The group gathered in the break room with J.J., Morgan, and Garcia. Each taking a seat; Rossi explained to the others about the conversation they just had.
"At least we know she's still alive," J.J. assured, catching Reid's eye.
"Not for long, though." Hotch said. "We need to know what you found on him. Any red flags?" Hotch asked.
"Well, at first sight, Dr. Andrews is a model doctor. He's never been married, grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. High school valedictorian, graduated in the top 10% of his college class, top 3% of his med school class. He worked at a Manhattan sanitarium for a few years before being recruited by the F.B.I. ten years ago. Now he mostly works with victims. He appears to have a spotless record."
"I sense a 'but' coming," Emily stated.
"How right you are, Ms. Prentiss." She answered. "Being the technological magician that I am, I did a few searches on him, anything fishy he was even suspected to be involved with and I found a sealed police file. I managed to get it unsealed and discovered, drum roll please, not long ago he was accused of kidnapping and multiple rape on a patient of his: Miriam Webster, who was kidnapped and returned home after six days.
"There was no evidence at all. They dismissed it as a disgruntled psych patient and removed her from his treatment. They couldn't dismiss the file because the investigation is still open, but, working for the F.B.I., he managed to convince the department to have it sealed. After reading that, I went back through the list of victims and found two more of his patients on the list. Leslie Hamilton, the most recent victim, and Yvonne Gilmore, one of the two girls discovered, bringing us into the case. From the other girls, I had discovered before that they both had rapists at Havensall. Now, that itself is a coincidence, but the victims were being consoled by therapists who were friends of Andrews."
"When was Miriam kidnapped?" Reid asked. "Was it recent?"
"Uh…" she checked her papers over. "Yes, it was… about two months ago…"
"Right around when you started your therapy." Morgan stated, looking at Reid.
"That's why I was turned over to Riley." Reid explained.
"I don't think the two are related. After all, why would he intentionally hand Reid to her?" inquired Emily.
"That's true; I mean if he knew how close they were going to get…" Morgan added.
"How close exactly have you two gotten?" Rossi interrupted.
The room fell silent, all eyes looking at Reid. The ones in the loop had looks of panic. Reid couldn't make eye contact with anyone. His mind trying to decide what he should say, which would have been easier if everyone wasn't staring at him. Lying may save his career, but it wouldn't help their search and finding Riley was more important.
"Reid, I asked you a question." Rossi urged.
"We haven't exactly… stayed professional… the entire time."
"How unprofessional did you get?" Hotch asked.
"Well, we… talked a lot outside of the office… and we… kissed…"
"Did you sleep with her?"
Still, he couldn't look up from the table. He couldn't bring himself to see what would be in Hotch's eyes. Right here, right now was not the way he would choose to come clean to his boss, particularly with everyone staring at him. And Hotch was another matter entirely… if Hotch really loved Riley, Reid wasn't ready to bring up the triangle they were in.
"Yes," he finally proclaimed.
There wasn't a sound in the room; a pin wouldn't even dare to drop at that moment. Reid could barely stand the tension. "It was only once."
"I figured as much," Hotch said nonchalantly.
Stunned, Reid looked to Hotch at the other end. Both he and Rossi looked calm, taking the news in stride. He looked at Morgan. "Did you guys tell them?"
Morgan retaliated. "I didn't say a word!"
"No one said anything to us. We figured it out ourselves." Hotch calmly announced.
"Reid, did you really think we didn't know?" Rossi added. "We're profilers; we do this for a living."
"Why didn't you say anything, then?" Reid asked.
"We didn't have any proof before." Hotch answered. "Look, we'll worry about the severity of your career later, right now we need to find Riley and it's not going to help anyone if you can't work on the case."
"Okay, so, if he let Miriam go, that could mean she was his rehearsal." Emily announced.
"I thought the other girls were his rehearsal." Morgan said.
"No," Hotch corrected. "The other girls gave him his Fueller illusion, grabbing her attention. Obviously, he was the one that changed the meds on his chart, which he knew would get Fueller out. He tracked him down, killed him and turned into him knowing it would lead Riley to him."
"But then Reid got in the way, which ruined his plan. He was probably plotting this for over a year. In the office, he got to know her; on the outside, he obsessed over her, stalked her, and planned to capture her."
"He's got to be delusional," Morgan said, "He thinks capturing Riley is going to make her love him. He'll be extremely aggressive with her, trying to make her submit to him."
"Which means one of two things will happen. Either he won't be able to break her and he'll end up killing her, or he will be able to break her and once he…" she glanced at Reid cautiously, "… rapes her, he'll realize he has to kill her."
"I would say the former is more likely," Reid said.
"We can't jump to conclusions, Reid." Morgan replied, "We all hate to think what he could do to her-"
"Reid's right," Hotch replied, "You have no idea how unbelievably stubborn she is."
Reid looked at Hotch, the evil jealousy bubbling in his stomach again. He felt the loathing burning behind his eyes. But Hotch had already looked away, thankfully; Reid wasn't sure what would have erupted from his mouth if he caught his eye.
"What information did you get on Miriam?" J.J. asked.
"She was his patient after she was raped by a professor of hers. Her parents claimed she was making great progress under Andrew's care. Then she went missing. She turned up again after 6 days and made her accusation. Since there was no evidence, they took her out of his care."
"Does she still live in Quantico?" Reid asked.
"Yes," Garcia replied, reading off another sheet of evidence. "She dropped out of college after her rape and moved back home. After her kidnapping, she moved in with her grandmother."
"We need to talk to her. Andrews probably took the other girls to the same spot. That might even be where Riley is."
"Why would he let her go, though?" J.J. asked.
"Because he knew her." Rossi explained. "He knew what her parents were like, she might even have had a history of lying and running away. Andrews knew no one would take her seriously. He knew he could perfect his plan with her and get away with it."
"Okay," Hotch said. "Miriam is our only lead. Reid; you, me, Rossi, and J.J. we'll find her and get any information out of her we can. The rest of you, help Garcia track down anyone connected to Andrews: friends, family, enemies, ex-girlfriends, former and current patients of his. I want every detail about this guy."
"We're on it," Emily replied, everyone standing to head to their tasks.
Hotch took the sheet of Miriam Webster's information on it. The four headed out to the elevators, on their way. Hotch looked at Reid, both finally making contact.
Still though, they didn't say a word. Reid couldn't tell what was forming behind Hotch's eyes, but it was a demoralizing stare. As the doors opened, they moved inside, neither deciding to break the silence. Hotch might not be concerned with Reid's career, at least not at the moment… that look was beyond that. He must be furious with both he and Riley, learning that they'd slept together.
Desperately, for all it was worth, Reid wanted to tell him how much he loved her. He knew it was Riley's decision, but he should at least know. He should know how much Reid was willing to fight for her.
"Hotch, I need-"
"Reid, I don't want to go into it right now," He quickly interrupted. "We'll talk about your job when this is over."
"It's not that, this-"
"Whatever it is, don't you think it can wait?"
The doors reopened. Reid slowly nodded. "Yeah… I'm sorry,"
"We will find her. Do you understand? But you need to keep your head in this. We both need to."
It was the silent way of a truce between the two. Reid might not want to work with Hotch. The man he had worked and liked with for years now made him burn with anger and jealousy, but he also knew he was right. Obsessing over this situation wasn't going to save her. If they didn't, there was no one to fight for.
Reid nodded, and the four left the elevator. J.J. reached over to squeeze his arm, showing her support. Each moved to their respected side of the car, off to track the miniscule lead they had.
