Chapter 14

Spencer Reid's apartment
Washington DC

September 2011

"There's only one problem with that." Spencer said. "They kept Ash out there for ten months. He was undergoing treatment the entire time. It could take up to a year and a half for his medical condition to resolve at this point."

"Do you have to stay out there the entire time?" Morgan asked.

"No. We should go out for an initial consult and the first operation, which should be a minor one. He should be clear to travel no more than two weeks after that. At that point medical treatment begins, which will last anywhere from six to twelve months. After that there are two more surgeries, one of which can likely be performed here but the other will have to take place in San Francisco. And it will take two months recovery before he'd be clear to travel."

"And there's no guarantee it will work?" Morgan asked.

Spencer shook his head. "The first one will, and the one here as well as the medical treatment. But they won't know about that one until they start, there was a lot of damage done."

"Damn."

"And at the moment he's terrified. He's afraid that it won't work and he'll have to live with the damage the rest of his life and he's afraid that if he doesn't act the way his father wants him to in public he'll try to kidnap him again."

"That is a totally understandable reaction to trauma." Penelope said.

"I know. But at the moment he's so depressed about it I'm honestly worried about suicidal ideation."

"Therapy." She said. "Therapy."

"I know. That's what I'm thinking, we can come back but if you include therapy it might be better if we just stayed put so he can stay with the same therapist for the duration."

"I can work with that, don't worry. Moving to the other side of the country and disappearing for a while might be enough to get his father off his back." Dave said. "Or if not his campaign manager."

Spencer considered this. "That might work. And hopefully with that much distance I can at least get him to relax at home."

"Then you can help get the kid what he needs." Morgan said. "And I'll have your back. And yours momma."

"While I get this thing cracked." Penelope blinked. "Wait, San Francisco?"

"Um, yeah, why?"

"We're gonna be roomies!" She pulled out her phone and started texting.

"Um, not sure that's the best idea..." Spencer said.

"Don't worry lover, you two can have the master." Morgan replied.

Spencer turned bright pink. "That's not exactly..."

"It will work out." Dave said. "Now let me go call my friend and we can put our plan into motion."

"Okay, I got us a house." Penelope said, coming back.

"In San Francisco?" Spencer asked.

"Yep. It's the house where I grew up; it belonged to my mother's family. I couldn't bear to sell it after my folks died but then I had to move out to DC so I worked with an agency and turned it into a vacation rental. It's empty now and they can move around the bookings so we have a place. Four bedrooms, three baths, a big kitchen..."

"Sounds good to me baby girl." Morgan looked over at Spencer. "We've been talking about your boo, how are you doing?"

"I'm hanging in there. But, to be honest some vacation time and some therapy would not be amiss."

"While you're out there you can do that too." Dave nodded.

BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

Their first stop was Penelope's lair where the file was waiting. It was moderately thick, but Spencer settled down and started making short work of it. "What are you looking for?" Penelope asked.

Ash was waiting in Dave's office, where the senior agent was acting as a buffer for now. Spencer settled on an empty desk and put the file in his lap. "I suspect that the Unsub was trying to re-create Ash's identity by altering a key line in every file related to him. I'm hoping that he missed at least one document somewhere so we have a point from which we can dig out the original files. Although I'm not entirely certain how he'd do that to begin with."

"Why didn't you say so?" She turned to her computer and started typing. "I would start with a virus, let it spread out until it finds everything related to him and changes whatever needs to be changed. Which would explain why his fingerprints didn't read at first, the virus was working. And it might explain why his ID picture was glitched."

"His appearance has changed substantially since he was taken. I suspect we weren't supposed to go back for another month at least, they hadn't had a chance to take a new one. They were probably waiting to run the virus until they had a picture but when word got back that we had been found they had to run it anyway."

"So the old one glitched when it couldn't be replaced." She kept working and working.

In the meantime Spencer went through the records quickly. "No medical record?"

"I didn't find one. Which should have been a flag."

"Try the Dana-Farber Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center."

"Seriously? Right, you said cancer survivor. All right. All right. Nope, nothing."

"Try the Wilmington Health Network?"

"Errr, nope, nada."

Spencer looked pissed. "They erased his entire medical history."

"It looks that way. Hopefully you can get hard copy."

"Hopefully."

In the meantime Dave finally had a chance to sit down and talk to one Ash Pettigrew. He'd put on a plain t-shirt, dug a faded CalTech hoodie out of the depths of Spencer's closet, and had pulled the hood up, all the hallmarks of someone wanting to just disappear. Dave brought in mugs of tea. "How are you feeling?" He asked.

"I'm sorry?" Ash asked in reply. As he sat up to accept the mug he pushed the hood back, allowing Dave to see pale blond hair that had been chopped off at one point, and that was so thin he could see patches of scalp.

"How are you feeling? Spencer mentioned something about medical treatment. But he didn't go into detail."

"I'm hanging in there I guess." He smiled into his tea. "Anxiety and depression are side effects of the medication. Also of the trauma, it could be either one."

"And hair loss?"

Ash raked his fingers through his hair, easily dislodging more than a few strands. "That's the meds."

"You should stop taking them."

"I can't. The delivery system is implanted." He managed a smile that did not reach his eyes. "Easier for them I suppose. I plan to have the implants out and go on the correct replacements as soon as I can."

"Good. He said you are a cancer survivor?"

"Oh. Yes. Ependymoma actually, not that it matters. Brain cancer. When I was five. I had surgery, radiation, I suppose I was one of the lucky ones, it's never come back."

"You are."

He was quiet for a long moment, looking off into the distance. "You know, I've counseled people with this. I thought I understood just how alien they felt inside their own skin. I was so wrong about that."

Spencer had also said something about suicidal ideation. Dave didn't want to let this boy wander off down paths that were too melancholy. "Psychology and then theology. That's an unusual combination."

"My specialty is working with members of the LGBT community who have suffered religious or spiritual abuse. At least that's what I'm going for. But I realized once I started working with people that I needed to know a lot more about theology and church history. And I needed a change of scenery. And North Carolina has a much bigger patient pool than Boston. And, um..." He thought for a moment.

"And?"

"I think I wanted my family to see how well I was doing. I was finally independent of them, getting proper treatment even though it left me poor as a churchmouse, and happy. I was truly happy there for a time. I wanted to rub their noses in it a bit." He took a quiet sip of tea. "I have to wonder now if that decision led to this."

"Probably not. Once an Unsub fixates there's little you can do so long as they're free."

"Spencer explained that term. Is that what my father is? An Unsub?"

"That's what we're going to find out."