Thank God for Google, and the fact that my neighbor's kids started going nuts when I was done writing. I still had to edit, so, you were warned.
Chapter Four:
Reid woke to a to his legs above him and a swab of some sort being taken to his rear end. Before he could scream, he felt a hand squeeze his. He looked into the kind eyes of the man who held him when he heard his mom died.
"They couldn't give you stronger medicine," he said. "You're too malnourished."
He felt someone touch him in a bad place.
"Spencer," he said firmly. "You're in a hospital. It's an exam to help catch the people who hurt you. They're going to make you feel better."
"I'm scared," he whimpered as someone kept touching him there.
"It's okay to be scared. My name's Aaron, my friends call me Hotch. Short for my last name, which is Hotchner."
Every inch of him was screaming, to make the touching stop.
"What do you like to do for fun?" Hotch asked.
"Magic," he said. "Houdini died on Halloween."
"Interesting," Hotch said. "Tell me another fact."
"It is illegal to own rabbits in Australia unless you can prove you're a magician."
This got a laugh from Hotch.
"Tell me more facts, about anything."
While firmly gripping Hotch's hand and trying not think of what the doctors were doing to him, he shared facts. He told him about how three of the founding fathers died on the fourth of July. The declaration of independence was approved on July fourth but not everyone signed until August second. The Chinese used natural fireworks made from bamboo with air pockets, to ward off evil spirits. He continued like this for at least an hour, as he was given a proper gown, and an IV of fluids. He was telling Hotch about why Nasa spent so much money to develop a pen that worked in space when they transferred him to a bed.
Reid looked at Hotch. He was covered in fluids from him. The sight of it made him sick.
"You can change," he said. "You need food too, and coffee."
Hotch smiled. "Thank you, Spencer. I promise I won't be gone too long."
"Don't make promises you can't keep."
"What makes you think I won't?" he asked.
"Because people disappoint me. I loved my mom, but I never counted on her to do anything for me. I'll never trust someone to tell me the truth again after what those kids set up, and what Mr. Bayron did, with 'friends,' afterwards."
"I'll be here for you Spencer," Hotch said and squeezed his hand one more time. "I promise."
Reid watched him leave the room. He didn't believe him. Hotch struck Reid as a good man, but good men are busy too. He was let down too many times to believe in other people, period.
…
Morgan found Hotch on his way to elevators. He held up a bag for Hotch.
"The nurse told me I'd find you up here. I brought your spare suit."
"Thanks Morgan," Hotch said.
"Why does you head look like it's going to explode?"
"Did you know it illegal in Switzerland to own only one Guinea pig?"
"Am I allowed to laugh right now? Because I really want to."
"The kid has enough random knowledge to beat any five-day Jeopardy champion."
"You let him talk to focus on facts instead of what the docs were doing to him."
Hotch took the bag.
"Where are we on the investigation?"
"Bayron has been looking for the right moment to abduct Reid for some time now," Morgan said. "In the janitor's closet, we found a copy of Reid's schedule, a bus schedule with notes, and pictures."
"He took pictures of him?" Hotch said.
"We found a special pinhole camera disguised as a utility box from the outside."
"I get the sense there is worse news."
"He isn't the mastermind. Someone has been mailing him information, typed, like a freaking zine for pedophiles. There's evidence he mailed camera rolls to someone. The other perps Spencer named are in on it. We found receipts from the same cleaning supply companies, as that was where these creeps would meet."
"What about the one at large? Haywood"
"His truck was abandoned at a gas station, twenty miles from the Californian/Nevada border."
"I'm worried about the kid," Hotch said. "I want security at the door. This might be an instance where Haywood or whoever is coaching these pedophiles might come back to hurt him."
"I'll call for security while you change," Morgan said.
He looked at Hotch closely.
"Something about this kid is hitting you differently."
"That kid is two months past due for a haircut. He's small, and skinny right now, which means he won't do well in the foster system."
"Wait, are you thinking of taking the kid in?"
"I don't know what I'm thinking, aside from about the fact that the first person convicted of speeding was going eight miles per hour."
Hotch left to look for a rest room, as Morgan watched and wondered what was really going on in the mind of his boss.