Chapter eleven
Mena Regional Hospital
Mena, Arkansas
On the ambulance ride to the hospital the ambulance men kept poking and prodding at her. It wasn't so bad, but Madeline wished they would leave her sore eye alone. And that it wasn't so bumpy, every bump nudged a bruise on her back.
At one point Joshua reached over and tapped her on the shoulder. He kind of crouched down beside the bed she was on, right next to her head. "Hey, Madeline, what's the funniest thing that happened when you were with the Tuckers?"
She thought through the headache for a moment. "They had this book, they called it a science book, and it said that people lived with dinosaurs and that the T-rex was a vegetarian and ow!" She looked over to where the ambulance man had been doing something to her arm, where she had just felt a sharp, little bite. Now there was a tube hanging out of her arm that ran up to a bag of water, and he was just taping it into place. He must have given me a shot or something, she thought. "That hurt."
"Sorry, sweetheart." The ambulance man said, as he went back to his notes.
Madeline looked over at her friend, the only sure thing she had going right now. "Joshua, where are we going?"
"To the hospital." Spencer considered correcting her, but rather thought this might be a bad time to find out that she'd been lied to. "They need to make sure you're not too badly hurt."
"Right now the only thing that really hurts is my face." Since she couldn't poke at it with her fingers she poked at the swollen part from the inside with her tongue. "Hey, I have a loose tooth." She checked again. "I have two!"
"Uhhhh" Spencer blinked and turned to the paramedic. "Should I worry about that? Is she going to need them re-implanted or some kind of dental work?"
The paramedic looked over at Madeline "Ever lose any teeth on that side, sweetie?"
Madeline shook her head, just a little. "No. I lost my front teeth, but not those yet. Mom left me a dollar each, and said it was from the tooth fairy"
The paramedic chuckled and turned back to Spencer. "There ya go. Baby teeth have to come out sometime. You even got the going rate."
"Thank you." Spencer turned back to Madeline and smiled. "Just don't swallow them, okay?"
She nodded. "When we get to the hospital, will you stay with me?"
"Sure."
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Madeline had to admit, a hospital was a very scary place. But just knowing that Joshua was standing over by the door of the room watching everything somehow made it all better. If he could stop Father Tucker he could stop anything else. And every so often a policeman or woman would stick their head in the door and talk to him about something. I wonder….After the doctor went over to talk to him, and they all pretty much left she said, "Joshua?"
"Yes?" He came over and sat on the little stool, right beside the head of the bed.
"Are you really a policeman?"
"Actually I'm really FBI." He pulled a badge out of his pocket and handed it to her.
Madeline held it up and took a good look. It was heavy and shiny and had some kind of ID on it with his picture. "So you're name is really Spencer, not Joshua?"
"Yes, it is. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you before. We had to keep it a secret."
"Why?"
"Because Mr. Tucker had to think I was Joshua or else he wouldn't have let me in the house."
"Oh. What's Behavioral Analysis?"
"That's when you try to figure out how the bad guys think, so you can get ahead of them and catch them before they hurt anyone else."
"Oh." She thought about that for a moment. "You always kinda looked like you knew what everyone was thinking."
"Not exactly, but you can get a pretty good idea from the way people act. Their body language, the look on their faces, that kind of thing."
"Is that how you knew about Benedict?"
"Yeah." He reached out and took his badge back. "Speaking of which, in a few minutes the doctor is going to come back in and look you over. We need to make sure Benedict didn't hurt you. I don't think you're going to like it very much."
"Is it going to hurt?"
"It might. I'm really sorry we have to."
"Will you stay with me?"
"I can't, its girls only. But a friend of mine named Emily is going to come in and she'll hold your hand the entire time. And I'll be right outside the door."
"Promise?"
"I promise."
------
Morgan walked around the clumps of children that had taken over the ER and over to his friend as soon as the door closed behind Spencer. "The good news is that the rest of the children look to be okay. She was the only one being abused." He frowned when he saw the look on his friend's face. "You don't look so good."
Spencer rubbed the back of his neck and let out a deep breath. "I thought it was bad waiting for Gwen." This is impossible, he thought, out of all the evil I have seen having to run a rape kit on a nine year old is about the worst.
"I know. You don't have to stay with her you know. I know Hotch said to keep you on it but one of us can spell you out."
"No, I have to stay."
"No you don't, man."
"Yeah, I do." They both looked over as everyone cleared out of the room except the nurse, including Emily with the evidence bag. Spencer made sure to step into the doorway before it closed so Madeline could see that he was right there where he said he would be.
"So do you want the good news or the bad news?" Emily asked after she signed the bag off to another agent.
"I think we could both use some good news right now." Morgan replied.
"No vaginal or anal penetration. Not even evidence of contact. They didn't have to finish that portion of the kit."
Spencer let out a big, deep breath. He knew about the rest of it, he had seen it in that dammed video. "Did they do a throat culture?"
"Yes. It was too late to pick up any actual semen, but he left her with a nasty case of tonsillitis. Depending on the bacteria that's causing it, we might be able to connect it to Benedict Tucker. Otherwise she has some nasty bruising on her back, knees to shoulders, as well as fresh bruises on her ribs from the beating you witnessed. They took pictures of it all for evidence, put her on antibiotics and said they want to keep her on an IV overnight to ease any strain on her kidneys."
"That's all? Morgan said, "I expected worse."
"Kids bounce, at least physically. They said there were no broken bones and the black eye will heal over time."
Just then Spencer felt a touch at his elbow. He looked down at one of the children, a girl about Madeline's age. "Hi, Becky."
She nodded. "Joshua, can I go talk to Maddy?"
"You know, I think she prefers Madeline. She's in with the nurse right now, but when she's done I'll ask her."
"Thank you." She looked like she was going to say something else, but just then Beatrice came up behind her.
"Becky, go sit with the other girls. Right now." When Becky walked off, Beatrice turned her tear-stained face to Spencer. "Joshua, you have to help me. They're saying horrible things about my father and Benedict and even Mom and I am so scared."
"Beatrice, my name's not Joshua."
She looked shocked. "What."
"My name is Spencer Reid, I'm an agent with the FBI. I was working undercover."
"What? Where's Joshua?" A couple of the older girls, with little ones balanced on their hips had come up behind her.
"Sitting in a jail in Juneau doing ninety days for drug possession."
"What?" She started crying softly. "My parents are good people. My brother is a good man, he's supposed to get married in a few months. Why are you doing this to us?"
Even though she wasn't his target he was tired. Very tired. We coddle these people, he thought, we allow them to live in their perfect bubble while others take the hurt and clean up the mess they leave behind. We really need to stop doing that. "Your brother raped a little girl, Beatrice, and your parents knew about it and blamed her and punished her for it."
"She's lying!"
"No, the doctor just left her. She's telling the truth, he found proof."
"He's lying! You're lying too!"
"I know you need to believe that right now. I understand." He turned to go back into the room where Madeline was waiting. What is happening to me, he thought, is it supposed to happen like this?
"Wait." Beatrice grabbed his arm. "What's going to happen to me?"
"I don't know." Spencer sighed and went back into Madeline's room
