Idle

It took one bus, a taxi and one trip to the coffee shop for Rex to build the courage and the nerve to entire the Quantico building. There had been a lot of avoiding of this place. She was still feeling jittery when she forced her limbs to open the door and enter it. It was a large place, much larger than she had imagined.

She took a small moment to figure out whether out if she would actually have to ask one of the people who were at the desk fairly close to the center of the ground floor. Looking at the doors and elevators that she could see without looking weird and out of place wasn’t exactly helpful. She probably could have found a schematic or blueprint if she really had the time for it. That wouldn’t exactly help her get into the good graces of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

She tightened the hold on her backpack that she had gotten on the small detour to her home. It was a wonder that it didn’t trigger any alarms but she again was grateful that there weren’t too many people around to scrutinize her.

Moving forward she asked the man at the desk if she knew where Penelope Garcia was. It would probably surprise a lot of people to know that she didn’t necessarily ask because she knew that Penelope was on the team with Reid. She actually knew her from something that Garcia herself probably was blind to until now.

“Who is asking?” The man stopped mid typing on his computer.

“I need to get some information to her.” Rex really hated talking about herself or explaining things but she could practically bet that she had to do both to even find her way up to the office that housed probably one of the most amazing hackers she had ever not met.

“I can’t give you access unless I have some information from you, miss.”

That was what she feared. Granted, she didn’t think there was much they could find on her. For one, she wasn’t in any database. She had no choice in that exactly but that was another one of those things that she would have to explain later when she had more time.

“Not even if it could help the case she’s working on. It’s really necessary that I get it to her.” Pleading was not her strong suit either.

“I need to see it first. If we trusted every person who came around vying to give information to our agents there would be several casualties.”

Rex sighed, turned around not really wanting to leave but there was so many guards around she wasn’t sure how she could not just walk out the door. She wasn’t lying about the importance so she had to find a way to get it to her. Calling Reid back had crossed her mind but she wasn’t sure if he was reachable at the moment.

She paced for a few minutes before she heard a distinct beep from the machine that she had to step through just to get in here in the first place.

“Oh, sorry. Forgot about the keys.” It was a man who looked familiar to her. It took her about two minutes shy of the time it took for him to step back through the metal detector to figure it out. The glasses, weird shirt and all over strangeness. He was a friend of Garcia’s. Ex-boyfriend. Kevin Lynch.

“Mr. Lynch.” She called his attention once he seemed to settle a bit and was about to walk off to his own area she supposed.

“Um, hello. Do I know you?”

“No. Sorry, I need your help with something.” She smiled politely at him as he straightened his form and pushed his glasses up on his face.



“I’ll see what I can do with it but there isn’t much here to go on. It’s like whoever did these vile things is good at completely wiping themselves completely off the map to the point that they don’t exist.” Garcia huffed in annoyance as she tried to vent her frustration to her favorite crime fighters who were almost all there in the little office they had taken over for the past week.

“I may be able to help with that.” The analyst was quick to turn around skewing the view from her friends.

She was puzzled by the girl who had seemed to appear out of thin air. She hadn’t even heard the door open. She looked past her at Kevin who looked both uncomfortable and sheepish. “She said she had something that could help your befuddlement. I couldn’t exactly say no to that.”

Penelope didn’t know what to say. She gave him a look that clearly gave him the idea that he didn’t want to catch her later if her irritation got worse. He quickly left after that.

“What did he--you mean when you said you could help? I don’t exactly let anyone in my domain.”

“I know. Sorry, that sounds creepy. I actually know you from this thing that is going to help you. It’s a program that I developed. I got these alerts about an hour ago and thought I should share it with you.”

Penelope looked at the girl with intrigue and confusion.

“I just need a monitor. I brought the rest with me. It won’t harm your fortress, I swear.” She was groveling for the most part but Rex knew that Garcia would feel better knowing that nothing of hers would be harmed with her program.

“You can use that one, sit in that chair.” Garcia turned back around and waited for this new person to show her what it was. It took about three minutes in total for her suspicion to get squashed and her face lit up.

The team however were greatly confused. They couldn’t see the girl who seemed to have drew a spark in their favorite tech of all things that concerned digging.

“No way! You’re Mistress Unknown! I have been using your software for years but you’ve never logged on since you put the first one up for free access.”

“I’m so confused.” JJ mumbled.

“Ditto.” Rossi said while Hotch just looked on with more interest once there seemed to be a large floating diagram in front of not only Garcia but around the room.

“What is that?” Morgan asked leaning in. The only person who hadn’t said a word was Reid. He seemed more befuddled than anyone at the moment.

“It’s called Excavate. A rather clever name if you ask me.” Garcia was practically bouncing up.

“Rex, you built this program?” Reid said suddenly causing all eyes to point to him and then the small sliver of hair that could be seen of Rex through the screen.

“Hi, Reid. Yeah I did about roughly twelve years ago.”

“You two know each other?” Hotch started while gesturing for Garcia to shift the camera over to the mystery girl who somehow knew both Garcia and Reid for two different reasons.

“Yep.” Rex nodded before getting up along with Garcia whose attention had went back to what she had been showing her.

“This looks more advance than the copy I have.”

“I changed it a lot. I just emailed you a zip file, now you have it. What you’re seeing here is all the information that I have on the case you’re working on. I don’t hack so this is why Excavate comes in handy.”

“What does it do?”

“It’s essentially a database that doesn’t strictly go off of keywords, names, or subject matter. It can find nearly anything that contains to a town, person, or idea and zone in on to a particular target and find everything that is found on the web and not on it. Probably something that works better than what you have, PG or should I say The Dark Queen.”

“I take no offense because this is amazing! How do you know about my alias if you don’t hack?”

“I have data on the program’s data itself. It comes in handy sometimes. I don’t really use it that often but…”

“You anonymously tip.” Hotch answered for her.

She turned back around and nodded at the man who seemed to be the boss over everyone. He had stern eyes and she had a feeling that she knew what he was going to do next once she finished explaining everything. It didn’t exactly motivate her but it was necessary to keep this going on the right path that it needed to go. They needed to catch a killer.

“Sometimes.” Rex was quiet for a moment as she waved away all the things that were popping up that weren’t as relevant as her cause. “You need to look into abandon farm houses and ranches in the area. There are a lot of spikes for bad deeds in those areas of the state.”

“You think it’s a pattern?” Reid chimed in.

“It’s possible. Anything is worth looking into if there is a common denominator. There seems to be here. Garcia should be able to look more thoroughly on her computer. This is what I have right now.”

Rex turned off the hologram like activity and ejected her flash drive from the foldable keyboard that she had stowed in her backpack.

“You keep all of that on a flash drive?” Garcia was so awestruck it was starting to scare Morgan and JJ.

Rex just smiled and shrugged about it. It wasn’t all that important, what was on it was always with her and that was what mattered the most here.

“Rex, was it?” Hotch brought her attention back to the monitor with the webcam that they were able to see all of this on.

“Yes, sir?”

“We’re going to need you down here. Garcia will get you on a plane.”

“Yes, sir.” Rex nodded before the screen went black and she sat down in the chair that she had started in.

That went exactly as she thought it would.

“He’s curious about you. Hotch is, Agent Hotchner actually. It isn’t every day that there is an overlap in two people who work together knowing one person unless they dated or something. He’s just curious, Rex. If Spencer knows you I think you’re good people. For me you’re good because I know your genius and I like it.”

“Garcia, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” Garcia was digging away on her computer as Rex had specified that she would. “What’s up?”

“What’s your first impression of me?”

Garcia stopped typing and turned to the younger woman who looked every bit as scared as she didn’t appear to be for all the ten minutes that it took her to awe her with Excavate.

“You’re not used to being the center of attention for every reason that none of us know but probably want to because of one genius named Spencer Reid. I think you’re afraid that you’ll find people who genuinely care about you because you don’t seem like a person who surrounds yourself with people. Truthfully if the circumstances weren’t that you were helping my team and I didn’t know about your genius I wouldn’t know what to do with you or what to say. I’ve seen people like you before or my screens.” She gestures to them. “The one thing I’ve learned in all these years of seeing the bad parts of it is that everyone’s story matters but their courage to tell them when they feel comfortable is just as important. I do like you, Rex and I would love to talk more about how you got into this business in the first place.”

Rex sat there for a few silent moment after Garcia had finished talking to her. She sniffled before bringing her head up to look at the analyst again. She asked Garcia because she seemed like the type to be able to see the genuinty in someone’s heart and she had been right about that.

“He’ll ask you to look into me, you know?”

“Of course. He doesn’t get you.”

“I don’t know if anyone does but you’re probably closer than most people.”

Garcia knows how hard it is to want to stay to yourself when you’re drifting through the pain of several different traumas. This is why she tells her what she does. “I know I won’t find anything on you. You’re a smart girl and maybe that’s what Reid likes about you. I don’t know your relationship but if history serves itself he values you for more than your intelligence.”

Rex likes Garcia for many reasons. One of her main reasons right now is that she isn’t judging her for anything that she hasn’t deduced already. She can see how hard it is for Rex to open up, but she’s also willing to give her a small piece of information.

“Reid likes me because I listen and he doesn’t know me. We met at a park. I know everything is about to change but I’m not sure if I’m ready for it to. I liked my spot on the bench where no one bothered with me.”

Garcia understood that. She grabbed the paper that would get Rex to the plane that was about half an hour from here. She’d get Sam to take her to the airport. She needed someone who could be trusted and she trusted him.