-MAD WOMAN-
two!

in a war, the most dangerous
thing is to understand the
enemy. to understand is to
forgive.
- sergei lukyanenko

now - 6x02!

Out of the entire BAU, Wren was probably the best at keeping her emotions hidden. The team had teased her about it from the moment she officially joined the unit, but she knew they were only trying to dig deeper into her personality. Sure, Hotch rarely ever cracked a smile and Rossi masked how he felt with humor, but Wren was stoic when she wanted to be. She would gladly show joy and laugh with the team when the time was right. However, when something bad would happen, she would rarely bat an eye.

So when the team has less than seven hours to find Kate Joyce's body and their two suspects just passed their polygraph tests, it wasn't a surprise for the other members of the team to see her absolutely unphased.

She sat in the observation room as Rossi and Morgan interrogated Sydney Pearson while Reid and Prentiss spoke with Jim Barret. Wren was intrigued by the way Pearson was so insistent on the fact that he didn't do anything but Barret seemed to have a hard time even talking about Kate Joyce.

"Spader, what do you think?" Hotch asked her as he entered the observation room for the third time in as many hours to see her sitting on top of the table, watching Pearson closely.

"I think that for the most part, aside from the "she liked it" bits, that he's telling the truth," Wren admitted, swinging her feet as she leaned forward.

"What makes you say that?" her boss questioned the idea, brows furrowed.

"Well, when Rossi and Morgan started to talk about how she was killed, he seemed to shut down," she explained, pointing to the suspect whose eyes appeared empty of the confidence and pride they once held. "They're working him the right way, but he's tired and they're tired. If they don't have anything new to hit him with, we're going to run out of time."

"Did you see the photos?" he asked and she nodded.

"Barret was infatuated with Kate but she gave him none of her attention," the interrogations specialist recalled the photos. She hopped off the table and grabbed Pearson's phone. "I'm going to go talk to Emily and then focus on Barret. Pearson doesn't know anything about where Kate is from what I can tell."

He nodded in acknowledgment of her plan and when she opened the door, she passed the lead detective who took her place in the observation room.

Knocking on the door that held Reid, Prentiss, and Barret, Wren opened the door slightly and signaled for one of them to join her in the hallway. She expected Emily to make her way over to her but instead, Spencer stood up and left the room with her.

"What do you have?" he asked, looking down at the phone in her hand.

"Pearson's phone. Look at this picture of Kate and Barret," she told him as she turned the phone to face him. He studied the photo for a moment, his brows furrowing as he scanned the photo.

"She's not interested in him at all," Spencer agreed with her initial thought. "This could help, thanks."

"No problem. How is it going in there?"

"You're the interrogations specialist, aren't you supposed to be studying his behavior from the observation room?" he questioned her with a light smirk and she rolled her eyes as a smile danced on her lips.

"I'm trying to read two suspects at once, there's only so much I can do, Reid. Not all of us are as smart as you," she reminded him, starting to walk to where she came from.

"Yeah, but you're pretty close Dr. Spader," he teased and she flipped him off subtly before he went back into the room he was just in.

✦✧✦

After the whole team had come to the conclusion that the boys were telling the truth but not telling the whole story, Derek took Wren into the interrogation room with him to talk to Pearson, who was obviously tired, both physically and of just being there.

Wren held out his phone to him with the photo that JJ had realized showed Kate's phone in his backseat. After rubbing his eyes, Pearson looked at it as Morgan talked.

"This was after you dropped Kate at the motel, agreed?" Morgan asked him and Pearson nodded, agreeing with what he was saying. "It's your victory picture."

"So, Kate's gone, but her phone is right there," Wren pointed out to him and he looked a little closer, seeing the phone.

"And?" He asked, not even looking at Wren. She was a new face to him and if this were a couple of hours ago, he'd be cocky, confident, and more than willing to hit on her. However, after the hours of torment from Morgan and Rossi, he couldn't even look her in the eyes.

"We found it in her room," she said, watching his eyes widen slightly.

"Do you have any idea how it got there?" Morgan questioned him but he stayed silent for a moment.

"I-I," he stuttered. For the first time since the BAU arrived, Pearson stuttered. They were past the point of the storyline's ending so now he had to improvise.

Wren sat down in the seat in front of him, only adding more pressure to him as Morgan leaned against the table, asking him questions.

"Why did you take Kate to the inlet?" he asked the boy who was now clearly on the verge of panicking.

"To look at the boats," Pearson responded as if he were trying to convince himself of the statement.

"Come on, man, you know what happens down there in the middle of the night," Morgan pushed. "Sharks happen, Syd. And they clean up your mess, don't they?"

"Is that why you dumped her body out there?" Wren asked him with a tone that told Pearson that she already knew the answer. Her voice was significantly lower in volume in comparison to Derek's. Her level of calm held the purpose of making him feel trapped.

"No," Pearson began to mutter to himself repeatedly, trying to deny the new information.

"Did you dump her?" Morgan asked loudly, which got Pearson to crack.

"No! What? God," his words started to trail off as he sat up straight and ran a hand through his hair. What was once the verge of panic was now coming out in huffs of air and words of confusion. And for the first time, he looked at Wren. Confusion and fear were evident in his eyes and voice. "No, I didn't do that. I swear I didn't do that. I didn't- I didn't, I mean I didn't do that."

Wren nodded and watched as Morgan left the room, leaving her with Pearson.

"Take deep breaths," she told him and he did as he was told. "If what you're saying is true then Jimmy did this on his own and we need to find her to prove it."

He nodded vigorously, running another hand through his hair. Wren could see it all over his face that he had given up on the facade he held earlier in the day. He accepted that if they found Kate, he would be facing some sort of time.

"I didn't think that he would-" he started but cut himself off. "I knew she wasn't into him but to-"

The agent shook her head, telling him he didn't need to continue. "Continue to breathe," she said as she stood up. He nodded once and she left the room.

✧✦✧

Wren sat on top of Spencer's desk as she usually did after cases when they were waiting for everyone to be ready so they could all leave the building together. They were lucky to have found Kate Joyce alive but the aura around the BAU was anything but optimistic. She could feel the worry radiating off of the rest of her team. Each of them spared glances to the round table room which held Hotch and JJ. Rossi eventually came to stand by Wren as they waited. Everyone knew what was about to happen when JJ walked out of that room but none of them were ready for it.

Watching as Hotch left the room and made his way back to his office, Wren could feel her heart sink just a little bit. She hadn't been with the team long enough to know how the others were feeling about losing one of their own to something none of them could control. She could sense their sadness but she didn't know exactly what they were thinking about. She guessed she didn't really realize how close they all were until this moment.

She glanced across the bullpen to see Garcia standing there with the same heartbroken look that each of her teammates wore. She was tempted to go console her but Wren knew that no one could ease this type of pain. It was just something they would all have to deal with. Garcia eventually walked out of the room and Wren turned her attention back to the rest of the team.

And so they all sat and waited. Wren placed a hand on Spencer's knee to serve some sort of comfort and in an attempt to distract himself, he played with the rings on her fingers. It was a habit she was used to from him. In the seven or so months that she'd been on the team, Spencer and Wren communicated with physical touch when anxious.

Eventually, JJ approached them, and the ones that were sitting all stood. Emily's words announced her presence and they all gathered around the blonde.

"Wait a minute, I thought Hotch was supposed to-" Derek started but was cut off.

"It's above his paygrade," JJ said solemnly. "Strauss' too."

Wren and JJ met eyes for a moment with sad smiles. They weren't as close with each other as they were with other agents, but they had an appreciation for each other that was unbreakable.

"They can't just take you away?" Spencer asked but wasn't really expecting an answer. It wasn't fair that one day JJ would be with the team and the next she wouldn't.

"So, we do nothing?" Emily continued the questions without answers as JJ's eyes filled tears.

"It's done," she stated, doing her best to convince the team and herself that she had accepted it.

"It can't be that simple," Derek thought aloud.

"It is."

With each moment that passed by, Wren felt pieces of her heart chip off one by one.

"This job is hard enough. What are they trying to do, bury us?" he asked, looking towards the rest of the group.

"You're too good," Emily said to JJ with a sad smile. "That's the problem."

"It's true. You're on everybody's wish list," Rossi agreed.

"Mine too," Wren spoke up, watching JJ laugh lightly and look down. Seeing the blonde smile was enough of an achievement for Wren to feel like she was helping somewhat. "Look, if I could have my own personal JJ, I wouldn't turn that offer down." 

"Our loss is somebody else's gain," Rossi finished.

A brief moment of silence captivated the agents in the bullpen as they all searched for the right thing to say. None of them had it but Spencer spoke anyway.

"They can't just take you away," he repeated and each heart in the room shattered once again. JJ stepped over to him and placed a hand on his arm, which gave him more of a reason to hold back the tears that were forming.

After a couple of moments standing there, JJ walked over to Wren and gave her a hug. It made sense that she was first in Wren's mind. Get the one she doesn't know the best out of the way so she can focus on those she knows by heart. The hug between the two women was only a few seconds long, but they communicated their admiration for each other through it. Pulling away and looking into JJ's watery eyes should've been enough to get the brunette to start to cry as well, but she pushed it away for the time being.

When the time came for the team to leave for the night, she followed behind Spencer and Emily as the group of five walked to the elevator. The air around them was solemn and tense. It wasn't the first time the team had lost a teammate, but it was the first time they all had a proper goodbye. Wren could tell that Derek and Spencer were trying to figure out if the sudden disappearance or the formal goodbye was worse.