Author's Note: I'm commencing the dump of chapters. I'm going to dump three tonight and three tomorrow. Then lovelies, that is it.
When I said this was going to be only ten chapters, I meant it weirdly enough. There is possibilities for another sequel, but I don't want to write another one. Really, I want to dump all of this and just be done with fanfiction. Anyways, there are popular song lyrics in this chapter... But I don't use more than three of the words consecutively in one sentence so it technically isn't plagiarism. But as always, I do not own the song and I do not claim to. If it bothers you, message me first and I will take it down.
Enjoy.
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." ~Leo Tolstoy
Clutching onto the shoe and the sweater, he was swimming full speed, face down in the water. Mainly, he swam this way so they wouldn't see his tears that were spewing down off of his face into the channel. Considering forty minutes had passed and Florence's signal was dead, it was safe to assume she was as well. The afternoon sun was heating his back as it broke through the water. Spencer felt his knee going weak, straining in pain, but he didn't care. It didn't matter.
Spencer scrambled on the dock, the bright afternoon sun beating onto his dripping dark shirt. Out of his arms fell the items as he took in air hastily. His chest fell and rose deeply and uncomfortably as he let the facts sink in. "Reid," Hotch sternly addressed, taking the stairs down to the level of the deck Reid was now lounging on.
Emily's mouth dropped as she broke down the stairs in a near run. Aaron wondered what she saw and let her by as she picked up the saturated cable knit sweater. Avci calmly spoke into the radio about a 'search team' and 'a medic.' "She's in the river," Emily concluded, outlining the stain of crimson poisoning the green v neck.
Aaron sighed, staring into the skyline, "There's still a chance she's alive."
This made Reid furious. Florence wasn't alive, she was dead. The signal died along with her. She was resting somewhere at the bottom of the Bophorus with not a single memory. Carter was gone and it was all his fault, like JJ had established in DC. Instead of saying anything, he stared into the clear water, trying to find a meaning in all of this.
Through the personal crisis, Avci began descending the stairs in a steady manner. With a polite clearing of the throat, the young male, no older than twenty five, announced, "Istanbul police have agreed to call on a land search if we will take over the water search."
Hotchner nodded as he handed both pieces of evidence to Avci. Before Avci was to walk away, Spencer couldn't find the strength to bite his tongue. "She has multiple scars on her abdomen," he said barely above a whisper.
"Pardon?" Aslan turned around and rose his voice to communicate to Spencer he couldn't hear him.
Emily nodded in understanding, her mouth forming an 'O.' She understood what he meant and how it played a key role in helping Florence resurface. "Dr. Reid was stating that Carter has various lacerations on her back and abdomen, and an extensive, healing, burn scar covering her stomach. Considering she is wearing a tank top at the very most, her scars are going to be visible, just as identification," Emily worded in the manner Reid couldn't at the moment.
Even though the person he trusted the most was dead, he was glad that Emily was a confidant in this process. "That's actually a good point, just in case…" Avci pondered before Spencer shot him a look that shut that idea down. Reid hadn't meant to be rude in any way. Right now, it wasn't a good idea to put 'dismembered' in a sentence with her name. "Well, the boat is coming down right now to pick you up," Aslan pointed towards the horizon with nothing left to say.
"Thank you Agent Avci," Aaron's steely, fearless voice made Spencer look like a mourning coward. Emily's phone began ringing as the speedboat broke the ripples in the river. Spencer stood up on his rickety legs once again to witness the taping off of the section of the river by two police boats' flashing lights.
As the boat halted at the dock, Reid and Hotch ventured onto the deck, which swayed with any little movements. Emily followed them at a leisurely staggering pace, eventually coming to the boat. Once crossing the boundary, and casually greeting the 'sailor' for lack of better terms, Emily hung up. With a smirk, she stared at Spencer. Reaching into his pocket, he brutally beat himself up for letting his phone turn faulty. Now, he had no control over the calls to and from Quantico, and his past experiences told him that Emily was much more honest than he was. "Apparently, a flight from Istanbul to Geneva was stopped halfway at Sarajevo International in Bosnia," Emily proclaimed, slipping the phone back in her pocket as she took a seat between Reid and Hotch.
Aaron raised his eyebrows, staring over the side of the boat to search for any sort of evidence. Down beside them, a cop on a jet ski waved and introduced himself, "I'm Jerry, if you see anything then I can get it for you," he waved.
"Thank you Jerry, will do," Emily feigned a beam. Checking his watch, Reid suspected that if Flo was still alive, she'd make it to eight o'clock this evening, and that was being optimistic. "Apparently Holly is waiting in Customs for someone in the U.S. Bosnian embassy to arrive to escort her back to the states," Emily concluded.
Hotchner sighed, training his eyes on the ground. "We're going to stay since we took up the water search," Hotch frowned. Reid took a sigh of relief even though he knew that Aaron would have to pay.
They sifted through sections of the strait, ultimately finding nothing at all. Land teams were having trouble as well. The constant bicker of the radio between international assistance and Turkish law enforcement was scarcely intercepted by American Intelligence. Istanbul, once something Reid took marvel in, became a death trap. Hot, humid, air filled their tired lungs as the three hoped to see something, but not the obvious. There was no doubt they wanted to find her, but there was a shared understanding that if one of them saw her like that, it wouldn't go over that well. "Reid, can you stop leaning over the side of the boat like that?" Emily questioned with an eye roll he caught out of the corner of his own set of peckers.
"Excuse me," Spencer moodily responded.
"Well, you constantly making the boat move isn't helping me look," Emily retorted, rubbing her temples.
With a deep scorn chiseled deep into his features, Reid was tired of the sideways glances and the doubts of why he was here setting into the two agent's minds. "Sorry, I'm just trying to find our friend," his voice slandered.
"Bickering isn't going to find her," Hotchner split the spat apart. With that, Spencer didn't dare to open his mouth again.
The sun began to sink below the horizon, turning the sky into shades of mauve that were showcasing beauty at all the wrong moments. They had covered two miles in two hours. Spencer was calculating the supposed entrance site of the bullet and the amount of time that Carter had left while gazing into the endless ripples of the strait. There was no way that Florence could've swam two miles with a bullet in her and lived.
Reid's hand fiddled with the emerald earrings still nestled in his pockets. They felt like millstones weighing him down. Flo must've really wanted him out of her life. Whether out of his protection or anything else under the sun, he sincerely hoped that she didn't leave them there because she didn't care for him. He hoped that she didn't leave them there because she never loved him more than he hoped she was alive at the moment. Currently, his thought process made him sick.
The sun incessantly reminded them of the little time they had left as it retracted further and further away. Spencer dared to read the hands on the face of his watch. Seven fifteen.
Spencer sat on the balcony of the hotel room which conveniently had a view of the Asian side of Istanbul over the strait. Red and blue flashes still reflected off of the water which gave Spencer daunting chills. Even though everyone had retired for the evening, or at least the final two hours of evening, Flo was still out there.
In those two hours, he could've been out there trying to find her. He knew that he could've been out there instead of listening to Hotch and coming back here to cry and listen to her iPod. Becoming tired of the song that he first took interest in, he began browsing through the silver and white device. Many songs were piano pieces that he already knew, some were of Victor, and then there was one that jumped out at Spencer. Literally, it was labeled 'For Spencer.'
Curious, he pressed play and tried to push the memories of their balcony talk from his mind. Once he remembered the balcony talk, he also remembered Adam, who reminded him of Tobias Hankel and a slew of other things. Things that reminded him a nice little hit would be so nice momentarily. The song didn't stand out much, just a typical guitar with an overused intro facilitating simple rhymes. The pure voice is what caught Spencer's attention. "… I won't give…" the male sung what Spencer suspected to be the hook. The singer began to finish the rest of the verse, "… up on us."
It wasn't until the next line that it brought tears to his eyes. After that, he wondered when Florence was going to show him this since it was relatively new. "Still looking up…" the singer's pure drawl couldn't captivate Spencer as much as the song Florence handpicked for him did. Those emeralds in his pockets didn't hold such a weight any more. Carter left for a reason, and while he may never know that, Spencer knew that she loved him.
She wanted him to look up. Like the song had mentioned, Spencer believed the term 'old soul' applied to her more than him. Though only twenty three, Florence had so much wisdom, wisdom that was plagued with an honor pledge and ultimatums she didn't have to have. If they lived to see each other again, Reid knew that he was going to remind her that. Additionally, he was going to tell her that he wasn't giving up either.
As the song faded, Spencer found himself completely broken up about it more than he expected. With a simple pivot of the foot and a noisy opening door, he entered the hotel room and sat on the side of the bed. Wet hair from the shower plastered his tear strewn face. Someone doesn't have to die for mourning to occur.
His newly purchased phone began ringing with an unfamiliar number. Drying up his tears the best he could, he answered the phone, "Dr. Reid," he groggily greeted.
"Hey," a female's voice sounded. It sounded so much like Flo's but Spencer knew it was Holly by the huskier undertones. For a girl, Holly had a very low voice. "It's Holly," she confirmed Spencer's hypothesis.
"Holly, you know I can't tell you any details," Spencer groaned. The last thing he wanted to do was to cry over the phone with a sixteen year old.
Holly sighed, "I know that, I just, I just want to hear from someone that loved Flo as much as I did, probably even more," her voice staggered. Spencer didn't know how to take that. He was sure that Holly would honor the secrecy of the relationship, but what if they requested transcript of cell phone calls?
It doesn't matter, Spencer's negative, but most likely accurate, logic commented on the situation. She's probably dead anyways. "It's not easier for someone who loved her less Holly," Reid bit his lip.
"Bull shit! What about Gates, Spencer? I'm sure it was easy for him," Holly exclaimed. Spencer hoped she wasn't in the airport carrying on like this. Even more so, he prayed to something that he knew shouldn't exist that she wasn't with the embassy. That would look marvelous on a suspension notice for fraternizing.
Spencer took validity in the statement. He had forgotten how much he wanted to strangle Alexander Gates the first time around, now taken it's the second, Spencer felt positively animalistic at the actions he wanted to partake in presently. Florence and her rescue were much more paramount than Alexander Gates succumbing to a fiery grave. However, it was the next task on the checklist. "You're right," he admitted.
Holly chuckled darkly. She was probably plotting her own special version of Gate's demise currently. While she was under Embassy or Customs protection, she'd be safe from herself and others. Spencer was pleased with the flexibility of the Bosnian Embassy over the Turkish sect. Carter had to pick the best place to run off to. "But you're not used to saying that one, genius," Holly jabbed.
"Florence would not want you to be bitter," Spencer reminded her, trying to reason with the stubborn girl. Garcia could have her fun with her since Juliet had officially abandoned maternal rights.
"When did you become the all knowing medium?" Holly cut into Spencer's words.
He was at a loss, not in the mood to attempt to profile the angry girl. "I've got to go," Reid fibbed.
"No you don…"
Click.