TWO TRUST ME

◥✥◤

BAU HEADQUARTERS
Three days later.

     "Spence?" Emily Prentiss spoke as she looked over at her colleague's desk where his leg was bouncing up and down frantically as he clutched a letter in his hands. "You okay over there?"

"Yes, perfectly fine," he spoke in a calm voice, but by his body language it was clear the opposite was true. Something in that letter was setting him off. "Uh, do we have a case? Something we could be doing?"

The conversation seemed to capture the attention of another colleague, Derek Morgan who peeked over the divider between their desks, saying, "Kid, clearly something's wrong. You're shaking like you've been out in the rain all night. What's in that letter?"

Spencer Reid's knuckles were white with the way he gripped the paper. It seemed like he was a moments away from ripping it into pieces. With a sigh, the man forced himself to relax as he began to explain. "My friend wrote me. My friend's niece, actually."

"You have friends?" Morgan asked with a small smile, trying to lighten the mood, "Besides us, I mean."

Spencer brushed this off with a serious look, causing Morgan to back off and realize that this clearly wasn't a joking matter. "He's been arrested for murder. The niece, Tensley, she's convinced he didn't do it. Theodore Baldwin. We grew up together, known each other since we were kids."

"Do you think he could have actually done it?" Emily asked, her voice serious as she eyed the letter.

Immediately, the man shook his head, "If he did, then I shouldn't be a profiler because that is something I never would have counted on. I need to find out more about this. I'm going to see Garcia."

Spencer stood abrubtly from his desk, the letter still in his hand as the paper wrinkled with how tightly he was holding. The other two agents stood as well, chasing Spencer out of the office as he raced to the elevator with a furvor that was not unusual for him. The three stood in the elevator as they headed down to Garcia's office, unsure of what Spencer had in mind. He seemed to not care that the other two were with him, but he wasn't going to wait for them as he stormed into Garcia's office.

"Garcia, I need you to pull up anything you can on a Theodore Baldwin, it's for a personal thing," Spencer instructed as he scared the girl who was just trying to eat a croissant she must have picked up on her way to work.

"Spencer when have you ever used me to look up something for you personally?" Garcia asked, but got to work regardless, "Um, okay, went to high school in... Las Vegas, Nevada. Isn't this where you went to school, Spence?"

"Yes, it's not important," the man shook his head as the other two agents entered the office, out of breath from trying to catch up with Spencer. The two gave each other odd looks, but stayed silent as they watched Garcia work.

The woman at the desk looked away from the agents and back to her computer as she continued listing what she found, "Okay, currently resides in Grand Junction, Colorado and is... currently under arrest for the murder of Jameson Wallace."

"Jameson," Spencer muttered as if the name was familiar on his tongue, "Jameson, I knew him, too. Give me everything on Jameson Wallace."

"Okay, Spence, you're confusing me, but whatever you say," Garcia continued with a sigh as she typed away. "Is this for a case?"

He shook his head and she continued, "Okay, Jameson Wallace. He lived in Winter Park, Colorado, he was thirty-five years old, him and his wife Wren were expecting, but she had a miscarriage about four months ago. Six days ago, the police were called to Theodore's house as Jameson and him got into a physical altercation. Three days later, a 9-1-1 call came in with Theodore saying he had woken up in the woods with no memory and found Jameson dead... an ax to the back."

"Was there a toxicology report ran on Jameson for the autopsy?" Spencer asked, his tone controlled as he looked at the information. "Emily, can you talk to JJ and have her contact Winter Park Police Department and see if we can in on this case?"

"Do you think his niece is telling the truth?" Morgan asked, sounding skeptical, "I mean, it sounds like Theodore blacked out and killed Jameson, the fight could have been the stressor. Garcia, did it say what the fight was about?"

The woman shook her head, "No, and no toxicology report that I can find. If there was one done, you would need to talk to the Medical Examiner yourself because it's not online."

"I know Teddy, he wouldn't do this. Something about this seems wrong," Spencer muttered more out loud to himself than to anyone in the room.

"I don't know, Spence," Morgan said with a sigh, "This seems like a pretty cookie cutter case. People who kill for the first time often experience blackouts and it's probably his brain repressing the memory of killing a good friend of his. It makes sense."

"Yeah, to a stranger, maybe," the younger man scoffed, "but to anyone who knew Teddy, this is about as outlandish as say... Garcia murdering someone in cold blood. Sorry, Garcia."

Garcia shrugged, "I mean, it's accurate. Besides, it seems the witness statetment that did him in was the wife, Wren, who told police that she witnessed it, but Theodore or... Teddy, says that last he remembered, she had mentioned something about going out with friends. It could be him trying to discredit her to save himself, but nothing has been proven either way. Jameson was apparently well-loved in the small town, so maybe that's why they were so quick to get someone put away?"

Spencer nodded, his eyes looking over to the agent who still looked unimpressed, "Morgan, trust me on this. I've known him for years, he has always been a strong guy, always tall and could demand a crowd, but he never once used that power to hurt anyone. He defended me pretty much the entire time I was in school. He wouldn't do this."

The man sighed, clearly looking unsure. Looking towards the woman at the desk, he asked, "Garcia, what do you think?"

"I think it might be worth checking out, especially with the lack of medical report and the quick arrest. It seems too easy," Garcia reasoned, looking from Morgan to Spencer. "And I'm ot just saying that because I love you, Spencer."

After a moment, Morgan nodded, "I'll talk to Hotch about it."

The man left the room and as soon as the two were alone, Garcia looked up at Spencer with worry in her eyes, "You really think he didn't do it?"

Spencer nodded, "I know it."

originally I was going to do this chapter from Tensley's perspective, but i thought it might be more fun to mix it up and do it from spencer's/the team's just so y'all can see the process. i'll be mixing up perspectives fairly often, kind of like the show does with some episodes but anyway im really excited for this story to start picking up hehe i got lots of fun stuff planned for this