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Chapter 19:
Tears blurred Ashley's vision as she attempted to find an empty room. Finally, at the end of the corridor, was a small prayer room. Jerking the door open, her eyes scanned the room for other people. It was only once she was convinced that she was alone that she allowed herself to break down. The tears that had been threatening to spill, since she'd first learned Spencer had been taken, ran unchecked down her cheeks. Her shoulders were rocked by the deep, gasping sobs escaping her body. She had only cried this hard three times in her life: the day she realized that her dad was a mass murderer, the night of her first case, and that morning at Spencer's. Is this what it feels like to have your heart shattered past the point of healing?
"Ashley?" A nail-bitten hand slipped into hers. "Ashley, can you hear me?" Emily asked. Seaver glanced up into the worried eyes of her training officer. "I'm fine." she mumbled. "You're obviously not." Prentiss stated, gripping her hand tighter. "Why are you here Emily?" Ashley asked, trying to deflect the conversation away from herself, "I thought you would be debriefing your Interpol friends." She was rewarded by a light flush coloring Prentiss' cheeks. "I needed to figure out some things before I could talk to them." she muttered. "What sort of things?" Ashley's curiosity got the better of her, "sorry that was rude." Emily laughed, "That's alright. I'll make you a deal. You tell me what's bothering you, and I'll tell you what's bothering me."
Seaver sighed, it was obvious that Prentiss was not going to let this slide, she might as well play along. "The confrontations I had with Reid and JJ, as well as the stress of everything that's happened in the past three days, just pushed me a little too far. I'm sorry to have scared you." Prentiss squeezed her hand "Don't worry about me," she assured her, "we've all been through a lot, it would be surprising if you hadn't broken down." Ashley gave her a weak smile, "Thanks Emily." Prentiss smiled back at her before once again turning serious, "do you want to tell me about what Reid and JJ said to you?"
"It really wasn't that bad!" Ashley stammered unconvincingly. "Obviously it was if you won't talk about it." "Um, Spence just made a comment about how pathetic it was that I liked him. He, he told me that no one would ever love me once they found out about my dad. And Agent Jareau mentioned that he had told her I was going to get you all killed." Her eyes flickered over to her superior, and she was astounded to see the look of grim satisfaction on Emily's face. "So he has been lying." Emily muttered. "What?" Ashley asked. "Reid, he's been lying, at least to you." "How can you be sure?" Seaver questioned. Prentiss gave her a wry smile, "anyone with eyes can see how much Reid cares about you. At least anyone who takes the time to look. I can't believe how we all missed it. He was so down after JJ left, but when you came along he was happy. I've never seen him bond with someone so quickly. Why else would he have brought you along with him to that meeting or told you so much about his experiences? He never told any of us. Trust me Ashley, Spencer does care about you, even if he's trying to convince everyone otherwise. As for JJ, the only guess I would have is that she was being overprotective." "Overprotective?" Seaver squeaked. Emily nodded, "Yeah, she and Spencer have been incredibly close since his first day at the BAU. JJ's the sister he's never had, and she's terrified that someone's going to hurt him." "Okay," Ashley murmured, "that made me feel a bit better, but what about you?"
Prentiss sighed, "Reid dropped a bomb I never saw coming." "What was it?" Seaver asked. "He told me that Doyle had told him the reason he took him. It wasn't because he was my co worker or because of how close friends we were; it was because he's my first cousin. At least according to Doyle he is. I've spent the past half hour deliberating between whether or not to call my mother, to ask her." "Why not ask the hospital to run a DNA test?" Ashley asked. "I did, it'll be another hour before the results come back. I need to know now." Seaver squeezed Emily's hand and said, "then you need to call her." "Okay, just stay in the room, please?"
With a heavy heart, Emily dialed the number to her mother's office. "Ambassador Prentiss' office." a perky voice answered. "Hello, I need to speak with Elizabeth." "Ambassador Prentiss is in a meeting," the voice said snarkily, "can I take a message?" Prentiss took a deep breath before responding, "this is her daughter. I will give you fifteen seconds to put my mother on the phone." Almost immediately the secretary's voice was replaced with her mother's irate one. "Emily? You have better have a good reason for dragging me out of my meeting." "That depends mother," she put as much venom as she could into the word, "would you like to explain to me why you told me I didn't have any cousins?" "What? How did you find out about Spencer? Who told you?" the anxiety in her mother's voice confirmed Prentiss' fears, Reid was her cousin. "That doesn't matter. What matters is that I'm hearing about it now!"
"Don't be ridiculous Emily!" her mother scolded, "I did you favor by not telling you, just like I did by never telling you about your biological father." "What?" Emily yelled, "What do you mean you never told me about my biological father? Kenneth Jamerson is my father. He was in the house for ten years before you divorced him!" "Kenneth Jamerson was the man I married to ensure you never found out about your father. About the greatest mistake of my life. Words cannot describe how much of an idiot I must have been to marry Daniel Redding." Redding, Redding was Reid's mom's maiden name. And he had an uncle named Daniel. "Where is my father?" she asked. "In hell probably, serves him right for taking his own life, leaving me to raise our daughter on our own." "He took his own life?" Emily whispered. "Don't feel pain for a man you never met." her mother snarled. "He couldn't handle having the genes for schizophrenia, like that psychotic sister of his. He didn't want to wake up one day and not know who he was. He'd grown up watching that happen to his sister, he didn't want that to happen to him." "And how exactly would you know this?" Prentiss demanded. "Because he left me a letter. He told me under no circumstances were you to ever come into contact with that woman or any child she might have. Like I would have ever let you."
"Right mother, like you would ever want to do anything that might make it seem like you have a soul. How ironic it must be for you to learn that the woman's son is one of my colleagues and closest friends." "What?" her mother demanded. "Spencer, my cousin. I know him as SSA Dr. Reid, a member of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. And his mother, is one of the sweetest women I have ever met. If only she could have raised me, that way it would have been guaranteed that I didn't end up an unfeeling bitch like you!" "Emily!" "Goodbye mother." Prentiss savagely disconnected the call, glad to be able to finally finish a conversation on her own terms. "Emily?" Seaver asked, concern etched over her features. Prentiss gave a weak smile. "C'mon!" she said, "we need to plan our next step."
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