❝ what you did was amazing, and i look up to you. ❞

         THE TEAM GATHERED around the round table in the conference room as JJ was the one presenting the case. This one is in East Allegheny, JJ's hometown, so they just thought it would be better for her to present the case since she has more knowledge about the area. "Last night, three teenage girls went searching for the Tall Man. It's a regional ghost story. According to the survivor recovered this morning, they found him." JJ explained. Penelope put the pictures up of Ally Macready, the survivor, on the screen. Dried blood was smeared all over her hands and arms and was spattered around her face.

"She looks like she just went through hell. Did she say what happened?" Luke asked. Penelope replied, "That would be Ally Macready, and according to her, the Tall Man held them and cut them repeatedly."

JJ began explaining, "Yeah, that is consistent with the legend. So the Tall Man is your classic don't-go-into-the-woods dare. Survive the night, you survive him. He catches you, he cuts you until you reveal your deepest secrets."

"Let's go back to the victims for a second. Did they sneak out or did their parents know?" Matt asked. Penelope answered, "They told their parents that they were going to a party, and they actually did." Matt thought about it, "Okay, so then off the bat we have two theories about the unsub. One is that he knew they were planning this."

"Which puts him in the girls' inner circle." Rossi followed along. Matt nodded, "Exactly. Or two, he waited in the woods opportunistically. But that strategy only works if he plays the odds right. So, how far reaching is this ghost story?"

"Maybe I can answer that." Penelope stated, displaying pictures of the depictions the Tall Man on the screen. "The story JJ grew up with, it's gone viral, and the photoshop work is on fleek."

"Tall Man is a story. What happened to these girls is real. The first 24 hours are crucial in an abduction case, and we are now down to 18. Let's move." Emily said, as they all grabbed their files and grabbed their go-bags from their desks as they all met each other at the tarmac.

On the jet, Penelope spoke from the call, "I'd like to direct your attention to two oddities. Oddity number one is Ally Macready's medical exam. Despite outward appearances, Ally had a sum total of zero wounds on her. So whose blood is on her clothes, you may ask? DNA report is not back yet, but typing and matching points to the other girls."

"She could've escaped before the unsub got to her. Holding three girls takes a lot of control." Olivia stated. Emily asked Penelope, "What's oddity number two?" To which she responded, "That would be a text exchange between Bethany and Chelsea. Bethany says to Chelsea, What if we do it in the woods tonight? To which Chelsea responds, We'd have to do it fast. Ally can't see us coming."

"Vaguely threatening. Although Ally didn't say anything like that in her interview." Spencer noted. "Two of the girls had some agenda besides the Tall Man. We need to see if it played a part in their disappearance." Rossi said.

"Chelsea's dad, Tom, he dated my sister in high school, so I can talk to him." JJ informed. Emily nodded, "Good, do that. We will divide and conquer when we land. We will investigate this as if Bethany and Chelsea are still alive, and we will not sleep until we find them."

───── ⋆✩⋆ ─────

Tara and Olivia were given the task to interview Ally again at the hospital. They thought that maybe she'd reveal more than before. When they did interview her and she described what happened in the woods, she kept asking if they were the Tall Man's minions. They assured her they weren't, but when they asked why she thought that, she said it was because they look like him and have no faces.

         "Ally has schizophrenia?" Matt questioned.

         "Early onset. And we confirmed it with her parents. It's rare in teens, but it can happen. The telltale symptom was her face blindness. Schizophrenics have extreme visual processing problems, most obviously in meeting new people or experiencing new environments." Tara explained. Olivia added on, "Her parents were trying to keep her off medication. That's why the cops and Garcia didn't flag it."

         "Besides the parents, who else knew?" Emily asked. Tara answered, "Just Bethany and Chelsea. Why?" Emily thought, "Lot of holes in her story."

         Olivia told her, "We noticed that, too. She wasn't bound, but the other two were. She could've escaped, instead she woke up in the forest." Matt read from the file, "Covered in her friends' blood. Most schizophrenics are not violent, but they can be pushed to violence if they're threatened. Maybe she did this, but in her mind, it was the Tall Man."

         "And that brings us back to Bethany and Chelsea's texts about Ally, and if their agenda was upsetting enough to induce a break. JJ's with Chelsea's dad now. Maybe she can find out what they needed to talk about." Emily stated.

         Talking with Chelsea's dad didn't reveal much information as he didn't know what was going on with his daughter and her friends. So, the team all regrouped to the room of the precinct they occupied and Garcia called them. "The police recovered all 3 girls' phones in the woods. And you know how teens and myself spend way too much time on our screens? Well, the breakdown on the lab report from the girls' cellphones suggests a surefire way to get us all to stop. Please look at that report on your tablets."

         Spencer read from Emily's tablet, "Fentanyl as in the opioid derivative?" Penelope responded, "Yeah, trace elements were found on all 3 screens. Now, the medical patch it comes in knocks you out instantaneously."

         "Wait, hold up. Full stop. Let's retrace the girls' timeline. They went to a party, then somehow the unsub manages to get his hands on all 3 of the girls' phones to lace them?" Emily wondered.

         "He could have been at the party." Matt suggested. "But then he'd have to time that out with when they went into the woods. No one's that good. Factor this in now. You're a teenage girl. You keep your cellphone on you at all times. Who would you maybe hand it over to?" Emily pondered aloud.

         "Your best friend." Tara stated.

Emily nodded, "I'm starting to think Bethany or Chelsea might be pulling the strings here." Rossi reasoned, "Whoa, slow down. All three girls' phones were drugged, and Ally had the other girls' blood on her."

"I'm with Rossi. If one of the girls was staging this, she would have had to have knocked herself out and let herself get cut. That's one hell of a gaslight." Luke agreed. "But not an impossible one, especially with a partner." Olivia shared.

"Well, if that's true, I think we're missing the bigger picture here. Chelsea and Bethany are best friends. Why would one recruit a partner to terrorize the other?" Matt thought. JJ spoke up, "Okay, it has something to do with this." She grabbed the paper that had Ally's statements. "'Where is it?' That's what Ally heard. So they're looking for something they lost, something they think the other girl can find."

"I think we need to take another look at their high school, see what we can find." Emily said. "I know a guy over there that could help us." JJ told.

JJ went back to the high school where she met with her old guidance counselor and he let her speak to one of Chelsea and Bethany's friends. She revealed that Bethany has a secret boyfriend and wouldn't tell anyone who it was.

Olivia, Luke, Tara, and JJ went back to the hospital to interview Ally again where she was able to describe the location she was in when the Tall Man got her and her friends. JJ figured out it was the abandoned train car kids her age at the time went to. JJ and a couple of the team members found Chelsea in the train car with a knife through her abdomen. Medics came on the scene as they realized Bethany was gone and she could've escaped any time she wanted.

At the hospital, JJ went to go talk to Chelsea as the medics wheeled her into her room. She pointed at JJ's necklace and stared at it before she started to cough up blood. Olivia and Emily met back with her at the hospital as JJ told them Bethany's boyfriend was a groomer. They realized the jewelry the unsub gave Bethany was the same one the unsub gabe JJ's sister, Roslyn.

JJ was filled with pure anger. At first, being back in her hometown only triggered her devastating memories about Roslyn. But now that she knows her sister was being preyed on and the necklace she wore around her neck was just some sort of trophy, JJ felt enraged.

As Rossi and JJ spoke, she was able to figure out that her old guidance counselor, Ethan Howard, was the one who groomed Roslyn. He was the one who gave her the necklace, and he was the one who preyed on Bethany. They were able to arrest Ethan and get a confession. JJ, Olivia, Luke, and Matt went to the school to find Bethany. She was unconscious, but they were able to wake her up.

On the jet, Olivia noticed how quiet JJ was being. She sat away from the rest of the team in the back as they were all in the middle. Olivia sat down in front of JJ with a cup of tea she made for her. The blonde smiled, wordlessly thanking her and Olivia reciprocated the expression. "Are you doing okay?" She then asked. She nodded, "I will be. I just. . . need some time to process all of this."

"JJ, I just want you to know how proud I am of you. What you did was amazing, and I look up to you." Olivia's words seemed to have a deeper meaning to JJ than most people would assume. This entire case just took a toll on her and having at least one person saying they were proud of her lifted the weight off her chest.

         JJ's eyes started to glisten, "Thank you, Liv. For just being here." It always seemed as if whenever she had a problem, Olivia was there for her, ready to be her support system. Even when she first joined the team and Spencer was mad at JJ, Olivia was there to support her. She just couldn't be any more grateful for her friendship.

ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎︎
sometimes i forget that this is a spencer reid
fic and not a jj one. whatever, i love adding
liv and jj content 🙄‼️
#jenlivia4ever 😩
also, i have something planned and it's coming
up very soon😁
i'm currently laying on my bed, kicking my feet like a maniac bc i'm nervous for your reactions😇🤞
have a great day my loves mwah <3!