Spare Ribs
He was a great patriot, a humanitarian, a loyal friend - provided, of course, that he really is dead: - Voltaire
Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.
"Agent Derek Morgan!"
The shout came from Flanders. He sounded slurred and tired. Derek moved quickly from the small kitchen he had been in getting a drink of water to the room Floyd and Rosa were in. He was dragging himself off the bed and half crawling onto the floor.
"Take me to him. I need to go to him now. Before it is too late."
Rosa was sitting up on the pillows her back to the wall – her hands over her mouth and watching Floyd is big wet tear filled eyes.
"I can't take you there Floyd. You are here being protected from them – there is no way I can deliver you."
"He will die." Rosa's small voice was full of fear. "You have to. I will go back to Iolanda – just help my daddy. Please help my daddy."
Floyd was pulling himself up to stand. "See – all better. Now take me to him."
"Floyd man, if I blow on you – you will fall down. I can't take you. I am here to protect you from them." Derek started to walk towards Floyd with the intention of dragging him back to the bed.
"Then your protection will kill me and Spence and then Rosa. You must take me there now. Rosa will stay here with your men."
"Daddy! No! I want to come with you! You need me."
-o-o-o-
A hand now clamped over Aaron's face preventing him from spitting out his prize.
"Swallow it! You will be surprised how good it is." Iolanda smiled down at Aaron who stared back with eyes which showed his soul. "Come on Hotchner – surely you don't want to spit him out? Surely you don't want to reject his last gift to you?"
He could feel it in his mouth. A small bit of something. It might have been Reid. It might be anything. Aaron didn't know. He just knew that if he did swallow it he would bring it straight back up again and the horror of regurgitating Spencer was as unbearable as having the feeling of this in his mouth.
"Water – bring him some water. I think he needs some help here." Hotch could hear giggling as a sports beaker was brought over. The spout was forced between Aaron's lips and the water emptied into his mouth. He had no option. Now he had to swallow. He felt the slither of something slide down the back of his throat – pushed down by the water and immediately he started to gag and retch on the tiny piece of meat. Aaron moved his head from side to side trying to stop them from covering his mouth again. He felt tears of disgust and anger creeping out of his eyes and racing down the sides of his face.
Hotch attempted to pull his hands out from under the feet holding them in place but the harder he pulled the harder the trod down on him. He felt a finger snap and the sudden warmth covering his hands told him that the skin was broken and ripped. He stopped struggling and lay staring at Iolanda. What he saw was beyond anything he could have imagined. Iolanda stood with a rib bone in his hand, slowly nibbling off the bits of flesh still sticking to it. A look of absolute ecstasy drifting across his face and soft moaning sounds of unadulterated pleasure.
It was now that Hotch felt the dark of unconsciousness finally release him from this nightmare.
-o-o-o-
"I can't leave the girl here alone. Not without one of us being here." Morgan stood looking at the two peculiar people.
"She will be fine."
"I will be fine – but I still want to come with you." Her voice was coming out in jumpy sniffles.
Floyd looked over at the small child wiping snot off her face with the hem of her dirty dress. "Just kill anything which comes though this door you know not to be safe. Understand?"
A little nod. "I understand."
Once out of the room away from the child Flanders turned to Derek. "I need a knife. Something very sharp."
"Don't you use your teeth?" a puzzled look on Morgan's handsome face.
"I need something else for this. Teeth are not enough. Something to hack with. Quickly. We are running out of time." Floyd leaned on the wall and watched Morgan rush back to the kitchen. He returned with a bread knife.
"It's the best I could do."
"Messy, but it will have to do. Get me to Iolanda. Quickly."
With a knife in one hand and the other wrapped around Floyd's waist the two of them made their way to Morgan's car. He could feel that Floyd was hardly walking now. His legs kept folding under him and his head down. Morgan could also hear the laboured breathing.
"What the hell is wrong with you? You can get up and crawl away with your brain missing. What's going on?"
"Just get me to Spence. Before it's too late." Flanders voice was not much more than a whisper. "I can help to heal him but you need to get me there before rigor sets in."
"I beg your pardon? What – Just what the – you sonofabitch – what are you implying."
"Don't make me waste my energy explaining. Just get me to him."
Derek helped him into the passenger seat and ran around to the driver's side. Floyd sat with his feet up on the seat in front of him and wrapped his arms tightly around his legs, resting his head on his knees. His hair was still partly tied back by the ribbon Spencer had left out for him the night before. Back when things seemed almost normal. Morgan felt like he should be doing something. The urge to just hold Flanders and give him some comfort from all of this crap passed through his mind and then just as quickly out again. He shuddered at the sudden thought and started the SUV.
He drove like a maniac. He put on the lights and he sounded the horn. He didn't slow for anything.
"I wish I knew what the hell was going on." Morgan rushed out.
Floyd turned his head and looked at him. "I failed."
-o-o-o-
When the hand was eventually removed from his face there was nothing Aaron could do. As the weights left his hands and legs he turned onto his side and brought up the water and bits of something else. The sight made him squeeze his eyes shut and make a silent prayer to what ever was out there that this wasn't what they told him it was.
He was so violently sick that water came from his nose as his stomach cramped and heaved rejecting everything and anything which might be there. This was probably – in Aaron's mind – that he wished he was dead rather than have to feel what he was feeling in his mind, body and soul. He knew deep down that they had succeeded in their plan to break him and now with this new found knowledge he was convinced that the thing Iolanda was chewing on couldn't be Spencer. If their plan was to break him in this manner then there was no need to kill Reid, just make him believe they had.
Aaron looked up at Iolanda. What his plan was now Aaron didn't know. There were no more threats he could make and he was no closer to taking the child back into his small world of depravity.
"What's wrong Hotchner?"
Iolanda took a step closer. Hotch could smell the bone he had in his hand and immediately he started to heave and gag again.
"Come on Hotchner. I thought you were such a big man. I thought there was no breaking someone like you. You are quite a disappointment." He bent forward slightly and ran the rib over his face. "Fancy a bite? A lick? A little nibble? Come on! Stop rejecting the poor man. Take him into you. Let him be a part of your forever. What is your problem?"
Aaron lay still. He wanted to brush away the thing running over his cheek, but the thought of touching it was too much to bear.
"You've had your fun. You didn't get the girl back. What are you going to do now? You have played all your cards."
Iolanda crouched down on the floor and smiled. "Well I intend cooking him up. I do like my kebabs. Then obviously I will boil his pretty head in my big black pot. Do you know that cooking the brain in the skull preserves the taste so much better? Check that one with Flanders – he showed me that trick. There is also the thing about that wonderful intelligence. I will be devouring his mind. I will learn all he knew. Imagine that Hotchner!"
"You are insane." Hotch tried to push him self up to sit.
"That might be true, but it will be me with the Reid skin belt and accessories and you with nothing." He started to walk away when all hell broke loose.
The door to the room suddenly burst open and armed men flowed through the door. Hotch rolled over and kept close to the wall. If there was going to be gunfire he needed to be as far out of the line of fire as he could. As he rolled he moved over Reid's sodden clothing. A wail of despair left his lips as he grabbed them and curled up holding them close to him. They stank of blood and other bodily fluids but they were Spencer's and again Aaron's heart broke and the humiliating end the man he was meant to protect had met.
He listened to the gun shots. He heard shouts and he heard things which he presumed were Iolanda's people falling to the floor. He hoped – but Aaron knew that unlike Floyd, these people were armed.
During all the shouting and noise someone touched Aaron on the shoulder. "Aaron?" Dave's voice. He couldn't look at him. He couldn't let Dave Rossi see what these animals had reduced him to and so he lay still trying to get his body and mind under control again. "Aaron it's over. We are here." Very slowly and taking deep breaths so as not to let Rossi see his distress he turned over. His eyes caught sight of a rib bone laying forgotten on the grubby and now blood stained carpet.
He used Rossi to pull up into a sitting position not taking his eyes off the thing on the floor and he could hear – "Oh god – oh no." Being shouted from the bathroom.
Aaron put his head down and pulled his knees in tightly and wept silent tears.
Rossi walked quickly to the bathroom to see what had been found.
Laying on the floor was a bloodied knife and an equally bloodied saw, some pliers and a chisel and a small hammer. Everything was covered in blood. The SWAT team member was throwing up down the toilet. Rossi looked at him and then into the bathtub. A noise at the door made him turn around to see Aaron standing there leaning on the door.
"R Reid?"
Rossi took Aaron by the arm and tried to manoeuvre him out of the doorway. "There is nothing we can do here Aaron. I need you to go and see the medics." He caught Hotch as his legs gave way under him and all went dark again.
SWAT helped Hotch out of the motel room and over to the arriving ambulances as Morgan's SUV screeched into the parking area in front of the motel.
Rossi turned back to look in the bathtub again. He rested fingers gently on Spencer's neck and then swept his hand down over his staring terrified eyes.
-o-o-o-
For the past mile of so Floyd had been howling and chanting in a language Morgan didn't have the slightest clue of. He could see the sweat standing out on Floyds brow. As he sat up and put his feet on the floor he wiped a small dribble of blood from his nose and pulled from his pocket a smoke. He lit it with a slender silver lighter and took deep noxious lung fulls of the vile thing. The more he took in the more awake and with it he seemed to be.
"I don't care what they say when we arrive. I can fix this. I will fix this. You need to do something in return."
"I'm listening." Morgan opened his window. The smoke was making him feel light headed.
"Iolanda. You must remove his head. With the knife. Take his head. Completely."
"If he is there he will be arrested and dealt with using the correct procedure. I'm not taking any man's head off Flanders."
"Understood." Floyd sat now staring out of the window smoking and mumbling in an unknown language.
As the SUV pulled up Floyd was opening the car door and jumping out before the vehicle had stopped. He glanced over at Hotch and caught the look on his face. Total defeat. A lost person.
He was still finding walking difficult but managed to get as far as the motel room door before he felt his legs giving way again. An arm around him stopped him falling completely. He took in a deep breath and looked behind him. "Derek. Stay here."
"What? No, man. You need help. Whatever it is you are doing - you need help."
A nod and Flanders accepted the arm and started to walk into the room. He looked over at Rossi who was shaking his head at Morgan and then glanced down at the thing laying on the floor. He bent down and picked up the rib.
"Uncle Iolanda – you bastard. You son of a bitch whore dog. I will see you burn in your own private hell for this." Though the anger was there in his actual words they were muttered under his breath. He carried on staggering towards the bathroom but a hand was placed on his chest and again Rossi was shaking his head only this time at Floyd.
"You don't want to go in there. It's too late."
"It's not too late. I can feel he is still there. Let me go to him." He swiped Dave's hand out of the way and started to walk forward again. Morgan continued to hold him upright. It seemed that the closer they got to Spencer the weaker he got.
-o-o-o-
He was floating in a dark place full of nothing but dull pain.
His mind was closed to everything and his soul was waiting ready to leave.
Something was holding him back.
Calling him back towards the greater pain.
Spencer wanted – needed to get away from this place.
Away from the guilt of letting Aaron down.
As far away from the hurt he had caused as he could.
Yet out there someone was calling him back again.
He tried pushing past this barrier and escaping – but it was like a thin silver thread was slowly winding him back in again.
The more he pulled away from it the tighter it pulled him back again.
Reid begged for forgiveness. The only reason he would still be here was a punishment.
No body could take this amount of punishment and not fail.
Something somewhere was touching his face and his chest.
Something – someone was talking soft words to him and pulling in his bond.
Something was giving part of them to him.
As the pain increased the closer the got back to where he started he realised he could smell something. Something other than death and blood and hatred and fear – he could smell something heady and musky. He could feel hands moving over him taking away some of the pain.
-o-o-o-
Rossi and Morgan watched as Floyd slid over the side of the tub down next to the ripped up body laying there cooling in the filthy blood coloured water. They heard his voice muttering strange words and they saw his hands moving over the pale skin. They could see where the ex agent had been cut open and a rib removed. The rib Floyd now had clasped in his hand. They could see the way Spencer's face had been broken and they watched Floyd pressing his hand hard on the Reid's chest.
They shouted for medics when the gentle rise and fall of Spencer's chest could be seen and they watched Floyd's hands moving over Reid's head and now to his abdomen.
-o-o-o-
Spencer could feel someone kissing the back of his neck and telling him everything was going to be alright. He felt Floyd wrap himself around him. Entwining his body with his own and then everything went black and stopped.