Sincerity - Criminal Minds || Spencer Reid Fanfiction

7. Suspicion

By this time I was no longer very much terrified or very miserable. I had, as it were, passed the limit of terror and despair. I felt now that my life was practically lost, and that persuasion made me capable of daring anything." ― H.G. Wells

The Protector

I laid the flowers down by the headstone and stood back, sniffling and wiping away my tears.

I came here every week, to talk to her and cry. I felt like a fraud, crying by her graveside every morning before rifling through all of her things, trying to find evidence that she was still alive.

"You know, if somebody did abduct Melanie, you'd be the easiest next target." Her voice startled me at first, but then I relaxed as I realised it was just Emily.

"What makes you say that?" I mumbled in a thick voice, turning my head to see her standing three graves along, wearing a blonde wig and an over-the-top floppy hat and sunglasses.

"Emily?" I choked.

"I'm incognito," She sniggered. "I can't risk my two lives blending together right now," She explained, risking a glance over her shoulder. "I don't think anybody is following me, but I can't be too careful."

"What're you doing here then?"

"To speak with you," She said, turning back down to the headstone she was standing in front of.

"Your routine is impeccable, Spencer, you really should be more careful."

"What're you talking about?" I frowned in confusion, wondering whether she was making perfect sense and I was just too emotional to realise it.

"You and Jack take Matilda to school every morning and then come here for twenty minutes. Jack sits in the car whilst you talk to Melanie, and then you go back to the home that you and Melanie shared, and spend the entire day there, only going back to Beth and Aaron's when it's dark and dinner-time."

"How do you-"

"I'm undercover, Spencer, not stupid. I'm keeping tabs on everybody, you know."

I sighed and shook my head to try and clear it.

"So what are you suggesting? That I shouldn't do those things everyday?"

"No," She kneeled down at the graveside.

"You've been doing it for exactly a week now, if someone is watching you, it'll be easier for me to catch them." She shrugged slightly.

"So then what are you doing here?" I repeated, turning back to look at Melanie's headstone.

"I've infiltrated a branch of the NYTC." She said quietly and I looked at her so quickly my neck cracked.

"Emily what the Hell do you think you're playing at?!" I hissed. "That's ridiculously dangerous!"

"You think I don't know that!" She hissed in response. The cold temperature of her voice made me turn back to Melanie's headstone again.

"I have to do this, Spencer," She said bluntly. "There are no two ways about it. We need answers, and I'm going to get them. I'll meet you here, at the same time if I have any updates, keep coming, and be prompt."

She stretched to her feet and walked off before I could say anything else, still processing her earlier words.

Absentmindedly, I turned back to the headstone, kissed my fingers and pressed them to the cool marble.

"What was all that about?" Jack asked as I climbed back into his car absently.

"What?" I mumbled in confusion.