Tricks

I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you: - Friedrich Nietzsche

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine

At dusk they sat around a small fire. Reid was far from happy. His leg hurt. He had insect bites on his neck. There was no coffee. He pulled off his boots and rubbed his toes. Why does it have to be so uncomfortable out here? Rubbing at his neck and scratching at itching places.

Floyd looked across at him in the fire light and smiled. "What's wrong?"

"B b bites."

"I will get you some leaves in the morning. Rub them on your skin. It's a repellent."

He smiled back.

Hotch had laid his blanket down and was leaning back on it chewing on some dried stuff he had brought with him. He still wasn't too happy about eating something Floyd provided, unless he saw it being cooked from scratch. Completely. Like cut off the cow type of from scratch. He looked at Floyd looking at Spencer and saw the look Reid was giving him back and felt a pang on jealousy. Did Spencer ever look at him like that? Was he even aware of the way he looked at Floyd. Like he was eating away at his soul with his eyes. It was mesmerising. Was Floyd as caught in this strange relationship as Reid was?

"Aaron!" Floyd was suddenly standing. "You don't mind if I take Spence out to lay some traps do you?"

He did. He minded a lot.

"Of course not." Say what you mean Aaron. "I will keep the fire going."

Floyd moved around the fire and put his hand out for Spencer. "With me. I want to show you some tricks." Spencer smiled up at Floyd and pulled him self up using his hand.

Aaron watched as Floyd picked up a ball of string and his bed roll. Then watched their retreating backs. Wonderful – marvellous. He pulled his iPod out his pocket and stuffed his ears with some Opera.

They walked for about twenty minutes hand in hand and then with Floyd's arm around Spencer's waist. They stopped in a small clearing and Floyd dropped the bed roll to the forest floor.

"Turn around." He put his hands on Reid's shoulders and spun him so he had his back to Floyd. "Hands Babes. I need your hands."

Spencer started to turn around again. "Wh wh what are y …." A finger over his lips.

"Hush – turn around and show me your hands. I am going to show you a trick."

Reid stood and looked at Floyd and slowly shook his head. He knew that look. He knew that tone, and he didn't like what it usually meant.

Flanders smirked at him and put hands on his shoulders pushing him so he had to walk backwards. Faster and faster Floyd pushed him as his eyes seemed to get darker and deeper. Reid's back eventually hit a tree and he stopped suddenly. Floyd put his face close to Spencer's. "Turn your slutty little face around and face the tree. I don't want to see your face." This time Spencer was spun around with force. He needed Hotch. All he had to do was call out and Hotch would be on his way. He felt Floyd put a hand on the back of his head.

"Hands. Behind your back. Now."

A slow defiant shake of the head. Fingers twisted in his hair and pulled his head back.

"Now."

Reid moved his hands and put them on the tree. Floyd smacked his face into the tree with a face smashing crunch.

He let out a cry of pain.

"NOW!" hissing in his ear and pulling his head back again.

"P p please don't." Slowly he moved his hands until they were behind his back.

"Thank you. Now how difficult was that?"

Reid felt Floyd wind something around his wrists and then he spun him around to face him. Spencer saw his eyes narrow when he saw the blood on Reid's mouth. He pushed him hard against the tree and put his full body weight against him. His tongue moved slowly over Spencer's mouth. Wiping it over the lips. Gently sucking on his mouth and pushing his tongue against Reid's closed mouth. The taste of blood made him feel so alive. Reid's blood had a special sweet taste all of its own. One he would recognise anywhere. He pushed harder against Reid grinding himself against Reid's bony hip.

"On your knees whore." He breathed into Spencer's mouth. "You are a slut and a tease. You know that don't you?" Hands on Reid's shoulders pushed him down.

Spencer felt dizzy and sick. The way Floyd would flip from one mood to the next was the thing which intrigued him and terrified him. Like some mystical puzzle he had to solve.

………………………….

When they arrived back at the fire Hotch was on his feet in a flash. "What the hell happened? What did you do to him?"

Reid was white faced with a smear of blood across the side of his face. He sat at the fire with his back against the tree Aaron had been sitting under. He kept his hands stuffed in his pockets so Aaron couldn't see them shaking. His fingers wrapped around the pill pot deep at the bottom. At least he had that.

"He fell. Banged his face. He will be fine. Stop fussing over him like an old woman. He's not a child. He's a grown man."

Floyd poked at the fire with a stick.

Hotch gave Flanders a quizzical look and went over to Spencer. A finger under his chin to lift his face. "Are you OK Spence?"

"I told you he was ok. Stop mauling him."

Reid nodded and gave Hotch a weak smile. It was obvious what had happened. To Hotch it was only too clear.

Floyd sat with his legs crossed prodding the flames. "You two best sleep. I'll keep the fire going."

Spencer didn't need to be told twice. He lay down on the blanket facing the fire with his legs curled up and one arm wrapped around himself whilst the other slid deep down into his pocket and carefully manipulated the lid off the little bottle and he managed to get a few in his hand. He felt Hotch lay down behind him and lay an arm protectively over his young agent.

Spencer could feel Aaron's breath against the back of his neck and instantly he felt safe again. He pulled his hand out of his pocket and popped the pills in his mouth. He looked across to see Floyd watching him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. Spencer crunched down and slid into oblivion.

"Sweet dreams Hotch." Floyd muttered from across the fire.

Aaron felt the change in Spencer as the drugs took effect. His body relaxed and stopped twitching and tensing the way it did constantly. Reid was making soft moaning sounds from the back of his throat but his body remained relaxed.

"He's a junky you know." Floyd's voice from across the fire again.

"Pardon?" Hotch lifted his head so he could see Floyd as he talked to him.

"He is addicted to his pain killers. He can't not take them now. He gets these funny heads. I tried telling him – out there – earlier, but he won't listen." Still prodding the fire he wasn't looking at Aaron as he spoke. "Is why he fell. He got a dizzy spell cos I wouldn't let him dope himself up out there." Floyd now looked up as Aaron stroked Reid's hair. "He will be out of it until the morning. You can do what you want to him, he won't know. It's why they keep jumping him and giving him a kicking. He just lays there and lets them."

"Are you sure?"

"Check his pockets. I bet he has some on him. Probably loose in his pocket. He crunches down on them. You're not meant to do that. It like increases the effect by a dreadful amount. Gives him hallucinations. It's how he copes." He watched as Aaron's hand reached down into Reid's pocket. He knew Floyd was playing mind games with him. It was his favourite pastime, but Hotch wasn't as easily taken in as Reid. He wasn't as gullible. His fingers jumped back when they touched the pill pot and then felt the loose tablets in the bottom of his pocket. He pulled the pot out and looked at it. The same meds he had been taking when he came into work that one time. Had he been taking these things all that time?

"These are only meant to be taken for up to two weeks at a time."

"I know."

"They are highly addictive."

"Yes I know that too."

"Well where the hell is he getting these?"

"From some quack back home."

"And you didn't try to stop him?"

"By the time I realised, it was too late. He was already hooked. Spence made me promise not to say anything."

"But you are now? Out here where I cant do anything to help him?"

"Something like that." He threw the stick into the fire. "You best sleep now."

Hotch wrapped his arms tighter around this broken ruined person laying with him in his drugged sleep.

Floyd lit up a smoke and sat watching the two sleeping men.

After about an hour he got up and joined them. Curling up behind Aaron. Putting his arms around the FBI agent and pulling some warmth from him and into his frozen soul – he kissed and nibbled the back of Aarons neck and along the top of his shoulder. Apple shampoo.

It was the early hours of the morning when the screaming started.

……………………………..