Chapter Text
Chapter 5
Hotch managed to bring Reid back to his room where Garcia fuzzed over him, getting him into bed and making sure he was comfortable enough. Reid’s only respond to her was a small but grateful smile accompanied by a soft ‘Thank you’. No one mentioned about the incident that occurred earlier. There was no need to. They all understood why it happened, no recalling wanted, no explanation needed.
“The doctor said they’ll prepare an electromyography for you. No currents. Just to monitor your nerves,” Rossi said, sitting on the one chair closest to the bed, “I told them yes but not today on your behalf. Said I am your favorite uncle and I know what’s best for you.”
Reid snorted with a tiny grin, “They believed you?”
“Slightly sceptical but they didn’t dare to question much.”
“Maybe if you had said ‘grandad’ they would be more convinced.”
Rossi ruffled his hair, “Haha, kid.”
“I don’t know, Rossi. I think I agree with him,” Morgan chirped in, making the situation even lighter, “Maybe it’s the goatee.”
“No, Rossi, ignore him. You look extremely cute with it, like this one old man I love at one of the old folk’s home I visit,” Garcia cooed.
“Thank you, but no thank you, Garcia.”
Reid allowed the friendly banter to go on without him, a ghost of a smile still lingering on his lips. He looked at the floor next to his bed, rays of the evening coloring it orange through the half closed window. He let out a silent, relief breath before realizing his eyes were once again drooping even though he had taken a nap barely an hour ago, despite it being in an uncomfortable position.
He turned back toward his friends with almost blurry eyes, JJ was lightly caressing his hair and only then he realized the room had gone quiet once again but in a soothing atmosphere. He looked at each one of those around his bed, blinking profusely, from JJ at his most left to Garcia who held his right hand. The last person he saw was Hotch, who leaned against the far wall right opposite to the bed since they were back to the room. Except, Reid saw, he was the one who lowered down the curtains while Garcia took Reid to the bed, making the room dimmer. The genius’ lips twitch the slightest bit more upwards before he finally let his fatigue consumed him.
“What did you tell him?” Morgan asked Hotch, though his eyes did not leave Reid.
“I told him we’ll always help him, and that he only needed to let us in.”
Emily sighed, “Will he?” she asked rhetorically. She went to sit at the couch, Morgan following her.
Garcia looked at Hotch, “Where did you find him, sir?”
“Under the stairs of the ground floor.”
Garcia’s mouth opened and closed a few times before she said with her eyes trained hard on Hotch, “But it’s dark there.”
Hotch nodded, “It is. But he preferred it.” What came next were hearts breaking soundlessly inside all of them as Hotch explained, and some did not even dare to look at the occupant of the bed.
Bring the past only if you’re going to build from it – Doménico Cieri Estrada
The rain started lightly, just occasionally grazing the window of the room almost all the BAU team was in. It turned heavier in minutes, but none of the room’s slumbering occupants woke up. It had just past midnight and they all needed the rest.
But, it only took the strike of one lightning to jolt Reid up, a harsh gasp tearing out of him as his eyes opened to their widest and his mouth remained wide in a silent scream. For the one moment when the thunder cracked, a stroke of pain coursed through his entire body, making tears sprung to his eyes in microseconds. It was over in a half second, but the pain left him gasping and choked. He froze on the bed, the tears leaking from the corners of his eyes down to the pillow. No words could leave him, and the only sound he could manage was strangled sobs.
Rossi, still the one occupying the chair next to the bed, heard him and woke up. At first he could not decipher what the sound was nor where was the source. But Reid’s hand reached out for his and gripped tight. Rossi stood up quickly; feeling a little dazed but ignored the sensation. Instead he focused on Reid, gripping the young man’s hand back and ran his other hand over his hair, wiping the perspiration forming on Reid’s forehead, “Breathe, Reid, slowly. In and out, in and out.” Rossi leaned down to kiss his hair, hoping in any way that he could calm the genius down and made sure he knew he was not alone.
It took a couple minutes before the panic went down and Reid’s erratic heartbeats started slowing to a less worrying rate. The genius’ eyes were clouded and his mouth was partially opened, hot breath slipping between them.
Rossi released his own relieve breath when Reid’s eyes closed and his breathing labored. He sat back down and scooted closer to the bed, grasping the young man’s hand back while wiping his own face with a handkerchief.
About 10 minutes later, the door slid open and Rossi looked at Hotch walked in with coffee in hand.
“I thought you were sleeping,” Hotch said with a voice slightly higher than a whisper, taking a stool to sit next to Rossi.
With a worn out smile, Rossi looked at Reid again and patted the hand in his, “Something or maybe someone woke me up.”
“He woke up?”
“More like he jolted up. I was startled awake and then his hand gripped mine so tight and the first thing I saw was his horror-stricken face. It was worse than any nightmare.”
Hotch frowned, “But what caused him to react that way? What did he see?”
Rossi sighed, “I’m not sure. But I don’t think it was what he saw. Rather it was what he-“
“Felt. I felt something.”
Hotch and Rossi both looked at Reid as he opened his eyes and sent a tiny smile to Rossi as a sign of gratitude. The young man sat up slightly, letting his back rest on the pillow. A bitter laugh left his mouth.
“I know how unlikely that is. But I think I know why,” Reid licked his dry lips, “There was a lightning and that caused it. Neuropathy condition varies like this. In the circumstance where someone has a high tolerance of pain, the nerves might be tricked to send a false impulse to the brain when it is raining or lightning strike.”
“Like when an old man has a bad knee?” Rossi asked.
Reid nodded, “Exactly like that.”
Hotch, not knowing how but still want to give a support for Reid, placed his hand on the genius’ leg.
Reid looked at the hand with a sad smile and cleared his throat before saying, “I want to get out of here. I want to get back to work right away. As of now my condition cannot be helped and the doctor’s only suggestion will only be to take painkillers or opioids when the circumstantial pain comes. I won’t take either of that and you both know why.”
“But I still think it’s better to be checked, Reid,” Hotch said.
“There won’t be any use of that and I don’t need nor want to be told about what I already know is wrong with me,” Reid sighed and Hotch lost all the will to argue when he saw the worn out face that made the young man looked older than he really was.
The unit chief nodded, “Alright. We’ll check you out early morning.”
“Thanks, Hotch.”
“I think you should try getting back to sleep if you want to look good enough to leave, kid,” said Rossi who also noticed the exhaustion on Reid’s face, “The rain seem to be stopping.”
Reid slid back down on the bed and laid his head on the pillow, “Just talk to me, can you? I don’t think I can fall asleep through the silence.”
The three of them talked about an unsolved case that Rossi brought up. Nearly an hour after that, Hotch realized he had been talking to himself for at least 5 minutes when he saw both Reid and Rossi had fallen asleep. He drank his cold coffee as he stared at a drop of rain sliding down the window.
Outside, under a tree, a hooded figure was staring up at the same window. A blood-curdling smirk lingered on the figure’s shadowed face, “I miss you, dearest Dr. Reid. I miss hearing you scream,” no one heard the maniacal laugh in the damp night.
It was almost back to usual the next day. Almost. The team flew back to Quantico that morning after checking Reid out despite the doctor’s approval. The flight was quiet and Reid slept on the long couch, knowing if his eyes were open, there would have been another six sets of eyes stealing glances at him. Plus, the concussion he had was not gone yet. When the plane had landed, Reid said, “Thank you,” to Morgan who grabbed the genius’s bag before he could.
“Anytime, pretty boy,” Morgan winked at him and they walked together with the girls flanking their sides. Before they got inside, Hotch stopped them.
“Morgan, take Reid home.”
Reid sighed exasperatedly, “I don’t want to go home, Hotch. I’m cleared to work.”
“You are cleared because I demanded so and only on paper,” Hotch retaliated in his chief tone, already guessed the young man would disobey him.
“If it’s on paper, then it is more right than your words,” Reid grabbed the handle of the glass door.
“If you open that door, you cannot come in to work for the whole week and I can get a paper on that.”
Reid stared deep in his eyes and Hotch stared back, daring him. Reid turned the handle while still staring unblinkingly at him. Then, Garcia, noticing the intense atmosphere, looped her arm around Reid’s and gently tugged his hand off the handle, “Let’s go, boy genius,” and they walked away but Reid’s eyes were still looking at Hotch’s until he had turned. Morgan followed them.
Emily clapped Hotch’s shoulder and hissed to lighten the mood, “You didn’t have to be that harsh, boss man.”
“Na, I think that was necessary. You know how stubborn Reid can be sometimes,” JJ said as she opened the door and went in, followed by the others.
Morgan parked in front of the entrance of Reid’s house, “We’re here.”
“Do you want me to come inside for a while?” Garcia offered.
“Thanks,” Reid shook his head and hopped off, taking long strides toward his apartment. The two left in the car stared after him until his silhouette could not be seen.
Garcia sighed and asked, “He’ll be fine, right?” Morgan nodded and drove away.
Reid went straight to the bathroom and faced the mirror by the sink. He took off his sweater vest ad let it fell to the floor. Then he stared at himself, at his frown, at his tired eyes. He wondered why he had even argued with Hotch when he himself felt tipsy. But being aggressive was so much easier than being helpless.
His eyes stared at the bandage on his forehead and he ripped it, his heart sinking when the sting that usually accompanied the action did not come. He threw the bandage into the sink carelessly and exited the bathroom, choosing to lie on his couch rather than his more comfortable bed. He slept and hoped the day just end.
The BAU did not get another case until Friday, which was two days after Reid went home, disgruntled. The case took them to Las Vegas, and Reid was not sure if that made him felt better or worse. He was going to be in city and he knew he should visit his mom.
“Let’s go over again,” Hotch called the others to gather around, specifically Reid who sat crossed-leg on the long couch and was staring blankly out the window pane. The young man slid to the other end of the couch.
It was a case on teens, age span from fifteen to eighteen. Three girls were found murdered with a gap of eight days between each of them. It was three days after the third body was found. The BAU did not get called in earlier as the three murders – all different methods - could not be link until the police figured out the girls were runaways from home. Another constant they found was all the girls visited cyber cafés days before they were murdered.
So the team got to work with their assigned task. Rossi and Morgan went to talk to the parents, Emily and Reid went to the cyber cafés, and JJ and Hotch went to set up at the station.
Emily opened the tinted glass door of the first café and Reid followed her.
“Ugh! This sort of place is always so dark. It’s as if the light sources are only the blinding screen computers,” Emily groaned.
“Yeah,” Reid retorted, “That’s the manager, I think,” he pointed to a guy who just came out of what seemed to be the office, a thin white t-shirt stretched on top of his flabby belly with an unbutton shirt on top.
Emily, who seemed to want to whole her breath, took out her FBI credential before the agents moved to talk to the manager. The watch video recorded by surveillance camera from six days ago, looking at the third victim, Rebecca Grande. There were a few men who talked to her, but at a place as dark as the café, everyone looked like a potential suspect. Even the manager looked like he could have done it.
The two agents moved on to the next café. The inside was pretty much the same, only it seemed the blurred glass separating the computers gave the customers a bit more privacy. The manager brought them into a much better lit room that had the bright sun poured in.
While the manager search for the footage of the first victim way back to a month ago, Emily and Reid surveyed the room. Emily took interest at the graphics on the wall while Reid found a sketch book that had more graphics hand-drawn in them. He liked them, though they were gory. There were four detail sketches, each had woman caged up in different types of prison. One was locked in a cage at sea, one was on a high-mountain, in a cage made of ice, another was buried underground, and one was surrounded by fire. Each had a man, drawn from the angle only behind his head looking up at the woman, who seemed to be the savior.
“You like them?” the manager suddenly asked him.
“Oh? Oh yeah. They’re very well detailed. Is it for a game?”
The manager gave a charming smile and got excited, “Yes, it is for a game I am working on. I am a game editor too.”
Reid placed back the sketch book on the table and gave a half-hearted smile, “They’re good.”
“Can we see the video now?” Emily asked.
After they were done there, they went to the furthest cyber café, which was weird because the other two were much closer. The manager was very not friendly, and was eager to send the FBI agents out his door.
When they got to the station, Rossi and Morgan were already there first.
“Same as the information we had, the moms received a call right before the kill and each time, they didn’t picked up because their phones were on silent or they left their phones,” Morgan told them.
“Emily?” Hotch called.
The jet-black hair woman shrugged, “Yes, the victims were there at the cyber cafes. The problem is all those that interact with them could be our unsub. So, it wasn’t much help, except if you want to get all those into the list of possible unsub and we can go from there.”
“Reid, start on the geographical profile.”
“On it.”
They were all they had to go on with for the next three days; the victimology and the geographical profile. They visited the crime scenes again and the cyber cafés. They also went to the places the runaways always go to for shelter.
“We need to rethink again,” Hotch said, “There’s only three days left before another body shows up if the unsub follows the timeline.”
“All of these murders are different. The unsub don’t even have a signature. Except for them being homeless and teens, there is basically nothing in common. Different hair colors, different builds,” Emily listed down, frustrated that they were getting nowhere with the case.
“First victim was found drown near the sea, second was in a cage buried underground, and the third was in an iced storage,” Reid recalled.
Morgan braced himself by the table with his arms, “He does have a signature.”
“Share it,” Rossi said.
“In each murder, he did not directly kill his victim. He did not touch them.”
Emily nodded, “As if to say he did not kill them.”
“Yes.”
“Why? Loathe?” Hotch joined in.
Morgan shrugged, “Most likely.”
“We need to rethink our victimology to figure it out,” Rossi suggested as he stared at the picture of the victims.
JJ asked, “Then, why these girls? There is no evidence of physical and sexual assaults. So we can rule pedophiles out.”
“They are easy targets, runaways. Practically, no good people pay attention to them. Not to mention they ran away at least a couple months ago and with families living so close by. Obviously, their parents did not care enough to ask them to come back,” Morgan threw in his thoughts while he sipped the last drop of his coffee.
“No one care. So, he chose them because no one will come looking?” JJ asked skeptically.
Suddenly, Reid flexed his fingers and he stared blankly at the table before looking at the picture of the victims again, a clear sign the wheels were turning in his head.
“What is it, Reid?” Hotch probed him.
Reid licked his dried lips, “What if instead of trying to keep them in, the unsub try to bring them out?”
JJ crossed her arms, concentrating, “Means?”
“Well, no one cared about them, not even their families. No one pays attention. But these murders, they make people look closer to these girls. Like the unsub did, like he take good cares of them.”
“So it’s not loathing that makes the unsub not touch him,” Rossi kept the wheels turning.
Reid looked at him and the rest, “It’s affection.”
They delivered the profile after that, placing the unsub between the age of twenty-five to forty because of the place he looked for his victims. They profiled him as good-looking as he managed to lull young girls to follow him. After finished giving the profile, they regroup again in the room for them.
“We still don’t have a solid suspect,” said Emily.
Suddenly, Morgan phone rang, “You’re on speaker, baby girl.”
“Hello, furry friends. All of you are going to love me. Ask me why.”
“Why, Garcia?” Rossi humored the bubbly technical analyst.
“Because I found a guy, hooded in a black jacket, who appeared at the cafés every night one of our victims was in.”
“How do you know they’re the same guy?” asked JJ.
“Because boy wonder is not your only genius. This guy always brings a sketch book with him. He did not exactly interact with the victims, but he sat by with this book he seemed to be drawing in. Sometimes he looked up but not much. Looks by the concentration, he seemed to be a very good sketcher.”
“Sketch book…” Reid said absentmindedly. And then something clicked. The murders, why they were different, how to connect them. He ran to the whiteboard and started drawing what he remembered. The others stared at him.
“What’s going on? Why is everyone quiet?” Garcia asked.
“I think our boy wonder figured it out,” Morgan answered her as he stared at the hand moving rapidly by the board.
Garcia squealed, “Yay! That’s my genius!”
Reid stopped and stepped back, letting the others see what he had drawn.
“Those are the crime scene,” Hotch said.
Reid shook his head, “Yes and no. It’s not as detailed but these are the sketches I saw at the cybercafé the first victim went. The sketches are for a video game the manager was making. First stage, the hero need to save the girl from the prison at sea, second, the girl was locked in a cage of ice, and third…”
“Buried underground.”
Reid nodded.
“Oh, and not to mention he fits the profile very well,” Emily said as she holstered her gun.
Morgan and Rossi head to the unsub’s house while Hotch, Emily and Reid went to the cyber café. It was still early in the evening, thus, there were not many customers. It was easy to ask them to leave with three FBI credentials.
Hotch knocked on the office’s door, “Mr. Bennett, FBI. Open the door.”
It was a moment before the door opened and Mr. Bennett stood in front of them, smiling his charming smile, “Yes, anything I may help you with?”
“You need to come with us to the station to help with the investigation.”
Bennett chuckled humorlessly, “What? That’s funny.” He slammed the door closed, knocking Hotch and Emily who stood behind him. Reid, who managed to avoid falling to the ground, threw the door open again and went inside, just on time to see Bennett broke the glass window and jumped out. He ran after him.
Reid followed him for a whole block until Bennett ran into an alley. He took out his revolver an aimed, yelling, “Eric Bennett, stop right there!” A police appeared at the other end of the long alley and Bennett stopped, taking a few steps back. When he turned, Reid’s revolver was still trained on him.
Bennett chuckled again inching closer toward Reid, “Okay.” His eyes eyed the opened way behind the genius. “You know, I love them. I helped them.”
“Stop and don’t take another step!”
“I don’t have a weapon, agent, I’m not a threat. I’m just making it easier for you to cuff me,” Bennett balled his hands and placed them in front of him, offering Reid to put the handcuff on him.
Reid was wary, but he saw the police officers coming from the other side and so he holstered his revolver again. He took out his handcuff and Bennett stood right in front of him. He just locked the first cuff when Bennett pulled him and need him in the gut, causing Reid to cough.
Bennett tried passing him but then Reid quickly locked the other cuffs around his own wrist, tugging the unsub back.
“Oh you looking for a fight, skinny,” Bennett punched him again but Reid barely reacted except for his head turning to the side due to the reflex.
Reid wrapped his arms around Bennett’s waist and pushed him to the wall. With one hand pressing Bennett’s forearm to the wall, Reid used his right hand to punch him in the face. It did not hurt his hand the first time. So he threw the second one with much more force. Bennett avoided it and he hit the brick wall. Still, Reid felt nothing. Again he did it, stronger, this time hitting the unsub, and he heard his knuckles cracking.
His hand was slick and sticky due to his own blood coating them but he kept punching, not feeling his own hand hurting, until Hotch slid his arms around him and pulled him back while Emily unlocked the cuff around his wrist. Everything was in slow motion for Reid. His heartbeats were still erratic along with his breathing as he tried to subdue himself with Hotch’s arms as support for him to lean. Suddenly, he felt the tiredness and all he wanted to do was closed his eyes and sleep.