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𝑬 𝑽 𝑬 𝑹 𝑮 𝑹 𝑬 𝑬 𝑵
❝ 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚎? ❞

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ㅤ𝐌𝐀𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐒𝐀𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐒𝐈𝐃𝐄 𝐃𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐊 𝐀𝐆𝐀𝐈𝐍. This time, however, he had flipped his chair over so that he can lean forward against the back of it. At first, all he did was scoot closer to her chair when she got back, and invited her into his personal space. She didn't hesitate at all to join him, as she was too tired to protest despite having complete awareness, just running on fumes and whatever coffee they could find.

Then, as Derek slumped further forward, similarly exhausted like the rest of them, he casually offered her his back to lean on.

"Huh?" She inquired, eyeing his muscular back—not at all checking him out—in confusion. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Just that...you can, if you want to. I can tell you're itching to change position. But you don't have to."

Tilting her head, she slouched a little and scooted even closer, and eventually laid her head on his shoulder. Despite being dead on her feet, Elle cheered with half-lidded eyes from her comfortable chair behind them. Beside her was a grinning JJ. This short moment brought some energy back to them.

Spencer blankly looked at Derek. The protest was on the tip of his tongue, but he held himself back, knowing about the imprint bond, and understanding quite quickly how this somewhat intimate action can actually be beneficial for his best friend. He shook his head and turned around to continue mulling over the presented clues.

"He said we have everything needed to complete the quest," he spoke up, crossing his arms with a frown.

"The answer's gotta be up there somewhere," Elle told him.

May was inclined to agree. "We just have to figure out how they all connect. I mean, the 'gifts', you know? I don't think they were given just because. I understand it's showing us that he knows things about us, but I doubt that's all they're for."

Her best friend looked at her and nodded. "Yeah, but--"

Spencer was cut off by Gideon running into the room and barely even acknowledging them, his gaze set on their liaison.

"JJ, get some reporters here as soon as possible," Gideon basically demanded.

"For what?" The blonde asked.

"Just say we need help on a new case." Then he left, almost as quickly as he came.

The five remaining members of the team exchanged looks, and it was Derek who spoke up.

"Press conference?"

JJ could only shrug before leaving the room and doing as she was asked.

That left May, Derek, Spencer, and Elle in the room. Elle was slowly falling asleep. Spencer, hopped up on coffee and sugar, continued to work on the clues, and made sure to ask May for her opinions as the two often do. Everyone knew how well they worked together. While May rattled off ideas, Derek could only watch with admiration.

He couldn't deny it anymore; it was becoming clearer and clearer as the days go by. Without even realizing, he had fallen in love. And it only became more and more apparent the more May opened up more and more. She wasn't that weirded out by physical affected anymore, nor was she afraid to show others that she returned Derek's feelings, especially with how open she'd become when kissing him. Every single time their lips touched, a feeling of pleasure with shoot up his spine, almost making him incapable of letting her go.

And every time she'd be in the vicinity, his eyes always searched for her. The way her dark hair framed her face, the way her eyes mirrored the rich earth and the warmth of the sun, and the way her skin glowed as if kissed by something divine. May, in his eyes, was a gift—a gem, he once called her—and a blessing he'd been fortunate enough to hold in his arms. Though they weren't together yet, he knew that he couldn't bear to let her go, not when she had willingly given him the opportunity to prove himself to her.

He shivered when she shifted her position a little, pressing her cheek further into the crook of his neck, and putting her hand delicately on his back.

Elle's voice pulled him out of his stupor.

"I'm gonna move to the couch," she declared, groaning as she pushed herself off the leather chair she was sat on. Clearing her throat, she picked up her bags and placed them on the floor beside the said couch. "Wake me up when something happens."

"Go, we'll catch you up when you wake up," May nodded, pulling away from Derek to face Elle, not noticing the frown that immediately formed on his face. "You deserve some rest." Elle only gave her a thumbs up in response, eyes already shut before her head even hit the cushion.

May took that as her cue to get up from her chair to take the clues pinned on the board—keeping them in their evidence bags to follow proper procedure—and plop them on the table to literally look at them in a different angle.

"Okay, let's examine them again one by one," she said. "The most obvious clue from the very beginning is that it had something to do with medieval times. The language used in the clues in the room, the sword, the game Penelope played."

"Medieval," Spencer muttered, nodding to himself as he stood up and walked towards the corner of the room to pull out another white board. He wrote down the word and turned to May again. "What else?"

May hummed. "Okay, I think...with the book code and everything, these clues might be pointing us towards the book that we need. Somehow?"

"A medieval book?" Spencer crossed his arms. "That's gonna be difficult to find the right copy for. I don't think so."

"Or it could be leading us to another clue which can then lead to the actual book?"

"More likely."

"Okay, what about the personal gifts?"

Spencer walked back towards the table and picked up JJ's 'gift'. "A Pale Clouded Yellow butterfly indigenous to Great Britain?"

"Great Britain! Great Britain could be something," May kissed her teeth. "Could be where it was published?" She walked towards the board, grabbing Spencer's marker and quickly jotted down 'Great Britain' below the 'medieval'.

Before Spencer could say anything—though he looked like he agreed—Hotch walked into the room and asked about their progress, eyes looking at them individually before facing the board.

May looked at him as she capped the marker. "We think the clues are leading to the book we need. Right now, we think it was published in Great Britain."

"Yeah, that's about it," Derek shook his head, looking up at Hotch. "Can't see anything else."

"Not yet," Spencer said, a lot more optimistic.

While still working with Spencer, and now with Derek—as he seemed more aware again now that Hotch appeared again—May made sure to keep an ear open when Hotch and Elle talked. The latter refused to go home, pushing physical boundaries out of pure stubbornness, but the former wanted her to get some proper rest.

Derek only pushed for Elle to go home and rest too, but May was concerned for her friend.

"I can take her home," she offered. "And stay with her a bit before I take her back."

"It's okay," Hotch dismissed her. "I'll ask Anderson to do that."

"But--"

"May, it's okay," Elle shook her head, holding back a yawn. "You should keep working. You and Spencer were figuring some stuff out already. Wouldn't want to break the streak." Spencer looked at May and shrugged.

Finally, May rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. Call me as soon as you get home, at least," she pointed a finger at Elle, who sleepily agreed. "Come on, at least let me walk you to the car. And give me your bag."

May yawned as she walked back into the round table room, now with a cup of hot coffee in hand. There, even Hotch was among them now, working to figure out the clues. She sat beside Hotch this time around, wanting to avoid the morning sun as much as possible as to not irritate her sensitive eyes. So, she kept her back to the windows.

She was a little worried, however, that Elle hadn't actually called her yet. But she knew that Elle needed rest, so she didn't worry too much, especially with Anderson by her side. She just assumed that she fell asleep as soon as she got home.

"Reid, how many books do you think are published in a year?" Hotch asked, arms behind his head as he tried to stretch and relax.

"In the whole world? Thousands," Spencer replied.

Derek scoffed. "Great, and now all we gotta do is find one." He held up the card the unsub gave Gideon. "You know, I can see this unsub getting our phone numbers and addresses from the Bureau personnel files. But, come on, man. It really says in there that Gideon digs Nellie Fox?"

"Or that JJ collects butterflies?" Hotch followed.

"I didn't even know these things about us," Derek stated, throwing the card back onto the table.

"'Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight'," Spencer muttered to himself with a frown, still trying to understand the note left in the music box.

"Reid, not again with the poem from the music box, please," Derek complained. It was a valid complaint in his mind, considering how often Spencer said it to himself to the point that even he memorized it. May couldn't help herself from smiling a little, taking a sip from her mug. By then, Hotch had changed positions and placed his elbows on the table, hands clasped together.

"There's something familiar about it," Spencer told him. "I-I think I've heard it somewhere before."

"I thought you had a photographic memory."

"Eidetic memory," he corrected. "And that's primarily related to things I read. Like I said, this is something I think I've heard."

"Which leaves us--"

Derek cut off Hotch's words. "Nowhere, that's where it leaves us."

"No, no," May shook her head, disagreeing with Derek while leaning back against her chair. "If it's something you've heard then it's gotta be something your mom might know. She used to read to you a lot, didn't she?" Spencer nodded slowly. "Start from there. Medieval," she pointed at the board.

Gideon entered the room, and agreed with May. "How would we proceed if we didn't have all these clues? What's the first thing we'd look at?"

"Victimology," Hotch answered.

"Why this particular victim in this particular place at this particular time?" Derek continued.

Gideon made his way to the board. "We have a victim, don't we?"

"Rebecca Bryant," Spencer and May stated in unison.

"She's missing out of South Boston, Virginia," Gideon plucked her picture from one of the boards and placed it on the table. He looked at Derek. "You can get there in a few hours if you hurry. Take JJ. Find out everything there is to know about this girl."

"Got it," Derek said, standing up to leave the room.

"Been letting him lead us around like he's something more than he is."

"He's just another unsub," Hotch declared. "I'll start putting together a profile."

Now both Hotch and Derek left, leaving Gideon, Spencer, and May.

"What do you want us to do?" Spencer asked Gideon.

"Just keep working on this," the older man replied. "If anybody can put it together, you two can."

The Wonder Twins looked at each other.

"More coffee?" May offered with a grin.

"With lots of sugar?" Spencer pouted a little, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"I'll just bring the pot here and, like, ten packets of sugar. Be right back."

It took her about ten minutes to grab everything—would've been five if another agent didn't try and grab the pot from her; luckily, she was tall and just held the pot high enough that the agent couldn't reach—and walked back into the round table room with Spencer.

"Go crazy," she told him. She watched as he poured himself a cup then walked towards the board again. "So we got Great Britain. What else do we need to get the exact book?"

"Year, edition," Spencer mindlessly offered before starting to dump sugar into his mug.

"Year..." May hummed. "Anything in the pile that can give us a year?"

Spencer shrugged. As he leaned forward to grab another packet of sugar, his eyes landed on the Nellie Fox card. He scrambled to grab it. "1963!" He suddenly forgot his coffee and immediately grabbed onto May. "Let's go, we gotta go to Gideon."

author's note: i kinda wanted to end it on a specific note but i think this is too many words already lmao. next chapter then!!!

see y'all sooooooooonnn