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A/n hello all... Here's the next chapter for my faithful readers. Thanks to you all for your kind support.

One Big Happy Family

"I don't like this." Captain Pemberton said.

"I don't care what you don't like." Morgan began, getting in the Captain's face. "You refused to help Dr. Reid when he came to see you about his father."

"I was following established protocol." The big man pushed a large finger into Morgan's chest.

"Screw protocol!" Morgan growled. "You refused to help because your detective was involved in the cover up of a murder. You blame William Reid and my partner for shattering your safe little world where your men don't make mistakes."

"That's not true. I know my men aren't perfect."

"Stop it!" Hotch got between the two men. "We have less than an hour before William and Dianna Reid is dead. Do you want to be responsible for that Captain?"

"Get control over your watch dog Agent," Captain Pemberton stepped back from Hotch. "One of my detectives is dead. I'm in on this whether or not you like it."

"Count me in too…," said Detective Sand.

"We need all the help we can get." Reid said entering his living area from the bathroom.

"Did you take something for your leg?" Hotch asked.

"Are you sure he should be going?" Morgan asked. "He can barely walk."

"Don't go there Morgan." Reid said. "I'm the one Parker wants. I'm going in."

"Leave it alone Morgan…" Hotch said. "Garcia," He called to the tech who worked at her laptop. "You and Reid get to work on what we talked about.

The tech left her desk in swish of bright orange and yellow cotton. "Come on baby cakes… Martinez and I have something in mind for you." She grabbed one arm while Martinez took the opposite arm. "This won't hurt a bit." The agent said as they pulled him into his bedroom.

"What is it with him and women? Morgan said to Rossi.

"He doesn't know his own appeal. Women like that." Rossi said dryly.

"There's no accounting for taste." Morgan said with a grin.

"Come on you two… Let's go over the plan with the locals." Hotch said as they congregated around the huge coffee table.

Three SUVs sped to the edge of Las Vegas and out into the desert. Reid had the driver's side window open so that the cooling air of night washed over him and ruffled his hair. He had taken the lead in this little convoy, convincing Hotch that he had to go alone. Now he wished, as he watched the yellow lines on the black top race by in the yellow glow of his headlights, that he had someone in the car with him. If he had someone to talk to then he could keep his mind off the fact that he was running straight into a situation over which he had no control.

He looked back at the pair of headlights following him. Absurdly, the memory of a television show he'd watched months ago popped into his head. The name of the show was, "The Scariest Places on Earth." One story had to do with a lonely stretch of highway and people who had encountered someone in a vehicle chasing them in the dark. As the legend went, the car would appear out of nowhere, flash its lights, and ride the bumper of its target. The road had many twists and turns so the accident and fatality rate were very high. The locals believed the stretch of road was haunted.

He shook his head and forced his eyes back onto the road. Morgan, not some real or imagined maniac or demon, drove the SUV behind him. He had nothing to fear from the friends that followed him into the lion's den. They would always have his back. In all of his life, no one had ever stuck by him like his BAU family. Even so, he wanted more than ever to have his mother and father back in his life. He swore he would take his father's phone calls and respond to the emails he sent. He put aside his hate and all the bad feelings he nurtured in his soul because of his father's abandonment.

Gravel pinged under the truck as he took the first turnoff ten miles outside of Las Vegas twenty minutes later. The trucks raised enough dust in the moonlight that they resembled some kind of ghostly mechanical carriages from some far off place in another time. He rounded the first turn in the road as instructed by the GPS unit in the truck and shut off his headlights. Luckily, for them the moon was full that night. They were getting close only another mile or so. He looked back and saw only black night behind him. It was as if the ghost from the television show had followed him, led him astray and then left him to find his way back out of Hell.

"Please just let her go and I'll stay here with you for as long as you want." William pleaded with his captor.

"I don't think so… Watching you suffer is what I've lived for."

He suddenly whipped around and backhanded William as hard as he could. William's head flew back and hit the edge of the headrest. The resounding crack was like a bone snapping in half. Blood flew out of William's nose and splattered on his chin and his shoulders.

Parker strode over to Diana and put his gun to her head. "I should kill her right now. It's her fault that my brother is dead."

He tangled his free hand into her hair and yanked her head back. "You crazy bitch. You should've kept your lying mouth shut."

He let go of her hair and turned the gun back on William. "Or should I kill you for believing your crazy wife. Anyone else would have dismissed her as a raving lunatic. You should've kept better control over her instead of letting her ramble on to anyone who would listen."

He reached down and yanked her head back into his stomach. The hand that held his gun placed it back on her temple. "Women should be seen and not heard! You let them talk and all they do is lie to you." He screamed.

"Stop it." William screamed as silent tears began dripping down Dianna's cheeks.

"When are you going to see that I have the control here, not you?" Mason said in a suddenly reasonable tone. In fact, he reminded William of some of his speeches at various charity functions.

Mason pulled the gun away from Diana and went to the cracked and greasy counter top. He leaned back against it like they were about to have a conversation as three old friends might at a friendly barbecue.

"You just don't get it do you William Reid. My brother was innocent. I stood there in that house and watched Lou Jenkins beat him to death with a baseball bat. I was nine God-damn years old."

He smiled a terrible smile as his two large cohorts just stood there with their guns on the Reids. They listened to him speak as though they'd heard the same story a million times. They were bored and it showed. They didn't seem to care that their boss appeared to be coming apart at the seams.

William watched Mason swipe the sweat away from his forehead as he spoke about all the blood and how Diana had come into the house to find Lou standing over his brother.

"I was hiding around the corner, sticking my head out as though I might get shot. If he'd seen me, he might have taken me out to. I was so scared. I didn't know what was going on. Gary was so much older than I was. He came to see me at my mother's house as often as he could, but they fought all the time. She didn't want him around me. She thought he was a bad influence on me because he couldn't keep a job."

"He was a pedophile." Dianna said, through her tears. "He was going to hurt my son."

"Shut up…" Mason said calmly.

He appeared to have pulled his emotions back into line for the time being. William shook his head at Dianna and she fell silent.

"No one understood Gary like I did. He was so much older than I was, but we understood each other. He was my friend. He took care of me when my mother would get drunk and beat me up."

"Mason…" William began. "He turned his attention to other little boys because he loved you. He didn't want to molest you because he cared about you. Spencer wrote in a paper once that pedophiles often redirect their desires to molest a family member because of guilt."

"My brother never touched me!" Mason screamed.

He pushed off from the edge of the counter and shoved his gun into William's bare back right at the base of his skull.

"Say that again Mr. Reid and I won't wait for your son to get here before I splatter your brain all over your ex-wife's pretty face."

William did his best not to flinch at the cold steel against the back of his neck. His son had faced death without flinching more than once. He could at least show an attempt at that same kind of strength.

You can do better than that.

"You won't kill either of us. You've made it very clear that you want all of us together before you kill one of us. You blame Spencer above all of us because he was a child. Dianna sensed what Gary was -"

"Don't say his name."

Mason dug the gun into the back of William's neck. He hissed in at the pain that blossomed along his neck and shoulder blades. "Diana knew what your brother was… She saw it in his eyes. She was protecting our son. Surely you have to understand how -"

"My brother wasn't a monster."

He left William and went back to Dianna. "I should make you suffer the way you made me suffer." He cocked the gun and the sound was like ice cracking in an icy artic world.

Reid held his gun and the small flashlight he carried out in front of him. His hand shook more than he'd like, but he couldn't stop the pounding of his heart and the instinct to run instead of walking into danger.

He passed a table covered with thick dust to his left. He avoided walking into it by just a few inches. He wiped at his forehead with the back of his left wrist. The hand held the flashlight so the abrupt change in perspective showed him a ceiling with large swaths of tile missing. He could see into the rafters. Something squeaked… He jerked his hand down just as a rat ran past the hole in the ceiling. He came so close to screaming he felt his vocal cords tighten. He coughed and began to sneeze.

Nothing in the house moved except for more squeaking rats that he couldn't see. Then a voice drifted out to him that sounded familiar. He stopped, letting his light rest on the stained white door in front of him. It looked like an old swinging door in someone's kitchen. A bit of yellow light seeped out around the door and from under it as he listened.

His father's voice drifted out to him. "… Your brother was… She saw it in his eyes. She was protecting our son. Surely you have to understand how -"

"My brother wasn't a monster." Another voice said that had the hair standing up on the back of his neck as sweat ran done his back into the top of his dress pants.

"I should make you suffer the way you made me suffer!"

Reid heard the cocking of a gun and fought done the urge to panic. He took in a breath and opened the door with his gun. "Hello…" He said with as much confidence as he could muster. "I think you're all waiting for me."

The room Reid had entered was a filthy kitchen. He barely noticed the décor though… His mother and his father sat in chairs across from each other with their hands on a dusty, wooden table. His mother looked up at him and amazingly she smiled at him as though he'd just come to Bennington. He tried to smile back, but he just couldn't make his mouth turn up at the edges.

"Welcome Dr. Reid," said the tall, blonde, handsome man with piercing blue eyes. "You disappoint me. I thought you'd figure things out just a little faster." He held up his hand with the forefinger and thumb less than an inch apart.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

"Better late then never," Mason smirked. "Now that you're here we can get down to business."