Monday, November 19th, 2012 12:29 PM
The House of Stan Fields, Roanoke, VA

Hotch stood with Mellissa and Peter in the kitchen as Prentiss and Morgan walked in and out of the room. The agent and the mother and son were staring at what the Carters called the alcohol "store" due to its amount, worth, and variety of alcoholic beverages. There was one spot missing.

"The bottle missing, what was that?" Hotch asked.

Peter narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips in concentration. "I do believe it was Uncle Stan's favorite Greek wine. What was it called now...um..."

Hotch narrowed his eyes. "Costa Lazaridi Oinotria Land?"

Peter's eyes lit up. "Yeah! He'd already finished off half the bottle-"

JJ walked in and heard this. "Meaning he drank the rest before ditching the car."

Mellissa turned to JJ. "What do you mean? And missing bottle? That would mean...he was here last night."

Hotch and JJ nodded. Hotch turned to Mellissa. "Your husband, Robert Carter, where is he?"

"Rob's out for lunch with some old friends from his childhood that came down from Maine, why?"

JJ turned to Hotch. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Hotch didn't answer her. "What does he do for a living?"

"He's a doctor. Why?"

JJ nodded with Hotch. "I think we need to talk to him."

"Talk to whom, and about what?" said a male British voice behind them.

Hotch and JJ turned to see a thin, pale, greying brunette man about 6'1" with grey-green eyes characteristic of the Carter family. He wore a red button-down shirt tucked into black suit pants with a black suit jacket, a black tie, black shoes, and gold-rimmed glasses. He carried a brown leather shoulder bag on his right shoulder, car keys in his left hand, and a newspaper in his right. This was Robert Carter.

Hotch stepped forward. "Robert Carter?"

The man nodded, setting down his bag and the paper on the table after hanging up his keys on the hook by the wall phone. "Rob, yes. What can I do for you? I'm only guessing you are part of the FBI."

Morgan appeared behind him. "We need to talk."

Rob turned around to look at him. "Well, I had a feeling you might say that. Why else would you be here? I take it this is in regards to my brother."

Mellissa's eyes widened. "You've known?!"

Rob sighed, placing his hands on his wife's shoulders and pecking her lips. "It's a long story, my love. A very, very long story that goes back at least eight generations to when Harrison Carter originally married Laura Fields trying to do the same thing we had to."

Mellissa closed her eyes. "Continue the family name."

Rob nodded. "More specifically, continue it incestuously. Like I said, it's a long story."

"We're going to need to hear it," Rossi said, coming up from the basement with Prentiss, carrying several evidence bags. "And we're going to need to hear a lot more than just that."

Rob nodded. "I suspected that much. What is it you need to know? I seem to be full of answers lately, and just last night gained more."

Mellissa stepped forward. "He was here last night?"

Rob rolled his eyes. "Mellissa, where else would he go after that accident? To be quite honest with you, I was about to refuse to help and call the cops, but naturally, I have a promise to my late father to look after my younger brother, so I had to. Just as he had to do several things he did. And our answers to why we did the things we did are very simple: What choice have I? What choice have we?"

"Which are?" Hotch asked.

Rob sighed. "It's another long story."

"Another one we need to hear," Morgan added.

Rob nodded. "Of course. Anything you wish to have you can pretty much get."

"It's the beauty of the American FBI," Mellissa muttered.

Rob looked at her. "No, my dear. That is the beauty of honesty and promises made to a dying man."

Hotch and JJ sat in front of Rob in the interrogation room, the evidence bags Rossi had brought up from the basement on the table in front of them.

"And so you went to bed?" JJ asked.

Rob nodded. "I wasn't going to stay up and think about the depressing things he had told me."

Hotch narrowed his eyes. "Now, Rob, you mentioned about a long story to do with your reasons for doing 'the things we did.' What were those things and what was the long story?"

Rob sighed. "Like I said, it's a long story. My father and his sister - my mum - were having trouble having children. Finally I was born on January 12th, 1953 and then six years later Stan was born on March 28th in the year 1959 -"

"Wait - there are records of Stan Fields being born October 26th, 1960," JJ interrupted.

Rob smiled. "Remember, he was born Stan Carter, not Stan Fields."

JJ nodded. "Right. Perfect way of creating a new identity."

Rob nodded in agreement. "Agreed. Including taking up a last name you were already familiar with. Anyways, when Stan was born, our father was incredibly annoyed, wishing to call him Lucifer for being the Devil's child. Stan was supposed to be a girl so we could continue the family name the way it had been for the past eight generations. However, that was not the case - and happily so - and our mum could no longer bear children, meaning we'd have to do the same thing that our family did eight generations before."

"Marry into other families," JJ said.

Rob nodded. "Exactly. Our father became a very angry and bitter man. It doesn't help he was a devout Catholic - we all were at the time - so all the blaming and accusations and eventually physically beating Stan and I for both being male were done in the name of God and I only learned last night that my father forced Stan to memorize the bible. It took him three years to do so, on top of school and other chores and all the abuse, but he did it. Stan never got to have any friends or have fun or anything. I didn't realize that he was as depressed as he was when I left the house and found Mellissa. I thought he was...stronger. More capable of doing what he felt was right. But I was mistaken. As soon as Mellissa and I were married, we fled back to Surrey, leaving Stan back home. When he was twenty, he met seventeen-year-old Lucile Deminger, they married not but a few years after, and Mellissa and I only flew down for two weeks before the wedding, leaving two days after their wedding day. I didn't think much of it then, but Stan did seem surprised to see me when I arrived with Mellissa, and he was even more surprised when I actually came for the wedding. Why he figured I wouldn't show up I didn't know until last night, but what can I say? He's my brother for God's sake! Of course I'm going to be there for him; we're a family. It doesn't help that when Lucile had Samantha, my father suddenly seemed very keen on taking care of the child, but Stan would hardly let her near him, and for good reasons. Mellissa had given birth to our son Peter in 1984 - you met him earlier - and my father didn't like the idea of Mellissa being with our son because it would mean that it would be her name continued and not the Carter name. But Stan finally did something right in our father's eyes, and so when Samantha was seven, Stan 37, our mum dead and our father dying, our father called his sons to his deathbed to have us make some last promises to him."

Rob paused.

Hotch looked at Rob in confusion. "What were these promises?"

Rob sighed. "My promise was easy: protect and take care of Stan. I was already a very successful doctor, so that was a given. If he ever needed the help, I could do so with ease. I promised my father I'd be there for Stan, and he told me to leave the room. Stan went in, and when he came back out he looked very shaken. He said 'Father passed away, and I swear I didn't do it,' and left it at that. I know he didn't kill our father - I myself was there for the autopsy that I asked be done to prove what he said. He died of the cancer he was suffering from. Plain and simple. There was no murder. Thankfully. However, after Stan left I followed him out to the terrace and found him with a beer in his hand, his eyes bloodshot and wet from crying. He never cried as a child nor drank, and Father would do unspeakable things to him in hopes of correcting the 'wrong' that had happened, or Stan's birth. I asked him what was wrong, and Stan simply replied, 'I have to do it. I don't want to, I never will, but I have to do it.' I asked him, 'Do what?' but he shook his head. I found out last night our father had asked him to kill his beloved wife Lucile and be with Samantha. And he did it. Granted, there were some Bible verses exchanged in the process, as well as quite a bit of swearing and shouting and verbal abuse, but in the end Stan had a promise to keep to a dead man and Stan is not one to break his promises. And when I was back in Surrey again, I got a few anonymous letters with newspaper clippings regarding Lucile's murder as well as the murders of the rest of our family and many of his friends. Also included were several clippings in regarding the missing persons of father Stan Carter and daughter Samantha Carter, and I knew, but wasn't too sure at the same time. I know Father had several...friends who wished to...help him get his way. They'd been successful several times before, but I wasn't too sure if Stan meant that he had to kill his wife, friends, and our family, or if one of those...friends had done it for him, and Stan was supposed to let them. I have a feeling Stan didn't kill them only because these people meant a lot to him, Lucile especially. I didn't hear from Stan again until recently, when he asked for Peter to come over here and help him recover from a supposed accident he'd been in. I agreed to fly over once I got a few things straightened out. When I arrived..." Rob shook his head. "I am aware of what happened - the case was on BBC as well as CNN and all the other American shows and channels and all...that. However, I wasn't aware of how...strange Stan was going to be acting and looking and all. He seemed so distant from everything and everyone. He was spending long hours in his room or in the basement, but whenever there was anything to do with Amy Nickhoales on TV he was instantly downstairs and in the recliner until the show ended, then he would normally be heading into the shower. Then back up to his room he'd go until supper..." Rob shook his head. "At one point I had to take him for a walk and got him to tell me most of what had happened." Rob shook his head again. "You know, I've heard that man's voice when he was in love with Lucile, and it was the same voice I heard when he talked about Amy, simply older and softer due to age and his injuries. I couldn't believe he was convinced he'd killed Lucile and everyone when he clearly had no memory of doing so. He couldn't even say how he killed them."

Hotch and JJ exchanged looks. "So...you're saying he couldn't have killed them?"

Rob nodded. "Stan may make promises, but he doesn't do something he's uncomfortable doing. He would have been beyond uncomfortable killing his loved ones. I understand he was a close friend of Amy and her family, but they weren't related, so it wasn't that hard for him to do so. The one thing he did manage to tell me, though, is he never uses a knife. His only explanation as to why was 'Personal reasons.'"

"But...he did," JJ said. "We have the evidence-"

"I know, I understand, but that was the only time," Rob clarified. "I have a feeling I know why he will never use knives for anything like that, and why he only used one on Rebecca Galante."

"Oh?" Hotch asked.

Rob sighed and nodded sadly. "Rebecca Galante...at one point was supposed to become my adopted daughter. I know the majority of the family he is credited with killing - Lucile included - were stabbed to death. He wanted to keep it consistent. Rebecca was going to become Mellissa and my daughter, but then there were some...complications with forms and she was sent to another family, and we were denied adoption."

Hotch and JJ exchanged controlled shocked looks. He was correct; the forms had shown up in Rebecca's records.

Rob continued. "However, what really matters is that last week he decided to go out for once. He told Mellissa and Peter he was going to a convention of some sort, but all he told me was, 'It's time.' He left, and then what happened happened. And then last night..." Rob stopped talking and bit his lip.

Hotch leaned onto the table a little. "Robert, what happened last night?"

Rob quite suddenly looked up at Hotch, his eyes wide with anger. "Do not ever call me that again. I refuse to be called by the name my father-" Rob suddenly calmed down, his fists clenched so hard he was white-knuckled. He unclenched his fists quite suddenly, his nails tainted red. He clasped his hands together instantly, hoping to staunch the blood flow. Rob closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I apologize. It has been a good nine years since I was last called that, and before that, much longer. I hate it. My own name has become a source of mockery. Please. It's Rob. No one ever calls me Robert, nor do I ever introduce myself as Dr. Robert Carter; it's always Dr. Rob Carter." He carefully opened his hands and sighed again. "Naturally I clench hard enough...Goddammit-oh, dear Lord forgive me."

Hotch and JJ exchanged more looks. "It's alright, Rob. Let's get back to the matter on hand. What happened last night?"

Rob sighed. "A lot in a surprisingly short period of time. I was going to bed early, and was...not going to go into details, but then the phone rings. I go downstairs, answer, and what do you know, it's my idiot little brother. He just about orders me to get outside after getting dressed, telling me to bring my medical bag, so fifteen minutes later I'm inside the car and the first thing I notice is he has a giant cut on the side of his head. Suddenly I'm the mum and he's the little boy who's fallen from his bike, except this time it wasn't a bike and this time it wasn't a simple scrape that needed a good washing, ointment, a band-aid, and a kiss. That cut alone required ten stitches. I finally convince him to let me look at Amy, who's unconscious in the back seat, but it's too dark to see so I tell him I need to get her into the house - the basement being the only place with good enough lighting and a place to actually lay her - so we do. I...this is why my brother's an idiot, and a weak one to boot: I start to take off her coat to examine all her possibilities injuries and well, there's not shirt, no bra, nothing to even attempt covering up the fact that he fucked her. I bring this up and he simply looks away and says something like, 'I know, but she's beautiful, no?' Which gets us into an argument and I learn he's almost attempted suicide before, and had it not been for Lucile and Samantha he would have actually attempted and no doubt succeeded... There were many revelations last night, and that will seem like a pun soon but it isn't. He revealed to me what had happened that night when our father died. Our father had asked him to kill Lucile and other family and be with Samantha. Stan responded with the fifth Commandment - 'Thou shalt not kill,' and our father turns it against him, saying, 'Yes, but thou shalt honor thy father.' Stan, being weak and pressured, submitted. Luke 1:38."

JJ sighed. "Where's Reid when you need him?"

Hotch chuckled, seeing how JJ was trying to lighten the mood. "In the hospital. However, I happen to know that it's Mary's acceptance of Jesus."

Rob nodded. "'Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be according to your word.'"

Hotch and JJ nodded. "What else happened last night?"

"Well, he revealed how depressed he is - and you really would never guess it - and how he's almost commit suicide. He also informed me that our father used Catholicism against him."

"How so?"

"He said, and I quote, 'When your father shouts at you that he wished you were never born or born the opposite gender and beats you for it every day and uses your religion against you, claiming the all-loving Heavenly Father finds it unbelievable that you were born and that He wants you to either die or do the right thing for the family,' and then he makes comments about my leaving and how that hurt him. But my father forced him to memorize the Bible, even though Stan would have done that anyways to try to impress him, to try to make our father see he is worth something..." Rob closed his eyes. "You know, my father never got to see just how talented Stan really is. He forced him to give up his dreams and what he is good at just to supposedly honor the family. This is all my father's fault indirectly, yes, but had Stan been strong enough to resist and say no, it would be a completely different story. So it's Stan's fault too." Rob sighed. "Anyways, I hit a touchy subject, he got a little upset, but then I was removing Amy's pants to assess any damage there, and I mention his lack of restraint, he looks over, sees the evidence staring him in the face, goes off to shower, so I finish assessing Amy. She needed a total of twenty seven stitches, seven of them on one wound on her face I am almost positive was from a ring of some sort. I gave her the stitches she needed, noticed she also most likely had a concussion - I do believe Stan caused that, though, with the way he went on about having hurt her and never doing that again - and was dressing her in clothes of Mellissa's that were too small for my wife when Stan returned limping. He put the blouse on her, took the pair of shoes I handed him and put those on her as well, then I forced him to sit so I could figure out why he was limping. Permanent knee damage from January 4th, 2011. I finished looking at his wounds, set him off on the road to recovery, and decided I'd sleep on my decision to finally tell you everything I've known for all this time. And now Stan will probably want to kill me but it's a risk that's worth taking when a life that young and valuable is on the line. I just wish I'd seen that sooner with Stan and gotten him out of the house with me when I left. I myself am to blame, having been the only one in his childhood that seemed to care." Rob sighed. "And that is everything I can possibly tell you about last night without going word for word verbatim, which I cannot do anyways, so yeah. Anything else you wish to hear?"

Hotch looked at JJ. "I think we have enough to work with for now. We'll know where to find you if we need anything more."

Rob nodded. "Either prison or the house, correct?"

Hotch chuckled. "It'll be the house."

Rob smiled. "Thanks. Now, do you have anything I can wrap my hands in? I dug my nails into my palms earlier when I nearly exploded at you for calling me Robert. It's all part of being bipolar and having to skip the medication because when I normally would have taken it today, I'm here."

JJ nodded. "Of course. Wait right here."

Rob looked around him. "I wasn't planning on going anywhere." He started to wink, then pursed his lips and turned it into a narrowing of the eyes then a smile."

JJ smiled back and left the interrogation room with Hotch. Morgan waved the two agents over. They stepped inside and observed Rob through the one-way mirror.

Morgan shrugged. "So?"

Hotch sighed, rolling his shoulders. "It's a lot of information to sift through."

Morgan nodded. "I just hope it all ends up being helpful."

Suddenly Rob's cell phone started ringing, and he quickly took it from his pocket. "Dr. Rob Carter speaking. Stan? What the hell-what do you mean, where am I?! Where the hell do you think I am?! No, not prison. Lord, bastard, where the hell are you is the better question! You're what?! Stan, whatever you do, do not step foot into that-" Rob closed his eyes and pulled the phone from his ear, snapping it closed and slamming it on the table. "Damn you, asshole."

Hotch was already back inside the interrogation room. "What just happened?"

Rob shook his head. "My bastard of a brother just pulled another stunt. You might want to check on your agent in the hospital as well as Domonick Nickhoales. Stan just informed me he's already inside the building. And I have a feeling I don't like what he's about to do."