Beta Note: So, I wrote a thing a while back as part of a bribe system to get Lang through a chapter. Since CYB is now past the point where Kakashi's crush on Kei's a secret, I figured I'd post it in case anyone's interested or needs a CYB fix until the next update. I'm horrible with mystery and crime drama, so please try not to think too hard about anything that doesn't make sense.
Also, writing this was like jumping into the deep end when you've never gone out of the kiddie pool. Any of you who write or even think of writing fanfiction or mysteries or crime dramas, I applaud you.
Author Note [12/5/16]: I'm FINALLY posting this here for the enjoyment of everyone who lost it in the depths of tumblr; the only place it was posted before. Read and enjoy the first crossover of CYB and a totally different franchise!
The house is quiet and dark, the windows open to let in the cool night air after the warmth of summer that arrived in spring. The sound of a knife cutting through the plastic screen is almost silent and definitely not near loud enough to wake the sleeping family inside, much less the boy who is sprawled out on his bed, one leg over the edge and a thin sheet twisted around the other foot.
The boy makes a few sounds, but they're only half verbalized sleep disturbances that quickly give way to snores.
A shadowy figure, tall and broad shouldered but compact enough not to impede movement climbs through the window. He grabs the edges with gloved hands and sets a booted foot down without any more noise than he had made breaking into the house.
Leaving no more trace than a shadow, the man leaves through the window he entered through, this time with the boy. The only thing left behind in the room is an empty bed and a screenless window.
The sun is shines bright in a clear blue sky and four high school aged students walk down the sidewalk. Their conversation is full of a forced levity that falls silent as they pass a school. The tallest one, a black-haired girl with short hair stuck under a hat even in the summer heat stops and stares at the front steps of the building the proudly proclaims its status as Summer Tree Middle School.
"Kei!" screams the voice of a boy from somewhere down the street.
Penelope Garcia waits with hot pink nails clutching a tablet to her chest and her equally vibrant lips pulled back into an unusually upset frown. Everyone looks at her, and she's not a profiler, but they are, and she can tell they know this is going to be a hard case by the way she's waiting. Hotch it the last one through the door, and she only waits for him to sit down before she starts speaking.
"This is an extra creepy creeper this week," Garcia says, and clicks the remote to bring up the pictures of two bodies on the monitor.
Garcia only knows that the two mutilated bodies (one tossed into a commercial dumpster, the other in a curbside recycle bin) are children because the files said so. The faces are gone and the tongues cut out and Reid has already noticed that even as she looks down and focuses on the names.
"Jessica Donalds, age 13, she went missing seven months ago and was found two weeks ago. Louis Jacobson, 15, went missing three weeks before Jessica, but was found two days after her. Both were assumed runaways at the time they went missing, and they were in the foster system."
Garcia clicks again and eight pictures, spanning age, race, and gender eliminating any pattern, appear on the screen. These are happier pictures, taken by families or the forced formality of school pictures, but they're far more human than the crimes scenes. She looks at those for just long enough to remember their smiles before she gets into the icky. "In the past year and a half, eight children have gone missing from their homes, screens cut but otherwise nothing to suggest the child hadn't just left. All of them were also in the foster system and had previous histories of running away." She clicks again, and the last two pictures take the space on the screen. One is a preteen smiling boy with messy black hair and braces, the other is a girl with a hat and the perfect expression for a moody teenager who looks like a slightly older version of the other.
"Two days ago, Hayate Gekko, 12, went missing from his home. Screen cut, no signs someone kidnapped him. Mother files a missing person's report, everyone's convinced he didn't run away." Garcia shakes her head and waves her hands to emphasise what she's saying, then points back to the screen. "Less than forty-eight hours later, his older sister, Keisuke, 15, also went missing. This time while walking to school with three other children, two of which are foster children in the Gekko household. To add even more hinkiness to this, one of them went missing for several months a few years back, and none of them are talking."
"Taking foster children who had a prior history of running away and would be assumed runaways when taken is a very different M.O. than taking a child off the street in broad daylight," Reid says and looks up. He he talks, he lets the pages of the file fall back down to the folder. "Factor in the fact the brother went missing less than two days before Keisuke and that she was headed somewhere in a group, are we certain the disappearances are related?"
"How cooperative was the sister when her brother was taken?" Hotch asks.
That was something the local detective had been sure to tell her, so Garcia doesn't bother looking down at her notes. It was unusual enough that she remembers it. "The three older children of the Gekko household had already left for school before the mother noticed Hayate was missing." There's nothing unusual about that though, the suspicious part happened after. "When the three teens were told, the two foster siblings broke down crying while Keisuke and I quote 'looked ready to break someone's neck.' She went silent when asked if she knew of any reason someone would want to take her brother and refused to speak after that."
That bit earns the reaction Garcia had been waiting for- the stares that say, "something's up."
"If she knew something and the foster siblings are covering for her, we need to know what it is," Morgan says.
Hotch nods and is already pushing his chair out as he speaks, "Wheels up in twenty."
"Non nobis solum nati sumus. Not for ourselves alone are we born." - Cicero
JJ looks through the tinted window of the one way mirror for the interrogation room. Inside there is a woman with her back straighter than the chair and a glare that looks like the sprinkler system would see some use if there was anything flammable in her line of sight.
A second room holds a girl, fifteen or so, clutching tissues that sport the same purple that's smeared and streaked down her cheeks.
In another room, a boy with black hair he spent too much time gelling paces around before he sits down and massages his shoulder.
The last room has a boy hunched over in his seat with his face covered by a surgical mask and a mop of fluffy silver-white hair.
The special agent turns around to stare at the adults in the hallway that are not part of the BAU. One is a man with surprisingly yellow hair and the kind of pretty faced calm she had seen on enough news casters to know he was hiding his worry. Two more women are there, both in business attire with the kind of polite smile required at work.
Hotch looks through the windows at everyone, taking a few seconds longer to make the circuit before he makes his decision. "JJ, I want you to take the Nohara girl. Morgan, the Uchiha." He pauses and looks at the father in the hallway. "Reid, see if you can get the Hatake kid to talk to you."
He walks down the hall towards the mother without saying anything more, and JJ takes that as a sign to get to work. One of the women, Candice Clarence, follows JJ as she heads for the room the girl is in. She has a warm smile and JJ hopes, that at the very least, the woman won't scare the girl.
The door handle is cold as she grabs it, and she watches the girl jump slightly in surprise when she opens the door. "Hello, Rin, my is JJ and this is Candice, I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."
At that, the girl's eyes go wide with a kind of apprehensive fear, but she nods. JJ allows herself to look like she's forcing a painful smile as she sets the file on the table and sits down.
Morgan watches everyone take in everyone and waits for Hotch to hand out orders. The split isn't as he expects, but he can work with it. A smile at the child advocate earns him at least a little leeway as he lifts the file up and heads to the room.
"Obito, right?" Morgan asks as he opens the door and catches the kid up and pacing again.
"Yeah," the teen says, and rubs the back of his head, far more open than the account of clamming up made him expect. "You here to ask me more questions?"
Morgan raises his eyebrows and shrugs. "Yeah, kid, I am."
The boy shrugs and then drops his hand down before he uses it to pull out the chair to sit down in. "Not sure what good it'll do you."
Morgan sits down and lays the file on the table, folder closed. "Yeah, heard you bumped your head pretty hard."
"Yeah," Obito says and rubs his head with his left hand again. "No harm done, though. I've got a hard head."
Morgan opens his mouth to say something, but then the boy grins with a disarming smile and lifts his right arm. It's stiff and the hand sticking out of it is too strange looking to be real. "Kept me alive when I got buried in rubble."
At that, Morgan flips open the file and looks down. As he does, he watches the kid for a reaction. "Says here that you went missing for a few months after that–"
The kid slams his hands on the table and stands up, eyes wide with a fearful worry. "You don't think this is related to that, do you? He was a creepy dude, but I would have known–there's no way Kei–" he stops talking suddenly as his eyes widen slightly, then tries to backspace, "the dude was old, like, grandpa old, no way he could have taken Kei."
"He managed to get you out of the rubble and to the building he kept you in," Morgan says, and then looks down at the picture of the abandoned warehouse. "He had guys to help him with you, he could have used them to take Kei and Hayate."
Obito shakes his head. "Nah, man."
"You seem pretty sure about that."
Instead of explaining why, the kid clams up. He crosses his arms with some difficulty, then sits back in his chair. Morgan stares at the kid. There is no doubt in the special agent's mind that the kid knows something.
"I'm thirsty," Obito says in what is possibly the least subtle way to change the topic, "can I get a soda or something?"
The request is something Morgan considers for a few seconds before he speaks. "Sure kid, what flavor?"
"Orange?"
Reid almost says something when Hotch tells them who to speak with. While he is older than the father who's in his mid-twenties, he doubts he looks old enough to earn the man's respect. There is a job that needs to be done though, so he points at the door with the hand that's holding the file. "After you, Mr. Namikaze."
Minato Namikaze, 25. Kakashi Hatake, 15. A legal adoption after the death of the child's father. Reid's not certain what the dynamic between the two will be like, but he hopes it'll work for the best.
The blond man heads into the room and Reid watches the teen. He looks up and looks at first Mr. Namikaze, then to Reid, then back to his father.
"Hi, Kakashi," Reid says, and looks between the father and son before he decides to sit in the chair opposite the teen. "My name's Dr. Spencer Reid."
Kakashi looks at him, but doesn't say a word. The mask makes it hard to see the teen's expression, but his eyes are still visible and give enough away for Reid to read him well enough to know he's going to be hard to crack.
Spencer Reid taps his fingers on his knee and holds his mouth open while he thinks of something to say, but it's only for a second. "Why do you wear the mask?" he asks, it's something simple, not about any of the missing children, nothing to make Kakashi defensive.
"Hmph," is all the sound he makes before he looks at something off to Reid's right.
"He has allergies," Mr. Namikaze offers up. Reid nods politely, although letting the question go unanswered would have worked better. Trying to get Kakashi to speak won't work if he can let someone else answer for him.
Kakashi continues staring at the apparently interesting part of the wall. There is dog fur all over his shirt, and several of them stand up off his sleeves in the flourescent lighting.
"Almost forty percent of American households have one or more dogs," Reid says, hoping to avoid questions the father could answer instead. If he talked enough, Kakashi would look at him eventually, then he could ask a question. "It's estimated fifteen to twenty percent of the population is allergic to dogs, and almost one third of those people own dogs."
Even before he's stopped talking, the teen's eyes have flicked to him.
"What do Kakashi's dogs have to do with his missing friend?" Mr. Namikaze asks.
Reid ignores the man's words, and keeps his attention on Kakashi, who has turned to look at him. There are a few different color hairs on his shirt and a few more of different lengths.
"How many dogs do you have?"
Kakashi tilts his head at the question. "Eight."
"That's a lot of dogs," Reid says, really without thinking. It earns him in response another nonverbal noise from the teen that he's fairly certain would have been followed by an insult if they weren't in a room with the boy's father.
He manages to save some face though, and hopes the exchange gave him enough leeway to ask about the missing girl. "Does Keisuke like them?"
"Yeah." Rolled eyes.
Reid pulls two pictures out of the file, one of Keisuke and the other of Hayate, both with the blue background of a school picture. "Were you friends with her brother as well?"
Kakashi just stares at him.
"I'll take that as a no then," Reid says, striking out and hoping to find something useful now that Kakashi is at least answering questions. "But you were with her when she was taken?"
"Are you stupid? I already said that, idiot," is what the look Kakashi gives him says.
Reid's eyes narrow though, as he looks at the teen's posture that's far more relaxed than it should be. There's no worry in it, at least not the kind Reid would have expected to see from a teen who's friend had gone missing.
"I'm not clear on what happened," Reid says, purposefully placing some false confusion and uncertainty in his voice, "can you go over what happened when Keisuke was taken?"
Kakashi keeps his arms folded over the Henohenomoheji face on his shirt. It's impossible to tell what his face is doing behind the mask, but assuming his jaw is set isn't too far fetched.
Reid flips open the file. He doesn't need it. The one read through was all he needed to know what was in the file and what each of the three teens had said about what happened.
"You, Keisuke, Obito, and Rin were walking to the high school," Reid says then pauses, "and when you passed the middle school, that's when Keisuke was grabbed?"
The look from Kakashi is almost enough to make Reid regret leaving out parts. Being looked at like he's an idiot isn't something he's too familiar with. Spouting out facts and information that get him weird looks is something he knows. Purposefully getting something wrong in order to make Kakashi think he's an idiot and correct him, that's uncharted territory.
He'd taken a look at the map of Summer Tree, and of the nearby city, on the flight from D.C. It had been easy enough to plot all the houses, the two crime scenes, and to find the schools. The quickest and most direct path to the high school from the Gekko house did not go near the middle school, but it's possible passing by it was part of their normal path.
"Did you regularly walk past the middle school on the way to yours?"
Kakashi keeps his arms crossed and continues to glare. It might have been comical how determined the teen is to stick to the rebellious bad boy attitude if it was not standing in the way of Reid figuring out what happened.
When Mr. Namikaze does not answer in place of his son, Reid does turn to stare at the man, if only to gauge a reaction. The twenty-five year old's blue-eyed stare is narrowed and directed at his son, not the agent in the room.
The start time between the two schools was an hour. Passing by the middle school to drop Hayate off would not have been part of their normal routine. The answer to Reid's question was no.
Hotch makes his decision and hands out assignments quickly. A motherly person for the girl who just needs some compassion and a sympathetic ear, JJ. Morgan to the pacing boy who will probably respond well to an honest face. The last boy, he will be tough to crack, but the kid's father had enough of a pretty boy face hoping Reid's similar look would help him connect isn't as long a shot as the others.
Miyako Gekko is for him to deal with.
He knows the look in her eye. It's cold rage that is held back only by the woman's stone-still posture. Two of her children are missing and instead of being out there looking for them, Hotch and everyone else are asking her questions. She wants to be out there. If she finds whoever has taken her children, well, Hotch thinks he has a fairly good idea what would happen. He knows what he'd do, what he did.
"Mrs. Gekko," Hotch says after he's opened the door and let her turn the murderous stare to him, "I am Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner."
"Where are my children?"
"That is what we are trying to figure out," he replies calmly, then stops in front of the chair. "May I sit?"
She blinks, and Hotch sits once she nods ever so slightly.
The file in his hand is thick. It has more than just the information on the case, of the two discovered bodies, of the missing children, of her two missing children and the cold case for the kidnapping of her foster son. It has the information on Miyako Gekko and the life she lived before settling down to a peaceful life in Summer Tree.
Garcia, for all her bubbly eccentricities, was a saving grace. Her ability to dig up things buried even six feet under means he knows of information even background checks had failed to turn up.
"Is there anyone from your past life who would want to harm your children?" Hotch asks, and waits to see her reaction.
As expected, she blinks and starts to tell him she does not know what he's talking about, then stops. Her mouth closes purposefully as she changes her answer. "No one. They are all dead."
"Then who killed your late husband, Mrs. Gekko?" Hotch asks, then touches the file. "School counselors and the caseworkers for the other two children you are fostering have reported that your eldest daughter, Keisuke, has expressed an unnatural worry about something bad happening to Hayate."
Miyako Gekko remains as stone-faced as she has been, eyes still ready to kill him if it would mean finding her children. "My husband's death was an unfortunate accident. My son had a health scare when he was infant. My daughter became worried. You and I both know the monsters that are out there, so, I nurtured that protective streak."
"So you taught her how to use a sword?"
"Katana," Miyako corrects him, "and yes."
Hotch stares at the woman and waits for her to blink. Then he asks, "What about your other children? Have you taught them how to fight as well?"
"Obito was held prisoner by a man for several months before he came under my care. Before that, he was in several different foster homes and was bullied by some of the other children who thought he was weak," she tells him, without wasting a second.
She looks down at the file on the table, then back up to him. "They are not the adolescent monsters you are envisioning, Agent Hotchner."
The sound of Morgan knocking on the door interrupts her from saying anything more, and Hotch turns at the interrupting agent.
"We might have something, Hotch," Morgan says, thumb pointing at the hallway behind him.
"If you would excuse me, Mrs. Gekko," Hotch says, then stands up.
Once he reaches the door, Morgan tilts his head to whisper, "The kids know something. Obito's trying really hard to avoid letting something slip. So is the girl. Reid's kid has clammed up. They didn't follow their normal path that morning and according to the girl, Kei had a weapon on her."
Hotch doesn't even pretend that Mrs. Gekko is not trying to listen to what Morgan is saying, so he turns to the woman. "Mrs. Gekko, do you think your daughter would have gone after her brother's kidnapper on her own?"
The woman's glare disappears, and he can see she doesn't even have to think about her answer. "Yes."
Hotch turns to Morgan and they both know what it means. There is no need to order Morgan to tell the others to find out exactly what happened, but before he leaves, he turns to Mrs. Gekko. "Can your son have a soda?"
Morgan punches the button and listens as the can of soda tumbles down the inside of the vending machine. If he's not careful, he'll end up having to clean up the inside of the interrogation room. Holding the can and trying not to shake it on his way back is all he can hope for though.
"Careful, kid," Morgan says as he sets the can on the table, and Obito grabs for it.
Sure enough, the kid pops the top and the soda foams up, but thankfully doesn't spray everywhere. The kid quickly picks the can up, licking the side and using his sleeve to mop up the spill on the table.
"Uh, sorry," Obito says.
"So, kid, you wanna tell me what you were doing at the middle school?"
Obito stops with the can in front of his mouth.
Morgan waits for the kid to set the soda down before asking, "Why don't we start with why Kei had her sword with her?"
Obito takes a drink instead of answering, and Morgan knows the kid is definitely hiding something.
"We know she went looking for her brother, kid." Morgan says, "We wanna find her and her brother, but to do that we need to know what happened."
"Um, uh," Obito waffles for a moment and guzzles the soda. Then he sets the can down and taps it against his other hand. "She, uh, she didn't tell us."
"Was she planning something?"
"I don't know, maybe?" Obito says and scratches his head. "Probably. She wanted to do something."
Morgan nods. "Okay, kid, just walk me through the morning. Close your eyes and start with what Kei was like when you woke up."
Obito does as he's told and closes his eyes. "We got up and got ready for school. Rin and I–we were upset, sure, but Kei was mad. But she was that quiet kind of mad that she gets when she's about ready to pummel someone for picking on Hayate."
"Okay, good, kid," Morgan says, hoping he can keep Obito talking, "what next?"
"Rin was taking too long in the bathroom so I went to brush my teeth in the kitchen. Mrs. Gekko just kind of rolled her eyes. I'm not supposed to do that." He stops speaking and turns his head to the side. Then, "Kei just kind of stood outside the door and looked at us in the kitchen. When Rin got out, we were running late, so it was a blur: breakfast, bookbags, out the door."
He doesn't want to ask directly if Kei has her sword with her, or suggest something, but Morgan needs to know what happened. So he asks, "What did you do next?"
"Same thing we always do," Obito answers and shakes his head. "We get in the car, and cut across the shopping center to meet meet Kakashi at the park… but he had a few of his dogs with him."
"Dogs?" Morgan asks.
"Yeah," Obito says with a little laugh. "Kakashi volunteers at the shelter even though the place kills him. Brings home strays all the time, too."
"Ok." Morgan hadn't pegged the other kid as the volunteer type, but allergies definitely explained the mask. "Does he normally have his dogs with him?"
Obito shakes his head. "No, and Kei doesn't normally have her katana with her. Kakashi slid in next to her in the back though, and the dogs all climbed in. Kei told me she just wanted to swing by Hayate's school. So I did."
"Do you normally drive past the school?" Morgan asks, although he thinks he already knows the answer.
"If we get up late or Mrs. Gekko can't drop him off, we'll drop Hayate off sometimes. We'll pick him up sometimes, too." Obito stops talking and bites his lip. "I knew something is off as soon as she asked." He stops and messes with his false hand. It's clear he just needs a few seconds to figure out what to say, so Morgan lets him without prompting. "Kakashi's got a thing for Kei and he'll do whatever she asks. She likes him too. Even if neither of them will admit it. I realized they planned something when Kakashi whistled and let his dogs out of the car."
"Is that when you got out?"
"Yeah. I parked the car along the curb, then we all got out. Kei, had her katana and watched the dogs for something. I tried to make a few jokes to lighten the mood," he stops to laugh feebly, "it didn't work too well."
Morgan smiles a bit. Garcia and this kid would probably get along. "So you make a joke and then what happens?"
"Kei stopped to stare at the school," Obito responds. "Then we heard Hayate shouting Kei's name. Kei took off. Me and Kakashi, we took off after her and Rin called the police."
Morgan can't believe what he's hearing. It sounds like something on TV that's written for entertainment, not reality, but it's the best lead they have. "Where was Hayate during this?"
"I don't know." He rubs the back of his head. "His scream came from down the block, but when I got there, there were a few adults around this old van and Kei was fighting with one of them, and then I got hit on the head."
"Ok, I need you to focus, Obito, can you do that for me?" He gets a nod in reply. "Focus on the men, what did they look like?"
"I don't know," Obito says and opens his eyes. "They looked normal. I was too far away to see anything." He grabs his can of soda and leans forward. "Look man, I know we broke the rules, but I don't want Kei to get in trouble. She's just trying to find Hayate. She can handle herself."
JJ smiles at the girl and waits for her to finish wiping the tears in her eyes. When she brings the tissue down, it's got the purple on it.
"I know you're scared for your sister," JJ says, and offers a new tissue. "I know you must be worried sick about Keisuke and Hayate, so I need you to tell me what happened that way we can find them and bring them home."
"I'm sorry," Rin gets out between a sob and blowing her nose, "I know you just want to help, but…" She just trails off.
JJ sighs inwardly and decides just asking the girl about what happened isn't going to work. "You called the police, though. You must have thought we could do something to help."
"I did, but I didn't know what they–I just didn't want anyone to get hurt." She looks up to JJ with brown eyes that are red from crying. "I heard Hayate scream for Kei and then the others ran. I didn't want anyone to get hurt. I knew they wouldn't listen to me and Kei can be reckless–so can Kakashi–so I called the police."
Rin pauses, and JJ can hear the girl's shoes tap on the floor in the silence. "I was wearing heels, so I couldn't run after them. When I reached them, Obito was on the ground and Kei was gone."
JJ keeps herself from narrowing her eyes and squinting at the girl. Appearing suspicious of what she's being told isn't going to help. She needs to appear as a friend. "You didn't stay on the phone though, you hung up before the officers could get there."
"I dropped my phone."
"Yeah, I saw that. It was pretty cracked. I think you're gonna need a new one."
Rin nods. "Yeah."
"Is there a reason you didn't answer the officer's questions when they arrived?" JJ asks, and hopes it's not going to make the girl stop talking.
JJ follows Rin's gaze as she looks to the side. The girl might be looking at the wall, but the other side of it has the interrogation room with the white-haired kid.
"Kakashi?"
Rin stops herself from nodding, and JJ knows she needs to get the real reason out of Rin. She takes a gamble and hopes it pays off. "He's kind of cute."
The gamble pays off when JJ sees Rin jump slightly in her seat.
"It's okay, your secret's safe with me," JJ whispers with a smile. After a second, Rin smiles back, and JJ winks. "I had a crush on a boy like that when I was your age. He was so cool and had no idea I even existed."
Rin sighs heavily. "He likes Kei, even if he won't admit it. Kei's blind as a bat to it, even though she's got a crush on him that she won't do anything about because she knows I like Kakashi. I'm not invisible, I'm just not Kei."
"That sounds tough," JJ tells her, and means it. Being a teenage girl is hard, even more so when boys are involved. And If Kei is the leader of the group, it explains why the other three are keeping silent. "How close are Kakashi and Kei?"
"Close," Rin says with a shrug. "He was an only kid, and his dad babysat Kei before I came to live with the Gekkos."
"Did Kakashi tell you not to tell us what happened because it would get Kei into trouble?"
Rin sits up straight and clamps her mouth shut. Before JJ can find a workaround to that question, the phone in her pocket buzzes and she pulls it out.
"No one is in trouble, Rin," JJ says, and looks down at the text.
"Kei planned something. Kakashi helped." It's from Morgan and sent to everyone.
JJ stands up and turns to Rin who still looks worried. "We're going to find Kei and Hayate," she tells the girl and then leaves, pressing the speed dial for Garcia as she does.
"Shower me with praise, Blondie," Garcia says before the second ring.
"Hi, Garcia," JJ says and looks at the conversation Morgan's started in the room with Obito. The two-way mirror behind her though also shows JJ the stalemate Reid's reached with Kakashi. "Can you pull the phone records and internet history for Kakashi Hatake and Keisuke Gekko? We think they might have been planning something."
"Will do," Garcia says as her fingers start typing on the other end. "Call you back when I–" she stopped though, "–oh yeah, those two were definitely planning something. Statistics about child abductions, laws, and tons of talking. Looks like she was planning on using Kakashi's dogs."
JJ nods and looks through the interrogation glass at the white-haired teen, who's staring at the wall and avoiding both Reid's and Mr. Namikaze's stares. "Thank you, Garcia. Let us know if you find anything more."
"Will do," Garcia says, cheerily, then adds, "bring those babies home."
Click goes the telephone. JJ looks at Hotch and his conversation with Mrs. Gekko that looks to be going better than she had expected. Knocking on the window gets Reid's attention, since there's not much chance he'd check his text messages. Sure enough, the technophobe just turns to her and leaves the room to talk instead of looking at his phone.
What JJ say is more than enough for Reid to chew on and it doesn't take him more than a few seconds to come up with a plan to find out what Kakashi and Keisuke had planned. He pokes his head in and says quickly, "Mr. Namikaze, can you please step outside for a moment?"
Reid looks back at the white-haired teen in the room. His arms are still crossed and he's glaring at the one-way mirror. Mr. Namikaze is more than willing to help where he can after Reid explains the situation, so the special agent reenter the room without the boy's father.
Kakashi notices, and there's a flash of emotion on his face. It's not something he expected. He's worried.
"You don't seem very worried about Keisuke," Reid says as he sits down.
The look Kakashi gives him says clearly enough, "That's because I'm not."
"Obito and Rin, they are worried though, worried enough to talk to us." Kakashi makes a derisive noise behind his mask, and Reid keeps talking. "Here's what I think. You and Keisuke planned to use your dogs to search around the school, and then, when you found something, Keisuke got taken."
Kakashi stares at him for a split second, daring him to say something, then resumes looking at the wall.
"I also think that the other two aren't speaking because you told them not to." Reid knows he's right because Kakashi's posture straightens and he actually looks at Reid. "You don't want them to talk because Obito and Rin will tell us something you don't want us to figure out, and I think that fact is that Keisuke let herself get grabbed. Is that true?"
Reid can't tell if Kakashi is getting ready to answer or not, so he keeps talking. "If she has, you should be worried."
He pulls out the pictures of the two crime scenes where bodies were dumped. Kakashi inhales sharply and looks very disquieted at the sight of one of the bodies, Louis, who was about Keisuke's age. It's badly mutilated and something Reid could not have stood the sight of when he first started working in the BAU.
"The men who took her are capable of doing this. I know you looked up the survival statistics of kidnapping victims. The chance of finding her and Hayate alive drops after the first twenty-four hours. A less quoted statistic though is that seventy four percent of the kidnapping victims who are murdered are killed in the first three hours."
"Kei's not dead," Kakashi says, but his voice is a little too wobbly to convince Reid he actually believes that as strongly as he did when Reid first sat down.
"Then tell me how you found the people so we can find her."
"Kei did that."
Reid taps his fingers on the file and hopes Garcia can pull something more off the teens' computers. If Keisuke was the only one who knew how to find the people who took her, the fastest way would be her laptop or phone. Waiting for crime scene processing could take weeks they do not have.
Reid's train of thought is interrupted by an immense rumble, like part of the building has collapsed, which is the familiar sound of a thunderstorm inside a large building. Immediately, Reid looks up at the small rectangular window behind Kakashi, which shows a clear blue sky, and he reevaluates his initial though. Lightning can strike nearly thirty miles from a storm, but the chances are low, and when multiplied by the lack of storms in the forecast and that thunderstorms themselves are comparatively rare in this part of the country, the probability is far too low.
"Stay here," Reid orders Kakashi, then stands up and heads to the door. Morgan and Hotch are both at the doors and stepping into the hall while everyone who had been sitting in the office to his right is already out of sight down the hall. "What's going on?"
Reid can't make out anything from the mass of noise and commotion around the corner, at least not until the uncracked voice of a preteen kid cuts over it with a loud, "Mom!"
Miyako Gekko shoves Hotch to the side as soon as she hears the shout, and then runs down the hall. Reid doesn't try to stop her because he's too busy turning around to stare at Kakashi who looks like he was caught in the middle of standing up.
"Told you so," Kakashi remarks in a complete deadpan, even if his posture looks like a dog ready to jump at something.
Hotch reaches the door to say something to Reid, but then someone from the office runs into their portion of the building. "Keep them back," the man says.
Before Reid can even start to wonder what is going on, Miyako Gekko is ushered back into the room, this time with one twelve-year-old kid stuck to her by the combined power of a hug.
"Where's Kei?" Kakashi asks. He's at the door and slipping under Reid's arm before the adult can stop him.
The kid is fast.
Reid can see the entrance to the building by the time he catches up, and the source of the noise. There is dust everywhere and a hole in the wall that's currently plugged by a full-sized white van with designs advertizing a gardening service. The front window is in a million pieces thanks to a few pieces of dislodged building.
A few kids are sitting or standing clear of the rubble pile while officers pull more out of the side door. The driver's side door is open and there's a few people crowded around the person in the driver's seat.
Reid can't really make out who it is and the dust in the air makes it hard to breathe, so instead of running into the mess like Morgan would have, he stops. Kakashi does not though, and climbs onto the hood of the van before anyone can stop him.
Mrs. Gekko is not too far behind and makes enough noise pushing her way towards the van. Reid turns around to see the others arrive.
Hotch is calm and he looks around before he asks, "What happened?"
"Driver crashed through the wall," one of the front guards says. "She's hurt pretty bad. Looks like a gunshot in addition to some bumps, and a busted face from hitting the steering column."
"Is the driver Keisuke Gekko?" Hotch asks.
"Yeah, it's sis," the boy Mrs. Gekko had been clinging to says, and Reid can tell from the picture it's Hayate.
Hotch doesn't nod, but the silent stare is as good as one. "Reid, I want you and JJ to finish up here, and then head to the hospital. I want a full picture of what happened once Keisuke's out of surgery."
Keisuke's pulled out of the van and she's conscious enough to order people around as they load her into the ambulance. Unsurprisingly, given the fact she ran off after her brother, they were to make sure Hayate and the other kids were safe, as well as Obito and Rin.
Reid's not quite sure what to expect from Keisuke once she's out of surgery. He's listened to everything the other teens have had to say and there are still large gaps their understanding of what exactly it was Keisuke did.
Garcia's information helps fill in some of those gaps, but also creates more. Runs of similar crimes running back decades, groups of five kids here, ten there. Sometimes bodies show up mutilated or just executed. Garcia doesn't think Keisuke had discovered that connection, but given the fact the girl had gone into the wolf's den and emerged on her own, Reid's not going to put anything past her.
The nurse comes over to tell Reid and JJ that Keisuke is awake and that they can question her.
"I'm actually curious, Spence," JJ confesses as they reach the room.
He has to admit he is, too. Years of interviewing victims that they force to re-live every moment in vivid detail so they can stop the UnSub and keep more people from dying, and of picking the brains of the worst humanity has to offer makes Reid look forward to asking someone, "Why did you save them?"
The two of them enter the room and it's clear the girl's been through hell. Her face is a mass of bruises with stitches keeping everything together. It's hard to tell if the bandages are the cause of her hairdo that puts the term hat hair to shame, or if it's just how it normally looks without a hat.
"Como estan?" Keisuke asks, slurring the words before giggling, which causes JJ to scratch her head and exchange a look with Reid. Keisuke Gekko is without a doubt heavily medicated. "You here to ask me questions?"
"Ye–," Reid has to cough to clear his throat before he can answer. "Yes. I'm Dr. Spencer Reid and this is Special Agent Jennifer Jareau. We're with the Behaviour Analysis Unit with the FBI."
Keisuke's eyes are practically glazed over by the time he finishes his long sentence.
"We just want to ask you what happened when you went after your brother," JJ says as she sits in the chair next to the bed. "Easy questions."
Reid remains standing a little behind JJ. He's not certain Keisuke's lucid enough to answer their questions, but none of the statements the others gave had indicated the UnSubs had been stopped. If Keisuke has information that information that the others have not provided, then they need to know. Given that she somehow managed to find the UnSubs on her own, Reid's fairly certain she does.
"Whaddya want to know?"
"How did you find the men who took your brother?" JJ asks. It's not where Reid would have started, but it's something.
"Tracked the van."
"The van you crashed into the police station?" Reid asks quickly, without stopping to think about it.
Keisuke smiles and giggles a bit at that. "Yeah." She kind of remains silent and needs prompting to explain how she found the van, but once she does, the answer is something Reid would never have thought of, but will make Garcia proud. "Stupid thing was parked on the street for a few days. Googled the company. No Twitter, Facebook. No reviews. Idiots didn't even have a website."
JJ smirks at that. "What made you look for them at the school?"
Kei's face goes momentarily blank then she scrunches it up. After a few seconds of thinking she blinks again, her gaze stuck somewhere on the floor above. "Hayate mentioned almost getting hit by one of the motherfuckers walking home from school last week."
"There was a gardening van by the school?" JJ asks, then turns to Reid. His eyes narrow while thinking about it, but they quickly exchange a look. It's information they should pass on to Garcia.
"Yeah, Hayate said they'd been around for a few weeks." Keisuke winces in pain and the movement pulls oddly at her stitches. "A kid at his school went missing, too."
JJ steps out of the room, phone already at her ear when she reaches the door. There's no need to ask about the company when they have the van sitting half in their police station.
"So, you tracked the van down?"
"Then I let myself get caught." She smiles like that part was some part of a genius plan and Reid can only be glad that the reckless plan had the statistically improbable best outcome.
She stops looking out of it and focuses for a second. "Is Obito okay?"
"He's fine," Reid tells her. From what he's heard, Obito's head is as hard as Morgan's and a few bumps aren't enough to keep either of them down.
Keisuke nods slowly and he can see the exact moment the movement starts hurting her head. It also serves to derail her attention away from the conversation. He's not at all surprised she has a concussion. Thirty percent of car crashes result in the driver or passenger getting a concussion, and Keisuke had not been wearing her seatbelt, which only increased the chances.
Concussions can make focusing hard though, so he helps bring her back to answering questions. "After you got caught, where did they take you?"
"Don't know," she says, too quickly to have been able to think about it, "someplace." Before Reid can ask her to close her eyes to try and remember, she gives him something more to work with. "Railroad tracks." Her face scrunches up. "We drove over a lot of them. It's downtown, the old industrial district." Something clicks in her head as the door to the room clicks shut with JJ's reentry. "That's why I didn't recognize any of the buildings coming out."
That information lines up with what Hayate and the other kids said. They had been in what they thought was a warehouse in a place with lots of large, older buildings, many of which had been boarded up. Garcia's expert ability to narrow down parts of Summer Tree and the nearby cities based on the same description had given them the same section of the city as a possibility.
They've already sent teams to the building. All they found was an empty warehouse, several dead bodies, and a katana. They need to know what happened though.
"After they took you to the building, what did you see?"
"I found Hayate," Keisuke tells them, and closes her eyes. "The mooks pulled me out of the van, and Hayate was in this cage…like…thing. The idiot tried to put me in it, but he was holding me in one hand and my sword in the other." She chuckles and the sound unnerves Reid is a way he's used to from UnSubs, not teenage girls. "He needed a third hand to unlock the door."
"So you used that opportunity to act?" JJ prompts.
Keisuke tries to bring her hand up, but only gets about halfway. "No nose touching, got it," she says to the IV.
"Kei."
"Back to the story, right." She turns to Reid and he's once again faced with the fact she's hard to peg, and he doesn't think it's just the drugs. "He unlocked the door, then I slammed my shoulder into him to get him away from the door. While he was reeling, I grabbed my blade from where he set it down."
She lifts her hands up in front of her chest and holds them like she's wrapped them around the hilt of her blade. They move while she talks. "I took him out. Then the one who came from behind. I ordered Hayate to run for the van."
"And the other kids?" JJ asks when Keisuke stops talking.
"The ones in the pen Hayate was in ran to the van too. There were others in the building, but." Her voice breaks and it's clear she's starting to cry. "I couldn't save them. I had to get Hayate out. As soon as he was in the van, I climbed in and started it." She laughs again. "They left the keys in the ignition."
"When did you get shot?"
Keisuke stops and looks down at the blanket over her lower body. "Fucking bastard shot me in the leg when I was running to the van." Her toes wiggle underneath the fabric. "Didn't feel it too much as the time. I just got in the car and floored it." There's a smile on her face as she holds her hands up. "The metal siding on the building split like an orange peel. Of course once I got clear of the place, my leg felt like it was on fire." She looks up at both of them and reaches up with the IV-less hand to scratch at the side of her face. "The pedals were covered in blood, my foot just slipped off when I tried to press the brake. Tried to press it again, but it was the gas. So. Crash. Right through the wall."
There's still one last thing Reid wants to know. "Why'd you do it?"
"Hayate's my brother," Keisuke states plainly. "So I saved him."
"It gives me strength to have somebody to fight for; I can never fight for myself, but, for others, I can kill." - Emilie Autumn
Bonus Scene:
Kakashi sits in the waiting room, arms crossed. With the mask on his face he looks more like a patient in the hospital than many of the others, but the glare keeps the nurses from staring.
"Psst," comes Rin's voice from around a corner, "Kakashi."
"What is it?" he asks, far more grumpily than is called for, but Kei's still in the room and he's not family so he's still not allowed in to see her.
Rin sticks out her tongue then motions for him to go over to her. "Come here."
After looking around to make sure none of the nurses or secretaries are watching him, Kakashi stand up and walks over to Rin. "Well," he says.
She just sighs and grabs his shoulder to shove him in the direction of the hallway. With Kei confined to her bed, it seems Rin's taken the role of making sure everyone plays nice, which means reminding Kakashi when he's acting "too much like a cactus." He's about ready to demand where Rin is taking him when he realizes that Kei's room's only a few feet away.
"Door's unlocked," Rin tells him. Then she looks down at the watch on her wrist. "Nurses won't be around to check on her for an hour or so."
Kakashi tries to think of something to say. "I'm just here to make sure she's fine," is what he pulls out, adding in a dismissive noise in the process. "Minato and Kushina are worried about her."
Rin stares at him and it's clear she doesn't believe him. "Right," she says, and then shoves him towards the door.