White Rabbit - A Criminal Minds Fic

One

"Well, that concludes all the time I have for questions. Thank you all so much for listening. As I said earlier, if any of you want me to have a look at your papers, please bring them over and leave them on desk. I'll have them back with Professor Frost by Monday."

Spencer looked out over the auditorium and gave all of the attendees a wide smile.

He genuinely enjoyed lecturing, feeling that if he did ever leave the BAU, it would seriously be something he'd consider doing. Although not many guest lecturers would offer to take the time look over students papers, because of his super quick reading ability he didn't mind doing it. He enjoyed reading the thoughts and theories that these fresh young minds came up with, some of them had excellent ideas and would go far in their respective fields once they graduated.

Professor Frost rose to the podium and spoke out to his students.

"Class let's thank Dr Reid for his time, and let's try not to give him too much homework, he does have lives to save after all."

The students laughed and gave him another round of applause before filing out one by one, only a handful of students, maybe a dozen in total, coming down to the front to leave him a folder, or a paper for him to glance over and provide his feedback.

One girl stood out. Whilst all of the other students smiled at him or thanked him, this one particular girl hesitated before tossing her folder onto the top of the pile and almost running from the room. She was a small thing, no more than 5ft 3 and she had dark brown hair which was pulled into a low pony tail. She didn't make any eye contact with Spencer before she dashed away.

Spencer glanced at the Professor to see whether he'd clocked her nervous display.

Professor Frost just shrugged. "Thats Alice. Odd little thing isn't she?"

"She seemed nervous."

"She's not normally that bad. She's just very quiet. She's very smart though, one of the best students in the class. She'll do well once she graduates, if she can get over her nerves."

The Professor thanked Spencer for his time again and Reid gathered up the folders and his own papers, and carried them out to his car getting ready to drive the ten miles from the campus to his home.

He looked around as he loaded the boxes into the trunk of his car having the distinct feeling like someone was watching him.

Because someone was. The girl the professor referred to as Alice was stood underneath a nearby tree, carefully watching him, shuffling her feet and fidgeting with her hands. Spencer went to wave at her, wanting to signal her to come over to him, maybe they could talk about why she'd been so nervous approaching him. Before he could, girl turned and fled, running across the grass quickly, her backpack hitting against her as she moved. He tried to follow her movements to see where she went but he could only see that she ran as far as the parking lot across the way before she disappeared.

How strange.

Spencers curiosity was piqued by her actions and he leant into the box in which he'd stashed the students papers. Hers was top of the pile as she'd been the last one to give hers in. He took it into the car with him, wondering if her writings would give him some indication into why she had such a nervous disposition around him.

What he saw when he opened the file made his jaw drop.

...

Alice had been binding her time, collecting article after article, carefully clipping them from the papers her sister Ellen had delivered each day, and printing out information from online.

She'd been certain that it was them, it had to be. She just didn't know what to do about it. Ellen and her husband Robert thought she was being paranoid but she was so sure she wasn't. She'd recognised those girls, perhaps not the names that they'd been given in the papers but she knew the faces.

Eight bodies in total. Alice hadn't recognised the latest girl, but the circumstances and the clothing had been the same. And when she finally managed to hack the police departments database, she found the justification she'd been looking for. The markings. She knew it was them. When she looked further back, she found more and more bodies, all with a similar marking, many before her time there and some during.

She had the proof she needed, she just couldn't do anything with it. What if they came after her? She'd spent the last five years constantly looking behind her, finally getting up enough courage to enrol in college, signing up for Criminal Psychology, perhaps in an effort to understand them better.

When she'd found out that Dr Spencer Reid, a renowned agent from the BAU in nearby Quantico was going to be guest lecturing, she knew she had to take this opportunity. Maybe he could help her. She just needed to convince him that she wasn't crazy, and that all of the bodies were linked. She knew she had something here, and if she was right, with any luck she'd be able to rescue Rebecca. If she was still there, if she wasn't another body dumped somewhere else that Alice hadn't read about.

Oh gosh, it didn't bear thinking about.

She just hoped he'd take her seriously.

If he even read her file at all.