The Sound of Silence

Chapter 7

Boinngg! The bed bounced under Reid. He turned his head to look at her, but the blonde hair on the pillow next to him didn't belong to JJ. It framed a smaller face.

"Hi Daddy!"

He'd had only five hours of sleep in the past sixty. Reid tried to uncloud his brain as he rolled over onto his back.

"Mmph." He couldn't quite get to his voice yet. But Henry could.

"Mommy says you're gonna stay home today. Can I stay home too?"

Reid had managed to keep one eye propped open, now got the other one to join it. He knew when he was being played.

"What did your mother say?" he rasped.

Henry couldn't believe it. How did parents always know?

Slightly abashed, he reported, "She said it's a school day and I have to go to school."

"I thought so. First grade is important, Henry. I thought you liked school." Reid propped himself on an elbow so he could see his son better.

"Yeah, I love school!" His enthusiasm was paradoxical. His next statement explained why. "But how come Rosie gets to stay home?"

"She's too young for school, my man. When you were little, you stayed home on Mommy's day off too, didn't you?"

"I did? And you, too?"

The changes in Henry's life were never far away from them. Not in any circumstance, and not in any conversation.

"Well, not me. I wasn't part of the family then. You stayed home with Mommy and Daddy Will."

"Oh. Did I have fun?"

"According to the stories your mom used to tell me, you were very funny. Still are, Little Man."

With that, Reid tickled Henry around his middle, loving the resultant giggle.

"Come on, I think I smell some breakfast in the kitchen." What he actually smelled was coffee, his official 'starter fluid'.

Reid rolled out of bed and put his son up on his shoulders.

"Watch out for the doorway!"

Henry was still giggling when they entered the kitchen.

"Mommy, look how big I am!"

JJ was seated at the table, feeding Rosie some cereal. Both of the females looked at the men in their lives and laughed.

"Isn't he getting heavy for that, Spence?"

"Not until after breakfast."

He deposited his son at the table and poured himself a mug of coffee. "Thanks for the extra sleep."

"You needed it more than I did, at least I got some the night before." JJ gave Henry his cereal and started going through his backpack.

"You have everything in here, Little Man? Your homework?"

"Yep."

"Anything I was supposed to sign?"

"Nope."

"Okay, well then finish your cereal and brush your teeth." She turned to her husband. "I'll take him, Spence. You can have some bonding time with Miss Rosie Cheeks." She pinched one of those cheeks as she spoke.

Henry swiped his sleeve over his mouth when he was done and then stood solemnly before his sister.

"Don't have any fun until I get home!"


Rosie's lips were sealed. She would never tell Henry that she'd had a great time playing blocks with Daddy, reading stories with Mommy and watching Casey chase a squirrel around the yard. She was innocently taking a nap when her big brother returned home from school.

JJ set him up with a snack and motioned Reid out onto the patio.

"Dr. Lucia called back while you were out. From what I described, she thinks Henry is a normal kid, having a normal reaction to what he's been through. She said it often plays out physically until the kids are verbal enough to put it into words."

Reid squinted at her. Henry was…..had always been…..very verbal.

She read the message in his eyes. "I know. But he doesn't have all that good a command of how to describe his emotions. I think that's what Dr. Lucia meant."

Reid conceded the point. "All right. So what does she recommend?"

"She actually said he could probably just work with a counselor or social worker at school. You know, telling stories, drawing pictures, acting things out. She thinks that's probably all he needs."

Reid wasn't surprised, but he was relieved to have heard it from a professional.

"I kind of wish I'd had something like that growing up. You know, a sounding board."

JJ's eyes met his. Her own youth had been marred by the suicide of her sister. "Me too."


Friday morning came too early, but then….it was Friday morning. They were only a day away from the weekend.

The Reid household was too hectic this morning to listen to any of the morning news programming, so the two young profilers were taken by surprise when they settled in at the bullpen.

"I heard he had three kids." Garcia looked distressed. She was standing next to Emily's desk, with Morgan at her side.

"Who?" JJ had stopped at the coffee bay even before she approached the group.

"Sam Obiki." Garcia said the name like she thought they'd recognize it.

Reid was setting down his messenger bag. "Who's Sam Obiki?"

"What, are you living in a cave? It was all over the news this morning." Morgan chided his good friend.

JJ spoke up for them. "Well, Sam Ob…whatever…..may have been all over the news, but milk and cereal were all over the floor this morning. So, no, we didn't hear. Who is he? And what happened to him?"

Emily supplied the information. "He worked as a liaison to DHS. He was actually on site with Homeland Security, but he was an FBI agent."

"Was?" Reid noticed the use of the past tense.

"Found in his garage, car running, hose leading back to the driver's window."

JJ's hand went to her heart. "Dead?"

Morgan nodded.

JJ had heard Garcia's initial statement. "He had kids? Were they home?"

Emily slid her chair over so she could pull it up on her computer. She scanned the article and reacted.

"Oh, my God, his nine year old found him. The wife and kids weren't home, found the garage door wouldn't work with the remote. So they parked in the driveway and the nine year old found him."

Morgan didn't like emotional turmoil, but he was experiencing it now. Pity and fear for what led Obiki to take his life….and anger that the man would not have considered his family in the process.

"Idiot! If you're gonna off yourself, do it without hurting anyone else!"

"Derek!" Garcia was shocked at his statement…..and at the fact that she understood it.

Reid had been relatively quiet throughout the exchange, once again watching his wife. Her remark yesterday about having needed a sounding board when she was young reminded him that the very concept of suicide was more personal to her than to most. Perhaps that was why she was reacting so deeply to the recent deaths. What seemed to be a cluster of suicides...he couldn't help but wonder.

The group was still huddled when a somber David Rossi emerged from Hotch's office and leaned over the railing.

"Guys…..grab your coffee and come up to the conference room. We need to meet."


Hotch's features were, if possible, more serious than usual as he looked around the table at his team.

"I take it you are all aware of the death of SSA Sam Obiki, discovered yesterday afternoon."

At the nodding around the table, he continued.

"As with the death of CIA agent Alan Greenly, the COD seems to be an obvious suicide, and the investigation by law enforcement will be minimal. You also know that the BAU has been excluded from the internal investigation about Greenly….his death and his role in the prior case. However..."

He picked up the remote, prepared to present more information to the team.

"…I have met with Section Chief Strauss and convinced her that it might be beneficial to the federal agencies involved for us to profile the two men who've died, assess emotional or psychological risk factors, and provide the agencies with information that might help them stave off additional suicides."

They all took a moment to absorb his statement. On the surface of it, it appeared to be a simple offer of help to their superiors and their peers. But, gradually, they all realized Hotch's masterful move in getting the BAU into the investigation.

"Sweet." Was all Morgan had to say. It was all that was necessary.

Hotch clicked the remote, being the only one completely familiar with the information. There hadn't yet been time to include Garcia.

"This is Alan Greenly. As you know, he shot himself with his service weapon last weekend." He clicked the remote again.

"And this is Sam Obiki, whose death was reported in news accounts this morning, an apparent suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning."

The screen displayed shots of each man in death, and in his federal ID pose.

There was little reaction around the table, as none of them had known either man personally. Little reaction until Reid pushed back his chair and abruptly left the room.

Emily looked at JJ with raised brows and a smile, as if to say, "Too much coffee?"

JJ's gaze was still following Reid as he disappeared down the aisle and out of sight. She took a mental inventory. Did he eat something that the rest of us didn't? Is there something going around Henry's classroom? She'd already caught them all during Henry's preschool years and was now largely immune. But not so Reid.

The meeting continued, with Hotch giving an overview of what was known about each man's personal and professional lives. They were each very experienced agents in their respective agencies, and there was simply too much to go through in detail with the entire team. As he closed out the meeting, he assigned Morgan and Prentiss to go into depth on Greenly, and Rossi and JJ on Obiki. He was hesitant to count on Reid who, he assumed, was ill. But if he recovered quickly, the young agent could review both agents' e-mails and personal files at his usual lightning speed.

The meeting broke, and the agents headed back toward their respective desks. JJ was surprised to see that Reid's chair was empty, but his messenger bag was still on his desk. She turned to Morgan.

"Can you check…."

He was ahead of her, also concerned about the agent he regarded as a little brother. His unexplained fleeing of a team meeting was unprecedented….except for that period of time that all of them would rather forget.

"I'll get him."

While JJ waited outside, Morgan pushed open the door of the men's room and stepped inside, half expecting to find Reid kneeling in front of a toilet, or draped over a sink. It was a sight he'd seen before. But there was no sign of Reid. Morgan pushed open every door of every stall…the room was empty. He came back out to JJ.

"He's not here. Where else would he have gone?"

Without his messenger bag, nowhere, she was sure. "Maybe he's in another men's room? Maybe it was full?"

Even as she said it, she knew it was virtually impossible.

"Try calling him, or texting."

She did. The call went to voice mail, so she sent a text.

WHERE ARE YOU? ARE YOU OKAY?

Rossi had been assigned to work with JJ on Obiki, and now joined his two fellow agents in the hallway.

"Lose something?" He meant it as a joke, but saw some concern on JJ's face, and corrected himself.

"Is he okay?"

"We can't find him. He's disappeared," reported Morgan.


"The car is still there. He's got to be here." JJ had just come back from the parking lot, to meet with Rossi in his office.

"Try not to worry, Cara. You're right. He's got to be here." He pulled out a chair for her, intending that they should get to work.

But she was too distracted. "Should I try Employee Health?"

"Wouldn't someone have called by now? Seriously, JJ, relax, I'm sure he's fine. If there was something wrong, you would have heard."

She knew he was right, but still…this was behavior she wasn't familiar with, and couldn't explain. Sighing, she tried to get down to work with Rossi. They'd been at it for forty-five minutes when her phone sounded a text.

OKAY. DON'T WORRY. MEET YOU AT HOME. CAN YOU GET KIDS?

Rossi couldn't interpret the expression on her face. "Everything okay?"

She spoke as though she was still trying to process it. "He says he's okay. And that he'll see me at home. But nothing about what happened or where he is."

Rossi was reassuring. "Well, at least you know he's all right. I'm sure he'll explain when he sees you. It's probably just too much for a text. Isn't 'let's get pizza' too much for him?" The entire team knew how much Reid hated texting.

Her voice belied her uncertainty, but she had to concede his point. "You're right. At least I know he's okay."


He got home just before dinner, leaving them no time to talk until after the kids were down. There was a trace of tension between them through dinner and Henry's bedtime routine. And then that trace rose in amplitude when Reid announced, "I need to go out."

"What?"

"I need to go out. I won't be long. I'll probably be home by the time Rosie goes down."

She was still processing. He'd fled a team meeting, disappeared for the rest of the day, still not explained anything and now you have to go out.

"Where? Where do you have to go on a Friday night?"

He couldn't meet her eyes. Looking at the floor, he spoke.

JJ felt her heart sink at his words.

"I need to go to a meeting."