DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Criminal Minds. I am just borrowing them for my own entertainment. Does anyone actually get sued over this? Anyway, I do not own. Enjoy.
This is my first FanFic EVER. Reviews are welcome. But go easy on me guys!
Chapter 1
I could not believe this is happening.
I kept closing my eyes to clear my mind, hoping and praying that I would open them to find that all this has just been a bad dream. But every time I open them I am still here, in my own personal Hell.
My wrists hurt from pulling at the rope that bound my hands to the chair. I looked around the room, but it was so dark I could hardly see anything. One small red light in the corner of the room told me that he had a video camera stationed there. God only knows why. The way I felt in the room told me that it was small, so it didn't seem like a warehouse or barn. It had a musty, damp smell to it. A basement maybe? Years and years worth of damp wood.
It was my 32nd day on the job. My team and I came to Baton Rouge, Louisiana on a case, a particularly tough case, especially for me. The UnSub was kidnapping women in the age range 25-35, with short dark hair and blue or green eyes. We had four bodies so far and no leads. The women were brutally raped and beaten. When the UnSub was done with them, he choked them until they died, and discarded their bodies like trash. Four women, mothers, daughters, friends, wives, it was tough. It was especially tough when I looked at the bodies and all I saw was myself.
The team seemed to notice the resemblance as well. Morgan, being my best friend and colleague, asked me multiple times if I was ok. I had told him over and over again that I was fine, but the truth is, I wasn't sure if I was ok or not. There was something about this case that kept scratching at the back of my mind. Something was telling me that there was a key piece of this puzzle missing, and for the life of me I couldn't put my finger on it.
I had always been unsure or hesitant about my profiles, never fully satisfied. Never completely positive that they were accurate, or finished. I shrugged this feeling off, thinking it was just my perfectionist personality coming out. I know now that I should have gone with my gut feelings…
The door creaked open from behind me, and a sliver of light shown in before the door shut and it disappeared. That light was then replaced by the light from a lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling. I quickly looked around and let my photographic memory take in everything. I noted to myself that the room seemed to be about 20ft by 20ft made out of solid concrete, except for the ceiling. The ceiling was made from wood, the floor from the building that sat on top. My chair was positioned in the dead center of the room. To my left was the corner of the room with the camera. Then to my right, there was a makeshift bed lying on the floor. There was a small window at the top of the wall directly in front of me that was painted black, to keep the light from shining in or out.
That little window made me realize that I had no idea what time of day it was, and I didn't know how long I had been there. Then my eyes found him.
Greggory Mayor was a friend to our first victim, Jennifer Shay. He claimed to be the last person to see her the night she went missing. As far as we could tell, Mayor hadn't fit our original profile. We were obviously wrong.
I showed up to Mayor's residence to ask him a few questions about what he could remember about the night Jennifer went missing. The last thing I remember is Mayor inviting me into the house.
"Comfy?" he asked, with a smug grin plastering across his face. He was about 6'2" with a strong build, and short brown hair. He was not a bad looking guy at all. We had previously asked ourselves why he used a blitz attack on his victims rather than persuading or using a ruse. Now I understood. It was his eyes. His eyes were a dark brown, almost black. They were angry, hurt, and determined all at once. They were the kind of eyes that pierced your soul and sent shivers down your spine.
"Mr. Mayor what are you doing? I am a federal agent. You could go away for a long time for this. So, why don't you just let me go and we can talk about a deal with the DA. I will tell them you cooperated."
"Oh I'm not about to do that SSA Dr. Courtney Manning. Oh yes I know your name. I actually know a lot about you. See, I started killing these women in hopes that the BAU would look into it. I saw you on the news a couple weeks ago, about the case in Dallas, Texas. As soon as I saw you I knew I had to have you." He almost cooed the statement.
I tensed. "You killed those women because of me? Why Mr. Mayor? Why do you want ME?" I was frightened. But I didn't show it.
"I saw you on TV. You were so beautiful. They had a video of you walking out of the Dallas police department. Your short black hair was blowing in the breeze, shining as the sun hit it. The way you walked was so mesmerizing, so professional, so perfect. So I started looking up information on you. You were raised by you mother and father in New York. Your father was air force and your sweet mother was a housewife."
"You don't talk about my mother." I growled, be he simply ignored me.
"You went into the Army and got enough training there to become a cop in Chicago for a few years. During which time, you successfully completed school with a PhD in psychology. Then you wanted to become an FBI agent, and you picked the BAU. Interesting choice if I must say so myself. You worked with them for a little over 30 days and now your here." When he finished talking I was speechless. How would someone, who's NOT Garcia, find all that information on me? He simply turned to walk back up the stairs. Moments later he returned with a wooden crate of, what looked like, old workshop tools.
He then took a knife out of the crate and held it up to my throat. My heart sank.
"After I learned all that about you I knew I wanted you, and I knew how to get you here. This is going to be fun...for me anyway. Oh don't worry, I'm not going to kill you. You're going to be my pet. I will keep you here as long as I like, and do whatever I want to you." he slowly traced the knife against my skin from my throat across my chest and to my stomach, where he slowly pushed it into me.
I made no noise and I kept eye contact with him. I was not going to let this bastard get off on watching me squirm. I felt the warm blood run down my stomach, to my legs, then to the floor where I could hear it begin to pool up.
"Oh, tough girl huh? Well I think we can change that in no time at all." He turned around and placed the knife back in the box. When he turned back to face me he had an iron rod, similar to the ones used in fireplaces.
"Now, this is going to hurt." He growled. He pulled back the rod and, just like hitting a baseball, the rod came down across my stomach.
The pain was excruciating. I coughed and gagged, and nearly passed out. I could have sworn I heard a rib or two crack. But I sat back up, as straight as I could and looked him dead in the eye.
He dropped the rod and left the room, without a word. I started to think of Morgan, my best friend and mentor. I worked with Morgan for so long in Chicago we became like brother and sister (not that I would EVER rank over his real sisters) I kept thinking about the time we had first met. I thought he was ridiculously attractive for a cop. Not to mention flirtatious.
The pain in my stomach from and the loss of blood was starting to take effect. The room started spinning, and then became blurry. Before I knew it, my body had let the darkness take over
Flashback
I walked into the Chicago precinct ready for my first day on the job. I had already aced the interview and now I just had to meet the officers I would be working with. This made me nervous, I don't know why, but my stomach was in knots.
I was a mere 5 foot 5 with short black hair, ice blue eyes and a small build. Sure, I had some muscles, but not the body builder kind. To everyone else I was just a normal girl. No one would ever even know I had been in the army.
As soon as I walked in the door I saw him. I'm pretty sure if you had an encyclopedia and looked up the origins of the saying "tall, dark, and handsome" it would simply have a picture of him.
He was standing at the far right of the room at table with a coffee pot, casually pouring himself a cup. I walked over and he looked up at me.
"Well hello little lady, can I help you?" he flashed a smile with his pearly white teeth that could make your heart sing. Focus Court! The job, remember!
"Oh yeah, um I was just hired here and it's my first day, do you know where I could set my stuff up at?" I motioned to the box in my hands.
"Oh so your the new secretary? Alright it's about time we got a new girl. The other one wasn't very good. Well if you go right around there..."I cut him off before he could walk away to show me where the secretary would reside.
"Um, no. I'm not the new secretary." I set my box down in front of my feet and reached into my jacket pocket for a piece of paper. I unfolded it and spoke again.
"I was called here by a Capitan Davis to take over for an Officer Troy? I am supposed to be working with an Officer Derek Morgan. If you could just point me in his direction I would really appreciate it." Halfway through my talking I could see the look on his face change, mostly from excitement to confusion to surprise, and I wasn't sure why.
"Um wow, you're my new partner? You don't look like much. Are you sure? Lemme see that paper." He reached to take the paper out of my hand and I pulled back.
"I am pretty sure I know how to read correctly. So I'm guessing your Officer Morgan?"
"Derek Morgan, but please just call me Derek. Sorry if I offended you in any way, I've just never had a female partner before." He said. Then he took a sip of his coffee.
"Yeah well, all the good looking ones are gay." I snapped. This made him choke and spit back his coffee
"o-oh uh...no, see...see that's not what I uh meant." he stuttered.
I laughed. "Relax Derek I'm just messing with you." I smiled at him and knew this was going to be fun. I shoved the paper back into my pocket and grabbed my box from the floor.
"Here let me show you to your office, well desk anyways. Let me take your box." I let him take it so he could show me where to put it, not to mention my arms were killing me from hand to hand combat training yesterday.
"So you think I'm good looking?" He smirked.
"Don't push your luck Derek Morgan. This could either be a good partnership or a bad one. Ill let you decide." I smiled in my head because I knew it was going to be good. He simply laughed and said, "You know what? I like you." and so it began...
End Flashback
I woke up to the sight of more darkness. I wasn't sure how long I had been there, and at this point I didn't care. My stomach hurt like nothing I have ever felt before. I wondered how much one would could bleed before the blood coagulated. I wished Reid was there to give me some sort of statistic.
Reid. I had been thinking about him a lot lately. At work and even at home I would catch myself doing it. I loved his random statistics and facts. He was so abnormal and awkward. And cute. I liked him. I had only known him a month, but we had gone out a few times with the team. And to me he seemed really interesting to be around. No matter what 'big brother' Morgan said. As I was thinking I felt my body begin to lose consciousness again. Hadn't I had enough sleep? Apparently not because 2 seconds later the darkness had taken me.
Flashback
The doors of the BAU elevator opened. I was so excited. I always wanted to work at the BAU and I finally got the interview with Agent Hotchner, which went exceedingly well. Today was my first day and the day I got to meet the team, and the day I got to see my best friend Derek for the first time in over 2 years.
I walked right into the bullpen and saw Morgan. He had his back facing me, sitting on top of another agent's desk talking. It was a skinny kid with glasses. He couldn't have even been 30 yet. Good. I though. Young just like me.
"Well if it isn't the handsome Derek Morgan!" I said across the bullpen. His head whipped around with a strange look on his face. Then that look turned to surprise and excitement as soon as he found out who yelled his name.
"Courtney!" he yelled while running over to me, arms extended. When we reached each other he picked me up and spun me around once. Before he let go I couldn't help but think about being in his arms. They made me feel so safe and protected. Like, big bother protected. We had been through a lot together and even saved each others lives once or twice. I knew I could feel safe with him.
"Sweet cheeks what are you doin here?" He asked almost totally confused at this point.
"I sent in my resume a few months back and I guess they finally got around to it. I had an interview with Strauss and Hotchner and guess what? I'm in! It's my first day!" I was a little too excited by the end of my rambling and he could tell.
"Oh baby that's AWESOME!" He turned around to his younger colleague, "Reid! Get over here there's someone I'd like you to meet!" the younger man stood up and walked over, a little hesitant, but curious.
"Courtney this is Dr. Spencer Reid. Reid this is our new addition to the family. SSA Dr. Courtney Manning. I worked with her for a few years down in Chicago. She just joined the team." Dr. Spencer Reid held out his hand and I gladly accepted.
"Uh I'm Dr. Spencer Reid. But uh, you can call me uh Reid, or Spencer or um Spence, I...uhh well basically what I'm saying is you don't have to call me Dr." He was nervous and after he let go of my hand he put his head down in embarrassment.
"Ok then, Spencer it is." I smiled which caused him to smile and make eye contact. When I looked into his soft brown-Hazel eye I had a sudden flip in my stomach. I couldn't figure out what it was. He and I stared for a few seconds before Morgan snapped us back to reality.
"So little girl, do you still chew nervously at the end of your pens?" Derek laughed a little.
"Well you should have known not THAT much was going to change Derek." I laughed with him.
"Did you know that on average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year?" Immediately after Reid had said it his cheeks turned pink and his put his head down. It was almost like he couldn't stop himself from saying it.
"Well thank you Spencer. I will be sure to be careful next time I eat my pen." He looked up and smiled. I smiled back.
Derek just laughed "Ok, so let's introduce you to the rest of the team."
End Flashback
I was woken by the smell of whisky. When I opened my eyes I realized the UnSub was holding a bottle of it under my nose.
"Look at you pretty lady, what are you doin?" He slurred. It was obvious that he was drunk. I didn't answer.
The next thing I know he held his hand up and backhanded me across the face, hard. I groaned as he hit me and turned my head to look at him.
"I asked you a question bitch! Answer me!" He screamed.
"Well I think it's pretty obvious what I'm doing, I'm sitting here." I said. That pushed him over. He backhanded me once more before putting his drink down and getting his knife. He leaned close to my face. I turned away to try to relieve myself of his harsh drunken breath.
"Ill teach you to talk back to be bitch." He growled, before he shoved the knife back into the wound on my stomach and twisted it. At this point I could help but to cry out in agony as I felt the knife turning in my organs. I had no idea how bad it was or if he hit anything important. All I knew was it hurt, and I was losing a lot of blood because of it. He finally took the knife out and stared at it few seconds and then dropped it. He reached into his pocket and pulled outs a vile of clear liquid, and a syringe.
"What is that?" I asked, breathlessly, more dread in my voice then I had intended.
"Don't worry about it." he said. "I need you alive. This will just help with the pain and it will help you sleep." He stuck the syringe in the vile and filled it about a quarter full.
I was terrified at this point. "No please you don't have to do this."
"Yes I do."
"No please I don't want it, I'm fine, I don't need that." I pleaded with him. But he continued to tie his belt around my arm "This will make you feel better." he said.
"Please no. I don't want it." I began to half sob now. But he injected the nameless liquid into my vain anyway, and everything went black...
A/N I know there was hardly any Reid in this Chapter! Just trying to get the basics down on Courtney! Next Chapter will have more Reid! Promise! Reviews are welcome!