A/N: And here we are again. Another chapter...and the answer to the all-important question; do the girls get away from the bad guys and the dogs.
Not a day has gone by since I posted my first ffn story that I haven't appreciated the power of a simple (or in some cases, not so simple) review. It has the power to encourage you or to tear you apart. Thankfully I haven't really had any of the latter type of review. Even when I'm posting something with content most people would frown at, you are all still there encouraging me and urging me onwards. So this is for all of you. Thanks to HGRHfan35, Hazmatt, greengirl82, miaa29 and HPforever-after (for chapters 21, 22 & 23). I also want to thank spk for your reviews of The Road to Nowhere, Life's An Alphabet (J & Z), Silence (sorry about the headache), The Longest Night and Missing. In addition, I want to thank melodic2686 for your reviews of Life's An Alphabet (C & Z). I really do appreciate you all.
Thanks again to the gorgeous Wtiger5 for your inspiration of Lydia Scott...for being my medical guru and for your silent reviews. Your advice, information and support is invaluable to me and this totally wouldn't be this good without you. Thanks for being the most amazing sister and friend. Love you my darling.
Rated M for violence, torture themes, drug use, coarse language and sex scenes. (yes, this is going to have a little bit of everything)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me and I do own Carrie and Toby, Chloe and India, Kelly and Brad and Ben.
Arabian Nights – Chapter 24
The road appeared in front of them so suddenly that they didn't have time to check their momentum; one moment they were running up a slope and the next they burst out onto the road...and straight into the path of an oncoming truck.
New Section
"This is almost useless! We aren't getting anywhere; nothing Emily gave us is helping us now!"
Dave and Reid watched Alex throw a file almost clear across the large room they were in before stalking out the door muttering about needing air.
"Throwing things is just as useless, if not more so," Reid pointed out calmly.
"You think he's still in love with Emily?"
Reid shifted in his wheelchair. "I'm feeling embarrassed about the whole situation; I'd really rather not sit here and contemplate Agent Jackson's feelings for Emily."
"Wuss," Dave said teasingly. He should have known that calling Reid names, even in jest, wouldn't get him the reaction he would normally have gotten from, say, Morgan.
He sighed quietly and looked around the room. Everyone was hard at work trying to crack open this case, but with so little to go on they weren't getting anywhere. The one piece of evidence they had that might have given them the identification of one of these guys had only revealed that they weren't registered on any database either in this country or overseas. Which put them right back at square one.
His second sigh was more revealing of his tired state of mind as he turned back to the paperwork sitting in front of him. His third five minutes later was one of defeat.
"Alex is right Reid; this really is useless. They've gone over all of this so many times before that if there had been anything to pick up they would have well and truly found it by now. I think we're just here to kill time. Unless you can tell me you actually have something we can use."
Reid shook his head as he sat back in his wheelchair and put the papers in his hands down on the desk.
"I have less than nothing. The California team has good people; in reality, they didn't need our help because they'd already come up with everything there was to come up with."
"I agree. Want to come with me while I get coffee and then head back to the hospital to wait for news?"
"Coffee? Rossi, it's almost midnight."
Dave nodded. "Yes it is, and unless you were thinking of sleeping while the girls are missing, we will need liquid sustenance to get us through. Therefore; coffee."
Reid looked around the room before nodding slowly. "Can I suggest we avoid Agent Jackson if at all possible? He doesn't strike me as being patient enough at this moment to understand why we're leaving them to it."
Dave chuckled as he silently agreed with the young doctor's point of view. They slipped from the room and luckily managed to avoid Alex Jackson and his massively bad mood.
"So kid, do you know how to find a great cup of coffee in a foreign city?"
Reid shook his head. "I just take whatever I'm given and I've only ever been sent for coffee once."
"How did that go?" Dave asked as he hid his amusement.
"If the look on JJ's face in particular was anything to go by, it was terrible."
Dave let loose with a belly laugh. "Oh dear. Okay, let's educate you." He brought them to a halt in the middle of the street, ignoring the cross looks he was receiving. "Standing here, I can see five coffee shops. I've already figured out which one will get me the best cup of coffee, but I'm curious to know first which one you would choose."
Reid looked around them at the well-lit sidewalks slowly, then pointed to a small shop front three doors down from them. When Dave raised an eyebrow in question, he replied, "It'll get us the coffee sooner than if we went to any of the other shops because it's closer and there doesn't appear to be a wait to get it. And there's six by the way. Coffee shops I mean."
He pointed out the ones he could see, but the one Dave had missed was negligible to this lesson because it appeared to be just like the one Reid had first pointed out, only further away from them.
Dave shook his head in mock sadness. "Kid, if that was how you chose the coffee that day, I'm not surprised it was terrible and those factors are exactly the ones to avoid."
"Huh?"
"Listen, the locals are easily going to know the best places to get coffee. And they are going to flock to them. If you want great coffee, go to the place where the line is the longest. Yes, you will have to wait longer for it, but the coffee will easily be better there than anywhere else in the area. Now, knowing this, where should we get coffee?"
Reid pointed across the busy city street to the coffee shop with the line out the door.
"Now you're talking kid."
New Section
Sampson looked up as a cup was waved under his nose.
"Good God; that actually smells like real coffee."
"That's because it is real coffee. Reid and I made a stop on our way from the office."
"And where is the young doctor?"
"Back with his wife. I didn't bother discussing it with him; I just pushed him in to her bedside and left him to it."
"Hmm. Probably the smartest thing you could have done, considering. Well, since you are bringing me a gift like this, I won't pass on to you Alex's strongly worded message about leaving your posts without telling him."
Dave shrugged as he dropped into the seat beside Sampson's. "He was throwing things around; we thought it was safest for all concerned that we just slip out while he was taking a breather. It's not as if we were getting anywhere. You have a good, solid team."
Sampson nodded. "I agree. The only reason they reached out for additional help is that the daughter of a very powerful international figurehead was one of those taken and suddenly we have pressure from every direction to crack this."
"It doesn't help though that your boss came face to face with his ex-fiancée, who just happens to be the wife of our boss."
"No, that certainly doesn't help. So there was no new news when you left?"
"Sadly no. They aren't the only ones that are frustrated, but at least your women are all accounted for. If anyone has any reason to throw anything or have an attitude, it should definitely be us."
"Agreed," Sampson said softly as he sipped his coffee. He nodded to the four men standing at the window. "I'm deeply concerned for them. They don't move unless a child needs them and then they're only half with that child anyway. The rest of them is with their other half, wherever that may be."
"You have to admit their concerns and fears are justified though. These guys have tried three times to take them; they aren't going to have any patience left to deal with them now that they've been successful. Even if we find their palace, there's no guarantee we'll get our women back in one piece. I'm really scared for them and my woman is just down the hall resting. Can you imagine the scenarios running through their heads?"
Sampson sighed. "I think I'm just so tired my infinite patience is coming to an end. I want to find these guys and smash them into nothingness and then bring them back to stand trial for what they've done."
"Okay, that actually didn't sound much like you; which I admit could be way off base since I've only known you about a week. What's going on?"
He sighed softly. "I'm worried about what's coming because as a counsellor, I see this kind of thing all the time and it still saddens me more than almost anything else."
"What kind of thing?"
"Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?"
Dave shuddered slightly and dumped his empty coffee cup in the bin. "I've been face-to-face with victims displaying that syndrome on numerous occasions. It hasn't gotten easier as the years have passed."
"I doubt it will ever get easier. It's not something that can be treated with drugs; rather, the drugs aren't the best way to treat it. The women who have been taken over the years have been held beyond breaking point. From what Emily heard, most of the women we may be able to rescue have been married for years to these guys and a lot of them are going to have children by them."
"So what you're saying is that reintegrating them into society isn't going to be as easy as I was hoping it would be? I mean, I figured Stockholm's would be part and parcel of breaking this team of unsubs, but when you throw children into the mix with women and protective maternal instincts..."
"That is exactly what I am saying. We are talking long-term abuse and brainwashing. None of these women will ever be the same again and their families are going to be in for a shock if they think those that have been taken will be relieved to be rescued. For the most part, these women are not going to take too kindly to us coming in and ripping apart their lives as they see it. And it won't matter if they were already married, either with or without children."
"Damn but that sounds so incredibly morbid. And yet I know you're right and I'm just trying to avoid the complicated, messy truth."
Sampson sighed tiredly and nodded as he slouched down in his chair. "Morbid maybe, but it is the truth. I used to see it all the time when I worked full time as a trauma counsellor. We're going to see some families that just can't reconnect because the differences are going to be too great for all involved. For those who can be rehabilitated and reintegrated into normal society, the process is mostly going to take years. There will be some, the most recently kidnapped, who will have less to deal with and will most likely respond well to the counselling and therapy that will be offered to them, but the majority are really going to struggle."
"Shit."
"Yeah, that pretty much covers it."
"If we find these women, how much support is there going to be in the long term for them?"
"Long term? Not too sure. I think that will be up to the individual families to follow up on. In the short term though, I have no doubt the media attention will call down a lot of help and support for all involved."
Dave made a derisive noise. "That just means that there are going to be women who fall through the cracks."
"Sadly yes; but that happens all the time. Why should now be any different?"
They fell silent as they both thought on what they'd just been discussing.
New Section
The sudden light, after running along a path in dark woods in the dead of night, brought Penelope and Lydia to an abrupt, frightened halt. It was only thanks to Carrie and Marnie knocking into the two women hard as they burst out of the woods right behind them that got them all out of the way as the truck driver blasted his horn and hit the brakes.
Emily got to the top of the incline as the truck came to a screeching halt. "Pick yourselves up and run," she urged them. "There's no way them that are following us didn't hear that horn. Hurry!"
Marnie bounced to her feet and helped Lydia and Penelope to get up. Carrie tried to get up and found that she couldn't. Marnie didn't hesitate to haul the slight woman up and over her shoulder as they hurried after Emily.
Emily reached the front of the long truck just as the driver was opening his door.
"Lady, are you nuts? What're you doing out here in the middle of nowhere?"
"Trying to escape from some sadistic men who kidnapped us. Please, do you hear the dogs baying?" When he nodded, she said with a slight quiver in her voice as her whole body started shaking, "Those dogs are coming for us and when the men with them get hold of us, they will kill us, and you if you're still here. Please, can you help us?"
The guy looked like he wasn't sure if he believed them, but their injuries, coupled with the fact that Penelope and Lydia were clearly pregnant and they were all less than dressed for the cold of the night, decided him.
"If you can all fit in the cab, I'll take you to safety. But if those dogs are indeed for you, you might want to hurry."
Despite his own obvious concern for his safety, he took the time to help them all into the cab before he got in himself. Restarting the truck, he cranked the heat and took off the brake as he worked the clutch. And as the truck started rolling, he shivered as a bunch of men and dogs broke out of the woods where the women had been when he'd nearly run them down.
He could see them shouting and gesturing wildly for him to stop, and he hesitated in applying his foot to the accelerator. He flicked a glance at the two women in the front seat with him. The white woman had the unconscious black woman almost in her lap and was holding her securely. A second glance showed him she was looking at him from her chocolate coloured eyes; a look that seemed to sear straight through to his soul as she said tiredly, "Please; we just want to go home."
Her sadness decided him and he lowered his foot to the accelerator, increasing the truck's speed as he hoped his indecision hadn't kept him from getting them clear of their nightmare before it was too late.
End-
A/N: Ha ha...free of the bad guys...or are they? Stay tuned for the answer to that all important question coming to you shortly.
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