Chapter 5

Reid and Prentiss

Love is the immortal flow of energy that nourishes, extends and preserves. Its eternal goal is life: -Smiley Blanton

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

They travelled in Emily's car in silence.

Reid gave general directions. The last part of it he wanted to walk. Her car would be easy to trace. Fine. Let them find it they would still be a long way from finding them.

Prentiss pulled over into a small parking area behind a twenty four hour store. "Now what?" She sat feeling too hot and sweaty and looked out of the side window.

"Now you lock up the car and we go look for him."

"Reid – they will find the car."

Reid rubbed at his nose. "Call in sick. That'll give us a couple of days."

He pushed open the door and slid out into the morning sunshine. He squinted into the sun and then looked back at Emily. She was going to get so hot and sweating in those trousers. Maybe he would suggest she got something else to put on – but then the image of the sweaty Emily made him lick his lips. He leaned back into the car to hear the end of the conversation.

"I will probably be fine in a couple of days – yes I think it was the chicken – have to – uh – go!" And she snapped the phone shut.

"Turn it off and leave it here. I don't want them tracking us."

She looked at the cell phone in her hands and nodded. "I don't like this. Running - it feels wrong. We should tell someone what's really going on."

Reid scratched at his neck. "You want to tell them? I thought this was between the two of us Emily. I thought this was our little thing." He was crouched down now outside the car but looking in at her still holding the phone.

"You're right – I know – I think – it just feels dishonest." Prentiss frowned but nodded and placed it in the glove compartment. She looked at the hand gun she had in there and looked over at Reid. She snapped the small door closed and locked it before Reid could see it. She still had the gun she was carrying on her belt. She didn't need to have the spare and Reid's firearm had been taken from him probably for good reason.

They started to walk. Reid in front and Emily just behind him. It sort of brought back memories of following Floyd through the forest. Reid somehow had a similar way of walking – but still not the same. Reid kept his elbows tight at his side and he almost swayed as he walked. From behind it was mesmerising. She wondered if he realised that he was walking like that. Was it natural or some kind of affectation he had picked up somewhere. Whatever the answer she found her eyes locked on Reid's behind.

The area they walked in became seedier and seedier. The small boutiques slowly gave way to boarded up premises and sex shops. The other people walking down the street changed slightly too. The female to male ratio had changed. Now the street walkers seemed to be very odd looking women or young men. She felt decidedly uncomfortable here, but Reid just carried on walking. The speed of his pace didn't change. Head down he just carried on. Emily walked quickly behind him wishing not for the first time in her life that she was a guy.

They passed clubs small bars. When Spencer suddenly stopped she nearly walked into the back of him. She placed a hand between his shoulder blades to keep her balance and it sent a bolt of electricity through her body.

"Reid?"

He could feel her hand on him and now he could feel her sweet hot breath on the back of his neck. He had been trying to fight this all the time they had been walking, but he could feel Emily's eyes on him and he could sense her thoughts.

"A drink I think."

"A drink? Here?"

"Here is good. I'm a regular." He started towards the door but again her hand was touching him, this time on his arm.

"You drink here?"

Slowly he turned to look at her. Emily looked into Spencer's hazel eyes and she was sure she saw for a fleeting second another pair of eyes watching. "Why wouldn't I drink here?" Daring her to give the wrong answer. She shook her head.

"No reason, I just thought you were more of a wine bar type."

Spencer smirked.

He turned and walked towards the doors of the Ten Bells.

It wasn't as bad once she was inside. It just felt like a normal bar except it seemed to be only males here. Spencer grabbed her arm and guided her to the bar. "Emily – what do you want to drink?"

"Oh orange juice." She was now staring at Reid's profile. This was another thing she had never really noticed about him. His odd personality had always blinded her of what a beauty this man actually was.

Reid ordered the drinks and this time his hand holding onto Emily's he took her to a small alcove with about enough room for four people. They sat down. Spencer on the outside edge and Emily back in the shadows. Not that she was shy or anything like that, but she just didn't feel comfortable in this place at all. Not her scene in lots of ways. Reid however seemed to be totally relaxed.

"Spencer." She asked after taking a few sips of her drink. "Are any of these people friends of yours? Will they know where to find him?"

Reid put his glass down and poked at the drink for a while with his straw. "These? This lot in here? No Prentiss – we need to go a lot deeper before we find Floyd and to be really honest I don't think he will be here anymore. Not after last night." He took a sip of his juice through the straw.

"What happened last night?" Now it was Em's turn to play with her straw.

"I was – you know – getting serviced….and he took over. I knew the mouth Em. No one does it like him."

"Christ Spencer!" She turned and grabbed at his hands. "You – for gods sake! Why? What possessed you to do that?"

A small shrug.

"Maybe I like it? Maybe I'm not the nice clean cut nerd you all want me to be? Maybe we all have secrets?" He looked down at the hands holding his. "Maybe it was because I knew he would find me if I did that."

"And this is your intention again? That's whoring Spencer! My god, you can't do that!"

"Oh suck it up Emily." He hissed at her and snatched his hands away from hers.

"This is how you intend finding him? What am I meant to do while you are playing your sick game?" She was talking a bit loud now.

"Keep your voice down. Listen – you want to find him – I want to find him – are you saying now that you are placing limits on how far you will go to find him? If that's the case Prentiss go home – I'll do this alone."

She was vigorously shaking her head now. "I didn't say that – but Spencer – you can't do that to yourself. There must be another way."

The prodding of his drink was causing it to splash over the side of the glass on the table. "You have a better idea? I will be glad to hear an idea from you."

"How about asking questions – working on like this as profilers – You must know people you can ask. You say you know this area, that you – uh – work it – so to speak, then you must know who to ask. I am assuming that they don't know you are……"

"No they don't and I don't think I am anymore anyway so moot point princess."

She turned to face him again with a small scowl across her face. "What did you call me?"

He picked his glass up. "Princess. Drink up – if my mouth is going to be used for talking this might take longer."

"Reid." A hand was on his shoulder – but there was no response and so she dropped her hand away from him again and watched as he drank the last of his drink and wiped his sticky fingers along the legs of his dirty jeans.

"Let's go then." He stood and put a hand out for Emily. She noticed how long Reid's fingernails had got and how there was a build up of dirt behind them. She bit down on her bottom lip and going against everything she knew was right went with this new wrong Reid to find Flanders.

-o-o-o-

Stupid – stupid people.

When will they learn?

He picked up a ride easy enough. A pale faced pale skinned pale haired man in his thirties. He introduced himself as Reggy and Floyd introduced himself as Franks. Reggy asked how far he needed to go and he told him probably further than he was willing. Reggy gave Floyd a strange sideways glance wondering suddenly if this dirty stinking hitchhiker had been the wrong person to pick up today.

Reg would have preferred a girl. They were more likely to give him a tip at the end of the journey.

"Do you smoke?" He shook a pack of cigarettes at Floyd – who in turn nodded and took one.

"Ta."

"So you're on a long trip then?" Now offering a box of matches.

"You could say."

"Uh hu. So you running or chasing? Everyone is either running or chasing after someone. What's her name?"

"Spencer – and I'm not running or chasing – just moving on."

"Uh hu."

"So I can anticipate picking up Spencer tomorrow then?"

Floyd turned to Reggy and smiled. "I should think so. Until then, may I pay for the ride?" And Floyd's filth encrusted hand moved over onto the leg of Reggy Waterman.

Again – true to form Floyd took what he wanted. And when Reggy was dead and laying in the ditch at the side of the road he look more. The car, Floyd drove off the edge of this busy road onto a very quiet little spot. He had then pushed Reg out and dragged him to the ditch he was now crouching in with him. He had done to Reg only what Reg had wanted to do to him. He pulled bits of the dead man's flesh off and sucked it into his mouth in long succulent slithers. He ran his long nails over Reg's face and put his fingers on the blue lips. The fingers he followed closely with his own lips licking and tasting the last breaths of Reggy Waterman.

Like an animal he stayed and protected his feast from the forest animals. He carefully removed bits to eat later. The heart he ripped out with an apology. "I know you were only trying to help Reggy, but you know….each man for himself these days, and I have a lot of making up to do before I can move on properly.

He squeezed the heart and sucked on the blood and then putting it in his pocket for later he just sat next to Reggy until the early hours of the morning.

He looked down at the forest floor and muttered. "I am doing what I can here. You didn't leave me much to work with."

-o-o-o-

Mary-Beth Waterman sat at the kitchen table chain-smoking. Reggy was late. He was very late and this bothered her a lot. He was either with some whore somewhere or he had been drinking again.

She rubbed absent mindedly at the bruise under her eye and then looked down at her chew and broken fingernails and waited for her loving husband to come home and beat the crap out of her because he could.

Tonight was a whole new beginning for Mary-Beth Waterman.

-o-o-o-

It was horribly obvious to Emily that Spencer was well known here. People nodded hellos to him and nodded invites. He nodded and did his strange shy wave back at them but didn't talk to them.

"They might have seen him."

Spencer stopped and turned to Em. "They haven't. He hasn't been here. I can't smell him Emily. He's gone." He put a finger on the end of her nose and smiled. "Don't worry. There is more than one place he could be. This is just the closest and probably easiest for us to search. Keep up." He turned and started to walk again into the darker dirtier parts of the alley way.

Emily walked quickly behind Spencer trying her best to ignore the noises coming from either side of her. She dug her hands deeply into her pockets and kept her eyes locked on the back of Reid's head.

The alley way eventually opened up into a courtyard. The backs of warehouses made up the square. A few doors set into them. They all look disused and disgusting. Well disused by what they had been built for anyway. Spencer stood and looked around. He personally had never been down this far and so he wasn't completely sure what to expect. This was fine. If Floyd was here or had been here he would be able to find him.

Emily put her hand on Reid's arm. "We are going to have to search all these old derelict buildings?"

"No princess – no we won't. I will know if he has been here." He placed his hand over hers. "Shall we begin?"

The walked through the nearest door. It was hanging off its hinges. They stepped into the darkness together.

Emily could hear the sharp intake of breath that Spencer took. He then started taking in huge gulps of dank dirty air.

"Reid?" Her grip on his arm tightened.

"It's OK….He's not here. I don't think he has ever been here. I don't sense him. I can't smell him or – feel him."

Prentiss started to walk back out of the dark vile building. "You are sure?"

Reid allowed her to guide him back into the dim daylight. "No – not sure, I will know if he has been there. It's going to be harder to tell if he hasn't."

"I have to be honest with you Reid – I don't know what you are going on about." She started to walk to the next door. Reid didn't reply to her comment – he didn't know how to reply to it. He wasn't sure he knew what he was talking about either.

The next door creaked horribly and Reid instantly knew without going in there it wouldn't have been where Floyd had stayed. It just felt wrong. He would want somewhere he could come and go quietly not with this awful sound. He closed the door again and shook his head.

The next was a plain black door which pushed open. Spencer put his left hand out and took hold of Emily's right and then carefully pushed open the door. The smell was grotesque. It was like a million things had crawled in there and died and over the top of that was the heady musky scent of Floyd. The smell was so bad that Emily recoiled and put her hand over her mouth.

"He's not here now."

Prentiss made a strange gagging sound and looked at Reid with big eyes. "How could anyone be in there? My god what was he doing?"

"You want to go in and find out?" Reid gestured with his head. "Or shall we – uh – assume he's move on."

"Just close the door Spencer. Good god – that smell!"

Reid pulled on the small silver coloured handle and closed the door. He dropped his hand away from Emily's and ran his hands over the back of his neck. "I need to think. Go back to the car and I'll meet you there in an hour."

Prentiss looked around where they were and then back to Spencer. "No – I'll wait." She knew full well what he meant by thinking. "I don't know quite what has got into you Spencer but you need to calm down and back off away from it a bit."

He looked at Emily and gave her a tight smile. "I think I know where he would go, but it's just this odd gut instinct again. I can't explain it."

She grabbed hold of his hand. "You don't need to explain it and you definitely don't need to sell your body to get inspiration."

"But……"

"No – Spencer listen to me. Something dreadful happened in that forest that day but it was in the past and we have survived it and come out the other end. We now need to heal – and we are trying to do this is different ways. Hotch is moving home – Morgan is going to the gym more often – I – I well I am on this crazy road trip with you and you Spencer have to heal too and dragging yourself into the gutter isn't helping you – it's – not you."

"Not me?"

"Obviously not you! Call me crazy if you want but Spencer you are not acting like 'you' – you are using words you wouldn't normally – you are doing things you wouldn't have dreamed of before. Your clothes are filthy, it doesn't look like you've washed in days and you – you smell wrong."

"So do you – I can smell him on you Emily. I can taste him on you."

"Likewise. This isn't you Spencer – this is some trick Flanders is playing."

Reid started to walk back towards the alley way.

"Please Reid – at least consider it."

"He's going to Maine. We need to catch up."

"Wait! Reid just wait will you." She walked quickly behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. "I need to ask you something."

Spencer turned around and looked directly into her dark eyes. He raised his hands and tucked his hair behind his ears. "What's wrong?"

"Earlier – in your apartment. Is something like that likely to happen again?"

Reid put a hand on the side of her face. "You mean your slapping me?"

"You know full well what I mean."

Reid blinked. "Floyd by proxy."

"For both of us."

"Let's just see how things go shall we?" He took hold of Emily's hand and escorted her back down the alley way and then on towards where she had parked her car.

-o-o-o-

Aaron stood outside the small single story dwelling. It had a back yard and a small pretty front garden which was tended by the groundsman. It was a nice exclusive quiet area away from the traffic and away from the life he was trying to leave behind. A couple of cats wandered down the pedestrian walkway outside the Hispanic looking property. It was safe. It was nice …. "I'll take it."

"You haven't looked inside yet."

"I can see from the floor plans the layout and it has the rooms required. Send me the papers. I want to move in as soon as possible. I need the windows and doors replaced with the re-enforced ones we talked about."

The realtor was making notes on her pad. "Very well. I will bring the papers to you before ten this evening. If you don't mind a personal visit."

Aaron looked over at the harassed but friendly looking woman in glasses and shook his head. "I would love a personal visit. Pizza and wine good for a celebration?"