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.
There will be some cross show in the meeting of characters from the show NCIS.
Chapter Forty-One.
She looks at herself in the mirror and imagines seeing her friend Kathy standing alongside her adjusting the dress and her veil. A knock at the door and Spencer comes in with JJ and Penelope behind them. David had gone upstairs to check on Aaron.
"You look beautiful mommy."
"Thank you baby, Kathy and I bought this dress twenty-five years ago. We used to imagine ourselves getting married in it, we weren't children but there were times when it seemed like we couldn't stop being little girls imaging our weddings."
"I think all girls and women do that," says JJ. "We just always hope and pray and dream of that especially with our best girl friends. You bought this dress before you had somebody to marry?"
"In our fantasies, there was only one man that we wanted to marry. Interestingly enough, twenty-five years later, I am actually marrying that man. Do you think he'll like the dress?"
"He loves you and he'll love the dress that you and Kathy chose." says Penelope.
"I'm just glad that Sean is allowing us to marry."
"Why wouldn't he allow it? He knows and has seen for over a year now your relationship and the love that you have for each other. Besides, by allowing you two to marry he will get to go back to Hong Kong." Says JJ.
Well, he is still Aaron's guardian and we need his permission to marry."
"Well, if the judge had released the guardianship, I don't understand why he didn't." says Penelope.
Spencer says, "I do." As he and Angie look at each other and then she remembers that afternoon at the courtroom.
Flashback
It was five minutes before the end of the lunch break and people were coming back into the courtroom. Angie blew on Spencer's face to encourage him to wake up and sit up like a man. He slowly woke up and sat up with sleep still in his eyes but eventually woke up. Sean was doing the same to Aaron, who did not want to wake up but grudgingly did so and sat there still half asleep but slowly waking on the bench and becoming more aware of the world around him.
For the next few hours, more testimony was given about Aaron's actions, behavior and abilities to perform. Eventually the judge said enough and wanted to hear from the man himself. Aaron came to the stand and was questioned by the attorneys and by the judge himself. He thought that he did well, but in actuality was young in his responses and not clear in his remarks of what happened during certain instances. The judge finally has him sit down.
"Aaron Hotchner please stand. Mr. Hotchner, do you know why you are here today? Because I'm not sure that you do. You're actions do not show that you have gained back the level of adult consciousness that you lost a year ago. You seem young and unsure of what you need to be doing. You have given good performances in your job and the work skills that you have are still there and in full function but your personal performances are not in sync with what you are at work. I am permitting full responsibilities at work. You may once again wear your second gun at work and have full days of work up to sixteen hours in a twenty-four hour period. You ability to work is good and performance will probably continue to be great. Your capability to care for yourself is not good though. You are still diaper dependant, you are not yet fully weaned from drinking from a bottle, you have episodes of childlike jealousy and envy of people in your life. You seem to be clingy and not always thinking clearly about the consequences of your actions and decisions. In your job performances, you do well, but in your personal life, I do not see that you do things in your best interest. Therefore I am not releasing from guardianship at this time. We will schedule another court date for six months and hopefully you will show me more growth in your personal capabilities to making good decisions for yourself. Case dismissed." Gavel bangs and the judge leaves the courtroom.
Aaron just stands there and his family and friends don't know what to do as he seems to have lost his case and is still under the guardianship of his brother. He turns and looks at Angie.
He says, "You warned me when I was in the hospital that if I continued to do what I did, my brothers would gain control and I might not ever be able to do regain my life if that happened. I didn't believe that but you were right." He walks over to the stroller and gets in. "Let's go home Sean."
End Flashback
Knock on the door reveals David.
He says, "Aaron is almost ready, when I got there though, he didn't have his pants on yet. Sean was putting on his tie."
"He probably didn't have his pants on because Sean doesn't want to put them on until the end."
"Why wait until the end?"
"In case of his needing to be changed before I head down the aisle to him, Sean can take care of it without undressing him."
"I understand."
"Good, then you can go check on Spencer and make sure that he is clean."
"But he is dressed."
"I want him to be dry and clean when he is standing next to me as my man of honor."
"Yeah, it is interesting that you choose a man of honor instead of maid or matron of honor, which you could have chosen.
"I wanted him in the ceremony, you were giving me away, Sean is Aaron's best man with Derek and William as groomsmen and Jack is the ring-bearer, Spencer needed to be on my side of supporting me. As my son now, he has that privilege of being part of that. Man of honor makes him perfect for it. We should be ready in just a few minutes would you please go check and make sure he is clean and dry and be careful, he is still a little skittish about people touching his backside."
"You never told me what happened to him to cause that." She turns at him and gives him a grim smile.
"You don't really need to know. Aaron and I are handling it and he doesn't need everyone to know about it, even closest of family and friends. Please understand it is his feelings that I care about in this case."
Flashback
Aaron parked the van while Angie and Spencer went into the Health Center. They go to the clinic that Dr. Pitt is part of and Angie goes to the receptionist desk and signs in for Spencer as he goes to sit down. He finds a trio of seats next to another pair of federal agents from a different agency. When Aaron came in and saw where Spencer sat and who he sat near he came up and slapped him on the back.
"Hey Gibbs, what are you doing here?"
"Hotch it has been a long time."
"Eight years since one of your seaman was killed by one of my serial killers."
"Yeah, it was a hassle of who had jurisdiction. I had one murder but you were trying to solve six including mine."
"Well, we worked it out. What you doing here?"
"I'm supporting one of my agents. He had a bit of problem a number of years back with pneumatic plague and when he falls in the river I like to have him checked out to make sure there in no recurrence. Dr. Pitt is his doctor on the case so we came here. Why are you here?
"Same deal about one of my agents getting caught in the snow and hypothermia on a case. I just want to make sure that he is okay and Dr. Pitt knows his medical history as well, so we come here. My fiancée is checking him in."
"Fiancée, what happened to Hayley?'
"We divorced three years ago. Oh, Angie, I'd like to introduce Leroy Jethro Gibbs with the NCIS."
"Hello, Agent Gibbs, how are you? I have heard about you from Agent Fornell and Directors Sheppard and Morrow."
"I have not heard about you."
"Good, you are not supposed to and who is this man with you."
Tony stands up and Gibbs says, "This is NCIS agent Anthony Dinozzo. Tony, this is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner of the BAU and Angie?"
"I am Doctor Angie Eskridge and it is nice to meet both of you gentlemen."
Tony says, "Nice to meet you ma'am, agent Hotchner."
Aaron says, "Well, I'd like to also introduce Dr. Spencer Reid, also of the BAU."
Spencer says, "Hi." All the men and Angie shake hands and sit down to wait to see the doctor. Gibbs and Aaron talk together while Tony and Spencer talk about different things.
When the nurse finally calls Spencer in, Angie goes with him while Aaron waits in the waiting room. In the exam room, Spencer is weighed, his vitals taken and he is changed into a gown. A few minutes later, the doctor comes in and Angie explains why they are there and mentions that he had slight rash on his bottom that she wanted the doctor to look at. She goes out of the room to let the doctor examine him in private. When he comes out and takes her to his office to discuss what he found.
Spencer starts to yell, "No." She starts to go to him and the doctor prevents her. The doctor has the nurse go get Aaron and he is brought to the exam room to stay with Spencer. She and the doctor talk in his office.
"Do you know what has happened to him?'
"He got caught in the woods and got mild hypothermia and a rash on his bottom, are you saying you found something else?"
"He has scratches in his anus that is not consistent with what you just said."
"What!? How did he get those? What would that mean?"
"It means someone stuck something up him and scratched and tore him up a little. It happened just a few days ago, the scratches and tearing is very recent."
"What are telling me?"
"I'm telling you that Spencer has been sexually assaulted and I have to report it. He is on the disabled adult protection list and I have to report this."
"Yes, you do that right now." She gets up to go to Spencer. He gets up to stop her.
"You can't see him right now. As his guardian, you are the prime suspect in the abuse."
"Brad, you really think that I would do that to anyone let alone my son."
"I don't think so, but the law says that I have to do so." She sits back down.
Back in the exam room, Spencer is still lying on the table on his stomach, Aaron comes in and sees him like that and goes to cover him up.
"Are you okay Spencer?"
"No, I want mommy and I want to go home."
"Mommy is talking to the doctor and we can't go home until they say we can. So let's just calm down and wait." He ruffles the boy's hair and sits down next to him. The nurses come in and take his vitals again.
The police arrive to check on Spencer, who begins to cry when he sees them. They take pictures of his behind and begin a case of sexual abuse. Officer Roberts begins to talk to Spencer about what happened.
"Hello sweetheart. What is your name?"
"My name is Spencer and I want mommy here."
"We want to talk to you without your mommy here right now. Can you tell me what happened to you? Why your bottom hurts the way it does?"
"I will talk to you when you bring mommy in. She needs to know too."
"I don't…"
"MOMMY did not do this to me."
"Are you certain about that?"
"Yes." One of the other officers brings Angie in and she is told to stand against the wall.
"Okay, mommy is here. Can you tell us what happened now?"
Spencer looks at mommy and says, "The babysitter did it." Angie looks horrified that she allowed that girl to do this to her boy.
"Who is the babysitter?"
"Her name is Lisa and we were on a case in Wisconsin. I had a bit a problem and mommy had to come and get me out of the hospital, she was asked by Derek to go out to have drinks that night and she was going out anyway with friends before she had to come and get me. So she really needed a night out on the town. She had met a woman earlier in the motel that offered her daughter to babysit if mommy needed one. She decided to have the girl babysit for a few hours. We played chess for a while and then I needed to be changed.
"Changed?" asks the officer.
The doctor who had come in says, "He has a physical condition that prevents him from being able to control his physical needs and sometimes his mental condition. It is why he is considered disabled."
"Okay, so Spencer, you needed to be changed."
"Yes, I went to the dresser that is my changing table and she takes off my sleeper and removes my diaper and then cleans my front genitals and has me turn over to clean my backside since I had a small rash from being lost in the woods. I heard her put on a pair of rubber gloves and lotion squeezed out. She started to rub on my buttocks and then she (he cracks into sobs) puts her finger around my anus and then puts it all the way in." Angie sobs and starts to tear up for her boy, Aaron goes over to her and hugs her while also sobbing a little listening to their boy talking on the exam table about being sexually abused by someone who was supposed to be taking care of him. Spencer continues through his crying, "She moved her finger up and down and then took it out and then put two of her fingers in and I was crying. She asked if I liked it and said that she used to do it to her older brother who was disabled. She stopped soon and then diapered me and put my sleeper on and we played some more."
"Did she only do this once?"
"Yes, mommy came back before I needed to be changed again."
"Okay, do you know more about the name of these people?"
"No, mommy hired her and said her name was Lisa."
"Thank you Spencer, you have been very a good boy."
The doctor tells Aaron to diaper and dress Spencer while the police go with Angie to ask about the girl and her mother in Wisconsin.
End Flashback
David came to Spencer and told him that he needed to check his diaper and make sure he was clean and dry. Momma wants him to be clean before they head down the aisle. Spencer looks like he was about to bolt but he knew he could trust Uncle David so he permitted the man to check him and when he was found to be dry, he smiled and said, "Yippee. Can we get mommy and daddy married now?"
"Go get in position." He sees Sean and William with Jack coming down and wondered where Aaron was.
Sean says, "He'll be down in a minute. He's talking to Kathy." David smiles in understanding as he goes to bring Angie to the end of the aisle with Jack.
Aaron comes down and puts himself into position near the altar with his men; he looks down as music begins and sees Jack walk down and then his niece as their flower girl and then JJ and Penelope walk down followed by Spencer and finally Angie on David's arm. He looked at the woman and is grateful that she wants him. He feels that this woman is the woman he has been seeing in his dreams and fantasies for what seems like forever.
Angie arrives and looks at Aaron as the reverend begins the marriage rite. When they kiss at the end of the ceremony and look at each other, they know that the future is safe because they are together. As they turn to their family and friends and smile. They walk back down the aisle as a married couple and as they walk by Emily, Angie notices the grimace on her face and stops; she leans over and tells Brian that he needs to take Emily to the hospital now. Our couple continues to walk to the tree house where the reception has been set up.
The night moves on as our couple leaves to go on a month long honeymoon. Spencer will be staying with Sean until he returns to Hong Kong after the honeymooners get back. Emily has a little boy weighing 8 lb. 6 ounces and the world continues to go round for our family and agents.
Kathy is standing in the window of the house looking out over the reception to the tree house and gives a great sigh to see her best friends get married. She looks forward to watching as their family grows.
