"Gideon, I think she could really be an asset to the team here - "

The elder man stopped dead in his tracks, sighing heavily as he spun around to stare at Spencer with an indiscernable expression. "You understand the danger? You know she could get hurt? This isn't a playground, Reid, we don't need any kids running around here."

The young male shifted awkwardly, reaching up to brush his hair out of his eyes. "She's smart, she's resourceful... you could keep her near people like you, or Morgan, who could make sure nothing happened- please, Gideon, just give her a chance..."

Gideon leaned against the stairwell railing, his gaze focusing on something in the distance. After a long moment of silence, in which Reid nervously shifted on his feet, the elder man spoke. "Alright. We'll give her a test run..." He watched as Reid's expression lifted, his own face betraying none of his thoughts. "...but you're responsible for her and you get to tell the rest of the team."

Gideon turned, heading for his office as Reid glanced down at his colleagues and friends, his smile fading some at the thought of having to explain why a sixteen year old was going with them to solve a case involving a serial killer. That smile was nearly gone entirely when he realized 'the rest of the team' not only included Derek and J.J. but... Hotch as well.

Perhaps death would be easier. Innocent people wouldn't have to continue suffering because of the actions of other less innocent people, but then again those people were the reason that profilers existed in the first place. Someone had to stop them because whether or not death would be easier for these people or not, people didn't think like that. The survival instinct was too strong. No matter how beneficial it would be if people like those who were confined behind bars became more humane or just ended it; the world didn't work that way.

The sound of her phone ringing broke Skylar Reid out of her thoughts and she quickly hopped off her bed. Discarding the book on criminology on the mattress, she plucked her phone off the old mahogany dresser and glanced at the caller ID to see that it was her brother, Spencer, who was calling.

A smile graced her light pink lips and she flipped the baby blue phone open, holding it to her ear. "What's up, Spence?"

"You're not afraid of flying are you? You- you know, two researchers estimate that approximately one in three adults in the world fear flight. Yet, the statistics of being on an airline flight that results in at least one fatality is 1 in 3.4 million on 78 major world airlines, 1 in 10.0 million on the top 39 airlines with the best accident rates, and 1 in 1.5 million on the bottom 39 worst accident rates. An-and the odds of being killed on a single airline flight are 1 in 4.7 million, 1 in 19.8 million, and 1 in 2.0 million-"

Skylar quickly interjected. "Spencer, what's going on?"

"Right, um, sorry." He chuckled nervously. "You need to pack a bag and meet me at the airstrip. I'll explain later."

"Alright." She drawled as she pulled her midnight blue duffel bag out from under her bed, going over to her dresser and pulling some clothes out before putting them neatly into the bag. "Meet you there. Oh, and the neighbor brought his dog over into our yard again. And didn't clean up after it."

"I'll talk to him about it again, but I actually have to go. There's something I need to speak to Hotch about, but I'll see you later. Love you."

"Love you too, Spence." She murmured before closing her phone with a snap and tucking it into her back pocket. She turned on her heel to examine the rest of the room, eyes skipping over several perfectly aligned objects before falling upon her bookshelf, and then her desk. "Books, pills..." she muttered to herself, crossing the room and scooping up the bottle of citalopram capsules before gathering her criminology books and placing them on the bed. She quickly had them organized, tucking them into her bag and turning to sweep the room one last time. Seeing nothing else she needed, she took a deep breath, zipped up the bag, and headed out, locking the door tight behind her.

Sliding into her black Chevy Impala, she set her bag in the passenger seat and pushed her car keys into the ignition, twisting them and smiling as the engine rumbled to life. The car was possibly the best birthday present Spencer had ever gotten her, she thought as she pulled out of the driveway and headed for the airstrip. It had actually been quite a surprise since she knew he was very skittish about letting her behind the wheel of a car even after she had gotten her license. Just because she'd run into a tree, didn't mean she couldn't drive.

Half an hour later she pulled onto the airstrip and after killing the engine, she pulled out her phone and dialed her friend, Angie's number.

The plucky blonde picked up on the third ring. "Hello?"

"Hey. My brother and I are going on a trip, but I don't have anyone to take my car home. Would you be willing?" Skylar hooked her bag onto her shoulder and exited the car as she held her phone to her ear. Spencer wasn't here yet, but she was fairly sure he would soon arrive.

"Sure. Just text me the address and I'll be there in an hour." The other girl said in her bubblegum girl voice before she hung up. Skylar wasn't sure if she would consider Angie a close friend, but she was certainly helpful in these types of situations and she wasn't worried about Angie stealing her car since she knew her friend hated it and only kept the spare key since she knew Skylar would shave her pretty blonde locks off of her head if she lost it.

Skylar headed around the front and perched on the hood while tucking her keys into her pocket. As she sent the location of the airstrip to Angie, she brushed some of her brown curls out of her face before zipping up her red hoody. Once done, she set her phone down on her bag and settled onto her back so she could stare up at the starry sky.

It was difficult for her to imagine that there was more than a billion other stars and planets and things in general up there. And what was more mindboggling about space was that Earth was the only planet known to support life. The prospect of that being true was rather lonely.

After a time, the sound of footsteps and voices approaching broke into her thoughts and she lifted her head to see who was coming- only to grin upon seeing Spencer alongside an older male that had to be Gideon.

Spencer had short light brown hair that was neatly tucked behind his ears, hazel eyes, and pale skin. He was kind of gangly and was dressed in khaki pants, a red longsleeved sweater and had a large FBI jacket on.

Gideon was slightly balding but for the most part his short dark brown hair was kept fairly well. He had dark kind eyes and was wearing a striped button up shirt and dark jeans with a long coat over top.

"Hey, Sky. This-this is Special Agent Gideon," Spencer introduced as Skylar hopped off of the Impala and walked the few steps over to them, holding her hand out to Gideon. "Gideon, this is my sister, Skylar."

Gideon shook Skylar's hand once firmly, examining her with a stern gaze. "Reid tells me you've studied profiling extensively?"

"That would be correct." She answered, letting her hand drop to her side. "I've done some independent study and have also taken all of the required classes."

"And yet you're only sixteen... quite impressive, if I do say so myself. You clearly take after your brother some in that regard. Come on, wheels up soon. The rest of the team should be on the plane." With that he walked off towards the plane, leaving Spencer with her.

She turned to stare at him as he grabbed her bag off of the car hood. "Is he serious? I'm going with you guys?"

Spencer smiled in response before heading for the plane with her following behind and together they ascended the steps.

On the outside, Skylar was positive that she looked cool and relaxed but on the inside she was a mess of nerves and excitement. She was nervous due to the fact that though she knew a lot about the people that Spencer worked with, she had never actually met them before and was unsure how much they knew about her.

This meeting would definitely be interesting.

As she came into the view of Gideon and the two other Agents who were on the plane, she felt her heart jump into her throat as she thought of what to say. She could always just introduce herself though it would make sense that they knew who she was since she was joining them on the case or she could make some offhand comment. Then again she could just stay silent and see what happened.

The first man she saw was black and had a stubble of a beard and moustache, his eyes were dark brown and he was wearing a suit without the suit jacket. When his eyes landed on her a look of deep confusion spread across his features and he quickly glanced over to Spencer who was setting her bag on one of the seats.

The second man was white with dark brunette hair and dark hazel eyes. He was also dressed in a suit. He didn't seem to be surprised by her presence though the way he was studying her made her feel as though she was being judged and she knew that this was probably the case.

"Uh, Reid?" The darker man said, turning to Spencer. "Care to explain what's going on?"

Skylar stiffened slightly as he motioned towards her and she realized her brother hadn't exactly told them about this. Then again maybe she should've expected this. She knew Spencer was very awkward in situations like telling the people he worked with that his kid sister would be joining the team. Glancing over to the other man, she assumed that he was Hotch and the darker skinned man was Morgan. One person Spencer would have had to tell about her existence would be his boss and Hotch definitely qualified as that. Her theory was backed up by the fact that he wasn't surprised to see her.

Gideon looked up and glanced between them before his gaze fell on Spencer. "I thought I told you to tell them?"

"I- well, see- I t-told Hotch, a-and besides- you never- you never specified when I had to tell them-" Spencer stammered in response, clearly uncomfortable being questioned and confronted by both Morgan and Gideon.

Skylar glanced to her brother before turning back to Morgan. "Right. Well, this is awkward." She flashed a brilliant smile as she folded herself into the seat next to her bag. "I'm Skylar, Spencer's sister and also your new team member. "

Morgan's brows shot up in surprise at the nonchalant answer, his gaze shifting from her to Gideon, Hotch, and then Spencer, as if waiting for someone to announce the prank. When nobody did, however, he sat forward some, rubbing his temples.

"Are you really going to tell me that nobody else sees a problem with a teenage girl going with us to confront a serial killer?" he asked, looking primarily to Hotch since he seemed the most reasonable.

"I've taken the classes and gotten the credentials necessary for this job, along with taking some defense classes." Skylar said before anyone else could answer. She had to earn her place by herself and this was where that process started. "I'm just as capable as you are."

He glanced between all of them quickly before his gaze settled on her again. "Alright." He settled his arm on the table in the position for armwrestling. "If you can beat me, I'll believe you can deal with one of the people we hunt."

Skylar suppressed a smirk as she placed her hand in his, resting her elbow on the table. If he wanted proof, she would give it to him. "On three?" She questioned, though she knew he would probably try to take her off guard.

"Um-" Spencer started but Skylar cut him off with her free hand.

"It's fine, Spence." She murmured, glancing over to him and flashing a mischevious smile. "We'll have to get to know each other eventually."

"One, two,-" Morgan counted before pushing on her hand on two. She tensed the muscles in her arm, resisting though she knew she would never be capable of slamming his hand into the tabletop with her strength, but then again that wasn't her goal. She could tell that he wasn't going full out and as she continued resisting he started putting more effort into it and as her arm started inching closer to the table, Morgan's expression becoming a tiny bit smug, she smirked and swung her leg forward under the table to kick him in the shin. It connected and while he was shocked by pain she slammed his almost limp hand into the table.

Morgan slowly pulled his hand back and slipped it under the table to rub his now stinging shin, looking a bit embarrassed after having been shown up by a girl. The rest of the plane was silent for a moment- before quiet, muffled snickering could be heard from Spencer's direction. Gideon was smiling some, giving Morgan a look of amusement before looking out the window of the plane, and even Hotch had a small smile on his face, before he spoke up.

"You never did say she had to play fair, Morgan," he commented, before looking off as well, leaving Morgan to shoot a teasingly threatening look at Spencer and a nod of acknowledgment to Skylar.

"Alright, kid, you're good, but the criminals aren't going to be challenging you to an arm wrestle- be careful." With that Morgan returned to his original seat.

She nodded before she turned to Spencer. "What's the case we're working?"

Spencer quickly turned and pulled a file out of his bag before moving over to the seat Morgan had just vacated and sat down. Hotch was sitting in the seat parallel to him and Gideon and Morgan both got up and moved closer so they could hear better what Spencer had to say. Morgan wound up leaning on the back of Hotch's chair while Gideon stood in the aisle.

"People are calling him the Seattle Strangler and he's killed four people already." Spencer started and she knew the others already knew this and he was saying it for her benefit. "He keeps them alive for seven days before this happens." He pulled out a picture from the file and presented it to her. She didn't miss the cautious glances she got from Hotch, Gideon, and Morgan and she assumed they were probably worried about her seeing the pictures of people she knew to be dead. However, she was sure it wouldn't be a problem. She would just pretend it was a screencap from one of the shows she watched.

The girl in the picture was blonde and had a wire wrapped around her throat with a hammer lying across her throat. The woman's hands and arms were bound and her legs were sprawled out in no particular pattern.

"The hammer allowed him to control the rate of suffocation." She murmured, glancing up. "He's most likely a sadist. This suggests he enjoyed prolonging their suffering."

"His first victim was twenty six year old Melissa Kirsh." Spencer said while still looking down at his file. Gideon came back over to stand by Morgan as Spencer spoke. "Stab wounds, strangulation."

"Wait, wait. Back up, back up." Morgan said, leaning against the back of Hotchner's chair. Spencer glanced up at him. "He stabbed her and then strangled her to finish her off?"

Skylar frowned and turned to look at Morgan. "It would have to be the other way around."

Gideon looked over to her, looking almost like he was testing her. "How do you figure?"

"Well, from where she was stabbed she would have died rather quickly so he wouldn't have been able to strangle her to death after stabbing her. She would already be dead." Skylar responded, thinking over the scene as she spoke, playing it in her head like some horror film, until Gideon startled her out of her thoughts.

Gideon turned to Spencer again, speaking in the way that a teacher would. "Why do you think he started using the belt with the second murder?"

"Strangulation with your bare hands is not as easy as one would believe." Spencer responded, looking up at all of them. "He tried, probably found that it took too long..."

"So he stabbed her instead." Morgan said, looking away from Spencer.

It made sense. And that's why he decided to go with the belt, it was easier and allowed him to still enjoy their deaths.

Hotchner nodded a little. "And realized it would be hours cleaning up the blood."

"Next time our boy's got a method-the belt." Morgan tacked on as he turned to Gideon.

"He's learning, perfecting his scenario." Gideon said after a nod at Morgan.

"Becoming a better killer." Skylar murmured as she looked back to the picture in her hands. "But at the same time, he's bringing us closer to catching him."

By the time they were done profiling and had been told to get some rest, Skylar found she was too nervous to even have a chance of sleeping so she quietly pulled out one of her books and flipped it open to the page she had stopped on, starting to read as she pulled a pen from her bag. The page that she had read previously was covered in the notes she'd taken. Most people that saw the writing that covered her books from front to back gave her strange looks but she didn't care. She was making the books more organized or she was correcting an inaccurate statement. It was calming to her.

Just as she was about to make a note on the probablility of someone being drained of blood in three seconds, the book was yanked out of her grip and she looked up to see Spencer closing it with a snap. "What did you do that for?"

"You need to get some sleep." He said, setting the book back in her bag and sitting back down. She felt slight anger rise in her but she pushed it back down as she glanced around the plane, her gaze landing on Morgan. He was shooting curious looks at her and Spencer and she suspected that he was profiling her. Turning her gaze back to Spencer, she absently wondered what Morgan would come up with.

She glared, but dropped her pen back in her bag. "I can't sleep."

"Have you been anxious, stressed, or depressed lately? Those three emotional states tend to cause at least half of all insomnia cases. Your medication could also be causing trouble. Have you tried different positions? It might help. Or tea. Warm tea has a certain calming affect that could help." Spencer told her quietly, his head swiveling around to look at her with a worried expression.

Skylar glanced up at her brother before leaning back in her chair. "No, no, and no. I'm fairly certain it's due to the medication and I'm not actually sure how many different positions I can sleep in on a plane. I'll be fine. Promise."

Gently kissing her on the forehead, he ruffled her hair a bit. "I know it's hard but at least try to get some sleep. For me."

Skylar turned her head to look at him before resting her head on his shoulder. "Alright. Love you, Spence."

"Love you too, Sky." He gave her a brief hug before rising and going over to sit in a different seat. After rearranging her bag by her seat, Skylar stretched out across the seats and closed her eyes, hoping the sound of the jet engines would help lull her to sleep.

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