Secrets Revealed (Criminal Minds)

[Chanel_no5]

***Note***

I've had the general idea for this story for years, but I've shied away from the effort to actually write it, mainly because I'm uncomfortable writing any kind of crime story; I suck at it, plain and simple. But I figured it might - might - work as a CM fanfic, so I gave it a try. And I'm fairly content with the result, actually. I hope you guys will like it as well. It's kind of different. And yes, I stick to writing Blake. So sue me. (Please don't, I have no money. )

***

“Good morning, Blake. Sunglasses inside? You're not hungover, are you?” Rossi said as he entered the conference room. Blake sighed and slid the glasses down the bridge of her nose to show her red-rimmed, swollen eyes. Rossi sucked in air through his teeth and clicked his tongue.

“Allergies?”

“How did you guess?”, she said sardonically and slipped the glasses back on to hide her misery.

“Well, except for the fact that those eyes never lie? I heard one of those famous allergy fits of yours from the elevator halls.”

“Oh, no way! You are not going to tell me you heard me from out there?”

“I did say famous, didn’t I?”

She nodded and smiled a little in spite of herself.

“Yeah, yeah you did.”

She took a travel pack of Kleenex from her handbag and peeled one out. The itch in her nose was constant at this time of year, but once the actual, desperate need to sneeze struck her she couldn’t do much about it. She was usually a stifler, hating to draw attention to herself with such an uncontrolled action, but her allergic sneezes were almost impossible to hold back or stifle in any way.

Not that sneezing was something she minded on a more personal level. No, not at all, quite the contrary. But for the same personal reasons she absolutely loathed sneezing in front of others, especially at work.

“Huh-uuuSSCHUh!”

“Bless you.”

“I’m not done… huh-eSSCHUh! AaaIESSCHUh!”

Oh God let me be finished when the others get here. It’s bad enough to look like a mess, I don’t want them to hear it too.

Though people did get to hear her sneeze didn’t they? She smirked to herself. While she had taken down her YouTube channel years ago, she was willing to bet a whole lot of money that her sneeze wavs were saved up on many computers around the world. Perhaps that was a bit overly confident, but she didn’t think so. She had been quite popular; perhaps not the greatest shining star, but she certainly had her fans.

Had her sharks too, of course. But as a trained FBI agent she knew fairly well how to stay anonymous and avoid threats. Others were not so lucky.

***

"Good morning everyone. Blake? Glasses off, please," Hotch said, knowing perfectly well why his team member wore them but not going to allow it during roundtable discussion. She took them off without saying a word and rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, trying to get rid of the ever-present tickle inside it.

“This is an odd case,” Hotch continued. “Three females, different ages - youngest eighteen, oldest thirty-nine - different races, weight, length… the victimology makes no sense. They have been killed with a single gunshot to the head. Quick, clean death.”

“Apart from the reason of death, the victims have one thing in common; they have traces - lots of it - of pollen in the nasal membranes. Common pollen, mainly ragweed. It looks… frankly, it looks like they have been snorting it, like cocaine.”

“Snorting pollen?” JJ said. “What’s the point of that? You can’t get high from it. Anyone have an idea?”

“Not the faintest,” Rossi said, tapping his fingers against the table.

Blake shifted uncomfortably in her chair. She had a bad feeling about this, but her colleagues seemed stumped.

“To make them sneeze,” she said, hoping her voice would sound calm and not betray her awkwardness. Her heart pounded in her chest and she was blushing a little.

“Garcia, check if any of the victims were hayfever sufferers.”

“Wow, how did you know that? All three had prescription meds for seasonal allergies.”

“But why would anyone want to make someone sneeze?” Morgan said. Blake cleared her throat, looked everywhere but on her colleagues while blushing so fiercely she thought her cheeks would just catch fire, but she finally provided them with the answer.

“Because our unsub is a sneeze fetishist.”

The response was utter silence. Not even Spencer Reid seemed to have any interesting facts to line up. Finally JJ asked - and she probably wouldn’t have answered truthfully if it had been anyone else - “How can you be so sure?”

Blake fiddled with her Kleenex and heaved a deep, congested sigh.

“Because I am, too.”

***

After this lead, Garcia had no problem finding the connection between the women.

“It seems he finds them through their YouTube videos. And he seems to be on the lookout for big, allergic fit sneezes.”

“We should put up a bait for him,” Hotch said.

“Yes…” Rossi glanced over at Blake. JJ’s, Morgan’s and Reid’s eyes followed his example. Blake finished blowing her nose and looked up.

“What? No. No way, not a chance.”

“You’re the only female agent in this team who has both big sneezes and sneezes in fits. Of course we could get someone else involved but…”

“Fine.” she sighed. “I’ll do it. But I’ll have you know, this is very much like having sex in front of you. Which, for the record, isn’t something I ever planned on doing.”

“We can keep a secret,” JJ said reassuringly.

“I know. Still doesn’t mean I feel comfortable.”

“Nobody has to be there with you when you make the recording,” Rossi said.

”Of course not,” Hotch said, a bit embarrassed himself. Blake looked like she could faint from embarrassment any second and he felt bad about asking such a thing from her. But they all had to make sacrifices in this job.

”I said I’ll do it,” Blake snapped.

They all fell into an uncomfortable silence for a while.

”Let me get myself together first, and we’ll get it done as soon as possible,” she finally said and got to her feet.

“The women he abducted sneezed loudly, and with very little space between each sneeze, so if you…”

Blake scoffed.

“Please, I know how to record a good sneeze wav. I’ve done it before.” She grabbed her bag and headed for the door, adding under her breath; “A lot of times..”

***

I haven’t done a sneeze wav in years and now I have to make one that all my colleagues will listen to. And I have to really do it with feeling or the unsub won’t buy it.

She hoped she wouldn’t have a case of mental block. She’d never have it happen to her when recording wavs before, but usually that was done for fun - for pleasure - and not for a grim reason like this one.

She glared at the desk before her. The ever so thoughtful David Rossi had picked a lush, pollen-dripping bouquet of wildflowers and put it there, next to a box of Kleenex and a tape recorder. There was even a note.

“Be able to sneeze without sounding ridiculous. That means not stifling yourself nor spraying your immediate vicinity.” - Marilyn vos Savant

“That‘s sweet, Dave. You just don’t want me to spray your desk, isn’t that right?” she muttered out loud and grabbed a handful of tissues to be prepared. “Can’t make any promises on that one,” she added, shuddered a little, and pulled the flowers closer. Just by this little movement, the flowers rained pollen down on the sleeve of her pinstripe jacket. Considering the way her nose felt when she inhaled these grains, she almost expected them to burn through the fabric of her jacket, through the sleeve of her shirt under it, and leave burn marks on her skin. They didn’t, of course. They just lay there, tiny specks of plant dust, taunting her. She ignored her hesitation and stuck her nose into the luscious flowers and inhaled deeply. Once. Twice.

The reaction was overwhelming. It was like inhaling a stream of fire, that was pooling in her sinuses. Had she believed it was bad even when she was medicated? Hell, this wasn’t ‘bad’, this was pure torture.

“Huhhh… huh-eeh..!”

“How… how are you?”

She had been so focused on the oncoming sneeze that she hadn’t heard the door open. She jumped in surprise and swallowed the sneeze with a strange-sounding, painful half-choke, half squeak. She turned to the door and glared at Garcia;

“Awful. Can I please ha-have some… huhh… privacy?”

“Sorry.”

Blake wanted to scold Garcia at least a little bit, but her nose decided that it was stage time.

“HUuuRSSCCHOO! Come on, just leave…haahh… HaaESSCCHH!”

Garcia backed out of the room and closed the door. The door between them did very little to muffle the following excruciating sneezing fits. The sneezes were so violent they sounded like they hurt. She wished she could do something to comfort her miserable colleague.

“Penelope,” Morgan’s voice said from down the hall. “Get over here, baby girl. Let her sneeze in peace.”

“Peace” probably wasn’t a word that described Alex Blake’s current situation very accurately. Torment, struggle, despair, misery… but not peace. It was incredible how fast she forgot just how awful it was being completely ridden by allergies.

“HeERRSCHEEW! AERRSCHHO! AaaHH-ESSCCHUH!”

She felt a bit silly at first - it wasn’t too embarrassing making wavs in the privacy of your own home, but in the office? - but as the tingle in her nose kept worsening, keeping up appearances seemed unimportant. Her nose felt like it was on fire, and a steady stream of watery liquid trickled down onto her upper lip.

Well, the good part was that she didn’t have to act. And as a sneeze fetishist she knew how easy it was to spot a faker. But the throbbing, horrible itch in her sinuses was very real, very bad, and very powerful.

She doubled over in a no-breath-in-between rapid fit of five sneezes, drew a deep, shuddering breath and began to sneeze again, a chesty, spraying triple that indeed soaked her vicinity. Her clothes, the flowers, the desk… a fine mist of droplets soared in the air around her, illuminated by the sun that shone in through the window.

She took another sniff at the flowers. Her reddening nostrils twitched as the burning sensation intensified by a thousand.

Ugh, here we go again.

“Hehh… heeEESSCH! Heh-ESSCHUh! Ah-aaESSCCHOO! Huh-uESCCHuh!”

***

She re-entered the conference room about 45 minutes after the allergic reaction had tapered off - thanks to a bunch of the strongest antihistamines she had - and she had washed her face and done herself up as well as she possibly could. The rest of the team sat quietly and watched her, unsure of what to say.

“If we can’t nail the bastard with this fit, he’s not into hayfever at all,” Blake sniffled as she put the tape recorder down onto the table next to Reid. “I’ve never sneezed so much in my entire life.”

“We appreciate your efforts, agent Blake. Go home and get some rest, you look like you could use it,” Hotch said.

Reid glanced at the tape recorder.

“Did you, um, sneeze all over that thing?”

Blake gave him a puffy-eyed glare in response.

“I sneezed all over my clothes, the desk, the recorder… don’t worry, I wiped it off.”

Reid opened his mouth.

“Yes, Spence, with disinfectant wipes.”

Reid closed his mouth.

“Not that I see why it matters as it’s allergies and not the flu,” she continued.

“Well, actually, even if it’s allergies…”

“Not now, Reid,” Morgan interrupted. “Blake, do you need a ride home?”

“I’ll be okay.”

While she tried her very best to act like she was fine, she failed miserably. They all saw it, but the first to react was Rossi.

“I’ll drive you home.”

“It’s not necessary,” Blake protested.

“I know. Come on,” Rossi insisted and headed for the door. Blake shrugged and followed, silently grateful she wouldn’t have to concentrate on driving. Her sinuses were raw and battered and she was so exhausted she nearly felt feverish. Although she felt much better than she had only ten minutes ago, allergic tears kept welling up in her eyes and she felt like scratching at them all the time.

“Do you need anything? Tissues, antihistamines, a bottle of scotch?”

She smiled faintly.

“Already got the first two, and I’ll pass on number three. I have some reading to do, and the way I feel now, even light cider would knock me out cold.”

She rubbed her nose with her wrist and sniffed.

“Though I won’t say I’m not tempted.”

They fell silent for a while before Rossi spoke up again.

“Can I ask you something? How sure are you that the unsub will make contact?”

“Very sure. That was a pretty impressive fit even for me, and since the fetish community is spreading the word and warning the wav-makers, I’ll be one of the few he can contact.” She leaned her head back, closed her eyes and sniffed thickly. “You sure found the right kind of flowers.”

“Or the wrong ones…”

“I did wipe your desk, you know.”

“With disinfectant wipes? I’m kidding.” He patted her shoulder. “Take care, Alex.”

“I will.”

***

Only two days later, they made contact with the unsub, who clearly wasn’t afraid of getting caught. He willingly - eagerly, to be honest - agreed to a meeting, promising to pay in order to film a pollen-induced sneezing fit.

When he was met with a bunch of FBI agents he admitted to all three murders and his only comment to why, was the gruesome, indifferent comment;

“I didn’t want to share them.”

Morgan cuffed him and began pushing him in the direction of a waiting police car, when Blake - who had believed she’d be fine a rainy day like this one - felt her nose starting to tickle. Unable to hold back the sneeze, she put both hands in front of her face and burst forward with a spraying, harsh;

“HeeISSCCHH!”

The unsub turned his head in her direction.

“BlackJacket? Oh my God.”

She said nothing, but her hand searched for her holstered gun.

“It was such a shame you took your wavs down,” he went on. “They were amazing.”

“I’m not at all flattered. Get him out of my sight,” she said and turned her back to him, not wanting to give him the pleasure of seeing her rub her nose.

***

“So, sneezing, really?” Rossi said as they were alone.

“Yes, sneezing. Really,” Blake said.

“Maybe it’s too personal, but… your own or others?”

“You’re right, it’s too personal.”

“Both, then,” he chuckled.

“I hate profilers.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You know, I never intended for anyone I know in real life to find out this about me. Least of all the people I work with every day. I told my therapist about eight years ago and you have no idea how awkward it was when she had a cold a few sessions later. Not because I was attracted to her or her sneezing, but because it seemed she thought I was.”

She stuck her hands deep into the pockets of her coat.

“If I weren’t a profiler I’d ask that we just forgot all about this, but I know it’s not possible to erase knowledge.”

She kicked at a small rock with thinly veiled frustration.

“Alex, it’s alright. We all know uncomfortable truths about each other. We don’t talk about it.”

“I don’t worry about you telling others, I trust you on that note.”

“But?”

“But what will you be thinking?”

She stopped and gave him a helpless, tired look. Her abs still hurt from all the sneezing from the other day, and her nose was slightly tinged with pink. She looked tired, and she was. The only thing she wanted was to get home, have a nice, hot bath and down at least three glasses of scotch in addition to the antihistamines, and then probably she would get a good night’s sleep. She was weary and embarrassed and angry.

“I can tell you what I’m thinking. I’m thinking you’re very brave to share such an intimate secret to save lives.”

“Cut the crap.” She almost smiled.

“Just because it’s crap doesn’t make it less true,” he said with a tilt of the head. He held the stare until she did smile.

“Alright. Just no more talking about it, okay?”

“Sure. Case closed.”

She nodded gratefully.

“That‘s right. Case closed. Huhh-iSSCHuh!”

She tensed up and glanced at Rossi, who looked completely indifferent.

“Bless you, agent Blake.”

She relaxed.

“Thank you, agent Rossi.”

[24Me]

First of all, this is amazing writing. Just wow!

Secondly, kudos to Blake for not waiting for a while to make it seem like she found information in the course of the investigation-that's brave and admirable, like Rossi said!

third, this would be a nightmare situation for me-I don't blush, but I'm willing to bet I would if I were in this situation-or at least pass out!

Anyway, this is amazing, I love your CM and original fics, and you write beautifully!

[silentdreamer789]

Awesome fic, and very in character. I can just imagine Blake pushing past her embarrassment to help with the case.

[ID2006]

Great prompt/idea

[matilda3948]

Wow!! This is so good! I mean, I was totally embarrassed on her behalf, but that just means the writing was amazing (as usual )

[Chanel_no5]

First of all, this is amazing writing. Just wow!

Secondly, kudos to Blake for not waiting for a while to make it seem like she found information in the course of the investigation-that's brave and admirable, like Rossi said!

third, this would be a nightmare situation for me-I don't blush, but I'm willing to bet I would if I were in this situation-or at least pass out!

Anyway, this is amazing, I love your CM and original fics, and you write beautifully!

Thank you so much! Yeah, she turned out to be a lot braver than I had planned... I wasn't going to have her reveal herself until later on, but she just went right ahead and did. Brave lady, indeed. Oh God, had it been me, I would have been crimson all the way down my neck! And then I probably would have dropped dead.

Awesome fic, and very in character. I can just imagine Blake pushing past her embarrassment to help with the case.

Thank you! Blake truly is a difficult character to keep in character because she seems to keep most things to herself. I'm glad you think I got her right.

Great prompt/idea

Thank you!

Wow!! This is so good! I mean, I was totally embarrassed on her behalf, but that just means the writing was amazing (as usual )

Aww, thanks! I actually cringed when I wrote it because I felt so sorry for her, but all in all, I think she did pretty good. Thank you!