"Here is my number in case you are ever in trouble, or see the possible unsub," Reid said as he handed her a small card with his name and number printed on it. Samantha smiled lightly, feeling a little safer, but was scared nonetheless. "I always answer my phone."
"Even if you don't have any reception?" Samantha asked teasingly.
He offered her a sympathetic smile, knowing she was only cracking jokes because the emotional stress was too much for her. "That's when you would call '911'."
"Right," she chuckled lightly, shaking her head. "I wish you luck in this investigation since my life depends on it. I know I'll talk to you sooner than later, so until then."
"Until then." He nodded, waving as she headed into a black SUV. The team and chief of police had decided that it would be best if someone drove her home and then stayed stationed near the house on the look out for suspicious activity.
The driver happened to be a police officer, but no one wanted to cause any trouble for her by having her dropped at her house by a police car. After all, her neighborhood was filled with gossip loving morons.
The drive was rather quiet, but Samantha didn't mind that since she occupied herself by blankly looking out the car window, her mind elsewhere. She wasn't sure what she was looking at, not that anything really affected her right then. If anything, this was what she imagined what people meant by when they said they felt empty like a hollow shell.
She wasn't sure where she was going anymore and she wasn't sure who was in the car with her. None of it mattered until she felt the car come to a stop in front of a rather ordinary looking wooden house that needed a new coat of white paint since it was chipping off in some places. Maybe, at some point on her visit, Samantha would go down to the hardware store and get a few buckets of paint.
"Miss Bennett?" the officer said when Samantha didn't move, at first. She was just sitting there, biting the nail on her left thumb, and staring at the house. "Miss Bennett, we are at your house." Still no response. "Miss Bennett," he repeated a little louder, reaching over to shake her shoulder so as to snap her out of it; whatever 'it' was.
Samantha jumped in her seat, startled when she was pulled out of her own world. She stared at the officer with wide eyes filled with fear since she didn't recognize him at first. The fear subsided when she realized that he was one of the good guys, thankfully.
"Right, thank you," she replied as she pushed the door open and hopped out. The moment she stepped onto the curb, she heard that creaky old door swing open and that sweet, familiar voice cry out her name in joy and sadness. Not waiting to grab her bags, Samantha, as if she were a small child that hadn't seen her parent in years, bolted from the sidewalk and into her mother's wide open arms.
"Garcia, I need a list of men that work at the same institute as Samantha," Reid said quickly, shuffling around papers on the desk he had taken over at the police station. "Actually, just give me a list of their patients and cross reference it to the list of Samantha's patients. Find out which one had been transferred to her and pull up their records."
"Ask and you shall receive," Garcia drawled as her fingers went at lightning speed across the keyboard. "I am faxing them over to you right now."
"Is a man named Max Jarvis among the people that were transferred to her?" Reid asked as he walked over to the fax machine, waiting for the papers.
"Yes, he is actually one of the first people to be transferred to our Sammi girl and man, is he one menace. I'm surprised that he was actually allowed back into society," she sighed as she kept pulling up files and records about him. "Why did she ever give this man clearance to go back into society?"
"She's an intelligent woman, I'm sure she knew what she was doing," Reid muttered distractedly as he gathered up the papers and headed back to the desk. He spread them out and sighed as he read over each of them.
"Oh, aren't you being a little defensive?" she teased light heartedly. "Protecting your girlfriend?"
"She's not my girlfriend," he mumbled. With a frown, he picked up a file, but put it down when he realized that very few things matched with the profile of their unsub.
"What's her DOB?"
"April 1, 1982," he replied immediately.
"Stalker."
"I read up on her…"
"Which means you like her," Garcia giggled in a sing song voice.
"It means I wanted to read up on the target to get a better understanding of her," he sighed, still looking over each profile since he knew that he had to have missed something.
"Oh my god," Garcia exclaimed, furiously typing away and bring up records. "A year back, one of the patients there had escaped. Guess who it was?"
"Um, a crazy person?"
"You know how Sammi told you that her first boyfriend died in a car crash last summer?" she began. "He was actually put into the asylum years ago, but I guess the parents covered it up and then lied when he escaped. He was never caught."
"So, she would never have known if he was obsessed with her if he was forced away from her," he put the papers in his hands down and looked at the phone, which was on speaker phone so that he could hear her without needing to hold up his cell.
"Maybe you should go visit her and talk to her again."
"Um, yeah, good idea, but can you fax me the file on her ex?"
Before Garcia could respond, Hotch walked past him tight-lipped. He glanced at Reid just as the others walked in as well. "There has been another victim found. She was brutally murdered and found in a nice hotel. I think you and Gideon should go break it to Samantha and her family before they hear about it on the news. Morgan, Elle and I will go to the crime scene. JJ, I want you to release this to the press that we have a serial killer in this town. He only has two letters left before he goes after her so we need to put the other family members that live in New Jersey under surveillance. We can't risk any chances."
The second Samantha had gotten inside the house, her mother made her change into shorts and a t-shirt before stuffing her with ice-cream and pie; the major comfort foods for the women in the family. As long as she could remember, whenever something sad happened in the family, her mother would buy vanilla ice-cream and bake at least two pies, cherry and apple; Samantha liked cherry pie and Joan liked apple pie. Of course, Samantha had figured it out much longer than her sister had, but that hardly mattered. Nothing like that seemed to matter anymore…just the memories of them together mattered.
Samantha let out a sigh as she sat on the couch in her large shirt with her university name printed on the front in big block letters. Her bare legs stuck to the leather couch because the heat managed to seep into the building and the AC wasn't working as well as it once had.
However, before she could drift off into the peaceful world of napping, a small giggling mass jumped on her. "Auntie Sammi! Auntie Sammi!"
"Lily," Samantha chuckled, wrapping her arms around the five year-old. "I thought you were playing with Ava."
Before Samantha had arrived, a few of the other families that already lived in New Jersey came over so as to help her mother and father take care of Joan's three kids. After all, a year-old baby boy, five year-old girl and ten year-old girl were pretty hard to handle for two people almost in their sixties.
"Ava don't wanna play…" Lily pouted, crossing her chubby arms over her chest. "She only crying, but won't tell me why."
"Is she up in your mama's old room?" she asked, moving a little to get up. "Let's go see her. Okay?"
"We going to play with her?" the small child asked, looking up at her Aunt with big brown eyes still full of hope and happiness. She still didn't truly know what was going on and no one had the heart to tell her mother would never come back home to her.
"Let's start off with a hug first," Samantha drawled as she was finally able to get off the couch. She took Lily's hand in hers and headed down the hall and turning left at the very end to go up the stairs to the second floor. "Which room is she in, Lily?"
Lily pointed at the door at the very end of the hallway. It was painted pink and had gold stars all over it with the name 'Joan' painted in big, curly script. "That room."
Samantha stared at the door, feeling a lump in her throat as tears welled up in her eyes. Every step she took toward the door, the more blurry it became to her, but just as she was reaching out to open it, Lily opened it for her instead.
Trying to keep back the tears, Samantha walked in with the small, still happy child only to see the oldest of the three sitting on the ledge by the window, which was blanketed and decorated with pillows.
"Ava, honey?" Samantha said softly, wiping the tears from her own eyes.
The small girl's head snapped up; her eyes were a beautiful color of brown and green, and filled with tears, making Samantha's heart stop. However, instead of completely breaking down in front of both girls, Samantha sniffled. "Lily, go downstairs and check on Nana. See if she needs any help or has any ice-cream left over. Okay, sweetie?"
"Okay!" Lily chirped happily as she skipped on out, leaving Samantha alone with Ava.
Slowly, the older woman walked over to the ten year-old, sitting down on the ledge.
"Ava, I know this is a hard time for you," Samantha began as she reached over to wipe away the tears. "But you need to be strong for your sister…I know it will be hard, but you can strong for your sister, can't you?"
Ava bit her lip, but she sobbed even harder when Samantha pulled her into a hug. She buried her head into her Aunt's chest, her tears soaking up the large t-shirt.
"I know, I know…," Samantha let a small sob escape, but just as she was saying that Ava needed to be strong for her sister, she had to be strong for the girls.
"She's gone. Ma is gone," Ava cried; her hands fisting into the cloth of her shirt.
"No, she's never gone, Ava. She's always here with you," her aunt replied strongly as she looked down at her niece. When she looked up with teary eyes, Samantha repeated with a stronger tone. "Always. Every time you think about her, she's right at your side. Whenever you sleep, she's right there watching you. Protecting you. If you ever want to see her, just look out the window and in the stars, your mama will be smiling right back down at you."
With a watery smile, she reached down and wiped the tears away and brushed back her soft brown hair from her face. "No matter what anyone tells you, your mama will always be here for you. I will always be here for you. Everyone is this house is here for you, Ava. Don't you ever forget that you're not alone in this world."
Slowly, Ava nodded her head, but neither got up to go anywhere. If anything, they just sat there in silence, sharing the peaceful moment between accepting the death and falling apart again. Well, that was until that moment was interrupted from a crash of metal against tiles from somewhere downstairs.
"I think Nana is trying to break the world record of who can bake the most pies," Samantha chuckled. "Let's go check up on her. Okay?"
With a nod, they got up and made their way into the downstairs kitchen.
"Ma, what're you doing?" Samantha asked when she walked in. "Please don't tell me that you're baking anything."
"Oh, nothing, dear," her mother replied, laying on her accent rather thick. "Just need to keep my mind off of things. You want apple or cherry pie, dear?"
"Ma, no," she grumbled as she got off the couch. "No baking. Just relax and-"
"Samantha, you get your pretty little butt back down on that couch and let your mama cook. That's an order, young lady." Her mother cut her off with her stern voice. "Go on, get. Leave your mama alone. I got help in here, no need for you."
For a little old woman, she was tough and still had a fighting spirit that no one could take away from her. Her hair was no longer the chestnut brown that it used to be in the prime of her life; her hair had long since thinned out, turned a snowy white and was tied up in a neat bun.
"Fine," Samantha sighed. "I want cherry pie like always. Come Ava, darling, we know when we're not wanted."
Lily stuck her tongue out at them, giggling, "Yeah, we no need you, Ava can stay! Oh, Grand Pappy can stay too!"
"I want apple pie," grumbled a low, gruff voice that always told Samantha fairy tales before she and Joan went to sleep at night.
"Too bad, Papa," she chuckled. "I put my order in before you did."
"Damn it." He shook his head and acted as if it truly was disappointed, but cracked a grin as he pulled his daughter into a hug. Before, when she had been younger, he had to reach down and pull her up into his arms, but now that she was at least a head taller than him, he had to pull her down into his arms for a hug.
He held onto her for a little while, releasing her just as he was tearing up. Quickly, Samantha pulled her father to his lazy boy in front of the TV before turning it own and curling up beside him. She knew her father disliked crying too much, so she wanted to keep her parents relatively as relaxed as possible before the funeral in a week.
Moreover, there was still more family to drive over and stay for the week, meaning a whole lot more teary eyed people…including her sister's children. She had to stay strong each and every single one of them. They used to count on Joan, but the responsibility fell onto Samantha's shoulders.
Just as she was getting comfortable sitting by her father's side and watching the baseball game rather mindlessly the doorbell rang out through the house. She heard her mother shuffling out of the kitchen, saying, "You two keep your butts planted on the couch, I got it. No, Lily, go stay in the kitchen with your sister. Nana got the door, don't worry."
"No, ma!" Samantha jumped up, running after her to get the door first. However, along with being strong, her mother was fast, reaching the door long before she could.
"Oh my, aren't you a handsome fellow," her mother laughed, but her laugh was different. If anything, it almost sounded forced. "But I'm sorry to say that I'm already married. Oh, and you're pretty handsome too, young man, but a little too young for me. I think Samantha might like you.
The older agent, Gideon smiled sympathetically at the elder woman, imagining what it would be like to bury her own child. "I am SSA Gideon and this is Dr. Reid. Ma'am, I'm sorry to bother you, but we need to talk to you."
"Why of course, come on in. I'm baking some pie, but it's not ready yet," she said as she let them in. However, Samantha was frozen on the spot in the long hallway. When she heard the other man introduce himself and his partner, Samantha wasn't able to move away or closer.
Gideon nodded and thanked her even though he had bad news for her. Reid followed, but frowned when his eyes landed on the girl standing as still as a statue a several feet away from them.
She was just standing there, yet not once did she look at them. It wasn't that she was scared with what bad news they may have brought with them, just the fact they brought not too long after she had left the police station…
Without reviews, I never know whether to continue these stories for ya'll or not. If something is wrong like a character is OOC, I would like to know ASAP so I can fix it. Criticisms that help with the story are always appreciated. Like I said before, I have only started Criminal Minds; I'm still getting all the characters down so help would be nice.
Don't own Criminal Mind. Like reviews. Thank you.