A/n hey all, it's Mabelreid here again. Just a warning for you, this contains mentions of events in the "Popular Kids." There are also violent, and somewhat graphic images in this oneshot. Other then that, please enjoy, and drop us a review when you're done.

The Baby in the Circle

The warehouse stank… There was no other word for it. Reid was used to the smells that accompanied crime and death: the scent of decomposition, the stink of fear, the coppery smell of death and a million other odors that went with scenes of violence.

The stink permeated the large room despite the freezing wind that ripped through the door Reid had just opened. It overwhelmed him till the sights of the carnage pulled his senses away and clamored for his attention. The white plumes of his breath billowed into the air from the hitching inhalations and exhalations of air through his mouth and nose. There was red blood in streaks and splatters of the concrete walls and floor. The floor was filthy with garbage and pools and streaks of motor oil.

His gun was out and his eyes were open for the children the team had sought for days. Morgan was at his side and the older agent gestured for Reid to go right around a stack of old boxes to their left. His ears were straining to hear anything over the wind that whistling around the building. The only thing to be heard was the rest of the team's footsteps in the echoing silence and their low voices in his ear through the radio.

His arms were beginning to ache from holding out his Glock in front of him, but he couldn't put it down till the warehouse was cleared. He eased around the corner of another stack of box and found a pile of dirty rags on the hard floor near the wall.

His eyes went wide and his breath stopped in his chest before his heart began to gallop at a furious rate. There was more blood on the walls, the floor and the rags. In the center of the makeshift bed lay a tiny baby, her skin grey and black with splotches of dried blood. Her eyes were open and her little throat had been cut. She was quite dead and beyond his help.

"Oh God… No!"

The little baby in the corner of the room was screaming. How long had they been in this room together? He covered his ears, but could still hear the little girl crying. The men that had grabbed him from the street had left them there for what felt like days.

He didn't know why there was a baby there with him. He didn't know who the men were or why they had taken him away from his mommy. His six year old brain shouldn't have been able to process any of this, but Spencer Reid was no ordinary six year old. He knew what kidnapping was and why people did it. However, his intellectual understanding couldn't translate to his emotions. He was terrified and ashamed because he'd already wet his pants in fright and it looked like the men had bad things ready to hurt him.

The baby wailed and Spencer got to his feet. There was no need to restrain him. The door was locked, he'd already tried it when he first awoken with a headache and a very dry mouth.

He took a couple steps in the direction of the baby. What if it was hungry? What if it was as scared as he was? What was he going to do if it didn't stop crying? Would it stop if he tried to hold like he'd seen mommies do in the movies and on television? What if the men came back and hurt it because it didn't stop crying?

The door flew open behind him and one of the bad men hurried in looking very angry. The man shoved him aside and he fell to a bruised knee and cried out in pain.

"Shut up…" the man said and hit him hard in the stomach.

Spencer rolled to his side and tried not to cry like the baby. He tried not to listen to the man shout at the baby and call it terrible names. And yet, it wasn't the baby's fault that she was here and being hurt by the angry man.

He pushed himself up to his feet and ran at the man that was bent over the cradle. Maybe he could distract the man so that when the police came and took away the baby, she would be okay. He kicked out at the man and the man roared in anger. He turned and reached out to slap Spencer. His hand connected with Spencer's face and it was like a bomb went off in his head. White hot pain lanced through his face and he screamed in pain. The man shouted at him to shut up, but it hurt too much. He sobbed and the man hit him again and again. The blows rained down on his head and his back. He was kicked in the ribs and the kidneys. The last thing he saw before passing out was the man turning back to the crib and the baby.

---

Reid shook his head and made his eyes look at something other than the poor baby in the rags. This wasn't twenty years ago, and he wasn't helpless. A rage that turned his vision to red washed over him. He turned with his gun and almost ran into the man that had come around the corner. He was tall, very fat and he was smiling.

"I told them not to call the police. See what happens when you disobey orders."

"Drop your gun," Reid shouted hoping Morgan would be coming soon. Surely they could hear him on the radio.

"I don't think so," The man had a Glock, just like Reid's trained on the young agent. "You're going to let me go or the little boy you seek will die."

Reid pulled the trigger on his gun and the bullet whined past the man's head with a loud crack and hit the stone wall behind him.

"Put it down," He hissed at the man.

"You can't shoot me. You're a federal officer, it's not -"

"Shut up and put down the gun. You're going to tell us where you hid the boy." Reid snapped. "Or I'll kill you."

The man looked into Reid's eyes and knew that he was telling the truth. Morgan came around the tottering pile of boxes as Reid stepped toward the bigger man.

"Reid…"

Reid ignored him and advanced on the man. "Reid… Stop…"

"No, he k-killed the baby… It s-shouldn't have h-happened Morgan. We should've found them sooner."

"Reid…"

The man had put his hands in the air when Morgan came around the corner. "You're partner is crazy," He said looking wildly around from Morgan to Reid.

"Shut up and don't move."

"S-stay out of the w-way Morgan... S-someone has to pay." Reid was shouting.

"He will Reid, we'll take him into custody and he won't hurt another child."

"Yeah… the boy's in the office on the second level. We didn't hurt him I swear." The man begged all of his bravado was gone.

"I don't care…" Reid shouted, taking another step forward. "Don't you see that someone has to pay? I was there and I saw what he did to her. I tried to stop him, but I was too small."

"Reid… let me handcuff him and then we'll talk about it."

Reid nodded taking his finger off the trigger and lowering the gun, as shameful tears began to run down his face. Morgan secured the man and shooed Emily away when she came around the corner. She looked from him and Morgan a clear question in her eyes.

"It's okay… It's under control."

She shrugged and left the aisle with Morgan as he took the man away. The man threw one last scornful look at Reid, his bravado restored now that Reid wasn't pointing a gun at him. Reid ignored him and stared at the tiny baby on the pile of rags. The child wasn't suffering anymore, but it didn't make him feel any better. He should cover it up or something. He looked around and there was nothing to cover it. It wasn't right; there should be something to keep the poor thing warm. He pulled off his flak jacket with the yellow letters FBI emblazoned on the back.

"Reid… What are you doing?"

He jerked back and the jacket drifted out of his fingers to the filthy floor. "I have to cover her. She's cold…"

"Hey kid… You'll compromise the scene."

"Oh right… But it's so cold in here and -"

"Reid! Snap out of it." Morgan had grabbed his shoulders and shook him.

"What… Oh, I'm sorry Morgan. I don't know what's wrong with me." He looked back down at the baby and went white. "I can't be here… I can't see this anymore!"

He turned and hurried out of the building, almost knocking over Emily who'd come back to see what was going on with them.

"Not now Emily, "Morgan said as he chased after Reid.

The warehouse was perched on the edge of the river and it was to the edge that Reid retreated with Morgan following him.

"Hey man, what's wrong?"

"I don't want to talk about it Morgan."

"You'll feel better if you do." Morgan pulled his jacket around his shoulders. The wind was brutally cold, the kind that made your eyes water and your nose cold.

"Oh right, so you can go tell Hotch like you did last time."

"What are you talking about?"

"You don't remember telling Hotch about my nightmares."

"Of course I do! What does that have to do with anything?"

Reid turned his back on Morgan and watched the sun on its slow course down the horizon to the west. It was going to be dark before they left. Maybe he should just stand there and let the lack of sunlight freeze him to the walkway.

"Reid…"

There was no way to avoid it. Hotch would be looking for them soon. He might as well tell it. So he told Morgan about his kidnapping as a child and the death of the baby that had been in the same room with him.

"…they were going to sell both of us to a pedophile ring. I was just so upset that I couldn't save the baby. She's always in my nightmares and I don't know how to make them stop. I just wanted to save the baby and that little boy so much. I didn't want him to end up like me."

"You were six years old. What did you think you could do?" Morgan stepped around the young agent to look him in the eye. He said softly, "You were sold to a pedophile ring?"

"No… the police found us in time. That's why I decided to I wanted to work in law enforcement."

"I'm sorry Reid."

"I know. I'm sorry I lost control back there. She shouldn't have had to die like that!."

"You're right, nothing like that should happen to children. I wish I had the power to stop all of it, but I don't and neither do you." He put an arm around his friend. "The only thing we can do is what we're doing."

"I know… It's just harder than I thought it would be."

"Come on, you can be the one to interrogate him. I think he has a healthy fear of you now and we need to know where his partner is."

"Okay…"