Family Roots

A/N: OK, so it wasn't exactly the same day, but I haven't been writing for a while, I'm a little rusty in staying focused on the task at hand. In any case, almost done folks, hope you've enjoyed it.

When the team reached Eva Bridger's home, they exited the cars quietly. They weren't looking to draw attention, especially when their lead suspect was in her late eighties. It wouldn't do to give her a heart attack before they had a chance to prove they were onto something. Hotch sent Morgan and Prentiss around the back to see if there was a greenhouse in the backyard, while the others made their way to the house. A quick radio from Morgan confirmed there was a greenhouse and a quick inspection had proven fruitful. From what they could tell, every species of flower used in the case was being grown within it. A moment later, they pounded on the door, only to find it unlocked.

Despite the woman's age, the team entered the house with extreme caution, guns drawn as they searched for their suspect. Reid, who had been following Gideon at the time, stopped at the foot of the stairs as he heard something coming from the upstairs bedroom. He caught Gideon's attention and the two made their way, carefully, up the stairs. As they drew near, Reid realized what he was hearing was crying. They rounded the corner, heading for the sound. When they reached the door, Gideon gave a count and the two burst in, searching for a light to tame the darkness they were staring into blindly. When Reid finally, after a few moments of fumbling, found the switch, the two were more then surprised to find Constance Cantrell, slumped next the bed, her face soaked in tears, her hair a mess, hands gripping at the bed spread.

Resting atop the spread, hands folded across a sprig of flowers, was Eva Bridger.

Her face was set in peaceful, and apparently, eternal slumber. The elderly lady didn't appear to have been in any pain, just as the others had been. Beside her was a teacup, set prim and proper on its saucer. The two men approached Constance slowly, the woman's sobs cutting through the air. Reid knelt beside her as Gideon looked on, still on guard.

"Mrs. Cantrell?" Reid said softly, reaching a hand out to touch her. The woman didn't respond as he said her name softly, however, the instance his hand reached her shoulder, she leapt to her feet, her eyes flashing with anger.

"DON'T—TOUCH ME!" She cried, her sudden movement bringing Gideon's gun hand back into position. Reid raised his hands, showing her he wasn't a threat.

"Mrs. Cantrell, we're here to help, just let us help."

"No one can help—" the woman mumbled, her hands twisting in her shirt hem, "nono, she saw, and she ignored it all—what they did." Reid looked at Gideon for help, receiving an equally puzzled look. Her erratic behavior was a far cry from the quiet, withdrawn woman they had met with the previous afternoon. He faced the woman again, hoping to find out what was going on.

"Mrs. Cantrell, w-what do you mean, she ignored it? Who did what?" Constance looked up, her eyes reflecting nothing but someone hanging on the edge of the reason. Wiping angrily at her face, she leaned towards him, her lips quivering.

"Those women were evil." She said, nodding as though Reid had looked surprised at her statement. She continued, her mind not keeping up with what she was saying. "They brought nothing but ridicule to this family, with their problems, their addictions. They hurt us and she, she just let it go, said the Lord would take care of them." She shook her head in disgust at what she saw as weakness. Before Reid or Gideon could do anything more, the door burst open and Constance's husband flew into the room. Immediately Gideon attempted to keep him back, but was nearly bowled over by the man. As soon as her husband saw the woman he had been raised by, laying, prone on the bed, he exploded, positively furious.

"Constance! What—what did you do?" Gideon put a hand against the man's chest, pushing him back.

"Mr. Cantrell, can you explain any of this?" The man looked away from the body of his surrogate mother to the man who was preventing him from attacking his own wife.

"She—" he breathed heavily as it came over him, what he knew. "She came home, right after you and your team had come to interview us all. She said that Eva hadn't done what she should have. That she had to do it for her, and soon everyone would know. She wouldn't explain it to me. I just realized she was gone and came here." The man ran a hand through his hair, eyes wet.

"I can't believe she did this." As she heard this, the woman flew into a rage. She ran at her own husband, stopped short by Reid. As he attempted to hold the struggling woman Reid was sorely regretting Morgan's absence at this particular moment. As she thrashed against Reid, she screamed at her husband.

"I can't believe you didn't see what had to be done! They were destroying our family! I had to stop them!" she wouldn't stop struggling, her hands slapping at Reid's face. Gideon yelled into the radio, calling for the rest of the team, nearly pushing the fighting woman's husband straight into Morgan as he attempted to help Reid restrain the woman. As Morgan rushed in to help, Gideon looked to Reid.

"Think that was a confession?" He asked the young man. Reid, who was breathing quite hard after trying to keep a near psychotic woman from going on a rampage, nodded. It appeared they had found their murderer. As Morgan and Prentiss led the woman out of the room, her husband, now having a plethora of stoicism, following. Hotch stood back as they passed, entering the room only after the still hysterical Constance had been dragged out to the waiting police cars.

Gideon patted Reid's shoulder as he left the room. He gave a half smile and went to get the waiting police. The room they were standing in was now a crime scene.

"Good work Reid." He said, as he left Reid to ponder on his own. Alone for a moment, Reid turned to the body lying on the bed. The elderly woman looked absolutely peaceful, despite her having been murdered. Pulling out his phone, Reid leaned over and took a picture of the flowers she was holding. The sprig she held between her fingers had flowers that were dark pink on the inside, the petals pushing out to lighter pink. The petals were all the same length until they reached the bottom petal, which stuck out like a tongue.

He supposed one final call to Grace was needed.

Twenty-four hours later, the team was aboard the jet, heading towards home. It couldn't have come soon enough. Everyone was tired and in dire need of home and all things familiar. For Reid, all he wanted was to see Grace and Aydan. He hadn't realized that even the few days he had been gone would drive him as crazy as it had.

Frankly, he didn't know how Hotch did it all the time. He was separated from his wife and son more often then seemed appropriate and yet somehow they did it. He and Grace on the other hand, hadn't even thought that far in the future and already Reid felt the strain.

Whatever happened though, Reid was sure it would work out.

He was shaken out of his thoughts as Morgan started to discuss the case.

"So let me get this straight. Constance Cantrell is the good one, the best of the best of all the Cantrell women—she sees all the other wives behaving badly and takes it upon herself to protect the family, by killing them all." He said, looking puzzled by the recent actions of a woman that never seemed to have a bad bone in her body. Prentiss set her coffee cup on the table ahead of her, leaning back in her seat.

"Don't forget, Eva taught Constance everything she knew about flowers." She said, J.J. joining in on the discussion.

"Eva was an expert on flowers and was aware of their meanings. She shared her knowledge of it with Constance." She said, by this time, Reid had slipped back into his daydream of seeing Grace again, not paying attention; he barely registered it when Morgan called his name. Looking up, he shook his head clear.

"What?" he asked, his embarrassment over being caught off-guard evident. Morgan laughed, fingers tapping on the table.

"Pay attention man, 'stead of mooning over your girl!" he said jokingly, despite his good humor, Reid felt melting into his seat would be the next best thing to throwing himself off the plane. Morgan shook his head as he saw the beginnings of a blush, creep across the young man's cheeks.

"Aw Reid," he said attempting to soothe the embarrassed genius, "I was just joking—speaking of your girl though, what'd she say about the last flowers, what were they, out of curiosity." He asked. Reid gave a slight cough and shift uncomfortably in his seat as all eyes fell on him.

"Um, Grace—said that the sprig in Eva Bridger's hand was an Apricot flower." He started. When he paused the others waited for him to continue.

"And?" J.J. pressed.

"It means distrust and doubt." Reid said quietly. As the others digested this, Gideon looked up from his folded hands.

"Constance Cantrell gave the final blow—Eva Bridger was the matriarch of her family, she didn't take the appropriate steps in Constance's eyes to correct the mistakes. Someone as proper as Constance couldn't stand seeing the chaos her sister-in-laws were bringing into her family." The team was quiet as the plane pushed through the sky, bringing them closer to home and further away from the bizarreness of criminal minds.

For Reid, home was sounding sweeter all the time.