Chapter fourteen
Memorial Hospital = Sheriff's station
Carthage, IL

Spencer

"So what happens next?" Susanna asked.

"I'm afraid we need to do an interview." Rossi said. "We still have seven missing kinds to find."

"Anything I can do to help." She replied. "Just lead the way."

Spencer spoke up. "How about if I…" He lightly touched her hand, which she responded to by taking hold of his bicep again. He realized that he was probably going to show her Washington like this, and that was a very fine thing. Wandering around the DC highlights with a warm and pretty girl good friend on his arm sounded like a wonderful idea.

Suddenly Henry turned and tugged on her skirt. "Susanna." He said urgently.

She stopped Spencer to lean down. Henry whispered something in her ear. "I do not; I had to leave them behind." She told him as she stood. "Why don't you tell your parents that?"

"Why don't you tell us what?" JJ asked, getting down to her son's level. Henry looked at her desperately for a moment, and then whispered in her ear. "We can find something." She said. "We'll get to the station and then send Dad out to get something."

"Get what?" Will asked.

"Something to eat." JJ replied. "He's hungry."

"All this activity." Susanna said. "I'm afraid there were more dumplings than chicken in dinner tonight, he's probably burned it all off."

"What was he asking for?' JJ asked.

"Candy. My sisters brought it back from their trips; I kept a stash in my room for just such an occasion."

"See, stuff like that is why we owe you." Will said.

JJ chuckled. "I think we can do better than candy."

"None of us have had dinner yet." Rossi pointed out. "How about if we go back to the station and order in all around." A voice that had confronted a hundred Unsubs and more didn't slip, but none of them missed the nod he made toward Susanna.

"Sounds like a plan." Morgan nodded.

As they got into the cars Spencer found himself contemplating the legend of Sir Percival and Lady Blanchfleur. He had rescued her from the black knight Clamadius who had laid siege to her castle and nearly starved her people. Clamadius wanted to marry her and take her lands, of course, but then she made Percival her champion and….no, he needed to stop going there. His head was buzzing. As they settled he had the absurd notion to reach over and take her hand. Why had he never felt this way for Maeve?

We never had time, Maeve whispered in his ear. I think you would have if we would have had the chance.

I still don't know that I'm ready for this. What if I'm meant to always be alone, like Percival?

No, remember Merton. Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone; we find it with another.

I did. I found it with you.

Yes, you did. But love doesn't end with the finding, it only grows from there.

I feel like I'm betraying you.

You'll only betray me if you never love.

At the station they found Susanna's sisters waiting, under guard but not cuffed. They came over as soon as they saw her. The one in green, Rebekah, was the one that had slapped her before, Spencer realized. This time the one in purple, Leah he assume, spoke up. "Where were you?" She demanded. "We've been here forever. We don't know what's going on."

"At the hospital, getting looked over." Susanna replied. The two young women looked at each other, their eyes going wide. "They're shocked, aren't they?" She asked Spencer, a wicked sort of smile playing around her lips."

"Yes." Suddenly he was very glad he was here to observe.

"Relax kittens, Agent Blake was with me the entire time. She can stand as a witness, nothing happened between me and the doctor."

Spencer blinked as both girls relaxed. "Really?"

"Pastor Goodwin says all doctors are perverse." Rebekah told him. "They only want to get their hands on your body. If you truly walk in the light of the Lord you won't need one, so if you do it's punishment for a sin."

"Have you ever heard of Lifton's eight criteria?" Susanna asked him.

"As in Robert J. Lifton's Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China?"

"I read it, oh, two years ago? Just after all these wonderful new books starting coming in. It was a life changer." She sighed. "I can't decide if this comes under point three or point seven."

"I would think point five."

"They suggested we go." Rebekah told them. "We refused. I can't believe you risked it."

"Like anyone would want to marry me anyway." Susanna replied, dryly.

"That doesn't matter and you know it."

"Ladies." Rossi came up to them, as smooth as silk. "We still have children missing, which means we need those interviews."

"Is the victim's advocate here yet?" Hotch asked.

Rossi shook his head. "Not available. Budget cuts. They were able to find one for Henry but since the actual crime was committed back in DC JJ and Will said they want to work with one there."

"Good. He's the victim here." Susanna said.

"So are you." Rossi pointed out. "Our technical analyst Penelope Garcia has found an advocate willing to work with you back in DC."

She bristled a little. "I'm not the victim here, Henry is." She replied. "But at this point I'll take all the help I can get, thank you."

Right, they might need help there. Spencer brain decided to give him one of those lucid bubbles right about then. "In the absence of an advocate we should have a female officer in on the interviews." Rossi gave him the 'seriously?' look, and he nodded.

"We can do that. Right this way."