A/N: INCOMPLETE has been nominated by my readers in 2 Catagories, Best Garcia/Morgan Fic and Best Team/Case Fic, in the Profiler's Choice Criminal Minds 2010 Awards. I'm unbelievably touched and honoured far beyond words. All I can say is THANK YOU to my truly amazing readers from the bottom of my heart, for nominating me and my story.
I have pasted where to find the information for the final voting below. Please remember that all votes must be submitted by November 30, 2010 at 11:59 PM EST to be counted.
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When the vibration on Derek's hip signalled an incoming text, his body instinctively braced itself and tightened knowingly. He knew without even looking at his phone who the message was from. Following an almost primordial and inherent need to protect, while he'd been out of the room earlier, he'd called in a personal favour to insure he was notified the moment her test results were in. Now that they were, his emotions and common sense were raging an internal battle and for the first time in his life, he wasn't sure what was the right thing to do. Penelope or not, he had a deeply ingrained need to be there for her, one that normally overrode all else, but given their last exchange he doubted she'd appreciate anything coming from him.
"Go."
Morgan's head snapped up at the command, his turbulent eyes colliding with Hotch's dark probing stare. "Hotch, I..."
"I said go. Now."
Seeing Hotch's small nod was all the encouragement he needed to follow where his gut and heart were telling him he should be. Without stopping to question the decision any further, he was out of his chair and through the door like a shot, effectively obliterating any chance for Hotch to change his mind.
Hotch stood facing the board, recalling with perfect clarity what had finally prompted him to vocally force Derek into action. The very visible storm of thoughts alternately materializing and vanishing on his face, in combination with the clenching and immediate unclenching of his muscled frame, was a dead giveaway to what was going through his Agent's mind as clearly as if he'd spoken aloud. Now only ten minutes later, Hotch was already having second thoughts. As he continued staring at each of the pinned pictures, part of him was worrying and wondering if encouraging Derek was the right choice. Time was not on their side with this case and this situation was a distraction they could ill afford. Less than a few seconds later, he felt a presence beside him, but didn't have to look over to know who it was. Dave stood along side him with his hands buried in his pockets, never once looking in Hotch's direction as he began to speak.
"Stop second guessing yourself. Morgan stopped being useful and already had one foot out the door the second his phone buzzed, and we both know it. Better to give him a few minutes and come back to us all in, than to have him sit here accomplishing absolutely squat because his head is downstairs with her."
"Don't you think that's a bit presumptuous on your part Rossi? What makes you so sure he'll be all in when he gets back? For all we know, he could end up even more distracted than before." Hotch turned his head away from the board, his gaze now focused on his teammate.
Dave finally turned towards Hotch. "Let's get realistic here. Morgan has been struggling to get his life back on track for a long time. We all have. But no one more so than him. In all honesty, I didn't think he'd ever recover even remotely after what happened. Face it Hotch, we were devastated, but he was utterly shattered. His world was turned upside down, inside out, and blown completely apart with Garcia's death. And in one way or another, for better or for worse, it's about to happen again. We're finally witnessing genuine emotions from Morgan for the first time in over a year and whether that girl is Angel or Garcia, she's the missing piece in this damn puzzle. A puzzle he's gonna wanna do everything in his power to solve, for his sake as well as hers. If that doesn't make someone all in, then I don't know what does."
"You think she's Garcia don't you?" Hotch studied his face knowing the question might as well be rhetorical. He could see the answer in Dave's eyes.
"Don't you?" The simple question hung in the air, unanswered for only a second, but it wasn't Hotch who responded.
"Don't we all." Emily along with Reid, joined the men, her words more of a statement rather than a question.
"You? Excuse me, but weren't you the one who told Morgan it was impossible?" Dave couldn't help but smirk at her, knowing his comment would in all likelihood irk her and cause a reaction. However, she surprised him by staying unfazed by the subtle dig.
"Well it was... until we started thinking about it in conjunction with the information that Candi was a licenced Hypnotherapist. According to Reid, it's not only possible, but highly probable. In fact, we think that's how everyone's being controlled and kept quiet, at least initially." Prentiss shot a look at Reid offering up the floor for him to continue where she left off.
"Once Prentiss and I had that thought in mind, we went back over the Missing Persons and police reports. In each report there seems to be no witnesses, evidence, or trace whatsoever, in any of the abductions. Not one single case has even definitively called the disappearances abductions. Except for those of the youngest children, and even then, only because of their age. Every case officer's notes were remarkably consistent with their comments leaning towards runaways and free will, rather than actual kidnappings. Up until now, there was absolutely no viable proof that the victims didn't go with their captors voluntarily."
"Which means they not only had to be targeted, but at some point, previously contacted. They wouldn't have submitted to any kind of hypnotic state with a complete stranger in mere seconds. If your theory holds true, then the victims knew their captor or at the very least, trusted them to some degree."
Rossi's statement received a nod of agreement, but Hotch noticed Reid fidgeting like there was more. "What is it Reid?"
"Well, I have no problem understanding the reasoning behind the use of hypnosis on all the victims. To a licenced hypnotherapist, it undoubtedly wouldn't take more than a short meeting or two with a victim to get them to comply to such a simple suggestion, thus enabling the Unsub to take away possible suspicion from their disappearances. All of them, that is, except Garcia. She wasn't just hypnotized, Hotch. She was reprogrammed. Depending on the individual, that's something that takes months, sometimes even years and according to current research, that kind of deep level reprogramming performed in this short of a time frame is in no way guaranteed to hold if the subject is confronted with familiar places and people from their past. Why would they spend all that time and effort only to just simply let her go, come back to Quantico, and risk her remembering and possibly telling everyone about them and their operation?"
"Maybe because they didn't plan on her coming back to Quantico. Think about it. We're assuming she wasn't actually in France like she said because we believe the rest of her memories are bogus, but what if she really was? What if they set her up there thinking she'd stay in France because "her life" was there and not in the States?" Rossi asked.
"Makes complete sense," Emily agreed. "They already made sure her old life was completely obliterated by faking her death, and in the process, effectively made sure that no one would question her disappearance or come looking for her. By sending her to France, they pretty much eliminated the risk of anyone from her old life seeing her and putting the pieces together. Chances are they never even considered the possibility of her returning to the States and with her computer skills, what's to say they weren't planning on using her somehow at a later date? It also explains why they didn't just kill her or sell her on the black market."
"Either way, this is all just theories and conjecture and I'm done speculating. It's time for us to get some answers." Hotch pulled out his phone and dialed J.J.'s number. When she answered he kept it short and to the point. "We need everyone back upstairs now."
NOTE:
In none of my research could I either prove or disprove Reid's statements regarding Hypnotherapy/Hypnosis to any degree of certainty, so for the sake of the story, I'm asking if you could please suspend all disbelief and assume them to be correct.