"Where's my mother? What did you and Lindsey do to her?" Reid demanded. He was clearly and rightfully pissed off.
"I missed you." Cat replied, she left her mouth open, smiling at Natalie, "both of you. It's like old times, right? Minus the brute over there." She said referring to Morgan without looking at him.
Reid kept going, "how did you-?"
Cat cut him off, "No. Stop." She pointed a finger at him, "Sit down. Have a seat. You too, Nat. I had the guard bring one in just for you. But I didn't know you'd bring a friend so guess you're a little bit stuck right agent Morgan?"
Reid and Natalie complied.
"You don't get to treat me like I'm the criminal, Reid. It's just Reid, right? I can't call you agent or Dr. Because those titles are under review."
Natalie interjected, "What the hell do you want, Cat?"
Cat smiled at her sister. She then turned to Reid.
"How was prison, did you like it?" She asked, smirking.
"No," Reid replied, firmly.
"It's not fun, is it?"
"Unlike you, I didn't deserve to be there," Reid replied.
"Enough, Cat. What the hell do you want?" Natalie fired. "You brought us here, what for?"
Cat bit her lip. "Frustrated? She asked as she raised her eyebrow.
"We are so not playing games," Natalie replied.
Reid eyed Natalie. Does she not trust me? Does she think my mind isn't sharp from prison?
"You don't have a choice, sis. Want to find Spencey's precious mommy? My rules or that's it." Cat shrugged.
Natalie rolled her eyes.
"Now," Cat leaned forward towards Reid who backed his chair up a little, "How did you stay sane? A brain like yours or at least the three of ours would need to be stimulated."
"I worked in the laundry room and I played chess," Reid answered, flatly.
"That's three, maybe four hours tops. What about the other 20?" Cat countered.
Natalie tried not to roll her eyes at her sister. Thankfully, Reid seemed to be handling it okay. She saw Morgan nod his head out of the corner of her eye, Reid seemed okay to Morgan too. That was reassuring.
"I read," Reid replied, quickly.
"That's still not enough." Cat countered, again.
"I slept and ate," Reid answered, once more.
"You have to go to some place." Cat replied, she pointed her finger to her head, "up here or you'll go insane. Have you told Natalie that?"
Reid didn't answer. Cat turned to Natalie, "Is that a no?"
Natalie rolled her eyes, "We had to come here. Remember? Not as sharp anymore, Cat?" Natalie asked, flatly.
Natalie was pissed off that Cat was manipulating someone she loved for the second time. At least Reid wasn't about to die. She swallowed at the thought of Diana, she couldn't live with herself if anything happened to his mom. She could barely live with herself after Connor died and she didn't know that was her fault at the time.
Cat stretched out one hand to Reid and the other to Natalie, she looked Reid right in the eyes, "Maybe we could show Natalie together."
Reid sighed, he gave approval and didn't turn to Natalie, he didn't want to completely piss Cat off right now or he'd never get his mom back.
"Good." She touched his eyes to close them. She turned to Natalie, "You can keep yours open. Scoot the chair back right here," she pointed to the edge of the table. "and watch."
Natalie complied.
"Sit back and relax," Cat said as she scooted back. Cat now eyed Natalie, she winked.
"I think you'll love this, Nat. When you open your eyes, I want you to look at me like I'm the first woman you've seen after being in prison for three months."
Natalie frowned, knowing her game. Anything any of them said could get Diana killed, Cat knew it and so did Morgan.
Reid opened his eyes, it wasn't hard to do this since Cat looked identical to Natalie. He pictured her hair curled, makeup on, the black dress where he had been speechless when he looked at her on their first date. He smiled, slightly at the memory but to Cat, it just looked like he smiled to her.
Cat put her hands to her face, her mouth fell open, grinning as she moved her head back and forth looking around.
Morgan and Natalie raised eyebrows at one another, Natalie shrugged, she'd never seen this game before. She assumed Cat played games with Connor too but Natalie had never watched any of them. That brought a light to Natalie's head, Cat feels more confident in what she's doing now. Why?
"Hello, Cat," Reid said.
Cat giggled, "You're here!" She moved her arms up as high as they would go before bringing them back down in a dramatic playful way.
"You're really here."
"There's nowhere else I'd rather be," Reid told her, he said it as sincerely as possible, he was going to have to play Cat's game again. He beat her once, he would have to, again. The stakes were high last time but now, they were even higher.
Cat crossed her arms, she raised her eyebrow slightly, her lips not letting her smile all the way as she spoke, "You're good at this." She shook her head,
"You're so good at this, I almost believe you don't want to kill me."
"I don't want to kill you," Reid answered, honestly.
Natalie turned to Morgan, a look of panic on her face. Morgan shook his head, he crossed his arms and furrowed his brow despite Cat paying no attention.
"Do you get the picture now, Nat? You're allowed to speak." Cat winked.
Natalie furrowed her brow, she moved her head back slightly. She frowned, staring Cat down.
"It's a fancy date. You must both be dressed incredibly nice in your head."
"Correct," Cat answered. "Remind you of anything?"
Natalie swallowed the tears that swelled up in her eyes. She shut her eyes to keep it together. Cat was having them picture what would have been Natalie's wedding venue. Reid and Cat would be at the two-person head table that was just for Natalie and Connor. It made Natalie sick.
Cat noticed. "I want you to tell him where I go. Tell him about the place we are in. Remember. What I say goes."
Morgan furrowed his brow. He sighed heavily. Natalie put her hand up, waving it, assuring him it was okay. Morgan was still hot over it. He was picking up the scenario Cat put together.
Reid felt awful as his intuition was helping him pick up on it too. He couldn't comfort Natalie, he couldn't do anything. They both just had to take it.
Natalie took a deep breath,
"Wait!" Cat announced. "Open your eyes. Look at Natalie as she tells you."
Reid's eyes were sympathetic, he tried to keep his expression stone cold so Cat wouldn't pick up on his empathy.
Natalie thought about the best way to approach this, she decided to speak flatly, the more emotion she showed, the more Cat wins.
"I believe the place Cat specifically wants you to picture is a wedding venue, mine. and Connor's. You are at the two-person head table. I'm not sure what you pictured Cat in but I'd imagine she would like you to picture yourself in a tuxedo and herself in a wedding dress. She will know if you lie to her about that."
Reid nodded. He turned to face Cat who smiled, she winked at Natalie. "Close your eyes, Spencey."
Reid complied.
"Do you see it? Do you see what Natalie pictured?" Cat asked, eagerly.
"Yes." He answered, honestly.
"You can open your eyes then. Hard to kill a woman in a wedding dress, right? But if I let your mother die, would you want to kill me or would you just...hurt me?"
Cat leaned forward, shimmering her body as she spoke the last part of the sentence.
"Would you pin me down and leave bruises that don't go away?"
Reid leaned in closely, this pained him but the team needed to find his mom and this was all they had, as far as he knew.
"Is that what you want?"
Cat looked up, she thought about it for a moment, putting her tongue to her cheek, "I guess, I just want to know if you would…if you could."
A line formed across Reid's face, "No."
"No?" Cat asked.
"It's not the kind of man I am," Reid replied.
Natalie noticed Morgan wink out of the corner of his eye.
Cat bit her lip, "It's been fun, Nat. Thanks for playing." She nodded her head for Natalie to exit.
"What?!" Natalie jumped up, "You can not be serious, Cat."
"Take agent Morgan with you. Spencie and I are going to play another game. This time, we'll find out exactly what kind of man he is. I'm just looking out for you, Nat." Cat answered.
Natalie scoffed, so did Morgan but Reid turned to both of them, pleading.
Reid watched as a hurt look appeared across Natalie's face. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, he wanted to explain why he was making this choice, he knew she knew but he wanted to tell her 100x over, he wanted to reassure her, he wanted her to know this wouldn't end as tragically as it did with Connor. He wanted to tell her his skills were still sharp, that he could do this. He wanted to tell her everything but all he could do was look at her with pleading eyes and try not to give Cat anymore M.O.
Morgan put a hand on Natalie's shoulder.
"Come on, Adams."
Morgan and Natalie exited, they stood in front of the two way mirror where they could see and hear everything but Cat couldn't see them.
"Why would she—-?" Natalie asked Morgan.
"I don't know, Adams. But you can't go back in there unless she asks. Everything we're doing right now is to keep Reid's mom safe." Morgan answered.
Natalie sighed, "I know."
Morgan made her look at him, "This is not your fault. Remember? Cat might be your sister but she's still a psychopath."
"But she wouldn't even be trying to hurt Reid if it weren't for me." Natalie protested.
"I don't think that's true. She said she was mad about being put in prison on that video recording. Him dating you is an added bonus for her. But this isn't your fault. She probably would have had it out for Reid anyway." Morgan told her.
"She had help, Morgan. She couldn't have pulled this off by herself." Natalie said.
A light went off in Morgan's head, "Officer Wilkins. He was guilty of being in bad places but he worked at both prisons. He has to be the contact."
"Okay, but how do you manipulate a prison guard like that?" Natalie asked.
Morgan tilted his head, "This is Cat."
Natalie sighed.
"I'll call Hotch," Morgan said.
"Let's play," Reid said.
"Lets!" Cat exclaimed, putting her hands on the table separating them.