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𝑬 𝑽 𝑬 𝑹 𝑮 𝑹 𝑬 𝑬 𝑵
❝ 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚋𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚋𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚜 ❞

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ㅤ"𝐋𝐘𝐍𝐍 𝐃𝐄𝐌𝐏𝐒𝐄𝐘, what the hell are you trying to tell me?" May muttered under her breath as she frowned, eyes unfocused as she stared forward. She was once again fiddling with her switchblade, one she always takes out whenever she thinks too deeply, the object becoming something like her anchor when her mind drifts away.

As she sat in a chair she'd borrowed from one of the officers, she keeps coming back to her last interaction with Lynn—alive, then as a ghost—wondering what the woman was trying to tell her. She knew the once-executive assistant was trying to help her solve the case, but the way the woman tried was nothing short of confusing. It's like when wise old men try to give you advice; instead of going straight to the point, they give you riddles.

A hand on her shoulder made her flinch, making her twist abruptly in her seat to face the culprit, only to see Spencer's rather unemotional expression staring back at her. The two separated from Hotch and Gideon to revisit some of the information they've collected, heading towards an unused table for some space away from everyone else. Though they didn't speak, they continued to work in tandem, as if communicating through mere thought.

Spencer focused on the first victims, while May focused solely Lynn. But nothing really clicked until her best friend approached her with six simple words:

"One of the victims was diabetic."

"What?" She frowned deeper. "But the candies..."

"It doesn't make sense," Spencer agreed with an equally deep frown.

"Wait, we need to rewatch the tapes." She quickly grabbed the laptop that they had been using to view the security tapes from the bank. Quickly finding the exact moment they assumed Lynn switched out typical candies with supposed poisoned ones, she focused on the woman's hands...only to see her left hand fiddle with... "envelopes."

Spencer followed her line of sight. "The end...she wasn't saying the end, she was saying the envelopes!"

Without much thought, the man grabbed the laptop, announced that he was going to show the two senior agents what they'd seen. He didn't forget to send her a quick 'thank you', leaving her alone with her thoughts.

She blinked at how fast he left, before shaking her head with a smile.

"Could've just said you poisoned the envelops, Lynn," she scoffed as she whispered to herself. "Instead of telling me that you only had a bit of time to tell me something. Could've just said, 'oh, I poisoned the envelopes. See ya!'"

Arriving back at their shared apartment after solving the case, May could feel an impending doom approaching. On the plane, though the two sat next to each other—even fell asleep on one another—they did not speak. On the drive back to their apartment, there was a palpable tension in the air. But now that they're behind closed doors...

"I'm...concerned," Spencer began, cutting the deafening silence in two. "When I heard you speak earlier, I thought that maybe you and Billy were just joking around, but...I don't..."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because...because it's not my secret to tell!" She told him. Locking the door—their front door—behind her, she dropped her go-bag onto the floor and crossed her arms. "I...it's not just my secret, okay? You..." she pursed her lips, "it's a tribe thing!"

He gave her a look. "Really? 'It's a tribe thing'? That the best you can do?"

"Hey, call up dad if you want to," she shot back. "You'd probably listen to him more considering you guys are buddies!"

Groaning, he stopped her from escaping into her room by gripping the sleeves of her sweater. "You know, you haven't been the same since...since forever. During that case with the LDSK...I want to help you. I only want to help you, so I don't understand why you're pushing me away."

"What I don't understand is why you can't understand that I'm keeping this a secret for a reason," she sagged in his grip and sighed, staring down at the floor tiredly before turning to face him. "This is...way bigger than you could ever imagine. I want to tell you, I do. But it's not up to me. I'm keeping you safe by not telling you. So please don't fight me on this."

Spencer's frown of confusion turned into one of sadness. "I don't understand you. I don't understand this. And I don't like it when I don't understand."

"You're gonna have to deal with it," she finally pulled away from his grasp. "I'll have to figure things out first. But I promise you, once I can, I will tell you everything."

He searched her eyes, making her feel as though he was staring into her soul, until finally he nodded. He wordlessly agreed with her statement as he walked away towards his own room with his things, right as he closed his own door. The sound of the lock turning made her grimace, knowing that it meant one thing and one thing only: they were on a 'break'.

No speaking, no interacting, basically just no acknowledgment of the other's existence.

This has only happened once before, when Spencer completely disregarded May's request to not meddle in her personal life. Way before he'd met Billy. Because May was adamant that her two words never collide, she was pissed when she found out they were corresponding in the first place. Their excuse was that it was to protect her, or 'in case of emergencies'. She eventually accepted their reasoning, but when she first realized this breach on her boundaries, she didn't speak to him for a week and a half.

She sighed, finally picking up the go-bag she'd dropped and entered her own room. She thought for a moment, plopping down onto her bed as she pulled out her phone. Kissing her teeth in annoyance, she looked through her contacts until landing on her dad's. Then, she called him.

On the other side of the country, Billy's smiling face was pulled into a frown when he saw his daughter calling. Her calls had become more and more frequent—which is a good thing—but often times, she was calling because it had something to do with her being a shifter. During their last call, she gushed about her imprint, so he wasn't really looking forward to hearing more about the man his firstborn was smitten with.

What he didn't expect were the words she greeted him with.

"Spencer heard us talk earlier," May told him with a clear tone of sadness in her voice. "He's...asking about it. And I don't know what to do," her lower lip trembled as she let out a breath. "I- Dad, he won't talk to me now. Just...he'll listen to you. Please talk to him."

"Wait, what is this about?"

"Dad, he's asking about my traveling and he probably thinks I'm going crazy!" She groaned, sniffing slightly as tears of frustration threatened to spill from her eyes. "I know I can't tell him anything. But he...I can't lie to him."

Billy sighed. "I'm sorry, but you're really gonna have to. Tribe secrets are tribe secrets. Your own brother doesn't even know. I know how much you love Spencer, and I do too, but unless it's an emergency, you have no choice. He can't know."

"...I know."

Two cases later and the two hadn't spoken...much. Several times they were forced to communicate for the sake of the team, still working like a well-oiled machine in front of them. But outside of that, nothing. May could understand the root of Spencer's frustration, but she hated how immature he acted. She didn't do anything wrong, just withheld information she specifically said she couldn't tell him. Yet the way he responded made it seem like she offended his entire bloodline.

One thing's clear though, these past two cases didn't seem to trigger her abilities like Lynn Dempsey's case did. The one that took them to Florida State Penitentiary didn't yield any visits from anyone soul considering the victims were long dead; they only had to talk to the suspects. The other one had them working with Gideon's old mentor, Max Ryan, who had written a book about the infamous Keystone Killer, the one unsub he couldn't catch. That was, until the unsub resurfaced and the entire team joined forces to finally put an end to his crimes.

Now, May was in the bullpen, arm-in-arm with Elle as they exited the restroom together. It was a quiet morning, and the two decided on spending a few minutes fixing each other up for fun. Elle insisted on putting makeup on her younger coworker, and May had begrudgingly agreed—really, she was all for it, wanting to know what it would've been like if she had an older sister.

Finally nearing the summer months, May was able to wear clothes that didn't make her feel suffocated. But despite wanting to wear shorts, she still had to look at least professional. So, she wore some black pants, along with a black shirt. Simple, basic, but she made sure both pieces of clothing were as thin as possible without being revealing, just so she'd feel even just a tiny bit of air flow. She paired it all off with some black Chuck Taylors.

With some light makeup on her face—mostly just a hint of blush and lipstick, with some eyeliner Elle insisted would look good on her—she greeted Penelope, who was entering the office, with a wave.

"Wow, you look beautiful," Penelope commented almost absentmindedly upon spotting May's unusual use of makeup. "Really...fits you..."

"Thanks?"

Elle shared a look with May before facing Penelope once more. "What are you doing out of your bunker?"

"Oh, I was on my way to...file," the blonde tried to explain, but it was clear her focus was elsewhere. "The things...that I...file?"

May and Elle, in unison, turned to face what their face was looking at.

"Oh, wow," May couldn't help but comment, her eyebrows raising in surprise. "Who..."

Unexpectedly, the tall blond man in all black turned towards them and began walking. "Excuse me."

As smooth as ever, Elle smiled. "Hey."

"I'm looking f--"

"Sean!"

Derek's voice made May jump slightly, making the two girls beside her giggle as silently as they could. She then proceeded to admonish both of them by pinching their sides as softly as she could, making them both grin.

"Hey," Derek continued. He then lifted a hand to introduce himself. "Derek. You must be looking for your brother."

Sean smiled. "Yeah."

"Right this way."

As the two men walked away, the three girls turned to look at each other.

"Brother?" May wondered. "As in..."

"That's Hotch's brother?" Elle realized.

Penelope couldn't wrap her head around it. "Maybe Hotch was adopted?"

May couldn't help herself from laughing out loud. "Do you guys not see the resemblance? Especially the height? And the eyes."

"You can make eye contact with Hotch?" Penelope wondered aloud.

Elle chuckled at Penelope's words before commenting, "Huge age difference though."

The three of them eventually migrated to Elle's desk. As Elle sat in her own chair, May sat on the desk, Penelope beside her. Their faces were still turned towards the direction of Hotch's office, earning them looks from Derek and Spencer.

While the latter was just as confused as them—and wondering why they seemed so interested—Derek knew that the three women were curious about Sean.

He grinned at May. "Replacing me now?"

May playfully rolled her eyes. "As if you had a chance in the first place."

Elle quickly faked a cough. "Liar." Cough.

JJ then walked towards them with an unpleasant look on her face. "Hey, everyone. We've got a case, and it's...a pretty bad one." She couldn't help herself from sneaking a look at May who only gave her a confused tilt of the head. The blonde shook her head and cleared her throat. "Where's Hotch?"

"Up there with his brother," Penelope replied.

"His brother?"

"Here he comes."

JJ had to take a second look as a tall man exited Hotch's office, clearly irked. "That's Hotch's brother?"

"Uh huh."

"...I don't see it."

Now that the two were conversing outside, everyone—who wasn't too busy actually working—could hear them argue.

"Sean, listen to me," Hotch began, "all I'm saying is, you're twenty-five years old, I think that--"

"You know what?" Sean cut him off while pointing a finger at him. "Don't profile me, Aaron."

JJ raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Now I see it."

As soon as everyone was available, they made their way towards the roundtable room. May was sat between Elle and Gideon as JJ began her debrief.

"Terra Mesa, New Mexico. Five dead, all from Mesa University," she explained, handing them each a folder filled with the information and photos they were given by local police. "No signs of sexual assault, and no sign of theft."

"Five nineteen-year-olds, minimal defensive wounds," Derek observed. "One of them was impaled in a six-foot wooden pole." This made May frown, automatically looking for any information regarding this impalement.

"Who'd wanna torture five college freshmen?" Elle wondered.

"They weren't tied up and no one escaped?" There was clear disbelief in his tone.

Spencer frowned. "No single unsub could've exerted this much control over so many people."

"So you think there was more than two?" Elle asked.

But it was Gideon that answered. "I think we're looking at a pack."

"A pack?" JJ inquired.

"Three or more that kill in unison," May responded. "As in, nature of the group dynamic dictated the pack's survival is dependent on their ability to...hunt successfully."

"And," Hotch added, "as in nature of pack, will keep on killing until it runs out of prey or is stopped."

Elle turned to him. "Stopped by what?"

"A stronger pack."

author's note: i'm so excited for this one, y'all don't even know