-MAD WOMAN-
thirteen!

the pain i don't say out loud
builds a home inside me
- olivia gatwood

now - 6x16!

Wren Spader couldn't help but feel paranoid about every little thing that happened around her. She was terrified that Ian Doyle was around any corner, just waiting for her to turn and face him. She opened every door with caution and always waited a few moments before getting in her car or entering a room she's never been in before. She didn't feel like herself. And she wasn't sure when she'd feel like herself again.

The brunette sat in one of the government circles in the D.C. area, already provided a disposable cell phone for the occasion as she awaited the final member of the party to join them. She kept her eyes on the newspaper in her hands, but she wasn't reading it. She watched in her peripherals as the figure of one of her coworkers pass her and goes to sit down by the fountain.

Before too long, the disposable phone by Wren's hand started to ring and she placed the device by her ear.

"I was beginning to think you weren't coming," Tsia's voice on the phone wasn't directed toward Wren, but she was relieved to hear the woman's voice nonetheless. She was practically sitting next to her, but it still felt like Tsia was a world away. "After what happened to Jeremy, I was afraid."

"Tsia, I'm so sorry," Wren expressed her remorse about the woman's late fiance.

"You can't be at his funeral. It's today, isn't it?" Emily asked.

"Well, that's the problem with marrying a member from your own team," the woman admitted. "One of you is a target, and so is the other. I get it."

"Doesn't make it any easier," the brunette with short locks stated.

"Hello, ladies," another voice was added into the mix and Wren immediately recognized it as Clyde's. He was standing across the circle, facing the street.

"All right, let's make this quick. I took a late lunch," Emily said.

"I made the excuse of a doctor's appointment but they're expecting me back soon as well," Wren added on.

"Well, come on girls, we all know I'm not quick about anything," Clyde told them and Wren rolled her eyes.

"I don't know. What about that time I blew my cover in Prague?" Emily asked him. "You took out that sentry before I could even draw my weapon. You saved my ass, Clyde."

"I'm surprised you remember the little people from your Interpol days now that you're a posh FBI profiler," the man responded. "Both of you actually. Congratulations on the promotion, Spader.

"What's being done to locate Doyle?"

"Only every agency in the northern hemisphere is looking for him."

"And what are we doing to find him?" Wren asked.

"My contact at DCRI tracked one of Doyle's aliases leaving France the day after Jeremy's murder," Tsia spoke. "He took a commercial flight to Beijing, then doubled back on a train bound for Berlin."

"But when GSG 9 intercepted it, he was already gone," Clyde continued.

"He sent me flowers and Wren an old cell phone, so I think it's safe to assume he's coming here," Emily told them.

"Why is he doing this?" Tsia asked.

"Why do you think? We put him away," Clyde stated.

Emily's personal phone beeped and Wren's did the same moments later. Both women looked down at their phones to see texts from Garcia asking for them back at the BAU.

"Duty calls?" Clyde asked them.

Both FBI agents were silent for a moment before Wren spoke up. "What about bringing-"

"Absolutely not," the man interrupted her. "Your team isn't under oath. They don't have clearance."

"They could help," Emily argued, agreeing with Wren.

"How?" Tsia questioned. "We don't even know where Doyle is. Involving them at this point would be premature."

"And reckless," Clyde added. "Leave it to Tsia and I. You two go be with your team."

"Even in hiding, Doyle can't resist the extravagance. Track the money," Emily told them.

"I will find him, darling," the man assured her. "Trust me."

"I don't trust anyone anymore," Emily replied as she stood up and tossed the phone she was using into the trash can next to her.

Wren sighed and sat for a moment before getting up from her seat and walking back towards her car, slipping her disposable cell into a trash can as she walked.

✦✧✦

Wren was somehow able to arrive at the BAU before Emily did and was sitting at the roundtable with the rest of the team when the final member joined them. The brunette was seated between Hotch and Morgan as she anxiously twisted the chain of her necklace. Once Emily entered the room, Garcia started the presentation on the case, immediately making the team familiar with the face of ten-year-old Sammy Sparks. The technical analyst explained that Sammy had shown up to his school with blood splattered on his face, and when first responders arrived at his home, they found both of his parents missing. There was no ransom demand or any communication from the person who had taken his parents. The reason that the BAU was called in was that Sammy is autistic and mostly non-verbal. Even if he did see who took his parents, it wouldn't be easy for him to tell them.

On the flight to Louisianna, Wren sat at the window across from Morgan and Prentiss, going over the file they had on the Sparks family. The brunette heard the murmurs of the conversation that Ashley and Spencer were having by the coffee machine, but she didn't pay too much attention to what was said. However, she immediately regretted that when she saw the look on Spencer's face when he came to sit down next to her. He looked slightly hurt and dumbfounded. The resident genius didn't look over at Wren, instead, just adjusted himself in his seat as Garcia's face appeared on the laptop screen.

"Good morning, angels. New information to report," the technical analyst told them. "The blood at the crime scene matched type to Charlie Sparks, so we can assume that he is the injured party."

"Well, shell casing by the door says he was shot," Morgan stated. "Are we looking at robbery gone wrong?"

"No robber would break into a family residence before the start of school and not expect to find people home," Prentiss pointed out.

"No, I think he came for Charlie and Alison Sparks. He planned the abduction and then gained entry to the house," Hotch said.

"But the scene is frenzied, disorganized," Rossi argued. "He didn't think it through."

"I hate to say it but could Sammy be our unsub?" Seaver suggested.

"I seriously doubt it," Wren spoke up.

"What's the number one motive for kidnapping?" Rossi asked the blonde.

"Financial gain."

"Yeah, well, if that's the case, they are barking up the wrong money tree," Garcia explained. "The family runs a music store that's been Sparks owned since the 1940s but business is down and a loan against the house is the only thing keeping that store afloat."

"The unsub should have done his research," Rossi stated.

"Well, he may have," Prentiss replied. "This area was devastated by the oil spill. A little bit of money would go a long way here."

"Okay, when we get to Lafeyette Parish, I want Spader and Reid to go talk to Sammy with Spader leading it," Hotch instructed, looking over to the woman. "With what you know, I think you'll be our best bet at getting any information from him at all."

"I'd like to go with them if that's alright," Rossi requested as Wren nodded at the assignment and looked down at her file. The unit chief accepted Rossi's request and continued to assign jobs to the rest of the team.

"Morgan and I will go to the crime scene. Seaver and Prentiss, I want you two to go to the music store, and see what you can find about the Sparks family."

Once everyone was on the same page and Garcia ended the call, the plane fell silent for a moment before Wren felt a light kick on her shin and looked up to see Morgan was trying to get her attention. Wren closed her file and gave him her concentration.

"'With what you know,' what does that mean?" He asked her.

"Oh, um, my niece is on the spectrum," Wren informed him and Spencer looked over, unaware of this information. Emily, Hotch, and Rossi knew, but that was only because Raven told them.

"I've met Oakley, she didn't seem-"

"She's pretty good at masking her symptoms," the brunette interrupted the man in front of her. "She does fine in most social settings, but she needs an insanely strict routine to manage."

"When did Raven find out?" Spencer asked.

"I remember her calling me about a year ago, I think," she explained. "She was worried about Oakley's development. Amongst many things, she rarely responded to her name and had a hard time speaking in full sentences. I helped them find a developmental neurologist who specialized in ASD. We were lucky to find one who didn't see autism as a strictly male disorder, otherwise, Raven might've been told that Oakley just had low self-esteem or that it was a fault in Raven's parenting."

"You're a really good sister to have helped her through all of that," Emily said to Wren, whose lips turned up slightly in a small smile.

"They're all I've got," Wren admitted quietly, though the entire team was listening to her speak. It was the first time the brunette had ever spoken about her familial life for longer than one sentence, especially in a group setting.

"Aren't your parents still alive?" Morgan questioned the woman and she sighed, internally annoyed at the expectation that she'd be close with her parents.

"Just because they're alive, doesn't mean I speak to them," she stated with a shrug. "Anyway, after they got the diagnosis, I've done a lot of research on autism and the different parts of the spectrum. Autism presents itself differently in girls than it does in boys but there are some similarities."

✧✦✧

Wren, Spencer, and Rossi walked into the police station and immediately made introductions with some of the officers on duty. After a brief conversation with the uniforms, a single officer escorted the three agents into a room where Sammy Sparks was sitting with a pad of paper in his lap and crayons sprawled out on the coffee table in front of him. The brunette carried a small bag filled with sensory toys that she usually kept in her car for Oakley, but brought along in case they were needed to help Sammy.

"Hey, Sammy," Wren spoke kindly as she moved to stand at one end of the table while the officer stood close to the boy. "My name is Agent Wren Spader. I'm with the FBI. These are my friends, Dr. Spencer Reid, and Agent David Rossi."

"Sammy, what are you drawing?" Reid asked, his voice matching Wren's gentle tone.

When Sammy didn't answer his question, the officer reached over to touch him on the shoulder, and on impact, the boy shrieked and pulled away from the touch. Wren immediately sat down on the couch, close to Sammy, but not too close as he started rocking back and forth in his seat.

"Some autistic children don't handle touch well," Rossi explained to the officer, who simply nodded and left the room. Sammy's breathing was staggered as he swayed quickly.

As the boy kept swaying, Wren opened the bag she brought along and placed some of the toys on the table in front of Sammy gently. She watched as his eyes moved to each one as they were set down. His rocking slowed as he started to focus on one of the toys in particular and Wren looked at it as well.

"You can play with it if you want to," she encouraged him as she reached for the toy and brought it to him. She could see the hesitation on his face but after a moment, he picked the toy up from her hand and started to twist it, turning it into different shapes.

He wouldn't make eye contact with any of them, and that wasn't a surprise to the brunette. Wren knew it wouldn't be easy to get through to him, but they made a big step with him accepting the toy from her. She kept enough distance between herself and Sammy on the couch so that he wouldn't feel uncomfortable and it seemed to be working. The immediate difference she saw between Sammy and Oakley was drastic. While Sammy recoiled from touch, Oakley had a hard time understanding boundaries. Wren only hoped they could connect with Sammy enough so that they could find his parents.

"It's possible that witnessing his parents' abduction pushed him into emotional overload and he shut down," Reid said quietly to Rossi as Wren played with another fidget toy from her bag. She made shapes with hers and watched as Sammy copied them. Spencer then acknowledged the pad of paper on Sammy's lap that was littered with L shapes made from black and red crayons. "Look at that."

"Is he trying to tell us something?" Rossi posed.

Wren stopped making shapes when Spencer went to sit on the coffee table and started to speak to the boy again. "Sammy, we're looking for your mom and your dad. Did 'L' take them?"

Sammy didn't respond verbally and instead took the crayon that was in his lap and started making the shape again in the air repeatedly. Wren let out a light sigh as he continued and Rossi left the room, presumably to call Garcia or Hotch. The brunette met eyes with Spencer, who had the same unsure expression that Wren did. They both knew that he was trying to tell them something, but 'L' wasn't specific enough for them to find anything of use. Wren then decided to grab a spare piece of paper from the table and start drawing on it. Soon enough, Sammy wasn't making the shape in the air but drawing whatever he pleased on a clean sheet from his pad.

After the two younger agents spent some time letting Sammy adjust to them, Rossi and Reid went to speak with Sammy's teacher at the school while Wren stayed at the precinct to keep Sammy company. She sat on the floor in front of the coffee table, breaking apart and connecting pieces of one of the sensory toys and telling him about her niece and the other people in her life. After about two hours, he seemed comfortable in her presence and didn't jerk away when she accidentally touched his hand as she went to grab something across the table.

Hotch entered the room to see the agent and the child making shapes together as they were when they first met. Wren hadn't even noticed her boss enter the room until he cleared his throat. In his hand was a wooden toy train that she assumed belonged to the boy next to her. After receiving the toy, Wren put it in Sammy's line of sight, who had been staring at the ground since Hotch made them aware of his presence. Once Sammy saw the train, he happily accepted it from Wren and began moving it back and forth on his lap.

Eventually, the whole team arrived at the precinct and talked to Garcia over the phone while Wren remained with Sammy. She didn't want to leave him alone. His fear for his parents and what he witnessed radiated off of him even if he wasn't able to verbally tell them anything. Any time he would glance at his drawings of the L shape, he would start rocking back and forth in his seat.

The profilers had learned a lot about the Sparks family and the unsub in the few hours that Wren spent with Sammy. They had enough information to give a profile so the team, aside from Wren and Rossi, gave it to the officers at the precinct. The brunette was sitting on the floor in front of the coffee table again while Rossi sat in a chair behind her. Sammy had refocused on drawing again, but instead of drawing the L shape, he had done multiple pages of flowers that all looked the same. After he was done with each page, he would rip them out and place them in a stack in front of Wren. She couldn't help but smile at the gesture, even though it didn't seem to have much significance to him. He was drawing a new pattern on his sketch pad when Reid entered with a woman that Wren assumed was Sammy's teacher. 

"Oh, he's been busy," she stated, looking at his drawings, as she joined the agents in the room. "What are those?"

"We have no idea," Reid admitted to the teacher as Wren stood up and gave a tight-lipped smile to the woman in greeting. "We're trying to find his aunt right now, but we're hoping that maybe in the meantime you'd be able to help us get through to him."

"Okay, I'll try, but even before this happened, Sammy wasn't wild about talking," she disclosed, sitting down next to Sammy. Wren took a step back, placing herself behind Spencer as she watched. He turned to focus on her for a moment, concerned that she needed something. Instead, when they met eyes, she just shook her head and looked back at the child.

The teacher took out a collection of laminated cards from her purse and placed them in Sammy's line of sight. "What's that?" Rossi asked her.

"These help some kids with autism learn routines," the teacher explained before showing them one of the cards.

"Ah. School bus leaves at 2:15," Rossi read aloud, understanding.

The woman nodded before pulling one of the papers with the L shape on it closer to her. "Sammy, what's this?"

Looking over at the shape again, Sammy's eyes widened and he started to rock back and forth again. Wren looked to the teacher, hoping she had a better way of calming him down, but when the teacher panicked slightly, Wren moved to sit on the other side of the boy. She placed the toy they had been using earlier in his lap and grabbed another off the table. Together, they made shapes and she explained that he was safe and no one was going to hurt him.

"Do you have any idea what that "L" might stand for?" Reid asked the teacher. 

"I have no idea," she replied as Sammy stopped his rocking and looked up at the ceiling. The teacher looked over at Wren with an impressed expression. "He likes you."

Wren paid no attention to the comment though. Instead, she was focused on Sammy's hands. His fingers had dropped the toy and were now tapping on his pad of paper in a specific rhythm. 

"I've never seen that. I don't know what it is," the teacher acknowledged the new behavior.

"Is he trying to type?" Rossi inquired. 

"I don't think so," Wren disagreed as she watched the boy continue.

"I think he's trying to play something," Reid added, agreeing with Wren. "Can we get a keyboard in here?"

"There's a piano at his house," Rossi stated, agreeing that music could be part of the patterns Sammy keeps.

"You want to take a ten-year-old boy back to the crime scene where his father was shot?" the teacher asked in disbelief.

"No one said that," Wren replied. "All they're implying is that music is part of how Sammy is trying to communicate with us. If we can't get a keyboard here, we need to figure out how we can understand what he's saying."

"Well, who decides whether the harm to Sammy's well-being is worth whatever information you may or may not get by doing such a thing?" The woman continued to question and Wren held back the urge to roll her eyes. Wren had already moved to stand with Rossi and Reid as the teacher stood up in an attempt to scold the agents for even having the idea. "He's a child, and I don't think you get to choose what's best for him."

"Ma'am, with all due respect, he is currently under the custody of the state while we wait for a response on the whereabouts of his aunt," the brunette started. "Yes, Sammy's mental health is important, but it's also important that we find his parents. If you would like to go out and buy a keyboard for us so we can learn what Sammy is trying to tell us, then, by all means, be my guest. If not, I suggest keeping your thoughts to yourself as we are all thinking in Sammy's best interest."

Reid and Rossi looked at Wren for a moment. Both of them were glad that she said what they were thinking but concerned about the reaction the teacher might have to what she said. "We won't take him to his house until we find his aunt," Rossi reassured the teacher.

As if on cue, Emily started speaking from the doorway and her voice caused the agents to turn to her and see her standing with another woman. "Everyone, this is Lizzie Sparks, Sammy's aunt."

A brief moment of silence waved over the group before Wren introduced herself and shook the woman's hand. She could immediately tell that Lizzie was scared and timid, ultimately unsure about her ability to help Sammy. Once everyone was acquainted, the adults left the room Sammy was sitting in and began discussing what the best course of action would be. Wren sat on the table in front of the window and felt Spencer sit down next to her as he explained to the teacher why taking Sammy back to his house would be beneficial.

"Sammy was playing the piano when his parents were abducted," Reid told her. "So taking him back to the exact location might trigger an important response."

"No, but he's fragile. It could also would him further," the teacher replied.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do here," Lizzie spoke up, looking toward Rossi.

"You're Sammy's legal guardian right now," he stated. "The decision's yours."

"No, he barely knows her," the teacher interfered. Wren got more agitated with the woman as she spoke. She understood why Reid brought her in at the beginning but now she was becoming a problem and attempting to find an issue with everything they said. "Lizzie, is it? For all we know, she's the 'L' he's afraid of."

"Sammy saw his aunt and didn't even react. If she was the abductor we'd have seen a visceral response," Reid said, attempting to keep a calm voice as he saw Wren's anger bubble behind her eyes.

"You can't be sure of that. He's in shock."

"We are running a background check right now," Emily reassured the teacher.

"On me?" Lizzie asked.

"It's just procedure," Rossi explained. "But you have to decide. What do you want us to do?"

"Absolutely not, she should not be making these decisions. She has had no role in his life, why should she get to make this choice?" The teacher argued and Wren stood up, having enough. Spencer grabbed at her wrist to hold her back, but the whole team knew that Wren's words could be more lethal than any physical response she could have.

"Alright, you're done," Wren stated as she gestured towards the door with her free hand. "We asked you here to help us get through to him, not to speak on his behalf. Miss Sparks is his legal guardian at this moment, not you. I understand that you are his teacher and you feel protective of him, but this is not your place."

"You can't tell me to leave," the teacher scoffed as she looked at Wren's unwavering eyes. The teacher didn't take her seriously because she was a woman and it was written on her face. Internalized misogyny was never something Wren liked having to deal with, but she wasn't going to let this lady act like she was above the rest of them, especially Sammy's current guardian.

"I can and I will if you don't keep your opinions to yourself," the brunette replied.

✦✧✦

Wren didn't sleep all that well that night. Her thoughts juggled between Sammy, her sister and niece, Daria, and Ian Doyle. And waking up to a call from Clyde informing her that Doyle was in the states and on his way to D.C didn't help her feel any more at ease. While she was glad that Clyde and Tsia had located him, all Wren wanted to do now that she had knowledge of his whereabouts was run. Or go back to D.C. and shoot Doyle herself. Clyde and Tsia ended the call by telling her they were calling Emily next and they hoped to have Doyle in custody soon. Overall, Wren was glad she had gotten Raven, Oakley, and Daria out of D.C. before he arrived, but even knowing that he was in the states at all meant he was closer to them than he ever should be.

After she finished getting ready for her second day on Sammy's case, Wren got a text from Hotch telling her that she needed to meet Rossi and Reid at the Sparks household. On her way out of her hotel room, she quite literally ran into Spencer, who was standing in front of her door, his hand up as if he were about to knock.

"Shit, I'm sorry," Wren apologized as she took a step back and picked up her phone, which she dropped in the collision.

"No, it's okay," he reassured, watching her. "We didn't get to talk last night after everything that happened with the teacher, I just wanted to check on you."

"I was only saying what we were all thinking," she stated as she stood back up and closed the door behind her. The pair started to walk towards the elevator.

"I know that- It's just that- Well, you've been a little on edge recently. I just want to make sure you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know. Why don't you tell me why you wouldn't be okay?" He requested and Wren sighed, her head tilted down.

"Spencer..." her voice trailed off.

"And that's another thing. I know when something's wrong when you stop calling me 'smartie,'" he added. "You have more tells than you think you do, Wren."

"Look, I won't lie and say that I'm fine," Wren said, looking over at him. "But I can't tell you what's going on either. I don't want to be rude but can we drop it? I'm sick of people asking me if I'm okay."

Spencer sighed as he stopped walking, letting her move forward a bit without him. He didn't want to push it with her, because she's never been one to push it when it comes to his issues. When Wren notices that Spencer's having a bad day or a case is affecting him more than usual, all she does is let him know that she's there, to talk or sit in silence. He wanted her to be okay. Especially since she's been acting weird for a few weeks now.

When the brunette turned to face him once more, her lips parted as if she were about to speak, the genius cut her off. "I'll drop it if you let me drive to the Sparks' house."

Wren's expression softened and her lips turned upward at his request. "If we crash, I'm telling Hotch that you pried the keys out of my cold, dead hands."

"You don't trust me?" He asked, smiling with her as they continued the walk through the hotel.

"Not behind the wheel of an SUV. No."

✧✦✧

The two agents met Rossi, Lizzie, and Sammy at the house and allowed the boy to walk in first. He cautiously made his way to the piano where he set down his toy train and began rolling it back and forth.

Lizzie watched her nephew with sad eyes and Wren couldn't help but feel sympathetic for the woman. Wren knew that if anything were to happen to Raven, Oakley would be in her care. And while the brunette knows how to work with autistic children, she has no idea how to raise one. If they couldn't find Sammy's parents alive, Lizzie was going to be in for a whirlwind of a ride.

"When did you see Sammy last?" Wren asked her as she stood with her and Rossi, while Reid watched Sammy play with the train.

"On his fifth birthday," Lizzie said.

"Five years," Rossi stated as the woman nodded.

"Charlie and I had a fight," the woman explained as Sammy sat down on the piano bench. "It got ugly. I haven't seen either one of them since. Do you think Charlie's going to be okay?"

"I'm hopeful," Rossi replied.

"Sammy, would it be all right if I sat here?" Reid asked the boy, causing Wren's attention to turn to the pair. Sammy didn't seem opposed so Spencer sat down next to him on the piano bench. The young genius brought one of his hands to stroke the keys of the piano and played a scale. A few moments after Spencer performed the exercise, Sammy repeated the scale back to him. The three other adults stood on the other side of the room, watching. "Whoa. You've been holding out on me, Sammy."

Reid played the scale backward and Sammy did the same. A small smile danced on Wren's lips as she observed the two at the piano. "I didn't know you could play, Reid," Rossi stated, gaining his attention.

"I can't. Well, I never have before, but it's essentially all math," he responded, which only got a chuckle out of Wren and a nod of disbelief from Rossi. Reid turned his attention back to Sammy and the piano. "Sammy, how about you play this note for yes," he played one note. "And this note for no," he played another. "Does that sound like something you could do?"

Sammy played the note for 'yes.'

"Yeah, exactly," Reid applauded. He was good with kids. He always had been, even if they freaked him out sometimes. He looked over at Wren and nodded his head towards her in a manner that told her to approach the pair, so she did. Sammy tensed slightly at her presence at first but once he recognized her, he relaxed.

"Sammy, do you remember when the man came here and took your parents away?" Wren asked as she knelt to stand on her knees.

He played the note for 'yes' again. And then multiple times over and over before moving his hands to play a piece that he knew by heart. Wren and Spencer met eyes, neither of them sure what he was trying to communicate.

"Sammy, I don't understand," Spencer spoke. "Does this song mean something to you?"

Sammy stopped playing at the question and after a moment, he took Reid's hand and placed it on the piano. He was comfortable in his presence and that was something Wren was happy to see. Sammy helped Spencer start to play the piece with him and it wasn't long before the pair were moving in sync.

Wren and Spencer stayed with Sammy at the piano while Lizzie went off to explore the house she hadn't been in so long and Rossi followed her. The three at the instrument weren't there alone for too long before Rossi reentered the room and pulled her and Reid away from the piano. He was holding another one of Sammy's flipbooks as the two youngest members of the team huddled around him.

"What's in his flipbook?" Wren asked.

"Not just a flipbook. His routine," Rossi said. "Shower, brush teeth, dress. His entire life is planned in order."

"Maybe we can figure out where Sammy met the unsub," Spencer inquired.

"I think he already knows," the brunette spoke as she opened her hands for the flipbook, that Rossi gave her. Spencer moved to stand next to her and watched as she moved to each page of the book.

"Sammy sees his life in pictures," Reid began to think aloud before moving again to his bag that he left by the piano bench. "He's been trying to speak with us, but only knows how to communicate through symbols. Look it's his language."

Reid took out some of the drawings that Sammy had done the day before and scattered them on the floor. "Anchors, like my socks," he pointed to the drawing and then picked up another one and faced Wren. "The dahlias are from your necklace." Wren picked the necklace up off of her chest and looked between them. They were identical. "And Rossi, that's the tread on your shoes."

"What does the 'L' mean?" Lizzie asked.

"It's not an 'L,'" Wren said as she looked down at the flipbook in her hand and then turned to show Rossi.

"It's a time," the man said to Sammy's aunt as Wren turned the book towards the woman.

"3:00, the time Sammy wants us to know about," Reid continued as Wren flipped through the book, seeing if there was a 3:00 in the boy's schedule. "The time that he met the unsub."

"Where was he at 3:00?" Lizzie questioned.

"2:30, music store," Rossi read from over Wren's shoulder. "He goes there every day after school, and he doesn't leave until the store closes at 6:00."

Reid had turned his watch forward and moved towards Sammy again.

"Hey, Sammy. Sammy, it's almost 3:00," he said to the boy, showing him his watch. "Is there someplace you should be?"

Sammy traced the shape of the time on the watch before speaking for the first time since the BAU arrived. "Should be store."

The boy got off of the piano bench and made his way towards Wren, when he approached her, he took her hand in his and began basically dragging her out the door. Wren looked back at the group, wide-eyed, shocked that he was taking the initiative to make physical contact with people twice in one day.

Morgan was waiting for them at the music store and the group walked in, with Sammy still clutching onto Wren's hand as he moved through his parents' place of business. After Spencer instructed him to fast forward the tape to 3:00, Morgan revealed that at 2:30, when Sammy arrived at the store, the music changed from hard rock to classical. The change was made for Sammy's comfort.

Sammy finally let go of Wren's hand when he sat down at the keyboard to play the same music that was coming from the security tape. The team came to the conclusion that the man who entered the building at 3:00 for deliveries was the unsub and before long, they were on the phone with the rest of the team.

Garcia, being the talented goddess that she is, found who the unsub was within a matter of minutes once they had gotten her the still-frame from the security tape. The group at the police station went to Bill Thomas's, the unsub's, house while Morgan, Rossi, and Reid went to his boat. Wren stayed behind at the music store with Lizzie and Sammy, her job being to take the pair wherever they needed once they found Sammy's parents.

An hour later, Wren got a call from Rossi saying that it was clear for Sammy and Lizzie at the scene, so she took the two members of the Sparks family to be reunited with the others. Sammy walked behind Wren as she guided him to his mother and when they were close enough, Wren left the pair and walked toward Spencer. 

"The father?" She asked quietly as they watched the mother and son stand in front of one another.

"CSU said he's been dead for at least eighteen hours," he muttered back and Wren sighed.

"The unsub?"

"We think she shot him, but we haven't gotten a statement yet."

"Lovely," she whispered as Spencer looked at her.

"It's a half-win," he offered, noticing the look of hopelessness starting to form on her face.

"Yeah, but it's the kind of loss that never should've happened in the first place," she said. "Mr. Sparks didn't deserve to die and the unsub deserved to live the rest of his life rotting in a cell."

The team went home that night after both Spencer and Wren said a brief goodbye to Sammy. Reid was asleep in the seat across from her as Wren stared out of the window of the jet blankly. She didn't know what was going to happen next, but she would have never expected her next day at work to end the way it does.