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𝑬 𝑽 𝑬 𝑹 𝑮 𝑹 𝑬 𝑬 𝑵
❝ 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚒𝚖𝚊𝚕, 𝚒 𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚊𝚛 ❞

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ㅤ𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐖𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐂𝐊.

Okay, maybe they were a little more than stuck. Both Derek and May thought they had a breakthrough with the CDs, but nothing significant ever came up. They pretty much turned Slessman's room upside down. They even moved to the attic to see if there were any more CDs they could get their hands on.

Even after Spencer returned, nothing. And now, May was forced to watch Derek pace.

"Oh, come on, I need a password, I need a password," he kept repeating as he moved back and forth. In all honestly, it was making May dizzy as she followed his movements from her position on the floor. "What am I looking for? What could I possibly be looking for?"

Then, Spencer suddenly entered the room, twirling a bent paperclip between his fingers. "I've been thinking about the CDs."

Derek slumped down to the armchair with a sigh, looking up at Spencer. It was obvious he was stressed, given that he'd already removed his blazer and his pristine tie was now askew as it hung from his neck.

"Oh, Reid, come on. We tried the CDs," he said. "We searched, sifted, and sorted through every one of this guy's head-banging heavy metal collection. We gotta find something, or this girl is dead."

May watched as Spencer focused on the laptop, using the paperclip to bust open the built-in CD player, stating, "I think we may have missed the obvious."

"What are you doing?" She asked. But she grinned when she saw that the player wasn't empty. "Spence, you genius." As Derek took the CD out, she quickly recognized it. "Metallica, nice."

Derek gave her a surprised look, before focusing on the task at hand. "Alright, I'm an insomniac who listens to Metallica to go to sleep at night. What song could possibly speak to me?"

Almost immediately, May and Spencer shared a look before declaring in unison: "Enter Sandman."

Upon opening the laptop, they were met with a livestream of Heather Woodland, trapped in a cage like an animal. Blindfolded, with her neck collared and chained to the cage wall. This image made May's nostrils flare.

"Call Gideon," she commanded. Without another word, Derek followed her instructions, standing up from where he sat, leaving the Wonder Twins to examine the images. They both sat on one chair, sharing it despite both of them nearly falling off due to lack of space. But they didn't budge, eyes trained on the screen.

"There's something wrong, but I can't put my finger on it," Spencer mumbled from beside her. "Can you show me the last twelve images lined up next to each other?"

May quickly did as he asked, typing on the computer. By then, Derek moved back to the two and stood behind the chair. "What do you see?" She asked.

"Right there," he pointed out. "You see that? The light bulb hanging from the wire?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"It's shifting positions, like it's swaying...like the earth is tilting."

It was then that Derek realized, "Not the earth, doc. The ocean."

All three of them looked at each other, mouths agape. Quickly, Derek pulled out his phone again, scooting May and Spencer out of their chair. Grumbling, the two moved to where the Go board was, ignoring their fellow agent as they got deep into their discussion.

"You can't beat me at chess, and I can't beat you at Go," Spencer noted, leaning down to examine the board once more. Like a mirror image, May did the same as she shrugged.

"Maybe I'm just cooler than you."

He scoffed, reaching forward to flick her hair to her face, causing her to pull away. "Annoying."

"Rude," she glared. "But I do think our preferences are very indicative of our personalities though. In chess, each piece has a purpose, and their purpose is completely rigid in a sense that it never changes. A queen is a queen, a pawn is a pawn. And I think that's what you like about it; the strict rules."

Shrugging, he made a face of agreement, before continuing her theory. "And as for Go, each stone is the same. Individually, they're useless, but once a group strategically forms...they can get deadly."

She smirked. "Like a wolf pack."

"Like a wolf pack," he agreed. "And that is what you like about it; the sense of camaraderie."

May stretched her entire body as the sun slowly rose, eyes trained on the open water. She stood beside Hotch—accidentally hitting him with her elbow—as she groaned in pleasure, feeling all the tension she's been feeling for the past couple of hours slowly dissipate.

Derek only watched her in amusement, before focusing back on the topic of Gideon, who had gotten grazed by a bullet. "So," he began, "what kind of report do they want on him?"

"I suppose whether he's fit to be a field agent," Hotch answered, turning away from May who he'd lifted slightly—carrying her gently by her arms—to move her away from him, avoiding another hit from her as she stretched again. He turned his attention back to Derek. "You know, Haley and I were looking at a bay names book. Guess what Gideon means in Hebrew."

"Mighty warrior," May and Spencer chorused.

"Appropriate," Spencer added, before walking away again. May continued on facing the water, feeling herself relax even further.

Both Hotch and Derek smirked in amusement at their antics, before the latter asked, "So, what are you gonna tell them?"

"What would you say?" Hotch asked him back.

Derek thought for a moment. "Gideon saved her life," he stated. "That's good enough for me."

After a while, they were on the plane back to Quantico. It wasn't much of a surprise when the Wonder Twins once again shared the couch. While May was asleep in one end, Spencer was in the other, their feet in a tangled mess in the middle. And once they landed, May was the first awake, and immediately—gently—kicked her best friend in the face to wake him up.

He groaned, pushing away her sock-clad feet in disgust. "You're an animal, I swear." But there was no malice in his tone as he pushed himself up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Yawning, he turned to her to press a kiss to her forehead, before pulling her up with him.

Yawning after him, she mumbled a sleepy 'thanks', picking her go-bag up from where she left it and slinging it over her shoulder. The two then walked side by side, hopping into the car rather clumsily together, and falling asleep again on the ride back to the headquarters.

As soon as they got there, the two silently waved goodbye to the others as they walked to the garage, where May's car, a black 1969 Camaro, was parked. It had taken her a while to afford it, but since she only spent three-fourths of her college fund, and had saved up quite a lot upon becoming an agent, she was able to buy it a couple of months ago. She was even able to set aside some extra money, being able to repair cars and all, not needing to bring it to a shop to get it to tip-top shape.

After another yawn, she shoved her bag into the back, Spencer following suit from the passenger's side. They then hopped in, Spencer turning to her, asking, "You awake enough?"

She yawned again, before nodding her head, laughing when he yawned with her. "Yeah, I'm good."

Quickly pushing her key into its hole and turning the engine on, she pressed her left foot into the clutch and her right into the brake pedal as she switched her gears to reverse. Slowly easing her foot off the clutch and brakes, she backed out of her space, before pressing down on both again once she found her position. Switching to first gear, she began to drive out of the complex.

By the time she reached home, Spencer was asleep again, and she had to wake him up once she's parked in her usual spot. The two eventually trudged up the stairs, and entered their apartment while nearly falling over their own feet.

Once May locked the door, she and Spencer shared sleepy smiles, before finally walking into their separate rooms.

May immediately fell into her bed face first, not bothering to change into sleep clothes, as she succumbed to a deep sleep.

Hours later, Spencer was knocking on her door, and it was enough to wake her up. She pushed herself up from the bed with a groan, grimacing at the dried drool on the corner of her mouth.

"What is it?" She called.

"Thought you'd like some lunch," he answered. "Got us some Indian."

"Ooo," she mumbled under her breath. "I'll be out in a bit."

"Okay."

As it was a whole day after—she realized this when she looked at her digital clock—she decided a shower was needed. One thing she and Spencer agreed on while looking through apartments were en suite bathrooms, so she was quite lucky to not have to share one with him. So, she took a quick shower, and brushed her teeth, before heading back into her bedroom to get dressed into some random oversized t-shirt and a pair of baggy knee-length shorts.

Before long, she joined Spencer in their dining room and instantly began eating; she had a pretty big appetite. The two didn't bother with table manners as they talked, their topics ranging from their case yesterday, to their teammates. Spencer made sure to emphasize his distaste for Derek's clear interest in her.

"I like Morgan, I do," he explained. "But those few positive emotions I feel for him disappears when he tries to flirt with you."

May snorted. "It's not like that's gonna lead anywhere, you know? Don't be too dramatic."

"But what if it does lead somewhere?"

"If that day ever comes, I'll do the dishes for a whole month."

"Deal."

A few days later, she and Spencer were once again in the BAU.

While he wore a checkered button-up and pair of brown trousers, May was even more casual looking with her black baggy pants, and white oversized tee underneath one of Spencer's sweater vests she burrowed but never returned. On her feet were black sneakers. Barefaced again, the only accessory she wore were her black sunglasses that served also as a headband.

She sat on her desk—directly in front of Derek and beside Spencer's—and watched her best friend play against himself in chess as he frowned in concentration. She can never truly appreciate the game as much as he and Gideon do, but she continuously played with him every time he asked despite knowing she'll lose.

Speaking of Gideon, he simply walked past them, stopped beside Spencer's board, and moved a single piece. "Check. Checkmate in three moves."

Spencer gaped at him and looked back down at his board in disbelief. "What..."

"Nice one, Gid." May raised her hand up, which the older man slapped with a high five before leaving them again.

Of course, Derek was there to make fun of Spencer. "You know, you'll beat him when you start learning."

He made a face. "Learning what?"

"To think outside the box."

Before May could reprimand him, Elle was walking in the middle of the room. "Question for you."

Derek was the one to respond. "Shoot."

As she descended the stairs, she asked, "The Footpath Killer, why did he stutter?"

May grinned up at her from her chair. "Ah, classic."

"Come on, Elle, we've all asked him, and he won't say," Derek told her. "He wants us to figure it out. Only person who has is May."

Elle turned to the mentioned woman with an impressed grin as she sat down on the edge of her newly assigned desk, lifting her hand to give her a fist bump which the Quileute gladly returned. "Okay, I'm up for a challenge."

"Good, because these go to you," another person entered the conversation, and everyone turned to look at their resident liaison who presented Elle with a stack of files. "Special Agent Jennifer Jareau, JJ if you like."

They shook hands as Elle introduced herself with just her first name.

"Greenaway," JJ nodded in recognition. "Highest number of solved cases in Seattle three years running, specialty in sex offender cases."

Elle gave May a quick startled look before turning back to the blonde. "Not bad."

"Well, I'm the unit liaison, my specialty is untangling bureaucratic knots," JJ told her as she began to walk away. "You'll probably be talking to me a lot. My door's always open, mostly because I'm never in my office, so just call me on my cell, okay? We'll talk."

Before Elle could even digest JJ words, Hotch was walking out of his office and calling out to them to meet him in the conference room, which May always referred to as the 'round table room', liking the sound of it better.

Without hesitation, all of them followed after their senior agent, and once they've all settled onto their chairs, Hotch began to explain their case.

"This is from the Phoenix office, Bradshaw College in Tempe, six fires in seven months," he began, watching as his team began opening their copies of the case file.

May was sat in between Spencer and Derek, a notepad in front of her as she asked, "Who recorded it?"

"A student with a digital camcorder," JJ answered, referring to the video they were sent. "He was watching a fire in the building across from their dorm. The other person you'll see is his roommate, twenty-year-old Matthew Rowland."

They all turned to the TV, watching as the two boys wondered about a fire they could see from their dorm room window. It would've been just a regular video, if not for Matthew noticing something from underneath their own door. He notices the smell of gas, before suddenly being lit on fire.

"Jesus," May mumbled under her breath.

Afterwards, they hopped into the plane. There was a short discussion there, one that May didn't join much as she read through the fire thoroughly and made her own notes. She kept an ear open though, nodding along as everyone realized that the unsub was escalating.

A few hours later, they were at campus. The Wonder Twins hopped out of the car after Hotch, and everyone rushed after Gideon who was already speeding his pace.

"No badges," he told them. "I don't want to satisfy the unsub's need for attention by letting him know he got the FBI here. Try not to look official." Then he paused in his steps as he looked back at them. "Try to look less official."

As he disappeared into the building, the four remaining agents looked at each other.

May, who was trailing behind Gideon, snorted as she eyed everyone else's outfits. "Yeah, that's not gonna be possible."

author's note: now that we're done with the first episode, i'm gonna try and slow down a tad to shift my attention back to my other books. rn my mind is running on cm so the next update's either here or 6:30. 

i hope you guys enjoyed!! <3