Who is the Victim Here

I would love to hear your opinions and look to working further on the story.

I do not own or have connection with the "Criminal Minds" program or its characters.

Chapter Twenty-Six.

Several days later, Spencer is still staying with the Hotchners and many times Sean does feel like he has two little boys at home and is beginning to feel a great deal of empathy for mothers who have little children at home. There is still only one bed in the nursery and so he is having to share his bed with one of the boys and really wants to have something for himself. He takes the men to work in the morning and while Aaron takes his afternoon nap and then begins to see the agency psychiatric center after his nap three days a week, Sean usually is able to do some errands and spends time alone. Spencer is working in the office on cold cases.

On Friday, Angie leaves very early in the morning to go to New York to talk to her doctor about the results of the tests she has taken for her vision. She will be sending things from the house over to the Hotchners, including more books for Spencer. David is going in to work for the only time that week. He is feeling a great deal better, but is not allowed to drive yet. So he has to take the bus. He meets the Hotchners on the bus to the agency. Sean takes the bus because the vehicle that he has ordered has not yet been delivered and he won't drive Aaron's car. Spencer takes the bus and train many times himself. Because Aaron is in the stroller, they get priority seating, he is considered disabled. The men meet and then get off the bus at the agency stop.

Work is slow but that's okay for them right now. Sean leaves the building after putting Aaron in his stroller for his afternoon nap. He asks David to change him and give him his afternoon bottle when he wakes up. He also asks David to change Spencer at that time as well. The agents have begun to regulate their days by Aaron's schedule and when he is able to do things. Sean does not expect to be back in time for he is getting a new bed for the nursery and has to be there to rearrange the room and have it set up. Sean also asks David to bring them home on the bus and to stay for dinner. He invites all of the team over for dinner, which he will serve at 7:00pm.

Angie arrives back from New York late in the afternoon and calls Sean to see if the stuff has arrived.

"Hello Angie. I am at the apartment now. I am clearing space and preparing to put the room together when the van arrives."

"It hasn't arrived yet?"

"No, but the driver called fifteen minutes and said they were on the beltway and should be here within the next hour. So it is a waiting game, but I getting dinner ready, lots of chopping to do. You will be here right.

"Yeah, I'll be there. I am actually heading to the agency and check on the boys. I'll probably come home with them."

"I'll see you then. Bye."

Angie has just gotten off the bus and was heading to the BAU offices. It is after four o'clock and when she gets there, some bit of chaos is happening. Spencer will not let David take care of him. He will only allow Sean to do it and is very adamant about it. So he is sitting in a corner pouting and fidgeting because he is wet and his bottom is sore. The other agents continue to try to ignore him without breaking out into laughter at his infantile behavior. Aaron has tried to talk to the man, but since he doesn't walk, he can't get to him. Spencer walked away. David changed and fed Aaron and the men are actually working at getting away from the office on time. Spencer is being no help in this. Angie finds the whole situation amusing.

She walks over to Spencer and puts out her hand to give him a lift from the floor. He looks and sees her stern and maternal face looking at him. He crumples his face and puts his face in his hands. He feels ashamed at his actions and feelings about what is happening to him. She just stands there with her hand out to him. After several minutes, he puts his hand into hers and she pulls him off the floor. She lifts his chin and says, "Let's change your pants." He slowly nods his head and walks with her to the round room where she prepares to clean him up. She places the moisture proof pad on the table and takes off the man's pants and lie him down on the pad. After removing his wet diaper and plastic pants, she cleans his front and then turns him over to wash his rash and then smacked him. "Ow", he cries. She proceeds to give him five more smacks on his bottom and while she is smacking him. She says, "You do not do this again. You will have someone clean and change you if your caretaker is not able to do so. Your caretaker will have provided someone. I don't care who it is that does it; whether it is a co-worker, a friend, a boss, or the sixteen-year-old neighbor's daughter that he hired to babysit. You will allow this to be done or I will spank you again." She puts his rash lotion on and turns him over to put a fresh diaper on the man. She redresses him in his clothes and they leave the room. "Get your things because we are going home now."

She goes up to Aaron's office and sees him at his desk as he is doing some paperwork and looks up at her.

"Hi, Angie, why are you here?"

"I am here to take you home. Finish your paperwork, we leave in five minutes." She walks out the door before he raises a complaint that he is not ready to leave yet. She heads to the office next door and enters to check on David. He is leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. It has felt like a very long day. "Hello David." He opens his eyes to see her and smiles. "Are you ready to go to the Hotchners for dinner? We'll go home after dinner."

"When do we leave?"

"As soon as I put Aaron into his stroller."

"That might take time." She chuckles.

"Not as long as you might think. Get ready to go and meet me at the elevator with Spencer." She goes back out the door and back into Aaron's office. He still has some files open and his computer up. "Ready?"

"I have a few more things to do before we leave."

"Will you lose your job if they are not done tonight?"

"No, but I…"

"Then they can wait until Monday to do. Close it down." She goes and opens the stroller up and prepares it to be filled with our man. She gets his diaper bag and takes out a clean diaper and wipes to clean him with. Turning back to the desk, she looks and sees that he still has not put anything away. She goes to do that herself. Closing the files and removing them from his desk, she then goes to log off and shut down the computer. He is trying to stop her by getting in her way and so she pushes his office chair into the corner until she has the desk cleared. She goes back to the man in the chair and lifts him out of the chair and places him on the desk. "Would you like to be dressed into a clean diaper before we leave?" He looks at her angrily because of the matter of fact way she did this, as if he has no choice in the matter. He doesn't realize that he has no choice. He is not comfortable because he needs to be changed but is about to say no when she lies him back on the desk and pulls down his pants. He loses choice in this as well as she removes his diaper and places the dry one on him. After pulling his pants back up, she takes the man and puts him in his stroller. She gives him a bottle and they head out of the office to the elevator where David and Spencer are already waiting.

She stops by JJ's office to remind her that dinner is being offered by Sean at 7:00pm and she is welcome to bring Henry and Will. She stops by each of the agents desks and reminds them of dinner. Our agents tell her that they plan on being there and will see her then. She and her boys head to the bus stop and Aaron has already fallen asleep in his stroller. When they get off at bus stop near home, it is almost six o'clock and Spencer seems to be dragging his feet. They enter the door into the Hotchner apartment and the most wonderful smell escape. Sean comes out of the kitchen to greet them and he checked on his brother in the stroller, who was waking up. Spencer grabbed on to the man and said, "Please take care of me?" He looked like he was about to cry. Sean looks at him with concern and then at Angie. She mouthed the word 'nap' and Sean picked Spencer up and carried him to the bedroom where he checked his bottom and put him in the new crib that Angie sent for Spencer to sleep in. The minute his head hit the mattress, the man was asleep.

Less than an hour later, the other agents begin to arrive for dinner. Angie was sitting in the rocker feeding Aaron when Derek first arrives followed by Penelope and then JJ and her family. David opens the door for them and they all come in and bring gifts with them. Derek brought a bottle of wine for the grownups and a bottle of grape juice for the not so grownups. Penelope brought a bottle of wine as well, but didn't think to get something for the 'young' ones, she feels so bad now. JJ brought some of Henry's favorite foods since she wasn't sure what Sean would be making and if he thought of how young Henry was. She forgot what mental age Hotch is right now and needn't have worried. Sean had Henry covered.

Spencer was in the nursery and when he woke up; he found himself in the crib and called out since the rails were too high for him to climb out of. Derek went in to the room and offered to lift him up. Spencer wasn't sure that he wanted Derek to do so. The gang treats him like a little kid already, did he really want them to see this part of his life as well right now. Derek says, "Sean is busy finishing cooking dinner and Angie is feeding Hotch. It is me or you stay in the crib." Since he didn't want to stay in the crib, Spencer allowed Derek to lift him out. Derek, however, did not put the man down on his two feet instead he took him over to the changing table and sat him down. Spencer looked at Derek and then hung his head low because he knew what Derek wanted to do. He remembered the spanking earlier that day from Angie and lied down so that Derek could do the job of changing his diaper. Derek was gentle and finished the job quickly. The men join the others in the living room.

The older people were watching Henry play with all the toys that Sean had gotten and were at the full end of the room. There were blocks, cars, trucks, action figures, musical instruments, fisher-price and comfort toys like stuffed animals and baby dolls. Angie puts Aaron on the floor and he doesn't like that but accepts it for now. Angie goes into the kitchen to help Sean begin to set the table. He had brought Aaron's dining set brought out of the storage. The team begins to come into the dining room but there is talk and wonder about where Emily is, when there a knock on the door.

Emily is at the door with a date, it is Brian from Aaron's hometown. They had met when the team was there for the bogus case that Kathy had created to get Aaron home. She and he have been dating for a few months now. She is not sure of him because he is an attorney and actually wants to go into the city politics by running for mayor of the town and Emily does not like politics. So they have interesting arguments sometimes about whether they should even see each other. They had a date scheduled for this night and she wasn't sure about coming until he picked her up and she mentioned it. He thought it would be great, Aaron had been a great friend for years but can he see him like he is now. Brian knew him as a child it won't bother him. But they didn't think of how it would affect Aaron.

There were greetings and introductions and everyone goes into the dining room to sit for dinner. Brian notices Aaron still sitting on the floor and goes over to the man.

"Hi Aaron."

Aaron looks up and sullenly responds, "Hello Brian."

"I am glad you are talking to me. Emily said that there was a time when you didn't talk. It is good to hear your voice. Can I help you come to the table?" The others hear this and look at the men talking. How would Brian react to Aaron not walking?

"No. Go away Brian." Brian is taken aback at this and he doesn't understand why Aaron would say it like a petulant child. Emily comes over and takes Brian's hand and brings him back to the table. Sean goes over to Aaron.

"Do you want to sit with the adults at the table? I know you won't eat anything but you can sit with us like an adult." Aaron looks at Sean as he thinks. He wants to but he doesn't want Brian to see him being carried like a baby but how else does he get there unless he crawls on the floor like a baby. Either way he shows to Brian what a baby he is now. He chooses to stay where he is and shakes his head no. Sean is disappointed but leaves him there and goes back to the table. He sits there and listens to the people at the table and wishes he could join in but doesn't want to look a baby in front of Brian. Yet, he doesn't realize that Brian doesn't care about whether he can walk or not, he just wanted to see how his friend was doing. He had heard about the kidnapping and wanted to see how he was doing. He is saddened that Aaron is doing as poorly as he is acting. He did wonder why he didn't eat with the rest of them. What was up with that?

After dinner, the table is cleared and dishes washed, our family and guests go to the living room and continue to talk about what they were talking about at the table. Cases, children and things in general were discussed and argued about. Angie picked Aaron off the floor and put him in the rocker with her. He continued to sit up rather than do what he normally would have done; lie down in her arms. She was pleased that he did that and the two just rocked together.

It continues to get later and Emily asks Brian, "When did you want to leave? You said you wanted to take me dancing?"

He answers, "So I did. We can leave whenever you want to."

"Well then let's leave now because I want to go dancing." She gets up and goes to the door while he says goodbye to everyone. He specifically tells Aaron that it was good to see him again. Aaron just looks at him like the petulant child that he was earlier, but he says bye.

Sean brings a bottle in for Aaron, who lies down in Angie's arms and begins to feed. They didn't want to feed him in front of Brian but Sean and Angie knew he was getting hungry and he was close to demanding a bottle even though he was trying not to be a baby in front of Brian. Sean then goes to Spencer and picks up the man and takes him to be changed into a dry diaper and then dressed into his night clothes, a purple sleeper. He didn't want this right now because he wanted to still be a part of the group. He struggled against Sean and tried not to be dressed in the sleeper but Sean would have nothing of it and threatened to spank him if he didn't sit still. He actually got three smacks on his covered bottom as it was. Sean put him back on his feet and asks, "Do you want to go back out in the living room or to bed?"

"I want to still be with the gang."

"Then let's go."

Back in the living room, JJ is holding Henry while feeding him a bottle and the gang continues to talk the night away. Aaron falls asleep in Angie's arms and Spencer soon curls up on the sofa sitting next to Derek and falls asleep. The others just talk until David falls asleep sitting in the recliner. JJ and her family leave and Penelope left soon after. Derek thought about leaving but didn't want to wake up Spencer who was using him as a pillow. Sean goes and picks him to take him to his crib. Derek leaves soon after. Sean then takes Aaron to be changed, dressed into his night sleeper and puts him in his crib. Angie covers David up with a blanket and then lies down on the sofa to go to sleep there. Sean is surprised but does not stop her. It doesn't bother him. He heads into the other bedroom and goes to bed.