Hi folks! Thanks for checking out the story so far.

Once again, reviews would be so much appreciated! This chapter, it's story time. We need to build up a bit of background, don't we?

So, blah blah blah. Here you go.

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds with all it's characters belongs to CBS. I don't own anything in this fic, except for the OCs, that'll cross your path once in a while. So, don't sue!

Criminal Minds - The Lost Episodes

The Reid Files

Episode 1

Rejected

Chapter 2

Greenville, VA, Police Station

"Let's see, what we got so far." Hotch told his two companions and Reid started to organize pictures and sheets across the table.

"The first murder was in the summer of '99. She disappeared and was found 3 days later outside the town in the woods. The second victim disappeared four weeks later and was found 6 days after her murder. The bodies showed the same injuries, bruises, broken fingers, head trauma and both were missing their tongue, which police found out later, got feed to them. And they were raped. All injuries let assume they were beaten up and got hit with blunt objects. But no evidences were found. No fingerprints. Nothing."

Reid took a deep breath in, held it for a sec and let it out slowly, as he showed them another sheet. "This is a short resume, Gideon wrote."

They stared at it for a moment, before Hotch hesitantly took and read it. It was something close to a basic analysis of John Lee Darmer.

He presented it to Rossi, after he was through.

"...inferiority complex...not comfortable around women...highly frustrated and intimidated...undeveloped sense of responsebilitly...highly systematical behavior...possible mental disorders and sexual compulsion..." Rossi recapitulated the main points. "That's something to work with."

Reid gazed up at Hotch from where he was sitting and furrowed his brows. "But, the file of the third victim's isn't there. I only found the name, mentioned in the final report. Lisa Cunnings." He said and started to pack, because they were already done here.

"Let's ask the officer. We need to find someone, who was part of the investigations." Hotch suggested with a firm voice.

He couldn't accept the fact, there were no clues left. "And were taking the files with us." He motioned Reid to gather everything.

"So?" Joseph asked when they joined him in his office. "We need more. Were you here, when it all happened?" Rossi asked, but the officer looked down and shook his head. "No, I got assigned here after those murders. The whole town was in an uproar and people started leaving...There were three offivers back then. One had left the town. Haven't heard of him ever since. The second one died in the fire and the third, well, he's still here.

He kinda snapped after all this. But he never left, always saying he got to watch and wait. He still believes Darmer would return someday. His name is Richard Garraty." He shrugged and scratched his neck.

"We need to talk to him." The officer's eyes widened and he grimaced. "Well, do what you gotta do, but he's turned into a quirky hermit. You'll find him just outside the town. Half a mile to the southeast." Officer Wright stood up and put his finger on the map on the wall, and watched Reid clumsily pulling out his own, then marking the location. "Let's go." Hotch announced satisfied.

Reid had pictured the man as an old geezer, with a shotgun standing on his porch shouting at them, but they soon realized, he was nothing more than a solely lonely broken man. Deep wrinkles around sad and dazed eyes looked at them, when he opened up the door of his wooden house.

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Garraty, but we like to talk to you." Hotch showed him his badge.

The old man sighed. "FBI? What do you want from me?" He wasked and Reid noticed, how his former weary eyes returned to life. "It's about John Lee Darmer and the murders. You lead the investigations back then, right? We have a few questions." Rossi took a few steps forward and looked him right in the eyes. "He's back, huh." He muttered under his breath, more to himself, than to the agents on his porch. They exchanged a brief look with each other. "Come in." Garraty stepped aside.

They sat down in the shabby small kitchen and were presented with what looked like coffee. Only Reid finally brought up enough courage to actually confirm, it was. It was the kind that'll knock you off your socks, he realized the moment he drank it. The doctor fortunately made it to swallow his sip, before spluttering it back into his cup. The man quirked an eye brow at him and smiled wryly.

"That's something you won't get in the big city, kid. Enjoy. Special brew." Spencer gulped and looked down abashed. "Uhm. It's good, it's good..." The man nodded approvingly. "You'll get used to it, my boy."

"So what do you want to know?" He asked with his croaky voice and watched the black surface in his own cup. "We want to know, what happened to Lisa Cunnings. Most of the reports got Wright, you're possibly the only one left to know." Agent Hotch told his opposite from across the table.

"There was another agent from Washington. He knows, too. His name was Jason Gideon." Garatty stated with shifting eyes.

"Uhm. Agent Gideon, he left..." The doctor said softly with hinted sadness in his voice. "Oh...Why? I thought he was pretty good. He could have really pulled it off."

Hotch glanced at Reid, seeing the effort of the younger man to stifle his grief, then informed Garraty on what happened.

"He was our leader actually. But then, after some incidents, he couldn't take it anymore and just ran away. His whereabouts are unknown."

The old man comprehended. "And I was wondering, why I hadn't heard from him. We always sent each other's letters, birthday and christmas cards.

We both liked these old-fashioned way to communicate with each other. I think, I could call him a friend ever since. He told me a lot. And I was able to learn a thing or two from him. He was a really honourable man. What a strange coincidence to have his former team members sitting in my kitchen, now." He seemed pretty impressed by it.

Reid's mouth hung slightly open and he stared at the old man, unable to say anything. Grey eyes stared back at him. "You must be the Doc, he was always rambling about. The young genius." Spencer's face saddened even more with hearing those words, a lump started to build up in his throat.

"Said, he was so proud of you. Like a father of his son." It took a lot out of Reid to suppress the tears. He slumped back into the chair.

Stirring up memories like that wasn't good. It would make them lose focus. Hotch knew and stepped in. "That's enough. There are other more important things to discuss, than Gideon." He sounded a bit more angered, than he intended to and regretted it a bit.

Richard Garraty took another sip of his coffee and looked very rueful. He couldn't have known, how much the young man was affected Gideon's disappearance, or his life without a father in general and how much it really meant to him to hear those words. But, he knew Jason had loved this boy.

"I just thought he should know." The old man siad without any signs of remorse. Reid gulped his coffee down. He felt proud, happy and sad, all at the same time. Then a hand was placed softly on his shoulder and he looked into Rossi's face. "It's okay." The younger man answered the silent asked question of his team mate.

Richard shifted in his chair and leaned forward. "To fully be able to understand our Johnny boy, I'm gonna tell you a story." He announced solemnly and placed his folded hands on the table.

"I lived in this town all my life. But it wasn't a town to begin with. It was a small community, founded by like-minded people, when I was a kid.

That was 70 years ago. Some people called it a religious thing. I called it stupid and fanatic. There was a human, who eventually became the leader. Because, every religion needs it. A shiny icon. She was a quite remarkable being, charismatic and stubborn. Her name was Millicent Darmer, formerly Wilkins."

Hotch, Rossi and Reid didn't need one second to know that he was talking about John Lee's mother. Hotch signalized him to go on.

Richard cleared his throat. "This woman was so convinced of her beliefs of perfection, many families started to follow until a unique village was forged. All living happily next to each other. But more and more people started to move in here eventually, not knowing anything about that. They just thought of it as a beautiful quiet place to be. Some were introduced to group, some were not. The village grew bigger. Her vision slowly seemed to crumble. Then it finally became a real town. She was forced to continue underneath the furface of it all. During all of that, she had fallen in love to one of them, they used to call outsiders, who moved in here later. Ray was a kind man, simple-minded indeed, but a good guy. They had a son. Johnny Lee. As he grew up, they realized he was different. Some say he was plain dumb, he had a very slow working brain. But he had inherited his father's kind personality. Then a tragedy struck her. Her husband died. He had been ill. Cancer, if I remember correctly. Her followers had already been distancing themselves from her, because she had married him. Her vision of the perfect people and community slowly dissolved by her own deeds. You can't choose, who you fall in love with, now can you? That's the flaw, that brought her down. Most people didn't even know, Johnny even existed. She was hiding him like a dirty secret. Treating him like a dog. I later asked her, why she was doing this to him and she said, she got cursed by God. She had betrayed him and their beliefs, so that she got cursed with an impure child. Filth. That Johnny was her punishment." Richard stopped and closed his eyes. "It should have stopped right there and anything would never had happened. This child never understood, why she was doing this to him. And when you're always getting told, that you're worth shit, you start to believe it someday."

"So, John and his father were mentally challenged people. Ray Darmer only for the trained eye, I assume. He gave it to his son. The woman wanted to create a perfect world, which doesn't allow any imperfections and rejected her son from the beginning. Am I correct, so far?" Hotch asked, pretty surprised by the story.

The old man nodded slowly. "Johnny got mistreated. He had to face the hate of his mother everyday. It broke him. He didn't understand. But, it all got worse when Johhny turned 16. His mother was murdered. She was found dead on their grounds. The people were shocked. They couldn't believe, they had murderer within their society. And Johnny was gone. Only a few knew he existed and kept silent about it, because of her. Some where loyal until the end. But after that, the cult dissolved completely, lost their faith. More left, more new folks came. But all those prejudices lasted and were given from parents to children. Everything what was different got ignored and rejected. I started to work for the police that time. And then Johnny was back. He returned home. I first didn't recognize him, until I spoke to him. Of course, I knew it was him who killed his mother all along. But, I guess he did the townspeople a huge favor. So I let it rest. Everyone deserves a chance, especially him. And who could blame him, after what she'd done to him. Locking him up in the basement with nothing but darkness and bugs. He even found himself a job at the horse ranch, teaching the kids how to ride, looking after the horses. For a few years, I thought everything was fine. He himself was still a kid. But eventually, Johnny slowly developed interest for the females. But all those teenagers would do, was laugh at him or showed him their disgust. It angered him, because it was like his mother had treated him. At that time, I had a daughter myself. Not my real daughter though, but I took care of her, after her parents had died in a car crash. She was different, too. She suffered the very same. She often came home crying. Her name was Lisa Cunnings." Richard heaved a big sigh to those painful memories and slowly raised his hands to cover his face.

Reid could very much sympathize. He knew what it felt like to get bullied. He could relate to both, Johnny and Lisa, suffering from peoples cruelty. "About the unsub's mother locking him up. Well, that's exactly what he's doing to his victims. And making them eat their own tongues, it all is because of the constant mocking. He's enraged and this his only way to deal with it. To shut them up and get revenge."

"Lisa was mentally challenged, too. Did John and her share a friendly relationship?" Hotch asked Richard, who still sat there, breathing heavily in and out.

They waited few more moments longer, watching him, as he mentally fought to regain his composure. Then he shot up and laughed nervously. "I'll go and make another cup of coffee. This is taking longer, than I expected!"

"Take your time." Rossi said softly, seeing how the old man was a bit out of loop from recalling his past all at once. He needed a short break from it.

After he had brought them some new coffee, he sat down again and continued with his much calmer voice from earlier.

"I kept Lisa away from Johnny. I didn't want her to be to close to him. After all, he killed his mother. He never learned anything, loving and caring parents would teach their children. Usually, all he did was talking to the horses. His mind was still the one of a kid in an upgrown body. No one ever told him, how to deal with his urges and issues, I guess. And then..." His voice staggered under his breath. "..we found Sarah dead. I swear, on that day, I actually aged 10 years. I never had seen anything like that. It was like a bad dream. We heard from her friends, he had given her flowers and she just laughed at him for being such a fool. I had no evidence, but again, I knew it was him. But I couldn't prove it. Then Linda disappeared. And I swear, he got wiser. We talked to everyone, did researchings and interrogating so many people until someone from another town told us, she had been seen with Johnny. He didn't do it here, but 20 miles away. We were short on man power and so Washington send us some men. We couldn't handle it alone anymore. We found her weeks later. I presented my results to Gideon and he made a short profile. It fitted. Perfectly. John had been our prior suspect all along. And with Linda he wasn't satisfied. He wanted a girlfriend so badly, it drove him crazy. When Lisa was taken, I nearly lost it." Again Richard stopped. He took a few sips of his coffee and slowly gathered himself.

"I owe Gideon a lot. He helped me to get through all of it. Lisa had gone missing and John had vanished with her. I swear we looked for her almost all over Virginia. And he probably sat somewhere in his cave, playing house with my little girl. I'll never forgive myself, that it all happened to her. She is my little baby, you know. All those terrible things. She was with him for more than 5 weeks! Imagine this happening to a young girl! She can't understand the world as it is. She's experiencing things in an other way, unlike us. We finally found her. She was dead and Johnny ran away, again. But I know, he'll return. He'll always come home." Richard's face exposed true horror and his voice was loud and agitated. "I've been carrying those regrets and the guilt for so long now. If I had done more, the poor girls could have been saved. None of it would have ever happened!"

In Reid's head, Richard's words echoed on and on. This was exactly the same reason, why Gideon had ran off. All these regrets and feeling weak and powerless. He couldn't take it any longer. Reid seriously wondered, if he himself would end up like those men one day. He already had seen enough terrible things, that would last for two lifes. How much had Gideon seen? He could only guess.

Silence struck the house and the only noise was the ticking clock on the wall. All eyes rested on the old, pitiful man, who had lost everything he ever got. Reid's brain started to process all the information he just got told. Rossi and Hotch could see it working behind his concerned looking feature.

"Did she suffered the same injuries like the others? Where did you find her? And how?" Rossi seemed not satisfied with the man's explanation.

"Yeah, she did! All those horrifying stuff! She was captured in a cave deep within the woods! Can you just leave now? I'm kinda exhausted." The three agents were surprised by his sudden rudeness. "Alright." Rossi replied calmly, motioning the others to follow him.

"Thank you, Sir. We'll leave you alone for now. You 've been a great help." Hotch rose up and Rossi followed. Reid stared into his empty cup. He really had begun to like that man's special homemade brew. "Reid." Hotch called softly. "Oh...yeah. Coming."

At the door, they shook hands with Richards and shared a few comforting words with him.

"Dr. Reid?" Spencer stopped on the first step, when Garraty called him. The others nodded briefly and left the two alone. "Yeah?" The older man seemed apologetic. "I'm sorry, if I said the wrong thing earlier, you know, about you and Jason."

Reid bit his lip, but then smiled weakly. "You didn't. I'm grateful, you told me. It means a lot to me, actually. Thanks." Richard returned the smile. "I knew it would. Take care, kid." The smile changed into a pretty sly one. "I will. You, too." Reid waved him a goodbye with one hand and then stopped. "It wasn't your fault, it all happened. Sometimes, you're not able to do anything. What's done is done."

Richard's features lit up for a brief moment. "You sound exactly like Jason." Reid smiled wryly, then shoved his hands into his pockets, before turning around to join up with the others. The old man watched as the SUV driving off into the dark and grinned to himself. "Gideon was right. He is a special one."

"What's up?" Dave asked Spencer, who had been silent for over 20 minutes now. They were on their way back to Quantico.

"I don't know. Something seemed off." Rossi nodded at him. "I didn't saw a single picture of his deceased foster-daughter, though it could be the fact, he still can't take it to look at her. But, it's strange."

The doctor was surprised. "You noticed, too? " Dave looked amused. "You might be a genius. But, I have more experience." He said mockingly. "What are we gonna do?" Reid's met Hotch eyes in the rear mirror. "We need to go back for now. I'll give Officer Wright a call to dig around some more."

Greenville, VA, Richard Garraty's house

The old man sat in his kitchen sipping on his coffee. It was short after midnight and he couldn't bring himself to sleep much and finally got up again. Haunting pictures from the past disturbed his sleep and a subtle sense of dark foreboding kept eating away on his insides. He won't let his guard down this time. there was so much he had to atone for. He had been so stupid. He had seen it coming and just watched.

So much to regret.

A knock on the door ripped him out of his thought. He rose and his bones cracked. So old. What could he do with this weak old body?Nothing.

Richard slowly went to the front door, the knocks got louder. "I'm coming. Don't rush an old man like me!" He rumbled in deep, snarling voice. "Who's there?" He wouldn't open up so easily. The man outside probably thought the same and kicked the old wooden door down. Richard couldn't run. The shock pretty made weak heart jump and then it nearly stopped. He had to face his punishment.

"Hello, Uncle Richy." The last thing, he could think of, before a sharp pain went through his head, was that he had been a fool all along. And Johhny Lee had been right to stalk the old man. He had always been kind of a nuisance and he never liked those sharp eyes of him. And letting FBI agents into the house just like that, wasn't something to take lightly. Even a dumb man like himself knew that.

Dun~dun~dun!

We'll be back soon after the commercial break. Stay tuned.