Work Text:
“We found this in the victim’s room.”
Prentiss walked into the room and placed an evidence bag on the table.
“Makeup?” JJ asked.
“Why would a fifteen year old boy have makeup in his room?”
“Maybe he liked dressing up as a girl? A small town like this, if someone found out…”
Reid, busily sifting through the hospital records Garcia had found glanced over at the bag.
“No, that’s not it. He used it to cover up bruises,” he said and then went back to the hospital files, scanning them rapidly.
“Why do you think that?” Prentiss asked, surprise coloring her voice.
“Nothing for the lips or eyes, just concealer and foundation,” Reid replied distractedly. “It’s almost identical to the kit I kept for when my Mom hit me where it would show.”
Reid didn’t appear to notice the way the rest of the team stopped what they were doing and stared at him. Prentiss and JJ shared a glance.
“Your Mom hit you?” JJ asked, voice soft.
“She’s a paranoid schizophrenic, of course she hit me.”
That statement was followed by a long silence; the only sound in the room was the rustling of papers as Reid flipped through the printouts. Eventually he must have noticed the tension in the air, because he looked up. When he found them all focused on him he frowned.
“What?”
Morgan strode forward, pulled out a chair and sat down facing Reid.
“You never told me that.”
Reid shrugged. His shoulders crept up towards his ears a she glanced around the room, and he ducked his head.
“You know about her schizophrenia. Violence and aggression are not diagnostic criteria, but they are so common they might as well be. You know that too.”
Morgan hesitated. Put that way, they really should have realized.
“I guess we just never put it together,” he admitted.
“Hotch did.”
They all turned to stare at Hotch instead, and after only a brief hesitation he inclined his head. Not one to be easily distracted though, and recognizing the comment as an attempt to deflect attention, Morgan turned back to Reid. Before he could say anything, however, Reid hurried to say:
“I’ve found a pattern in the hospital records. All of the missing kids were flagged as potential victims of abuse and were assigned the same social worker. None of the investigations lead anywhere though. I’ve identified two additional potential victims based on the same criteria.”
“All right,” Hotch said and started handing out assignments.
Reid let out a sigh as the team’s focus returned to the case, and the tension in his shoulders lessened somewhat as the team exited the room. Nobody said anything more about it, for the moment.