They landed and were immediately greeted with bad news. Apparently the unsub had grabbed another child, another boy, Spencer Reid, age ten on his way home from school. It appeared as if the unsub was accelerating and they knew they needed to act fast if they wanted to find Spencer alive
He immediately began to delegate tasks, "Hotch and Morgan head out to the last dump site. JJ can you please hold a press conference asking for the public's help in the case and also a warning to be vigilant with their children. The unsub may be only grabbing wards of the state at this point in time however we don't want to leave him any option to grab others. Gideon can you start chatting with the victim's current case-workers I'm going to co-ordinate with our tech analyst then talk to Spencer's case-worker."
As the others headed out he pulled out his phone and dialled, "Hi, Garcia right?"
"Yep, what can I do for you Sir?"
"I need you to look into the backgrounds of five of the children taken. Look specifically at their history in the foster care system and see if any names come up in all three of them." He directed
"Will do Sir, I'll get back to you as soon as I'm done."
He moved out to interview Spencer Reid's social worker and was finished as all the others started to come back in. JJ was first, looking slightly annoyed. The press conference must not have gone well for the blonde, probably crazy reporters. Hotch and Morgan were next reporting that it was a local park with no security cameras. Gideon was last with no new information.
They raced out to the SUVs hoping against all hope that they would get there in time. Garcia had called them barely able to get the words out. It turned out that all the victims had had the same case-worker. The problem, or delay, in making the connection was that some of the children had been passed onto other case-workers.
Now they were racing to get to the unsub's house in time, hoping she hadn't already killed Spencer. Dave's heart had immediately gone out to the boy without ever having met him. From his conversation with the boy's case-worker he had learned that Spencer had been taken in after his father abandoned him and his Schizophrenic mother when Spencer was five. Apparently Spencer was some type of genius but the social system wouldn't let him move up. Something about publicly funded schooling and not being able to have him graduate early. The boy was ten and Dave's heart and reached out to him when he had seen the picture of a young with light brown hair, goofy glasses and formalish clothes. Rossi hoped desperately that there would be a child to rescue. It was crazy but he had already made the decision to adopt the boy and leave the BAU. He'd finally write the book he'd been tossing around in his head for awhile.
They rushed into the unsub's house to find her, a one Shannon Timmons, standing over Spencer with a needle in her hand.
Rossi breathed a sigh of relief before shouting, "Ms. Timmons drop the needle and step away from the boy." He began to inch his way forward, "You aren't saving the children, you are only hurting them. Let me take Spencer, let me adopt him."
"The system hurts them. They shouldn't have to go through that." She shouted back,
"No they won't be, especially not Spencer. Your were abused weren't you." Rossi stated, trying to spark a reaction or a break-down; anything that would get her away from Spencer or distract her so they could rush in. Spencer was being good and still but the terror was evident on the young boy's face.
Before either of them could say anything else Spencer began to speak, "Please Ms. Timmons, please let me go. I want to be adopted, please."
She turned towards Spencer and Morgan rushed forward to cuff her before she could do anything with the needle still in her hand.
When Morgan had Timmons cuffed and out of the room, Rossi moved forward to get Spencer.
"Is it true? You're going to adopt me." The boy mumbled, wrapping his arms around himself.
Rossi recognized the signs of an abused child trying to comfort themselves and felt his heart break just a little bit more, "Spencer, if you want me to adopt you then I'm all yours. But first how about we get you checked out. There is an ambulance outside."
Spencer seemed to be desperately searching for words, "But- I- You are-I don't even know your name."
He chuckled a bit to himself before answering, "Well that can be corrected easily, my name is David Rossi. I live in Virginia, near Quantico. Myself, and the group you see around you are a unit in the FBI called the Behavioural Analysis Unit. However considering I've had various publishers nagging me to write a book on the BAU I'm thinking of switching careers or at least taking a leave of absence." Rossi explained to the trembling child. As he had introduced himself to Spencer the child had unwrapped his arms from his knees.
He continued on, "Now why don't we get you all checked out by the paramedics." Rossi lifted the boy up after Spencer wrapped his arms around the older man's neck. He couldn't help but notice that Spencer was light, far too light for a boy of his age.