"That's an impressive castle!" JJ complimented with a smile as she looked at the complex Lego structure that Addison and Luke had presented to her.
"Thank you," Addison and Luke said shyly.
"Do you want to help us build something?" Luke asked, pushing the box of Legos towards JJ.
"Sure," JJ answered, moving closer to the kids. She sat in front of Addison and Luke. She asked what they wanted to build. Addison suggested a prison. Luke suggested a house. JJ told both children that they had good ideas.
The blonde agent took note of the kids' suggestions. She theorized that there could be two possible reasons for Addison wanting to build a prison. One possible reason was that Addison's feelings of being trapped during her time in captivity were being reflected in her ideas. The other possible reason was that Addison wanted to build the place where she thought her abductor was. JJ theorized that Luke's desire to build a house represented the home that he was taken from him after his abduction and the home that he wished to return to.
Addison suggested that they build a house with a jail cell as a compromise. She suggested that everyone build different rooms, and then they would put all the room together once everyone was finished. Luke accepted Addison's compromise, and the three started building different rooms. Addison started building a jail cell. Luke started building a bedroom. JJ started building a kitchen.
The three didn't talk much while they built. Addison and Luke made occasional hand signals at each other or someone asked for a specific Lego every now and then, but aside from that, everyone was focused on building. Luke finished building his bedroom and put it to the side. He looked at Addison. "Do I have to build the Fun Room?" he asked. Addison stopped building her jail cell and turned to look at Luke. "No," she said quickly, before resuming her building.
Luke's mention of "the Fun Room" piqued JJ's interest. She decided to use it to start a conversation with the kids. "What's 'the Fun Room'?" she asked casually, trying not to sound too interested. Luke and Addison stopped building and looked up at her. "It's the room we go in when he makes us take off our clothes," Addison explained, thinking about all of the times she'd been in the Fun Room. She shuddered. She looked away from JJ and started building again, trying to distract herself from the memories. "He called it 'the Fun Room' because it was where we'd go when he wanted to have fun with us," Luke elaborated as he remembered the first time he was taken to the Fun Room. His face darkened. "It was never really fun in that room," he added quietly. He went back to building without saying anything else.
JJ's heart broke for the children. She thought of her own two children, the eldest of whom was Addison's age. She could tell by the way Luke flinched when he said it, that the word "fun" was definitely a euphemism for all the atrocious things that had been done to the children. "What did you do when you weren't in the Fun Room?" she asked, hoping to gain more insight into the kids' time in captivity while taking their minds off of the Fun Room.
"We mostly just stayed in our room. There wasn't much to do in there. We had to come up with ways to entertain ourselves, so we wouldn't die of boredom," Addison said.
"What were some of the things you did to entertain yourselves?" JJ asked.
"Sometimes we'd draw when he let us have stuff to draw with. We'd write and draw on the walls when we ran out of paper. We'd also read if he gave us books," Addison replied.
"Most of the toys he gave us were broken, so me and Addison would try to build new toys with parts from the broken ones. We also made up a game where we stacked things on top of each other. The winner was whoever could stack the most things without any of them falling," Luke added.
"That must be why you two are so good at building," JJ said with a smile. She could tell that Addison and Luke were the creative ones in the group. They were probably the ones who tried to keep everyone entertained, and they were probably the ones who came up with the most unique solutions to problems. JJ figured that the two had bonded over their creative thinking and similarity in age.
"You've got one heck of a spiral, kid!" Morgan complimented, barely managing to catch the foam football that Charlie had just thrown. He tossed the ball back to the lanky boy with a smile.
"Thank you. I was on a football team for little kids when I was younger. Me and my dad used to practice everyday after school," Charlie said, thinking back on the memories with fondness. He caught the ball and threw it back to Morgan. His anxiety about being separated from the other three had been slowly decreasing. He hadn't completely dropped his guard, but he was more relaxed. He was moving less rigidly, and he was allowing longer intervals of time to pass before he checked on the other three children again.
"I played football in high school and college," Morgan told the boy as he caught the ball. He hoped that having common interests would make Charlie more likely to talk to him. He threw ball back to Charlie, who caught it with ease.
"I've always wanted to be a professional football player, but that's probably never gonna happen," Charlie said sadly. He halfheartedly tossed the ball back to Morgan. The agent noticed the change in Charlie's throwing style. This last throw didn't have the same power that Charlie had been throwing with. It reflected the boy's self-doubt and lack of confidence.
"Hey, what makes you say that?" Morgan asked, halting the game of catch. He looked at Charlie with a serious expression on his face.
"He told me that I'd never amount to anything. He said that I was only good for fucking," Charlie said. He said the last word so casually that it took a second for it to register in Morgan's brain.
Morgan was surprised by the boy's strong language, then he remembered what Charlie had said to Bregoli. He had no doubt that Charlie had picked up a multitude of inappropriate words from his captor. He didn't want to think about all of the other explicit things that the kids had been regularly exposed to during their time in captivity.
Charlie decided to take advantage of the pause in their game of catch. He looked around the room, making sure that Addison, Luke, and Fallon were alright. He saw Addison and Luke chatting with JJ and building with the Legos. He saw Fallon and Reid sitting at the arts and crafts table, drawing and talking to one another. He was satisfied to see that everyone was still safe and that nothing had changed from since he last checked on them a few minutes ago. Morgan saw him checking on the other three kids. He knew that as the oldest child in the group, Charlie had taken on the role as the kids' protecter and nurturer. It obvious by the way the boy behaved. He always tried to keep the kids safe. He tried to keep them away from strangers until they proved they weren't a threat. He had picked up on the kids' subtle body language, and he knew how to comfort them if he saw that they needed it. He made sure that they were alright, checking on them periodically when they were separated from him. The kids looked to him for security and comfort.
"Listen to me, Charlie," Morgan said. Charlie immediately looked at the agent. He obediently waited for Morgan to continue. "Don't ever let anyone tell you that you can't do something. He was wrong about you. You can and you will amount to something. You can do anything if you work hard and set your mind to it. If you wanna be a professional football player, then be a professional football player. Prove him wrong. Be the best professional football player ever. Don't let him decide what you'll amount to. You're the only person that has control over that," Morgan told Charlie.
Charlie stared at Morgan like he was crazy. He'd spent the last five years with a man who treated him like property. Bregoli thought that Charlie was only useful when he was naked, and he made sure the boy knew it. He put Charlie down every chance he got, diminishing his self-esteem. Charlie had been conditioned to think that he would never be good enough and that his body was his only useful asset. It was a shock to hear an adult telling him anything contrary to what had been deeply ingrained inside of his brain.
"Have you seen me, Agent Morgan? Do I look like someone who's useful for anything other than fucking? I mean, look at me. I'm weak and skinny…well, I guess I'm kinda tall, and football players are tall…but what good does that do if I don't have any muscles?" Charlie said hopelessly. He let out a depressed sigh.
"Football players don't start out big and strong. They get that way by eating right and doing lots of exercise and training. When I started playing football, I wasn't big and strong. I had to eat more and work out a lot to get bigger and stronger. With proper nutrition and exercise, you can bulk up and get bigger and stronger too," Morgan said encouragingly.
"Do you really think that I could be a football player?" Charlie asked, starting to believe in himself a little bit.
"Yes, I do. I not gonna lie and tell you that it'll be easy or that it'll happen overnight, but if it's something that you really want and that you're willing to work for, then you can make it happen. You're a good kid, and I know that you can go far," Morgan told Charlie. Charlie gave him a small smile. He felt a small spark of hope after hearing Morgan's words. He believed the agent, but he didn't know why. There was just about the way Morgan looked into his eyes that told Charlie he meant every word he said.
"What are you writing?" Reid asked, peeking at the piece of paper that Fallon was writing on. The tiny girl's penmanship was almost illegible, but based on the few letters he thought he recognized, he suspected that she was writing in Russian.
"I'm practicing my Russian," Fallon replied, confirming Reid's suspicion.
He remembered one day when Emily and Hotch had brought Fallon to the BAU Headquarters three years ago. Fallon had just turned two years old. She was clutching her stuffed bunny — the same one that Fallon had placed on the table in front of her — in one hand and a large book in the other. It was a guide to learning Russian. When Rossi made a comment about the book, Emily explained that her daughter had found it on a bookshelf and started reading it. She explained how Fallon was teaching herself Russian because she wants to be "just like mommy". It didn't take long for Fallon to become fluent in the language. She and Reid liked to practice conversing in Russian whenever they had the chance. Reid knew that, like him, Fallon had an eidetic memory. He wondered if she could recall any memories of speaking Russian with him or if she had locked away all memories of her life before being abducted in her subconscious. Judging by the way she interacted with her parents, he was betting on the latter being true.
Fallon pushed her paper towards Reid, so he had a better view of what she was writing on it. She didn't offer to translate anything for him. She seemed to think that he was capable of reading it himself.
Reid picked up the paper and squinted at the it, trying to decipher the child's messy scrawl. From what he could read, he guessed that Fallon had written a poem. It was a poem about a girl whose eyesight is betrayed by her mind. The girl sees people and things that she knows, but her mind won't let her remember them, leaving her scared and confused.
After reading the poem, Reid realized that Fallon was using writing as a way to process her subconscious emotions about her parents' sudden reappearance in her life. "This is a beautiful poem," he told the small child as he handed back her paper. Fallon thanked him and told him that he could keep it if he wanted to. Reid thanked the girl and picked up the poem. He folded it and put it in his pocket, making a mental note to himself to show Hotch and Emily the poem when they returned.
"Where did you learn Russian?" Reid asked, curious about whether or not the question would prompt any memories to come up. Fallon looked at Reid, then thought for a moment, trying to remember the answer to his question. She shrugged. "I think it's just something I picked up. I don't remember ever learning it. I just remember realizing that I could understand it," she told him. She racked her brain, trying to picture herself learning Russian and what the circumstances around it were, so she could give Reid a more sufficient answer. Much to her frustration, she was drawing blanks and could only remember the day she realized she understood Russian. "What made you realize that you could understand Russian?" Reid asked. Fallon was pleased that she had an answer for Reid question this time. "I overheard two men speaking in Russian three years ago," she said. Reid responded with an interested nod. "What were they saying?" he asked. Fallon went over the conversation word-for-word in her head, making sure she remembered it correctly. "They were discussing prices. It was before I met Charlie, Addison, and Luke. I think I was being sold. They kept looking at me, and every time they looked at me, they changed their offer," she said. Reid let the new information sink in before continuing to ask questions. "Do you know who the two men were?" he asked. Fallon pictured the men's faces and shuddered. She picked up her stuffed bunny, which she had set down on the table in front of her. She started to fidget with the ribbon around her bunny's neck. "The first man was American. He told me to call him 'Uncle Robbie'. He's not my real uncle though. I don't know much about him. I only spent three days with him. He was the one who put me in his car and took me to his house. He said that he was keeping me until it was time to meet my new daddy. The second man spoke with a thick accent, even when he was speaking in English. I think he was actually from Russia. He never told his name, but I think Uncle Robbie called him 'Dmitry'. He was the one that drove me to my new daddy's house, where I met Charlie, Addison, and Luke. It was really long drive. I think he took me into a different state. I never saw him after he dropped me off. I think his job was to transport kids to their new families," Fallon told Reid, flinching overtime she mentioned her "new daddy".
It all made sense to Reid after hearing Fallon's answer. Now he knew why Fallon's abduction was so vastly different from the other three kids' abductions. It was because she wasn't abducted by the same person. He also knew how she ended up in Los Angeles. What he didn't know was why she ended up with Bregoli. Fallon was younger than all of his other victims were when he kidnaped them. It was a change in his victimology. Reid also didn't know why Bregoli would kidnap kids in Virginia and take them all the way to California. He presumed that it was because he was trying to avoid detection and prevent the kids from being found.
"Do you know why you were taken to live with a new daddy?" Reid asked. He was curious to see how many unanswered questions he could get answers to. Fallon shook her head. "I told Uncle Robbie that I already had a mommy and a daddy and that I didn't want a new daddy. He told me that he would be getting a lot of money for me, so I was going to get a new daddy whether I liked it or not. I asked why he was getting a lot of money, and I he told me that I was a good investment because I was young and cute," Fallon replied as she continued to fidget with her stuffed bunny's ribbon. It sickened Reid that Bregoli's change in victimology was caused by pure greed. He only changed his victimology because he knew that Fallon would be a good investment for him, since she was smaller and younger than the other three. He knew that he could make more money by abusing her on camera. It made Reid angry. He was about to ask Fallon about her old parents, to see if she remembered anything about Hotch and Emily, but he was interrupted by a knock at the door.
Wow! This was a long chapter! I hope it didn't bore you. As always, thanks for reading, and don't forget to leave a review! :)