Dancing In The Morgue - Chapter 6

Spence Is Never Late

Long for me as I for you, forgetting, what will be inevitable, the long black aftermath of pain.

- Malcolm Lowry

Spencer Reid was late for work today, for the first time ever.
Derek Morgan looked up at the watch in the wall. Ten hours and forty-seven minutes. Spencer Reid was forty-seven minutes late. Never has it happened EVER before.

Emily Prentiss seemed worried. She kept gazing at the front door, waiting for a very clumsy Spencer Reid to walk past it, with his shoulder-length wavy light-brown hair curled up behind his ears, his brown leather messenger bag hanging from his skinny shoulder. She was expecting him to appear and immediately start talking, talking really fast, making it hard for his co-workers to actually process all the information he would give them in as little as a sentence. She expected him to walk right through that door with his beige button-up shirt perfectly ironed and his khaki pants that were a little too loose for someone as slim as himself, so he needed a belt to stop them from falling down his tiny butt. Emily Prentiss could not stop looking at the door, worry all over her dark-brown eyes. She seemed very tense, everyone could sense it.

"Emily, I'm sure there's an explanation for this." Morgan tried calming her down, placing his right hand on her shoulder, causing her to sigh loudly and glance up at him. She frowned, and he did the same. "In no time, Reid will be walking through that door, immediately catching us up on his scientific explanation for why he's late." Morgan smiled, a tiny smile that, somehow, comforted Emily, who smiled back at him.

Everyone looked worried. Even Aaron Hotchner, who always seemed to display no emotions at all, was visibly restless about Reid's delay. He had his elbow firmly on the desk, his head resting on his hand, like he was putting a lot of thought into something. Derek's guess was he was, like everyone else in that room, concerned about Spencer Reid.

Jennifer Jereau, a bubbly person, couldn't bring a smile to her bubbly face, as much as she tried to. Her bright blue eyes were filled with sadness. "I have a bad feeling about this..." she kept whispering to herself. "Spence is never late."

"Well, I'm sure Reid has an explanation for this." Rossi said aloud, making everyone look at him. He faked a smile and continued "But we have to start working. There is a potential serial killer on the loose."

Morgan bit down on his lip. He wanted to say something, but he stopped himself from doing it. He was going to say, angrily, that the last time they worried about Spencer Reid, he was kidnapped, drugged and tortured by a paranoid UnSub with multiple personality disorder. But he didn't say a thing. He didn't want to worry his team members any further.

"Okay, so five years ago..." David Rossi started with his nasal voice. However, he was interrupted by a bumping noise, like something or someone had bumped against something. All their heads turned to the door, only to find a very disquiet Spencer Reid. His hair was more messy than usual, his shirt was not perfectly ironed, his overall facial expression flooded with uneasiness, never seen on such high levels in Dr. Spencer Reid's face by any of his co-workers.

"I-I'm very sorry..." he started by saying as soon as he walked past the door. "I know I'm late..."

"Thanks Captain Obvious!" Morgan ironically stated.

"I... I had a problem this morning..." he started explaining, but then realized he should probably keep the explanation for later, since they were supposed to be working on a case. The case concerning Emily Bronson's mother.

Emily Bronson. That name kept echoing on Reid's head.

"Okay, so!" Rossi was finally able to expose the case, almost one hour later. "Five years ago, a woman was found dead in her home in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Her body was stabbed fifty times post-mortem, the murder weapon was found next to the body, covered in fingerprints."

"The fingerprints were later identified as being her husband's," Hotchner continued, standing up from his chair and joining Rossi next to the empty white board. Usually Reid takes care of writing the data on it. "an Arts teacher by the name of Richard Jonathan Bronson, a diagnosed schizophrenic, paranoid type."

"Twenty seven days later a body was found in the bottom of a public swimming pool, also in West Long Branch, New Jersey. The body was identified as that very same man, Jonathan Bronson. The body showed no signs of struggle, which is consistent with a case of murder/suicide." Jennifer, or JJ, finished exposing the case.

"The only witness we have is Emily Katheryn Brosnon, their daughter, who found her mother's dead body." Prentiss said. "This girl has been seen by Agents Morgan and Reid, who sketched a profile based on her behavior when he talked to her, a couple of days ago."
Everyone looked over at Reid. They were obviously expecting him to start talking about Emily's behavior and profiling her. He stood quiet, though. Like he was lost in his own thoughts.

"Reid?" Emily said aloud, looking at him, expectant.

He finally looked at her, realizing that the whole team was waiting for him to say something. He got up from his chair and began profiling Emily Bronson, his best professional face on, pretending he did not actually care about that girl any more than he cared about all the other girls on Earth who had witnessed such a brutal picture like the one of one's mother's dead body stabbed repeatedly, lying on the kitchen floor.



"KATHERYN ELIZABETH, YOU ARE OVERREACTING!" Nana Beth was, yet again, delusional, thinking Emily was her mother.

"Nana, I have to go, I have to go to work and you have to sit down!" She tried explaining her grandmother that she was delusional due to the Alzheimer's. But obviously, she failed miserably.

Nana was now gripping onto Emily's tank top, gripping as hard as she could to stop Emily from walking out the door. Aunt Daisy, who was watching the whole scene sitting in the couch, did not bother doing anything.

"Aunt Daisy, please!" Emily threw a desperate look over Aunt Daisy, who just took another sip of her black tea. She looked like she was enjoying the show.

"Nana, it's 6:30, I have a bus to catch!" Emily begged, trying to get rid of the old lady's grip on her tank top.

"YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!" Nana kept screaming. "YOU'RE NOT GOING OUT TO MEET THAT MAN!"

Nana thought Emily was Katy, and that she was trying to flee from home in order to go meet her boyfriend at the time, Johnny Broson. Emily's father.

"Nana, please...!" Emily was almost crying with the stress, managing to get Nana's hand off of her pink tank top. "I have to go..." she sighed and rushed to the door, banging it harder than she would have wished.

"That girl needs a boost of patience..." Aunt Daisy simply said, putting down her cup of tea, while Nana Beth sat on the couch, gazing at Grandpa's picture yet again.