Chapter 5: Confrontation

Lina's POV

The team and I are now outside Julia Wilson's house. My heart is racing as we are getting ready to go in. The truth is, I was never good at confrontation—absolutely hated it. Even in elementary school, I was very shy and got bullied a lot because of it.

If I hadn't met Phoebe in high school, I would've been the same way. But she taught me how to stand up for myself and along with taking karate classes, I gained my confidence. But now it's different, I'm about to face a dangerous criminal with a gun.

"There's two cars in the driveway," says Hotch, interrupting me from my thoughts. I look out the car window and see a grey SUV and a black Toyota.

Morgan quickly dials his cell phone and Garcia picks up. "Hey, Baby Girl. What's the license plate for Julia Wilson?"

"Let's see..." Garcia replies, "119 FZR." That means the grey Toyota is Julia's.

Morgan nods. "Okay. Can you run the plate 216 EHX for me, please?"

"Give me oneeee second," Garcia answers. "Hm, it belongs to one Doris Hathaway... oh, and she also works at the same Gucci store as Julia."

Spencer adjusts the straps on his bulletproof vest. "She's probably visiting her."

I look at the house and see a woman standing at the window and she quickly closes the curtains. "Shoot. She saw us."

Hotch steps out of the car. "I'm going to call her house line, let her know that we just want to talk. Morgan, JJ, Reid, and Yang, surround the house."

We all obey and quickly go, then Hotch dials a number into his phone and it rings a few times before someone answers. After that, I hear him talking to Julia over my ear piece.

"Hello, Julia?" He keeps his voice calm. "I'm Agent Aaron Hotchner with the FBI. We just want to talk."

"Go away!" Julia yells and I can hear her on the speaker through my earpiece.

As I walk around the house, Morgan signals for Spencer and I to go through the back door, while he and JJ go through the side.

Suddenly, there's loud screaming. "Help me! She's got a gun to my head!" a voice shrieks.

"Shut up, Doris!" Julia growls, "or I'll shoot you!"

"Julia, Doris isn't the one you want," Hotch says firmly. "You kill families that neglect their daughters, right?"

"They don't deserve to live," she snarls.

Even though I am listening through my earpiece, I can still hear the anger and fury in her voice.

"What happened to you when you were younger was not fair," Hotch coaxes through the phone. "But what you're doing right now to Doris isn't right either."

As I continue listening to Hotch and Julia's conversation, Spencer and I reach the back door. "Is it locked?" I ask.

Spencer tries the handle and it opens. "Stay behind me and keep your gun up at all times."

I nod and do as I'm told. As we step into the house, my heart starts beating faster and I tighten my grip on the handle of my gun. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Morgan and JJ come in.

"She's in the living room," JJ whispers.

I scan around and see that there are two entrances into the living room. Then, Morgan signals for Spencer and I to go one way while he and JJ go the other. As I walk in, I see Julia pointing her gun at Doris who looks frightened.

"Julia put your gun down," Morgan orders, surprising Julia.

She quickly turns around and points her gun at him and sees the rest of us. Her eyes are wild and sweat drips down her forehead. "Get away from me!" she shrieks hysterically.

"Julia, listen to him," Hotch states through the phone. "Put the gun down and let Doris go so we can help you."

I can see tears streaming down Doris' face. Taking a deep breath, I assure say, "We're not going to hurt you."

She looks at me and I can tell by her eyes darting left and right, that she's trying to see if she can escape. She looks at the four of us then glances outside to see the rest of the agents and cops, all of us pointing our guns at her. Looking defeated, she finally releases her grip on Doris and I watch as her friend quickly scurries out the front door.

"Now slowly put down the gun." JJ cautiously steps forward and Julia complies.

Once the gun is on the floor, Morgan rushes in and handcuffs her.

I breathe a sigh of relief and put my gun in its holster once she is secured. "Whoo! That was close." I look over at Spencer who's standing next to me, watching Julia get escorted out. His side profile is perfect. I catch myself staring at him.

He glances over at me, making me blush. "Nice job." He grins at me and I give him a small smile.

On the car ride back to the hotel to grab our stuff, I sit next to Spencer and we start talking. I learn that he has three PhDs in Mathematics, Chemistry, and Engineering. As for me, I didn't tell him much about my own personal life since I'm still getting to know him.

And besides, we aren't the only ones in the car. I glance up front at Morgan and Prentiss who just smile and roll their eyes at Spencer's rambling. Then he begins talking about statistics and other random facts that no one else in the world would know about.

The truth is, half the time I don't even know what Spencer's talking about. He's on a whole different intellectual level than me, but I love listening to the sound of his voice. The best way I can describe it is that it sounds goofy, yet sophisticated.

He's about to start telling me about how turtles give birth but Morgan interrupts him. "Hey, Pretty Boy." He looks at Spencer from the rearview mirror.

Spencer glances up. "Yeah, what?"

"The whole point is to get Yang to stay with the BAU, not scare her away."

I laugh, turning to look at Spencer and he mouths the word "sorry". "Don't worry, if I ever need to know about turtle pregnancy I'll know who to ask," I tease and wink at him.

Soon enough, we reach the hotel and I wait for everyone to grab their bags since mine is in the car.

"Didn't even need to bring a bag." JJ picks up her go-bag and I chuckle. Since we solved the case in 1 day, we don't need to stay overnight.

With a yawn, I check my watch and see that it's 10:47 p.m. By the time I get home, it's going to be around two in the morning.

Fifteen minutes later, the team and I are on the jet, flying back to Quantico. I sit by myself listening to music through my headphones and I can feel my eyelids getting heavier. And the fact that my contacts are irritating my eyes makes it worse.

I stand up and grab my saline solution and lens case and head to the bathroom. After taking my contacts out, I notice my eyeliner is smudged so I just wash it off with some water. Rubbing my eyes with exhaustion, I walk back to my seat and put on my glasses.

It is surprisingly warm in the jet, so I take off my suit jacket exposing the rose that was carved in my wrist by my killer. The scar is too faint to see from a distance so I don't worry about anyone noticing them. Looking around me, I see Rossi, Prentiss, and Morgan asleep and I desperately want to as well—but I feel too vulnerable falling asleep with people around me so I try to stay awake.

A few times my head hits the window when I accidentally doze off. Right when I feel like I can't stay awake any longer, someone taps me on the shoulder and I jerk awake from my half-asleep trance. I blink and see Spencer standing next to me, looking at me with his lovely eyes.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he whispers apologetically.

"No, no. It's okay." I smile reassuringly at him. Then I notice him staring intently at my makeup-less face. "Yeah, I know—I look super tired."

"Oh, no you also look pretty without makeup... I-I-I mean you don't look tired at all!" he blurts out, and I watch him turn bright red when he realizes what he just said.

"Umm, thanks?" I say, feeling slightly flattered but he quickly changes the subject.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" He gestures towards the seat next to me.

"No, not at all." I pat the seat on my right and he sits down. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Well, um, during the car ride back to the hotel I shared a lot of things about me with you—so I figure it's only fair that I know more about you." He shrugs his shoulders and grins at me.

"Well..." I begin. "I'm a very secretive person. But you can try profiling me."

"Profile you?" He rubs his chin thoughtfully. "Hm, well, let's see."

I start blushing hard as he studies me.

Taking a deep breath, he begins to speak quickly. "You sit with your legs crossed which indicates you're defensive. You weren't comfortable with Emily taking your bag to the hotel. Which on one hand is understandable since you've only met her today—but on the other, we're FBI agents that work together. So it wouldn't make sense for her to steal or do anything to your stuff.

"Also, at the crime scene today, you second-guessed me after I told you there were no signs of forced entry. Which isn't that big of a deal but it may also mean you don't believe what I say. And finally, I noticed that you keep trying to stay awake even though you want to sleep, which I'm guessing is because you feel vulnerable not knowing what's going on with other people around you. So all of that suggests you have trust issues."

I laugh and blink a few times. "Ummm, wow." I'm shocked at how fast he spoke.

"Am I right?" Spencer smirks, cocking his head a bit.

Suddenly, he looks at my wrist, staring intently at the rose-shaped scar.

"Spencer?" I clear my throat and he snaps out of it. "Is everything okay?" I quickly cover up my wrist.

He blinks a few times. "Oh, um... yeah. Just kinda spaced out I guess."

I look at him suspiciously but he just smiles at me. "Well, then, if you'll excuse me as I try not to fall asleep," I joke and he chuckles. "But seriously, you should get some sleep."

"Alright, then. Wake me up when we land," he says, closing his eyes.

I watch him as he dozes off, and feel myself getting sleepy again. I fight the urge to sleep, but eventually I give in and feel myself sink into a deep sleep.