Shattered

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

He awoke to half shattered memories of the night before. His neck hurt his eyes hurt. He was hurting. He could feel arms around him and as he opened his eyes and looked down he saw the dark skin of Morgan. A shudder swept through his body as he carefully tried to extract himself from the older man.

"Reid." Morgan's sleepy voice.

"I need a shower." Was all he said and quickly went to the hotel bathroom. He turned on the water and stood watching it for a while. He went to the mirror and looked at his face. The darkness around them was deep is sickly looking today. Spencer slowly unbuttoned his shirt with trembling fingers and noticed marks on his neck. Big nasty marks like something had been garrotting him. He ran his fingers slowly over the marks and looked at the closed door. Pulling off the shirt he could see marks like fingers had been pressed to his skin on his forearms. He was hoping it had been a nightmare. He was sure some of it was, but you don't get psychosomatic bruises from a night mare. If this had really happened what else had? He looked down again at his trembling hands and then to the closed door again.

Spencer moved quickly and threw the lock on the door then stood with his back to it. What was going on? Why was this happening to him? He felt sick. He thought Morgan was a friend but the memories of the night before came flooding back so hard that it made his head swim. He didn't know what to do. Hotch was with Haley. Floyd was in hospital, Gideon had just gone. Everyone gone. Quickly he picked up his shirt and put it back on again. He took a deep breath and unlocked and opened the door. The shower was still running hot steamy water.

Derek looked up from the magazine he was reading over to Spencer. It was obvious he hadn't had a shower as his hair was in a state of extreme fluffiness. Reid avoided looking at Morgan and put on his shoes. His cell was on the nightstand – he snatched it up, still avoiding Morgan's curious look.

"What are you doing?" He finally asked.

Reid chewed on his bottom lip and looked around for his bag.

"Reid, what's wrong?"

Spencer turned his body to face Morgan but his eyes he kept down. He nervously scratched his neck. "You know full well what is wrong. I thought I could trust you. You took advantage of me Morgan." And he turned snatching up his bag from a corner by the door and went to leave the room.

"Wait up man, what are you talking about. You had a nightmare – I was just helping."

Reid was walking out of the door with the parting shot of something he couldn't quite make out.

…………

He had to get away. He didn't know where to, but away. He needed time to get his head together. Reid hadn't been back to his own apartment in days, and now he knew that the Thus Spake Zarathoustra book had been taken from his place he wasn't all that keen on returning. He had turned off his cell phone, but he knew this SUV could be tracked so he pulled over into a rental lot and went up to the office.

Five minutes later he was leaving in a small four by four. He pointed it north and started to drive. They wouldn't miss him. He was no good on this case anyway. If he got out of the way maybe the murders will stop. Maybe.

He pulled of the main roads and drove up the forest lanes. Reid noticed how the gas seemed to be getting low and made a note to fill up at the next station. The next place he could fill up at was an old place with two pumps out the front. He pulled up and got out of the car. With his mind on a million things, mainly what he thought Morgan had done he walked up the two wooden steps at the front of the small wooden building and pushed the doors open, still looking down at his feet with his fingers in his front pockets. The first he realised something was not quite right was when he felt something hard and cold pressing into his back. He stood deathly still and watched as a hand moved around and took his gun from its holster.

Spencer slowly moved his hands out of his pockets and raised them to head level. He cautiously looked up to see a man bound on the floor by the counter and a woman with blood spreading over her chest over next to the milk and other chilled foods.

"On your knees." And the gun was pressed harder into his back. This didn't look good. This looked very bad. The man who was tied up had been beaten and from where Reid was standing it didn't look like he was breathing. He slowly dropped to his knees, but he still hadn't been able to get a look at who this person was, or if there was more than one.

"Hands behind your back" Another voice- both male. Reid tried to think of something to say. Something clever, something like Gideon had done with the Footpath killer, but he didn't know what to do. He put his hands behind his back and felt the nylon cuffs tighten.

It was when a hand went to take his wallet that the panic really set in. "I I what – what do - ?" and he moved to the side slightly in an attempt to distract them from his ID.

"Keep still." The first voice again and the owner of the prying hands. He felt the wallet leave his pocket and heard a soft moan from behind.

Reid turned and rolled onto his back so he was facing his assailants. He needed to be able to identify these people. Two big dark skinned men with shaven heads and prison style tattoos were looking from his ID back to him. Fantastic! How could life get any better?

And something hard cracked him across the side of the head.

…………………..

Flanders life had gone from boring and safe to very exciting and dangerous over night. He had been cuffed by one hand to the bed and now Hotchner was going to be coming to talk to him. This was insane.

Hotch entered the large hospital room and looked at Flanders.

"There is a lot of explaining to do." He was to the point. Yes there was.

"I didn't kill anyone."

"You were covered in GSR. Care to explain how?"

"You wont believe me if I told you."

Hotch got a chair and pulled it closer. "You are in a lot of trouble. You need to tell me everything."

"You already have me tagged as guilty."

"Prove me wrong. Tell me everything from when you got home to when we found you in the flowerbed."

"I thought Spence was dead. I thought that was him in the elevator. I went home. I got some coke and I got some whiskey, and I didn't care if I never woke up again. I had a bad trip. I thought I saw things in my back yard, but they didn't look right. They looked deformed, but its just memories from the drugs, it means nothing. I remember hammering on the glass for them to stop. My pool water was going a funny colour. Then the noise coming up the stairs. A horrific noise. I won't be using that supplier again. Something just came for me. I couldn't see it. It was dark and I remember feeling the glass give way, and that's it. I didn't shoot anyone."

……………….

They put a gag around the unconscious face of the Fed they had captured. They tied his feet together and blindfolded him. They then threw him into the trunk of their car and making sure there was no one left alive, they drove off up the forest road with pockets full of money and grins on their faces.

…………….

Arlington PD was busy. Drunks still being dealt with, a couple of ladies of the night were being processed. There had been a gang shooting that night and some gangers had been dragged in with their cuzzz's and were being questioned.

Interview room four was empty.

So when the alarms went off that it had been compromised they were a bit confused. Officer Denton went to investigate why the alarms had suddenly been activated.

The door was open so he walked in expecting to see one of the gangers there. There was someone there, but not as he expected. He called out for assistance.

Laying on the floor with a broken neck and what appeared to be a badly battered face was a young looking man with collar length brown wavy hair. He was in a pale green and white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a green sweater vest and brown cords. He had one hand laying over his chest with a letter in it. The other above his head with the elbow bent. The cop picked up the letter and looked at the writing on the front. 'SSA Aaron Hotchner.'

On the floor next to the body was a pair of hand cuffs and a selection of photos of dead children.

………………………

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!