This is my Last Resort (Chapter Seven) by Lexikal

Spoilers: None.

Warnings: Dark themes; violence; missing children/implied child abuse, lots of Reid angst...

Summary: Spencer Reid, third season-ish (2008-ish), is kidnapped/taken hostage and abused/terrorized along with a host of other "unwanted" children. Please see chapter one for more info.

Chapter Note: The team discusses the conversation Reid had with Elle in the hospital. This chapter will be short, as I am pretty tired today. I don't have a beta, so please excuse any typos or mistakes. I'll try to edit for obvious errors, but if any slip by, please ignore. Oh, and review please!

I write in this Chapter that Elle's birthday is in March. I think I wrote it SOMEWHERE in this story as being in March, but now I can't find that reference, all I know is that it's currently July in this story and Reid was a belated "birthday present". If someone finds where I mention Elle's month of birth, please pm me with the chapter and where it is... thanks! (In the future I will write basic character info like abduction dates, addresses, D.O.B.'s etc of my own characters in another file for easy reference... you live, you learn I guess...)

The team was sitting around the conference table, listening to the audio recording of Reid's interview with Elle. Reid drummed his fingers on the table surface nervously, occasionally glancing at his colleagues' faces.

"This kid sounds like a child with severe Reactive Attachment Disorder," Rossi said when the audio finally shut off.

Reid nodded. He already knew that, and hearing the interview again, away from Elle... it was easier to hear what she was really saying. She was also creepier, too, harder to see as a purely innocent, albeit traumatized, little victim.

"Well...now we know why you were taken," Hotch said, frowning. "Elle wanted you. Why she wanted an adult is still up for speculation, but I'd venture that we should take her at her word. Adults are more fun than children for her. Adults offer more of a challenge for her to torment, apparently."

"She didn't torment me, though," Reid said quickly, glancing over at Hotch. Hotch stared at Reid, not giving an inch.

"You said she hit you in the head with a mag-lite hard enough to give you that bruise? And she harshly prodded you in the ribs with the same flashlight? And at other times... you were unconscious, but whenever you awoke she was down there with you, watching you?"

"Her fath...Edward White... made her hit me in the van, and as for prodding me in the ribs, I told you, her younger...a younger girl was convinced I was dead. She wanted to prove I wasn't dead."

"Reid, you're not protecting this child by denying what happened," Hotch said sternly.

"Okay, so she wanted me. I was a birthday present," Reid admitted, feeling a chill run through him. "She also said she chose the police man for her fourth birthday. So it's not just adults she wants, but men in the law enforcement field. That has to be significant."

"Men are typically considered to be both mentally and physically stronger than women," Rossi said, knowing that Reid already knew this but also knowing that Reid wasn't really in a talkative mood. "And law enforcement officers are considered to be even stronger than the average adult male. If this girl could've selected a Navy SEAL as a "present", she probably would've. By selecting what she views as the toughest challenges, she feels a sense of power when her selected victim has to obey her... a little girl."

Garcia was already running the information Elle had provided about the police officer, a 21-year-old Cop from Virginia named David who had, in all likelihood, disappeared sometime between February and July of 2006.

"Of course, there is the obvious problem with her fifth... birthday present. Is Garcia checking for any missing police officers from Virginia from that same time period in 2007?" Reid muttered.

"Yes, but it's also possible that Connor Stephens was selected by Elle for her fifth birthday," Rossi said. "Even though Connor was taken close to 7 months ago now, he might have been a belated birthday gift... like you were, Reid. Her birthday is in March, and you were taken in July."

Reid shook his head. "No... I saw Connor. He was the eldest of the children, and looked older than his fifteen years, but Elle ignored him, from what I can remember. She has a preference; male law-enforcement officers in their 20's, apparently. And she admitted to selecting the police officer. She said nothing about asking for or requesting Connor to be abducted."

"Yet, Connor hasn't been killed like the others..." Hotch trailed, inviting the rest of the team to speculate.

"Because he serves a purpose. He is old enough and strong enough to help with the kidnappings, but still young and innocent enough to put most potential victims at ease. He is a decoy. No less, no more." Reid said flatly.

"And now that is Elle is in custody, Dolores White has no reason to keep him around anymore..." Prentiss said uneasily.

"Unless she wants to abduct another child. One to replace Elle. In which case..." Hotch's voice was eerily flat. "J.J., how fast can you get a press conference assembled?"

"Less than half an hour," J.J. responded immediately.

"Okay, we're going to want to flash Dolores White's face all over the news, as well as Connor Stephen's and the remaining children, including the little girl Reid described to us..."

"Julie," Reid muttered softly.

"We need all the kids' faces on the news, but especially White's and Connor Stephen's. If another child is abducted to replace Elle, they won't waste time, so the public needs to know what to watch for. All female children resembling Elle in the four to eight year old age bracket..."

"Got it," J.J. said, standing quickly to go and prepare her press release statements.

"The rest of you, I want you to interview the parents of the currently missing kids. If they're local, drive there, in the case of Connor it's more efficient to phone..."

The team got up to leave.

"Reid, I want you to stay here."

"What?" Reid snapped, narrowing his eyes.

"I want you to think. Remember. Listen and re-listen to that interview, and write down anything you remember this girl saying at any time to you, no matter how insignificant it seemed to you at the time... from the moment you first heard her voice to the last time you spoke to her..."

"Hotch..."

"Reid, right now Elle is our best lead, and while the rest of us can- and will- develop a more extensive profile of her based on what we know, you still know more."

"You want me to profile a child victim as if she were an UnSub. As if she committed these abductions and murders. This isn't about victimology, we know now why she was taken..."

"She's not an UnSub yet, Reid," Hotch said slowly, driving his point home. "But she was instrumental in the selection process of both you and, according to her own testimony, at least one other person; a young man who is now dead, and who would still be alive if not for her actions."

"Hotch!"

"All I am asking is that you think, Reid. Remember. Write down anything. Profile this kid. You know her the best; she's a chameleon, but you've seen her change, behaviourally, more often than the rest of us."

Reid finally nodded, knowing Hotch was right. He waited until Hotch left the room before leaning back in his chair and closing his eyes. Ran through what he remembered the child saying earlier at the hospital. Shivered.

"I think I had just turned four. That's why I got to pick one. It was a birthday present."

The temperature of the room seemed to drop several degrees.

"What?" Reid gasped, even more alarmed. Elle raised her eyebrows as if to say, whoa, man, chill out.

"Yeah. For my birthday... Mommy and Daddy take new kids, because they thought I was lonely, but when I was four, they took the police man. It was a present. They wanted a kid closer to my age. They said he was too old, not even a kid at all. But I wanted the police man."

"Why Elle?"

"Because children," Elle said simply, staring at Reid with eyes that were somehow empty and devoid of all emotion, except perhaps boredom, "aren't as much fun as grown-ups."

Reid shivered again, and slipped out of his chair. This was going to require a lot of black coffee...

Yes, I know, it's a short chapter. Tired. Review?