"Wow," Alexa exhaled as she stepped onto the plane. "So this is where all my tax dollars are going."
"Don't think we don't appreciate it." JJ muttered, claiming a seat on the couch beside Rossi.
Riley stepped on board, followed by Morgan. She'd been sure Spencer would have caught up to them before they left the unit, but he remained in the conference room. He was pacing, which meant he was frustrated and contemplating his dilemma. He would meet them, though. She was sure of it. So sure, she brought his go bag along with hers, and in anticipation, left the seat beside her opened. He would be here any minute.
"So, how long will it take us to get home?" Alexa wondered. She quickly took the seat beside Hotch, seeing as how he was the only person of the group who showed her any kind of compassion.
"The weather's clear, so I'd say about an hour and a half." Hotch revealed, reading over Peter's file once again. He looked to Riley, across the aisle from him. "We really should get there as soon as possible so we can get some rest. Are you sure Reid's coming?"
"He'll be here." Riley nodded with the utmost confidence.
"It says the police interrogated your husband after your son's kidnapping." Rossi said, who was flipping through the pages of the case another time as well. "Was he considered a suspect?"
"Briefly." Alexa answered. "He had an alibi."
"Alibis can have holes in them." Morgan pointed out. "How reliable is the source?"
"The police insist Peter was taken between midnight and 4 AM, before sunrise. My husband had, what did they call it… a paper trail."
"Was he working?" Emily asked as she sat down with a cup of coffee. She set a second one before Morgan, a friendly gesture which arose no suspicion.
She was going to have to say it. Lying would make her seem guilty. "No… he was at a strip club with his brother-in-law, Jeremy. The police saw he took three withdrawals of cash out of an ATM, and two were after midnight. He's innocent."
"I see," Emily muttered, trying her best not to appear judgmental.
"It doesn't matter, John would never do anything to hurt his little boy." Alexa cried. "There's nothing more important to him than his son."
"Mrs. Hillman, we're not asking these questions to upset you." Hotch assured. "We just need to get the whole story."
"You'd be amazed how one little detail can change an entire man's reputation." Rossi said. "Even if it's just to one person."
"Yeah, like Reid's dad." Morgan muttered in passing.
William Reid's past was common knowledge among the members of the team, but Alexa was suddenly intrigued. "Spencer's father… we didn't know he had a father. I mean… obviously he had one, but… no one knew what happened to him."
What with her growing nausea and fatigue, not to mention the worry for her husband, Riley's temper was getting the best of her. "Seems to me, you didn't know much about him."
"No," She admitted shamefully. "We didn't… we would see his mother every now and then… she'd show up at the school in her bathrobe and hair that looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. She said she was there to pick him up from school. Even then, I had to admit, Spencer was pretty brave. He'd walk right up to her and kiss her cheek and… let her lead him home."
"More than likely, he was leading her." Morgan said coldly. "Did you know his mother is a paranoid schizophrenic? His father skipped out when he was ten and he took up the job of caring for her until he was eighteen."
They were right, she knew very little about Spencer Reid. Alexa was stunned by that, but in a way grateful she hadn't known until now. No doubt, they would have found a way to torture him even further. "I had no idea… it does explain a lot though. We'd see him doing grocery shopping or… bringing canvas bags to the laundry mat… we'd always tease him about those things… we'd teased him about everything." Her tone was hollow and sad, wishing so badly she could take those things back.
"We can't wait forever." Rossi said quickly, more to change the subject. "Maybe we should take off and tell him to meet us if he wants to come."
"No!" Riley exclaimed. "He's coming, Dave. I know my husband. He'll be here."
"Parker, I know you have the utmost faith in the kid, but he might not budge on this one." Morgan insisted, trying to get her to see reason.
"He just needs a little more time." She growled. "He'll come to his senses."
"This isn't really that new." JJ said, leaning back in her seat, observing the group. "Reid gets upset about things, he holds grudges, but when push comes to shove, he always does what's right."
"Yeah, but everyone has a breaking point." Emily argued. "This could be the last straw for Reid."
"She has a point." Morgan agreed. "Reid is not a doormat, and when he gets angry, it controls him. I mean, we all remember when he met Riley."
"You would bring that up!" Riley snarled, her temper getting the better of her now. She leaned on the head rest, trying to breathe slowly. "No surprise you agree with her!"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Garcia asked, sensing something in her tone.
Emily and Morgan sat frozen, trying to keep their faces impassive. They unsure how to answer that. Riley let them sweat a moment before she uttered. "They're partners, they're always siding with each other."
"Yeah," JJ muttered, absentminded. "They do tend to stick together a lot."
They both let out a stagnant breath. Emily gave a slight glare to Riley, who didn't even care, her symptoms coming back at full force. At this point, she knew they were only going to get worse and being locked in a pressurized cabin for about two hours did not sound appealing.
A few more minutes of awkward silence and finally there was a slow clamor up the steps. Everyone sat in expectation as, at long last, the last of their team arrived, looking very solemn indeed.
"Reid," Hotch said. "We're glad you came."
All he could manage was a subtle nod, his disgust for this evident. His eyes lingered on the floor, wanting to be as far from all these people as possible. He felt like each and every one of them had betrayed him.
Alexa at last stood, taking a chance to express how she felt. "Spencer… I can't tell you how much this means to me. If there's anything I can do-"
"Do not thank me." He interrupted, his eyes were filled with so much hatred, they burned as they met hers. "I am not here for you. I am here so I can find the man who killed your son, and possibly save the lives of a dozen other boys in the process. Don't think for one minute I would do anything to help you. We are not friends, we are not acquaintances. We are strangers, and as soon as this case is over, I never want to hear from you or your family ever again."
She felt physically beaten by his confession. Hanging her head, Alexa nodded. "I understand." She whispered.
"And you!" He growled, turning to meet Riley's eyes. "How could you? You guilted me into coming here."
Riley was not intimidated by him. She looked to him intently. "I did not such thing. I only pointed out the inevitable. Either way, you were going to end up here."
"I can make my own decisions!" He yelled. "If I didn't want to go, that should by my decision. I don't appreciate my wife making it for me like I'm a child!"
"And right now, this isn't childish?" Riley asked, her temper rising to meet his. "Throwing a tantrum over not getting your way?"
She was right again and it made his blood boil. "I'm done! I'm here for one reason and one reason only, and that's the case. I want to solve it as quickly as possible and get on with the rest of my life."
"Okay, Reid," JJ assured, wanting him to calm down. She stood up. "I'll tell the pilot we're ready to leave."
She carefully brushed past Reid as she headed to the cockpit. Immediately, Reid noticed the opened seat next to his wife, but she was the second to last person on this plane he wanted to be close to right now. Instead, he moved to the empty end of the plane, taking a seat near the window.
"Why are you sitting over there?" Riley asked.
His eyes were cold as they met her gaze. "I think it would be better if we don't talk for awhile, don't you?" He grumbled, turning to stare out the window.
Riley didn't answer, her eyes falling on the table before her. Emily gave a glance to Morgan before standing and going to the other side, taking the empty seat beside her. Riley looked up, giving a small, grateful smile before looking away.
"It was the right thing to do." Emily whispered, patting her shoulder.
"I know," Riley mumbled. "And he knows… he's just taking it out on me because I'm the best target."
"Why would you say that?" Emily asked.
"Because he knows I'll always love him no matter what." She replied, with a soft smile. It faded again as she looked away. Resting her head on her chair, she closed her eyes and tried to think of anything but the queasiness about her.
The plane was quiet. They'd only been in the air for about a half hour, but it felt like five. Reid wouldn't interact with the others, his icy demeanor keeping them at bay, though it didn't stop Riley from glancing at him every few minutes.
Alexa was staring out the window as well. She often took to sitting at a window at this time of night, staring off into the dark Heavens, her mind a labyrinth of horrifying thoughts. Thoughts of where her little boy could be, if maybe there was a chance he was still out there… and if he wasn't, was his soul at peace now.
Hotch approached her with a steaming cup of herbal tea in hand. He reclaimed his seat beside her. "Here," He said, offering it to her. "This plane can get kind of cold."
"Thank you," She said, her voice distant.
"You're thinking about Peter." It wasn't a question. A parent could always sense the tell tale sings.
"Since the second he went missing… I haven't stopped thinking about Peter." She clarified. "I feel horrible that I've lost faith."
"You shouldn't," Hotch assured. In his hand, he held a cup of coffee, not expecting to get much sleep tonight. "If my son were missing this long… well, I unfortunately know a lot more about this than you do, and I'd want to think if he were missing, he was in a better place now."
"I don't want to think like that." She shook her head, tears forming in her eyes. "The first few weeks, I just couldn't bring myself to think like this. To admit my baby was never going to come home. Now… it's almost I want to find his body just so this will all be over." She looked to Hotch with frightened eyes. "Does this make me a bad mother?"
He shook his head. "Of course not. You're living in pain, it's only natural to want to bring it to an end, and sometimes it becomes by any means necessary."
Alexa wiped her eyes with her free hand, letting out a sigh. "It sounds like you deal with a lot of grieving mothers, Agent Hotchner."
"Unfortunately, yes." He replied. "There are always people suffering… but what people don't realize is these people have families… they have mothers who want their babies back, and it doesn't matter who the baby is, whether he's four-years-old or forty, victim or killer… the pain is always the same."
He had a point. Alexa took a slow sip of her tea. The warmth began to flow through her, easing the chill of her body a bit. The chill she'd had since Peter disappeared. "So how old is your son, Agent Hotchner?"
"9," Hotch answered. "He lives with his mother and… stepfather, I guess is the term now."
"I sense a bit of jealousy there." Alexa mentioned, interested.
"Well, he's been his stepfather for all of six days, I'm not sure the man is worthy of a title." Hotch explained. Why he was unloading all of this to a complete stranger was a mystery. But then again, maybe it wasn't so mysterious. Sometimes it was easier to tell these things to a person you hardly knew, who didn't know you too well and therefore was less likely to judge you.
But it was more than that. It was easy for him to open up to Alexa… like he was the person she'd known twenty years ago. Two old friends reunited… but, of course, that wasn't true. "His mother was my high school sweetheart." He admitted without hesitation. "We divorced when he was two because my job put too much stress on our family."
"That must have been hard." Alexa said. "John was my high school sweetheart as well."
"So you understand, when you're with a person that long... you not sure really how to live without them." He said.
"Did you ever think about divorce before then?" Alexa wondered, who secretly had that very thought looming in her mind for much longer than she cared to admit.
"I never thought of it as a real option until she moved out." He admitted. "We had a lot of problems. And I think, if Jack hadn't come along, it would have ended a lot sooner. But she got pregnant and our problems disappeared for awhile… in fact, I thought they were gone. Even when she served me the papers, I still wanted to try and work on it... I couldn't imagine a life without her."
He glanced at Alexa and, to his surprise, let out a chuckle. "I'm sorry, I don't know why I'm unloading this to you."
"I'm a woman who's life is in shambles." Alexa said, almost lightheartedly. "My husband is an alcoholic dead beat, my teenager daughter hates me, my younger daughter is suddenly terrified of the world and my little boy is missing… probably dead. I make everyone's life look better."
Hotch suddenly found prospective, and once again reached over to take Alexa's hand. "I promise you, we are going to find what happened to Peter. I know it won't mean much, but at least you'll know. And you can lay him to rest and move on."
"I'm not sure I'll ever be able to move on." She said, her voice getting softer with every word. Tears were forming again and she had to fight to keep from breaking down.
Meanwhile, the rest of plane was occupying their time. They discussed the case for awhile and had now turned to some poker, using pretzels and butterscotch candies as their chips.
"I fold," JJ said, setting her cards on the table. She got to her feet, stretching a moment. "I could use some coffee, anyone else?"
"I'll take a refill," Emily said, offering her cup.
JJ took the mug, turning to the front of the plane where the last member sat in among the shadows. "Reid? Can I get you anything?"
He didn't answer. Not even the shake of his head. Morgan rolled his eyes. "Alright kid, enough pouting. Come play poker with us."
"Leave me alone." He muttered.
"Spencer, please," Riley begged. "We hate seeing you like this." When he didn't respond, she continued. "I'm sorry, okay?"
"You're not sorry!" He yelled, climbing out of his chair. The low light of the plane finally lit up his face, which looked so worn and bothered. "You didn't even think about me or how I would felt about this, you don't even care."
"Right," Riley answered. The effort of talking so loudly and intently was wearing thin on what was left of her energy. "I forced you into this because I wanted you to feel pain. Because you've never done anything like this to me. I seem to remember a certain murder on our honeymoon that you couldn't leave alone and it almost cost us our lives."
"That was completely different!" He exclaimed. "I don't pretend to be a perfect husband, but I have always been there for you when you needed me. And the one time I need you to support me, you can't take my side! You couldn't even pretend!"
Riley opened her mouth to respond, that she always took his side and supported him, that she supported him now and convincing him to come to Vegas didn't change that. But she couldn't, because talking right now was a horrible idea. Riley's mouth snapped shut, looking away. She forced herself to breath slowly, trying to fight the urge off.
"Oh, my goodness," He said in mock amazement. "You mean for once you don't have a response? You're not going to open your mouth and make me feel like the worst person in the world? I'm shocked!"
The breathing wasn't working. She barely heard Reid at that moment, or had any awareness of her surroundings. All she had was the incredible sensation about to take over her. Her internal battle was over and it seemed the nausea was winning. Quickly pushing past Emily, Riley clamored into the aisle and hurried to the back of the plane.
She barely made it to the toilet before she couldn't hold it anymore. The putrid sounds of retching and gagging filled the cabin as Riley vomited violently, spewing the contents of what was left of the apples she ate for dinner and that second cup of ginger tea, which apparently didn't work.
JJ already in the galley, hurried over. She grabbed the door of the restroom to close it; an attempt to give the poor girl some privacy.
All of Reid's anger faded away as he listened to his wife get sick. She didn't need to be screamed at and made to feel terrible when she hadn't really done anything wrong. He was angry, not at her, but at what was coming, at what he was being forced to face. She did nothing wrong… she was just trying to help him do the right thing. He shouldn't be using her to make himself feel better.
"You really feel like dirt now, don't you?" Morgan asked.
"Pretty much," Reid nodded, and headed to the back of the galley.
"Is she alright?" Alexa asked, looking at everyone.
"Yeah, she's just got the flu." Garcia explained. She, like the others, knew they should mind their own business, but it was hard to ignore the noise from the bathroom, even with the door shut.
Over the next fifteen minutes, Riley remained in the restroom. JJ and Reid kept guard by the door, waiting for her to come out. At last, the sound of the toilet flushed, followed by running water in the sink, no doubt to rinse her mouth. A moment later, she pulled the door open and the tired, pale, face of the woman stood in the door way. She immediately spotted Reid.
They didn't need to say a word to know this fight was over. Riley practically fell into his arms, resting her tired head on his shoulder, her body shaking from the effort of vomiting for so long.
He wrapped her in his embrace, making her feel so secure. "I'm sorry," He mumbled into the curls on top of his hair.
"Me, too." She whispered, and he felt tears on his shoulder. She clung to him, her whole form weakened. She needed rest.
Without a word, Reid effortlessly scooped her tired body into his arms, as he had down many times before. "Garcia," He said softly, "Would you mind getting a pillow and blanket for her?"
"Not at all," She answered, quickly getting off the other couch. She fetched the items from the storage under the seats as Emily came over to assist. The two quickly made up a makeshift bed. Easily, he brought the damsel over, laying her down gently. Her head rested back on the pillow and she let out a sigh.
He pulled the blanket over her, helping her get comfortable. Alexa watched in fascination as he knealt down, sitting beside her. "Wow," she whispered to Hotch. "He really loves her, doesn't he?"
"You have no idea." Hotch replied. He, too, watched with interest. Though, the couple didn't seem to notice.
Riley let out a sigh as at last, she opened her eyes, meeting his. The usual love and warmth had returned to them. "Thank you," She whispered.
Reid's long fingers stroked through her curls. "You should have stayed in Quantico."
"How else was I supposed to get you here?" She said with a slight smirk.
"I'm sorry, I've been a jerk tonight." He whispered. "I've been acting like this is all about me, I'm supposed to be objective."
"I understand how upset you are," Riley said, "believe me, I know how this is affecting you. But I've never seen you run from your fear before. You really want to give these people the satisfaction by doing it now? When you're so successful and revered? You've sat face to face with some of the worst killers of the modern age, you've had conversations with them. And you're going to let some high school kids 20 years past their prime get the best of you?"
He nodded. "You're right… I'm not a child, I can face these people." He thought for a moment. "But, if it's at all possible, could you maybe throw up on John Hillman tomorrow?"
Her eyes had a significant sparkle and she gave a nod. "I'll try, Baby."
Reid couldn't help but laugh a bit. She always made him feel better. "I love you… I hope you feel better soon."
"I love you, too." She uttered, clasping his hand. "Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?"
"Of course, I will," He smiled, adjusting his skinny legs into a more comfortable position. He reached up to press a kiss on her clammy forehead. As he pulled away, he nodded. "I think you're a little warm, but it's not too bad. You shouldn't need any medicine yet."
She let out a sigh, grateful. As a doctor, she didn't like to take medicine, knowing how any form of pills could do more harm than good. She closed her eyes, refusing to release Reid's hand. The other one was still stroking through her hair, watching her lovingly.
He was distracted, however, as he looked over. JJ was still standing at the galley, watching them with great interest.
"Something wrong?" He asked, concerned.
She hadn't realized she was staring. JJ came back to reality, shaking her head. "No… everything's fine."
Turning around, JJ went to get her coffee, glancing back at the married couple. She wouldn't bring anything up until tomorrow morning, and then she would wait until Riley was alone. That was the best way to discuss this, no point in getting anyone else involved until it was certain. Because there had been a time not long ago when JJ was a single woman, and began to suffer through nausea and lethargy and strange cravings… and at first she, too, believed it was just the flu.
