A/N: Disclaimer in profile. Review, review, review! I love to know your thoughts!
Six
Never before had things been snapped so objectively into place.
Haley looked calmly at Spencer, who was sitting there mulling over what was about to happen. She could see his concentration in his face, it was one of the things that calmed her most, as a matter of fact, up until about fifteen minutes ago, it was the thing that calmed her most.
It felt good, watching the life drain from the woman's terrified eyes. For once in her life, Haley felt control. She had found the solace she had been so desperately seeking for years. She shocked herself with the realization that she wanted more.
What would Spencer say?
"Renee?" called a male's voice about fifteen minutes later. He sounded large, by the way the stairs creaked on his way down the stairs.
"Joshua, what're you doing? She's working," said a smaller sounding voice.
"Spencer," Haley whispered, huddling closer to her brother. "What're we going to do?"
He was still thinking, still in that place of peace he went to when he was figuring something out. "Are you strong enough to stand now?" he asked quietly as Joshua and the smaller man were debating as to whether or not they should 'interrupt' Renee, apparently the woman Haley had disposed of.
"Barely. You saw, only for a couple of seconds or so," Haley said logically and rationally. "What are you thinking about?"
"Window?" he asked, looking up at the blackout curtain.
Haley looked as well. "I don't know, I-"
"You!" came the booming voice, Joshua, from across the room again. "Did you do this?" He was pointing at the dead Renee.
"Niabi!" the smaller one yelped and ran to the body. "They killed her!"
"Just get her out of here. We'll prepare for the burial later," Joshua said, looking from Spencer to Haley with a feral gleam in his eye.
No, no, no, no, no, Haley thought. They can't take her away yet! She surprised herself again with these thoughts. What had she planned to do? Get a trophy?
Again, fear dominated Haley's thoughts as Joshua started towards her. This was it. Here, now. In front of her brother.
"Don't look, Spence."
--
Sirens filled the air as the SUV's and five accompanying police cars flew down the street to the site of the noise pollution. The wheels screeched at the driveway in front of a small gray house. They cut off the sirens and flashed the lights in a dead silence for what seemed like half an hour. JJ looked at her watch; it had only been two minutes.
"Obviously not the stereotypical hostage situation, then," Emily said.
"What do you mean?" Garcia asked.
"They haven't started to shoot yet. If they haven't by now, they won't. We'll have to get them out ourselves unless one of them breaks a little," Emily explained.
"How do you know it's not hostage?" JJ asked.
"They haven't placed demands in the Initial Phase; we'll just go right into the Negotiation Phase. And Reid and Haley aren't symbols of a greater cause, they're a prize and a "Beware" sign."
"Head's up!" Morgan shouted as every member of the team and all of the officers held up their guns from behind the barricade made from the police car doors.
A small Native American man emerged onto the porch carrying a gun. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" he screamed.
"Joel Longfoot?" called Hotch into a blowhorn. "This is Agent Hotchner. We spoke earlier, remember?"
Joel nodded as he began to pace the porch holding his gun in plain sight.
"We have Harrison Chepi in custody," he continued. "Please, Joel, don't be rash. There are civilians everywhere."
"We don't have a Harrison Chepi," one of the female officers whispered to Rossi.
"It's part of luring them into a panic," Rossi replied consisely.
"Wouldn't the sirens do it for them?" the officer asked, wide eyed.
"Sometimes. Others we just have to sit and they'll come out. This time, we had to use the loud speakers," Rossi sighed.
"Please just come peacefully with all of your number and the two agents you have in the vicinity," Hotch finished up a large spiel that Rossi had missed.
"THERE'S ONLY ONE AGENT YOU LYING ASSHOLE!" Joel screamed.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We all make mistakes. Me with the agent, you with taking them. I'm sure you had a very logical reason for doing what you did. Just… bring your number into custody and we'll discuss it."
Joel scratched the back of his head, turned to the open door as if listening to something, and smiled. "ONE MORE MINUTE!" he shouted.
"One more minute? What does he mean one more minute?" JJ asked frantically. Rossi put a hand on her shoulder.
"I don't think you want to know," he murmured.
"Now, Joel," Hotchner said into the horn. "You have ten seconds before I send every fed, SWAT, and officer in there and bust you, no questions asked."
Joel looked panicked, scanned the area that the open door allowed, and put the gun down, hands over his head. He began to walk toward the line-up.
Hotch lowered the horn. "There are at least two others in there, Morgan, I want you and Prentiss to go in and get them out."
They nodded and suited up, taking the guns out of the holsters and following the hedge to the back of the house.
Emily stopped, Morgan behind her, questioning.
She nodded toward a locked cellar, indicating that was where they should start.
Morgan nodded, taking the lead and kicking down the nearly rotten doors. "FBI!" he screamed.
He heard a soft grunt and the zip of what sounded like a pair of pants. Oh God, Morgan began to pray as he looked through the rubbish and trash throughout the cellar.
"Look at this," Emily said, nudging a woman's body with her boot toe. "Bludgeoned to death with what looks like…" she shined her flashlight on the sparkle of an iron. "… that."
"Oh God," Morgan verbalized this time. "Come on, we gotta find the Reids.
"Woah!" Prentiss stepped a bit further to see a broken Haley sitting next to her stunned and silent brother, the younger shedding silent tears down her dirt-crusted face. The older staring off into infinity.
"It's all right, you two. We're here-" Morgan began but was cut off by an attack from behind. "HOLY--!" He shouted as he fought off an angry Joshua Blueknife. The blows were harsh and vicious and the brawl ended with Joshua pulling a gun, glaring at Morgan.
Morgan did the same. "Put that down," he shouted at Blueknife. "You've ruined enough lives tonight."
"This is MY punishment… for love outside of the tribe! You needed to stay away! We had it all under control!" he screamed, half-mad.
"Sir, I promise you, this will go a lot better when you put the gun down," Morgan breathed.
Tears began to roll down the larger man's face. "This went all wrong… I… It never was supposed to be this way! You… you were supposed to leave when you got the note! And… I… I don't know…" the gun began to travel from Morgan, to the man's temple.
"No… nonononononono! That is a big mistake, please, just come with us peacefully and-"
"IT WASN'T SUPPOSED TO BE THIS WAY!" he shrieked just before he pulled the trigger.
--
Two Weeks Later
Spencer, now cast-less walked down the hallway at Quantico, glad to be back. He had taken a two week leave due to his recent kidnapping and spent it with Haley, watching movies in his apartment, taking walks in the park, going to the mandatory psyche meeting, that sort of brother/sister thing. Still, the images of being completely helpless while his sister was raped, twice, flashed through his mind. Her hopeless eyes as the woman walked in. Worst of all, the look of satisfaction, of pleasure that crept across Haley's face after she killed the woman scared him. It couldn't mean… it didn't mean… Haley had feelings, emotions… didn't she?
He didn't know, rather, he didn't want to know. He didn't want to think about it anymore. It was time to focus on a new case, a new page in the young genius' life. That chapter just had to go down in the 'Things I'd Rather Forget' file in the vast storage area that was his mind. Not to be cocky, but he liked the metaphor.
JJ was supportive of his taking off for a while; she was even concerned about his coming back to the office. She even tried to get him to 'be sick' that morning in bed. He wouldn't have any of it. He was more concerned about Haley than himself. As long as he was concerned with something more important than he was, he would be fine. He hated that she quit the internship, but couldn't see another way she would continue. She finished her semester's work for Yale, and now she just lay around the apartment, staring off into emptiness.
Her psyche records came out clean. The… events… had left no lasting scar that doesn't affect normal rape victims, but he just didn't know.
He sat down at his desk, took a sip of his coffee, nodded and smiled at Morgan, who was bored from deskwork, and settled into his chair. It was good to be home.
--
Haley stared at the ceiling of her old bedroom. Isabelle played in the floor next to her. Haley had played for a while, but eventually told Izzy that she needed a naptime. Izzy understood, she loved her naptime like no normal child did. JJ must've taught her well.
But Haley wasn't asleep. She was thinking, thinking hard. She was contemplating the emptiness that had formed inside of her since she killed that woman, Renee Niabi, she would never forget. It was beautiful… glorious… disturbing. Why did she think these things?
Why was there a hole in her stomach? She didn't know. She had tried all the things that she loved before, cooking with the BAU girls, running with Morgan, playing with little Izzy, discussing anything with Spencer; nothing worked. Nothing ever would work again. She knew what she needed.
She needed to kill someone.