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It’s two weeks before Christmas and the BAU is…here. Stuck in California, unable to fly back home due to a major snowstorm in Virginia.
“The first major snowstorm since, January of 2016!” As Dr. Spencer Reid has, oh so helpfully, informed them.
California is cold, yes, but nowhere near as cold as temperatures reach in Virginia. The team is sat in the hotel lobby, absolutely not, moping, when a group of firefighters burst in questioning the front desk about how to find room 210. The BAU perked up the moment they entered, watching carefully as this plays out. Only twenty-something minutes later do they return; the tallest of the bunch talking nonsense about keeping ring cutters for these purposes.
Suddenly, one of the firefighters looks over, catching the team of profilers. He stares for a moment, confused, before a look of recognition passes over his face.
“Hey! Aren’t you those FBI agents?” David Rossi and his team share a look, before turning to the man.
“Uh… yes. Yes, we are. And you are?” Rossi lifts an eyebrow to the man.
“Bobby Nash,” The man sticks out his hand, giving a firm shake when Rossi places his hand out and grabs his. “Captain of the 118, Sergeant Athena Grant’s husband.”
And, oh! That name rings a bell. The woman they worked so closely with to track this latest Unsub. The team relaxes slightly.
“Weren’t you guys supposed to be home by now?” A woman steps forward, hand placed on her hip. “Henrietta Wilson… Hen.”
Emily Prentiss steps forward, “As much as we would love to, Virginia is snowed out. No flights in or out for…” Emily tries to think of a possible timeline.
The tall firefighter steps forward, “About four days.” The man gives a wave, “Buck. I uh, I read about that.” Buck turns to his team. “Christopher had some questions about blizzards for a school project, and Virginia’s snowstorm came up. They have roughly 26 inches of snow on their airport runways. Which wouldn’t be a problem to plow away, but employees can’t work around it.” The man looks proud, before looking back to the BAU team.
Derek Morgan lets out a low impressed whistle, Spencer perking up and adding his own tidbit. “They can’t because there are currently winds up to 37 mph. It’s causing the snow to fall at a rate that’s too fast. The wind rate is expected to increase over the next day before slowing back down.”
Rossi speaks up, “That’s,” he points, “Dr. Spencer Reid.” Spencer gives a sheepish wave.
“Hey, so if you guys can’t get back home… what are you going to do while you’re here?” An Asian man steps up behind Bobby. “I mean, it’s almost Christmas; shouldn’t you be getting into the holiday spirit?”
“Not really anywhere to go.” Jennifer Jereau tucks some hair behind her ear, shrugging. “All our family is back home, and we don’t really know this place.” Spencer sputters in the back. “Most of us don’t really know this place.” She subtly nods toward Spencer, who has done way too much research during this downtime.
Bobby smiles, “You know us. You know my wife.” He pauses. “We’re having a Christmas party back at my place, after we,” he gestures to his team, “get off work. Why don’t you guys tag along?”
Aaron Hotchner speaks up, “we wouldn’t want to intrude.”
“Not intruding if you’re invited.” The Hispanic man in the back comments.
“Come on, just stop by at least. Athena would probably like to see you again before you leave.” Bobby prods.
And maybe that’s what stops them, thinking about the woman they worked with. The one who was skeptical at first but grew closer to them as she did all she could to solve this case. Much better than the usual hostility they receive for ‘stealing cases.’
The profilers look at each other for a moment. “Sure.” Derek blurts out. “Thanks, man.”
So that’s where they are, now. At 7:00 in the afternoon, standing outside a cop’s home. They stand there for a moment, before Penelope Garcia rolls her eyes and steps forward to knock.
“Never thought I’d ever see you all this nervous. Haven’t you ever had fun, Tiger?” She playfully shoves Derek’s shoulder as she steps back.
It takes a moment, but the door is pulled open. Athena Grant smiling wide once she sees them.
“What are you guys doing here?” Her smile drops. “Did something happen with our perp… unsub?” Her brows furrow in concern.
“No, no, nothing like that.” Rossi smiles. “I’m guessing your husband didn’t mention inviting us for your party?”
Her face lights up, calling out into her home. “Bobby!” She holds the door open. “Come on in.” They walk in quickly accessing the home as subtly as they can. Apparently not subtle enough for Athena who lets out a chuckle. “You all are never off the clock, are you? Bobby, you didn’t say we’d be having extra guests.” She kisses his cheek. “Guess that explains all the extra food.”
Bobby smiles to the group. “Glad to see you could make it. Everyone’s in the dining room. Kids are eating in Harry’s room, so we have a bit more space.” He walks them into the dining room.
“Hey!” Buck greets, eagerly. “Pull up a chair, come eat.”
The BAU, gives their pleasantries before sitting down to eat.
“So uh, that case…” Buck starts getting soft glares from Hen and Eddie, who he promised he wouldn’t bring up the case.
Emily looks up, smiling at his clear excitement, “Unsub was Jacob Whitfield. A student at the Los Angeles Film School; bit too obsessed with films in a way his peers weren’t.”
“That’s an understatement,” Athena scoffs. “He based each kill off a different classic horror film.” She shudders. “Never seen anything like that, and I hope I never see it again.” Bobby wraps his arm around her shoulder, in comfort.
Buck looks in horrified awe, “I was looking up the case a bit; did you know there are an alarming number of copycat murders based on movies?” Buck speaks looking to, who they now know, as Eddie Diaz. “But only two movies have ever been viewed as a ‘war threat’ despite not being violent.”
Eddie raises his eyebrows, “you’re not planning to share that information with Christopher, are you?”
Buck gets ready to speak before Spencer cuts in, “The Interview and Star Wars!” He looks up excitedly at Buck.
Buck looks over to Spencer at the end of the table, eyes lighting up at the interjection. “Yeah. How did you know?”
Spencer smiles wide, “It’s commonly known in the Star Wars v. Star Trek fandom that Star Wars almost started a war. I did some reading after I learned that to see if it was the only one movie that nearly started a war, and an article with Seth Rogan came up!” Spencer gestures wildly with his hands.
“Ok, The Interview is simply based on his word though. North Korea officials claim they were not upset by his ‘kill the president’ comment, very unlikely considering their track record.” Buck offers that last tidbit to Eddie. “Star Wars, on the other hand, that’s a hilarious one.” Buck leans forward, placing his elbows on the table.
Eddie and the rest of the 118, ping pong between the two, looking almost horrified yet fond. The BAU, is a lot more subtle in their confusion.
Buck starts up again, “Over a Sandcrawler of all things!”
Chimney lets out a snort. “A Sandcrawler almost started a war? Really Buck?” He sounds almost disbelieving, but that fades as Spencer chimes in.
“Yeah. In 1976, they were filming in Tunisia- “
“They were on the side that borders Libya. Just at the edge of Tunisia.” Buck cuts in.
“Libya’s military,” Spencer picks up effortlessly, “saw the Sandcrawler and believed it to be an unknown Tunisian military weapon. They reported it back to their leader Muammar Gaddafi, at the time.”
“Man, he was not happy. He demanded Tunisia, immediately, cease their weapons operations, or there would be war. To be fair, they were already having conflict due to the expulsion of many Tunisians from Libya- “
“And Tunisians believed there may be some assassination attempts coming from Libya soon.” Spencer added in.
“Of course, Tunisian officials tried to clarify what the object was, but no dice. They had to let Libyan military officials go over to investigate the miniaturized Sandcrawler.” Buck nodded to Spencer.
“Even though it was officially cleared up by that point; George Lucas still moved the shooting location from Tunisia to Death Valley National Park.” Spencer nodded back to Buck, both settling happily in their seat.
By this point, even the BAU couldn’t contain the horror settling on their faces.
“Oh god,” Rossi whispers under his breath, “there’s two of them.”
Eddie continues looking between the two, despite the silence, finally turning his body to fully look at Buck. “Now that, is something you can share with Christopher.”
The teams knock out of their daze, going back to filling their plates.
“Yeah man. That was… something.” Derek comments, snorting at Spencer’s embarrassed face.
“So, your beefcake is also your boy genius?” Penelope looks around the table, Hen choking slightly on her turkey.
“Please never refer to Buck as ‘beefcake’ again.” Hen grimaces. “Firehose was bad enough.”
“Firehose?” JJ questions. “Why firehose? Aren’t you all firefighters? Well, besides Athena.” She smiles to the woman.
Buck smirks before Eddie smacks his thigh under the table cutting in, “you don’t want to know. I didn’t want to know.” Buck smiles proudly at Eddie.
Athena grimaces, “Yeah you really don’t want to know.”