirt, Morgan continuing to move towards the officers waiting for them.

"What's up?" she asked, spinning around to face Spencer entirely.

He nervously gulped before speaking, his gaze darting between her left and right eye. "I'm going back to the office to start a geographical profile."

"You pulled me aside to tell me that you get to play with maps for the next few hours?" Melanie's eyebrows furrowed. She crossed her arms over her chest, her lips fighting the urge to smile. "That's great, Spence. I'm so happy for you," she sarcastically remarked.

Spencer shook his head with a smile, his right hand rubbing his eye. "No, I– uh... I just wanted to let you know that I wouldn't be around if you needed me, I guess."

Melanie smirked, running her hand along his bicep and squeezing slightly. "Oh, what will little ol' me do without these strong arms to protect me?" she proceeded to laugh at her own joke, making Spencer laugh along with her.

"You're a jerk," Spencer jokingly pouted. The agent waiting for him in a black van honked the horn of the car, alerting him that they needed to leave. "I should go then."

"You should," she lilted, nodding her head slightly.

Spencer took a step towards the van but turned around on a whim. "Just... Just be safe, alright?" he added.

"Anything for you, genius." Melanie smirked, waving her hand weakly as he finally made his way towards the black SUV.

A pearly white smile beamed from Derek's face, his elbow being sent into Melanie's side once she finally caught up to him.

"What was that back there?" he asked.

"What was what back where?" she retorted, playing oblivious.

"Don't play dumb with me now, Newbie," Morgan said through a laugh.

Melanie shook her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Unluckily for the BAU, the Jack had succumbed to his wound and died. The King was unraveling more and more as each second passed, even doing so much as to kill an agent disguised as an EMT worker who attempted to revive the Jack and kill an innocent hostage after the BAU refused to send Will inside of the bank

The team managed to find out that the two men were brothers but had no blood relation to the woman unsub. All that they had managed to find out about her was that she got off on each kill they made judging by the security footage.

"The King is threatening to shoot more hostages unless he has Will," Emily said through a pant after rushing towards the group of agents.

"Screw this, I'm going in," Will surrendered, straightening his posture and placing his hand over the holster that carried his gun.

"No, you're not," Hotch dismissed Will, holding his hand up to stop him from approaching the bank. "We will."

Meanwhile, the King pulled another hostage out of the line and forced her to talk to Rossi on the phone.

"Tell him your name!" Rossi heard the male unsub yell from behind the woman.

"It–It's Annie. My name is Annie," the woman sobbed, instinctively peeking over her shoulder at the King.

"You hang in there, Annie. Help is on the way," Rossi responded.

"Tell him he has thirty seconds, Annie," The King announced. "Hopefully Rossi doesn't make me shoot you, too."

A man valiantly took the place of Annie, putting himself in the position of being shot. Both S.W.A.T. and the NPD geared up and were about to follow the tactical plan that Melanie and Derek had come up with.

"What the hell is he doing?" Melanie spoke, her eyes following Will who was hesitantly walking towards the entrance of the bank. "Morgan, what the hell is he doing? I didn't approve that!"

"I did," he cut her off.

It took three seconds for JJ to notice Melanie's uneasiness, the blonde's gaze turning towards the entrance. Her features fell in one single motion. "Where the hell is he going?" she began, taking a step forward to chase after Will. Morgan wrapped one arm around her stomach, keeping her away. "Morgan, let me go!"

"I can't do that!" he spoke.

"Will! Will!" JJ shrieked, her limbs flailing in every direction as she attempted to make her way out of Derek's grasp.

Melanie pulled JJ from Derek's grasp and held her arm out in front of JJ's stomach, making it aware that she still couldn't follow him. Will finally made his way into the entrance, holding his arms above his head as a surrender.

"Oh, God," JJ wheezed and held her hand above her mouth, avoiding the urge to vomit.

In a matter of thirty seconds, a woman and two children who were being held hostage inside of the bank began to exit. JJ let out a sigh of relief, believing Will to have begun a successful negotiation with the unsubs. Melanie dropped her arms to her sides, believing that all was well.

Two gunshots followed, and each person standing outside of the bank felt as if Hell had begun to reign upon them. JJ clasped her hand over her mouth, the sound of gagging leaving her throat. Melanie and Derek exchanged a look of panic as they began to console an inconsolable Jennifer Jareau.

Hotch beckoned the three agents into the van. Tears poured down Penelope's cheeks. Emily bit on the fingernail of her left thumb. Derek leaned against the wall with his hand massaging his temple, a movement that Melanie doubled. JJ's eyes were bloodshot red, evidently from the boiling hot tears she was fighting off.

"Did you see where he was shot?" JJ asked Garcia. "Is he alive or dead, Garcia?"

"I don't know," Garcia breathed. The security footage had shut off a second after Will was shot.

"He was wearing a vest," Melanie offered the bright side of the situation. "There's a good chance that he's okay."

"A good chance," JJ sighed, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "We need to get inside."

"JJ, it's too risky," Morgan began. "We don't have eyes in there anymore."

Jennifer's blue eyes found Melanie, a silent plea being sent her way. It was ultimately her call considering that both she and Morgan were in charge of creating a plan for extracting both the remaining hostages and the unsubs from the property. A pit formed in Melanie's stomach as the weight of the world fell on her shoulders. She had to weigh both the strengths and weaknesses of the plan that JJ was proposing in three short seconds.

"Mel." JJ tilted her head, pleading with her coworker.

Melanie bit on the inside of her cheek before nodding. "We need to go in," she spoke. Hotch nodded, leading the team out of the van.

JJ and Melanie trailed behind two fully geared S.W.A.T. members, their guns angled at their feet. Once both women stood roughly twenty feet away from the entrance of the bank, Rossi shouted the words ABORT! ABORT! into their earpieces. Before they had enough time to react, the bank was engulfed in flames and an ear–piercing sound flooded the air.

A bomb had gone off from inside of the building, the impact forcing Melanie to fly backwards. She landed with a rough thud and the back of her head smacked against the pavement. Glass and other debris pierced her skin, her hand instinctively rising to her nose and feeling the blood that trickled down her face.

The ringing sound in Melanie's ears wouldn't go away as she tried to focus her vision, panicking once she realized that she was unable to do so. She found a shard of glass that stuck out of her forearm, ripping it out with a groan of pain that she couldn't even hear. The world surrounding her was a muffled, blurry mess.

"Melanie!" Morgan's voice could barely be heard as he crawled over to where Melanie laid. "Melanie, are you alright?"

"W...What?" Melanie tried to speak but immediately moaned in pain at the ringing in her ear growing worse. "Derek?"

"I need a medic," Morgan spoke into his earpiece. "Come on, Mel, try and stand up."

"I'm fine," Melanie spoke, her vision beginning to focus but the ringing in her ears still very prominent. "I'm fine," she repeated herself.

Each muscle in Melanie's body ached as Derek attempted to pull her to her feet. Melanie only saw a blurry figure that resembled JJ rush into the bank. Melanie rested the weight of her throbbing head back onto the coolness of the pavement, Derek leaving her side to chase after JJ once a medic rushed to Melanie.

"I'm fine!" Melanie raised her voice, immediately worsening the massive headache she had once she woke up in a hospital. "I need to be with my team, somebody get me my clothes!"

"Ma'am, you need to calm down," the female nurse spoke. "You have a concussion. You've been given the okay to leave, but I recommend staying out of heavy duty for the next few days."

"Great. So I can take this hideous gown off, right?" Melanie speculated, her eyes panned to the patterned hospital gown she had on. "Let's cut a deal. I'll calm down and get my happy ass out of here once I get to wear clothes that don't scratch against every inch of my body."

The nurse let out a sigh. "Fine. Your coworker is checking in downstairs and he brought your clothes, anyway." The woman brought a bag in from the hallway and sat it on the ground.

Melanie didn't hesitate for a second before throwing on a sleeved henley t–shirt and a single pair of gray sweatpants that she always packed when the team was away on cases. Once she pulled fresh white socks over her feet, she leaned against the hospital bed and kept her arms planted at her sides.

Spencer turned the corner in a hurry and opened the door to Melanie's hospital room. She crossed her arms over her chest and contorted her face in confusion.

"You need to learn how to knock. What if I was naked?" she joked, though Spencer didn't find it very funny. "Hey, what's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Spencer asked, his voice rising in pitch. "What's wrong with you?"

Melanie stood up straight and approached the male, her body language shifting from defensive to offensive. "Where is this coming from?"

"You didn't even check in with the technical analysts on hand before making the decision to invade the bank!" Spencer argued. "If you had, you would've known that the patterns that the female unsub was following directly mirrored the gas lines below the bank."

Melanie paused for a second before scoffing. "Oh, you're serious?" she asked, taking his silence as an answer. "I think what you mean to say is that you're upset I didn't check in with you," she added, sending her pointer finger into his shoulder once she concluded her sentence.

"Sure. Yeah. I'm upset that you put the lives of everyone at that scene at risk by making a decision that you hadn't even planned out correctly," Spencer shrugged, his voice lowering with each angered word he spit at her. "It was stupid."

A disbelieving laugh left her lips as she looked up at the man that towed over her, though she didn't feel intimidated in the slightest. "Oh, right. It's my fault that I couldn't have predicted something as obscure as a robbery turned bombing?"

"I didn't say that!" he continued arguing. "What I am saying is that you stupidly put yourself at risk."

"I'm a big girl, Spencer! I can take a little hit!" Melanie exclaimed.

"Yeah, a hit that could've killed you!" he continued, his voice raising while his emotions got the best of him.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Melanie threw her arms in the air, the sound of her arms slapping back at her sides made her realize how close she and Spencer were now positioned.

It seemed like Spencer had developed the same sense of awareness, his Adam's apple bobbing in his throat. Melanie could feel her heartbeat quickening from inside of her chest, her hand finding its way over Spencer's clothed heart. The rhythm beneath her fingertips caught her off guard, her eyes raising to meet his. His own brown eyes had developed into dark black, making it difficult for Melanie to differentiate where his pupils stopped and his irises began again.

"Your heart is racing," Melanie stated the obvious.

A newfound sense of confidence surged through her veins while nervous tension crept through his. Both Melanie and Spencer had simultaneously forgotten why they were mad at each other in the first place.

"I know," Spencer managed to say.

Melanie's hand snaked from his chest, up his neck and to his cheek as she cupped it in her hand. Her thumb stroked straight lines over his sharp angled cheekbones, her gaze automatically panned to his puffy pink lips that curved upwards into a smile.

Spencer idled as he placed a single hand at the side of her hip, not wishing to overstep the very prominent boundary that should be standing between him at this very moment. Being as close as they were now had already begun to draw the line. Spencer's knees nearly buckled as she bit along her bottom lip, her mind evidently running wild with possibilities.

     "I think I might kiss you," Melanie casually spoke

"Do it," Spencer immediately replied.

Melanie brought her other hand to the back of his head and entangled her fingers in the length of his hair, pressing her lips firmly against his. Spencer leans into her by taking a step forward, both of his hands finding and gripping the smalls of her waist.

"I've been thinking about this for months" he said against her lips, a sentence that they both disregarded as she continued to plant chaste kisses against him.

Spencer's lips were softer than what Melanie had guiltily imagined, his mouth feeling as smooth as silk against hers. As much as she tried to approach the situation with hesitance, the man who had now deepened the kiss by sliding a hand into her hair had an entirely different plan in mind.

Months of stress and tension pent up between them had begun to release with each time they'd take a sharp breath inwards before replanting their lips onto the other's, not wishing to waste any more valuable time.

In that moment, they were a single being emitting the sounds of smacking lips and muffled laughter. Neither of them could even think straight long enough to consider the gravity of their actions, but none of it mattered. Not now, at least.

Melanie gasped at the sound of a knock at the door. Spencer would have chased her lips if he hadn't been scared shitless by the thought of their team members catching them. She hurriedly wiped the remnants of her lipstick off of his lips and slumped back against the hospital bed.

"It's open," she called.

     The team flooded into the hospital room, embracing Melanie and striking up conversation about what happened to the unsubs. As much as Melanie wanted to listen, her mind wandered elsewhere. Particularly to a man who stood at the foot of the hospital bed she sat in.

     Not only had she made her life even more complicated than she needed it to be, but now she was forced to come to terms with how she truly felt about Spencer – whatever those feelings may be.

     Oh God, what had they done?

Notes.
melanie's on her hot girl shit, what can i say??

i'd advise you to not think that this little kiss means that mel and spence are about to ride off into the sunset 👀 i just love sexual tension

i had to keep it pg for their first kiss, don't hate me just yet 😩 but if any of you have seen my edit on tiktok, you know exactly where this is going... buckle up y'all

alsoo i hate to ask but i really do want to know what you're all thinking/want to see more of, so pleaseee let me know!!

i hope you enjoyed! thank you for reading & thank you for 30k reads <3