On The Last Night of The Year

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the ideas.

This chapter is set some weeks later.

. . .

Ashley sat huddled in the passenger seat of Dave's car, wrapping her long slim arms protectively around the trunk of her body. Resting her head against the window she stared ahead. Even an untrained eye could tell that, though present in body, she certainly wasn't in mind.

Dave shot a glance over, catching the glazed appearance that dulled her normally brilliant blue eyes. He had a bad feeling about today. Hell, he'd had a bad feeling about this moment from the time they had first met. Somehow, in the pit of his stomach, he had known he would cross paths Ashley for as long as he lived, and he also knew that they would rarely be happy moments. They were destined to find strength in each other at the most pressured of times.

Dave drove silently, allowing her uninterrupted thoughts to processes themselves.

Pulling up outside the intimidating building, Dave switched off the car and turned to face Ashley.

Ashley never moved, the only sign of life being a single blink of her eyes.

Dave waited, not wanting to push her. He was here to support, not congeal or pressurise. Eventually he put his hand slowly on her knee, and gently squeezed.

"You okay?"

Ashley nodded, unwinding her arms from her body as she straightened herself. Reaching for the door release, she went to leave.

Dave stopped her with a firm hand on her slender shoulder.

Turning back to face him, her face stricken with worry, as her eyes questioned his action.

"Sweetheart, I'm right there with you every step, but I need to be clear on what you want me to do. We've talked about this, but already you have changed. Are you sure on the role you want me to take?"

Ashley nodded. "Please Dave, step in whenever you feel it's right. I need impartial eyes in there."

Dave had to smile, he wasn't sure he classed as impartial when it came to Charles Beauchamp, convicted killer of twenty–five women, though many believed the count was closer to forty. Hotch had practically had to hold him back the day they bust the door down and dragged his sorry ass out.

Throughout his career faces had haunted him, but usually they belonged to the children of the victims. Never had he seen so harshly the impact on the family of the UnSub. Watching as they tore a family apart, the sins of the father paid out on his relatives.

No, David Rossi was not impartial, but he would with hold his end of the bargain. He would protect her. She would not be his final victim.

. . .

Ushered in to the grey room, Ashley took a seat at the steel table that was secured to the floor. Once again her arms weaved around her body, creating a physical barrier. Dave stood by the door, leaning nonchalantly against the wall. His hands stuffed into his jeans pockets, if only to avoid the possibility of hitting the bastard the moment he walked into the room.

The scrap of a key in a lock in the door opposite them signalled the arrival of the man they had come to see. As the door swung open, a frail looking man was wheeled into the room, his face partially covered by a clear plastic mask attached to a tank of oxygen on the back. His long greying hair had been secured back onto a ponytail that mirrored that of his blonde daughter. The piercing eyes the same crystal blue, dulled like her, but for a different reason.

The guard secured the brakes on the chair once he was level with the table. Looking directly at Rossi, who nodded his agreement, the guard turned to leave them alone, as they had requested.

Charles Beauchamp lifted his head a little, a gnarled hand reached for the mask. Pawing it aside his raspy voice broke the tense silence.

"What's he doing here?" he spat, his eye rising to glare directly at Rossi.

Rossi smiled, happy to know his presence had got under the skin of the pathetic looking individual. Stepping forward towards the table, Dave took the seat next to Ashley.

"Now, now, Charles, have you lost what sorry excuse you had for manners in the last nine years?"

Beauchamp's body may be failing him, but his mind wasn't. Dave could see the desire to cause damage, he had no doubt that should the man be fit and well, then right now it would be more than a verbal sparring.

"You son of a bitch, Rossi, you have no right to be here," the dying man gasped.

"Yes he does," Ashley's firmly spoken words surprised them both as they faced her. "I wanted him here."

Beauchamp's eyes returned to the smug looking man opposite him. David just winked and grinned, maybe this was going to be more fun than he originally thought.

"You wanted to see me," Ashley spoke flatly, the strain of containing the jumble of emotions she with held tinting the edge of her voice, as she placed her shaking hand onto the table.

"Baby," Beauchamp soothed, reaching a hand across the table.

Ashley physically recoiled from his action, staring at the impending limb, as she once more sought safety behind the strength of her folded arms.

"Baby," he whispered again, before taking a huge gulp of gas from the hissing mask, "I have missed you. You know Daddy loves you right?"

I look of distained crossed her fine features; this was exactly why she didn't want to come, this bullshit.

"Angel, I made mistakes, but I'm still your Pa. Nothing can change that. I still love you, even if you can't forgive me."

"Forgive you?" Ashley spoke quietly and evenly. "You abducted, raped, tortured, killed and mutilated twenty-five women, then came home to Mom and me. You lied to us day in and day out for eighteen years of my life. I can't forgive that, never can I forgive you."

"I never lied, Hunny. I just protected you from the truth."

Ashley's laugh was uncharacteristically high pitched; "Now I have heard it all. Is that what you wanted me here for, to hear you pathetic excuses? If it is, then we are going as you are wasting your breath, and by the look of things you haven't got many left to spare."

Beauchamp's breath was laboured, the unusual amount of activity impacting on his normally sedate life. The added sting of her final words hit him like a fist to his tight chest.

"Why did you come here?" he finally asked.

"For the truth!" Ashley answered.