Chapter 50

Hedrick Medical Center
Chillicothe, MO
01/15/06

Hotch

Thankfully Hotch and Sheri managed to get the now quietly sobbing Milly over to the local hospital without too much fuss.

Once there they found that the emergency room looked to be setting up for some kind of natural disaster. Sheri managed to get someone to stop and come over to help. "Is this one of the girls from the Home?" The doctor asked.

"Yes." Hotch replied. "I'm her guardian."

"You got here fast. I assume that's why." She nodded to the badge on his belt. "They're just sending all of them over, they're all sick. We have a bed over…"

"She's gonna need your private room Doc." Sheri interrupted her. "We're gonna have to strip her down."

"So it's not what the other girls have been showing?" The doctor asked, even as she was signaling for a private exam room.

"We don't know." Hotch replied. "What symptoms have you been seeing?"

"Obvious malnutrition but they refuse to eat; said they all have stomach cramps."

"She didn't say anything about cramps." Sheri said. "But she didn't eat, granted she might have been a little distracted."

Hotch stood back a bit as Sheri, the doctor and a couple of nurses guided Milly to the room, sat her on the gurney and started stripping off layers of dress. The first thing that came off was the cloth that she had clipped to her head and wrapped around her hair. The picture he had showed a head full of bright ginger curls, but now her hair hung very nearly straight. It was also so dry it was nearly fluffy, and the top layer at least was an unappealing shade of yellowish-gray. "What the hell?" One of the nurses asked.

Milly just dropped her head, the tears falling off the end of her nose. "They…they made…they made me…"

"It's all right." Hotch spoke up. "You don't have to talk about it now." He'd put Garcia on this one.

"I'll send Darlene over to pick up some bandanas in some real cute colors." Sheri said soothingly. "We'll braid you up some pigtails and you'll look just fine for your trip home."

When she came over to drop the first layer Hotch murmured, "Is that really a priority?"

"It will be. I've raised three girls, any of mine had to go out looking like that they'd have died of shame."

Right. Milly was down to some frilly white under dress. As they helper her unbutton it she revealed more and more bright red, blistered rash. Finally they helped her get it off and in just her under things it was obvious what was driving her so mad. The rash went from her knees to her collarbone and almost to her wrists. There was a clear dividing line around her panties, thankfully, but not one around the sports bra she was wearing. He looked over at the doctor. "Are you familiar with Sensory Processing Disorder at all?"

She looked up sharply, "My nephew. Is she tactile sensitive?" He nodded and her lips drew into a thin line. "I was going to treat this aggressively anyway, but now we'll really go for it, starting with an antihistamine which will stop the itching and help get her calmed down. The nurses are going to help you into a gown, hun, while I go get something to start making this better."

As the doctor drew the curtain and went to leave the room Hotch stopped her. "She told the Sheriff there was an incident when she first arrived, molestation, possibly rape. As I understand the Sheriff already took the man most likely responsible into custody, he's a local physician."

She sighed, noisily. "Please tell me you're joking."

"I'm not. I'm not working this investigation so I can't say which one. I will, however, ask that only female personnel…"

"Of course."

Hotch politely waited behind a curtain until they had her in a gown and tucked under a light blanket. It wasn't long before they had an IV going, and the first round of meds going into her system. He watched as she finally relaxed and started growing drowsy. When he judged her calm enough to speak he sat by the head of the bed. "Better?'

She nodded slowly. "It's going away. Thank you." She sounded so deeply relieved he was almost hurt.

"Still want to go back to LA?"

She shook her head. "I want my family."

"Let me see what we can do here." He found the house phone and dialed a series of numbers. "Reid, is everyone else there? Good, put your phone on speaker." He handed her the handset, and then he smiled as her tears turned to happy ones, and he could hear the cheering from here.

Not too much later the doctor came back in. "So, how are you feeling?"

"Better." Milly replied, "Kind of loopy."

"That's probably the drugs. How has your stomach been? Mind?" That last was to Hotch, who politely turned around so the doctor could lower the sheet.

"It hurts. I feel sick all the time."

"Uh-huh. You and every other girl there; some of them were talking about some pills they made them take, and some kind of green liquid when they were bad? They make you do that?"

"Yeah, they put something in the milk too."

"Any idea what?"

"I can try to find out." Hotch said.

"I'd appreciate that." The doctor replied.

Hotch stepped just outside the door and called Morgan. "The doctor thinks all the girls are ill because of some kind of drugs they were making them take. Any idea what those could be?"

"It would be easier to say what they couldn't be." Morgan replied. "This guy had a regular pharmacy going in here; he was buying stuff by the case and experimenting on them, keeping notes as he went. Let me talk to her."

Hotch passed the phone off and then went back in to sit with Milly. Somehow, still sick and in a hospital gown she still managed to look stronger now that the constant, maddening irritation was gone. "Is DC like LA?" She asked quietly.

"What do you mean?"

"Are the people there like they are in LA?"

"I think people are like people everywhere."

Her head rolled back and forth on the pillow. "They took my ring." She said quietly.

"I'm sorry." He told her. "I know it was a family heirloom. I'll have Morgan keep an eye out for it."

She shook her head again. "They said they were going to have it destroyed."

"I'm sorry." He had a feeling he was going to be saying that a lot for a time.

"They kept saying I was pervert, a slut and a whore for keeping company with two men and that I was wicked and evil for 'believing' in science and getting my PhD and teaching others to 'believe' in it too. I never understood that. I just kept thinking, yes, I'm in love with two men who love me back, but they're my age and we love freely and consensually. And I am gainfully employed and furthering the knowledge of all mankind. How is that evil and perverted and wrong while living off charity and keeping girls prisoner and torturing them is virtuous?" Hotch couldn't help it, he started chuckling. "It was like being down the rabbit hole, down is up, south is north, black is white. Finally I realized I was in a completely different culture, and their culture was at war with mine, only we never knew it. I was more of a POW than anything and I had to survive and fight to escape and not let them brainwash me."

"It's an apt metaphor in this instance, and if it helped…."

"I promised myself that I would survive and come back to fight them. But right now I really want to hear that we're heading back to our side of the line." She managed to tweak a hint of a smile.

"I'm sure…"

But then the doctor was coming back with a nurse. "Loperamide," she said, busying herself at the IV that was dripping fluid into Milly's arm. "Being on it longer than the recommended time even at the recommended dose causes all the symptoms we've been seeing."

"Can you treat it?"

"It's a mild narcotic, so the opiate antagonist Naldaxone should clear it from her system." She nodded to the medication the nurse was giving Milly. "Clear liquids until tomorrow, full liquids for a day, and then a bland diet for a day or two. After that just eat healthy with plenty of fiber. She'll feel like she has the flu for a few days as the drugs leave her system, aches and pains, tummy problems, maybe a mild fever, but once past that she should be fine. And if she finishes the Prednisone and Fexofenadine the rash will clear up in another two or three days, and then she'll peel like a sunburn. We're going to bandage the areas where the blisters broke because her skin is raw underneath and we want to prevent infection. I don't know if you have a wound care clinic in your area…"

"I'm sure we do." He replied. "But if she just needs help with bandages maybe a visiting nurse…"

"That would work; she could help with bathing until everything clears up as well. She is going to need treatment for the malnutrition and counseling moving forward."

"We've already assembled a treatment team back in DC. I can give you their names and I'd like to share your contact information with them." The doctor nodded her ascent. "When can we take her home?" He asked. "She won't be traveling commercial."

"Well, she is pretty dehydrated and with the meds we've given her today she's probably not all that stable on her feet. How about we keep her overnight and send her home tomorrow?"

"Excellent." The team would be assisting the CARD team at least that long. "Thank you." Just then Hotch's phone rang again, "Yeah Morgan?"

In just moments Morgan managed to sound a decade older. "The cadaver dogs just spotted on something in the woods.