Chapter 25

BAU Headquarters

Quantico, VA

If Madeline was grateful for anything, it was that no one talked on the drive to Spencer's office. He didn't put the radio on, he didn't roll the window down, he didn't do anything but move them in the quiet, safe box from one place to the other. The only sound was Gipsy breathing in the back of the SUV.

Once they got there he took them to the desk and very quietly checked them in to the building. Once they had visitor's badges clipped on, even on Gipsy's collar, they went up to the BAU, and then up the steps and down to someone's office. Once there Gwen dropped onto a couch and pulled her in down next to her.

Spencer folded his legs and sat on the floor in front of her. "Voice back on yet?" He asked very quietly.

Madeline took a big breathe. Breathe and breathe and…"I…th…think so. Th…that was sc…scary."

"I know it was. I'm sorry they scared you. But you and Gwen did exactly the right thing. You're safe here, you know."

Madeline nodded. They were in the middle of the FBI building, the real deal. It had better be safe. "whose office is this?"

"Morgan's. He won't mind if you sit here a while, or I think Penelope has that video game you like booted up, if you want to go play."

Well, that would take her mind off things, that game was hard. "I think I'd like to, if that's okay."

"Sure. Come on, bring Gipsy with you."

Madeline got up, once she untangled herself from Gwen's arms. She looked back, because Gwen had been holding on awfully tight. "Are you okay?" She asked her foster-mom.

Gwen smiled and nodded. "I'm going to guess she's having a bit more trouble getting her voice back on." Spencer said, to which Gwen nodded even harder. "Let's go get you settled in with Penelope and then I'll come back and help her."

"Okay." Yep, Spencer could handle anything. She and Gipsy followed him down to the conference room.

By the time Spencer came back, Gwen was already trying to breathe out the lock in her throat. He dropped onto Morgan's loveseat and pulled her into his arms. "Th...th…the w…way they were l…looking at h…her I could just s...see Vallejo." She stuttered out as she shook out her fear in the safety of his arms.

"Shhhh. I know. She's safe now. You're safe now. We got them. It's okay?"

"Is it? What if they figured out where we live, Spencer? I don't want to lose another home. My m…mother ruined my Grandparent's home, Vallejo ruined CalTech for us, now we're going to lose our home here."

"You don't know that."

"Well, we might. If we have to go into Witness Protection to keep Madeline safe I will, you know that. But that doesn't mean I have to like it… at all."

"I understand."

"I just won't let that happen to her again. I won't. I won't." Spencer felt a damp spot and knew there were nightmares in the immediate future. Well, it was understandable.

There was a sound outside and then Morgan stuck his head around the door. "We have a problem."

They headed down to Garcia's lair, where they found Hotch and Rossi waiting. "The WMD detection system picked up potential explosive residue as the suspects came through the detectors around the station doors." Hotch said. "I, um, took the liberty of calling up your home security net."

Ever since what happened with Hotch and George Foyet, aka The Reaper, every member of the team had put some kind of home security system in place, mostly just perimeter alarms and panic buttons. Spencer and Gwen had gone ahead and put a 24/7 monitoring system in just about every room that the FBI could call up in case of an emergency. Technically they could cut it out of any room at the push of a button, but they never did. "My luck the minute I cut it out an Unsub will invade our bedroom." Spencer had said at the time. "We're married, get over it." So far as he knew the video feed was quietly recorded somewhere in Garcia's system, never looked at until now. No one had used it for Internet Porn anyway.

But now, as he quietly watched, two of Tucker's sons we're making their way into the kitchen.

"Those goddamned fucking pieces of shit bastards!" Gwen said. Then she spun around and held up a finger to her husband. "One word, Spock! One!" Spencer held up his hands, he wasn't going to say a word about her choice of language, not today. No one said anything, especially not Hotch, who had heard that tone from Haley, or Rossi, who had heard it from each of his three wives in turn. They Knew Better.

As they watched at least three of the Sons of Liberty enter through the kitchen and started prowling through the house. Spencer thought of at least one way he might be able to reclaim a corner of this situation. He leaned over and whispered to Garcia, then took Gwen by the shoulders and turned her to face the monitor just as the library camera took over the screen and the Sons found the room. "Look. Look. I think their minds just exploded," he stage-whispered as they watched the young men's eyes widen at the sight of that many books.

That at least got a laugh out of her. If nothing else, that was a bit of a victory. "I'm going to go play video games with our daughter." She told him, "You get to deal with this." With that she firmly kissed him, leaving him to turn pink in front of the others, and then left them to their work.

No one said anything for a few minutes. Then one of the smaller screens caught Rossi's attention. "Garcia, put the basement up." She did and there were two of the Sons doing something to the furnace.

"What are they doing?' Spencer asked as he watched them unscrew something on the something and start pouring a bag of something into something else.

"Getting you a new furnace," Morgan told him. "I told you to replace that thing."

"Yes, but it's so quietly efficient."

"Yeah, well, now that they've added Ammonium nitrate fertilizer to the fuel oil in the tank, it's also highly explosive. As soon as that burner kicks on in the winter, there goes the house."

"Wait, they're setting a bomb in a Federal Agent's house?" Garcia asked, shocked.

"Yep, and they're making it look like a faulty furnace." Rossi told her. "The first night it gets cold enough to turn that on, boom, no more witness against Benedict."

"Well, now we have them on recording." Spencer commented. "That ought to take care of the rest of them."

"Yeah, the boys," Morgan said. "But there'll be another crop coming up right behind them. The one thing that crowd has a lot of is kids."

"Wait." Something caught Hotch's eye this time. "Garcia, switch to the attic camera."

Garcia did, causing it to fill the main screen. Spencer felt his stomach flip as one of the boys started going through the files in his home office. "Don't turn on the computer, don't turn on the computer, don't turn on…" He made a wordless sound of protest as the computer was turned on.

"What?" Morgan asked.

"The Vallejo files. Gwen's been using them as part of her therapy. They're going to see." He couldn't look, he had to look away from the awed, overjoyed, amazed looks in those bastard's eyes as they watched the videos of his wife.

"Actually we might be able to use this." Rossi said. "Garcia, aren't those files encrypted?"

"Yeah, you need special software to decrypt them, and a key card and password to activate that software. It keeps them from getting sent out over the net." She looked over her shoulder at Spencer. "You forgot to log out, didn't you?" She told him.

"In my defense, I didn't expect someone to invade my house." He replied.

"Well, let that be a lesson to you."

"Garcia, can you upload the decryption software to someone's computer without their knowing?" Rossi asked.

"Yeah, I can attach it to a virus and squirt it to them. Why?"

Hotch looked over at him. "I see where you're going with this. You're asking a lot."

"I know, but it's probably our only shot." Rossi replied.

By now Spencer was utterly confused. "What?"

Rossi looked back at him. "When is your next custody hearing?"