Strength of the Pack - Section Seven & Epilogue

[welfycat]

Back to the Master Post





Section Seven

Derek sat down in the seat next to Spencer, watching as he flipped back and forth between the case file and the map that he had spread out in front of him. The jet was still on the ground and Aaron and Gideon still boarding while they waited for clearance to take off.

"Getting a head start so you can wow us with your prowess?" Derek asked, watching as Spencer made another mark on the map of the area Garcia had printed him before they'd left the building.

Spencer looked up and pushed up his glasses from where they'd been sliding down his nose. "No, I was just mapping out the spread of the attacks. The way we process information allows most of us to make connections more quickly when there is some type of visual representation. This is why graphs and charts are so frequently used to illustrate large amounts of data, though those can be rather easily manipulated to create misinformation."

Derek blinked and then smiled when he was sure Spencer was finished. "You've got ink on your face," he said, tapping on his own face where there was a smudge of black ink just below the rim of Spencer's glasses.

Spencer checked his hands and found ink on his finger tips, which he quickly wiped on his dark corduroy pants, and then rubbed at his face where Derek had indicated.

"You're making it worse," Derek said, when Spencer looked up in question. Spencer started to use the edge of his sleeve to wipe his check and Derek shook his head. It was as bad as watching Spencer in his form curiously climbing into every nook and cranny in the house. "Here, let me."

Spencer's eyes grew wide in horror as Derek licked his forefingers and then used them to rub the remaining ink from his cheek. He immediately wiped at his face again with his sleeve and then stared at Derek in disbelief. "It's not uncommon for mammals to use saliva as an aid in grooming, but we've evolved a little bit beyond that, don't you think?"

Derek did laugh at that. "Your mom never washed your face like that?"

"No!" Spencer wiped at his face again and looked in the direction of the small bathroom that was on the jet.

"Don't even think about going and washing yourself. My spit is just fine, thank you very much," Derek said, managing a mock stern expression for all of about three seconds before he smiled again.

"Do you have any idea the number of germs that are in the human mouth? And how many mucus membranes on your face? It's a bad combination," Spencer said emphatically, but he didn't get up to go into the bathroom.

The sound of JJ laughing drew both their attention and she just shook her head. "You two are utterly ridiculous, Garcia owes me twenty bucks, and that's all I'm saying on the subject."

Derek turned back to Spencer and found that he looked as baffled as Derek felt. Spencer's expression very clearly asked the question of what had just happened and Derek subtly shook his head and shrugged in response. He loved JJ and Garcia, just like he loved his sisters, but sometimes he just had no idea what was going on with them.

"If everyone is finished, we're about to take off and we then we can start the briefing," Aaron said, looking over all three of them.

Derek immediately caught that Aaron's serious expression was meant as a reminder that they were professionals and they were working a case. There would be time to mess around later.

Spencer had obviously understood Aaron's tone of voice and had grabbed his pen and returned to the map and the file.

Twenty minutes later and they were steady in the air and JJ moved to the edge of her seat so that she could be heard by the entire team.

"Over the past two weeks in Plymouth, Washington there has been a series of attacks that were at first attributed to wild animals, but is now believed to be shifter related. A large jaguar was caught on a security camera fleeing the scene of one of the attacks. The local sheriff's department has authorized the local hunting of any shifters and there have been two people, non-shifters, who have been shot since the free for all has been decreed. Fortunately the shootings were not fatal, but they were what prompted the state police to call us in." JJ looked down at her closed folder on her lap. "We were chosen because the director of the BAU said that we were the best able to locate and neutralize a shifter, but we've been warned in advanced that we shouldn't expect a warm welcome from the locals."

"They told the people of the town that they should go hunt shifters?" Derek asked, not bothering to hide his scorn and disbelief. "Are they trying to get more people killed?"

Gideon stood up from where he'd been sitting and walked so that he was across from JJ. "These people don't have any concept of how shifters function, or even that there were any living among them until the attacks started. This might be more than a case of a shifter simply going rogue."

"Someone is seeking revenge against anyone who had propagated anti-shifter sentiment?" Aaron asked, frowning as he considered the idea.

"Then why hasn't he gone after the sheriff or anyone affiliated with them?" Spencer asked as he flipped back through the list of victims. "I'd say that authorizing the town to shoot you on site if they even suspect you can shift is more hateful than whatever the mother of two toddlers who was loading her groceries into the trunk of her car did or said."

"More hateful and threatening, perhaps, but if our unsub grew up in this town they could feel more wronged by the townspeople in general than by the authorities. Instead of striking out at community leaders, attacking townspeople could mean that they feel it is all of them who have wronged the unsub," JJ suggested. "If this unsub has been keeping their ability to shift a secret for their entire life, they've probably heard a lot of awful things said about shifters, maybe even said some awful things about them just so they wouldn't stand out."

Derek had been flipping through his copy of the file while they talked and stopped on the page that transcribed the sheriff's statement to the community. "The sheriff says that their town has never been a home to shifters. It's possible we're looking for someone who has a pathological relationship with their form, who maybe didn't know that they could shift until it started happening. Maybe they can't control what they're doing."

Aaron stood and looked over the pack. "Whether or not the unsub is able to control what they are doing, we need to be vigilant on this case. Don't go anywhere alone, even when you're with the local officers. The last thing we want is a confrontation with this unsub in the middle of the town. I don't want any of us being taken out by friendly fire and I have serious doubts as to whether the sheriff or his men would hesitate to shoot any of us if they saw us shift."

Derek nodded solemnly and met Aaron's eyes. Sometimes going into a case they could tell when it had the potential to easily and quickly go from bad to worse. Derek didn't remember the last time they'd taken a case that qualified more.

*****

It was late at night when they checked into the hotel, a full forty minutes outside the town of Plymouth. There was no local packs in the area to speak of, but Aaron had taken one look at the small motel and the bed and breakfast that Plymouth had sported and immediately gotten on the phone with Garcia to find them somewhere they could stay without being subtly threatened.

The entire team was set on a slow simmer, even Spencer - who Derek had nearly never seen get angry - had his arms folded and his head held defiantly high. To say it had been a long day had been an understatement, and as much as Derek tried to remind himself to not empathize with the unsub he was half tempted to let the unsub take out almost every one of the townspeople he'd met that day.

"Be ready to be back on the road at six. We've got a lot of ground to cover still," Aaron said as they approached their rooms.

There hadn't been any suites available but Garcia had managed to get them a pair of rooms directly across from each other. They checked 117 first, Gideon and Aaron more thorough than they were usually - which was really just saying that they had checked in every drawer and felt under the edges of the mattress instead of simply checking for intruders.

"Goodnight," Spencer said as JJ and Gideon went inside, JJ pausing in the doorway to raise her hand in a half-hearted wave.

Derek and Aaron checked the other room, leaving Spencer in the doorway so he was in the best position to get help if there was something wrong inside.

"Are we checking for explosives and incendiary devices?" Derek asked quietly as he went through the drawers in the bathroom while Aaron pulled out the ironing board from the closet and looked it over.

Aaron nodded. "One of the sheriff's men was telling me and Spencer that there was an old farm on the edge of town, and that some of the local high school kids used left over dynamite to blow up one of the out buildings on the land about three years when there was a rumor that there used to be shifters lurking up there. They never knew if the remains they found up there was an unlucky farm animal or if they'd actually got a shifter, and they never bothered to find out. Spencer asked him what was done about the kids who blew up the buildings and the deputy just laughed."

Derek sighed and pushed the last drawer closed. He knew this was verging on paranoia but he could understand why Aaron felt it was necessary. "The sooner we catch this unsub the better. I don't think even the sheriff can stop the locals from shooting at each other, even though we had him tell them to rescind the orders about shooting shifters on sight."

"We're clear," Aaron called, the sound of the door falling closed letting them know that Spencer had come inside.

"Uh, guys?" Spencer called back a second later.

Derek left the bathroom and set down his on the end of the bed. "What's up?"

"There's only one bed," Spencer said quietly as he looked around the room. "And I don't think that chair is hiding a pullout inside it."

Derek looked around the room and at the chair in question. They had a king-sized bed, a small table with two wood chairs and an armchair by the window. "Well, do you want to go share with JJ and Gideon, or stay here with us? I'd say we don't bite, but that's not entirely true."

"Derek," Aaron admonished as he came out of the bathroom, his tie and his suit jacket off and his shirt halfway unbuttoned. "I promise you that all any of us are going to do is sleep."

Spencer looked at the door and his hand twitched by his side. "I'll stay with you, if that's alright?"

"That's fine," Aaron said. "Go take your turn in the bathroom."

Spencer disappeared without a word and the bathroom door shut a moment later.

Derek kicked off his shoes and took off his jacket with a quiet sigh. Spencer had told them that he didn't know yet concerning their relationship about once a week, even though Aaron and Derek had been quiet on the subject since they first broached it with him. He didn't mind, and neither did Aaron, but it was a little bit painful to watch Spencer sit on Sunday mornings with the newspaper and look at apartments listed for rent. So far Aaron had vetoed all of the possibilities as being too far away or not secure enough and Derek was left wondering how long it would take Spencer to realize that he and Aaron wouldn't ever give their explicit approval of somewhere that wasn't with the pack.

"It'll be fine," Aaron said unbidden.

Derek nodded and yawned, digging through his bag to find his toiletries. "Let's just get this guy and get out of here."

Spencer reappeared, dressed in flannel pajamas that were a little bit too short and with his hair messier than usual.

"Get in," Derek said, pointing to the bed before he grabbed his stuff and headed to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later they were all in bed, Derek in the middle, with Aaron hyper-vigilant on one side and Spencer tense and fidgeting on the other. Derek lasted about a full minute before he placed one hand on Spencer's arm to quiet his movements and the other on Aaron's hip in sympathy. Aaron wrapped his fingers around Derek's and Spencer settled, scooting towards Derek just a little.

*****

Spencer and Derek were the last of the team to return to the building that housed the local sheriff's department as well as the post office and the fire department. Spencer unzipped his jacked as they entered the small and crowded conference they'd been assigned as a work space and immediately went over to the cork board where the map he'd marked up the morning before was posted.

"Any luck?" JJ asked, looking up from the laptop. It had the video conference screen up but that was currently dark.

"Could barely get anyone to say a word," Derek said, leaning against the wall with a thump.

"Except for the man who spat at us. He had quite a lot to say about the town and the shifter problem they'd experienced fifteen years ago," Spencer said. He was doing his best not to be bitter about the whole exchange considering it had actually provided them with some interesting information. "Turns out there was a small group of shifters that lived a ways outside the town, and a group of the townsfolk went up there one night after they accused the shifters of being responsible for a large number of farm animals that had recently been killed."

Gideon set down the papers he'd been examining. "All the shifters were killed?"

"That's the thing, no one we asked was able to tell us how many shifters there were or what their forms were," Derek said. "There were three confirmed causalities, but there are a lot of rumors that some of the shifters survived."

"So it's possible that someone used to live here and is now back for revenge." Hotch frowned and looked over at the victim timeline they'd posted on one wall. "There's a lot of crossover among the victims, but in a town this small there would have to be. Maybe the younger victims are descendants of those involved with the attack?"

"Hate to burst your bubble, boss man," Garcia's voice called from the laptop.

Spencer joined the rest of the team at the table and looked over JJ's shoulder to see Garcia on the small screen.

"What do you have, baby girl?" Derek asked.

"I've been researching about anything connected to shifters and the town where you guys are at, and needless to say there isn't a lot. However, one of the early shifter advocacy newsletters got ahold of the incident you were just describing. Fortunately, the shifter advocacy website has scanned in all of their old newsletters, which makes it much easier to find relevant information," Garcia said, smiling brightly through the webcam.

"Garcia," Hotch said, standing up straighter.

"I'm getting there. This was one of the first shifter massacres that was reported at all and it didn't even reach any widespread news coverage. Anyway, it looks like three shifters were killed at the scene and it was reported that a cub went missing during the attack, though that's possibly just speculation. As for the attackers, five were killed during the attack, another was seriously maimed and died a few years later, and the other three are still alive. Two remain in Plymouth, the third lives in Portland." Garcia looked away and started typing quickly at her keyboard. "None of them nor their immediate relatives were victims of the recent attacks, though one of the cousins was the third victim killed."

Gideon shook his head. "That's likely a coincidence. If this was motivated by revenge it would have been directed at the former attackers and their immediate relatives."

"Keep looking for information about the purportedly missing cub. Anything you can find might tell us who our unsub is," Hotch said.

"Your wish is my command," Garcia said. Her smiled dropped away and she looked directly at the monitor. "Be careful and come home soon. Please. I don't like where you are right now."

"Neither do we," JJ said. "We're only a call away. We'll check in regularly."

Garcia nodded and gave a small, sad smile before she reached forward and disconnected the video feed.

Spencer turned away and went back to the map. Something had been tugging at his mind ever since he'd finished mapping out the attacks and he still wasn't sure what it was. The rest of the team was talking behind him, but Spencer had gotten better at tuning out the sounds of their voices for the most part. He put his finger on the map and started tracing out lines between the attacks. Doing a geographic profile to assess a comfort zone hadn't helped much in a town the size of Plymouth. His finger paused on the indentation caused by his pen that was the furthest away from the rest of the town.

"Wait," Spencer said, mostly to himself. He moved back to the dot he'd drawn before, and then the one before that.

"What is it?" Derek asked, coming to stand next to him.

Before Spencer could answer the conference door slammed open and the sheriff rushed in, missing his hat and looking almost comically alarmed. "There's a gathering in the east edge of town. I just got calls saying there's almost a riot out there with people accusing each other of being the shifter. There's been shots fired and I've only got myself and three deputies. It's a powder keg out there just waiting to explode, this whole town is!"

"Stay calm. We're glad to help if you don't think our presence will exacerbate the situation," Hotch said, reaching for his jacket. The rest of the team was already moving.

"Look, I know we don't take too well to your kind around here, but right now an FBI badge is gonna shut these people down better than me using a bullhorn to remind them that we're all neighbors." The sheriff ran a hand through his hair and then reached for the radio hooked on his belt when it beeped. "If you're going to come, me and my men will be approaching from the west field."

Spencer checked the gun in his hip holster and zipped up his jacket again. He'd only passed his firearms qualification one week ago and he'd yet to actually pull out his new glock on a case. He was almost hoping that he'd never have to, but he'd already witnessed or heard about enough unsub take downs to know that was incredibly unlikely.

"JJ, Reid, I want you both to stay here and keep working on locating the unsub," Hotch said as Derek and Gideon moved toward the door.

"What? Why?" JJ asked. She had already shut the laptop and was clipping on her own holster.

Spencer decided to be grateful it had been JJ who'd asked and not him.

"Because keeping the locals from shooting each other is going to get harder and harder until we find the unsub and right now your talents are best utilized here," Hotch said, meeting both of their gazes. His expression was grim and serious.

"And because the people here have shown slightly more respect to you three than they have to JJ and myself," Spencer added. Most of the people they'd come across in town had ignored him entirely in favor of speaking with Morgan and Spencer had seen that the sheriff and his deputies barely acknowledged JJ's existence at all.

"Crowd control will go smoother if we're presented as an overpowering force. We should be back soon," Gideon said, though his eyes held a hint of apology.

JJ nodded, though she didn't look any happier about the situation.

"Stay together. I wouldn't even trust the sheriff's people here as far as I could throw them," Derek said darkly before joining Hotch and Gideon as they hurried out the door.

Spencer and JJ stood in the now much emptier conference room, both waiting until the rest of the team was out of the building before they looked at each other.

JJ sat down on the edge of the table. "Great. We might as well have stayed at Quantico."

"Who knows how many more people would have been killed as they search for the shifter if they hadn't called us," Spencer pointed out before he walked back to the map and picked up his thought where he'd been left off.

"Who knows how many still will be," JJ said. "I would suggest that Strauss sent us out here as a form of vengeance, but I know for a fact she didn't have anything to do with assigning our team this case."

"Come look at this," Spencer said, trying to push aside his concern for what the rest of the team was walking into by focusing on his task. "Look how the dates of attack correspond to the locations."

JJ got up and came to stand next to Spencer. "You're going to have to be more specific. Unlike some I can't hold more than dozen dates and locations in my mind at once."

Spencer smiled a little, understanding from JJ that it wasn't a dig at his abilities but just a request for more information. "Here is the first attack, the one closest to the southwest and right on the edge of town. And then the second, a little further in, and then the third, more to the east but still south and moving in the same pattern." He picked up a pen and sketched two diverging lines on the map.

"It's not so much of a comfort zone as it is the unsub coming from a single direction and branching out in the only space available where there are targets," JJ said. She pressed her finger to where the lines met outside of town to the west and the south. "So what's out here?"

"From what I can tell, not much. Probably an abandoned farm or two, but nothing that the town records say is currently inhabited," Spencer said, looking at the map. "It leads into some rocky hills though, which is most likely why the town expanded west and away from the source of water."

"What do you want to bet that the shifter massacre took place out there fifteen years ago?" JJ asked, a gleam in her eye as she reached for the laptop again.

"Sir? Ma'am?"

Spencer and JJ both looked up and at the door to where the youngest sheriff's deputy was standing. He appeared around Spencer's age and incredibly nervous. Out of all of the people in the town, so far he'd been the only one Spencer had noticed that didn't recoil at the sight of them.

"Can we help you?" JJ asked. She exchanged a slightly mystified glance with Spencer.

"There's been reports of an animal by the old mill. A man just called in; Mr. Faber, an older man who lives near that area. He says he was out on his back lot and he says he saw a cat that was too big to be around here. Shouldn't be that close to town if it was a natural animal." The young deputy swallowed and looked away. "I woulda gone to the sheriff, but everyone else is out trying to stop people from going at each other."

"And you were left behind to tend the store," JJ said, not without sympathy. "Can you show us where the mill and Mr. Faber's property is on the map?"

The deputy looked at both JJ and Spencer and then at the map that was in between them.

"What's your name?" Spencer asked quietly.

"Jeremy. Jeremy Reynolds," he said and then took a step into the room. "I know you're not like they say you are. Shifters, that is. I went to college in the city, and I knew a pack. They were good guys, good people. The only reason I came back here is cause my momma got sick and I'm taking care of her."

JJ nodded. "That's good of you, Jeremy. Do you think Mr. Faber saw the shifter that's doing this?"

Jeremy nodded. "Mr. Faber's a good man. He wouldn't be stirring up trouble for no reason." He stepped all the way into the room and walked over to the map. "That's his house and his land. And the mill is here."

Spencer looked at the map and then to JJ. The points Jeremy had just marked were right in the mouth of lines Spencer had drawn.

"We're going to go check to make sure Mr. Faber's okay, and then we're going to look around a bit. Will you tell our boss where we've gone if they come back before we do?" JJ asked, picking up her jacket from where she'd dropped it on the table.

"I will," Jeremy said. "Mr. Faber doesn't deserve to die like that if you can stop it. No on does."

"You're right. Thank you for showing us," Spencer said, checking his holster once more. "We'll be back soon."

They left the building quickly, their steps crunching on the loose gravel beneath their feet. The early March weather had left the ground still frozen but most of the snow had melted away. JJ pulled out the keys to the second SUV they'd rented and paused for a moment as they both looked west to where they could feel a slight pull from the rest of the team.

"We'll be done and back before they even get everyone to put down their guns," JJ said and unlocked the doors.

"Right," Spencer agreed, his memory of Hotch telling them to stay at the station sitting uncomfortably in his mind. At least they were doing what he'd told them to do; finding the unsub. That should mitigate some of the resulting upset if Hotch did return before they did. And they were both carrying their cellphones if the team did need them for anything. Spencer climbed into the passenger seat and buckled his seat belt. "Let's go."

*****

"Yeah, I don't have any signal out here at all," JJ said as she snapped her cellphone shut.

Spencer sighed and shook his head. They hadn't discovered that somewhere on the drive out of town they'd lost cellphone reception until Spencer had gone to call Garcia to ask her about the farm buildings they could see in the distance. "I guess the only thing we can do is go and check it out."

"Do you think the unsub is actually out there?" JJ asked, holding up her hand to shield her eyes in the setting sun.

"Faber's reports of what he saw matched the description of a jaguar shifter and we're in the right area. It's possible you were right and the shifter survived the attack that happened near here." Spencer turned around in a circle and surveyed the land surrounding them. "The drive is thirty seven minutes back to the sheriff's department, and then all the way back again if Hotch decides that it's worth checking out. Or, it's a five minute drive over to the farm. We could look around and if there's nothing there, that's what we tell Hotch."

"And if there is something there?" JJ's voice rose slightly in pitch as she walked back to the car.

"And if there is something there that suggests that a shifter might have been in the area recently, we drive as far back as we have to in order to call Hotch and get the rest of the team out here as soon as they can." Spencer climbed back into the passenger seat. "It's your call. If you don't think it's worth checking out, then we won't."

JJ started the engine and turned out onto the road in the direction of the two farms. "We take a quick look. If this is a rogue shifter out there, we don't want to encounter it by ourselves. If we do happen to come across the rogue shifter, shoot first and don't ask questions."

"JJ," Spencer said, his hand touching the handle of his glock.

"No, Spence. If we're doing this, there is no room for mistakes," JJ said quietly. "I don't like shooting anyone, whether or not they're a shifter, any better than you do. Especially with the history in this place. But you can't go in there and expect to talk down a rogue shifter; it's like talking down a man who has already set the timer on a bomb - it doesn't happen."

Spencer was still for a moment as he processed what JJ was saying. He couldn't imagine shooting someone without at least trying to stop them, even though he could see JJ's point of view. "Okay," he said.

"Okay what?" JJ asked as she pulled the car to a stop in front of the first farm.

"Okay, I get it. If a wild shifter comes racing towards us, we shoot." Spencer patted his holster and tried to smile.

JJ shook her head. "A quick look and then we get out of here."

They spent five minutes walking through the farm, JJ's shifter enhanced vision catching things that Spencer's didn't even with his flashlight.

"There's nothing here," she said as they peered inside the barn with a swinging door that had come loose.

"One down, one to go," Spencer said, looking around one more time. "Maybe I was wrong? Maybe there's nothing out here?"

JJ shrugged and turned to walk back to the car. "Two less places we have to search when we come out here tomorrow. And here I was really hoping this case would be a quick one and we could be back on the jet by tomorrow."

"Does it ever work that way?" Spencer asked, actually curious.

"No," JJ admitted. "But that doesn't mean I'm going to stop hoping."

Spencer stopped walking suddenly, his gun unholstered and his wrists braced so he could see with his flashlight just as Hotch had taught him before he even realized what he was doing.

JJ had her gun out own a second later and they both stood still as the dusk slowly drew light away from the farm. "Spence?"

"Yeah," Spencer said, his voice hardly louder than a whisper.

"Get back to the car. Now." Her voice was tense but she kept her words quiet and even.

"What? No?" Spencer hissed, turning to face JJ. He was honestly a little bit offended that she would even try to protect him by sending him back to the car.

"Spence! Run!" JJ shouted, moving to step in between him and the barn.

Spencer turned in the same direction, the light of his flashlight landing briefly on the form of a large spotted jaguar as it barreled towards them from around the side of the barn. There was a second where he could have fired, his finger ready on the trigger, but he lost the moment as fast as it had come.

JJ's shout transformed into a growl as she shifted and Spencer took a few steps back as he desperately tried to find a way to stop the attack without shooting JJ in the process. His light caught a flash of blood before he fell backwards over something - an old, broken wheelbarrow - and the flashlight fell from his hands.

"JJ!" Spencer shouted as he scrambled back to his feet, his gun still weighing useless in his right hand. He caught the barest glimpse of the fight, the wolf and the jaguar moving inexorably towards him, and then they were upon him.

He shifted without thinking and without desire, his form pulling down over him even as he tried to fight off the sensation. The last thing he heard was the high pitched yip of a wolf being pinned to the ground and savagely bitten.

*****

Aaron very nearly slammed the side door of the SUV as he got out and breathed in the cool evening air. It had taken them more than an hour to talk down the group of people that had all been intent on killing each other and anyone who got in their way. Jason had been instrumental, walking between all of those pointed guns with his hands held out in peace and his soothing voice the only weapons he'd needed. Even then, there had been a few minor scuffles, but no one had been shot and the sheriff's men had escorted the major feuding parties away from the area. Aaron almost wouldn't be surprised if they got a call in the night informing them that one or more people had been shot in their homes. This entire town was just waiting for a reason to self-destruct and the rogue shifter in their midst had given them that opportunity.

"Maybe Spencer and JJ will have something," Derek said as they walked up the front steps of the building. "Maybe this won't have been an entirely wasted day."

Aaron just shook his head and waved one of his hands through the air. Even if they had a good idea of who the unsub was, Aaron wasn't sending his team out into the wilderness that night to go hunting him. He was almost certain that the unsub was not currently living in the town, but was still attached to it somehow. His next step was to call Garcia to tell her to put a search in the database for people who had moved out of the town in the last twenty years and then tell her to go home and get some sleep before she stayed at Quantico working the entire night. Garcia routinely told everyone in the pack that they were incorrigible workaholics but the truth was that Garcia was just as bad as the rest of them at setting a case aside and getting some rest.

Derek came to a stop just inside the door of the conference room and Aaron was about to reach out and move him along when he realized what was wrong.

"They're not here," Jason said a moment later, his head turning back and forth as he searched the building for the presence of JJ and Spencer.

Aaron immediately checked as well, first casting out for JJ and Spencer's presence specifically and then for the presence of any shifter in the area. There was nothing.

"The second SUV wasn't parked in front of the building," Jason said as he pushed past Aaron and into the conference room. "They must have left."

"Maybe just to pick up dinner?" Derek asked, though his deep frown as he held his cellphone to his ear suggested he didn't really believe that. "JJ's not answering."

Aaron didn't bother to tell him to try Spencer next because Derek was already holding his phone to his ear again. "They aren't anywhere in the town. I can reach just beyond that and there are no shifters here."

"Call us, now," Derek said into his cellphone before hanging up and shoving it into his pocket. "Spencer was trying to tell me something, right before we left."

Aaron joined Derek at the map and noticed the two lines that were new. "They wouldn't have gone off without us. They would have waited until we returned before they went to check it out."

"Not if someone was in danger," Jason said. He had the laptop open but walked away from it. "Get Garcia on that thing. Have her search for their cellphones or something."

Aaron nodded and turned slowly in the room as Derek immediately went to the computer. He had been able to follow Spencer before, but he'd actually felt Spencer leave that time. The small riot had so fully overwhelmed his senses that he hadn't even realized that JJ and Spencer weren't in the building before he'd seen the empty conference room. Aaron oriented himself east, where the two lines intersected on the map, and reached out again. He couldn't tell if he was actually feeling the small pull of another shifter in that direction or if he was just hoping he could.

"Garcia, I need you to find JJ and Spencer's phones for me, can you do that?" Derek said as he bent over the laptop.

"What happened?" Garcia asked.

"We're trying to figure that out right now," Aaron said, moving so that he was standing at Derek's side. "Can you find their phones?"

Garcia turned away from the webcam and started typing rapidly on one of her keyboards. "You don't know where they are?"

"They should be near the town somewhere. Don't worry just yet, baby girl," Derek said. His hand found Aaron's and Aaron held on.

"I always worry. I worry about all of you all the time," she snapped, the sound of her fingers against the keys growing louder for a moment. "I'm not getting anything, but there are a lot of dead patches in the area where they wouldn't be close enough to a tower to ping back their location. Or their cellphones could be turned off or disabled."

"Keep checking on their phones. We'll call you back as soon as we've got any information," Derek said.

Garcia nodded, her mouth twisting in worry. "Don't do this to me again, you guys. Please."

"We'll call you soon," Aaron said, his heart aching as he stood back away from the computer when the video screen went blank.

Jason entered the room a moment later. "They went to check out a sighting of the shifter shortly after we left. One of the deputies told me where they went."

"Let's go," Aaron directed. His logical mind was telling him that they were just out of cellphone range and probably driving back into town, but the anti-shifter sentiment in the town had already put him on edge. Even if Spencer and JJ hadn't found the shifter the local population could be just as dangerous to two lone shifters. They climbed back into the SUV, and for once Aaron was the one peeling out of the parking lot and speeding down the main road.

*****

Spencer woke slowly, his eyes and body taking what seemed like a long time to put the world around him together. His ankle was throbbing and it wasn't until he tried to reach for it that he realized he could barely move at all. He forced three slow breaths, closed his eyes, and fought against the panic he could feel pressing in on him. "JJ," he whispered, his voice breaking as he remembered the attack. He'd heard JJ get hurt and now he didn't know where she was or if she'd even survived.

He opened his eyes again and twisted around so he was on his back and looking up at a rough stone ceiling. There wasn't much light, a small lantern on the floor about ten feet away, but Spencer could see that he was in some type of cave or tunnel. The floor was smooth where there wasn't pieces of fallen rubble, and he guessed that he was in an abandoned mining or railway tunnel. He wanted to call for JJ, to see if she was nearby, but he didn't dare until he had a better grasp of the situation. There was a blanket wrapped around his naked body, with ropes spaced every foot or so that kept him bound up like a hotdog. He wiggled his arms away from his sides and started working them towards the top of the blankets. If he could get his hands free he might be able to untie himself. Apart from his ankle, which he'd probably twisted when he'd fallen on the farm, there was a stinging on the back of his neck and left shoulder that he couldn't place.

"You're awake," a voice said.

Spencer stopped trying to free his arms and titled his head back in the direction the voice had come from. He didn't have his glasses, they'd come off with his clothes when he'd shifted, but he could make out the outline of a man in the lamp light. "I am," Spencer agreed. He wasn't sure what to do exactly, he'd seen other members of the team trying to talk unsubs down before but never from this much of a disadvantage. The most important thing, Spencer figured, was to keep things calm. If the man shifted he would be able to kill Spencer in a matter of seconds.

The man crouched down next to Spencer and touched Spencer's hair. His hand was gentle and he looked concerned. "I didn't know you were a cub, I've never seen one before. It's okay, we're safe here."

"Thank you," Spencer said. He licked his lips and quickly reevaluated the situation. As far as they knew the unsub had never taken anyone before, it had all been blitz attacks with the unsub bounding away before anyone had a chance to respond to a cry for help. "Could you untie me?"

"No, not yet," the man looked down the tunnel in one direction. "We might have been followed. I"ll have to hide you if they come here."

"But, I can help you." Spencer felt a pang of sympathy for the man. "If you let me go, I can get my friends and we'll help you."

The man stood and turned away. "Your friends? Those who can't shift are not your friends; they'll turn on you, strike you down. You can't trust them."

"No, no," Spencer said quickly. "My pack is with me. You attacked JJ, and she's a shifter."

"A wolf," the man spat. "Hardly any better than the anyone here. I was protecting them. And then I saved you."

Spencer sighed and mentally cast out, hoping that he'd be able to feel JJ's presence nearby, or maybe the rest of the team if they'd been gone long enough for them to come looking. All he could find was the heavily thrumming presence of the shifter standing with him in the cave. "My name is Spencer. What's your name?" he asked.

"Thomas. Tommy, when I was little," he said. He turned back and came closer to Spencer again. "I thought you'd be younger. You're just a cub; I carried you here in my mouth."

"You said you were protecting them?" Spencer asked, his mind racing as he tried to keep the conversation going. "Who were you protecting when you attacked us?"

Thomas brought one hand up to his mouth and pressed down hard. "My father, and my uncle and cousin. We lived on that farm, when I was little. Didn't bother anyone, didn't even go into town."

Spencer nodded. "You were the cub that escaped. Have you been here the entire time?"

"No, only a few weeks." Thomas started pacing back and forth in the small space. "My father, he would make me shift. He did it that night when he heard them coming. Told me to run as far as I could go, and that he'd come and get me when it was safe. He never came, and after a while I shifted back. I was nine, and I stumbled into Williamston half dead a few nights later. I was placed with a foster family there."

"What made you come back here?" Spencer asked, slowly working his arms up through the bindings of the ropes again while Thomas was distracted. He had a pretty good guess, but Thomas seemed to want to talk. The more Spencer knew the better chance he would have at manipulating the situation.

Thomas shook his head and stopped near the lantern. His head was bowed and his body shuddered visibly. "They found out. I had to get away and this was our den. This was our safe haven and they haven't found it yet. We're safe here. They won't come looking."

Spencer weighed his options. "They will come looking, Thomas. My pack will come looking for me, and even if I wasn't here, they'd still be looking for you. If you let me go, I can talk to them. I'll tell them that you're not a threat and we can work something out."

"They aren't your pack! You're my cub, I found you. You were all alone, and little, and afraid, and I saved you." Thomas's face was illuminated in sharp relief by the lantern and his fierce expression chilled Spencer.

"They'll still come. They aren't going to just let you stay here when you've been killing people in the town," Spencer said, still aiming for getting Thomas to see some type of reason. He couldn't see a standoff between Thomas and the rest of team ending without casualties.

Thomas stood up straight and banged one of his fists against he side of the tunnel. "I haven't hurt anyone. I would never do that. It's a lie!"

Spencer froze, immediately realizing his misstep. "Thomas-"

"No! No, it's evil, vicious lies, just like last time. They said we were killing animals, that we'd start killing people next. We're shifters, not murderers." Thomas walked over to Spencer, his steps sharp with anger. "You shouldn't repeat those lies. They're wrong."

"I'm sorry," Spencer said quickly. "I didn't-"

"No, no one is sorry," Thomas snapped, his voice echoing through the tunnel. "You are my cub now, and I will teach you that you don't tell lies."

Spencer took a shallow, panicked breath and tried to roll away from Thomas. The side of the tunnel he was facing was darker than the section illuminated by the lantern and Spencer fought the urge to close his eyes. He could remember his mom in the middle of having a particularly intense episode of paranoia insisting that 'they were telling lies, always telling lies' and he couldn't even get her to tell him who they were. That had been shortly after Spencer had finished his first graduate degrees and when he realized that if he wanted to go to Cal Tech to do his doctoral work he couldn't leave her alone.

The first blow landed against Spencer's upper arm and he let out a small shout, mostly in surprise of just how much it hurt. Thomas rolled Spencer so he was on his back again and straddled him to prevent him from turning away.

"You don't tell lies. Lies get people hurt. Lies get people killed." Thomas struck Spencer at each sentence.

Spencer turned his face away and tried to contain the cries that were making their way from his mouth. "Stop, please. I'm not lying," he managed to gasp in between blows.

Thomas didn't respond, silent now as his hands closed into fists.

It felt like a long time before Thomas stopped, and when he did Spencer kept his body tense for a few more minutes as he waited for another fist to fall. Thomas stood and pulled off his shirt and then his pants before he shifted and then took off down the tunnel.

Spencer gasped and sagged against the floor. Eventually he managed to pull himself together enough to reach out for the rest of the team again, chanting in his mind over and over 'please come, please find us,' and to JJ, 'please don't be dead'. His silent mantra stayed with him as he dropped into an uneasy yet exhausted sleep.

*****

It was completely dark by the time they drove past the mill and the Faber's farm that the deputy had directed to them.

"JJ," Aaron said, finally able to identify the shifter he'd been able to sense shortly after they'd driven out of the town proper.

"Only JJ?" Derek asked, the light of his cellphone screen bright from the passenger seat as they sped along the dark road.

Aaron wasn't prepared to reach out further when he was driving a vehicle, but he knew there was only one shifter in the immediate vicinity and it was JJ.

"Yes," Jason said from the backseat. "She's hurt. I can smell the blood from here."

Aaron flipped closed the air vents without comment and resisted the temptation to press his foot down on the gas pedal harder. They would be coming to a turn off soon and it would take longer to backtrack than going faster would make up for.

"Still no service. When we've found JJ, I'll drive back far enough to call for emergency services," Derek said, closing his phone and putting in his pocket.

Aaron's immediate thoughts covered everything from the utter lack of emergency services in the town to the fact that it might well be too late by the time they drove anywhere. It still didn't answer the question of what had happened to Spencer. "We'll make decisions after we've assessed the situation," he said, his voice seeming unfathomably loud in the confined space of the car.

"Up ahead, turn left," Jason said from the back seat, his senses directing them more than any signs that might have been on the road.

Aaron slowed and even then nearly missed the turn off to a small farm, the broken sign hanging from one chain and the opening to the dirt road hidden behind overgrown bushes.

They pulled up next to the second SUV and were running across the farm towards JJ almost before Aaron had turned off the engine.

Their eyes were thankfully sharper than most and while flashlights would have helped they weren't necessary. There was very little cloud cover and the waning moon provided them enough light to make their way.

"JJ!" Aaron called, his senses casting out around them for anyone who might be lurking in the nearby buildings.

Jason was the first to spot the form of a human crumpled on the ground across the open door to the barn and they all raced to her.

There was blood everywhere and Aaron could just make out the ripped skin on JJ's arm and chest before Jason placed his jacket over her.

"She's alive and her pulse is strong and steady," Jason said, leaning down over JJ's body. "She'll be alright for now."

"Aaron," Derek said.

Both Aaron and Jason turned to look and Aaron nearly felt a sharp pain in his chest when he saw that Derek was holding up Spencer's jacket and glasses.

"The rest of his clothes are here too. He shifted," Derek said. "I can smell that he was here, but there's so much blood that I can't tell what direction he went."

Aaron brushed JJ's hair away from her face and wiped some of the drying blood away from her mouth. "This was a shifter attack. JJ has bite marks."

"And the shifter took Spencer?" Derek asked, having gathered up all of Spencer's belongings and gone to collect what he could salvage of JJ's. "Why would he do that? This guy kills, he doesn't take people."

"Because Spencer is a cub," Jason said, getting to his feet and scenting the air around them. "The unsub and Spencer both went in the direction of the hills."

"Can you track them?" Aaron asked. He reached out and was able to find the unsub's scent, but the smell of his pack member's blood was too strong for him to move beyond in order to find the direction.

"In my form," Jason said, completely confident.

Aaron knelt next to JJ's unconscious body and searched for what he would do if this wasn't his pack that he was trying to save. He had to get JJ to a hospital, he had to find Spencer, he had to keep Derek and Jason safe. He had to do all of these things and yet he felt absolutely powerless to do so.

"Jason and I will shift and find Spencer. It's obvious that JJ and Spencer were taken by surprised when the unsub attacked them, that won't happen to us. We know what we're dealing with," Derek said. "You can call Garcia and get JJ to somewhere where they will help her. Not here, not in Plymouth."

Aaron touched JJ's hair again. Derek's suggestion made the most sense, but Aaron couldn't send members of his pack out there alone to fight another shifter. It wasn't done.

"Let me do this, Aaron," Jason said. "I promise I will bring them both back to you."

"Leave me a scent trail. I'll get JJ somewhere safe and I will come follow you," Aaron said, his heart hammering in his chest as he carefully picked up JJ and stood up.

He placed her in the back seat of the SUV he'd driven earlier and with Jason's help secured her. Derek dropped all of the items he'd collected in the trunk of the second SUV and pulled off his jacket and then his shirt.

While Jason removed his own clothes, Aaron beckoned Derek over and placed his hands on Derek's bare shoulders. "Please, be careful. This shifter has killed over a dozen people. Don't do anything stupid and heroic."

"Do I ever?" Derek asked, leaning in and resting his forehead against Aaron's. It was probably meant to be a joke but neither of them had enough energy left to smile. "By the time you get back, we'll be here waiting for you."

Aaron nodded, wishing he could believe what Derek was saying. "Find him."

"We will," Derek said. He backed away and pulled off his shoes and pants before shifting.

Two wolves bounded off into the darkness and Aaron watched until they had completely disappeared from his sight. He got back into the driver's seat and made his way back to the road. "I've got you," he said to JJ, his phone open in one had as he watched for the icon that meant he had a cellphone signal to light up again. "Hold on, we're almost there."

*****

Spencer wasn't sure how long he'd been asleep but by the time he opened his eyes he knew that Thomas had returned quite some time ago. He could feel that his bindings had been adjusted while he was sleeping - his wrists were now tied together underneath the blanket and the blanket was tied more securely than before. His chest, sides and arms all ached; while it hurt to draw a breath he was reasonably certain that he hadn't broken or cracked any ribs.

Thomas was sitting over by the lantern, his back towards Spencer. He was nude and from the number and variety of dusty prints across the tunnel floor Thomas had been shifting frequently. Thomas was clearly agitated, his hands clenched tightly in his longer hair and his body rocking back and forth. A moment later Thomas shifted, a large jaguar rising up from the ground and pacing around the edge of the tunnel.

Spencer stayed as still as he could be when Thomas walked over to the blankets. Thomas gave a low growl, his nose sniffing along the edge of the blankets and following it up to Spencer's face. There was nothing Spencer could do but close his eyes when Thomas stood directly over him. The form of the jaguar had blood matted in the fur around his mouth and drops of salvia fell down onto Spencer's face when Thomas snarled. He listened to the sound of Thomas walking away, four footfalls turning into two by the time Thomas reached the other side of the tunnel again.

Slowly and painfully Spencer let out the breath he'd been holding and tried to muffle his whimper as well as he could. Thoughts and questions raced through his mind; Thomas could kill him at any moment, what if that was JJ's blood in his fur, and how far away was the rest of the team from the tunnels. He could barely suggest a list of answers for any single question before his mind pressed onto the next. Spencer made his hands into fists, the sharp pain in his arms from the movement clearing his mind for a single bright moment.

A new question formed in his mind when the pain had receded: what if Hotch, Gideon, and Derek came looking for him and Thomas attacked them? Escape by himself was pretty much an impossibility at this point as far as Spencer could figure. Even if Thomas left the tunnel and Spencer could untie himself, which Spencer was having some concerns about, he wouldn't get very far on a twisted ankle and Thomas would probably be able to follow his scent trail anyway. Under most circumstances Spencer would bet on the team every time. He'd seen them them take down the most dangerous and unstable of unsubs, stood by their sides as they rescued hostages and took guns from the hands of those who had committed murder and worse. But he knew that the team wasn't infallible and Thomas had already seriously hurt JJ - Spencer couldn't think of JJ as dead, not until he knew for certain.

If the team found him, which he was sure they would eventually, they would already be down at least two members and be emotionally invested in the outcome. They wouldn't be thinking clearly and wouldn't realize how dangerous and committed Thomas was. One thing that Spencer had learned about shifters was that they were intensely committed to the cubs in their pack. He brushed aside the thought that it obviously wasn't true in all situations because his own father hadn't seemed to care one way or another if Spencer had survived. But if Thomas considered him his cub, then he would fight the team to the death in order to defend his den and his cub.

Once, when Spencer had asked Gideon about the outcome of a particular case the BAU had done ten years ago - a young mother who killed four police officers in a standoff before she killed her two toddlers and then herself - Gideon had explained that while there were a lot of factors that hadn't been accounted for, the most important had been the woman's willingness to go to any length to defend her home and her children from what she viewed as a threat. Spencer rolled his head over to see where Thomas was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands as he huddled near the lantern. There was a good possibility that at least one of the pack would die if they came racing into the tunnel searching for him, and an even greater likelihood that Thomas would die killing him instead of letting him be taken by his pack.

Spencer weighed these realizations in his mind and recalled the exact moment when he'd had a line of sight on Thomas with his gun right before they'd been attacked. He hadn't taken the shot then, hadn't been ready to kill or hurt someone, and there had been a high price to be paid for that indecision. He didn't want Thomas to die - or anyone else - but he understood Thomas better than he thought he'd ever understand any of the unsubs they caught. Spencer remembered what it was like to be alone and lost. He remembered all too well not understanding what was happening to him and having no one he could even ask questions to, let alone ask for help. But he also knew he couldn't let Thomas kill anyone else; not the people in the town and not his teammates. Trying to talk Thomas down would only lead to him being beaten again, or even killed if Thomas lost control and shifted.

He only had one chance at this and when his mind ran through the probabilities there was a reasonable chance that he would be dead by the end of the day based on any action or inaction he took. But if he acted now there would be a far better chance that the rest of the team would survive; if he died before the team arrived he would take away the unsub's reason for a staunch and deadly defense. Spencer checked to make sure that Thomas hadn't moved and was gratified to see that Thomas almost seemed to be slumping forward.

Closing his eyes, Spencer remembered Derek and JJ talking him through the steps of meditation, Garcia popping in and out of her form as she encouraged him, Gideon's steady voice as he described what it felt like to shift, and Hotch carefully guiding him towards the hook that would let him shift. He took his last thought to cement his goal in his mind, hoping that it would carry over into his form, and carefully reached for the hook. A rush of surprise and relief carried him through the shift and a moment later he was pushing his head and paws out from the blankets that now covered him.

*****

It was seventeen minutes from the time Aaron pulled out of the unpaved farm driveway and onto the main road that two little bars lit up on the screen of his cellphone to tell him he had service. He'd been driving as carefully as he could manage considering he was speeding and had his attention divided between listening for JJ awakening in the backseat and keeping track of Derek and Jason for as long as he could. He could still find their general direction but the sense of individual pack members was gone. There was no way to know what they were facing or when they would find Spencer nor what condition he would be in.

Aaron was torn for a brief moment as he debated between calling emergency services and calling Garcia. Most emergency rooms had facilities to treat shifters and medical staff that were trained to do so, but when the nearest major hospital was more than a hundred miles away he didn't dare to bring her to a local hospital, one that could and would decline to treat JJ. He didn't have time to waste driving from hospital to hospital and he wasn't willing to hand her over to paramedics either. The decision made, Aaron pressed three on his speed dial and lifted his phone to his ear.

It only rang once before Garcia answered. "I lost your signals nearly an hour ago, JJ and Spencer's phones haven't reappeared on the network, did you find them?"

"Garcia, I need you to listen to what I'm about to tell you and do what I ask," Aaron said. He kept his tone commanding and no-nonsense, even though he desperately wanted to soothe and reassure his distressed pack member.

"Okay, whatever I can do," Garcia said, her voice trembling.

Aaron kept himself steady though his left hand tightened on the steering wheel. "Jason and Derek are out looking for Spencer. I have JJ with me and we're heading west. I need you to find me the nearest place that will give emergency medical treatment to shifters."

"Hotch?" Garcia asked, his name muffled slightly through the sound of her tears. "Can I talk with her?"

"She's unconscious and I'm driving right now, but we will call you as soon as she's able to talk. I need to know where I'm taking her, Garcia. Where am I going?" Aaron asked, silently reassuring himself that Garcia could still do her job even under the worst of circumstances.

The was quiet on the line for a moment, the only sound Garcia's broken gasps as she tried to stop crying. "There's a wolf pack listed in Pendleton on one of the shifter awareness message boards, it says they have a doctor on staff and they're willing to shelter shifters in emergency situations."

"Good, how far away?" Aaron asked quickly.

"Nearly forty minutes from your current location. Go south and then east when you get back to Plymouth. I'm sending the listed address to your phone," Garcia said. "Can she make it that long? Maybe there's somewhere closer; I can call the hospitals in Hermiston and Stanfield and see if they will treat her."

"Do that," Aaron said, though he doubted there was anything more than basic care medical facilities in the immediate area. "I'll call you when we're settled at Pendleton. Don't expect to here from Jason and Derek anytime soon, they've shifted and are following Spencer's scent trail into the hills."

"Okay," Garcia said, sounding choked up again. "Call me if there's anything else I can do, or when JJ wakes up, please?"

"I will," Aaron said. "You're doing good, Garcia."

Garcia hung up and Aaron's phone beeped a few seconds later as he received her message with the address to the local pack lands.

JJ didn't wake the entire drive through Plymouth, across the state border into Oregon, and back east to Pendleton. Aaron spoke to her every five minutes or so, hoping that she would answer or at least make a noise to let him know she was alright. He'd pulled over four times during the trip to make sure she was still breathing and one of those times he climbed out to add another layer to the quick wrapping Jason had done on the worst of the wounds on her arm.

The wolf pack in Pendleton appeared to own a fair amount of land on the edge of town and the address led him to a group of administrative buildings that nearly blocked a small outcropping of houses from view of the road. It was almost ten at night and the only building other than the houses that had lights on was the one that had "Shifter Advocacy Group" in narrow letters across the front door. The sides of two of the buildings had evidence of recent vandalism and Aaron guessed that shifters weren't much more welcome in Pendleton than they were in Plymouth.

Aaron parked in front of the door and shut and locked the doors to the SUV. He wasn't going to place JJ in more danger until he had the local pack leader's word that they were safe. He only had to wait about thirty seconds before three members of the local pack came out down the road that led further back into the pack lands. The one in the center, a tall woman with long brown hair that spilled over her shoulder, was a pace in front of the others and Aaron immediately identified her as their pack leader. They stopped a dozen feet away, all of them watching him with carefully neutral expressions.

"My name is Aaron Hotchner. I seek asylum for my pack, medical assistance for my pack members, and if you're willing to grant it, help retrieving my cub from the rogue shifter who has been murdering the townspeople of Plymouth," Aaron said, projecting his voice so that he could be clearly heard. "I have no ill will toward you and yours and I will remove my pack to my own lands across the country as soon as I have recovered my cub."

"I am called Jamison, I speak for my pack. We willingly offer our assistance to you and grant asylum to you and yours," the woman said and moved closer. "How many shifters can we be expected to shelter and how many will need medical attention?"

"Right now, just myself and JJ - the shifter in the vehicle. She's bleeding heavily and has yet to regain consciousness after she was attacked by the rogue shifter. There are two more members of my pack who are currently just outside Plymouth attempting to local our cub," Aaron said. He assessed the shifters who were standing nearby but had paused far enough away that they were making an obvious effort to appear nonthreatening. This would have to be good enough.

Aaron unlocked the door to the car and undid the seat belts that he'd secured around JJ. Another shifter arrived as Aaron was gently pulling JJ from the car.

"I'm a doctor, please bring her this way," the shifter spoke, already pushing up his sleeves as he beckoned Aaron towards the door.

"Go with Michael. I will gather a group to assist with locating your cub and we will come to you to get more information as well as your scent so your pack knows you sent them," Jamison said, one of the shifters next to her breaking into a run as he went down the road - undoubtably operating on unspoken instructions.

"Thank you," Aaron said as he met Jamison's eyes. He followed Michael into the building, carrying JJ and hoping he had done the right thing.

*****

Derek shifted back into his human form at the edge of an old tunnel when he saw Gideon shift a few feet away from him. They stood, their bare skin and bare feet chilling instantly in the cold night air. There was a pile of rocks a few feet into the tunnel with a slim space that they would be able to slip through if they were careful. Derek looked around the area and then up at the sky; it was hard to tell how long they'd been running through the sparse forest and up the gently sloping hills but by the way the moon had moved he would guess it had been three hours, maybe longer.

"They went into the tunnel. Spencer's body only touched the ground in a few places so I believe the unsub was carrying Spencer while they were both in their forms," Gideon said, his head tipping back as he examined the rockslide.

Derek sighed and looked around the area again. This was not the way he would have chosen to approach the unsub, but they so rarely had a say in how the final confrontation went down that it shouldn't really matter. It mattered though, because Spencer was somewhere in the tunnel, or on the other side where it came out, and the idea of slipping through the dark in an enclosed unfamiliar space while the unsub lurked in wait did not bode well for them.

The only good thing he could find about the entire situation was that he knew Spencer was alive somewhere in there. He'd nearly staggered running by a small stream when he caught the first awareness that Spencer was alive and nearby. Derek didn't have near the ability to sense the rest of his pack mates the way that Aaron did and his range was much more limited, but knowing that they hadn't been too late had briefly bolstered him for the rest of the journey. There was no sense of another shifter in the area at all that Derek could find and he hoped that the shifter had realized what he'd done and had fled. It would mean staying longer and attempting to track him, but that would be better than a potentially deadly confrontation in the dark.

"If we use the wall for support we should be able to slip inside without changing the layout of the rocks. We don't know where this tunnel comes out, though considering it's an abandoned railway tunnel it's possible that the other end isn't blocked off," Gideon said as he moved closer to the rocks. "I'd rather not test that theory if we can avoid it."

"Agreed," Derek said. He watched where Gideon placed his hands and feet and followed him across the threshold of the tunnel. Five tense minutes later they were on the other side. It was dark, too dark to see anything more than the general outline of shapes and even that was lost further down the tunnel.

"Follow the left wall and I'll follow the right so we'll know if the tunnel diverges. I can't make out Spencer's scent very well in here," Gideon said, the soft whisper of his feet against the ground filled the air as he moved to the side and started walking. "Stay alert. The unsub caught JJ and Spencer off-guard, he could well do the same to us. He has the advantage; he's holding all the cards."

Derek moved to the other wall and touched the roughly hewn surface. He couldn't blame Gideon for having trouble finding Spencer's scent; Derek couldn't make it out at all. All he could smell was the stench of mold, rot, old death and blood. They walked quietly, Derek paying careful attention to where Gideon was a few feet away and his tenuous hold on Spencer's general direction. As far as he could tell, Spencer hadn't moved at all since he'd first sensed him. If Spencer was as badly hurt as JJ had been, Derek didn't know how they were going to get him out of there. He reminded himself that they could only take it one thing at a time, and that Aaron would be doing everything he could to get back to them, and took a steadying breath.

"Up ahead," Jason said, his voice barely audible.

"Got it," Derek replied, keeping his voice pitched soft and low. There was a dim light coming from around the bend and Derek's sense of Spencer told him that he should be around there as well. A small part of him was grateful that the unsub had provided light - Derek had a sneaking suspicion that Spencer was afraid of the dark, given that Spencer always had a light on at night in the room he stayed in.

They approached the bend of the tunnel, Gideon joining Derek now that they could see there was currently no way for the tunnel to diverge, and they stayed as well out of sight as possible. The smell of blood had steadily been growing stronger and Derek was certain they were about to discover the source.

His eyes first fell on the lantern that was providing the light, a wind-up electric lantern that looked like it was close to dying completely, and then on the body of a prone man with blood covering his shoulders and where the back of his neck had been torn open. It took a second to convince himself that the man was not Spencer and he felt like his heart was leaping against his chest as he quickly searched the surrounding area.

"There," Gideon said at the same moment Derek's eyes fell upon a leopard cub that was pressed into cranny in the tunnel wall.

The leopard's fur was coated in thick blood and its eyes were closed. Derek ran over and rested his hand on Spencer's back to feel him breathe. It was obvious enough that under the matted and slowly drying blood that Spencer was alive but injured and Derek carefully picked him up.

Gideon was at his side a moment later with a blanket. They wrapped Spencer in the blankets, Derek settling him in his arms while Gideon gathered the loose ropes and the lantern.

"You think that's the unsub?" Derek asked, nodding to the body.

"I do," Gideon said, his eyes tracing from the man's opened neck to the small amount of Spencer's blood stained fur that was visible from Derek's bundle.

"Damn," Derek said quietly. This was the best out come he could have hoped for; they were all alive and the unsub was not, but he couldn't help but feel that they'd failed anyway. If Spencer had found the need to kill the unsub, attack him even though the unsub would have every possible advantage, then the situation had to have been dire. "Let's get out of here. The locals can deal with the body."

Gideon led the way out of the tunnel, the lantern illuminating the way back to the fallen rocks. Derek climbed through first, taking the lantern and the ropes and setting them aside before he had Gideon pass Spencer out. Gideon followed immediately and they hurried the last few steps out under the night sky once more.

It would be a long trek back to the farm and would take far longer in their human forms. Derek wasn't about to try to attach Spencer to one of them or take Spencer in his teeth, there was too much risk, and he resigned himself to a long and freezing cold walk.

"We can take turns shifting, that should keep us from contending with frostbite," Gideon said as he looked up at the stars and then across the land. "We should be back to the farm shortly before sunrise."

Derek nodded. "You shift first. I'll let you know when I need to change."

They started off, Derek letting Gideon choose the path that would lead them most easily back down the hills and through the trees.

*****

"Spence?" JJ asked, the name little more than a mumble as she rolled to her side in the hospital bed.

"JJ, it's okay," Aaron said, immediately at her side. He'd been sitting in a chair at the side of the room for hours now, waiting as the doctor cleaned and treated her injuries and then watching as she slept. There was a mug of coffee on the side table that a young member of the pack had brought up for him, cold now and still mostly full. Aaron had held it in his hands for an hour or so, letting the warmth soak into his fingers as he worried. Part of him, a quiet and dark part, had spent most of the night imagining flying back to Quantico with just JJ and himself. The thought was heavy in his mind and he couldn't push it away.

JJ's eyes opened all the way as she sat up and Aaron placed his hands on her back and her better shoulder so she wouldn't try to catch her weight on her bandaged arm. "Aaron," she said, her blue eyes wide and glossy as she blinked.

"Right here," Aaron said. He used one hand to prop up her pillows. "Lie back, you're alright."

JJ leaned forward, looking briefly down at the bandages that were covering her arms and the upper part of her chest that wasn't covered by the white gown. Most of her attention was focused on the room around her and she moved so she could see around Aaron. "Where's Spencer? Is he in another room?"

"JJ, relax before you pull out your stitches," Aaron said, keeping one of his hands on her shoulder and wondering if he needed to call for someone before she sent herself into a panic attack.

"No, Aaron. Where is he?" JJ looked into Aaron's eyes, her eyes filled with tears but none falling yet.

Aaron mentally reached for the rest of his pack even though he knew they were still too far away for him to even sense their general direction. "Derek and Jason are following his scent. They should call soon."

The tears started to fall but JJ's voice stayed clear and steady. "The unsub took Spence?"

Aaron checked the time on his cellphone, it was just after two in the morning. The rescue group that the Pendleton wolf pack had sent should have reached the farm over two hours ago and would be following their trail. Hopefully they would meet up with Derek and Jason in time to be able to help. "As far as we can tell," he said. He wanted to say more. He wanted to promise her that they'd find Spencer and all of them would come back safe, but his mind was filled with too many dark possibilities to give his word.

JJ leaned back and Aaron helped resettle her under the blankets. Her tears fell silently and she didn't try to wipe them away.

"Are you up to calling Garcia and letting her know that you're alright?" Aaron asked when the tears had stopped falling.

"Can you give me a few minutes first? Alone?" JJ asked.

Aaron stood. "Of course. I'll be right in the hall."

He left the room and made it about ten feet away before he sagged against the wall and pressed the palms of his hands to his forehead. He'd seen his team go through a lot together; they'd been shot at, wounded, and threatened by some of the most dangerous people in the country. But he'd never seen JJ break like that before and it shook him more than a little. Aaron was the pack leader, he stayed strong and kept it together so that the pack would continue on while the individual members recovered from whatever horrors they'd witnessed and experienced. JJ was always his other cool head, the person he counted on to be calm and collected even when a case was affecting her emotionally. Aaron didn't blame her in the slightest for her reaction, but it had still unsettled him.

There was a small kitchenette at the end of the hall and Aaron washed his face before he took a pair of plastic cups and filled them with cold water. He had abandoned his suit jacket in the hospital room, it was stained with JJ's blood, and the cool water when he wiped his face dry on his thin shirt sleeves chilled him.

"May I come in?" he asked from the doorway to JJ's room.

"Yes, sorry," JJ said. She was sitting up again and struggling to get to where she could both sit and lean back.

Aaron set the cups down on the table and rearranged JJ's pillows again before helping her to scoot back so she could sit up and still rest. "Are you ready?" he asked after he'd given her the cup of water and given her time to drink. She nodded and he pressed Garcia's speed dial and handed over his cellphone.

"Penelope," JJ said. Her voice did break this time, but she managed to hold most of her tears at bay. "I'm okay, I'm so sorry."

Aaron quickly excused himself and slipped out of the room again. There were some conversations between members of his pack that he didn't need to hear. He found a small chair, close enough to the room that he could hear the rise and fall of JJ's voice without hearing her words; close enough that he would hear her call to him if she needed him.

He sat, keeping his back straight and his head up as a reminder that his task wasn't done yet. He needed to stay alert, stay together, until he had his entire pack safe and whole once more. Some time later, long after JJ's conversation with Garcia had ended, Aaron looked up as two pairs of footsteps came from around the corner.

Jamison appeared first, with the doctor - Michael, who'd never given Aaron a last name - a step behind.

Aaron stood, not yet daring to ask any of the questions that came tumbling through his thoughts.

"One moment, here he is," Jamison said into the radio she was holding before she handed it to Aaron.

"Aaron, we've got him," Derek said, the hiss of static nearly covering his words.

It was like taking a punch to the chest as the relief temporarily overwhelmed him. "How is he? How are you and Jason?" he asked; they were now the only two questions on his mind.

"Jason and I are fine. We've got Spencer, he's alright for now," Derek said, the radio breaking up very slightly. "We're on our way back. We'll see you in a few hours."

"Yes," Aaron said, holding onto the radio tightly for another moment before he managed to compose himself and hand it back to Jamison. "Thank you."

"We're glad that we were able to locate the rest of your pack. From what I was told your pack members had already found your cub and were heading back," Jamison said. She smiled even though her eyes were tired. "I'll have them brought up to you as soon as they arrive."

Michael stepped forward. "I'm happy to look over your cub to ensure that he's well enough to travel. I just checked in on JJ, she's doing fine and she'll be well enough to fly in the morning."

"Thank you," Aaron said again. He felt a little lost without the weight of half of his pack missing. "I think I'm going to go sit with her. If there's nothing else?"

Jamison shook her head. "No, go get some rest. It's been a long night."

Aaron nodded and walked back into JJ's room. She was sleeping, Aaron's cellphone resting in her least bandaged hand. He probably wasn't supposed to wake her, but Aaron thought that she would rest better if he did. He sat down on the edge of the bed and used his fingertips to brush her long hair away from her face. "JJ, wake up for a moment," he said.

JJ's eyes opened. It took a few moments for her to focus on Aaron's face, her own face still fraught with misery.

"Derek just called over the radio. They've got Spencer and they're bringing him here," Aaron said.

"He's okay?" JJ asked.

"He will be," Aaron said. He wanted to see Spencer for himself before he said exactly how okay he was.

JJ shivered and her head bowed down towards her chest. "Okay," she said, pausing to catch her breath. "He'll be okay."

Aaron slipped his cellphone from JJ's hand and placed his own hand there instead. As soon as JJ was resting again he would call Garcia. Then all he'd have to do is wait for the rest of his pack to arrive. He spared only a brief thought for the unsub, knowing that he'd get the full story from Derek and Jason soon enough.

*****

It was nearly two in the afternoon the next day by the time they were flying over Virginia. They were a full thirty minutes away from touching down at the Quantico airfield but Derek was savoring the quiet space that the flight had afforded them. The entire pack - except for Garcia, who was undoubtably already waiting for them at the airfield - was crowded into the two pairs of seats that were facing each other.

Derek and Aaron were sitting side by side on the aft facing seats while JJ was resting curled up on the opposite seat. Her arm was in a sling and the bandages showed brightly where the exposed skin on her arms and upper chest should have been. Gideon had shifted shortly after they'd taken off and was sleeping on the floor by their feet. Spencer was still in his form, though was wrapped in a fresh blanket, and Derek and Aaron were taking turns holding the bundle in their laps.

It had taken Derek the better part of an hour, back in Pendleton, to carefully clean most of the blood from Spencer's fur. He had be relieved to discover that most of it wasn't Spencer's, though the doctor had said there had definitely been some damage done while Spencer had been in his human form. Spencer had mostly slept ever since they'd recovered him from the tunnel and Derek half hoped he would remain that way until they reached the safety of their den. The aftermath of this case wasn't something Derek was looking forward to seeing but he was still so glad they were all alive to experience it that particular worry paled in comparison.

Derek had quietly listened when Gideon had explained to Aaron about the scene they'd found and Aaron had dutifully placed a phone call to the Plymouth sheriff to let them know where they could find their dead unsub and that the case was closed. From what Derek had overheard the sheriff hadn't exactly been pleased and probably even less so when Aaron hung up his phone and turned it off entirely.

"Want me to take him until we land?" Aaron asked, looking pointedly to where Derek was restlessly moving his legs.

"Sure," Derek agreed and eased the pile of blankets over onto Aaron's lap before stretching his legs out so they were resting over Gideon's sleeping form. Spencer didn't look a lot bigger than he had when they'd first seen his form in November but after carrying him for a couple of miles Derek was certain he was heavier. He wondered if Spencer would always be smaller than typical in his leopard form; Spencer hadn't grown as much as Derek would have expected, though he knew Aaron would tell him to be patient and stop rushing things.

JJ twitched restlessly in her sleep and gave a short whimper that was cut off as she woke all the way up. She looked across the seats, her eyes checking each member of the team before she sighed and put her head back down on the seat again. She'd already apologized to all of them, even to Spencer while Derek was bathing him, and seemed to be resisting the compulsion to do so again. After she'd woken in the morning and was a little more put together she'd told them about the call the deputy had told them about and how they'd gone to check it out just in case. They'd all assured her that they would have done the same thing under the circumstances, though from Aaron's dark look Derek could tell that Aaron was having suspicions about the deputy that had given them the information. After spending nearly two days in that town, Derek understood why and felt the same way.

"Are we almost home?" JJ asked, turning her head to the side as she yawned. A second later she pushed herself up so that she was sitting, though from the stiff way she was holding herself she was still in pain.

"We should be landing in about fifteen minutes," Aaron said, readjusting his hold on the blankets as Spencer moved in his sleep.

Derek leaned closer to Aaron and tugged the blanket back into place when Spencer had settled again. "Almost home, pretty boy," he said, hoping that Spencer could understand him somewhere through the veil of sleep.

JJ smiled, though it looked weak on her drawn face. "When he's grown I fully expect him to retaliate for that nickname. Garcia thinks that he actually likes it and we have not an insignificant amount of money riding on the outcome. I'm pretty sure you're actually weighing things in my favor."

Derek echoed JJ's smile and gently rubbed behind Spencer's ears. "We'll see."

The jet landed and came to a full stop nearly twenty minutes later and Derek gathered his, Spencer and JJ's bag. Aaron had his own and Gideon's and they climbed down the steps to the tarmac as well as they could. Derek went first, with JJ following closely behind. Gideon nimbly leapt down the steps after they were out of the way; four paws a disadvantage on the steep and narrow staircase. Aaron came last, balancing himself and Spencer as he made his way out into the mid-afternoon light.

Derek's attention was immediately drawn by the sound of Garcia shouting from next to the parked cars and then dashing the short distance to where the team was gathered. She barely stopped herself from hugging JJ, though she did lean forward to kiss JJ's forehead. "Oh, baby," Garcia said, sounding just as upset as she had on the phone the previous night.

"I'm okay," JJ said immediately, placing one of her hands on Garcia's arm. "We're okay."

Garcia kissed JJ again, her dismay apparent before she turned to Derek. She didn't show the same restraint as she had with JJ and she quickly wrapped her arms around him. "You guys can't do this to me," she said into his chest.

Derek returned the hug and let Garcia cling to him for a few moments. "I know," he said, knowing that he couldn't promise that it wouldn't happen again.

"Derek," Aaron said, his voice low.

"What's she doing here?" Derek asked as he watched a car roll to a stop and Erin Strauss exit the driver's seat.

"Stay here," Aaron responded, handing Spencer to him and walking away quickly to prevent Strauss from getting closer to his pack.

Derek cradled Spencer's form close to his chest and watched Aaron cross the parking lot; Aaron's stride was determined and filled with energy for someone who'd only had seven hours of sleep in the past forty eight. Gideon moved so that he was in front of Derek and Spencer, his ears forward and his teeth bared.

"If I need to shift, you take Spencer and get yourself and JJ somewhere protected," Derek instructed Garcia, keeping his voice quiet so it couldn't travel to Strauss. He was on edge, they all were, and even though the idea of fighting Strauss here was completely irrational he couldn't prevent the flood of adrenaline that told him danger was close by.

Garcia nodded, stepping in front of JJ and standing as tall as she could in her heels.

"I just received a very interesting call from the sheriff of Plymouth," Strauss said. Her voice carried well enough that Derek didn't have to ask Garcia what was being said.

"I'm sure you did," Aaron said. To anyone who knew him it was clear that he was barely holding his temper, though to outsiders he would have appeared a paragon of calm and civility. "We caught the unsub and were unable to bring him into custody alive."

"You called the sheriff and told him where he could go to pick up the corpse. That is unacceptable behavior, Agent Hotchner," Strauss said. "The sheriff has asked that an inquiry be taken into the actions of your team, and to you personally."

Aaron only stood straighter. "The sheriff's deputy sent two of my team knowingly into a dangerous situation and they nearly died as a result. If you'd like to evaluate my team you are welcome to do so, but not until after they've received appropriate medical treatment and a recovery period. I will seek counsel from the Chief of the Criminal Investigative Division. I'm certain John will have some questions for you as well concerning your interest in my team."

Strauss stiffened. "I'll make the arrangements myself."

"Good," Aaron said. "My entire team will be away for the next three days and Agents Jareau and Reid will not be returning to field duty until they have healed. I formally request that my team be taken off the active case roster until my agents are cleared for the field."

"Granted," Strauss said. "If I was you, I'd be preparing my agents to transition to different departments."

Derek watched silently alongside the rest of the team as Aaron stared at Strauss. Aaron's expression was eerily impassive.

"Fortunately, I'm not you," was all he said, his voice clear from across the tarmac.

Strauss glared at Aaron for another moment before she turned away, her gaze sweeping over the gathered team. Her eyes lingered on Gideon and then on the bundle Derek was holding before she walked the few steps back to her car and drove away.

Aaron stayed where he was until her car had disappeared from sight completely. "Let's go home," he called.

Gideon responded first and bounded across the distance, leaving the rest of the team to follow on two legs instead of four.

*****

Aaron leaned forward against the kitchen counter and watched as the coffee slowly dripped down into the waiting coffee pot. It was late in the evening, a full day after they'd returned to Virginia, and although Aaron had finally gotten a few hours rest he still felt exhausted. He had closed his pack up in the den while they all recovered and the majority of his day had been spent restlessly checking to make sure he could locate everyone. This was a compulsion that was stronger after the bad cases and even worse this time since he'd been separated from some of his pack members for an extended period of time. He would force himself to stop over the next day or so, but for the time being he moved from room to room to reassure himself that everyone was still there even though he could feel that they were.

Garcia had taken over the roll of mother hen and everyone was either too weak or felt too guilty to stop her. JJ was irritable and uncomfortable; she was supposed to wait another two days before she shifted back into her wolf form to prevent the worst of the scarring and as a result she paced back and forth until Garcia could convince her to take the pills she'd been prescribed. Jason had stayed in his form for the better part of the last two days and slept a good portion of the time. After hearing from Derek about their trek through the freezing hills, Aaron didn't blame either of them for the amount of sleep they'd needed to recover.

Spencer had shifted back to his human form early that morning and, upon seeing his bare chest, Aaron had immediately called the doctor. The doctor was an older gentleman, a gray fox when he was in his form, and had been good friends with Jason before Aaron had ever met him. The doctor had checked over Spencer, sighing at the deep bruising covering Spencer's torso and chest, and had only muttered for a few minutes about the dangers of government work while he treated Spencer. Aaron had gotten a bare bones description from Spencer as to what had happened during the attack and in the tunnel before Spencer had gone quiet for the rest of the day and retreated to the covered back porch. The rest would come out later, when they were writing reports, and Aaron could only think of how he could protect Spencer if Strauss followed through with her threat of requesting an inquiry about the case.

The events of the previous days weighed heavily on all of them, but Spencer was the one who Aaron found himself worrying about. Aaron knew his pack, he'd been with them all in the field for more than two years now and he'd seen how they recovered from disaster. Jason would withdraw even further, JJ would stress and worry until everyone was well, Garcia would stay close to them and only start to worry more when they left on cases again, and Derek would sublimate his fear into racing through the woods in his wolf form and becoming even more vigilant in his protection of the pack. What Aaron didn't know was how Spencer would come to terms with having killed someone or how well he would recover from being abducted and beaten. All he could do was watch, wait, and hope that Spencer would let the rest of the pack help with the emotional fallout.

The coffee maker clicked off and Aaron poured two mugs. He left the first black and added cream and way too much sugar to the second; he had no idea how Spencer managed to drink the stuff without gagging. Picking up both mugs he walked out to the back porch and set the sugar filled coffee down in front of Spencer.

"Thanks," Spencer said, picking up the mug and looking down into it.

"Mind if I stay?" Aaron asked.

Spencer shook his head but didn't look up as Aaron settled next to him. They drank their coffee in silence, Spencer sipping only sporadically like he would momentarily forget that the cup was in his hands.

Aaron got up to go back to the kitchen, collecting both of the empty mugs.

"I shifted on purpose. I thought about everything that you and Derek and the rest of the team taught me, and I shifted," Spencer said when Aaron reached the doorway.

Aaron considered this for a moment. "Good," he said at last. "I'm proud of you."

Spencer didn't say anything else but his gaze lifted from the floor to the window.

*****

Monday, four days after Plymouth, came quickly and the team fell back into their routine. Except for Spencer, who was feeling rather useless, and JJ, who had returned to her and Garcia's home on Sunday evening. Aaron had suggested that JJ come to the den to stay with Spencer while the rest of the team was at work but both JJ and Spencer had immediately declined the offer.

JJ had come to him on Saturday and told him how sorry she was and Spencer had reminded her that it hadn't just been her decision. He knew that she felt responsible for him, both as a member of the team with more seniority and as a fully grown member of the pack when Spencer was still considered a cub. As far as Spencer was concerned they'd both botched up that case pretty badly.

It was different to be alone in the house during the middle of the work day. Spencer had roamed from room to room before sitting down on the couch in the living room. He'd leaned down on the cushions for all of one minute before the racing of his heart and the trembling racking his body had forced him to sit up again. He'd discovered that every time he laid on his back he started to shake and that if he forced himself to stay he would descend towards a panic attack. So far reminding himself that he had the ability to sit up any time he liked and that there was no one hovering above him hadn't done any good. This was something he was going to have to work on before any of the team noticed, but Spencer figured he had some time. He could at least wait until the bruising faded and it didn't hurt so much to breathe.

Thomas was still in his mind. Spencer actually thought it was almost worse that he couldn't really remember killing him. The strongest sensation he recalled was the taste of blood flooding his mouth as he'd bitten into the back of Thomas's neck. So far no one was pressing him about recounting the events that had taken place in the tunnel and Spencer was happy enough to let that wait as long as they were willing to let him. Garcia had reluctantly told him about Hotch's confrontation with Strauss, and Spencer knew that there would come a time where he'd have to defend his actions. Maybe either being accused or absolved would release some of the guilt he could feel pressing against him, almost like the weight of Thomas was still holding him down with his fists ready to strike.

While Spencer had been working on pushing away thoughts of Plymouth over the past few days he'd discovered a new set of thoughts that had come to take their place. He could have died in that tunnel, several times over. Derek could have died while coming to rescue him. Aaron had been in less danger but the rioting townspeople carrying guns could have shot him just as easily as they could have shot anyone else. Spencer had spent quite some time over the past six weeks thinking over Aaron and Derek's offer to become a part of their relationship, weighing the potential outcomes and the possibilities. Even though every case they went on carried the potential for one or more of them to be seriously harmed - Spencer ran the probabilities every time they took a new case - spending those moments alone where he knew there was a very good chance that he'd never see Derek and Aaron again had somehow made the fact that he had no basis to predict the outcome of saying yes far less important.

He'd waited the few days while everyone was milling around the house just to make sure that it wasn't just a reaction to the situation that would fade with distance. It hadn't. Instead he'd found himself watching Derek and Aaron and wondering what it would be like if he was with them. Would they reach out to casually touch his hand the way the did each other without seeming to realize what they were doing? Spencer was somewhat surprised to find that the idea of Derek and Aaron casually touching him on a day to day basis didn't bother him as much as he would have thought. It helped that Derek already patted him on the shoulder or tugged gently on his hair or nudged his knee practically every day and Spencer had slowly come to expect the contact. Aaron was less hands on with him, as he was with everyone but Derek, but their fingers brushed from time to time when Aaron was passing him something or they occasionally bumped up against each other in the hallway.

The thought of coming out and telling Derek and Aaron that he wanted to be in a relationship with them was still unnerving. There were a lot of things he still had reservations about, not the least of which was how it would effect the rest of the team. He thought that JJ and Garcia would understand, but he wasn't so sure about Gideon. Gideon had been slipping further and further away it seemed, lost in his thoughts more often and slipping away on pack nights to go run through the woods by himself. Spencer hoped that Gideon would be happy that Spencer had found somewhere he was wanted, but he worried that it might only make Gideon feel more isolated from the rest of the pack.

Spencer spent most of the day in thought while he flipped idly through various books that were around the house; he'd already come to his decision, now all he had to do was talk himself into it. Derek and Aaron came home well before dinner, Aaron moving into the kitchen to cook and direct his thoughts away from their work while Derek joined Spencer in the living room and flipped on the tv.

The sound was on mute and Derek hardly seemed to be paying attention, so Spencer figured it was probably alright if he spoke. "Derek, can I talk with you and Aaron tonight? After dinner maybe?"

Derek turned to look at Spencer, taking in everything from his posture to his tone of voice in a split second assessment. "Sure. Do you want to talk now? I can get Aaron."

Spencer shook his head. "No, after dinner would be better."

"Okay," Derek said. He went back to watching the basketball game that was on though his attention wandered to Spencer more frequently now.

They ate dinner in a companionable silence and Spencer decided that Aaron seemed like he was in a relaxed enough mood for conversation. After they cleaned up the kitchen, though Derek and Aaron both tried to wave away his assistance, they all went back into the living room. Spencer sat in the armchair again, his feet up on the seat with him but not holding his knees up near his chest. Aaron and Derek sat on the couch, Aaron apparently already aware of Spencer's request to Derek.

"What's on your mind?" Derek asked, prompting Spencer with a small smile.

"I've been thinking about what you both offered a few weeks ago, about," Spencer faltered, a dozen words that didn't quite meet his needs suggested and dismissed in a matter of seconds. "About including me in your relationship," he finally settled on.

"Okay," Aaron said when Spencer didn't continue. "That offer still stands."

"I want to say yes. That's what I've been planning on saying, but I have a question first. Actually, I have a lot of questions, but only one that really matters right now," Spencer said. He realized he was using the fingers of his left hand to rub nervously against the knuckles on his right and forced himself to stop. "What are your expectations of me, if I say yes?"

Derek and Aaron looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Spencer.

"No expectations," Derek said. "We'll just see how things happen. If you don't want to do something, say so. If you want to try something, say so and we'll see what we can do."

"We'd take things slowly. I don't expect that our individual relationships with each other will be the same. The way I interact with Derek will be different than the way you do, and so forth, and all of that will evolve over time," Aaron explained. "But essentially Derek is right; no expectations. Just be yourself and being willing to try. That's all."

Spencer took a slow breath and nodded. "Okay. Yes." He forced himself to keep his gaze up so he could see Derek and Aaron's reactions.

Derek smiled and held out his hand. "I'm very happy to hear you say that. Come over here." It was the most relaxed Spencer had seen him since they'd left for Plymouth.

"If you want to," Aaron added, though he was smiling too.

Spencer untangled his legs from the chair and walked over to the couch. Derek pulled him down so that he was sitting between them and after a few minutes Spencer found that even though he felt uneasy he also felt safe and protected. "Now what?" Spencer asked.

Derek shrugged. "Now we keeping going one day at a time, all together."

"I can do that," Spencer said, startled and relieved to realize he thought that he could.

*****



Epilogue

The weather was unseasonably warm for the first week of May and Spencer's feet were bare as he sat on the front steps to the house. There was a slight breeze that kept pushing Spencer's hair into his face and the fourth time he used his left hand - his right hand was busy holding an unopened envelope - to brush it away he wondered if he should get it trimmed. He didn't really want a hair cut, he liked his hair long, but decided that he could ask Derek and Aaron and see what they thought. He could feel Aaron in the kitchen with Garcia at the counter, two presences close enough that he could separate and identify them. Every now and then Aaron said something and Spencer could catch a word or two.

Derek was further back in the house, maybe in the living room or the dining room, and JJ was in Aaron's office on the phone. He couldn't hear anything from either of them but he could feel Derek moving about every five minutes. Spencer thought that he would go to him in a little while, try to distract him or convince him that they should go running in the forest. Aaron had only recently let Spencer join the pack as they ran and even then curtailed them before they went too far from the house. The memories of running in his form weren't much more than a vague wash of smells and textures, damp underbrush and his paws digging into the ground as he raced through the trees with a group of wolves surrounding him. He flexed his hands at the memory, the envelope crinkling a little before he released his muscles and smoothed the paper flat again.

He could only just feel Gideon now, moving further and further west and out of the city. Spencer had been concentrating on holding onto his presence for as long as he could, otherwise he wouldn't even be able to pick up a direction from him. Gideon had told them at the beginning of the week that it was time for him to leave and that the majority of the preparations had already been made. No one had tried to make him stay, not even Garcia who had hugged him and walked away before he could see her tears. Spencer suspected that Aaron might have privately spoken with Gideon about staying with the pack even if he didn't stay on the team, but if he had it had been unsuccessful.

The night before Gideon left Aaron had held a final pack night and they'd stayed awake most of the night. Spencer thought it wasn't unlike a vigil. Gideon was leaving and in Spencer's experience once people left they were basically ghosts - only their names and memories could stay behind. Gideon had pressed the envelope into Spencer's hand that morning on his way out the door, a single suitcase the only thing he'd seen fit to take with him. There was only one question that Spencer wanted to ask, only one that mattered: why? He knew some of the answer, could guess at other parts of it, but the rest of it he doubted even Gideon knew. At least he'd been able to say goodbye, which was more than Spencer usually was allowed to say.

Spencer tipped his head up, his eyes unfocused as he reached across the rooftops of the surrounding suburbs. Gideon was gone, the last tendrils Spencer had been able to hang onto slipping away as Gideon sped off into the world. A moment later he heard the front door open and Aaron sat down on the steps next to him.

"Are you alright?" Aaron asked.

Spencer nodded and turned to look at Aaron. There was a significant part of him that wanted to ask if Aaron or Derek would leave too; not today or soon, but if some day there would be something that would drag them away from him. It wasn't a question he would ever ask and Aaron could no more predict the future than he could, but he turned it over in his mind like a smooth stone that had its edges worn away by being touched constantly. Aaron placed his hand on Spencer's knee and after a few seconds Spencer put his hand over Aaron's. Aaron's skin was warm to the touch and Spencer realized that it was colder outside than he'd realized.

Derek joined them, sitting a step lower than Spencer so he could turn and face them. "Are you going to open that?" he asked, nodding to the envelope Spencer was still holding.

"Maybe later," Spencer said. He didn't know if he wanted to read what it was that Gideon hadn't been able to tell him directly. Either way he had plenty of time to do decide. "Can we go running later?"

"Sure. You know, one day you're going to be able to outrun all of us," Derek said, gently bumping Spencer's leg.

"I should hope so," Spencer said, managing a wry smile.

Aaron squeezed Spencer's knee and stood. "Come in, Garcia and I made breakfast."

"I'll be there in a moment," Spencer said, grateful when Aaron and Derek were willing to go inside and give him another few minutes by himself.

Spencer reached one more time, nearly stumbling from the low steps when he couldn't find Gideon's presence anywhere in the area. He hadn't been expecting Gideon to have miraculously returned but he'd gotten used to constantly feeling five pack members nearby. One by one, Spencer located the members of the pack and re-centered himself around them. When he was done he got to his feet and went inside, closing the door without looking back out towards the west.

*****

The first night Jason made it as far as just west of Lexington, Kentucky. He had no specific destination in mind, no safe place, no sanctuary he was driving towards. He hadn't left because he'd had somewhere to go, he'd left because he couldn't stay. He avoided the major cities, pulled off the freeway in small places where the main road was the only real road, and left again as soon as he'd refueled.

Each time he started his engine again he'd hesitate with his hand over the turn signal. He could go back; he was less than a day away from what had once been his pack and his home. He had no doubts that if he needed the pack, if he called them, they would circle around him just as they would any pack member. He wouldn't call and he wouldn't go back; each time he turned left and went back out onto the freeway. East bound for now, maybe further north as the weather grew warmer.

Once, Jason had a wife and a son, before he'd realized who he was and where he needed to be. Then he'd been two men; a husband and father, and a federal agent and member of a wolf pack. The years before he'd joined the FBI he'd run alone, slipping out in the night on four paws and back home on two feet before the sun had risen. Eventually his wife had gone and taken his son with him, unable to love and live with a man who was only half there. Jason had found them before he'd left his pack. He had addresses and a town halfway across the country burned into his mind. He would never go there either.

Jason believed that in most respects people were immutable. They grew and became and then they were whatever it was that they had finally become. Years and years of studying people, their minds and their thoughts, how they saw and how they were seen, and Jason had never found anyone to be who they were not. He could only be who he was; a man and a wolf.

He found a small motel at the edge of the town; paid for his room but left his bag in his car. Shifting was a single fluid thought, his human mind falling away and the rush of fur and sensation racing to fill its place. He left the motel room door cracked open and slipped out into the night, the small area of dense trees nearby enough of a refuge for the time being. North, some part of him decided as he lopped through the trees, he would go north in the morning.

The End