Sorry that this took so long in coming out, but I want to make sure that this story is the best I can make it. Enjoy!
The mystery of love is greater than the mystery of death. – Unknown
"I think that he's holding the girls in the cellar," Morgan declared. Spread out on the table before them was a map of the Bouville-Revett Mansion. Sheriff Jenkins and a few of his men along with the BAU hovered anxiously over it, attempting to discern the best plan of attack.
Jenkins nodded. "The rest of the building is so old that the cellar is the only place left he could hold them," he agreed, his brow creased. The Sheriff was worried. The Bouville-Revett Mansion was in an advanced state of decay. If they weren't careful, it might come crashing down on their heads.
"Is there any other way into the cellar?" Hotch asked.
"No," Sheriff replied. "One entrance, one exit. Don't we want this bastard to be trapped?"
"If he's trapped he might try something desperate," Emily explained. She glanced over at Reid. The young doctor had done little but stare off into space since the startling revelation of the Doc's true identity. "We need to make sure that the Doc is safe."
"Adrienne," Reid blurted randomly, still staring blankly at the wall. All eyes turned and looked at him. Seeming to feel their gaze he turned. "Her name is Adrienne Cain. You wouldn't call any other victim by another title, so don't call her by anything but her name," he explained hollowly.
Silence met this odd request. "This isn't getting us close to getting those girls back," the sheriff finally snapped. "I say we're as ready as we're going to get."
"I think you're right," Hotch said with a sigh, but he wasn't pleased with the preparations. He knew there was nothing more they could do though. "Let's move out."
Moving both very quickly and excruciatingly slowly at the same time, the group of law enforcement filed out of the Courtland Police Station. The brilliant, hot summer sun struck them, forcing hands to fly up and shield their gaze and sunglasses to be pulled out. Once their sight had returned, they marveled at the number of people standing outside. It was as if the entire town had turned out to see Adrienne and Esmerelda returned safely home.
A little girl, Dottie, ran from her mother's grasp up to Reid. The tall doctor stared down at her in utter despair. Wordlessly, the girl handed him a poppy flower, then fled back shyly to the safety of her mother's skirt. Looking at the flower, Reid continued walking. It was a nice gesture, but at the moment meaningless compared to the might of the doctor's misery.
After mechanically climbing in the back of an SUV with Hotch and Sheriff Jenkins, Reid closed his eyes and thought in the way only he could. The universe seemed to unravel in his mind until he could see the very fabric of time and space. He saw the case as it was, not from his skewed perspective of wretchedness. There was a good chance that Adrienne was alive, but if the UNSUB knew they were onto him he might do something drastic.
And then, in the clarity that came with seeing the entire cosmos and understanding it, Reid realized something so earth shattering he almost fell over in his seat. It put steel back into his will, driving a purpose into his heart that he didn't know he lacked. He needed to save her, an actual physical need. For all the times she had saved him.
The archaic Bouville-Revett Mansion was three stories high and loomed out over once beautiful grounds that had long fallen into decay. Even in their haste to find the cellar, no one failed to notice the countless number of tiger lilies strewn about the property.
Guns drawn, the team glided silently around the building to the cellar door. Two of the sheriff's men slowly opened the dilapidated wooden storm doors with only a soft creak. They had been oiled recently. At the bottom of the steps was a steel door, like you would find on a bank vault. Without waiting for the rest of the group, Reid descended the stairs and flung open the heavy door.
"Reid, wait!" Morgan yelled, but he had already dashed into the room. His life was of little consequence so long as Adrienne lived.
Adrienne was lying in a crumpled heap near the wall. Her thin white clothing was caked in dirt and her long black hair was matted to her skull. Her eyes stared at him blankly, seeing while him seeing nothing. "Get the paramedic!" Reid yelled up the stairs, sounding much more calm and in control than he felt.
Running over to her, he saw with horror that she had already ingested the hemlock/belladonna salad. There was no time to wait for the gurney to struggle down the steps. Ignoring Hotch and Morgan as they yelled orders at him, Reid bent and swiftly picked the thin woman up in his arms. It was lucky she was so thin; Reid would not have been able to pick her up other wise.
Armed with the single-minded task of getting his friend to safety, Reid strode up the stairs into the setting sun. If they were lucky, Adrienne would survive the ride to the hospital.
Adrienne lifted her head from the dirt floor, trying not to cry out. Her stomach was so empty it hurt. The bones in her wrist stuck out like sticks wrapped in a thin sheet. Scared lovers try positions that they can't handle, she thought randomly. It was a pneumonic device to remember the bones of the wrist. Scaphoid, Lunate, Triquetral, Pisiform, Trapezium, Trapezoid, Hamate.
The slamming of the heavy metal door into the wall startled her from her morbid reverie. In walked her captor, still wearing the ski mask, with a tray of food. Salad, to be precise. "Here you are Adrienne Cain," the woman said kindly. She even smiled. "Such beauties as you and your cousin should not be left to wither. Eat and be strong."
Before she could perceive that it was a trap, Adrienne dove into the salad with ravenous abandon. As the Doc ate, her captor walked back over to the door and shut it slowly. That being done, she ran a gentle hand over the unconscious form of Esmerelda. Addy opened her mouth to tell her to get the hell away from her cousin, but nothing came out.
With the slow terror of one who sees their own death but does not fully understand, Adrienne realized immediately what was wrong. Her muscles, finely tuned to be able to wield a scalpel skillfully, were growing weak as she watched. They were atrophying in response to the salad.
Falling back dazed, the dark haired woman stared as though she were seeing as an outsider on the situation. As if by other ears, she heard the doors of the cellar open. The captor heard them too. A black fury crossed the little bit of face Adrienne could see before, with a scream of hatred and anger, the woman ran to the far corner of the room. Of course, Adrienne thought logically, there's a secret passage. With a last malevolent glance at Adrienne, the woman slipped out of sight.
For the second time that day, the huge metal door slammed open. Illuminated by the light of the afternoon sun a tall, lanky figure stood at the bottom of the steps. He was perhaps the most wonderful thing Adrienne had seen in days, and she tried to tell him so. But her mouth wasn't working as it should. Chills began to wrack her body, distracting her from the man.
The man was yelling as more people poured in, but Adrienne couldn't make out the words. Somewhere in her consciousness she knew that he was speaking English, but her muddled mind was having trouble even controlling breathing at the moment. A feeling of being hoisted up in two thin arms was the last thing Adrienne Cain knew before she fell into fitful unconsciousness.
"Is she all right?" Reid demanded for the fortieth time. Hotch, Morgan, JJ, Emily, and Reid stood in the waiting room of the hospital. Adrienne had been in the ER for five hours.
Hotch shot the doctor a tired glare. "They will tell us when they have her stabilized. You need to be patient and silent, Reid," the lead agent snapped. Reid flopped down into one of the uncomfortable chairs provided in the waiting room and scowled.
Down the hall, in a wheel chair and hospital gown, rolled Agent Rossi. "I hear that you have got the Doc back," he said with a smile. "That's good news. Maybe we'll finally start getting somewhere with this case."
"Do they have you on pain meds?" Reid snapped from his moody vantagepoint. Emily and Morgan sighed in exasperation. Reid had been irritable all evening.
Rossi chuckled and wheeled himself over to sit infront of Reid. Reaching out a tired hand, the agent ruffled the doctor's brown hair. "I am so medicated right now that for all I know you might be Emily," Rossi chuckled. Reid slapped his hand away. Still laughing, Rossi rolled back down the hall. "I call you when I'm not so high!" he called as he popped a wheelie.
Before anyone could make a comment about Rossi trippin on meds, Dr. Hill strode out of the double doors to the ER looking tired. On a gurney behind him was Adrienne Cain. An orderly was escorting her unconscious form down the hall. Glancing up from the retreating figures, Dr. Hill saw the exhausted group of FBI agents anxiously awaiting the verdict.
A broad smile broke across his face as he ambled toward them. "Adrienne is going to be just fine," he assured them. Reid slumped back in his chair and let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. Relief flooded him like a dam breaking, making him feel like he was almost drowning in joy. If she was all right, he was all right.
"I suppose it will be some time until she can wake up?" Hotch asked. Privately, he eyed the young doctor with a smile. Reid was lucky that his friend had survived; Hotch was truly happy for him.
"Yes, she won't be up for at least six hours, possibly more," Dr. Hill said, his tone switching to all business. A chart seemed to appear from nowhere into his hand. "We have moved her to room 207 until she wakes up."
"Will she be able to talk?" Emily asked. Saving lives was always one of the most important things they could do in a case, but if Adrienne couldn't tell them about or remember what had happened, they were back at square one.
Dr. Hill saw understood Emily's line of thought. He nodded, saying, "She will be able to answer all of your questions and more, if I know her as well as I claim to."
"And Esmerelda? Is she okay?" the Morgan asked sharply. All of these trivialities were nice, but there was another victim that kept getting forgotten.
The local doctor shifted nervously. "Esmerelda was a bit more difficult. Not as strong as Adrienne, you see," he explained sadly. Seeing the alarmed looks of the team he continued quickly, "She's alive! Don't you worry about that. But she is going to take much longer to recover than Addy."
Reid, who had been trying to politely listen, suddenly bounded to his feet. "Can I go see her?" he pleaded. He looked down at the doctor with wide, brown eyes that looked so sad Dr. Hill had to laugh or he would cry.
"Yes, m'boy," he chuckled. Reid smiled briefly in thanks, then skittered down the hall.
"Reid, wait up!" Morgan called as he ran after the younger man.
Adrienne Cain was lying on a hospital bed, eyes closed and hands folded over her stomach. If not for the IV and EKG, she could have been simply sleeping peacefully. To Reid she looked like a princess, awaiting her true love's kiss to awaken her from her spell-induced slumber. But that was far too girly a thought for the Great Doctor Reid to admit to aloud.
His thoughts had been so focused on the sleeping beauty that he did not notice Tilly in a chair next to Adrienne. "Well, I see that you got my Addy back, safe and sound," she declared as she slowly stood, startling Reid out of his gawking. Happy tears glistened at the corners of her eyes. "I can never repay you, Spencer. You don't know how much the girls mean to me."
Reid nodded. A lump in his throat prevented him from saying anything and he once again cursed his lack of elegance. Tilly gave his arm an affectionate squeeze before leaving. Reid moved to where the old woman had been sitting and took her chair. She had been cleaning Adrienne up; the young woman's skin was no longer dirt streaked and her hair wasn't matted to her head.
Reid knew that Morgan had followed him to the room. "This is Adrienne Cain," he said, his voice hitching on her name slightly as it squeaked. He coughed, trying to speak normally.
Morgan walked up behind Reid and placed a friendly, comforting hand on his shoulder. "Man, who is this girl?" Morgan asked lightly. "She must be something to have caught your eye."
Reid hesitated before he answered. Once the words were spoken they could never be taken back. "I went to high school with her," he answered slowly, almost reluctantly. "She was my best friend, my only friend really. She taught me how to use my brain in a different way."
"Like how?" the black man urged, but Reid stared at the woman in silence. "You can tell me, Reid."
"Why do people choose who they like and dislike?" Reid asked, seemingly from out of the blue.
Morgan went along with the change in topic, trying in vain to follow the young genius's line of thought. "Because it's how we are," he responded, taking his hand off the kid's shoulder to use it for gesturing. "Different tastes in things. We are drawn to like minded people, or people we're attracted to. People who intrigue us."
Reid shook his head at all of Morgan's answers. "Those are correct, but they aren't the most correct," he explained quickly. "We choose who we like and dislike because it helps us protect ourselves. By screening who we come in contact with, we limit the amount of damage that can be done to us by others."
Morgan shook his head with a lopsided smile. So this was the person who taught Reid to think and talk in circles. He had always assumed Reid had picked it up from Gideon, but he was apparently wrong. The beautiful, pale, dark haired woman lying unconscious on the bed had taught Reid what was perhaps his greatest skill.
Thinking that Reid wanted to be alone, Morgan backed out of the room quietly. He would talk to him later. Both of them, if he had his way.
Reid was grateful for the solitude. In a gesture he would never have done if she were awake, Reid reached across Adrienne's prone form and grabbed her hand, holding it loosely in his own two. It was cold, but not deathly so.
"I'm so, so sorry Adrienne," he whispered. "More than you could ever know." The young woman shifted in her sleep, a smile playing across her lips.
Reid didn't know how long he sat by Adrienne's side, and he didn't particularly care. Sheer will power and adoration for the beautiful woman kept hunger and exhaustion at bay. All the while she slept Reid watched over her.
It was well past dawn before Hotch realized Reid had never come back to Tilly's bed and breakfast. A brief search and a few questions was all it took for the supervisory agent to find the young doctor still in the hospital. Reid, still awake, was clutching the hand of a beautiful young woman lying asleep on the hospital bed. His face was more open than Hotch had ever seen it; he looked at the dark haired woman like she was the sun and he had been trapped in the dark for a long time. Maybe he had.
"Reid, you have to sleep," Hotch said gently.
Reid glanced up quickly at his boss, then right back to Adrienne. "I'll sleep when she waked up," he assured Hotch. A smile quirked at his lips. "I still can't believe this happened, that she's real."
Hotch, only out of concern for the well being of his friend, beckoned to Doctor Hill who was standing in the hall awaiting Hotch's order. Hotch had hoped it wouldn't come to this, but it was a necessary evil.
As quietly as he could, Dr. Hill crept up behind Reid and jabbed a hypodermic in his shoulder. Before Reid could react, Hotch grabbed one arm and Dr. Hill grabbed the other. Hauling him out of his seat, the two men proceeded to drag Reid out of the room. Reid tried to fight, but whatever they had injected him with had caused a fog to drift over his mind.
Reid found himself standing behind to people on a dock. They were seated, their feet bare and just barely drifting in the sparkling water. The sun was high in the blue sky and a few birds winged about in search of a meal. Other than the gentle thrum of insects, there was no noise.
"So you're going back to Virginia," Little Reid said morosely, breaking the silence. He gave the water a kick, disturbing the perfect reflection.
Adrienne stared across Lake Mead for a moment before answering. "Yes, my mother wants to go back. A new facility has just opened in Washington DC, and I think they'll accept her. Las Vegas is nice, but she says she needs the trees and grass of the Old Dominion. We leave the week after graduation."
Older Reid realized where and when he was. It was an adventure Adrienne had taken him on the weekend before they graduated highschool. They drove up to Lake Mead and had a picnic. Adrienne told him all the names of the bugs, birds, and plant life around them. She even made him a fishing pole out of a long stick and some fishing line she had in her car. A perfect afternoon, until she told him she was leaving.
Little Spencer looked up at his older friend with a look of pure terror. "But how am I supposed to survive without you?" he demanded.
Adrienne sighed and stared out at the water once more. "Spencer, what do you remember from our conversations?" she asked, the light that was on the water reflecting in her perfect jewel eyes.
"In chronological order or by topic?"
Letting out laugh like bells, Adrienne gave the little boy an affectionate shove. "By relevance to what we're talking about," she told him with a half smile. It had become their little joke whenever she asked a question about something they had talked about or they had seen.
Little Spencer screwed his eyes closed and thought for a moment. "Well, we never really talked about social survival. You told me how to incapacitate a bully and how to hog tie a bear though," he replied. He opened his eyes and saw Adrienne's 'you're not getting it' look, and slumped down. "I don't know what you're asking."
And for once, Adrienne gave an actual answer. "All we talk about is human behavior. And that's the key. If you remember everything I told you about people you won't have any trouble avoiding a confrontation. If you see a big Neanderthal heading your way, and he's ever so slightly favoring his left leg, what do you do?"
"Tell him to drink a cup of tea with ginseng in it and offer to explain the math homework?" Spencer answered hopefully.
"And why?"
"He favors the other leg because he got hurt in the last football game and math would be the only class I would have with such a Cro-Magnon," Little Spencer replied promptly. He knew the question was about a football player because Adrienne called them 'Neanderthals'. The rest was common sense, at least it was to him after spending three years with Adrienne.
"You'll be fine Spencer," she assured him with a smile. "You will be absolutely and utterly fine when I'm gone."
At some subconscious signal, Reid snapped his eyes open. The fact that he had been asleep in the waiting room of the hospital registered at some level, but the sight before him made that completely irrelevant.
Adrienne was striding dramatically down the hall up to the desk. The look on her face was murderous, but even that was understating the expression entirely. Not even the unflattering lights of the hospital dimmed her perfection. Adrienne, seeming to not notice Reid, began a heated discussion with the nurse behind the counter. The nurse looked like a deer in headlights as she tried to find out what was wrong with the irate Doc.
Reid stared groggily at her, still not awake enough to call out for her attention. She was too thin, probably due to the hemlock. The ebony waves of her hair fell like a waterfall of darkness to her waist. She wore a black blouse, as all ways, with cream pants. Comfortable and stunning, all at the same time.
Adrienne, after apparently giving the poor nurse a severe verbal thrashing, turned and saw Reid sprawled out in a chair. A smile immediately lit up her face and she rushed over to greet him. He stood clumsily to his feet to greet her, not caring how disheveled and odd he must have looked to her.
"Spencer," Adrienne said as a greeting with her perfect voice. Her head was tipped all the way back so she could see him. It was an odd feeling; the last time they had spoken Reid was the one looking up.
"Adrienne," he replied with a smile, wincing as his voice cracked slightly. The two stared at each other for quite sometime. Reid was basking in the glory of her presence like a drowning man gulping oxygen. Adrienne on the other hand was scrutinizing him carefully, looking for something.
Apparently she found it, because she was suddenly in his arms, hugging him tightly. Reid hugged her back, resting his head on top of hers and closing his eyes.
"I'm sorry," he muttered, his voiced pained. "So, so sorry."
Adrienne shook her head and looked up at him with a teary grin. "Spencer, you have nothing to be sorry for. They say you carried me out of there yourself. You saved me," she said, trying to make him understand. "And I dearly hope that you will take the time now to explain how you found me in that cellar."
Reid hugged her tightly once more, then stepped back. As much as he would have loved to keep her to himself, she needed to see her grandmother and the rest of the town. "Later, I promise," he said. Adrienne gave him a stern look that clearly said 'you had better', but she assented. "Now you should probably talk to Tilly and the Sheriff. And the rest of the town."
Adrienne grimaced, clearly not wanting to deal with so many adoring people, but dropped the expression. It was her duty, of sorts, and she needed to do it. Reid admired her. It was unfair to have to go out and smile at people after such a traumatic experience, but Adrienne was going to do it without complaining.
Striding gracefully to the automatic doors of the hospital, Adrienne looked like an angel illuminated by the early morning light. Reid walked just behind her incase he was needed.
The doors hissed open and the bedlam that had held dominion over the morning silenced itself immediately. Half the town was outside the hospital, and they all stared over at Adrienne simultaneously.
Adrienne nodded at them all in general then headed over to the FBI general black SUV that sat in the parking lot. The crowd converged on them, vying for a closer look but never coming close enough to actually touch them. It felt oppressive to Reid, but Adrienne took it with good grace. With a start, Reid realized he was gently holding her elbow, guiding her to the car.
The keys, fortunately, were in a cup holder. Reid started the ignition and pulled smoothly out of the parking space. He had often wondered why the team didn't let him drive more often. He was a proficient driver, much better than the pure terror everyone felt when Morgan was behind the wheel.
The crowd of people parted behind them like the sea for Moses, waving and crying and smiling. Adrienne waved at them until they managed to get out of the parking lot, then she leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes. "I suppose you want to know what happened," she ventured quietly.
Reid nodded, then realized her eyes were closed and she couldn't see the gesture. "If you don't mind," he replied apprehensively. It was sure to be a horrible tale filled with disturbing details.
"I'll start at the beginning then," she said, eyes still closed. "After I had sent you that email, I was getting ready to head north to DC to see my mother. If I was lucky I was planning to find you and talk to you about the situation directly. But unfortunately I was kidnapped as I was pulling out of my driveway.
"I'm embarrassed to admit that my captor was lying in wait on the back floorboard of my car. I stopped at the end of the drive and the UNSUB chloroformed me. The next thing I knew I was in a filmy white camisole and slip on the ground next to my cousin Esmerelda. We were starved for what was three or four days by my estimation, and Esmy finally fell unconscious. It was then the UNSUB return wearing a ski mask, probably to trick me into thinking I would get out alive. The UNSUB told me I was chosen for such an 'honor' because I thought myself better than the rest of the town," Adrienne explained. Her beautiful blue eyes snapped open, rolling in fury.
"I was told that I said I was better because I went to Las Vegas and left this town, and that my coming back was like that of a prophet bearing high learning for my illiterate home town," she spat bitterly. Reid sensed the worst part was yet to come. "And then I opened my mouth and the words came tumbling out.
"I told the UNSUB all I knew about her. And that infuriated her. So in revenge she-"
"SHE!?" Reid yelped. That was impossible. Every piece of evidence pointed to a narcissistic male.
Adrienne looked at her long time friend levelly, her eyes unclouded by shock and trauma. "Spencer, my captor was a lesbian woman with a grudge, not an art loving male."
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream." -Edgar Allan Poe