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 Thirty-Nine. I am not a baby
Aaron is angrily left at the motel as David heads back to help search for Reid. He has been changed, fed and prepared for bed in a red blanket sleeper. To prevent him from changing his clothes the top zipper is locked into place. He begins to watch TV and sees a commercial about the product called 'Brickhouse Child locator' and remembers something that Angie has been adding to his pants pocket every time she dresses him. He gets up from the bed and goes to look at what he wore that day. There it is in his key chain, a Brickhouse child locator mini tag. Angie is keeping track of him as if he were a child. He wonders and continues to look at things that he wears everyday and there it is; the GPS locator attached to his wallet. He wonders if Angie puts these things on him, does she also have Spencer tagged and monitored? He goes to look in the diaper bag and finds the adult device for the mini tags. He needs to get this to David; it might be useful in finding Spencer out there. If he also has the GPS locator then Garcia might be able to locate him that way.
He decides to go himself to use it to find Spencer and puts clothes on over his sleeper and a pair of socks and his boots on. Putting his coat on, he got to the lobby and asks if there was a cab he could get. One arrives and takes him to the site.
Meanwhile Derek comes back to the motel with the ladies, who go to rest for a few hours and he decides to check on Aaron before going to his room and to get a few hours of rest and warm up. To his surprise the room is empty; he swears and goes to the lobby to ask if they saw him. He was told that the man left in a cab. Morgan called the cab company to find out where the cab took him. He swore again when told that it was to the crime site. He went back out to the site to find his missing boss.
Aaron arrives at the sight and is looking for the members of the team. David is walking down the edge of the forest calling out Spencer's name. Aaron walks in his footsteps looking for David and using the locator to find Spencer. So far, no blip, but continuing to try. He finally meets up with David, who is not happy to see him.
"Hotch, what are you doing here? You are supposed to be at the motel sleeping."
"I'm sorry David but I had to come. I was watching TV and a commercial came on about the child locator product from Brickhouse. Angie bought the product and uses it on Spencer and me. This is the adult monitor which is always in the diaper bag. My tag is always attached to my onesie that they make me wear and I know that she puts a tag on Spencer too. We also have GPS locators that she sends with us, mine is usually put in my pocket or jacket. Spencer's is always in his book bag. Garcia can find the Spencer through the GPS and you can locate him with the tag on the adult monitor."
"I'm glad about this but Aaron you should have called and we would have come to get it. You should have stayed at the motel."
"I can't sit or sleep in a motel room while Reid is out here lost, cold and scared. Even if he is not my responsibility, I am worried and I want to be here to help find him."
"Give me the monitor and just stay by my side."
A slight smile on Aaron's face as he gives the monitor to David who begins to sweep around for it as he calls Garcia, even though it is late night, she is still up, at the office and looking into how she can help find Spencer. David asks if she could find the GPS locator on Spencer and where they need to look. She hacks into the system and is able to find where he is. She gives David the general location and he begins to head that way with the locator device.
While she is searching, Derek arrives back looking for Aaron and follows the foot prints. He was glad to see him with David. When meeting up with the men, Aaron explains why he came and the devices on Spencer.
Morgan says, "I wish I had the known about the locators before, I would have had it with me and Spencer wouldn't be missing and you wouldn't be in trouble for being here." Aaron looks at him with irritation. "You need to get back to the hotel and get some sleep."
"I am not going back to the motel room until Spencer is found."
"Yes, you are. You are not any help for Spencer out here. You are tired and getting very cranky. You need some sleep so you can work tomorrow. Now that David has the locator and Garcia has found him on GPS, he can be found and you can go back to being the baby that you are."
"I am not a baby anymore."
"Legally you are, let's go back to the motel."
"No."
"Do I have to carry you to the car?"
"Do you really want to try?"
"I don't have to try, I have done it before and I can do it now." The men stand face to face. David has continued to search for Spencer knowing they would be able to handle the problem of Aaron being where he is not supposed to be. He gets excited when he sees a blip at the end of the device. He heads toward the blip leaving the others behind.
Aaron and Derek continue to argue about Aaron going back to the motel until Derek finally picks him fireman style and takes him back to the SUV. He opens the backdoor and puts the man inside and locks the door. He goes to the driver's side and starts to drive the car back to the motel. Aaron hits him on the side of the head and tells him to take him back to the site. Derek swerves the car and stops at the side of the road. He turns and reaches back to his boss who is sitting belligerently in the seat.
Derek says, "Put your seat belt on and stop acting like a spoiled child."
"I am only acting the way you want me to, as a tired and cranky baby."
"Well that is true and you are acting like a tired and cranky baby. Do you need help putting on your seatbelt?"
"No, I am not going to wear it." Derek closes his eyes in exasperation.
"Why are you being so stubborn and obstinate tonight?"
"Because I can and I want to be."
"Put your seatbelt on!"
Derek goes back to driving the car back to the motel. When they get there, he opens the back door to let Aaron out, whom stays on the other side of the seat. But Derek reaches with his hand for Aaron to grab and come out.
"Aaron, come on you need to get out of the car. I am tired of the tantrum. You are not helping your case."
"What do mean by my case?"
"You go back to court next week on whether you are capable of running your own life and making decisions for yourself. Every person in your life has been asked to write a report on how they view your actions and words for the final two weeks before that court date. What exactly do you want me to say about tonight's performance by you? It hasn't been very good." Aaron looks at him and realizes that his future and life is actually in the hands of his doctors, friends, co-workers, social worker and the reports that they write and testify to in court next week. With this realization, his tantrum ends and he comes out of the car to go into the motel and his room. Derek follows him into the room and takes Aaron's coat off and then removes his clothes. He is happy to see the sleeper still on and unlocks it so that he can check the man's diaper, which is soaked. Derek changes him and redresses him in the sleeper, which he locks closed again. He opens the bed up and Aaron gets in and lies down.
"Are you hungry, would you like a bottle before bed?"
"No, I am fine right now Derek. Thank you and good night." Derek covers him up and turns most of the lights off and sits in the chair next to the window. Aaron will have a babysitter now until David gets back to take care of the man. Although, Derek hoped to get some rest himself, he knows that will be impossible tonight as the baby might need him again.
Back in the forest, Spencer is having trouble trying to stay awake but cannot seem to fall asleep either. He hovers between the conscious realities. He imagines people yelling out his name then there is a loud beeping noise coming from his pockets. He hears thrashing through the trees and then all of a sudden there are arms around him pulling him out of the tree trunk and picking him up. He is carried to wherever by whoever and he doesn't care. He is so cold that he can't seem to function well. He tries to see the person carrying him but his eyes won't open. He tries to ask who it is, but is mouth won't open. He begin to cry and whimper when he realizes that he can't do these things and begins to become afraid of what is happening to him. He hears as if from far away, "Calm down, Spencer. You are okay now; we are going to get you warmed up. Relax baby, Uncle Dave will take care of you."
Then there seems to red and blue light all around and a loud siren, he is placed on a gurney and a warm saline solution is started by IV into his arm. They put an oxygen mask with warm air going into his lungs. He is completely enclosed in an electric blanket to warm him up externally. He is being taken to the nearest emergency room, which is the next town, ten miles away. After arriving, their main concern will be warming his hypothermic body to normal. The positive thing is that the exposure to the elements was not so long that he got frostbite.
The medical personnel were surprised when they removed his clothes to place a gown on him that he wore a cloth diaper. It was very wet and he was beginning to get a mild rash from sitting in the wetness for more than twelve hours. They put lotion on him and placed another cloth diaper on him and put him in the pediatric ward of the hospital since they did not believe that he was over eighteen, at this moment he looked extremely young. David did not dissuade them of the fact that he was man of twenty-nine. He thought it was best that he was best treated by the pediatrician of the hospital. He would learn to regret it when the social services agency gets involved as to why the young man was out there in the first place. They would not believe that the man was not actually mentally disabled and that the reason for the diapers was physical and not mental disability and that the young man had drug problem issues. After making sure that Spencer was in good hands, David knew that he had to leave the hospital until morning. He heads back to the motel.
When he enters the room that he got to share with Aaron and Spencer, he sees Derek sleeping in the chair by the window and Aaron sleeping in the bed. He goes over to wake Derek.
"Derek, go to your room and go to bed."
"Where is Spencer, is he all right?"
"He's is fine, but I wanted him to stay overnight at the hospital to make sure there is no frostbite or anything like that. He did get a slight rash from sitting in a wet diaper for so long but otherwise he should be okay. How was the trip back with Hotch?"
"I wish we had a car seat for when our boss gets tired and cranky." Rossi laughs at that.
"Go to bed now Morgan." Derek leaves the room for his own and David goes over to look at the sleeping boss man. He tucks the blankets around him more and goes to take a quick shower and dress to go to bed. When he got out of the bathroom, Aaron was sitting up and waiting for David to talk to him about Spencer.
"Spencer is in the hospital ten miles away, he does not have frostbite and it just appears to be mild hypothermia and a mild rash on his bottom. He is staying overnight and we should be able to get out tomorrow and finish up this case. He is okay."
"Toddler or adult mode."
"Currently, toddler, he is looking and acting very young."
"Will there be a problem from the hospital about that?"
"I don't think so, why should there be?"
"They may think he is disabled or wonder why he was out there and not with his guardian."
"He walked away from the person who was supposed to be keeping an eye on him and I wish we had known about the child locator tags earlier. It will never happen again now that we do know. I heard you gave Derek a bit of a problem. He wants us to get a car seat for you." Aaron looks at him with irritation.
"I didn't appreciate that you didn't allow me to be there to help find Spencer. I am actually not a baby anymore David. I am quite conscious of what I do and how to do it. I could have helped."
"You did help when you told us about the locator tags and if you hadn't come back and seen the commercial, you would not have thought of what those things are that Angie puts on you. So you did help. I do not like the fact that you brought it out to us instead of calling and waiting for one of us to pick it up. Obviously Derek probably missed you by a less than half an hour. He could have brought it back to me and Spencer would have been found just as easily. Your presence wasn't needed there tonight and if you had come to the hospital with me what would you have done differently. Nothing. I wanted you to get a full good night sleep because the rest of us were going to be tired from searching for Spencer. We need you in good form so we can completely solve this case and go home. I don't need you to be cranky or babyish later today. I need you to be the leader during your work hours. I hope that I get that because you are not going to be getting a good night's sleep." David goes over to the man with a warmed up bottle of fiber drink and sits next to him. Aaron looks at the bottle and lies down in David's arms to drink the bottle. David rocked and Aaron fell asleep in his arms suckling the bottle. David fell asleep with Aaron in his arms.
The next few days are very confusing to our people. David was angry with Aaron but chose not to punish him on that morning because he wanted to solve that damn case. Social Services got involved with Spencer and refused to permit the hospital to release him on his recognizance; they think that the man needed a guardian. That was when they finally had to contact Angie to come because she was the only one who could get her son released, since she has full guardianship over him. Social Services permit it as long as she is able to prove that what happened will not happen again. With the knowledge of the locator tags, they are led to believe that it won't.
Angie takes Spencer to the motel in the room that she has rented and cleans him up and then puts him back into bed. She and he would leave the following day, whether the case was solved or not. She was not happy with what has happened to him. She has not talked to Aaron or David about it, just to the hospital and social services personnel. Spencer tries to convince that he is okay and what happened was that he was checking on something for the case and just got lost. He still wanted to help solve the case but stopped trying to convince her to let him when he got a look at her upset face. He just stayed in bed and read some books and played his chess video game.
It is early afternoon on the second day when Angie goes to David's room to get Spencer's go bag while the others are out. They have a suspect and go to bring him in. She notices that the adult monitor device is not there and assumes that David has it to keep track of Aaron. She was surprised then to hear the door open and both men come in. When she looks up she sees two thunderclouds on the faces of both men. They haven't seen her yet and both men take off their coats and then Rossi says, "The wall Aaron."
"No, I don't think so David."
"I'm not in the mood for the excuse that you have of provoking that man unnecessarily."
"It wasn't unnecessarily. He killed four children that we know of and I wanted to hear him say it."
"You put yourself in his hands."
"That is right, I did put myself right in his hands so that he had them around my neck."
"Yeah and you have the bruises to prove it. Angie is going to have a fit when she sees them."
"Angie needs to focus on Spencer right now and not worry about me. I am quite capable of taking care of what I need to be doing. I am trying to prove that to people and you can't seem to see it. I am not a baby anymore and I will not be treated as one."
"Okay, I will relax enough to say that you don't to stand in the corner."
"Thank you."
"Why don't you just take off your pants so that I can change your diaper?" Both men jump when they hear a very angry woman speak.
"That's okay David, why don't go say hi to Spencer while I take care of Aaron?" The men look at her and see a face like a calm unruffled sea, which we know only hides the chaos and turmoil beneath the surface. It is like the calm before the storm. David goes out the door, but he instead goes down to the lobby and walks outside to the bar across the street. Aaron stands there and she walks over to where he is and begins to examine his bruised neck. She reaches up and kisses him hard and without compromise and breaks from the kiss to then slap him across the face. She says, "You put yourself in danger again for what, to show what, to prove what?"
"That I am capable of making my own choices and decisions."
"Well, if putting yourself in danger of being harmed or killed is the choices and decision you make, then you are not ready to be allowed to do that. You're supposed to make intelligent and good choices that keep you safe, secure and alive so that you can come back to the people who love you and need you. I realize that you want to make your own decisions and follow up with the responsibilities that you forsake for quite a while, but fighting with those who are currently your keepers does not show that you are ready to take on those responsibilities again. Actually, it shows the opposite, that you not fully and clearly thinking through and seeing the results of your actions. We see the judge in four days to determine whether you are capable and the last three days you have done everything wrong to prove that." She reaches up to the bruises again and says, "I hope these fade enough so the judge doesn't see them or otherwise he is going to ask how you got them and he won't be happy with the truth."
"I didn't think about that."
"That's right, you didn't think about the consequences of your actions today. You should be disciplined for your irresponsible behavior of today and two nights ago during Spencer's disappearance. I am not going to do it. Right now, David is still your temporary guardian until you come back to D. C. He will discipline you tonight and you will return tomorrow."
"MOMMY!" is heard from outside in the hall. Both Angie and Aaron look toward the door and smile. She tells him, "Go stand by the wall until David comes back." She kisses him and goes to the door.
"MOMMY!" is once again heard this time with sounding a little more teary.
In the hall Spencer is calling out walking up and down the hall in just his blanket sleeper which was all wet because of a leaking diaper. Angie sees the back of her little boy walking away from her. Another woman with a child in her arms and four others walking with her was walking down the hall and they meet.
"Is that your boy running down the hall."
"Yes, I was talking to a friend and left him napping, obviously he has woken up and is leaking."
"Well, I do understand, I have many children of my own. I am Janet."
"Angie and my boy is Spencer."
"Well Angie, if you need a break from him let me know, my oldest daughter can babysit, she has a lot of experience with children of all sizes."
"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind."
"We are in room 308."
"MOMMY!" is heard again. The mothers laugh mildly.
"I better get my wayward son." She walks down the hall to finally where he is and just as he was about to scream out again. He sees her and runs to her crying.
"Mommy, I was scared when I couldn't' find you." He wouldn't let go and she couldn't pick him up with the way he was hugging her.
"Baby, you need to let go so we can go to our room and change your diaper and give you a bath."
"A bath?" He looks at her in anticipation and she shakes her head yes. He lets go and they go back to the room where she strips her boy down and fills the tub with bubbles and toys and her big little boy.
