Disclaimer: I own nothing regarding Criminal Minds; I just thought it would be interesting to write a fic set in the future dealing with a tragedy that befalls Jack Hotchner. The spoilers range from season 1 through season 5, because that is the last season I watched extensively.
Warning: While this fiction is not particularly explicit, there is mention of rape. It's a Criminal Minds story, which should explain everything. If at all you are disturbed during the reading of this story, please let me know and I will send apologies. Also, make no mistake: there is character death in this story. You have been warned.
Happy reading!
*Warning is mostly for this chapter*
6/16/2015
Jack Hotchner is playing quietly. His dad is in the study, yelling at someone.
"Damn it, Dave, you can't leave like that. Like him."
Who's him?
The house is empty except for the two of them. His friend is supposed to stop by, see if they can go to the arcade at the mall later. His dad is expecting someone later. They are going to move again. They keep downsizing and upgrading ever since Jack's mom died.
Unexpectedly, Spencer Reid drops to the floor in front of the ten year old boy. "Want to see a magic trick?" Jack doesn't particularly care to; he's seen all of his surrogate uncle's lame tricks, but he likes spending time with Spencer. He is shown a quarter and then Spencer closes his hand.
"Sure," Jack pretends not to notice that Spencer has palmed the quarter to his other hand, waits patiently while Spencer runs through a series of Latin words that make no sense—he asked Dave for a translation.
When the hand in which the quarter "disappeared" from is opened, Jack is surprised to see a locket. Spencer offers it to him and Jack takes it carefully. The metal is warm from Spencer's hand and the chain feels like liquid running through his fingers.
"It was my mom's," Spencer says quietly, looking up when Dad enters the room angrily. Everyone used to say his dad had no emotions, now Jack wants them to stop saying that he's going off the deep end.
"Rossi retired," Dad glares at them. Jack is saddened to see that Spencer is no longer happy or thoughtful. He looks like his favorite TV show was canceled.
"Is he going to say goodbye?"
Dad avoids Spencer's eyes, instead focusing on the locket still dangling from Jack's fingers.
"What the hell is this?" He grabs it and shoves it under Spencer's nose. "What the hell are you trying to do to my son?"
Spencer doesn't answer. He grabs the locket and leaves. No words, no sounds. His absence hurts Jack's heart.
Jack spends an hour waiting for Spencer to come back. His dad spends the hour waiting for Jack to give up on Spencer.
Finally, frustrated that Spencer has not returned, Jack runs outside. He plans on running away. Well, not exactly. One can't be a runaway unless one doesn't know the destination. It does not matter to Jack that Spencer's apartment is almost four miles from his dad's house. He'll make it.
As he passes a white van, he is grabbed and dragged inside. The acceleration occurs before the doors can quite be shut, and his last view of the outside world is of his father chasing after the van, yelling.
Inside the van, it is dirty and a man is screaming at him. Jack barely understands the words being thrown at him due to the force of them and the anger choking the thick accent.
"I own you now! If your daddy wants you back, he can have you in pieces!"
Jack isn't truly terrified—he still thinks that Spencer or his father will rescue him—until the man uses a knife to cut his shirt. His pants join his shirt on the floor. What if the man kills him, like the little boy Jack once saw in a folder his dad was looking at?
He doesn't understand what the man wants when he tells him to lie on his stomach, and he doesn't really understand why a deep, burning the pain follows. He cries, tries to get the man to stop, but nothing he says has any effect on the man other than to cause him to slap him repeatedly.
Jack doesn't feel like the brave ten year old Emily told him he was on his last birthday. He feels like the small five year old who heard his mother die.
He spends the majority of his captivity either under the man, who continues to whisper things about his dad having to get him in pieces, or curled in a corner trying to keep a hold on the faces of his family and friends. He dreams constantly that he'll be rescued, but no one ever bursts through the door, and no one ever stops the man from taking what he wants.
One day the man wraps his hands around Jack's throat, choking him until he falls unconscious. Jack knows that this is the day he will die. He tries to say goodbye to everyone he can think of, but he blacks out before finishing.
A/N: Thanks for all the reads and favorites and the review.