One Child, Part One: Hotch
One child stood before the altar
One child stood out in the rain
One child spent his time imagining
And I don't believe he's coming home again
-"One Child" By Savatage
Hotch hated forcing Reid to stay behind, but he was in no condition to go on a raid. He needed more time to sort things out. Well at least thats what Hotch hoped. He could tell that there was something that he wasn't telling them, but he had decided not to push it- he would tell them when he was ready. Now he was starting to think he would never be ready. Maybe it was time to look into the matter on his own. He was afraid if he waited any longer than Reid would sink more into himself and wouldn't come out again.
Hotch was so preoccupied that he barely realized he was driving.
"Its the next left." Emily said but he didn't proses the words until it was almost to later.
Quickly he turned barely missing it. Luckily there wasn't many people out today. People around here weren't used to the rain. From then on Hotch payed close attention until they reached the right house.
Everyone was out of the car before it had even stopped. Rossi and Emily, followed by Detective Parker, went around the back as the rest of them went to the front. Morgan had the door down before Hotch could even scale the five steps to the porch. Once inside they all split in different directions covering the small house.
In a few seconds all them were crowded in the small living room pointing their guy's at Sam Hudson. He was tall man with short blond hair and blue eyes. In his hand he was holding a gun pointing it into the crowd, even though he was way out numbered.
"Don't be stupid." Hotch said automatically taking the role of negotiator. "Out down the gun, Sam." He didn't move. "You only kill bad guys right?"
"How do I know your not bad?" He said his voice cold and hard.
"We;re just like you. We fight to protect the Innocent. Isn't that what you do." Sam nodded slightly. "You don't want to kill innocent people do you?"
Sam looked around at the men and women surrounding him then asked, "Where's Agent Reid?"
"He's not here." Hotch said plainly.
Sam looked like he wanted to say something, but held it back.
"You want your story heard, right?" Hotch continued. "Thats why you called when you heard we didn't give you credit..... You've been doing this for so long, and no one knows, no-one cares. You're jealous of the police. We get all the credit, even when its you that does the work."
"It's not fair..." Sam said almost putting down the gun.
"Put down the gun and we can work something out." Hotch said but he didn't move.
He was distracted though, not watching. Morgan say this and in a flash was on top of him. A second later Sam was on the ground with Morgan on top of him and Emily was holding the gun. It all happened so fast Hotch hadn't time to put away his gun.
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It was only a few minutes later when they walked back into the police station. Sam Hudson was taken, by Parker, to the interrogation rooms where he would soon be interrogated. Morgan called Garcia to see what she had found on him wail they were gone.
"You caught him." Garcia answered not sounded to thrilled.
"Yep. Baby Girl, what you got for us?" Morgan said paying no attention to it.
"Okay, so yeah, you were right. He tried to be a cop when he turned 21, but failed. Then he went into nursing and is now a RN and has traveled all over the country- most likely killing as he went. He last lived in Las Vages." She paused. "At Bennington Sanitrium...." They all realized that that was were Reid's mother had been.
"Thanks." Morgan said and hung up.
Upon entering the station Hotch had expected Reid to come running up. He wasn't sure if he would have been sad, or still mad, but anything would have worked. But he didn't see him. Through out the conversation with Garcia he had been looking for the young agent, but had yet to find him. The news that Hudson worked with Dania made him even more worried. What did he know that they didn't?
Realizing that Reid wasn't there Hotch went to the closest cop and asked, "Where's Reid?"
"Dr. Reid? He went with you, didn't he?" He said clammily.
"No."
"Well when you guys left he stopped in the door, then followed after you I just thought..." Hotch run outside with out listening to the rest of the story.
He looked around through the pouring rain as if the genius would come out of hiding. He stood there for a good minute, wished, praying, that he hadn't done anything stupid.
Then he ran back inside calling Reid's phone. It went straight to voice mail. The rest of the team was asking what was wrong, but he didn't hear them. And even if he hadn't he wouldn't have answered. Then he dialed Garcia.
"Yes..." She said unsure why she was being called twice in less then two minutes.
"Can you get me the surveillance footage for the police station?" He asked.
"Um.. Sure..." She said. A few moment's later she added, "Its being sent to your lap top."
"Can you find the footage of us leaving the station?" He asked as he opened the computer which was on the small table.
By this time everyone of was surrounding his chair and paying close attention to what he was looking for.
"There you go."
They watched as the five of them left the station, then a few seconds later Reid walked out, but went the opposite direction.
"Where's he going?" Gracia asked sharply.
"Can you follow him?" He asked.
"Um...." You could hear her quick tapping on the key board and in only a few moments the screen changed to another camera.
Reid was walking down the street. Every time he went out of frame Garcia would find them a new camera that show him. This went on for a good 10 minutes of walking then Reid left the street into a Church.
"What's going on?" Emily asked, but no-one had an answer.
"I think its time we talked to Hudson." Rossi said.
Hotch nodded, unable to talk. He could believe that Reid would run away like this.
"Should we go after him?" Jordan asked.
"Garcia, can you get eyes all around the church?" Hotch asked.
"Yep..."
"Morgan take Jordan with you." He said and the two ran off to try and find their lost friend.
Then Hotch and Rossi went to see what Sam knew. The interrogation room was small, and cold. Even the good looking guy in the middle didn't give it any warmth.
"How do you know Spencer Reid?" Rossi asked, even thought they already knew.
"I don't. I knew his mother though." Sam answered.
"Do you know what happened to her?" Hotch asked harsher than Rossi had.
"She died." Sam answered and Hotch was ready to strangle him already, but he continued to say, "And I even thought about killer her killer."
"She was murdered?" Rossi said with his best fake surprised voice.
In truth they hadn't really thought it was murderer but then it wouldn't have surprised them if it was.
"Yeah."
"Who did it?" Hotch asked quickly.
"Now would it be any funny if I told you. He's not really a bad guy. She asked for it."
Hotch stormed out of the room leaving Rossi to continue with the interrogation alone. Hudson knew wasn't going to tell them anything about Reid or his mother and defiantly had no idea where he was now. Hotch hated himself for leaving him alone. He hated himself for not helping the agent out more. He could tell he was not right from the moment he came back to work. He had thought that he would get out of it- return to normal. He never thought that it was this bad.
Back in the main room Emily was sitting at the computer talking to Garcia. He wasn't really paying much attention to what they were saying, but he knew it was about Reid. Only a few minutes later Emily's phone rang.
"Is he there, Morgan?" She asked making sure it was on speaker phone.
"No." He sound worried. "Jordan is talking to a paster that thins he saw him in here, but his not here."
"Garcia, can you see when he left?" Hotch asked.
"I'll try, but sir...." She sounded scared. That must have meant she was keeping something back. "I don't have eyes on all the exits. There are service doors all over the place... He could be any where..."
Hotch was frustrated. Reid had a good 30 minute head start. He could be anywhere by now. It wasn't looking like he was coming back. They might never see the young agent again. And it could very well have been his fault.