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Morgan stared into the interrogation room from the observation room. He leaned back against the wall facing the one way mirror as JJ came into the room on the phone with Garcia. The rest of the team was in the room all facing one who they thought could be the key in cracking this case open; Spencer Reid. Their Unsub seemed to be in his mid twenties to early thirties and was killing bullies, abusive parents, and anyone who they thought had wronged him. Lately he went from killing any bully or parent to killing specifically people who had went to high school with one Spencer Reid.
JJ put her phone on the table and set it to speaker.
“Ok my friends,” Garcia said, “Spencer Reid is eighteen years old working on his third PhD, he graduated high school at twelve and.. his mom is dead and his dad left around the age of ten. In high school it looks like he reported some of his classmates that had been bullying him but nothing had been done.”
“What can you tell us about the mother, Garcia?” Hotch asked, watching Spencer who drummed his fingers on the table in some sort of pattern. Spencer looked young - was young. If Morgan saw him on the streets he might’ve mistaken him for a fifteen or sixteen year old.
“Diana Reid - College Professor of 15th century Literature. She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia before Spencer was born.. looks like she stopped working when Spencer was around nine.. and she died, oh.”
“What is it, Garcia?” Rossi asked.
Garcia took a breath in as if to steady herself, “She died when Spencer was fourteen.. she slit her wrists and Spencer came home and found her.”
Silence echoed around the observation room, JJ had a look of pity on her face for the boy. “Anything else you can tell us?” Emily asked.
“Well, no arrest records. Looks like Social Services visited even before the father left, the neighbors had reported hearing yelling and crying from the house.. he never got removed though. Hospital and Clinic records show that he was a common visitor.”
Silence once again struck the observation room, Morgan couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the kid. “Ok, how are we going to do this?” Prentiss asked, breaking the silence. Spencer in the interrogation room began scratching at his throat and his wrist.
“We could send JJ in.” Morgan suggested, “She’s a mother figure, she’s kind and sympathetic. He obviously hasn’t had that very much, his whole life has been defined by violence, and let’s face it a lot of that violence has come from men. He might spill it to her.”
“Or he could become suspicious of her.” Emily said.
“It’s worth a shot.” Hotch said, “JJ and Emily go in.”
JJ and Emily nodded, JJ picked up a file off the table and they walked into the interrogation room. Spencer’s head immediately snapped up, but he continued to scratch at his wrist with his left hand.
“Hi, Spencer.” JJ said with a soft voice, pulling out the chair that sat opposite of him. Emily sat in the chair next to her. “I’m Jennifer, but you can call me JJ. I’m with the FBI and this is my friend Emily Prentiss.” Emily had a kind smile on her face, but it seemed to put Spencer off.
Spencer nodded his eyes flickering between them two before looking back down at the metal table. It didn’t take a profiler to tell that Reid - Spencer was on edge.
JJ opened the file and pulled out three pictures and turned them towards Spencer - they were pictures of Alexa Lisbon, Jake O’Malley, and Harper Hillman. It was photos just recently before their death. They looked happy and were smiling. “Do you know these people?” Emily asked, learning forward.
Spencer looked at the photos and nodded, his hair getting in his face. He crossed his arms and looked back down at his black Converse.
“Where did you know them from?” JJ questioned, her tone still soft and kind.
“High School.” Spencer responded for the first time. “Jake - was on the uh football team and Alexa and Harper were cheerleaders. They were all friends.” Spencer’s arms were crossed and his hands were squeezing his biceps.
“You see.. Harper and Alexa died last week and Jake died a couple of days ago.” Emily said, pulling out some more photos. It was them at the crime scenes - tortured and dumped, without remorse. They were all stripped naked.
Spencer’s bottom lip quivered slightly, “I heard about it.”
“You don’t seem to be sorry or remorseful about it.” Emily noted, looking Spencer over.
“He doesn’t seem shocked either.” Rossi noted, looking at Spencer through the one way glass.
Spencer unfolded his arms and smoothed down his sweater vest, “They weren't the nicest.” Spencer didn’t elaborate.
“They weren’t the nicest to you.” Emily said suddenly, “They bullied you, didn’t they?”
Spencer stared back down at his feet, and didn’t say anything. His foot tapped against the floor, but he didn’t say anything more.
“Come on, Spence.” JJ tried to coax, putting a hand on Spencer’s right wrist.
Spencer’s head snapped up and he yanked his wrist away, “Don't touch me.” His demeanor was cold and cut off. JJ and Emily weren’t getting anything out of him anymore. Emily sighed and stood up, motioning for JJ to follow her. They went out of the interrogation room back to the observation room.
Emily sighed, “He’s definitely done talking to us.”
“Sorry, guys.. didn’t know he would react like that.” JJ said, “I thought he’d warm up to some reassurance.”
Morgan looked back at Spencer who began to scratch at his right wrist again, almost like he was digging into it through his dress shirt. Spencer’s wrist twitched slightly, the sleeve hanging off his wrist. It was only a split second of a flash of his wrist but Morgan’s eyes widened. “He’s self harming.” Morgan said with finality. “The whole time he’s been scratching, digging at his wrist.”
They all turned back to Spencer, whose thigh was bouncing with anxiety. “Ok so who goes in next?” JJ asked.
“I think Hotch and Morgan should go.” Emily said suddenly.
“What?” Morgan asked, “Were both Alpha Males, taller and stronger than him. We’re going to scare him.”
Emily shrugged, “It might come to the point where you have to do that, sure, but maybe you could be sympathetic towards him, Morgan.”
They all knew what she was talking about. Carl Buford. The name made Morgan want to scream and punch a wall. “Then why Hotch?” Morgan asked.
“He has a son, he’s a father figure.” Emily said. “It’s the only plan we have of right now.”
“She’s right.” Hotch said, breaking the silence in the room. “Come on, Morgan. We need to know everything that he knows.”
Morgan trailed behind Hotch when he walked into the interrogation room, Spencer’s eyes following them.
“Hi Spencer.” Morgan said, giving him a tight lipped smile, “I’m Derek Morgan and this is SSA Aaron Hot-“
“Special Supervisory Agent Aaron Hotchner.” Spencer said, finishing Morgan off. Morgan blinked in surprise and Hotch looked surprised too. “I-I’ve seen you in the news… the Reaper case? It was a good job.”
Morgan internally winced at the reminder of Haley’s death and the toll it took on both Hotch and Jack. “Thank you.. Spencer.” Was all Hotch said, choosing to sit down on the opposite side of the table.
Derek got straight to the point, “Spencer look… I know it’s hard to relive this. Things that they might’ve done to you in high school… but it’s over now-“
“I have an eidetic memory, Agent Morgan.” Spencer snapped, “I remember everything in pure perfect detail.”
Morgan took an intake of breath, that was unsuspected. “We all have an elephant’s memory when bad things happen to us, kid. When I was a freshmen I was 5’3, got the shit kicked out of me. So that summer I hit the weights, started working out. I got lucky and grew six inches. That stuff just isn’t something you forget.”
Spencer looked up, his left hand beginning to nervously scratch at his wrist. Morgan wanted to tell him to stop but he knew he couldn’t. If the kid knew that he knew he might shut down, like he did with JJ. “I uh… I was in the library. Then.. Harper came up to me and told me that Alexa was waiting for me at the football field, and Alexa was easily the prettiest girl at school.”
“Was she not there?” Hotch asked, his tone kind. It was the voice he reserved for Jack.
“No, she was. So was the whole football team.” Spencer spat out bitterly, “They uh.. stripped me naked and tied me to the goalpost. There was so much people there.. watching and laughing. I begged them to untie me and let me go but.. I.. I can still feel the sun burning down on me. Their laughter ringing in my ears.. their hands all over me. They stayed there until they got bored, leaving me all tied up. It was dark by the time I got myself untied. I came home and my mom.. she is.. was a schizophrenic. She was having one of her episodes and didn’t even realize I was gone.” Spencer laughed bitterly at the end, his fingers were slipped under his shirt and his nails were digged into his flesh. Spencer’s eyes were wet and he reached up and rubbed his eyes with his sleeve.
“Spencer.. you see I think that this person who did this.” Morgan said, pointing at the crime scene photos.
Hotch picked up where Morgan left off, “He was probably there that day or you told him. I think that he was maybe one of the only people who were ever nice to you. I think that you’re protecting him because ever since your mom passed away he has been the only person that has treated you like you deserve to be treated like. A person.”
Spencer drummed his fingers on the table and looked nervously between Morgan and Hotch. He chewed his bottom lip, sighed and looked down. “H-His name is Henry Young. He uh.. he lives on his grandparents old property.”
Hotch nodded gratefully at Spencer and Morgan stood up and put his hand on the kid’s shoulder. “Thank you, kid.” Morgan said, “You just saved a lot of people’s lives.”
They got to Young’s house and he was there, dragging another person into his grandparent’s house. He ran of course but Morgan tackled him, handcuffing his hands behind his back. He struggled as Morgsn hauled him up and read him his rights.
“I was doing the right thing!” He screamed, as Morgan dragged him to the cop car. “They have hurt so many people!”
Morgan got him in the car and shut the door behind him. “Is it bad I kind of agree with him?” Emily said to Morgan as they stared at Young in the car. Morgan sighed and found himself agreeing with her.
-
Morgan found himself driving to CalTech before the jet took off to take him back to Quantico. He found Spencer in the library reading a book at lightning speed, dragging his finger over the paper. “Hey kid.”
Spencer’s head looked up and he saw Morgan, “Did you find him?”
Morgan nodded and sat across from Spencer at the wooden table. “I just wanted to.. give you this.” Derek pulled out a card, his card. His personal number written on it on the back.
Spencer took it from his grasp and looked at it and looked back up at him. “Just whenever you need to talk.. call me. I’ve been told I’m a pretty good listener, and trust me it gets better, kid. It might take a while but..” Morgan’s gaze went to Spencer’s wrist and Morgan knew Reid knew what he was talking about. Spencer looked at him in surprise. “It’ll get better.”
Spencer gave him a smile, “Thanks, Morgan… I really appreciate it.” Morgan knew the kid would be fine, he was tough. You wouldn’t make it out everything he had without being strong.