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Warning: some child pornography is depicted
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Reid looked up from his father's bed side to see Hotch approaching him. "Hotch, about last night," he began.
"I'd like to talk to you about last night Reid, but could we do it somewhere else. I don't want to disturb anyone here." He motioned to the patients and the nurses.
This didn't sound good Reid thought as he followed Hotch to the waiting room which, at the moment, was empty. "Okay Hotch, we're alone now. Look, about what my mom said last night and…"
"Reid, please," Hotch butted in. "I came to apologize to you. I came to check on how your father was doing. I had no idea your mother was here or I wouldn't have inserted myself into a family moment."
A family moment, Reid thought. He hadn't really thought of the three of them as a family in a long time. "I know my mom was way out of line with what she said." Reid responded.
"Reid, I understand, she's not mentally stable and this was a very unpredictable situation for her. Think no more about it."
Reid crossed his arms in front of him and began to pace the small room. "You know I'm always so concerned with my mom's mental state, that I often don't take time to consider how she feels; not what she thinks, what's going on in her head, but how she feels in her heart. I didn't want my mom to come here last night because I was afraid what happened might happen, but when I saw her with my dad I understood. Even though events that happened when I was four and her condition tore them apart, they never stopped loving each other."
"Despite your dad's condition, I'm glad you got to see that," Hotch admitted. Hotch smirked and raised his eyebrows, "And we certainly know she loves you."
Reid opened his mouth to speak but Hotch brushed it off with a wave of his hand. There were a few moments of silence when Reid said, "I don't know why I'm telling you any of this anyway; old habits I guess when it felt like we were a family. It doesn't feel like that now. It feels like we've lost something in all the lies. Before I always trusted that whoever I was with had my back but now… I mean JJ watched when I visited Henry; she saw how broken up I was over Emily and she just didn't care. You sat there and listened to me during the grief assessment." He gave a disdainful laugh. "That must have been pretty funny huh, and all the time you knew it wasn't true."
"No Reid, it wasn't funny at all." Hotch's cold dark eyes seemed to bore into him. "Do you think JJ and I took any pleasure out of the pain we knew our teammates and friends were going through? If you think that then you never truly knew us at all. We had to weigh the team's grief and the repercussions against Prentiss' life. And if the decision had been yours, you would have done the same thing. Do you think JJ hasn't cried her eyes out over this decision after she's seen you? Do you think I haven't spent sleepless nights over this? We knew with all the abandonment in your life that you'd be the most affected by this and it killed us inside to do that to you."
"Why didn't you just tell me? You say you trust me; do you think I would have given Emily up to Doyle. I'd die first Hotch. You know that."
"It's what might have happened before you died that concerned me. Emily said Doyle knew everything about us." He had stressed the word everything.
Reid was silent for a long moment; "You mean the Dilaudid?" he clarified.
"You said you'd never give up Emily and I believe you. But you can't say what you'd do if Doyle put you in the situation where your body was literally screaming for that drug and he held the needle in his hand, ready to quell your need if you'd just give up Emily."
Hotch's words hit him like he'd been drilled by a heavyweight boxer. He was right. Reid didn't know what he'd do. He wanted to think he'd resist for Emily's sake, but he couldn't be sure. He hung his head.
"I didn't say any of this to hurt you. I have as much trust and confidence in you as I always have. That's never wavered. If not, believe me, we wouldn't be here."
Reid nodded, was silent again for a time and then said, "Is it okay if I ask about the case?"
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They were only doing stills today Rachael had heard Mitch say. Stills were the best, if anything around here could be the best, she thought. At least all she had to do was show her body. That was bad enough, but at least she wouldn't have to do things with men or suffer through them doing things to her.
She couldn't understand why she was here by herself. Kevin and Natalie had always been here before. She knew she wasn't by herself. She knew there were others here. She hadn't seen them but she'd heard them screaming. Mitch and the people who made the pictures didn't mind if you screamed. She thought they kind of liked it.
The first time one of the men had put his thing in her mouth, she'd thrown up. Mitch got mad then because she'd 'ruined the take'. He'd beat on her. Mitch was always the one that did the beatings. He seemed to like it.
Then the men started putting it in down there. It had hurt and she'd screamed and then thought she'd get beaten by Mitch but he didn't seem to mind. Sometimes they'd turn her over and put it in there too. It hurt so much and she would bleed.
She knew her mommy had done some bad things with men, at least that's what Mitch said and the Dinsdales said that's why she was taken away. Maybe she was being punished for what her mommy had done. Maybe the policemen thought she was doing it too. Maybe they didn't know she wasn't doing it on purpose.
Mitch had said her mommy was dead. Now the Dinsdales and Kevin and Natalie weren't here either. Why was she all by herself? Would she ever get to go back to the house for a little while? It wasn't like a normal house, with a mommy and daddy and love, but it was better than this. Would she have to stay here forever? Didn't anybody care about her anymore?
They'd given her a pink top and a short pink skirt to put on. She didn't go to a change room. They all saw her naked all the time so what was the use of going to a change room. They never gave her any underpants. She knew why. When she had the clothes on, Adrienne put a little bit of light pink lipstick on her, not enough to make her look older, she'd told her, just enough to make her lips more enticing, whatever that meant.
"Hurry up Adrienne," Mitch called. "We have to get as much out of her as we can. Who knows, we might have to get rid of her."
Mitch pulled her onto the set and began to pose her for the camera, dropping her top down from her shoulder in one picture, having her kneeling on the bed in another, her bare bottom toward the camera. When they thought they'd taken enough pictures, Mitch dragged her to her room and threw her on the mattress.
She sat on the mattress. Get rid of her, what had he meant by that?
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"JJ and Brass have talked to Ralph Kennedy and Lou-Anne's best friend. Prentiss spoke to Mrs. Dinsdale and Morgan talked to the other two children in the Dinsdale household. Although they wouldn't say anything, he expects abuse there as well. He thinks the young boy is starting to exhibit some signs of aggression and ODD. Rossi and Prentiss went through your dad's house and Garcia is working on phone records."
Reid nodded with what Hotch was saying and was silent for a time when Hotch finished, seeming to try and make his mind up about something. "Hotch, I did something."
"I'm not going to like this, am I Reid?" Hotch asked.
"I don't know." He paused again. "I called Katie Cole. I asked her to have her agents who were trolling kiddie porn sites and chat rooms keep an eye out for Rachael. I thought if they found her and we could get a line on the viewers and Garcia could trace the source, it would be a good chance of finding Rachael." He paused again, "If she's still alive."
Hotch looked sternly at Reid upon his admission. He should reprimand his agent, but how could he criticize him? He'd been right when he'd stated that he himself should likely not have been involved in the case after Foyet had involved Haley and Jack, but there was no way he was being kept out of it. "Good call, I hope it gets us something. I've got to get back to the team. Take care of your parents."
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Mitch sifted through the proofs Cam had just given him of Rachael. The little bitch was made for the camera; that was for sure. These were great. They were sure to be just the teasers they needed to get the wafflers on board. "Great work man," he told Cameron Finch. "Get these to Frank. I want them out there ASAP. Never know when we might have to ditch the kid."