A/N: Wow, I wasn't sure about being able to continue this story, seeing there is an angry mob outside my door holding pitch forks and torches, threatening to burn me at a stake for cutting Reid's hair off! Anyways, here is the next chapter, smoking fresh - beta read and bunny-enhanced by the Gublerific editor frog! Enjoy!
Wednesday
It was 9 AM and JJ and Emily had just arrived back at the Saginaw police station after having been sent by Hotch to a hotel to rest the night before. The plane ride across the country hadn't given any of them any sleep as they were both trying to figure out how to find Reid.
Entering the small conference room, the women were greeted by Morgan and Hotch who held a bunch of files. "They're Sienna Nolan's medical records. We had them sent over after you called yesterday. I have a feeling there's something in there." Hotch split the files in two and handed them to the women.
"Garcia called about half an hour ago, still no luck with the last numbers in the note we got from Cate's room, and there's still no new riddle." Morgan flipped through a bunch of papers.
"Do we have anything new to go on since yesterday?" JJ sat down beside Morgan, dropping the files on the table in front of her.
"You're looking at it." Morgan tapped the pile of papers.
"Great." JJ grabbed the top five sets of records and began flipping through them.
Hotch rummaged through a big cardboard file box. "Dr. Hall tapes all his sessions, and he was more than willing to share them with us. You guys must have really sweet talked him." He turned to JJ and Emily.
"Not really." Emily noted something on a piece of paper beside her. "We simply pointed out to him that he was partially responsible for the situation by not notifying Gideon about Sienna's plans for vengeance."
Morgan slammed the papers he held down on the table. "What is this girl's problem? Her father murders her mom and eight other people, and she blames Gideon for his death? She has got some serious issues."
"Hence the extended therapy." JJ shook her head. "Poor kid. Did you read this?"
Hotch shook his head. "What does it say?"
"Sienna had been abused and molested in her foster family. She only stayed with her foster parents for a year before turning 18 and leaving for college. She has a long history of self-injury and suicide attempts, and she has been hospitalized five times, every time in the psych ward."
"Says here, she still saw Dr. Hall while she was at the hospital. I don't know many shrinks that do house calls." Morgan frowned.
"A broken girl is very easy to manipulate. Maybe the doctor had some ulterior motives with his visits?" Emily ran her fingers through her hair, feeling nausea rising inside of her at the thought of frog-man.
"Let's not go there." Hotch took a few steps over the floor, looking out the window. "What more does it say?"
"Let's see..." Morgan changed papers. "Her grades were way above average when she attended school at University of Colorado-Denver, and she graduated with honors. Psych major, holds a PhD. Big surprise."
"Fantastic, an UnSub with an education in mindf---ing." JJ crumbled a page, tossing it in the waste basket.
"JJ, language", Hotch said sternly.
"Sorry."
"So she's a really smart psycho who has it in for Gideon." Morgan wiggled his chair. "How do we figure out where she's holding Reid?"
"Maybe there are some clues in the riddles we keep getting?" Emily tried.
"No." A familiar voice came from the doorway and they all turned. Gideon had arrived to Saginaw, unbeknownst to the rest of the team. "The riddles are only a waste of time."
"Gideon!" Hotch was surprised to see his senior colleague, but at the same time very relieved. If someone could solve this puzzle, it was him.
The older agent stepped into the room, walking up to a whiteboard. "They are only meant to confuse us; throw us off track. They aren't the main objective in the chase. Right now we have to focus on possible locations."
"That's pretty much what we've been doing up to now, Gideon." Emily felt slightly offended by the older agent's comment. I hope he didn't imply that we're not working hard enough on this, she thought.
"I know."
"Gideon, tell us about the case with Sienna's father." Hotch wanted to know as much as possible about what was moving in this UnSub's mind.
"It was in Denver. Eight women had been murdered in 21 days, all with the same MO; strangled, raped and left in garbage bags in alleys. The UnSub also cut off the women's lips. We followed the profile to Christopher Nolan, and it was pure luck we arrived when we did. He had just murdered his wife in their house and was about to assault Sienna. We took him down before he could do anything to her, and the police took him away."
Gideon had to pause to breathe. "I had Sienna in my arms for several hours after the incident. She was completely catatonic when we finally got to the hospital. Two days went by before she was fully awake and aware. I got a phone call from her about a week later; she thanked me for saving her life. I framed her picture for my office. I had absolutely no idea this would happen."
The older agent shook his head slowly. He had a hard time comprehending the fact that a girl he once saved was now torturing his protégé to get revenge on him.
"Look, Gideon – the girl has had a major episode and probably slipped into a schizophrenic psychosis." Emily leaned over the table, looking her older colleague in the eyes. "There was no way you could have known this was going to happen."
"This is no time for the blame game anyway", JJ injected. "We have to concentrate on finding Reid. Can we check if there are any alternate locations where the girls could have gone?"
"Check it out. Bring Morgan." Hotch nodded.
JJ and Morgan left the conference room, sights set on Cate's house. They needed to talk to Cate's mother again. And they needed to get a warrant for Cate's laptop, something that had amazingly enough slipped everyone's mind the day before.
The rest of the team sat in the conference room, still going through files and listening to tapes of Sienna's and Dr. Hall's sessions.
"Sienna, tell me what you're thinking."
"I'm thinking he should be dead instead of dad."
"Now, I know you don't mean that, Sienna."
"No offence, doc – but you don't know shit about what I mean and don't mean."
"We've been talking for nearly five years, Sienna – I would hope I know you quite well by now."
"Yeah, you keep telling yourself that, doc."
"Let's talk about what you told me last time about your dream – about the cell."
--deep female sigh—
"Fine. It's the same dream every time. I'm locked in a cell and there's no one there. It's empty, just a few bottles of water and a broken toilet. Water is coming down from the ceiling and it's freezing. I have no clothes. I hurt everywhere. Is this really necessary? We did this last week."
"It's an important part of your therapy, Sienna. Go on."
"Someone is watching everything I do, and no one is helping me. There's a hole in the ceiling. I look up and I see him. He's looking down at me, laughing. I hate him. I could kill him."
"Calm down now, Sienna. Who is standing in the opening?"
"Him. Agent Gideon."
"The man who saved your life?"
"He didn't save shit! He ruined my life, he killed my father! All this is his fault! He's gonna pay, I swear to God..."
"Sienna, agent Gideon was the one who saved your life after you were threatened by your father and..."
"Shut up! He saved nothing! He's destroyed everything I've ever had! My father had done nothing wrong, and that man killed him!"
"For God's sake, Sienna; your father killed nine people, including your mother, and was institutionalized for years. He committed suicide, agent Gideon had nothing to do with that."
"Liars... You are all liars! You'll see."
"We'll see what?"
"I'm suffering for something that man thinks my father has done. That isn't fair..."
"Sienna, I think we should start discussing your medication. Your doctor tells me you haven't been getting your scrips in the last month."
"Do you know your Bible, Dr. Hall?"
"What?"
"But if they will confess their sins and the sins of their fathers - their treachery against me and their hostility toward me. Levicticus 26:40"
"What are you saying, Sienna?"
"I'm saying... That I'm not the only child who should suffer for the 'sins' of the father."
--rapid steps—
"Sienna, come back here, the session isn't over! Sienna!"
--Click—
Gideon shut the tape recorder off, sighing deeply. "If I had only known."
"No one could have. She's in a deep psychosis and not taking her meds. She's not in the real world anymore." Hotch sat down beside his older colleague. "That was their final session, right?"
Gideon nodded. Sinking into his thoughts, he leaned back in the chair.
--
"Mrs. Carell, we are sorry, but we need to take your daughter's computer." Morgan tried to reason with the adamant woman blocking the entrance to her home.
"You can't come into my house and take things! My daughter hasn't done anything!"
JJ finally lost her patience with the rigid mother standing in their way. "Mrs. Carell, your daughter has been proven to collaborate with a confirmed kidnapper! One of our agents is missing and the best and only way to get the least bit closer to finding him is by seeing yor daughter's chat logs. We know for a fact that the two have been talking for over a year and went AWOL at the same time as our colleague was kidnapped! Mrs. Carell, if you do not move this instant, I will have you arrested for obstruction of justice!"
The woman looked shocked, and moved out of the way as JJ pushed past her into Cate's room, nearly ripping the computer wires out of their sockets.
Morgan followed her in, looking around. His eyes fell on a picture frame on the night stand. Picking it up, he showed it to Mrs. Carell. "Who is this next to your daughter?"
Scowling, the woman answered. "That's Cate's boyfriend, George Fletcher."
Turning to JJ, Morgan showed her the frame. "There's a boyfriend."
"I'll call Hotch."
--
Reid was startled by the sudden light in the cell. Like a bolt of lightning had just cut through his head, he threw his hands up over his eyes, trying to block out the sharp light. The cell had been blackened since the 'visit' of the assumed UnSubs, and that was a long time ago. He had no way of determining how long he had been left in the dark, but he knew it was more than a few hours.
Before his eyes had the time to adjust to the sudden flash of brightness, the sound of the hatch opening was heard in the formerly silent cell. Blinking, the young agent tried to see if someone was making their way down, but the only thing making its way down into the cell was the all-too-familiar basket.
Reid was in no mood to read any more demeaning notes or doing any more of the UnSubs' bidding. He refused to get up, and stayed propped up against the wall, staring at the basket.
It was left on the floor as the line returned up the opening, as the hatch closed with a slam. Glaring icily up at the camera, Reid reluctantly got up, wrapping the blanket around him. It wasn't much, but at least it shielded him from prying eyes.
Peering into the basket, his entire being screamed for it to be food – he hadn't eaten in at least a day; or at least it felt that way. But the basket was empty except for the usual note.
Reid groaned.What do they want now? he thought. A pint of blood? A kidney? Maybe just to make me feel even more pathetic and worthless than I do already—which is going to be difficult, considering I never want anyone to look at me like this; not for a second, not ever.
He gingerly picked it up and read it.
Dr. Reid. By now you should have realized that I do not accept insubordination on your part. If you do, the punishment is dire—as, I'm sure, you've already noticed.
You will be given one more chance to behave. If you do not do so –my patience is up.
You will be fed now. You also have the opportunity to clean yourself up with a few items, provided that you give up something in return.
Reid closed his eyes. They couldn't possibly want me to give up my...?
He continued reading.
To recieve the items you will have to give up your socks. You have until the hatch opens to make your desicion.
The young doctor was more than confused. My socks? Why would they want my socks? Though it was a reasonable question, Reid immediate thoughts were focused something more important.
Food. I'm getting food! he thought. His stomach rumbled, and at this point his socks seemed to be a reasonable price for the chance to try and clean himself up.
Removing his socks, the young agent waited anxiously for the basket to return. A few minutes later as Reid stood under the hatch holding his mismatched socks, it opened and the basket was lowered. He placed his socks in it and it rapidly disappeared into the darkness above.
A moment later, the basket returned. Reid could smell the food inside even before it had reached his head, and he grabbed the wicker container, relieving it of its contents.
The food was not nearly worthy of the name, but to Reid it was a little piece of heaven. There was a small container of some sort of soup, three slices of dry bread and a carrot.
The additional items he had recieved in return for his socks were a mid-sized dishpan, a bar of soap, a battery operated razor and a pillbox containing six ibuprofen tablets. He placed these items on the ground next to the basket and threw himself over the food. He didn't notice the note on the bottom of the basket until the line jerked it, in an attempt to gain his attention.
Reid took the note and with a mouth full of soup-drenched bread, he began reading it silently to himself as the basket once more disappeared up the hatch.
You are being a good boy now, Dr. Reid. If you continue to be obediant, there might be a nice reward in it for you. Now eat, and then clean up – we might be taking a trip soon, and you'll need to look your best possible.
Reid stopped chewing. A trip? I'm getting out? A sudden ray of hope hit him. He knew somewhere deep inside that it was probably a trick to make him less disobedient, but it was hope – and at that moment, hope was all he had.
He finished his food, enjoying every bit of it – despite the half-gallon of salt that had been added. Carefully pouring himself a small glass of water from the bottle, he realized he was down to one and a half container. It made him worry. What if they leave me here? I won't have enough water to survive for very long. The young doctor placed the pan in front of the half empty bottle of water and poured some into it. He had to save as much as possible.
After washing his broken face, he carefully ran the humming razor up and down his stubby cheeks. It felt amazing to be relatively clean again, and he continued to wash the rest of his body. If there was even the slightest chance he was getting to leave this hellhole, he was going to do everything he could to enhance that possibility.
--
Hotch and Gideon walked up to the young man working on a motorcycle in the driveway of a large house. "George Fletcher?" Hotch held up his credentials as the man turned around and nodded. "I'm agent Hotchner, this is agent Gideon; we're with the FBI."
"The FBI?" The young man looked very confused, and expression the two agents were very used to as they introduced themselves. "What's going on?"
"We'd like to talk to you about Cate Carell."
"Cate?" Greg frowned. "Did something happen to her?"
"No. When was the last time you saw her?"
"Last Thursday. We went out to the movies. What's happened to Cate?"
"Nothing has happened to Cate." Gideon stepped forward, holding the picture of the three women for Greg to see. "Do you know these women?"
Greg looked at the picture, dumbfounded. "Yeah, that's Cate and her friends Angelica and Tracy."
"Have you met these other women recently?"
"Cate has, yeah, but me? No."
"They were going on a trip, right?" Hotch asked.
"Yeah, to New York. Please, tell me what this is all about." The man began to breath faster and look very concerned.
"Cate is involved in a kidnapping of a federal agent."
The young man looked like he had just been hit by a ton of bricks. Staggering slightly, he held his Yamaha not to fall over. "Cate? My Cate? No way."
"Have you noticed anything strange about Cate lately, any changes in her behavior or mood swings?"
"No... Nothing. She's just... she... I love her, she's my girl." George looked ready to cry at any moment. "What if... she... she won't get hurt, right..?"
"I'm sure she won't. Thank you, Greg, for co-operating." Gideon tried to shake the young man's limp hand, and the two agents left the driveway, leaving George behind, still leaning on his bike.
"Well, that was useless." Hotch sighed.
Gideon said nothing. His talking was all in his head; and he was screaming at himself for letting this happen to Reid. The two agents got back in their government issued SUV and drove back to the station.
As soon as the black SUV had turned the corner, George pulled up his cell phone. Dialing, he kept a look out for the vehicle, should it return. "Yeah, it's me. The feds were just here. Yeah. Okay, I'll fix that. It's still Sunday, right? Great. Bye."
Hanging up, he knelt down beside his bike, and continued tinkering with the engine.
--
"Emily, I have something here!" JJ sat by the computer, trying to find her way into the intricate chat logs.
"What is it, JJ?" Emily ran up beside her, looking at the screen.
"It's conversations between three people from about a year ago up to last Thursday. But it's all garbled!"
"Garbled?"
"It's in some private code, nothing makes sense. This is from 2 weeks ago. 'Little Boy Blue goes Casablanca, 6 1, 127.'
"There are the numbers again." Emily jabbed at the screen, recognizing the digits from the note on Cate's desk.
"I can't dechipher this. If I can get Garcia to link up to this computer, maybe she can get something out of it." JJ pulled up her phone, but before she could dial, the familiar chirp of Emily's Nokia cut through the air.
"It's Garcia... Hi, Garcia, you're on speaker phone."
"I got a new riddle."
"What is it?"
"It's a child's riddle. It's really easy, even I could figure this one out. But I think Gideon needs to see it as well, just in case there's any hidden meaning in it. There usually is."
"Gideon's not here right now, he'll be back soon."
"I'll send the link over to you, it's another YouTube-video."
"Great. Oh, and Garcia!" Emily hurried before the swift-fingered blonde on the other end of the line could hang up.
"Yeah?"
"We have a lap top here that we would need to have checked out. Can you connect to it from a distance?"
"Not a problem. Give me the IP and I'll have it open in ten minutes."
"Wonderful. JJ, what's the IP?"
"How am I supposed to know that?" JJ looked at her older colleague, disbelief in her eyes.
Emily gave a slight smile, the first one she had been able to push out for a week, and helped her co-worker get the IP so Garcia could break into the lap top.
--
Reid sat on the floor of the cell. He was clean, and it felt amazing. The thin blanket around his shoulders did nothing to keep him warm, but at least it obstructed the staring eyes of his captors behind the camera. The young doctor was determined to behave, not only to avoid punishment, but also to improve his chances of maybe getting out of the cell. He sat silently by the wall, not moving a muscle.
He didn't twitch when the lights went out. He didn't make a sound as the darkness once again reigned over the cell. The young doctor merely closed his eyes and let the silent tears hit the floor beneath him.
He was going to behave, no matter the cost.
A/N again: Do you want to help the BAU solve the riddle? Go to my profile and click the link saying Riddle Number 5, and see if you're as smart as the BAU!