"I thought we were giving him good news,"
Morgan could hear Garcia's sigh all the way down the line, could envision her disappointment in not solving her Junior G'man's problem. Not sure how to feel about it himself at the moment, Reid's hurt deflecting too easily onto them all, he let Rossi fill them in on Gary Michaels.
"Morgan take me off speaker" Hotch requested one they were finished.
Morgan looked to Rossi who nodded and indicated he was going outside to find Reid.
"Yeah"
"How is he?" Hotch asked eventually after a long pause, voice soft and worried, not that of a boss inquiring after his subordinate at all.
"Not good." Morgan sighed. "Kids hurting Hotch."
"He's always had trouble dealing with his own emotions. I think he still doesn't understand his father's reasons for leaving."
"Neither do I," Morgan scoffed. "And neither do you, I know you man no matter what Jack's your first priority, and this guy acts as if seeing his only kid after seventeen years is no big deal. I swear Hotch even Rossi look like he might punch him."
"Well I'm glad he didn't, William Reid looks to be a pretty decent lawyer from his records."
"Hey did you know about that already?"
"Know about what?"
"That Reid's dad's an attorney, not unlike yourself used to be, and you're around the same age?"
The prolonged silence from the other end gives Morgan his answer.
"Tell Rossi not to unleash his pissed off paternal side just yet, I wanted him to keep Reid level headed not sink into this with him." Hotch brushed the question off.
Morgan let it pass for now, "What about me?"
Hotch sighed over the phone, another long pause and Morgan waited.
"Just make sure he doesn't get hurt," another sigh, "again."
Morgan, hearing the desperation and the worry which mirrored his own mixed up feelings made a passionate promise. "He won't."
Hotch made an agreeing sound and barely voiced a goodbye before he hung up, leaving Morgan to stare down at his phone feeling the weight of responsibility hanging over him tenfold.
"He's gone" Rossi returned, looking unusually stressed.
Not a lot rattled the seasoned profiler, but it seemed Spencer Reid in distress might well be the catalyst for more than one emotional breakdown on the team today.
"He's what?"
"Gone, I walked the block but nothing, any ideas where he'd go?"
"Normally, but…" He shook his head.
"So what do we do?" Rossi asked calmly, too calmly considering, but then he was doing just as Hotch wanted, keeping them focused despite the foundations crumbling underneath them.
"We find Reid," Morgan made the decision despite knowing Rossi already had a plan, "Something tells me the kid shouldn't alone right now."
Smiling sadly in agreement of the simple plan they left the hotel lobby, Morgan feeling strangely like a parent with joint custody, knowing all too well the old adage was right; things were definitely going to get worse before they got anywhere near to be considered better.
..
When they found him at the machines being chatted up by a prostitute Morgan almost burst out laughing, remembering another occasion when Reid's innocent and clueless looks made him a target, but then he remembered why they'd be so worried, worried enough to track him down in the first place, and sobered instantly.
"We've been looking for you everywhere," He said gently to not draw too much unwanted attention, taking the kid's arm to lead him away quietly.
Morgan was grateful for Reid's compliance in the action considering how patronising he was unintentionally being, but then the kid really was ithe kidi of their family. He'd never appeared to mind before when any of them treated him like their wayward little brother. Rossi, who'd hung back, pointed out he'd just given $2000 to a hooker, but the comment went straight over Reid's head spurring him into a sharing an idea Morgan thought was ludicrous the second it came out of his mouth.
"I'm sick of having these dreams, Morgan" Reid screamed as they chased him outside, after having not received the support he was looking for.
"But Reid there's got to be better ways, hypnosis is-"
"Is a viable option to opening up the mind!" He counters, voice an octave higher than normal, a common sign of Spencer in distress.
"Rossi tell him." Morgan instructed, turning to the older profile for back up.
The street wasn't as busy as it could have been, but he still wanted to halt the conversation, at least until they could get somewhere at little more private and really think about what it was Reid was suggesting.
"But you were right, I've been repressing whatever this is and now it's, it's back and I can't just forget about it, I can't! I need to remember, I need, I-"
"Hey, hey I get it! You've an eidetic memory and you can't remember something, I get it okay" Morgan grabbed him by his upper arms when Reid looked set to run into traffic to simply get away from them, "kid calm down, just breathe."
Reid struggled in his grasp for barely a minute before ceasing all effort to escape. Hands still holding onto his forearms Morgan looked over his shoulder to find Rossi looking pained and contemplative. Without a word he offered his own hands to join Morgan's and with much heaviness in their hearts together they walked Reid back to the hotel.
..
"You want to sit in? I don't normally allow that"
Rossi took in a breath before telling the shrink this situation was far beyond normal. In fact he'd prefer not to be here at all, but like it or not finding out the truth was in Reid's best interests. Morgan may have the luxury of following his instincts, but his reason for being here stretched beyond what he'd like and into what Spencer needed. And what he needed right now was answers.
It didnt take long to put him under. Dave sat in the chair itching to move closer everytime Reid so much as flinched, and especially when his child persona pleaded to 'not be here anymore.' He sensed Hotch was going to kill him as soon as he found out about this, but decided he'd take the heat for making the call. They were getting to the right place when the kid started to freak out, which in turn had Rossi freaking out - not that he'd admit that to anyone. Ever. This time he did jump from his chair, pleading with the shrink to wake him up, he thought watching the video feed of Reid being beaten by Tobias was bad enough, but this live show, seeing the kid scared and not having the benefit of knowing how it would end was far worse.
"It's okay, you're okay" Rossi continued even after Reid had calmed enough to tell him what he saw.
He grabbed blindly for his hand again, so disorientated Dave didn't know what else to do but take hold and continue to tell him he was okay, he wasn't four years old anymore. The shrink had warned them that any recovered memories would seem fresh, but what she didn't say was how that would make him feel.
When the time came to leave Rossi let Reid walk out the shrinks office under his own steam and was willing to let him be despite the kid looking like he may drop any second, but then Reid stopped dead just before the doors leading out to the street, staring helplessly out in to the bright Vegas afternoon. Dave spurred into action mere seconds before Morgan who'd met them in the waiting room and pushed Reid into one of the wide arm chairs conviently placed in the lobby, hand resting at the nape of the kid's neck massaging gently.
"What the hell happened in there?" Morgan asked.
Reid didn't, couldn't answer and instead concentrated on breathing, Rossi shook his head at Morgan. Now was not the time.
"I need to see my mother." Reid spoke breathlessly, head still hanging between his knees where Rossi had forced it, breaking through their whispered conversation.
..
They'd driven to Benington as requested. Morgan still wasn't convinced by the whole recovered memory deal, but was willing to go along with whatever made Reid happy so long as he wasn't being hurt. A plan that seemed to be backfiring since the kid was currently running down the corridor away from his mother's room where it so happened a whole bunched of nurses had just run into.
"Whoa, hey what's going on? You gotta stop running away from us kid, " Morgan grabbed Reid by the shoulders and simply refused to let him go.
Rossi had opted to wait in the car this time, claiming he didn't want to crowd Mrs Reid, but Morgan sensed the whole hypnosis thing hit him harder than he expected. Derek wasn't so much of a hard ass he wasn't going to alow him time to regroup, but by god he really wished Rossi were here right now because although he'd dealt with Reid distressed a few times his experiences were nothing compared to this and honestly he didn't know how far he could push.
Luckily he really didnt have to. His cell rang and Todd gave him the information on the DNA match to Michael's. And just like that Reid had his head screwed on again. Morgan really wanted to know what had him so upset, but knew now was not the time. Knowing Reid like he did it would just be a matter of time. The details would come eventually, but only when the kid was good and ready to share. Pushing right now would only make things that much worse.
..
"He's angry, but he has a point." Rossi surmised once Reid left the sheriff's office to get some air.
"So what you're on his side now?" Morgan shot back angrily.
"I'm on the side of the truth Morgan, what side are you on?"
Morgan groaned seeing what Rossi was doing off the bat. "I promised Hotch he wouldn't get hurt again, if his dad gets sent down for murder, even the murder of a paedophile that's going to hurt him no matter how justified he feels about it."
"Reid wants the truth." Rossi sighed.
"Yeah, but he also wants revenge." Morgan reasoned, "you said it yourself, he's still angry."
"And he has a right to be, what we need to do is keep him grounded and make sure he isn't riding roughshod over the investigation to get his revenge." Dave took a seat, looking a decade older than he did before rejoining the BAU. "At the moment no matter the motivation you and I can both see something isn't right here. If we weren't emotionally involved you know we'd follow the truth wherever it lead regardless of who the victim was. We do the same here."
"And if he does cross that line?" Morgan asked not agreeing, but not arguing either.
"Then we step in."