Family.

The advantage of the emotions is that they lead us astray: - Oscar Wilde

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

When Morgan couldn't get a reply from Hotch he had to make a decision. Leave Reid here and go and investigate or take him with him. The latter not being the best idea.

"I am going to check up on Aaron. I need you stay here and lock the elevator. I will call you when I need you to let me back in."

Reid was sitting on the edge of his bed. The shaking had died down a bit now and he just had the overwhelming need for a drink and a smoke. This was not something he was willing to share with Morgan though so the prospect of him leaving to check on Hotch was for Reid quite a nice one.

A nod.

"Are you sure you will be alright. You're not going to do something stupid?"

Reid looked up at Morgan with his battered face and smiled a strange half smile. "I am a genius. Why would I do something stupid?"

Morgan patted him on the knee and stood up. "Remember to lock down the elevator as soon as I go."

A quick nod. "I will remember."

Reid waited for a few minutes after Morgan had left then stood to go put the lock on.

………………………………

Morgan stepped into the elevator and pressed the down button. It clanked and rattled its way back down to the parking level. He was now worried about Hotch and pulled his cell out of his pocket to try calling him again. One hand on the door handle, the other on his phone his eyes looking down. He fire poker smacked him hard across the face. As he shouted out and started to defend himself the metal poker hit him across the side of the head stunning him. He felt his knees go weak and felt the phone falling from numb fingers.

Derek didn't see who it was who hit him as the assailant was now behind him as he fell to the floor. As the lights dimmed he could feel the object being smacked down again onto the back of his head.

The phone was kicked out of the way and stamped on.

Morgan was dragged out of the way of the doors and along to his car where he was left. His wallet was taken and the cash and card removed.

The card was then dropped down the nearest drain and the wallet dropped on the floor. Money in pocket he went to the elevator and pressed the 'up' button.

………………………

Reid walked from the bedroom to go and lock the elevator. He stopped and stared at the person standing in the lounge.

"Floyd?"

"Hey babes – are you feeling alright?" Floyd walked quickly towards him. "You really should be laying down you know." He took Reid by the hand and led him back to the bed room. Their bedroom.

"Where have you been?"

"Out, thinking, stuff you know? About us and what to do."

"There is no us Floyd. There is you and I. We are not an singular item."

He turned and started a slow painful walk back to the bedroom.

"There will always be an us." He watched Reid for a while then walked to the kitchen. He called back to Reid. "I would make you a coffee babes, but someone had a tantrum." He took 2 tumblers from the glass fronted cupboard, half a bottle of whisky a couple of smokes from the drawer and the silver lighter and then followed Reid into the bedroom

"You still haven't said where you have been. You are covered in blood." He was laying on his side on the bed.

"Nu hu. Here have a drink."

"Nu hu? What sort of answer is that?" He took the drink. "You smell of blood." A frown.

"You don't need to know all the details about everything I do. It will only distress you." He put a lit smoke between Reid's lips. "Have a smoke and a drink and relax."

…………………………

He pulled himself to his knees and looked around. The room had been destroyed. The pictures on the mantle where smashed the leather couch was ripped the television smashed. Nothing taken, just broken and destroyed. His face was bleeding from the knee to the nose and mouth. His head was bleeding from being smacked with the poker. His cracked ribs was hurting again and he had bled all over the floor. That didn't matter. What mattered was that Floyd had searched the room and ripped up all pictures of his former family and destroyed all evidence that they had existed.

Hotch got groggily to his feet and looked around at the destruction. Carefully and painfully he walked out into the hall. There were occasional drops of blood on the floor which had probably dripped either from Floyd or from the poker he had been carrying. The blood trail went up the stairs and few step before petering out. He had to crawl up the stairs to see what Flanders had been doing upstairs in his house. At the top of the stairs he pulled himself painfully to his feet again. His head spinning and his eyes finding it hard to focus. He looked down the length of the corridor. All doors were closed but one. His bedroom door.

Putting one trembling hand on the wall for support he walked slowly and carefully down the passage way towards his bedroom. He stood and looked in the door way. Again the room had been destroyed. His clothes were on the floor shredded the bed was cut and ripped. More photographs were strewn over the floor. He felt a stinging behind his eyes. Floyd had targeted things to do with family and love.

Aaron walked into the room and sat on the edge of the slashed bed. Sitting in the middle was a photograph. Hotch picked it up and looked at it. It was of him and Spencer standing in the foreground looking down at something. Floyd standing behind them looking amused. He ran a finger over the picture and let out a sigh. This was the message. He had to call Reid.

……………………………

The drink finished and the smoke gone Reid was now laying on his back. The marks on his face had surprised Floyd. He couldn't remember hitting him that hard and he had no memory of holding his throat so hard to bruise it like that.

"I'll get us another drink, you put this on." Another damned sarong. This one was pale green. Reid wiggled to the side of the bed and pulled the strange garment around his skinny waist and then stood. It immediately slipped down to his hips. One bony hip showing above the thin fabric. His head was woozy and his eyes were itchy. A side effect of the drugs and everything else he assumed.

"Floyd – I've been thinking."

Flanders jumped at the sound of his voice and dropped something onto the floor. "Shit Spence don't sneak up on people." Reid grinned and watched Floyd disappear behind the counter and pick something up. He stuffed it in his pocket. He then looked up at Spencer standing half way between the bedroom and the kitchen area.

That funny unwelcome flip happened again. It annoyed him. He didn't like feeling out of control and this funny feeling he was getting now made him feel like he was tumbling forwards head first into trouble.

"Floyd – what's wrong?"

Reid saw the look on Flanders face. Not one he had seen often but it was usually accompanied by a sudden flash of uncontrolled violence. He took a few steps back. He knew running was pointless. He knew Floyd was going to hurt him now whatever he did. Spencer stood and waited for the pain to start

He could smell Floyd and sense he was near. Then the hands. He flinched back from the hand on his face.

It didn't hurt.

The other hand wrapped around the back of his neck and pulled him close.

Reid closed his eyes in fear but the pain didn't come. Nor did the usual rough handling he was so used to. This was gentle. This was kind.

Soft kind loving words in his ear.

"Spence. You are so damned sexy, have I ever told you that?"

"I don't believe you have."

"You do things to me that no one else has ever been able to do."

"Really?" Said with a smile.

"I am finding it hard to cope with Spence. I don't know how to deal with these feelings."

Reid took Floyd by the hand and walked back to the bedroom.

Floyd handed Reid his drink and watched carefully as he sipped it grinning inanely at him.

………………………….

Morgan stirred and moaned and put a hand to the back of his head.

…………………………

Aaron sat on the corner of the bed amidst the carnage and stared at the picture. It was a message but was it a request or a warning?

………………………….