Chapter 3

"Hey kid, I got you a present," Morgan said. He tossed Peter three packages with names scrawled on them in sharpie. Peter and handed one to Alex and one to Maxi.

Taking his time to pull the tape and open the box Peter pulled out the contents. "Thanks," he said smiling. It was an FBI jacket and cap.

"I thought since you guys would be around the FBI you might as well fit in," Derek said.

"Thanks," Peter repeated. He put on the jacket and hat which fit him pretty well and tightened up the cap before putting it on. Maxi did the same and pushed the sleeves up to her elbows so she could use her hands.

That night Peter, Alex, and Maxi put on their pajamas and crawled into bed. Maxi still wore her FBI jacket over her tee shirt. You could tell that Morgan was proud that his present had been such a hit. Despite all of this Peter couldn't help but feel that something was wrong. He finally fell asleep but not until after everyone else was.

Peter groaned as he woke up. His entire body ached and protested getting up. He just wanted to go back to sleep in his nice, warm, comfy…

This wasn't his bed.

Peter normally sleep with Alex on a small bed tucked away in the corner of a room where Maxi sleep on a couch in the other corner. Now he was on what felt like a large nap mats like you use when you take a nap in kindergarten. Alarmed, he glanced around and saw that indeed he was lying on two nap mats.

He immediately scrambled up and looked around. He tried to remember what Spencer had told him to do if something like this happened.

See if there are other children there. Look for Alex and Maxi if there are. He looked around him on the floor. Alex, Maxi, and two other children were asleep on mats. He decided not to wake them yet. He would try to figure things out a little bit more

Try to figure out where you are. See if there's a way to get help or escape. Do not put yourself in danger trying to escape. It looked like a day care or a classroom only the windows were barred and the door had a pad lock as thick as his fist on it.

Look for your kidnapper. It's likely they're psychotic so play along with their fantasy. Sit tight and stay safe until we come get you. This was the hard part. Waiting and playing along with the fantasy of a psychotic nutcase while watching out for Alex and Maxi was almost more than he could take. He pulled his jacket tighter around himself.

Suddenly he realized that he was wearing the FBI jacket and hat. Whoever kidnapped them must have put them in him before he took them. But how did he get them here? Peter was a light sleeper.

Suddenly an idea struck him. Going over to Alex he slowly pulled down the collar of Alex's FBI jacket and looked and his neck. Right on the back of his neck was a tiny red place from what was probably a needle. They had been drugged.

"Peter," Maxi said, her lower lip quivering. "Where are we?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Peter said walking over to her and sitting beside her. "But I bet Spencer will come find us soon."

Maxi nodded and looked much disoriented. Every morning she got up early and sat with Reid, Morgan, and Hotch while they drank coffee and she drank chocolate milk or hot chocolate. Everyone thought it was cute seeing the three manly men sitting with a small girl with rumpled hair still wearing her pajamas, but no one said anything out loud. Everyone was just happy that she had adapted to an almost entirely new schedule so quickly. There had been a few days were she was disoriented and grouchy, but she was fine now.

Peter looked around and saw a small fridge in the corner. He went over to it and opened it. Inside he found a juice box and in the pantry he found a box of cereal. Deciding this was pretty good he brought them over and handed them to Maxi who began to eat slowly. After a while Alex woke up and ate some of the cereal too. Peter took a few bites, but his mind was whirling too much to taste much of it.

The other children woke up and quietly went for food from the kitchen area.

"You're new aren't you?" the boy asked. Peter nodded.

"Just be quiet whenever he comes in and do what he says or you'll get sent away," the girl said.

"Who is he?" Peter asked. The kids shrugged.

"We don't know. He says to call him mister and sir whenever he talks to us but he's never told us his name," the girl said.

"Where does he send people away to?" Alex asked.

"The adult house," the boy whispered. He seemed to be afraid of the words. "Sometimes the adults kill kids who get sent there. The adults don't get as much food as we go. He makes them fight for it and sometimes we have to watch." The boy shuddered at memories of men, women, and some children being beat to death with someone's bare hands. It was always horrible and merciless.

"How long have you been here?" Peter asked. The kids shrugged again.

"Weeks probably, maybe a few months, we we're some of the first kids kidnapped," the girls said. "What's with the hats and jackets?" she asked.

"We were here with our cousin Spencer. He's in the Behavior Analysis Unit of the FBI and one of his work friends got these for us," Peter explained.

The kids seemed to brighten slightly. "Maybe he'll find us," the boy whispered hopefully.

Peter nodded. "We know he'll try with everything he's got."

"I'm Alexia," the girl introduced herself. "This is my little brother David."

"I'm Peter, this is Alex, and this is Maxi," Peter said.

Later while Maxi, Alex, and David we're sitting in a corner reading a few of the books that Alexia had told them that he said they had to read Alexia cornered Peter. "David is autistic. He's got Asperger's so if he doesn't adapt well to you guys…"

"Maxi has Asperger's," Peter said. "Alex has CP and maturity issues. I'm ADD." Peter surprised himself by coming clean immediately. It didn't really matter though. Alexia would have found out eventually.

Alexia cocked and eyebrow. "I'm ADD too. What a coincidence."

All of the time spent around Reid and the rest of the team kicked in. "No," he said trailing off in thought. "It's a pattern. It's called victimology. Spencer works with that all the time." He scrambled to grab something to write with and something to write on. He found a sheet of printer paper and a colored pencil. He made a list of David, Alexia, Maxi, Alex, and himself. "You said that there were other kids, kids who got sent to the adult house. Did any of them have autism, ADD, ADHD, CP, dyslexia, maturity issues, or anything?" he asked, rattling of different names of things like what they had.

Alexia thought deeply for a few agonizing moments. "Joshua had dyslexia, Mary Anne had ADHD, Freddy had autism, Greg had CP, and Hannah had maturity issues. And I remember Greg telling me that there was another girl, Sarah, who had Rett syndrome."

Peter wrote them down, feeling sick at the number of kids who had been sent to the adult house. "Are any of them still alive or did they all- all get killed fighting for food?" he asked.

"Mary Anne is still alive. She's like sixteen though so she can fight a little, but mostly she just hides and stills food when she needs it. The adults were trying to get Sarah for something, I don't know what and Joshua defended her. They… They killed him, but Sarah lived another few weeks before she had this huge seizure and died," Alexia said. Again Peter felt sick, but fought it back. Spencer dealt with this every day. He could handle it until the team found them, if the team found them that is.

He wrote how they died on the paper by the names of the kids who had died. When he finished he folded the paper and stuffed it into one of the huge pockets on his FBI jacket.

"How's this going to help?" Alexia asked.

"Spencer does it to figure out who might be in danger and protect them. He can figure out where they victims might be judging by what kind of victims there are. It helps them figure out what kind of crazy the Unsub is and their personality," Peter said.

"Unsub?"

"Unknown subject, in this case it would be him," Peter said. Alexia nodded.

Reid was about to have a panic attack. He lost his cousins. How do you lose a person let alone three?

"Reid, we'll find them," Morgan said. "Relax and think. If anyone can find them it's you." Reid nodded and looked at the list of victims and suspects.

Then something clicked.