To the Bone

As she sat in the passenger’s seat beside Morgan, Adeline was painfully tense. She must have looked like such a child, clinging to Spencer like that at the crime scene. And every time she thought of how warm and safe she felt in his arms, she became more upset with herself. She had to stay objective, this could be a huge accomplishment for her that could get her digs more funding. Besides, Spencer was a friend, a colleague who had called her down here for her professional analysis and nothing more.

She sighed softly, looking at the mountains as they drove down the interstate. She couldn’t get the crime scene photos out of her head. She thought of some poor person climbing through corpses, nearly dead, only to collapse on top of another victim. The image sent a shudder through her and Morgan caught it.

“What’s wrong Lady Doc?” He chuckled, her frown didn’t falter.

“What kind of monster could do that to so many people and get away with it? How does the guilt not drive them insane?” She rested her head on her knees, which she had pulled into her chest. Spencer and Morgan immediately read her vulnerable body posture and Spencer sighed heavily.

“I should have told you the extent of it.” Spencer muttered. “I’m sorry Adeline.” She shrugged, keeping her eyes on the road.

“I always asked you about being an associated scientist, you were just giving me a shot.”

“Well, Spencer never shuts up about you, so we figured you had to be pretty incredible.” Morgan teased. Spencer turned maroon as Adeline glanced back at him quickly before turning to Morgan.

“Really?”

“Really Really. Right Reid?” They both turned to see Spencer was now looking out the window, and Adeline cracked a smile. Morgan chuckled, glad to have made her more comfortable. The trio stayed relatively quiet the rest of the way to the North Bend police department, which was swarming with press. They reminded Adeline of flies on a fresh corpse as Morgan parked the car, Spencer finally looking up as she held the door handle.

“Adeline, get behind me and keep your head low, that way we can hopefully stop the press from getting any photos of you.” She turned back to him, surprised as he smiled softly. “Grandma Nuna would throw a fit if she saw you with the FBI.”

“That she would.” Adeline admitted. “She’d probably more upset they wouldn’t use the traditional game she gave me, just Dr. Foxley.”

She took a deep breath, waiting for Spencer to get out of the car and quickly walking behind him, keeping her head as low as she could as reporters swarmed, asking why the FBI was there. She just tried to cover her face, hoping that no one read Washington newspapers in Montana.

Finally they were inside and Adeline let out a huge breath, running a hand over her long braid. “I don’t know how you guys do that all the time.” She chuckled. “That was… a lot.”

“You get used to it.” Morgan said, shrugging. “Now, let’s have you meet the rest of the team.”

Adeline felt nervous, her palms starting to sweat as she followed Morgan and Spencer into a conference room where Spencer’s team, who she’d heard everything about and he treated like family, awaited. She felt like she might throw up from her nerves when she felt a familiar hand on her back. She looked up to see Spencer smiling at her.

“Don’t be nervous, you’re the sensei.” He whispered. She nodded, taking a deep breath and puffing out her chest.

“I’m the sensei.” She repeated, more to herself than anything. Spencer beamed at her, giving a joke bow before they opened the doors.

As she walked inside everyone turned to see her. She felt like she was guest teaching at the universities again as she smiled softly, giving a polite nod. With that most people went back to what they were doing, but an older man with black hair approached her.

“Doctor Foxley, it’s an honor to have you here. Reid’s told us a lot about you.” He extended his hand, which she quickly shook. “I’m Special Agent Hotchner.”

“Thank you.” She blurted out. All three men looked at her quizzically and Adeline could have kicked herself. The jetlag and her nerves having caused her to become tongue tied. “Thank you for helping Spencer get the clearance to have me help. I’m honored.”

“Well I knew he would need you.” He said, starting to guide her down a hallway. “I assume you’ve seen the crime scene photos?”

“Yes. I don’t want to waste any time. Some of these remains looks very old, so we may be dealing with someone who doesn’t have much longer left to be brought to justice.”

“My thoughts exactly.” He stopped, turning to a window and Adeline took in a sharp breath as she followed his gaze. There were at least a dozen tubs of remains in a large lab. Vacant gurneys left out for her to assemble the different victims. “Each tub is a grid on the map, there are 16 grid boxes for about a square mile, so you have a lot of work to do.” She nodded to herself, ready to get hands on.

“Let’s do this.” She said simply, opening the door. She grabbed a suit and pair of gloves, quickly putting caps over her shoes and sliding on a mask. There was so little left of some of these remains she didn’t want to contaminate them any further. Her long braid rested against her back inside the suit, making it look like her spine stuck out comically. She heard the door open and looked up to see Spencer following her lead.

She walked over to a printout of the map on the wall, photos of each grid next to it. She looked over each carefully, wondering where to begin.

“Deshi.” She said quickly. Spencer walked over. She nodded her head to the photos. “Where should we start?” She watched Spencer’s eyes flick back and forth, knowing the gears in his brain were working overtime, which was saying something for the boy genius.

“A4 looks the most recent. That’s where they found the intact skull.” He answered. “If we can get them assembled we’ll know what we’re looking for with the other victims.” He turned to her, and even though she had on a surgical mask, her eyes were smiling.

“I’m so proud of you.” She whispered. “You don’t even need me anymore.”

“I’ll always need you.” He said, more quickly than he would have liked. There was a long pause as they looked at each other, both of them wanting to say something, anything, to end this six year stalemate. Adeline wanted to tell him she would always be here, as long as he would have her, but she couldn’t.

There was already enough bad blood in her family from her mother running off with her father, and she didn’t want to alienate an entire part of her identity. Besides, what if he just dropped her for the next movie star and she had sacrificed everything for nothing at all? She needed to keep this professional.

Spencer wished in that moment that he was as confident as Morgan. That he could just tell her to come work with them so he could see her and be with her always. That he didn’t want to be her Deshi, he wanted to be her Koibito (lover) now and always. He wanted to watch her eyes light up when she got passionate about a dig, hold her when she cried, he wanted it so desperately, but he couldn’t put it into words. And before he could summon up his courage to at least attempt to put his feelings into a speech, Adeline quickly cleared her throat.

“Well, let’s find A4 then.”

“Right.” He agreed, both taking a step back and glancing at the ground. Adeline felt a shiver run down her spine from the way Spencer had been looking at her with his big brown puppy dog eyes. It was enough to make her knees wobble a bit as she searched for the A4 tub. It took both of them to get it down, and seeing the pile of bone shards made Adeline’s heart drop and brought her mind out of her silly romance and back to the case. These people had been slaughtered, left to die alone in shallow graves, and she’d be damned if she didn’t help find out who did this. They set it down next to one of the gurneys, opening the top.

The first thing Adeline saw was the skull, sitting atop the mass of remains like a crown. She picked it up, turning it gingerly in her hands. Her eyes scanned over the back, turning it until she was face to face with all that was left of someone. She ran her thumb over the crushed in cheekbone. But when she looked into the eye sockets, she paled at her realization.

Spencer saw the look of terror in her eyes and reached out, only to feel her trembling under his hand. “Adeline?” She stayed frozen. “Adie are you alright?”

Adeline was quiet as she held the skull in her small hands, a pained look on her face. There was a heavy silence in the lab as she looked over the worn skull and gently ran her fingers over the intact cheekbone. The jaw was broken, hanging loosely in what looked like a macabre laugh.

“So what do you think Doctor?” Spencer asked softly, trying to regain her attention. “Can you identify them?” She nodded, tears glimmering in her eyes like at the crime scene. Spencer wanted to hold her, but judging from her reaction in the forest, knew it was best to give her space.

“I know this face, Spencer.” She whispered finally. “I see it every day in my mirror.” She looked up at him, a tear rolling down her honey brown skin. “It’s the face of my mother, my grandmother…” She stopped, pressing her lips together tightly. “This is a Native American woman. And with the Snoqualmie tribe so close to the crime scene, I’d bet my life all these victims are also Native American women.”

They both turned, looking at the buckets of bone shards they still had to assemble. “But some of these,” Spencer paused. “Some of these are ancient, maybe over a hundred years old.” She nodded once again, more tears in her eyes. She looked back down at the skull, pressing her lips together tightly.

“Someone has been killing them for a very long time.”