Title: The Clockwork Boy
Rating: R
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Universe: Creatures of the Night (Part 2)
Pairing: Reid/Austin, Morgan/Prentiss; JJ/Hotch
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Summary: The BAU is divided by two cases that tests their loyalties. Some things are found. Some things are lost. Some things were never really meant to be.
Chapter Twenty-Six
He sits on the edge of the bathtub until his reaction has subsided, the beat of his heart slowing down to a normal rate. It must be a psychological thing; he only feels it because he expects to. If he stops and concentrates, then it suddenly disappears, and he's just that clockwork boy all over again.
Maybe he's deluding himself. Maybe he should just look for the off switch, the self destruct button. He can never really be human, no matter how hard he tries. No matter what they say.
He can't stay in the bathroom forever, though, and climbing out the window isn't particularly practical; it's nighttime in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes…
Sometimes you just have to face the music.
He steps back into the room, eyes cast down towards the floor. In his peripheral vision, he can see Austin looking up quickly, but then back towards her meal. Riley has apparently chosen to ignore the situation completely, saying, 'No pickles, diet soda,' and gesturing towards the meal on the table. Reid takes it to the bed, not particularly wanting to sit so close to Riley.
He takes the top bun off the cheeseburger, and arranges a few of his fries on top of the patty. It's something that Morgan finds incredibly amusing, but he's been doing it all his life, and he likes the taste of it, so he isn't going to stop.
But no. That's not right. Because it's not his life. It's somebody else's life. Spencer Reid Mark II is barely eight years old.
So why, then?
Why does he keep doing these things – these things from another person's memories? Why can't he stop?
With any luck, he's find some answers in Argadnel. From the woman who is supposed to be his mother. He feels a little less guilty for not having visited her now, even if she refuses to see him. A little less guilty for writing a letter a week and pretending that it's enough.
If she doesn't know anything, then he's not sure what he'll do.
His father – his fake father – might have some answers, but that the thought of that meeting brings even greater discomfort.
Even with the added topping, the cheeseburger is a little bland, but the fries are good, and it's difficult to screw up soda, even the kind that's made with syrup and carbonated water. He dabs at his mouth with the provided napkin; he's a fastidious eater and he wonders if that's something else that'd been passed on from the original Spencer Reid. Just how different is he?
When he's finished eating, he takes off his belt, shoes and watch. He doesn't have any other clothes with him, and he doesn't particularly want to take off everything else with Riley and Austin still in the room, so he decides to just sleep in what he's wearing.
'We can see if there are any clothes stores in town tomorrow morning,' Austin says, which surprises him, because he hadn't even realizes that she'd been paying attention.
Riley opens his mouth to argue, but Austin cuts in. 'Ri, we kidnapped the guy, making sure he has a change of clothes is the least we can do.'
Reid's heart drops slightly. It's the first time in a while that she's used the word "kidnapped" and part of him had hoped that she'd moved past it.
Classic symptoms of Agnafit Syndrome, his mind tells him. Paradoxical psychological phenomenon wherein a positive bond between hostage and captor occurs that appears irrational in light of the frightening ordeal endured by the victims. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. The Hostage Barricade Database System shows that roughly 27% of victims show evidence of Agnafit Syndrome.
They've seen Agnafit Syndrome before; a sorcerer's slaves rising up against them when they storm the castle, a bank full of hostages refusing to testify against the armed shapeshifter that had held them captive for four days. Those memories – the memories with the BAU – he knows are his. They're real. The team is real. It's all so confusing, and it's easy to understand why they'd kept this from him – part of him is desperate to return to a state of ignorance, even though that's against everything he believes in. He believes in intelligence. In learning. In knowing the unknowable.
Maybe he'll be able to forgive them, but he isn't quite sure yet. To find out where he's going, he needs to find out who he is. And to do that, he needs to remain with his "kidnappers" a little while longer.
He slips underneath the covers of one of the single beds, and though his mind is plagued with the possibilities of what the next day will bring, sleep comes quickly.
* * *
Morgan wakes up, starving.
He always eats excessively at breakfast, even on the non-full moon nights. Just a habit that he's picked up over the years. Sometimes, they're working too hard to stop for lunch, so that meal needs to sustain him until they do find time for a break.
In Argadnel, every single hotel seems to have free breakfast. Free, that is, in the sense that you're really paying for it in the exorbitant nightly rates, but seeing as the Bureau is paying for their rooms, Morgan doesn't mind indulging in the long tables of various foodstuffs.
Capgras Institution visiting hours don't start until eleven; they could badge their way in, but there's really no sense in skipping breakfast.
He's not surprised to see Emily already in the Breakfast area, but he is surprised to see that she's arguing with the guy that's running the Blood counter. They apparently reach some kind of settlement though, so he doesn't jump in, but he is curious.
'What was that?' he asks, when she joins him at the table, plate of peanut-butter smeared pancakes in one hand, and a mug full of coffee in the other. He sniffs – yeah, just coffee. His inquisitiveness getting the better of him, he'd decided to talk to her before getting his own food
'What, with the blood guy? Oh – they don't have any rat's blood.' She shakes her head, stabbing her fork into the topmost pancake. 'Un-fucking-believable. They have goat's blood, deer blood. Hell – I can get the blood of a virgin for thirty-seven dollars a glass, but they can't give me rat.'
Morgan shrugs. 'People don't come here to abstain, I guess.' It's not a particularly good answer, but it's the only one he has.
'Mmm,' Emily says. 'You don't mind if we hit a Bloodbank on the way to Capgras?' she asks. Technically speaking, he's in charge, but it's not as though he's going to say no. A bloodless vampire is a weak, angry vampire, and the last thing they need is to have any of them below strength. They're already undermanned.
He sighs. Though they're here for a reason, it still feels as though they aren't any closer to finding Reid than they had been yesterday morning. He wishes they had some indication that he's even still alive. All they really seem to have right now is their best guess at the situation.
When it's all over – and he doesn't want to even think about the possibility of a bad ending – he is never letting Spencer Reid out of his sight again.