Chapter 14

Practice

I know you've heard it a thousand times before. But it's true -- hard work pays off. If you want to be good, you have to practice, practice, practice. If you don't love something, then don't do it: -Ray Bradbury

A/N: WARNING: LIGHT HARDLY TO BE SEEN SLASH

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

Prentiss was pleased to be away from everyone else again and on her way back to the BAU. She really didn't know what help she was going to be for Garcia and actually didn't even know what Penelope was looking at the tapes for. Looking for any clues as to where it was happening she supposed. Then her mind drifted to Floyd and what he was doing. She was sure something had happened. Something bad had happened.

Emily pulled over the SUV and took out the pack of smokes. She got out of the car and sat on a grass verge and it up. Not a very busy road – quiet enough for her to be able to just relax and smoke. This was becoming more and more enjoyable for her and the less revolting it seemed the more she needed to smoke.

"You can't smoke can you? What happened Floyd? Where are you that you can't have a smoke of your own?"

There was no reply and if there had been she would probably have swallowed the cigarette in shock….She lay back and looked at the sky. Wasting time. Procrastinating – she didn't want to look at the video's with Garcia and yet something else was telling her it was important. She was being punished.

A small chuckle.

"I'm losing my mind and being punished for it."

Another laugh and another cigarette.

"I know you want me to stay on the road and keep driving, but you want me to do this too, and Floyd honey as much as I love you – I'm not going to smoke and drive. One or the other."

A deep breath and she relaxed in the long grass again.

-o-o-o-

"This is no good." Garcia was saying into the phone. "I need more…there is nothing on these tapes to identify anything. I need the address for the live feed." Listening. "Well I understand that your client is trying to protect himself, but really, I can't do what I am expected with the material you are providing me with." A pause. "What am I getting? A lot of bad dreams. Now please will you explain to your client that we need the address so that I can do my job. I will be waiting for your call. Thank you." She hung up and looked at the pile of DVD's she still had to get through and listened to the ping of a new lot being delivered to her email.

She took her glasses off and cleaned them on a tissue and then put the tissue in the bin and the glasses back on her nose. "Not that it will make any difference. I still won't see anything." She muttered and set her baby up to put the next lot onto disc for her. She then moved over to the one she had been using with the video programs running and put the next disc in.

-o-o-o-

He felt a bit better today. His lungs nicely filled with noxious fumes thanks to dear Emily. He needed to be careful with that one though. He didn't want to damage her – but as she had a thing for him anyway it was all too easy to abuse her willingness. His mind was slowly pulling back together but it was going to be a very long slow process unless he borrowed a bit of himself back for a little while. He tried to pull at his hands to get them out of the bonds but all he could manage was to wiggle his fingers.

Floyd blinked.

"About bloody time." He managed to whisper to himself. "I hope you are making good use of me babes….I have a feeling you will have a lot of explaining to do. Not that you will want me. You've moved on. So why am I still giving you part of me? Damn you Spence. Damn you to hell."

He could wiggle the toes on one foot but the one which had been sliced across the back he was putting all his foot power into healing that. As for his brain. Slow but sure did the job – don't they say?

It itched. He wanted to put his hand inside of his skull and pull out the insects and maggots. At least that would help speed things up a bit.

He licked his lips and then wiggled his fingers. Tomorrow. He thought by this time tomorrow he would be able to move a bit better….though he was still unsure whether he would be able to actually get the whatever the hell it was off his hands.

But still the over riding need to scrape at the inside of his skill with his fingernails was making his eyes water.

It was late in the evening when someone paid him a visit again. Pa once more. Again with his shot gun, which Floyd had every intention of inserting somewhere painful in Pa as soon as he could – and a flashlight. Floyd closed his eyes as the tarpaulin was dragged off him and the light shone over his body.

"Well stone the crows."

Pa lifted up Floyd's feet and looked at the scabbed over slice on the back of his heel.

"You sure heal well for a dead guy." He prodded him with the barrel of the gun and Floyd allowed him to kick him over so he was laying on his back. Insects with too many legs scuttled away and maggots lay writhing where Floyds broken head had been laying. He looked down at the fading mark on Floyd's stomach where Pa's son had sliced him. It was a lumped up purple line now. "This just aint natural. I'm gonna have to report you to someone. Once you's better and we've had chin wag."

He threw the tarp back over him and left walking backwards. No way was he going to put his back to that thing. He put an extra lock on the shed door that evening. He didn't want anyone wandering in and finding his treasure.

-o-o-o-

Rossi, Morgan and Hotch went back to the area they had been in the night before. A different crowd of people were out in the daylight. Maybe someone here had seen Reid. Again they handed out pictures and again they were told – "No sorry haven't seen him."

It made Hotch's stomach tighten with distress as he walked down this street and saw were they had handed out the pictures the night before they had been discarded on the ground. He bent down and picked a couple of them up.

"He can't just disappear." He muttered looking down at the damp dirty picture he had in his hand.

"Maybe we are looking in the wrong place." Morgan looked around the filthy street they were standing in and tried to imagine Reid wanting to be here in the first place.

Hotch shook his head. "He was here. The barkeep recognised him. If not in this actual street then he was close by. Someone saw him. He is fairly distinctive looking and was drunk. Keep asking until we get an answer from someone."

It was a long day taken up with small rest stops of coffee and trying to work out what to do next. Reid just seemed to have disappeared of the face of the earth. No one had seen him expect the guy in the bar who said Reid had spent and abnormal amount of time in the men's room and left appearing drunk. Hotch's fears now were that it wasn't just alcohol he had been consuming. He wanted to go back and check out the men's room…Talk to the cleaner. There had to be a clue somewhere of what happened to him once he walked out of the doors.

The three of them went back to the bar. A uncomfortable silence swept over the place as they walked in. Obviously they were not normal customers. Not one of them had a big bushy moustache or a leather cap for starters. They were cops. It stood out a mile – and the cuffs hanging from Morgan's utility belt just confirmed any doubts anyone might have.

Again they spoke to the barkeep.

"He hasn't been back."

"I was wondering." Hotch was asking. "If I could talk to the cleaner of the men's room."

Morgan looked over at the door and started walking over towards them.

"Well they don't get cleaned everyday."

Morgan stopped and turned around again. "Have they been cleaned since he was here?"

A slow shake of the head. "Nope."

Again Morgan started to walk towards to men's room….now not really looking forward to what he might find in there.

He pushed open the door and pulled on his latex gloves. It wasn't a very large area. Three stools and a urinal. The bin was over flowing and there was mess up the walls that he didn't want to get to close to. Reid had spent an unusual amount of time in here. Only a few reasons he would be doing that. He pushed open the first stool door. The toilet was flushed and reasonably clean. There was a puddle on the floor behind the toilet which was probably from a leaking pipe. The next stool had liquid on the floor. This was not from a leaking pipe. Morgan was careful not the step in it. Again the toilet it self was clean and flushed. The final one was about the same as the second. A puddle of something not very nice on the floor….accompanied this time with what looked like vomit.

Morgan backed out and went to the bin. He tipped the rubbish onto the counter by the washbasins. There was no evidence of drug use. That really was what he was looking for. So if Reid wasn't taking drugs in here…and assuming he would have left what his rubbish behind….what was he doing?

"So Reid….you were sitting drinking alone…maybe a bit nervous….maybe waiting for someone. You get up to use the facilities and come in here. Then what, man? Where were you doing in here for so long?"

He stood by the door and tried to envisage a slightly inebriated Reid. He thought back to the few times Reid had drunk too much. Usually when he was visiting him. He usually finished the session with a visit to the washrooms. "You were being sick." He made sure all the rubbish was back in the bin and he left the smelly room again. He felt ill imagining the guy he liked to think of as a kid brother kneeling in the filth throwing up.

With a shake of the head from Morgan, Rossi and Aaron turned to leave. "Please don't forget to call…."

"He won't be back…that type never return."

Rossi turned back again. "That type?"

The barkeep shrugged. "He looked like he was waiting for his man – who it seems didn't turn up. He looked like he was going out to get his jollies somewhere else. I'm sure you gents know what type I'm talking about." He pulled the picture down off the shelf where he had placed it and jabbed at it with his finger. "That type."

The three of them left without a further word to him and Morgan gave his small profile of what he thought Reid was doing in the men's room. "Throwing up. We know he can't hold his drink and he had been sitting for a good part of the afternoon alone."

"And I know he's not eating properly either." Hotch added.

"Drugs?" Rossi this time. "I know you don't want to see it that way, but in my view Reid has had a type of breakdown or a snap of some kind. He's acting out of character – he's managed to get Prentiss involved in this hunt for Floyd, who I believe had run off and left the young man. A lovers tiff." Rossi was rubbing the toe of his shoe on the ground outside. "So why bring Prentiss? And then why split up to do what ever it was he had planned."

They walked thoughtfully back to the SUV but with no more clues than he was in the bar and left a bit drunk they had no ideas.

The drive back to the motel was also in relative silence – each of them playing over in their heads what might have happened when he left the bar. He may have just continued his journey to find Floyd, but not likely. He wouldn't have come all the way down to this part of town just to drink. He was here for a reason, and they all knew that Floyd hung out in areas like this, so was he looking for Floyd here? Not likely either. He had told Prentiss he was going to Maine and so why? Unless he liked to do this, unless this was a side of Reid he had always kept close and never revealed for very obvious reasons, but that seemed wrong too. Everything about it just totally out of character and how could Floyd be coercing him if he wasn't even near by?

They went back to the motel and sat around in the room Hotch and Rossi had, brainstorming ideas to and throw and getting now where and now it was getting dark and another night was going to pass and nothing. No leads. Just one big fat dead end.

-o-o-o-

Prentiss went home. She knew she had been told to get working with Garcia but it was already mid afternoon and she had wasted too much time. Emily called Pen as soon as she arrived home.

"Hey I'm back. Hotch wants me to come in and give you a hand there, but I really need a shower and to change my clothes first." Listening. "Ok Garcia. See you tomorrow."

That was a relief. She walked over to the big double doors leading to a small balcony big enough for half a person to stand on. She pulled the doors open and stood taking in the afternoon air – and then a quick smoke before a shower. She pulled her cap off and threw it across the room and ran her fingers through her hair. "Screw you all." She muttered and took in a deeper drag. Her headache had cranked up a notch too and so she went to her flight bag and emptied the contents onto the floor. She picked up the pills and wandered into the bedroom.

-o-o-o-

The Morning.

"Wake up love birds….we have a job for you."

Spencer's eyes shot open to see a large man standing over the bed. Ardal groaned next to him and snuggled in deeper to Spencer.

"A j job?" He reached over and shook his bed mate. "Ardal – wake up."

"We worked hard all day yesterday." Ardal let the man know. "We need a rest. Spencer especially."

A hand took hold of Reid's arm and started to drag him off the bed. "Well sorry about that my lord, but the boss requires that the pair or you shower."

The pissed off look on Ardal's face changed to a big smile. "A shower? Spence it's OK….just a shower. We got a bit messy last night is all."

Reid pulled his gown on around his shoulders as Ardal noticed again how quickly he had healed. There was hardly a mark on his skin today. It confused him but he didn't say anything, not now. But he knew for sure that it wasn't makeup they had used on him yesterday.

No breakfast to start this day off with.

They were led to a big room. The shower as such was central. Reid had only seen things like this in movies. Multiple jets were on the ceiling pointing down and their where four clear glass walls. Ardal took his robe off and looked at Spencer who was just standing with his mouth slightly open. "Spence. It's ok. It'll be fun." He moved to Reid and pulled his robe off for him and took him by the hand. "Just relax Spencer. I'm right here with you."

Reid looked over at Ardal. "But…"

A shake of the head. "Remember – I'm looking after you – I wouldn't do anything to hurt you Spencer." A smile and he walked in through the shower door with Spencer in tow. The water started automatically and Ardal just stood for a while looking at Reid and watching the confusion on his face. He carefully bent down and picked up a bottle of soap.

He stood behind Reid and poured some soap out onto his hand – slowly wiping across his back and down his sides. Spencer just stood with his hands by his sides and his eyes closed. Again something was betraying how he thought he should be feeling. Something inside of him – his spirit – was screaming at him to turn around right now and get on his knees. He took a deep breath and spun quickly on the spot so he was facing Ardal. He placed a hand on each of his shoulders and pushed him back until his back was against the glass wall of the shower. The water was pouring down his face and over his skin as Reid slowly licked and sucked and nibbled his way down Ardal's chest. One of his hands now replaced the one Ardal hand been using on himself as he slid down to his knees.

The cameras got good views of what Spencer did with his mouth. He had obviously done this before – they watched Ardal's back arch as Spencer gripped his partners hips and pulled him closer. They saw Ardal's hands holding Spencer's head in place and they picked up every grunt and moan and whimper made.

The cameras picked up the images of Spencer getting back to his feet and pressing Ardal against the wall…the water pouring down the glass distorted faces but the expressions were there. As Spencer now took his place behind Ardal and one hand was on his shoulder with the nails digging into the soft flesh and the other was holding onto Ardal's own bony hip.

It became evident to them that this Spencer person was going to get them a lot of money. He healed remarkably fast – he never seemed to be lacking the ability to perform and oh yes – he was a dirty boy! And now Ardal was on his back and Reid was smiling in a sort of manic way with his eyes glazed over which would have alarmed Ardal if he had been looking.

-o-o-o-

In the shed.

He tried not to make too much noise, it being the morning and all. He didn't want them to come in and find that he had finally managed to get his hands free and he certainly didn't want to be disturbed right now as he fucked Ardal by proxy.