Chapter 05

Parson Plantation
Grindstone Island
St. Lawrence River
New York state

October 2011

"We need to find Seaver." Spencer said. "I need to get the kids to safety. I need to call my Mom. I need to..." He stopped and rubbed his eyes, clear sign that his magnificent brain was not quite sparking on all cylinders.

"You don't need to do it all right now." Morgan said. "We got your back." He pulled out his phone and set it to speaker. "Prentiss. I found Reid."

"Are you serious?" Emily asked.

"I'm right here, Emily." Spencer replied.

"Oh my god! Is Seaver with you?"

"No. She came here with me but she's not on this farm. I don't know where she is, I haven't seen her since our first night here."

"All right, JJ and I will go find her. Don't worry."

"Thank you."

That was hard meant. As Morgan hung up the phone one of the kids came up and politely stood in front of Spencer. "May I speak Teacher?" Spencer nodded so the boy continued. "What's going on, Teacher? Where are we going?"

"Ummm..." Spencer looked at the world around him. "I actually have no idea. I don't even know exactly where we are."

"We're not far from where you went missing." Morgan said. "We're taking everyone to Ft. Drum for processing."

"Ah. Right." Spencer nodded. "So you're going somewhere that's probably going to have a lot of people and a lot of soldiers in uniform, like these people. Just follow directions from the people in uniform, try to stay together, and don't horse around too much. You'll be all right."

"Yes Teacher." The boy went to get on the truck but then he stopped again. "Are we going to see our Mothers again?"

Spencer turned to Morgan, who nodded. "That's the idea. But it may take a few days to sort it all out, so just do what your teacher told you for now, okay?"

When Morgan said yes the boy and every boy in the truck started grinning. "Okay!" Now the boy scrambled on the truck. Within moments they were off.

"See their mothers again?" Morgan said.

"They separate boy from their mothers when they turn seven and make them live with the men." Spencer said. "Breaking family bonds makes it easier to control them. Am I going to Ft. Drum?"

"No. We know where your family is."

"Is my go bag in the plane?"

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

"I would love to get a shower somewhere. And something to eat. And a shave." He scratched at that thick beard.

"You're going to need a barber to get through that. Come on. Speaking of." As they started walking back to the jeep Morgan pulled out his phone again. "Hey baby girl."

"Chocolate Thunder!" Garcia called out. "You haven't checked in with me! I've been worrying myself sick!"

"I'm fine momma. So is everyone else. I even have good news." He held out the phone.

Spencer smiled. "Hello Garcia."

"REEEIIIIIDDDDD!" She cried out. "Oh! My! God! You're alive! You're found! You're okay! Are you okay!"

"Mostly. Does anyone know how my Mom is doing?"

"Yes! Rossi's been keeping in contact with Dr. Norman, do you want me to call him?"

"Please? Tell him I'll call Mom later tonight."

"I will totally do that. OMG you're alive."

"I am."

But Spencer's adrenalin was burning off fast, Morgan could see him sagging. "Baby girl, I want to get our boy here into a shower. Can you find us a place to stay longer term?"

"I can do that and I will do that. I will have you back in a trice." Garcia hung up.

But now Morgan thought of something. From the time he got the call that they had found a Federal Agent to now had been maybe twenty minutes, most of that spent driving out here. "I haven't told Hotch yet." He realized as he keyed up the number.

But Spencer went pale when he heard that. He closed his eyes and shook his head. "I can't..."

"Reid."

His little brother's face was stepped in more guilt and shame than he'd ever thought possible. "I can't face Hotch."

"Reid."

"I can't. Not yet, please. Not yet."

"Reid, whatever happened it's okay. We can fix it, all right? You don't need to talk about it today, we won't ask you anything. Okay?" He got Spencer to calm down and nod in agreement and not close those walls down again. "Come on. Let's get to where we're going."

Candlewood Suites
Watertown NY
Outside Ft. Drum Military Reservation

Garcia got them what passed for a suite. Two bedrooms with a matchbook of a living room and kitchenette between them, and the rest of the team having rooms nearby. Spencer stood for a long moment looking at the bed in front of him, some complicated look of longing on his face. "You can lie in it you know." Morgan said.

"If I do I won't get up again."

"You haven't slept?"

"I've slept. In a bunk in a bunkhouse with forty other men and a straw stuffed pad on wood. That is a real bed?" Yep, that was longing.

"That is a real bed." Morgan said. Spencer had been having intermittent bouts of derealization, moments when this seemed more like a dream than reality. It was a very common reaction to trauma. But he also recognized what was happening, he hadn't slipped into outright delusion and most of the time his grip on reality and his own sense of self were strong as ever. He was showing signs of trauma, yes, but he was actually doing somewhat better than expected. "Have a nap if you want one. You don't have to be anywhere."

"The children..." They had stopped for Spencer's go bag, still in the plane from when he went missing so long ago. Now he collected it and stood there, indecisive.

"Are being looked after. Nothing is going to happen to them in the next few hours, they're going to take DNA and fingerprints and feed them lunch, that's all."

Spencer finally sighed and gave in. "Wake me in two hours. More than that and I won't sleep tonight." He picked up his bag and headed for his room.

"Hold up, we need to get evidence." Morgan watched Spencer's shoulders sag. "You know we need to do this."

"I know." Spencer replied. "I just want this over with." He was quiet a moment, then, "I don't want to freak you out."

"Accepted. Let me get another agent in here for custody." Except there was one thing. For a moment Morgan's blood ran cold. "Do we need to get you in for a rape kit?" He asked while not looking at Spencer.

"No. Absolutely not, that didn't happen."

Morgan looked back, saw that Spencer was telling the truth, and felt a rush of relief. "Okay then."

The other agent came in and as they watched without really looking Spencer stripped off and turned in his clothing for evidence. They took pictures of his general condition and any injuries, which was too thin and some chafing on his neck from the collar. Otherwise he looked fine.

From the front.

When he turned Morgan saw why Spencer didn't want to freak him out. It looked like they used an extension cord for a lash, the curled scars left behind were distinctive. "Some of the children made a mistake." Spencer said. "It was better if I took the blame for it."

"Don't blame you for that." Morgan tried to keep his tone as light as Spencer's, but inwardly he wanted to rage. He took a beating instead of one of those children. "The one you called out?" He asked.

"Yeah." Spencer replied. "I'm okay though. It was a while ago." He was right, those scars were fully healed.

"All right. You got a name to go with that?"

Spencer did, and together they did the paperwork that would put that overseer in his own chains for a very long time. After that Spencer took his leave to go take that shower and nap. While pretty boy did that Morgan called down to the desk and set about turning their living room into a meeting space. Everyone else was focused on the larger case at hand, which they were still working on as well, but they also had to coordinate the resolution of Reid and Seaver going missing, and being able to keep everything separate would be a help. "There you are baby girl." He said, once he had one of the laptops set up on the table they brought in.

"Hey! How's Reid?"

"Hot shower and a real bed, he is out."

"Oh good! He's safe, you have no idea how happy that makes me!"

"About as happy as that makes me. Any word on Seaver?"

"Um, not...wait, Emily is here." Garcia did something or other. "Hey. I'm conferencing with Morgan."

"Can you get Hotch and Rossi in on this too?" Emily asked.

"Sure, in a trice."

A moment later Mom and Dad appeared in another window. "What do you have?"

"We found Seaver." Emily said. "She was working in the kitchen in one of the plantation houses."

"How is she?" Rossi asked.

"Pregnant." Emily replied. "Seven months, at least."

"Oh my god." Garcia said.

"Did she say what happened?" Rossi asked, his face gone clouded dark.

"No. When she saw us she went hysterical. We're at Samaritan Medical Center in Watertown now; they're sending all the pregnant women and infants here. She's under sedation; JJ is in there with her. They're concerned about preterm labor."

"Oh god." Rossi groaned. "I'll head that way."

"How's Reid?" Hotch asked.

"Sleeping Beauty is out like a light." Morgan replied. "He's showing some of the expected psychological reactions to trauma but nothing overwhelming. It looks like they had him working as a teacher, that might have given him more autonomy, been in a safer position. From the sound of it a lot safer than Seaver."

"Then why didn't he try to leave or contact us?" Emily asked.

"I'm not sure." Hotch said. "Those collars had an electronic component. One of the teams here is looking in to it."

"One thing is that when I tried to call earlier he nearly shut down on me. Hotch, he is terrified of facing you."

"Me?"

"Yep. Something happened but he is nowhere close to talking about it. But the way he's acting I think it was an isolated incident, he's not acting like there was systemic abuse here."

"Whatever it was, tell him he's forgiven." Rossi said. "He's alive, that's all that matters."

"Thankfully we have a solid case." Hotch replied. "And with his memory we can wait a day to debrief him. All right, Dave is heading to the hospital. Emily, when he gets there come back here. They're saying they found some kind of records system and some unusual buildings, we should see what we can find. Morgan, you stay with Reid."

"Once he gets up I'm going to get him fed, then he'll probably want to head to the shelter and check on the kids." Morgan said. "I don't know what I'm going to do with him after that."

"Just keep us in the loop. Garcia, once we get a hold of those records we might need you and Kevin to help."

"My keyboard is at your command, my liege."

Hotch nodded. "All right, let's go."

Morgan rang off, content that all of their people were where they needed to be and their end, at least, was under control. The only problem was that Spencer had said two hours, he still had forty-five minutes to go before he had to wake sleeping beauty.

He called down to the desk and got a line on some likely places around that delivered if Spencer didn't want to go out. Then he checked the weather report. Then he checked his e-mail. Then he sent a note to his very private family group on Facebook that yes, his teammates had been found at last, trusting that Garcia had the privacy settings nailed down. He chatted with his Mom online for a few minutes, mostly how glad she was to hear that everyone made it through alive.

Finally he decided that ten minutes either way wasn't going to matter all that much and went to knock on sleeping beauty's door. "Reid."

No answer.

"Hey Reid."

Nothing.

"Reid!"

How hard was he sleeping?

"Reid!"

Thankfully the connecting door wasn't locked. He let himself in, intending to throw pillows at the younger agent until he woke up.

But the bed was empty.