"Jesus!"
Morgan wasn't sure if he was the one that said that or if it came from someone else. But the sight of Spencer stumbling back into their prison shocked them all. The young man seemed like he could barely move. Marcus stood at the door, smirking as he watched Spencer stumble in. There was a dazed look on Spencer's face that made Morgan's stomach sink. He knew that look on his friend. Even as his eyes drifted to the crook of Spencer's arm, he knew what he'd find. Sure enough, there was the fresh mark. Growling, Morgan fought against his shackles. "You son of a bitch" he snarled out.
Chuckling, Marcus looked at him, his gun held casually in his hand. "Ah, ah, Agent. Play nice, now, or I won't unhook you." He taunted.
"Where is Prentiss?" Aaron asked calmly. He kept his voice nice in response to Marcus's order.
The bastard grinned at them all. "Dr. Reid will answer that for you, once he's able. I'll let him explain everything, don't you worry. Suffice it to say that she's alive and well. She's doing better than all of you, really." His hard eyes shifted to Spencer, who was standing and staring off into space with a goofy little grin on his face. "As, I dare say, is Dr. Reid."
As he moved forward Marcus kept his gun in his hands. He walked to Aaron, unhooking his shackles, keeping his gun pointed to Garcia. Then he handed Aaron the keys and stepped back. "Unhook your friends and then toss the keys to the door." He ordered. Calm, Aaron did as he was told. When he unhooked Morgan, he felt the tenseness in the man. "Not now." Was all he said, but it was enough to remind Morgan that now was not the time to get pissed.
Once he was free, Morgan moved quickly to Spencer, ignoring it as Aaron tossed the keys toward the door. A look at his friend's back had Morgan wanting to curse and break something.
"Get against the wall." Marcus ordered.
The team instantly converged on Spencer. "Get him over to the wall." Aaron ordered them. Morgan and Dave each took one of Spencer's hands, guiding him forward. The kid barely even flinched or looked at them. It was like he was asleep without actually being asleep. Shit, the kid is so fucking high. How much did that bastard give him? And where the hell is Prentiss? Morgan hated not having the answers to his questions.
It didn't take them long to get Spencer over to the back wall. He was so easy to move and manipulate into the right position. But when they turned him a little, it exposed his back to view and the entire room went silent for one long moment. The sight of the Spencer's shirt, torn and bloody, the blood down the back of Spencer's pants, was sickening. Worse was knowing what they would find underneath. For now the shirt and the blood blocked actual sight of the injuries. But not for long. They'd need to clean them as best as possible.
Dave turned to say something to Marcus, but Aaron had already thrown the keys and Marcus was sticking his head out of the room. He shouted something before leaning back in and smiling at them all. Then Noah was there, carrying a pail in each hand. He took the two, setting them against the far wall. Then he left once again, coming back with two more pails that seemed full. Those he set in the center of the room. Beside them, he tossed down what looked like a pile of cloth. Lifting his head, he smirked over at Spencer. "Enjoy your little freak over there." He told the rest of them. "You might want to clean him up. Trust me; he won't feel it right now."
"How much did you give him?" Morgan snarled at them. His hand stayed on Spencer's arm protectively as his muscles practically quivered to go over and pound both Noah and Marcus into the ground.
As Noah moved back to the door, he started to laugh. Even Marcus was snickering. "We didn't give him anything." Marcus chortled. "He did it all himself. He even chose the dosage size." The chortle grew into a full blown laugh. Without another word, the two men left the room, slamming the door shut behind them. But their words still seemed to echo around them, taunting them all.
Eventually reality seeped back in for them. "We need to get his shirt off." Dave said hoarsely as he looked at Spencer. His usually tough and calm voice was hoarse with suppressed emotion.
Morgan found himself looking at the buckets. "What the hell are these for?"
Stepping toward the ones in the middle of the room, Aaron looked at them before looking to the far wall. "My guess would be that those two empties are to act as our bathroom. These two are full of water. I think it's safe to assume that they want us to be able to clean him up. So far, their actions indicate that they want him in good health for as long as possible." He said in a flat voice.
"To prolong their game." Dave added in.
That just made Morgan's anger grow. It wasn't enough that they were torturing the kid; they had to do everything possible to prolong it. His free hand curled into a fist even as his other hand stroked over Spencer's arm. This whole time, Spencer had just stood there, looking like was almost asleep on his feet. His eyes were at half mast, seeing things none of them could see, and his mouth hung open just slightly. It looked like he was asleep and yet awake at the same time. Watching him, Morgan felt some of his anger drain away on a wave of concern. "At least he's not hallucinating." He mumbled to no one in general. "Tobias cut the shit with a psychedelic. Doesn't look like these guys have."
Dave gave him a strange look. "Who's Tobias?"
That made Morgan startle. Instinctively his eyes sought out Aaron, who shook his head. No one had ever told Dave? I never even thought of it. Reid was done with this shit by the time Dave came around.
"We can get into that later." Garcia interrupted them. "Right now there are more important things to do." Though tears shone in her eyes, her look was protective as she moved to Spencer. Carefully she reached for the bottom of his shirt, ignoring the blood there as she started to pull it up. The others silently helped her, lifting Spencer's arms and helping bring the shirt up and over his head. When the material stuck in some of the cuts, each one of them flinched, mentally thanking God that Spencer was drugged enough not to feel this.
"We'll need to wash the blood off to look at things." Aaron said. He took a deep breath and yet again took charge. "Move him over to the grate in the floor. We'll rinse him off there so it goes down the drain. Let's try to move quickly and efficiently so we can get as much done as possible before he becomes….aware again."
Silence surrounded them. By tact agreement, no one spoke nor looked at Spencer's back yet. They worked on getting their zombie like friend over to where the drain in the floor was at. Then they helped him to lie down. Morgan sat down as well, bringing Spencer's head to rest in his lap. He'd helped his little brother as best he could through the pain of the whipping—God, that had broken his heart, watching those oh-so-expressive eyes—and he would be here to help his friend now in case whatever they did worked through the drug haze.
"God, look at him." Dave murmured. His eyes were trained on Spencer's back. Even through the blood, they could see the cuts into his skin. "He can't take much more of this before it kills him. I don't know how he's managed to hold out as long as he has. And it's only been a couple days!"
"He's stronger than anyone has ever given him credit for." Garcia said in a gentle voice. She stroked a strand of hair back from Spencer's dazed looking face. The young man's eyes had closed so that he really looked to be sleeping this time. She couldn't stop herself from making sure that he was still breathing.
Aaron had moved away from them, grabbing one of the pails of water and the bundle of cloth. Those he brought to rest right beside them. Then he knelt down beside him. "I need one of you to pour small amounts of water on at a time for me." His voice was that of the Unit Chief now; giving orders and expecting them to be obeyed. "Just cup your hands and pour some on. I'll use some of this cloth to wipe him down. We want to conserve as much water as possible."
As Garcia moved the bucket with her and took up post by Morgan's legs and Spencer's shoulders, Aaron looked over to Dave. "I need you to be prepared to hold his legs down. If he wakes up during this, I don't want him jerking around and yanking anything open. We want to get him clean and allow the wounds to close over."
"I've got him." Dave knelt as well, pinning Spencer's legs between his, leaning forward and bracing his hands on Spencer's hips. They were all prepared now. Morgan started to run a hand through Spencer's hair without even realizing it. He'd done it for his little brother before in hotel rooms when the nightmares had gotten really bad and he knew it was one thing that helped soothe Spencer back to sleep. It had always worked with Desiree and Sara so it had prompted him to try it the first time Spencer woke from a nightmare so bad it was triggering a panic attack. He'd discovered then that it worked for Spencer too.
With one final deep breath, Aaron grabbed one of the pieces of cloth and gestured to Garcia to go. She cupped her hands and gathered some water, letting it fall down Spencer's back. "A few more handfuls, Garcia. Then we'll start to clean him up."
Spencer made not a sound as two more handfuls of water washed over him, or even as Aaron started to gently wipe the man down. But the others had to work not to gasp or swear as more of Spencer's skin became clear. Morgan's eyes were glued onto Spencer's back. There were welts that were exposed now; marks that actually hadn't broken the skin. Then there were the ones that had, all in different lengths. One in particular on the lower right side of his back, wrapping slightly onto his side, was both long and deep and was still bleeding. Aaron took another rag and applied pressure to it. Their worry increased when Spencer still didn't flinch. How much drugs had the kid taken?
Morgan didn't realize he'd said that out loud until Aaron murmured "We won't know until he wakes. But with his tolerance, I'd say he probably had quite a bit."
"Tolerance?" Dave asked. He sat up, since it was obvious that Spencer wasn't going to move, and looked at them all. "I feel like I'm missing something here."
Sighing, Morgan looked at Spencer's head, barely listening as Aaron started to tell Dave the tale of Tobias and Georgia and the subsequent weeks afterwards. Of Spencer's addiction and his recovery. He ended his story as he pulled his hands back, checking to make sure the cut had stopped bleeding. Dave was looking down at Spencer with a whole new look in his eyes. "Who knew the kid could be so damn tough? He's been through hell, hasn't he?"
"In one way or another, we all have." Morgan pointed out to them. "It seems to be a bit of a requirement for this job that you be a little messed up."
Even Aaron cracked a small smile at that one. He was gesturing to Garcia again, so she put a little more water over Spencer's back, washing away the last of his blood. It looked like everything had stopped bleeding, at least. From where he sat, Morgan looked down and felt his stomach roll. There's going to be a hell of a lot of scars from this he found himself thinking. For a kid who was already self-conscious about being in anything less than a shirt, tie and sweater or sweater vest, those scars would be hell. He'll probably never change in front of anyone again. He already hated people seeing him even shirtless. This is just going to make it worse.
Lost in thought, Morgan hadn't noticed that Aaron had been sifting through the cloth. At least, not until Aaron made some sound that drew Morgan's eyes up. In his hand he held a small plastic cup, almost like a child's cup. "Good." Aaron said. "We'll need this. He shouldn't straighten much once he wakes. He needs to let these heal over as much as possible. This will help us to keep him hydrated." Abruptly Aaron rose to his feet. "Let's get him away from here so he's not lying in water. Then, the only thing we can do is let him sleep and wait until he wakes up."
It took all three of the men to help get Spencer moved. The man was out like a light and totally unresponsive to them. They ended up having to carry him, the three of them, trying to keep him from bending enough to tear open any of his wounds. When they got against the back wall, Morgan once again took a seat and ended up being the pillow for Spencer's head. Garcia took up post at Spencer's shoulder once more, while Aaron and Dave sat so that Spencer was between them and the wall. They knew they wouldn't be able to protect him if Marcus, Noah or Eli came in, but they couldn't stop themselves from sitting that way anyways.
The room was quiet for a long moment but for the sounds of their breathing. After sitting in silence for a long while, Garcia couldn't take it anymore. "What do you think happened to Emily?" She whispered fearfully.
Morgan sighed and lifted his eyes to look at her. "We don't know, baby girl."
"All we can do is wait for Reid to wake up. Then we can ask questions." Aaron said.
Dave nodded. "Until then, there's no point speculating. Our minds will just come up with the worst scenarios. Better we wait and get the facts."
She looked at the three of them before looking down at Spencer. "I don't know how to do this. My minds already thinking of all sorts of horrible things. I can't help but worry about her and about him and JJ and all of us. What's going to happen to us?"
Once again, the basement fell silent. None of them had an answer for her.
