A/N I forgot to mention in the last chapter that Dylan and Spencer are near the roads in a field. . . . and I apologize now for the cheese bit . . .my sister insisted she write that part. . .
ANY-WHO please read and hopefully enjoy :)
I also apologize for the long wait since my last update :D
And a very special thanks to greengirl82 for being so kind to edit this chapter! :)
Thanks again so much!
Chapter 4: Never Doubt A Worried Mother
The rest of the party went on for an hour or so. The children ran around in and out of the house, all on sugar highs while the adults chit chatted away about their kids, work, and life in general.
Aaron was outside with Dave talking about getting together the following weekend for a peaceful game of golf, while watching the kids as they played in the backyard.
JJ and Penelope were in the kitchen with Kevin and Will talking about the different kinds of cheese from around the world, such as swiss, cheddar, gouda and their most favourite, the salty delight of Feta cheese.
Emily stood in the living room staring out the window watching different cars and the occasional person walk by. Eventually she managed to tune everything out that was happening inside the house, so she didn't hear Derek Morgan coming up behind her.
Derek walked over to the same window as Emily, a drink in hand, and placed his free one on her shoulder. Emily must have jumped 50 feet in the air when he did that.
"What the- Derek!" Emily almost yelled. Derek had to suppress his laughter.
"I'm sorry Princess, I thought you heard me coming?" He said starting to laugh but stopped as soon as he saw the look she shot him.
"Well obviously I didn't!" She snapped at him. Derek raised his hands in surrender.
"Whoa I didn't mean to startle you Em, I really am sorry." he apologized. Emily sighed and dropped her shoulders.
"No I'm sorry, I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. It's just. . .nothing." Emily shook her head as she folded her arms over her chest, the brunette turned back to the window continuing to stare at nothing. Derek set his drink down on the ledge with both hands he turned her back around to face him.
"Hey, what's wrong? You know you can tell me anything, right?" He asked. Emily closed her eyes then sighed before she looked up to meet his eyes with a nodded.
"Yes, I know. It's just... There's this little boy and. . ." Emily closed her eyes again taking a deep breath.
"What about the little boy? Is someone in danger?" Derek asked concerned. Emily couldn't help but let out a quite laugh at his immediate caring nature.
"No, no one's in danger... well at least I hope no one is in danger." Emily began to explain, only for Derek to cut her off before she had a chance to put detail to her choice of words.
"What do you mean by 'I hope'? Emily what's going on?" He asked even more concerned now.
"Well if you'd let me explain..."
"Right, sorry, please continue." Derek apologized with a nod to his head urging her to continue.
"Okay, well I guess I should start at the beginning..." She explained to Derek what happened that morning, starting from seeing this brunette boy sitting alone, and about the grocery store downtown, ending with when he ducked down through the bushes.
"Huh..." He said while rubbing his chin.
"Huh? That's all you can say? Derek what am I suppose to do? No one else saw him, he looked so scared! I mean if you saw Jack or Ryan even Henry out like that, alone, you would do something right?" This was clearly really bothering Emily, Derek has never seen her this worked up about something before.
"Emily, Emily! I need you to take a deep breath for me." Emily half rolled her eyes but still did as asked. "Good, Now, of course I would do something, I mean I am one out of three of those kids godparents, and Uncle Derek to the rest." Emily was about to say he isn't getting the point.
"But... I see your point." He finished. Emily sighed and looked to her right, out the window again.
"I just... I can't not do something, you know?" She said. Derek nodded in agreement.
"Does Aaron know about any of this?" Derek asked.
"No. Well yes. Kind of. He asked what I was looking at. I told him that the boy in there looked familiar, he didn't say anything more on the subject, just nodded and we left."
"Okay, well do you want him to know about this?" Emily looked at him like he was insane. Of course she wanted Aaron to know. They kept no secrets from each other, unless it was life or death. Derek saw Emily's reaction and quickly elaborated on what he meant. "What I mean is you should talk about this."
"I am talking to you am I not?" She replied looking back to him. Derek half smiled shaking his head.
"Not what I mean and you know it."
"I know. I just, I don't know, should I tell him? I mean what if I'm wrong and I'm blowing this way out of proportion? What if there really isn't anything wrong and that kid lives in a perfect home and goes to school, has lots of friends. . ."
"Emily. . ." Derek looked down to her with a tilt to his head.
"Don't you Emily me." Emily set most of her weight to her right hip and folded her arms as she replied.
"You and I both know that's not what's going on here. If you're as good of a profiler as I know you are, there's definitely something wrong going on with that boy." Derek put a hand on her shoulder.
"I know, but still..." Emily sighed.
"Tell you what, I'm going to go back and join the others, you are going to get out of here. Go for a drive, clear your head. You know what you have to do. You know how far is far enough. I know you know that. I'll tell Aaron and the others that you weren't feeling too well so you went home. Even take my car, so you don't have to worry about the three musketeers or pay for a cab. And before you ask, I'll get a ride from Penny." Derek told her. Emily nodded along with what he was saying.
"Okay," She replied. Derek pulled out his keys from his pocket and held them out to her. Emily reached up to grab them but he pulled them back before she could grasp them. Emily looked up to him confused.
"But..." He said holding up one finger, the key's still held back
"But what?" Emily asked.
"But, you promise me that after you've figured out whatever it is that you need to figure out, you call me. And talk to Aaron about this, at least tell him what's bothering you."
Emily looked at Derek then to her left towards where everyone else was. JJ, Pen, Will and Kevin were still in the kitchen and Aaron and Dave were now playing with the kids in the backyard. Emily looked back to Derek and nodded her head.
"Okay, I promise. Thank you Derek." Emily smiled up at him. Derek then gave her the keys and returned the smile accompanied by a hug.
"Of course Princess, whatever you need. Now get out of here." Derek placed a kiss to the side of her head before releasing the hug, she smiled up to him then made her way to the closet. Derek turned to the kitchen but stopped.
"Em, remember to phone me as soon as you know." He called to her. Loud enough for her to hear, but quiet enough not to draw attention. Emily pulled her coat on then looked back to Derek standing in the hallway that leads to the kitchen.
"I will, thanks again." They both smiled then went their own ways. Emily slipped on her shoes, grabbed her purse then left towards Derek's vehicle.
Derek walked back into the kitchen and gave a small wave and smile to the four occupants. He then continued to the backyard where Dave and Aaron and the three children were playing a game of tag.
"YOU'RE IT!" Jack yelled after tapping Dave on the elbow.
"You're gonna pay for that!" He playfully yelled at the Hotchner boy. "That's right you better run!"
Derek chuckled to him self and shook his head. Who would have thought that ol' Dave Rossi would be into 'tag'
Derek scanned the yard for Aaron and spotted him chasing after Ryan who was giggling like crazy.
"Hey Hotchner!" Morgan called, which got the attention of all five players. Aaron looked up seeing Morgan standing on the porch. He picked up Ryan making his way over to where Derek stood while Jack and Henry continued with their game, running and screaming from the running playful Dave.
"Yeah? What's up?" Aaron asked. Ryan put her arms around his neck resting her head on his shoulder.
"Emily wanted me to let you know that she's heading home. She said she wasn't feeling well, and she took my car so don't worry about that." Derek told him. Aaron's facial expression went from happy to concerned to a sympathetic look.
"Mommy's sick?" Ryan asked. Derek looked from Aaron to Ryan then nodded.
"Yeah, she wasn't feeling too good so she went home to rest." He responded.
"Oh okay, she did say she was tired earlier... since this one kept her up all night!" He said, tickling Ryan's side causing a fit of squeals and giggles. After a moment Aaron looked back to Derek.
"Did she say what was wrong?" He asked. Derek slowly shook his head.
"Not specifically, just she wasn't feeling 100% and to let you know not to worry." Derek answered.
"Okay. Wait, you said she took your car?" Aaron asked. Derek nodded.
"Yes she did, and before you ask Pen and Kevin are going to give me a ride." He said. Aaron nodded. Ryan started to squirm to get down so he put her on the ground. Ryan then ran inside to where the other adults were in the kitchen.
"Okay, well thanks for that." Aaron smiled at him.
"Don't mention it." Derek replied. The two of them then turned and watched as Jack and Henry both jumped onto Dave who was laying on his back on the ground causing both men to laugh at the other.
Emily wasn't too sure where exactly she was heading but just kept driving straight, only turning when she had to. Soon enough she found herself parked outside of their church.
The sun was going down, giving a nice orange hue on the giant building and trees around it. 'Trees!'
Quickly turning the engine off, she got out of the car and made her way to the outside right side of the church. Before investigating the small boy's 'escape hatch' She discreetly looked around, just to make sure no one was watching her. After all it would look strange for a grown woman to be snooping around like she was.
Emily scanned the tall hedge for an opening and walked all the way to each end then back to the middle.
"How did you get through here?" She murmured softly. Emily was about to leave, go home and call Derek, when she saw it.
At one part of the ground under the hedge, there's a worn down bit of grass, mostly all dirt. The only way it could've gotten like that was man made or animal made.
Before crouching down, she gave one last scan of the grounds behind her and saw that the coast was clear, she got down on her knees and felt her way through the green bush above and the worn down Earth. When she pushed against the leaves, it was like pushing through water. Her hand went right through with nothing stopping her behind it.
Emily pulled back her hand and sighed.
'Well, here goes nothing.' She thought before moving on her hands and knees as she slowly crawled through.
"Dylan, I'm sorry! I d-didn't see you there!" Spencer quickly said.
"Well maybe you should watch where you're going!" Dylan spat at him as he clenched and unclenched his hands into fists.
"I said I'm sorry!" Spencer stole a quick glance behind him.
"Don't even think on running you pathetic four-eyed loser! Where would you run to anyways? Hmm? Your Daddy? Oh wait, you don't have one!" Dylan laughed at Spencer. "And I know for a fact that your Mom can't do anything to 'save' you. She probably doesn't even realize you come home at night!"
Spencer wanted to run, to get as far away from him as possible. He should have run. It wouldn't have mattered in which direction he ran, just as long as the destination didn't have Dylan in it. So why didn't he run? He didn't because he knew. He knew that if he did sprint away, it wouldn't be long until he was tackled to the ground. Or Dylan would let him run then deal with him at school the next day, which would be ten times worse than this because Dylan would get all his friends to join in.
"Well guess what you little freak! Sorry doesn't change a thing!" Dylan glared down at Spencer, who closed his eyes ready for impact. Dylan rolled his wrist around, prepared to knock this kid to the ground.
"Just please don't break anything." Spencer quietly pleaded. He closed his eyes tight since he definitely didn't want to see it coming.
"We'll see." Dylan raised his right wrist and let it fly, destination Spencer's left eye.
The pain was excruciating as Spencer fell back to the ground hard. This hit was without a doubt the hardest he had ever encountered. Spencer slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry, even more blurry than it usually was without his glasses, which must have flown off on impact. Spencer groaned and brought his hand up to cover his eye but quickly took it away when he touched it. His face was throbbing.
Dylan look down to Spencer with a glare, shouting "Get up."
"W-Why?" Spencer asked, he looked up to the three Dylan's that were standing in front of him.
"Because I said so." He snapped back.
Spencer rubbed his forehead and tried to open his left eye but was denied that option when there was instant pain from the action. He then put his hands behind him to help him get up, brought his knees up with his feet planted to the ground. But when he tried to stand up, Spencer just stumbled side ways and fell back to the ground.
"Mmmhuu. . . ." Spencer groaned. Dylan watched as the other boy tried to get up multiple times but failed each attempt. After several stand, stumble and falls, Spencer managed to get to his feet and stayed that way.
"Why are you doing this? What do you want Dylan?" Spencer weakly asked. The area around his left eye was now bringing on a reddish hue.
"What do I want?" He laughed. Dylan started to step towards Spencer, one step with every few words he said.
"What I want is for you to leave. For you to never come back. You're pathetic, and stupid. No matter what anyone says you are stupid! You don't belong here!" Dylan was now towering over Spencer again just as before.
"That's what I want. That's why I am doing this. Since no one else will make it right, just like they say, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands." And with that Dylan sent another blow, this time to the side of Spencer's head.
As difficult as it was Emily managed to get through the passage way. She was surprised to see that it lead to back behind Derek's place. She knew he lived near the church, but she didn't know he lived that close to it.
Emily stood up properly dusting the dirt off her knees and hands. She scanned the area for where she was. She saw the line of houses of all shapes and sizes, noticing that Derek's dog Clooney was chained up in the back asleep. She saw the long straight trail that goes along behind the houses to her right, and to her left the hedge cut off any access in or out of there.
Emily pulled out her phone and looked at the time, 5:14pm. The party at JJ's ends around 6:30, also known as the time Aaron and the kids would be heading home to not find herself in bed sick as Derek told them she was.
So instead of walking and inspecting each and everything along the way, Emily took off in a quick half walk, half run kind of movement down the trail.
Spencer tried to lift his head up from it's place on the ground, but only to have it lull back and forth. When he opened his right eye, since the left would not open in the least bit, he was seeing triples instead of the doubles he saw with the first hit. Also he noticed his hearing was off, he heard Dylan trying, well at least he thought it to be Dylan, yelling at him to get up again, only it sounded as if he were yelling it from the other end of a large echoing tunnel.
Spencer groaned trying to get up again, only to end up on the ground again to see the blue sky with clouds and the wobbly tree's above.
He wasn't sure how long he stayed like that. All he did know was that it was a long time and at some point he started moving. It felt as if he were floating, floating away to somewhere better. Then everything went dark.
Fifteen minutes passed once Emily got to where the trail broke off into three different sections, one leading the way she just came from, the others going left and right. She knew that the right way led back into town, and the right way led the way to the back dirt road. One that not many people use nowadays.
She didn't know if she would call it her 'gut instinct' when she went left. Something just seemed to be pulling her that way, and was she glad that she did.
Up ahead, probably 25 meters ahead, she saw two kids. One older and one younger. The older one was standing over the younger one who was laying on the ground. The boy was yelling at the young one on the ground, telling him to get up.
She watched as the smaller one stumbled to get up, falling a few times, but managed to get to his feet after a few tries.
The taller boy started talking to the smaller boy again. He was almost shouting. Emily could only make out a few of the words like, I want. . . .Never come back. . .leave forever. . . It was enough to get Emily curious enough to know what was going on.
The smaller boy started slowly backing up. Then was thrown to the ground by a hard handed punch. Emily wanted to start moving forward but her legs had other plans. It was as if she was frozen on the spot, she knew she had to be in some kind of shock.
The smaller boy tried to get up again but ended up falling backwards. Soon giving up just laying there. The bigger boy continued to yell at the smaller one to get up.
The two boys began to get closer and closer, that's when Emily realized that she was running towards them.
"HEY!" She shouted. The older boy snapped his head up to her with wide eyes.
"What do you think you're doing?" Emily snapped. The boy started to back up slowly.
"I... uh..." The boy swallowed hard.
"Run." Emily said. She wasn't sure why she said it, it just kind of came out. The boy looked at her confused.
"Run! Get out of here!" The boy didn't think twice just took off running at full speed. If this day wasn't completely messed up Emily would have brought that boy home herself to let his parents know what he had been up to, but with everything going on...
Emily was pulled from her thoughts when she heard the small boy groan. She turned around and almost fell over from shock.
Down in front of her, with a left eye slowly taking on a pinkish purplish yellow colour, was the boy from the church. The one she had been losing her mind over.
"Shh, shh, shh. It's going to be okay." she whispered soothingly.
The boy's head lulled from right to the left. Emily felt like crying when she looked down at the small, helpless boy. She was about to pick him up but stopped when she saw his right wrist.
On his wrist was a silver bracelet. She'd seen one of these before. Yes, she had, Aaron's brother Sean has one. It was a medical alert bracelet that has your allergies or medical conditions listed on it, as well as your name. Your name. The boy's name!
Carefully Emily turned the boy's wrist over, quickly looked over the bracelet. It read: Spencer William Reid, Allergy to strawberries, dust and Dilaudid. Please contact your doctor immediately if patient comes in contact with either.
On the back it had a few phone numbers, which she assumed to be the medical clinics number and his home phone number.
Emily set the arm down slowly and carefully lifted Spencer up in her arms and made her way back to the church.
The trip back seemed a lot faster than the way out. About half way through Spencer started to groan. Emily looked down watching Spencer close his eyes tight while resting his head in the crook of her elbow.
When they got back to the hedge Emily had forgot about the way she got in was through a one person opening. She carefully set Spencer on the ground, laying him on his back while she crawled through to the other side.
Slowly and carefully Emily brought the small boy through the opening. When she picked him up again he began to stir. He said something she couldn't understand, something about home, meds and help.
"Shh, it's okay sweetie. Don't worry you're going to be alright." Emily said in a hushed tone.
They made it to the car and with one hand Emily opened the back door and laid Spencer along the back seat then closed the door. She wasn't sure if this could be put somewhere under the definition of 'kidnapping'. It wasn't like she was doing this for her own thrill, or bring him down into a dark basement and tie him up.
No, she had other plans, starting with calling Derek. Emily pulled out her phone and hit speed dial 4.
"Hello?" Derek answered from the other line.
"Derek!" Emily replied, almost on the verge of tears.
"Em? Hey, What's wrong? You sound upset." He asked concerned.
"That's because I am, Derek you will never believe what just happened." Emily said and began to pace.
"Why? What happened? Where are you?" Questions. That's all Derek could ask were questions.
"I'm at the church. The one out near your place." Emily ran a hand through her hair as she started to pace back and forth.
"The church? Why are you at the church?" Derek was way past confused at this point.
"Remember when I said I saw Spencer at the church? And how he ducked away fast?" Emily asked, not realizing she said 'Spencer' instead of 'the boy' or 'the kid'.
"Who's Spencer? Is that the kid?"
"Yes, his name is Spencer." Emily confirmed.
"How do you know that?" Derek asked suspiciously.
"Well..." Emily wasn't quite sure how to explain the situation. "Because... well because he's in the back of your car, as we speak, unconscious." She said all in one breath.
"HE'S WHAT?" Derek shouted shocked.
"Derek, please I need your help! Are you still at JJ's?" Emily stopped pacing at the hood of the car. She leaned back against it resting her free arm across her abdomen.
"Yeah I am, we were thinking about heading out. Why? What do you need?"
"Is Aaron still there?" she asked.
"Yes. Do you want me to go get him? He's just getting the kids ready to leave." Derek responded.
Emily hesitated before responding. Did she really want to pull Aaron in to this now? Or wait until later when she could explain everything to him face to face? Taking a deep breath she came to a decision to go with the latter.
"No, can you please just let him know that I ran out to the store and not to worry if I'm not home when he gets there? I promise you I will explain to him later."
"All right. As long as you tell him" He agreed. "Is there anything else? Or are you going to tell me why you have an unconscious boy in the back of my car?"
"Actually there is. If it wouldn't be too much trouble could you meet me at the hospital? I think he has a concussion and I don't know what to do."
Emily was now slightly crying. She tried not to let it show through the phone, but she knew Derek must have known.
"Hey, hey, hey now, don't worry. I'll be there as soon as possible." He soothed. Emily smiled to herself and nodded even though he couldn't see it.
"Thank you. I need to go now. People must be wondering what I'm doing out here at this hour, and I'm not sure that having an unconscious little boy in the back of your car would help the suspicions." She kidded causing Derek to chuckle.
"All right, if anything comes up call me, okay? I'll go talk to Aaron now." He said.
"Okay. Thanks again, Derek."
"Yeah, well you're lucky that I like you so much." He joked before the line went dead.
Emily smiled before putting her phone back in her pocket. She took a deep breath until sliding into the drivers seat.
"All right little guy, we're going to get you some help." She said out loud. "No matter what kind of help that may be." She muttered under her breath.
A/N I'M SO SORRY! If I had your address I would send you all a fruit basket. In all honesty I really didn't know what to do with this story... Then the other night I saT down and began typing and it all just started to come together. I hope you liked it. SUGGESTIONS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME! Remember to REVIEW and let me know what you think :D
ALSO As you can now see Emily and Spencer have finally somewhat met :) and TRUST ME it gets better :D a little sadÖ but better :)
AND ALSO once again I apologize for the 'cheese' paragraph... I'd cut it but my sister would smack me! (she's 11 and weird o_o) and she knows how to make it hurt :