Loves and Losses

Justin:- We're going to Babylon. You wanna come?

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.


The crowd was still thick outside- thronging with people ready to party still. Reid and Floyd had to push their ways through. Spencer to be honest felt sick. He just wanted to get home and have a coffee and try to make sense of what he had done. And enjoyed?

Suddenly the crowd thickened. Spencer stopped walking – the way barred. Floyd's hand tightened in his for a second then he released it. "Spence – get out of here." Pushing him sideways, but all he managed to do was make Reid lose his balance and nearly fall. He was grabbed by a couple of blokes standing smiling. Reid watched as they took his crutch and held him with tight hands around his arms.

Floyd was about to take a step forwards when hands grabbed hold of him. "Thanks for the toy creep. Now go on home while we have fun with the cripple."

Reid felt himself being pulled back into the crowd and lifted off the ground – carried back into the crowd. He tried to call for help but hands clamped down over his face as he writhed and fought until the smack in the jaw sent him into darkness.

Flanders tried to pull away from the hands holding him. He cursed at them and he threatened them, but it was empty threats as he was pulled to the ground and stomped. They kicked him in the head and stamped on his face. They stomped down on his hands and the crowd took it in turns to kick his head and body. Then as the blue lights began to flash in the background the crowd dispersed.

……………..

They walked through the thinning crowds. Somewhere out here was Spencer and Floyd, and they weren't going until one or the other had been located. It was Morgan who spotted the crumpled form in the gutter. He just stood for the shortest of whiles looking before making a move forward.

"Hey guys! Over here." It was Flanders laying in a puddle of blood oozing slowly from his face.

Morgan crouched down and felt cautiously for a pulse. He looked up and nodded but was now looking around for a sign of Reid.

Aaron crouched down next to Derek as they turned him over onto his back. "Medics!" Hotch's voice carried over the street to where there was an awaiting ambulance. This was not the passenger they had been expecting to be taking back with them though. With the way pathed now with cops and agents the clubbers left to either return to the club or to go for the local bars. There was no sign that Reid had ever been here. The only thing which made them sure he had been was this very battered looking Flanders and now Prentiss calling them over to where she was standing looking down at what was Reid's crutch just laying in the street.

"Christ. Now where is he?" Hotch looked over at the running medics. "Get this man to hospital. I want him under armed guard. He is to go nowhere until I have spoken to him." He was now standing with Derek surveying the scene. "Someone took Reid before we could get here. More than one person. He has more than one boot print on his face. Only thing is Flanders tried to stop it. I am still working out if this is good or bad for Reid. I don't like it that he wasn't walking. If he was he would be on both crutches and that wouldn't be laying there."

Hotch looked down once more at Floyd. "How's he doing?" he asked a paramedic.

"This isn't good sir. We will know more when he is at the hospital. Head injuries mainly."

"Vicious bastards who did that." Morgan joined – feeling almost but not quite sorry for the man laying in the gutter.

The rest of the cops spread out in their search for any signs of Reid. A blood trail, anything, but as the oppressive air got thicker and heavier and the rain started to fall in monstrous sheets there would be small hope in finding a blood trail. Floyd was loaded into the back of an ambulance and with the lights flashing and the siren moaning it rushed him to the nearest medical facility.

………………..

He awoke somewhere. He wasn't sure where it was. He wasn't sure who he was. For now all he felt he could do was to pull his clothes back on and then curl up and hide. He realised that he couldn't stand, so a crawl took him to behind a dumpster, dark but not so dark he couldn't see. He was in pain and he thought he was bleeding but for now he needed to just sleep and try to forget, or maybe try to remember.

………………..

"So," Morgan was standing in the rain in his tight fitting short sleeved top, combats and boots – tattoos out on display. "Emily what the hell are you doing here?"

A small crowd of effete looking blokes were standing the other side of some crime scene tape watching the dark skinned agent.

"I was out with friends. I saw Flanders in the crowd. I was almost sure it was Reid he was with, but didn't want to call it in until I knew for sure." Looking at her fingernails. "He was a while in the backroom. Morgan, it didn't look like he was being coerced."

"What do you mean?"

Emily sighed and looked at her feet. "Flanders was taking money. Reid was providing the entertainment."

"Prentiss I really hope you are not saying what it sounds like you are, because you are implying that an FBI agent has been profiting from – from – no sorry Emily – not Reid." Morgan started to walk away. He stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Derek. I can only report what I saw. That is what I saw. Reid was at ease and looked compliant."

Morgan turned to look at Prentiss again. "Why didn't you stop him?"

Now her finger was jabbing at Morgan's chest. "Even you would have had a hard time getting that pretty boy away from the crowd he was with. That's not the problem now. Now we need to find him and find who did that to Flanders."

They stood in the rain. Emily's hair was hanging limp around her shoulders. The rain was sliding off Derek's head and shoulders. Hotch was talking to the team who had been doing a quick search, but short of finding about fifty condoms, and various other items of 'lost' clothing there was no sign of Reid. All of them wet to the skin in the torrential down pour. Derek looked over at the guys still standing the other side of the tape and started to walk over there.

It brought a smile to their faces if not to Morgan's.

"Did you see what happened?" To the point no introductions.

A raised eyebrow. "Couldn't really miss it. Someone getting a stomping like that. Not that he didn't deserve something, but that was crazy."

"There were two of them."

Hands on hips. "There was one getting a kicking. I was watching him. If there was someone else I didn't see."

"On crutches."

"Oh my GOD! You are looking for the little gimp? Oh sweetie, they took him."

"Took him? Who took him?" At last something, maybe.

Running his hands through his hair the man in red vinyl smiled at Morgan. "Well 'they' took him. You know how it is."

He shook his head. "No I don't 'know how it is'. Explain." Blinking the rain out of his eyes.

"That creep had been flaunting him all night. Taking cash and other stuff in trade for a bit of him." A guy in leather chaps joined in the chat. A nod. "Some people don't like paying. They just take. You have to be careful. Floyd wasn't careful enough and that boy was just ignorant – fun though and clean." A big smile. "I paid cash, but then had to tell him what to do. No matter. Worth every penny."

Morgan noticed that Hotch had joined him. Note pad and pen out. "I need names of these people."

Aaron could feel four sets of eyes giving him the once over.

Red vinyl spoke. "I don't know names – not real names. Just street stuff. Really if you are looking for the lad then you will have a problem. They will have used him up and thrown him out. Spoiled him – you know – so Floyd can't use him again. Dirtied him."

Aaron felt something evil crawl down his spine. "I still need those names and any idea what they would have done with him."

Chaps shook his head. "What wouldn't they have done with him!" a snort of laughter. "Or do you mean where they would have dumped him afterwards?"

A nod from Aaron. This was not the news he wanted to hear.

Vinyl smiled. "It could be anywhere. Man, you need to forget that one and if he turned up on the scene again he would be turned away. Not worth the risk."

……………………..