Thank you all very much for your wonderful reviews!!! I'm so excited. I'm glad you're enjoying it. I feel slightly scummy writing it but it just wouldn't go away.

Anyway, this chapter is a little short but I'm heading away for the weekend and won't have internet access. I figured you might prefer a shorter update to no update for several days.

Enjoy!

Susanne

CHAPTER TWO

Gently, Rachel ran a sponge over the young man's body. He was so perfect. His skin was soft as a baby's bottom and he didn't have any scars that she'd noticed so far. The water ran down his skin and collected in the over sized towel she'd laid him out on. She loved taking care of him as if he were an oversized child. She really hated that she had to keep him groggy with allergy medicine all the time but he became such a nuisance when he was alert.

Rachel wasn't a small woman. She probably weighed nearly twice as much as the boy but she also had a physical job and could handle herself well. Still, she'd had to resort to drugging Tom, as she called him, to keep him under control. Tom's eyes flickered open as the chill invaded his body. He was only dimly aware of the fact that he was lying naked. Under normal circumstances he would have been embarrassed to no end. But these weren't normal circumstances. The drug pulled him back under and Tom's eyes slid shut again.

As Rachel washed the left side of Tom's rib cage, she spotted a slightly raised and red area that was gradually turning dark blue. As her fingers ran over the swollen skin, Tom let out a small moan and shifted slightly to get away from her. It was a rather pitiful sight given the boy's lack of coordination.

Cursing under her breath, Rachel pressed the cool, wet cloth against the area a little harder. Another moan came from the drugged boy's lips but that wasn't why she was pressing against the damage. The cool, wet cloth should help with reduce the swelling.

Silently, Rachel wished that she'd never been found out. She wished that her 'friend' Mary hadn't caught her buying men's underwear three days ago. The two women had known each other since they were four and a half and six years old. They spent most of their childhoods together, playing dolls, watching movies and dreaming about boys. It wasn't until Rachel had her first boyfriend in her early twenties that she realized just how twisted their relationship had become. Mary was livid when Rachel said that they couldn't be friends anymore. It was the strongest thing the younger woman had done during their entire relationship.

But, it was a small town and the two women were frequently thrown together while just living their separate lives. Such had been the case in the department store. Rachel hadn't seen Mary in months. It had been a blessing in disguise because the slightly older Mary tended to run rickshaw over Rachel's life whenever she could.

Unfortunately, Tom had been on the receiving end of Mary's tendencies two days ago. Rachel was surprised that the bruises had taken this long to begin to appear. Mary really did have a little too much of an anger problem toward men. Rachel wasn't entirely sure what had gone on behind closed doors, Mary had forbid her to watch, but Tom sure wasn't saying anything.

Finished with Tom's sponge bath, Rachel put the basin half full of dirty water on the ground beside the metal cot and picked up the bowl of tepid broth that she'd also brought with her. The last thing she wanted was for Tom to die of dehydration or starvation. She wasn't entirely sure what her intentions were toward the young man. Until she'd fed him two Gravol instead of allergy medicine to make him dopey, Rachel hadn't really planned on doing anything to him but take him to the ambulance and the First Aid station.

Humming quietly, Rachel carefully spooned mouthfuls of broth between the boy's partly open lips. She was still appalled at her actions. The moral part of her mind told her that everything she'd done to the innocent young man was wrong. She knew it in the marrow of her bones. But she just couldn't help herself. It was a chance that wasn't going to come again.

Once Rachel had gotten the contents of the bowl into Tom, she used a large, fluffy towel to wipe off the residual water. She then slipped the other towel out from under him so he wouldn't get any more chilled than he all ready was. That done she pulled a pair of blue boxers over his legs and hips. As she did so, Rachel could swear she heard the young man sigh in relief. Smiling, she pulled a comforter over his still form. Rachel picked up the stuff she'd brought and headed out of the room.

OOOOO

"Was there anything worthwhile in the information from the police?" Spencer asked. His long, slender hands were clutched rather desperately around a large cup of steaming hot coffee. While he spoke, Reid leaned over and took a deep breath. The aroma helped to revive him.

It was six in the morning. The two FBI agents had found a hotel not far from where the jamboree had been held late last night and had agreed to an early start. The sooner they could get this wrapped up, the sooner the both of them could enjoy the rest of their weekend.

Apparently the local police weren't completely incompetent because a sealed envelope with every lead they'd followed up had been waiting for Aaron at the front desk. The clerk behind the desk had brought it to him when the two agents had settled down at a table in the hotel restaurant to have some breakfast.

"No, not really. I think we should start by asking the girl friend a few questions. She might have seen something without realizing it. After that we should head over to the jamboree site, it's a long shot but we might find something there," Aaron said. His eyes were a little red and gritty. The last case had been particularly brutal and Aaron hadn't been sleeping well as a result. Even his own bed instead of a hotel room the past three nights had done little to assuage his general sense of fatigue.

"Will there still be anything left from the music festival? I always understood them to be somewhat transitory in nature," Reid asked. He'd taken two quick swallows of the hot liquid. All ready, he could feel life returning to his limbs. Coffee was such a wonderful drug. Thank God it was still legal.

"I know," was all Hotch came up with. He knew it was probably a waste of time but he had the need to go there anyway. Underneath the exhaustion, something else was gnawing at Aaron's mind. There was something else going on here but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"Are you ready to order, sir?" the waitress asked. The two FBI agents were the only people in the restaurant at this hour and so were getting a great deal of her undivided attention.

"Ah, yes, I think we are," Hotch replied. Quickly, the two men placed their orders. The waitress wrote it down on her order pad and was just turning away when Aaron added. "Do you get a lot of business when the music festival is in town?"

"Of course, the restaurant is packed with just about everyone from the time we open until we close. Most of the younger people come here to eat rather than cooking for themselves. We've had to have a few of them removed for being drunk but that doesn't happen very often. Why, are you interested in coming next year?" Reid decided the woman had all ready been into the coffee herself. He didn't think she'd paused to take a breath during the entire statement.

"No. We are here to try to find a young man who went missing after the festival. Now that it's over, will there still be anything there?" Hotch asked. Now that he'd had a few sips of his own beverage, he was starting to feel a little more human too.

"Oh, yeah. All the streets are pretty much permanent. Well, as permanent as dirt roads ever get. The downtown is still there, all the stalls for the food places and merchandise sellers. Also, the two bars will still be there. Well, they're not really bars, more like corrals with counters all along the sides for people to serve beer from ice chests. The grand stands will still be there too. The place gets used for a rodeo too so they just left things alone," the waitress said. She was idly taping her pen in her right hand on the pad in her left hand.

"Thank you. You've been very helpful," Aaron said, trying to dismiss her. His head had begun to pound. She really did talk too much and too fast. He watched as she headed back to the kitchen with their order. It was unfortunate that the restaurant had a dress code for their workers. The waitress uniform of a blue dress with a white apron really didn't do much for the poor woman.

"Well, it's a place to start," Reid said, trying to drag his boss back to the present. He'd seen Hotch's dark brown eyes follow the woman and knew that while it appeared he was staring, really he was just thinking too hard. "If everyone here is as helpful as her this shouldn't take long at all."

Smiling slightly, Aaron nodded in agreement and turned his attention back to his cup of coffee. He would need one more cup before he'd be completely awake but he had the feeling he was going to need even more to make it through the rest of the day. That did not bode well.