(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters)

Thanks to damthing, TheWeirdPersonNextDoor, Ash59, EJ Morgan, chele the original, yeegaber for reviewing the last chapter. I needed a pick me up.

I'll get around to replying to reviews soon.

Praying I have this done for the weekend. It's Friday and I have only done 100 words so I'm thinking this chapter will be shorter. Or longer and late which, since its now Tuesday... sigh, sorry! Here's the good part though, I will (bites fist because knows this is going to be a push) update again on Friday... hopefully

Anyway, Spencer's a bit mad in this chapter and I'm here for it. Enjoy.

Ed wiped his arms down, scrubbing through the. coarse hair sprinkled along the skin. He leaned over the sink, submerging his soapy arms before pulling them up from the red water, much cleaner than they had been going in. Ed dipped his face down into the pink tinged water, the soapy bubbles streaked red like peppermint. He winced as he braced his hands on the sink. His left arm throbbed badly at the crease of his armpit where a fleshy hole resided.

Ed scrubbed his face quickly with his good hand, his other hand trembling from the effort to hold his injured body up. Finally, Ed pulled his face from the sink and tipped his head back, inhaling deeply and pushing bubbles from his nostrils as he breathed out. The air wasn't fresh but it was better than nothing. The motel smelled like mothballs and dried-out soap bars.

Ed tilted his head back upright so he was level with his reflection in the condensation on the mirror.

He was beginning to grow stubby hairs around his jaw. Ed thought back to the calm motel he'd shared with his reluctant son and he wished for a razor again. He couldn't risk getting one now. He tapped his face, catching his nails in the hair around his chin and he smiled at his reflection. Haggard but still handsome, he thought.

Ed dropped the towel it on the floor after wringing his hands through and he stepped through the doorway, avoiding a bloody spot between the two rooms. He had passed out in that spot after booking the motel. Ed moved toward the bed, his body sagging slightly with each step closer to promised rest.

He forgot to look where he was going and his foot caught the edge of a hoody. Ed paused, lifting his foot tiredly up over the hoody and the limp body hanging out of it.

Ed manoeuvred around the body, hopping over its leg which was nearly severed. Ed could have finished the job if he hadn't been so exhausted. Ed sidestepped the second body in his path and he practically fell into the bed. He rolled away from the two dead men in front of the bathroom door and he squinted at the front door for a moment where a young man was leaning against the wall, his cold dead eyes staring out at nothing, his vessel empty. Ed sighed, looking at the man's wavy brown hair, supple lips and narrow stature. He thought of his three sons and he closed his eyes slowly.

A smile rose to Ed's lips as he welcomed sleep.

Aaron met Sean in Spencer's room. Sean looked around from the small file he was reading and he nodded at Aaron. The file, Aaron assumed, was Spencer's, the one he had made. The one that proved him to be a Hotchner.

Aaron and Sean both glanced at Spencer who was curled on his side, his chest moving up and down in gentle sleep.

"You okay?" Sean asked. Aaron nodded, moving quietly into the room, watching Spencer as he drew closer.

"How is he?"

Sean shut the file and set it down on the small tray table where a bunch of flowers from Penelope lay, waiting for a vase. "We talked for a while but they gave him his meds a couple hours ago and..." Sean motioned over to Spencer, sleeping softly, unaware of anything but the soft pillow cradled in his arms.

"That's good," Aaron said, looking down Spencer's body and taking in the thick cast fixed to his leg. He looked back at Sean to see him gazing at the cast too, his lips pursed. "Are you alright?" Aaron asked and Sean pulled his eyes up from the cast.

"I'm alright," he said but his expression betrayed his words. "Aaron, the woman. You didn't say much before."

Aaron hated the sad look in his brother's eyes. It was something he'd strove against. He wanted to be the wall between the sadness and his brother, deflecting the trauma from him and onto himself. Once again, Aaron saw himself failing.

Aaron glanced at Spencer and Sean undertood, standing up and walking around the bed. He moved to the wall beside Aaron, facing him with those sad eyes.

"So?" he asked.

Aaron sighed, taking a deep breath before he began explaining what Ed had done. Exactly what he had done. Aaron had already failed to shield Sean, he saw no point in hiding the truth from him any longer.

Sean's eyes soon fell to the floor when Aaron described the woman's injuries.

"How did the bastard do all that with a bullet wound?" Sean said, his voice growling as he imagined his father, invincible as he seemed.

Aaron's mind flashed with an image of his father, decades younger, his leg up on the couch with a hard cast not unlike the one currently on Spencer's leg. Aaron remembered what happened next, the smashed bottle, the glass he picked from his leg days after, his father's foul grin.

"Aaron?"

Aaron looked up and saw Sean's anger had receded to worry. "He's stronger than you remember," Aaron said.

"I don't want to remember," Sean muttered and Aaron smiled slightly. If only he knew, he thought and the painful memories wrapped around him again and his chest tightened.

"Why your name though?" Sean asked. Aaron let out a breath, his chest finally released from the grasp of his memories. "He had Myles, why wouldn't he put his name... or mine."

"I don't know." Aaron was lying through his teeth. He knew. He knew it like a hard smack in the face. Ed has always wanted him. In a sick way; one that even after so many years made Aaron's stomach churn. It was always Aaron. It was Aaron who took the beatings, Aaron who spoke and humoured the man with conversation. It was Aaron who cleaned up after his tirades while his mother sobbed on the floor and his brothers slept soundly behind closed doors. It was Aaron who on very few occasions helped him fix the car. It was Aaron who Ed smiled at with more than fatherly love... and it was Aaron who followed his father to the bedroom.

Aaron knew why it was his name carved into that woman's skin. It wasn't a warning. It was an invitation, a doorway into his tortuous past.

"But to... to do so much to her... Aaron her throat... you said..." Sean swallowed.

"She was nearly decapitated," Aaron said stoically, his voice cold.

"At least they know what car to look out for," Sean said. "It's just... do you have crime scene photos?"

"You're not looking at them."

"Aaron I just want to-"

"Torture yourself? Trust me, you don't want to see them. It was a bloodbath, Sean. He's escalated."

"Did she die quickly? After he stabbed her in... in her neck?"

Aaron nodded slowly. Sean looked deathly grey with the new information slowly working its way through his head. Both Aaron and Sean were startled by another voice suddenly piping up in the room.

"What?"

Aaron looked past Sean and he saw Spencer sat up in bed. He wished more than anything that they'd spoken outside.

"Spencer..." Aaron started but he wasn't sure what to say. He looked at Sean and then back at Spencer whose look of shock had changed to anger. "How much did you hear?" Aaron asked as Spencer pushed himself up from his pillows.

"Enough," he said in a low voice.

Aaron moved away from the wall. "Spencer," he said, holding his hands up. "Let me explain it all, alright?"

"I-I think I heard it all. He did it again... someone's dead because of me."

"What?!" Sean pushed away from the wall, shaking his head incredulously. "Not 'cus of you!"

"After you found me... if I had died o-or actually aimed better he wouldn't have found her."

"No, Spencer. This is nothing to do with you."

"Is that why you didn't tell me?" Spencer snapped, he pushed himself forward, trying to move across the bed with his leg stuck out in its cast.

Aaron frowned, moving closer and preparing to push Spencer back down. "No."

Spencer shoved himself up before Aaron or Sean could stop him. Sean's hand got to him first, gently taking hold of Spencer's pale arm. Spencer pushed him away, shaking his head and moving further to the edge of the bed.

"I-if it happened a few days ago why didn't you tell me?"

"Spencer," Aaron started but Sean had tried to grab Spencer again and the young man fell backwards to get away from him.

"No!" he cried. Sean let him go quickly and he stepped back guiltily as Spencer struggled to sit back up. Spencer caught his breath and swallowed hard through his panting. "No," he mumbled again, quieter this time. "You should have told me."

"You were barely conscious when it happened," Aaron said and he loosened his folded arms, moving closer to his brother but not touching him as Sean had done. Spencer looked up slowly at his towering brother. "You haven't seen yourself either. If you could see what we saw you'd understand why we were being gentle."

Spencer's brow fell slowly as he looked up at Aaron. "So I'm damaged?" he asked. Aaron was surprised to hear the anger in the young man's words, despite his frail voice.

"No."

"Do I honestly look that awful? I'm too fragile for the truth?" Spencer's lips trembled and Aaron could see the wetness filling his eyes.

"I lived with the truth for a week!" Spencer said, his voice teetering on a yell. "I lived with him. I relived it all. Ed is the worst truth in our lives, the one thing who we wish was a lie. You're too scared of the truth!" Spencer's arms were shaking as he held himself up off the bed.

"Spencer-"

"I tried to tell you," Spencer said. "I told you who I was. That was the truth too! But you're too stubborn to listen!"

"Yes, Spencer!" Aaron said, raising his arms as he spoke. "I made a mistake, yes, I know! Do you know how hard I tried to protect you two when we were under his care? No! You two had no idea what he was capable of."

"M-maybe if we'd of known from the start then we'd be safe. Maybe if you stopped lying to us!"

"What do you want me to say?" Aaron asked. "Sorry for keeping you safe?"

"It's not about that," Spencer muttered angrily and Aaron cocked his eyebrows.

"No, it's not is it? You were right and I was wrong, is that what you want to hear?" Aaron snapped and Spencer glared at him.

"I was wrong," Aaron added. "Don't you think I know that? As normal, you were right."

"It's not about that and you know it."

"What is it about, Spencer?"

"You never listen."

"What? Of course I do."

"Not when it matters. And it's not about being right or wrong. It was about trusting me." Spencer pushed up off the bed, his feet touching the ground tenuously, his cast straining under his weight. Though Aaron wanted to he didn't help Spencer, his arms just hung at his sides, longing but not helping.

"But you don't trust me." Spencer said, now up on his feet, his hands still stretched out behind him and holding onto the bed. He reached up one hand, his body trembling to keep upright. He touched his cheek, his fingers brushing his bruised eye which was fading from purple to green.

"I have plenty of evidence to prove that. And that hurts the most, Hotch. The fact that my own brothers don't trust me. It's only because I'm hurt that you want anything to do with me. It's just guilt."

Aaron opened his mouth but his gaze met Spencer black eye as the young man turned his head. He saw the dating bruise his fist had left. He'd hurt his brother before his father had laid his hands on him again.

"Aaron?"

Aaron turned away from Spencer, thankful for the break in tension. Rossi was stood in the doorway, having stepped inside, his hand still in the door, keeping it open. The older agent seemed to read the room well and he backed up into the door.

"The interview," he said, with a prompt nod to Aaron who nodded.

"I'll be there now." He glanced back at Spencer who turned his head. "Spencer? I'm sorry."

Spencer's jaw moved, tightening as he clenched his teeth. He didn't say anything.

"Aaron?"

"I'm coming."

Aaron looked at Sean who was sunk back in a chair, watching Spencer nervously. He saw Aaron looking his way and he sat up, licking his lips and breathing in as if he'd been holding his breath.

"I'll stay," he said.

"You can go," Spencer mumbled. He didn't look at either of his brothers. "You don't have to stay with me."

"I'll stay," Sean said again and he nodded at Aaron to go.

Aaron looked back at Spencer. The young man hadn't moved and wasn't even attempting to look or speak to him. Aaron rubbed his chin and just sighed, moving quietly to the door.

Rossi gave him a look and he shook his head. "Let's just go."

Aaron felt sick as he stood in front of the podium. There was a camera trained on him and several faces watching as he made his normal spiel to the unsub. He'd been asked to do another camera appeal to the unsub since he hadn't been caught and the station was feeling the failure. Not to mention the general feel of anxiety in the surrounding town after news had quickly spread.

Aaron zoned out, repeating what he had already said before. He tried not to think about the fact that he was describing his father. The man, without whom, Aaron wouldn't exist.

Aaron paused when he dismissed the profile, his gaze passing over the quick thumbs up from Emily who was beside Rossi on the other side of the camera.

It didn't feel like enough. Aaron needed to say more. He could warn people but they'd never truely understand the threat his father posed. Aaron could do only one thing. He had to connect with his father again.

The camera was about to move away when Aaron held up his hand to stop it. The camera man was quick to focus the camera back on Aaron.

"Hold on," he said.

Aaron thought about what Rossi had said the day before. He'd been sarcastic, trying to convince Aaron against Sean's visit. Bait... the word popped up in Aaron's mind as he looked down at the podium. The cameraman glanced away from his equipment to one of the news readers who was scowling at Aaron.

Bait... Aaron thought of himself and his brothers.

Bait.

He swallowed back his anxiety for just enough time to raise his head and look into the dark camera lens again where he could see his own stoney face looking back.

"Many of you are aware that Edward Bingham is my father. I am his eldest son, three of which he has, all alive too despite his best efforts. So I will talk to him directly, as his son." Aaron ignored the surprised looks from the news team and the way Rossi slowly lifted his head from his hand, looking at Aaron with narrowed eyes.

"Dad," Aaron said, the word moving painfully through his clenched teeth. Aaron couldn't protect his brothers anymore. He'd done a poor job so far. So it was time he proved himself, even if he had to put them in danger first.

"You have what you want right here. All of us. We're right here. Sean, Myles, and me. Stop looking for people to take your anger out on when your real targets are right in front of you. You know my number. Contact us and tell us exactly what you want."

Aaron cleared his throat and moved away from the podium and the microphone. He licked his lips, still avoiding the way Rossi was watching him. He looked at the camera again, his gaze hard and, as he hoped, unreadable.

"We aren't going anywhere, dad..." Aaron straightened, regaining all professionalism. "I continue to urge the public to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity, or sightings in relation to Ed Bingham's description. Thank you."

Aaron glared at the lens, imagining his fathers face to be looking back at him rather than his own reflection. He nodded to anyone who was still listening and the camera turned away from him and back at the news reader.

Aaron let out the deep breath he'd been holding since the end of his speech and he dropped his head down, his anxiety washing back over him like a heavy blanket, riddled with guilt.

Aaron didn't know that his father was also captivated. His eyes glued to the grainy screen in his motel room. Aaron didn't know that in that very moment his father was smiling with his eyes closed, Aaron's face revolving around his thoughts.

Thanks for reading.

Bit boring I know. I just wanted to get this out this weekend without anymore delays. Hopefully next weeks will be better.

See you soon!