Baby

a/n: I'm attempting to get everyone at around the same time line…sorry… Pb xox

It's strange and somewhat uncomfortable being ripped from one life and have a whole new one shoved upon you with no warning. One second there I was just getting used to taking breaths again and the next I was sucked through the floor and thrown earthwards with no idea of where I would end up. This isn't the first time this has happened and really I should be getting used to the idea that they twist and change things to suit themselves with no care as to how their servants are going to cope with it. And let's face it, I'm one low down servant to that lot right now. I land with a soft plop onto a large bed which in its self is nice as I was rather expecting a hard rocky surface to meet my descent. But here I am lying on a big bed with a big canopy above my head. It's warm and I can feel a breeze across my skin and I can hear birds singing. They've decided to give me a good beginning. Oh and I know why; it's just to see how quickly I lose it all again. Knowing my track record for keeping things going along a straight line and going well then it's not going to last too long. I do wonder if this is a hotel of some sort and roll over onto my side to have a quick look around the room. Correction, enormous room. Freaking huge. It's kind of like some relic from the past. The walls are painted a deep red. There are stuffed animal heads stuck to one wall, almost like they were stampeding towards me and I sliced them to a sudden stop by putting a wall in their way. Creepy to the extreme I may add. One wall is just book shelves and of course books and another wall is taken up mainly by windows and long dark drapes. A very odd room, and I like it. I slide my legs off the bed and now look down at myself. They have clothed me rather well too. They really are expecting me to mess up something chronic. I can feel it and I wont allow that to happen. Whatever game they are playing I'm not going to join in. I'll do what they asked of me and then I'll take what they've given me and live in relative comfort. This is assuming that the rest of this place suits and is as spiffing as this room is. My lower body has on a pair of rather nice low cut jeans. They're tight and they feel like they've been tailored for me. A lovely feeling. My body is in an equally tight white sleeveless number with lots of little fiddly buttons up the front, and they've gifted me with my own boots.

Spencer would like it here.

But that's not relevant anymore. I'm going to do what they said. How damned hard can it be to stay away from one bloke? He wasn't all that special anyway.

A knock on the door and I stand and turn towards it. 'Yes?' I enquire and the door slowly opens. There's a girl standing there and she's probably about aged twenty or so and she has on a uniform in black with a white apron. Her brown hair is tightly pulled back into what I assume is a pony tail. I can only see her front for now. 'What do you want?'

She looks nervous. 'You asked me to wake you at lunch time sir.'

'Ah.'

'And to remind you that Agent Rossi is coming to visit at three this afternoon.'

'Oh.'

'And to give you any mail you may have received.'

I put out my hand for my mail.

'You didn't actually get any sir, but you know how it is, I'd not put too much in store by it. People tend to email these days.'

I drop my hand and stand staring at her. 'So I'm awake and it's lunch time.' Thank you.

'You also wanted to tell the staff where you wished to entertain Agent Rossi.'

'Excuse me?' Entertain him?

'The terrace or in the library sir.'

'Oh. The terrace I would think.'

'Sir the weather reports did say that it might rain.'

I shrug. 'Put up some damned umbrellas then. I'll meet with Rossi on the terrace.'

'Very well sir.' And she's still just standing there.

'Was there something else?' I'm getting pissed off now. This is confusing me. I want to have a look around and see what the hell is going on here and who the fuck I am.

'I was wondering sir. Do you remember the way to the terrace?'

I blink at her. 'I'll find it. Thank you. Get out.' Then curiously she leaves by walking backwards until she's through the door way and then reaches through and pulls the door closed behind her. 'Well what the fuck was that all about?'

Time to have a quick look around this room I'm in. I give the books a quick glance and see that they are all very old volumes of things I've read before. I walk to the window and have a look out. There's a balcony thing so I wander out and look down. I seem to be a good few floors up and the building is ancient and constructed from bricks. This balcony over looks a large area of grass and then woodland. I have not the slightest idea where this place is. I thought maybe I'd get some sort of clue by looking out here, but it's a total mystery. Thank you guys for giving me this interesting new world to live in and no freaking memories to go along with it!

There is a mirror on the wall so I give my face a quick inspection. I look good obviously. I'm clean shaven and my hair is perfect. Just the right length to tuck behind my ears, which is what I do.

Now to investigate the rest of this place. I go to the door the girl was at not long before and with a deep breath I pull it open. I expected to see a corridor but it's a small anti room with some huge black bloke standing there looking at me.

'Who the fuck are you?' I ask.

'I'm James sir.' He tells me.

'You have a gun.' I think I should let him know.

'Yes sir I do.'

'What are you doing standing there?' This is a fucking puzzle to me. He's not pulled his gun and he looks to have almost a smirk on his face.

'I'm always here sir.'

'What the fuck are you always there for?' I'm really hoping that I'll get some memories to go along with this game cos this is making my head spin.

'I'm your body guard.' Now that is an open grin he is giving me with big golden teeth shining happily at me.

'My body guard?' I don't like the sound of this.

'Yes sir.'

'I pay you to stand here with a gun?'

'Sir you pay me to keep you safe. You pay me well I may add.'

'Ah.' I do remember that the bastards who sent me here said I wouldn't have my super duper powers so I guess maybe I could do with a dude and a big gun to keep away the bad guys. I just don't know what line of business I'm in or why it would be necessary to have some geezer standing guard outside my room.

We stand for a while just looking at each other. I'm waiting for him to say something which will unravel this mystery and he's obviously waiting for me to say something and as neither of us are talking we just stand and look.

'I err.' Yes I'm full of intelligent words today.

'Going down for lunch sir.'

Now I smile back at him. 'Lead the way James.'

'Obviously sir.' And he turns and pulls open the door leading out of here and waits for me to catch up.

-o-o-o-

There is no point in staying here. Floyd has gone. All that's left of him is a smear of blood and a ripped shirt. Maybe if I'm lucky and keep walking along the river bank I will eventually find somewhere with a telephone and I can call someone in to investigate this. Though there doesn't seem much too see really. The drag marks suddenly stop as does the trail of blood. I spend a few hours sitting on my rock with my head in my hands before finally realising that I have to keep moving onwards. I pull on my boots and go to the edge of the river. Whatever it was that Floyd did with his burning sticks seems not to have worked.

And so I start the next part of my journey and it feels strangely quiet and I feel horribly exposed and vulnerable, which is odd as I wanted to get away from Floyd, now he's not here I need him back again. Walking alone in a forest is an eerie sensation. Things moving in the undergrowth suddenly sound too loud. The river seems to be rushing by me faster. The birds seem to be flying above me waiting for me to make a mistake, but I won't. I can deal with this. We're really not that far from the railway and thus I'm sure not too far from, well from anything! There has to be something out here other than the animals awaiting my failure. I know I have to eat and I know I'm going to have a problem finding something, but I will try. I've read the books about situations like this. It can't be that hard to find things can it? I fiddle with Floyd's lighter for a while and then put it back in my pocket. Maybe tonight I'll be able to light a fire…if I'm still out here and I think I will be.

I stop occasionally and lay down on the river bank and take some handfuls of water. I need to pick things on the way too and try to eat something but my half hearted searches don't come up with much. I'm standing here with a few things in my hand and trying to figure out if there are the same things Floyd gave me to look at before and to be honest this genius brain has no idea.

-o-o-o-

I stumble a few times over rocks and branches but it's not as bad as maybe it could have been. I've noted that if I jog along the baby on my back eventually falls asleep and that's an enormous relief. The screeching made my ears ring to the point I think I have permanent damage to my hearing. They are expecting me to mess up. They are thinking I'm my dad, but I'm not. I'm me. I am Sam. But there is still plenty of margin for the fuck ups to happen therefore I'm being mighty cautious not to step to the side and go down the route of all time genius fuck up like my dad. I'm thirsty and I'm hungry. My back aches and I can feel something slimy and wet slowly crawling its way down my back and long the back of my legs and I am guessing that baby there has emptied his bowels again. I can smell that revolting stink which I can still taste in my mouth, but I'm not going to worry about it now. Actually the worse the state I'm in when I get where I am going the better. More chance that someone will believe my story. A story which I'm going to have to get straight in my head now as I jog along, cos once I make the announcement of who this baby really is I'm going to have the FEDS over me like the pack of filthy dogs they are. I need to be able to foresee what they are going to ask me and have sensible answers for them. I go through a number of scenarios and wonder how this is going to all play out, cos I know which way I'd rather it all went.

Jog, jog, jog, smack.

Ok I wasn't looking where I was going and the branch caught me just above the eyes sending me flying and sprawled on my back. I hear a squishing sound and then the bellows of baby start up again. I don't really blame him as I am lying on top of him right now and I have a nice trickle of blood making its happy way across my face.

'Fuck it!'

I roll over and pull at the straps on my back and attempt to see if I've damaged baby in any way, but it's dark and it's screaming. I've not killed it so that's got to be good I think. I also have the feeling that the sudden impact generated a fresh lot of sewage from the brat's backside.

'I'm not going to mess up.' I say to baby as I prod it with my finger. 'I'm getting us both out of here and we're both going to be fine and I'm going to be a hero.' I prod it again. 'So shut the fuck up and stop shitting all over me. I'm at the point where I don't like you too much anymore.' I give him a comforting pat on the side of his face and pull him back onto my back and just sit for a while listening to the animals in the bushes and the night insects – well I would do that if this thing wasn't howling in my ear again. 'Just shut up!' and now I'm shouting at it. 'This is all your fucking fault! I didn't want to be out here with you. I want to be back in my van with my blankets and feel like I have some control and you messed it up, not me! This isn't my damned fault!' And I wonder how many times dad has shouted the self same words when he made fatal errors of judgement.

No time to sit around feeling sorry for myself. I move forward on my hands and knees until I'm past the bastard branch that whacked me then I wipe at the blood running down my face with my arm and stand up. Then I sit down again. The world has decided to go into a nice spin for me. Maybe I have concussion. Perhaps I need to lie down and try to sleep it off, but baby here isn't going to let me do that is he? So again I stand but this time I do it slower and I decide that I need to be sick.

Problem number two now arises. As I bend forward and throw up at the side of the path, baby tips out of the harness thing and goes flying over my head and splat into my vomit.

'Oh for the love of Hades!'

I kneel down and pick him up and just hold him to me. He stinks now of shit and piss and vomit and hiss screams have taken on a sort of stuttering gagging sobbing sound I've not heard him make before.

'Please tell me I've not damaged you too much.' I say to him and rest my head on his and slowly the sobbing dies down. Unfortunately he still stinks and so do I and I've had enough and now please someone come to rescue me from this cos I just want a mug of cocoa and a long sleep and I never want to see another baby as long as I live.

I stay where I am. My plan to keep going in the dark has been thwarted by a serious headache and the inability to move without chucking up. So I stay here with the baby who has again at last fallen asleep and I just hope to hell that I'm not too far from the road. When I see the light beginning to break through the trees I implant the baby back into my crap covered harness thing and I get to my feet. I feel sick and wobbly and my vision is blurred and I really do think I did myself a bit of damage when I hit my head, but I do need to keep going or this whole adventure would have been for nothing. I'm walking slowly now. I've given up on the thought of running my way to wherever I'm going, but because I'm walking now it does give me the chance to try to grab at passing flying insects and have something to eat. Unfortunately I miss every damned time cos my eyes won't focus properly and that might be the reason why I haven't noticed that sound in the distance before now. I can hear traffic. I can hear a road! I am nearly there! I will be saved! And this spurs me into a loping run which causes baby to wake up and start screaming again, which maybe isn't the end of the world, after all I need this to look good don't I?

When I break through the edge of the tree line I can see a busy tarmac road. There are cars screaming along in both directions and so I stumble to the side of the road and try to flag down someone to help me. And they just drive on by and don't even spare me a second glance. This pisses me off. Cant they see I'm a skinny kid with hardly any clothes on and I'm covered in blood and other bodily fluids – and semi solids – and I need help! Damn you someone stop! I think about stepping slightly into the road but I have a feeling that they still won't stop for me. Hell I don't think I'd stop for me either.

Someone must have noticed me though cos I see a cop car heading my way with a quick flash of lights and a small burst of noise and it stops next to me and the cops leap out and stand staring at me.

'Hi.' I say.

'What the hell happened to you?' One of the cops says.

'I've got something.' I tell them and begin to undo the straps.

'On your face!' They are shouting at me and this is a good sign that things are going wrong.

'I've not done anything! I'm a victim you motherfuckers!' I howl back at them still trying to haul baby out of the harness and looking at the hand guns pointed at me. 'I'm a fucking kid!' But I kneel down anyway.

'Hands behind your head.' I'm being told.

So I have to start my plan now and I squeeze out a flood of tears and sob my dirty little heart out. 'I was beaten. I've been, I've been running all night.' More sobbing as I feel them extract baby from it's harness thing. 'I, I rescued the b b b baby!' And more tears. 'I didn't do anything wrong!' and I vomit. Nice..that's got to get me some sympathy hasn't it? 'They tried to kill me, but I had to get baby away and to the FEDS.' More gagging and crying and throwing up. Maybe I shouldn't have used the bad language on them. That might have been an error cos they're taking baby and then coming back and pulling my arms down and cuffing me.

'Get up.' I'm now being told.

'I can't.' I whimper pathetically. 'You need to contact Agent Hotchner. He'll know what to do. I got the baby for him.'

They ignore me. 'On your feet!' And I'm being dragged up and pulled towards the car. 'You little bastard.' I'm told and I don't know what I did wrong!

-o-o-o-

It's early morning when the call comes through. I've only just made it onto my office when the phone rings.

'Hotchner.' I tell the receiver and then I listen. 'When did this happen?' and I listen some more. 'Is the child alright?' Again I listen. 'Yes, thank you I'll be right there.' And I slam the phone down and then pick it up again and speed dial a number. 'Dave it's Hotch. They've picked up who they believe is Henry and whoever took him.' I now listen to Dave. 'Yes, they are both at the local PD. I'll meet you there.'

I have no idea how this has happened. One minute there is no sign of him and the next his kidnapper hands him over. I need to get there quickly and sort out what the hell is going on.

By the time I get to the PD I got the call from the baby has been transferred to the local hospital and I am lead down to an interview room where I can look through the window at what they have. It's not at all what I expected.

'What happened to him?' I am looking at a young teenaged boy huddled up in the corner of the room. I can see from here that he has a wound to his head. I can see the filth covering him and I can see he has hardly any clothing on.

'We don't know sir. He won't talk to us. Said he'd only discuss the situation with you sir.' I nod and look at him for a bit longer willing him to look up at me.

'Has he given you a name? Anything?'

'Nothing Agent Hotchner. He clammed up when he was put in the back of the car and said he'll only talk to you.' I nod and then turn to look at Dave who's just joined me peering at the creature on the floor.

'I'll go in alone and talk to him.' And Dave gives me a knowing nod and moves away so he can put on ear phones and listen in.

I walk in quietly and slowly and I sit at the table and just look at him for a while and then let him know I am here. 'You said you would only talk to me.'

His head swings up and his dark eyes look at me. 'Agent Hotchner? Can I see your badge? I want to know it's not some fucking trick.' He starts what looks to be a painful crawl towards me and I pull out my credentials and show them to him. He takes them from my hand and blinks a few times. 'I can't read it.' He tells me. 'I got a crack on the head and it seems to have done my vision in. I should be in hospital you know not here. Is baby alright? Have you checked up on him? I think he was hungry but I had nothing to give him.' He kneels up and strokes his hands over his chest. 'I'm a boy.'

'The baby isn't really something you need to worry about right now. You just need to be worrying about yourself. Do you have a name? And where did you get the baby from?'

He drags himself into a chair and the waft of his body odour smacks me across the face. The child really does smell bad. Now I can see him better I can see bruises on his chest and arms…a scab of dried blood under his nose and what looks to be dried blood on his arms and chin and neck. He also has a very nasty open wound on his forehead. 'I'm Sam.' He tells me. And suddenly everything takes on a whole new perspective. I shouldn't really have had to ask who he was. I can see it. I can see those dark eyes and the shape of the mouth. I can see those cheekbones and the way he is looking at me. He's just a scaled down version of Flanders.

Then he carries on. 'You have no fucking idea what I've been through for you Hotchner! No damned idea. I've been abused beyond all belief and thrown out to fend for myself because I stuck up for that child. I didn't like what they had planned and I told them and I was beaten and tortured and abused sexually and emotionally until I broke. Yes…they broke me. Then they threw me out and hurled the baby after me. I tried I really tried to get both kids but they'd not hand over Rosa, and to be honest I was in such a poorly way when they dragged me from the camp by a rope around my neck that I don't think I could have cared for both of them. Just please tell me that he's OK. Tell me I didn't go through all this for nothing!'

I sit and look at him as the tears start to fall and I nod.

'Thank you Sam. Now the truth please.'

His head snaps up and he glowers at me. 'That was the fucking truth! You think I took that baby? You think I went through all that just to hand him back to you? You think I'm either a liar or totally insane?!' He stands and is shouting at me.

'I think you've embellished the account.' I remain seated. 'We can't help you if you don't tell us what happened.'

'That was the truth damnit! You can do a damned rape kit test thing on me if you want. You can photograph my injuries and scars and bruises! I didn't get all this just hiding in the woods with a baby! Why the fuck would I do that!'

'Sit down.'

'I went through hell for you! I nearly died! Look what they did to me! Look at me Hotchner and tell me I did this to myself to impress you. How in hells name do you think I did all this to myself? Why was I flagging down cars if I wanted to hide?' And more tears.

I've not decided yet if this child is insane or just very sick. 'Wait there.' I tell him and I get up and leave the room. I join Dave outside and give him a "well what do you think?" look.

And he tells me. 'He was lying. That much is obvious, but he needs to be in hospital. Just not the same one as the baby.' He walks to the window and looks in at the boy who is sitting on the floor again looking like he's crying. 'Someone did that to him Aaron. We need to find out exactly who it was. And as I'm going to speak to Flanders later I might just bring it up in conversation.'

'You think he's been with Flanders?' I look between Rossi and the child.

'No, but I think he knows what's been going on.'

-o-o-o-

I follow James and I was hoping that I'd recognise things but I don't.

I'll tell what this is like…You draw a brightly coloured picture and then some arse comes along with black crayon and covers it over. Then some wag arrives and scratches off bits of the black and draws a whole new picture. The trouble is that the picture is unfamiliar but the colours from the back ground are all showing through and there's enough showing so you can still see what it used to be, but only now it has this crappy other picture on top of it. Does that make any sense to you? I just need to find out what the new picture is of and try to get a copy of it without all the underlying crap.

Cos this is doing my freaking head in!