La Petit Feu

Brushing hair off his face, Spencer rolled over looking at his alarm clock. He was running slightly late, he quickly rolled out of bed and climbed into the shower. Instead of spending the usual amount of time getting ready, and cleaning himself, he elected to make up the time now. He finished his shower, and getting dressed in his usual attire. Pulling on a dress shirt and vest before heading out the door jacket in hand, satchel bag slung over one shoulder.

Spencer's mind drifted to random things as he drove towards the Behavioral Analysis Units' office in Virginia. He had put on his jacket and loosely tied his tie around his neck before climbing into his car. Spencer was not a fan of commuting to work in his car, but was running late. After the drive, he pulled into the parking lot and found a empty space. He got out of his car and tidied himself up as best he could before getting his bag and heading up to the office. He was prepared for a normal day at work. Not that working for the FBI, and Hotchner ever was normal.

Spencer got out of the elevator and made his way to his desk. He planned on doing some light reading, while he waited for his assignment for the day to be given. On his way across the 'Bullpen' he noticed an unfamiliar face in the office. He silently wondered who the new woman was, and what she was doing here.

@ Jackson Wang.

Dawn stood waiting to be seen by Aaron Hotchner - she'd gotten there early so she could manage to make a good impression. Though with the way Emily sung her praises she doubted that the job wasn't her's. It wasn't that she was arrogant but she liked to be positive, and part of her really wanted this job. Getting married young was one of the dumbest things she'd ever done, now with her trust in others damaged - she didn't know if she'd ever find someone she could lean on again.

"Miss Andrepont," Hotch called from his office and she made her way up to his office and smiled. The meeting went well - he asked her some tough questions all of which she answered without hesitation - except one. And all he did was smile and ask her when she could start. "Is right now a valid answer?"

He nodded, "do you have a go bag?" he asked and she lifted it up. "Emily warned you?" a small nod from the shorter girl made him smile again.

"Welcome to the Team, Dawn - Come on I'll introduce you to everyone," he said motioning for her to follow him. If there could be an emotion to describe how she felt right now, anxious would be one of them. Meeting new people always made her uncomfortable, but this job would push that to the limit. Dawn had been apart of a agency that specialized in serial murders. However, from what she learned because guns weren't a commonality in Europe their murders were often a crime of passion and less often an act of whim.

"Everyone, I want you to meet Dawn Andrepont, she is from the serial murders agency in France - she worked with Prentiss for a while before deciding to move and work with us. Please welcome her, she'll be starting today," he said with a small smile.

@ A Drop On the Window

Spencer continued to read away quietly. His attention shifted from the new person in the office to his book. He wanted to get to work on something but, knew that until Aaron finished with her, they would just have to wait. He got comfortable, trying to put the random distractions out of his mind.

Hearing Aaron introduce the new team member he looked up. "Hello Dawn, hey interesting fact guys, The name Dawn has a number of origins and meanings, but they all focus on the theme of Awakening, or Aurora," he announced to the team. He stood up walking over to her offering her his hand.

"Spencer Reid, nice to meet you," he greeted her, before turning to let the others also greet her in turn.

@ Jackson Wang.

"It's a pleasure," she said smiling her french accent leaking through when she spoke english then shook his hand, "And you're right, my parents named me after the aurora," she said to him, "and la lever du soleil," (the sunrise) it had taken her five years to learn english remotely well but she found some words escaped her when she least expected it. Even switch back to french proved to be difficult sometimes.

the others greeted her and introduced themselves, "It's really nice to meet you all," she said to them.

@ A Drop On the Window

Spencer smiled sweetly at her nodding slightly. He knew a little French, and understood the gist of what she had said. He was honestly impressed with how little her accent leaked through given she had obviously just France a little while ago. He didn't bother returning to his seat, expecting they would be headed off somewhere on a case. His suspicions were confirmed when JJ called them into the conference room after everyone had greeted Dawn.

JJ led them through a suspicious series of deaths in Boston, which she suspected had a serial element to them. Spencer sat looking through the profiles of the victims and the police files of the cases. He asked questions and proposed a theory.

He looked over at Dawn, who at this point had been silent, "Dawn what's your opinion on the case? Do you think we're dealing with an organised unsub, or a disorganised one?" he asked.

@ Jackson Wang.

She looked at the file, "He's disorganized, there is no consistency in how he kills them except for one - the way the woman looks, he takes her when he sees her regardless of his chance of being caught," she said shaking her head a little. "Burning them, hanging , drowning them, malnutrition...starvation.." she trailed off then looked at them ,"These are all ways to rid a body of a witches soul, when I took a course historical witch trials in university they spoke about how you would burn, hang and drawn witches to be sure of their deaths,"

"We're dealing with someone who believes heavily in the occult and probably has extremist religious idealizations," she said to them.

Morgan looked at her, "she's right, I think I saw something about that on tv once - where do we go from here?"

"We get to boston as soon as possible to look at the evidence first hand - wheels up in thirty," Hotch said as he patted the stable and stood up.

@ A Drop On the Window

Spencer nodded agreeing with everything she mentioned, although he still thought it might be too early to jump on the details about witches, and the religious angle, but nevertheless she was right about the facts. He stood up and left the room to prepare to head to Boston.

He paused at the door, "I suppose your desk will the one across from me, it's the only empty one," he called to Dawn, the offer to direct her impled. He walked over to his desk and pulled out his go bag. "I'd be careful bring up witches and that stuff when we first land, some people get antsy about that stuff over here," he advised her. He knew full well though that if that's where the case ended up, they'd have to deal with it.

@ Jackson Wang.

She nodded a little, "Of course," she said to him as she grabbed her bag then lifted it onto her shoulder as they headed out to the car where it would take them to the air hanger. She sighed a little then pulled her seat belt on, she crossed her legs as she looked at the file making sure to soak in everything about the case. When they arrived to the hanger she walked to the plane waiting to board after everyone else, she'd been on a plane more in three days than she'd care to admit but she didn't mind flying all the much - it was better than driving in her opinion.

Spencer walked out to the car climbing in, he'd pulled out a guide book of Boston from his desk and was busy reading away. He was admittedly a little odd, he kept copies of guide books for all the states in his desk. He liked to be prepared whenever they flew out of State on a case. He put the book away as they moved from the SUV to the jet.

Once seated Spencer was sitting facing Dawn, he smiled softly. "So I guess you're fairly used to non-firearm murders, what with firearms being so rare in France," he commented.

He was intrigued by her, and wanted to get to know her skill set. Being the youngest on the team, and still not entirely comfortable in relation to carrying a weapon and personally apprehending suspects, he hoped she was a skilled field operator as well as an intelligent profiler.

@ Jackson Wang.

Dawn nodded a little as she looked at him and smiled a little, "It's a bit tricky with firearm crimes over in europe, but most of the time its a crime of passion. I don't want to make the murders here seem less vile but I feel when they have to be... creative their reasoning isn't often quick willed?" she said unsure if that made sense the winced a little.

"Sorry switching from french to English is confusing for me sometimes, I mean to say that they don't make the decision as quickly as perhaps they would here?" she offered as she looked at him, "from all of the killers I've spoken to, they all say it just...dragged on," she murmured thinking about her words before speaking - the last thing she wanted to was offend anyone because of a language barrier. Despite being fluent in both languages it was common for her to get words mixed up.

@ A Drop On the Window

Spencer nodded lightly, "Yeah I get that, rest assured though even over here, with easy access to firearms we've chased some truly sick individuals," he admitted. He looked over at the rest of the team for a moment, "I've come to realise that some people just prefer more, creative approaches to killing, and making their victims suffer," he added. He shifted slightly in his seat uncomfortable with some of the memories popping into his head.

"For some people it's not about what weapon is easiest to get their hands on, or cleanest, but which one makes the victim suffer most, those are the cases we normally get called for,' he explained. "Crimes of passion, our regular law enforcement seems to handle fairly well."

@ Jackson Wang.

Dawn thought about it, he was right - there were very sick individuals out there. A part of her wished there weren't so many that she'd have a job title specifically to hunt down those kinds of people. The world had become a truly morbid place, or had she been so wrapped in her love for Leon that she hadn't noticed, coming home to him after a long days work really put her at ease. The second he'd served her the papers and took the first flight out to China she knew he was tired of the waiting he had to do, losing the man she considered her soulmate had damaged her in a way she couldn't explain, realizing she hadn't replied she smiled sheepishly.

"I agree, the sickest people don't need a quick end to the suffering of the victims; they like seeing them suffer in ways only they have suffered in their minds," she said to him then sighed, "maybe one day we'll live in a world where our jobs won't be necessary, until then I will be here,"

@ A Drop On the Window

Spencer nodded looking at her, he was attempting to read her, gather information. He sat back and sighed softly, she was right of course, the world was a truly horrid place sometimes. He smiled softly at her trying to put her at ease still.

"Someone has to catch these people, illuminate some of the darkness in this world, but I don't think things will ever change," he admitted. He shifted in his seat, uncomfortable with how dark this conversation had become, "What I try to remember is all the positive things people do for each other, the sense of community that emerges after a disaster, how some people give everything to help those around them," he commented trying to lighten the mood.

@ Jackson Wang.

"Of course, look for the people helping - it always makes things look more hopeful," Dawn agreed with him wholeheartedly, there were a lot of things people looked down on; when things were bad people tended to become depressed or have thoughts of doubt - blaming people for not solving something sooner. Even she had caught herself doing some from time to time.

"So, what brings you state side?" Morgan asked out of pure curiosity, "I mean France sounds like a dream," he chuckled.

She shrugged, "Change of scenery perhaps...France was nice, but things change and sometimes moving on means moving out," she said lightly.

@ A Drop On the Window

Spencer nodded silently leaving the others to talk for awhile, he went back to reading the files. He was searching for anything they'd missed in their initial discussion. He buried his face in the paper work for the rest of the flight, only making small comments here and there, so the other's knew he was still listening to what was being discussed.

Morgan raised an eyebrow, "that's pretty cryptic, but I guess you'll elaborate when you are ready," he commented.

Spencer finally looked up when he felt the Jet bank around for landing.

@ Jackson Wang.

Dawn nodded, "I'm recently divorced, he couldn't handle me being gone so much," she said honestly, that wasn't what upset her - but talking about him in general upset her.

"Hiss loss," JJ said touching her arm lightly, understanding that the job was good at straining relationships - something she experienced herself and had ended Aaron's marriage as well. Dawn smiled at the blonde before holding onto the arms of her chair as they began to land, he least favorite part of flying.

Spencer looked up from the papers, "The sacrifices we make for this job, sometimes I wonder if any of us will find someone who can handle the separation," he admitted quietly. He wasn't a lonely man, in fact it didn't really bother him at the moment, his concern was ending up alone, with no one to care for him if he ever developed symptoms like his mother.

Spencer's mother had been struggling with paranoid schizophrenia since he was young, and had recently been placed in care home. Spencer was worried that he might also develop the disease.

He looked up at Dawn with a small smile, "maybe one day our collective luck will change," he said cheerfully.

@ Jackson Wang.

Dawn nodded a little as she laid her head back on the head rest as the wheels came in contact with the ground, "I certainly hope so," she said to him lightly as she let out a deep breath. When the plane was opened she stood up and grabbed her bag then followed them out onto the tarmac.

"From here we'll go directly to the police station, you can leave your things in the suv once we get there," Hotcher informed her as they walked over to the three black SUV's parked there - obviously all for them. She had to say while working in France they never got such nice cars.

Spencer nodded and let her disembark first, he had sensed she was uncomfortable with the landing. He picked up his own go bag, and walked with the team, "I think I spotted a connection with the victims, despite the variety in their physical characteristics," he announced. "I'll look into it once we get to the station," he added. He didn't want to voice his opinion without checking the accuracy of it, knowing it could misguide the teams profiling, and search.

Spencer climbed into one of the SUV's not really minding who he rode with, he looked across seeing Dawn climb in the back seat with him.

@ Jackson Wang.