I do not owned Criminal Minds and my thanks to Skye for being my beta reader. I welcome any and all reviews.

Chapter #53

Ashley was placed in a jail cell by herself, away from the other prisoners. Reid told her that he is on his way, just stay calm and don't talk to any of the other prisoners.

She paced side to side inside the cramped cell, ignoring her hip as it screamed in pain. She knew that she needed to stop or else she is going to be limping for a week, but she didn't care. She continue to pace as she folded her arms underneath her, with her right hand to her face, chewing on her thumbnail.

Think, think, think. How the hell did the drugs get in my car. They just didn't magically appear. Someone had to put them in there, but who? Julian? I wouldn't put it past him. Except that if I go to prison, he can't touch me. Great, the only way to get Julian away from me is to be in prison. Talk about bittersweet irony. Rose? No, she doesn't like me, but send me to prison. No, that is too extreme. But she was the only other person who used my car? One of the gardeners or the security guards? God dammit, Spencer, where the hell are you? And why doesn't anyone believe that I don't know the exact amount of the trust fund, it is the fucking truth. Why would Rose do it if she did. To make sure that the deal wouldn't go through, she thought then stopping.

By now, she was in so much pain that she had to sit down on the bench, stretching out her leg. She leaned back against the bars.

But both she and Paul have millions, more money compared to my trust fund. This day keeps getting better and better. This was suppose be a normal day, teach class and be in Spencer's arms later on, she thought.

"Ashley," Reid called out. She turned her head, seeing Reid running up to her, holding onto his bag to prevent it from banging against his body. Hotch was a few steps behind him. She stood up, holding on the bars with her hands.

"Spencer," she whispered.

"The drugs are not mine, I swear. I honestly don't know how they ended up in my car," she quickly said,

"It's OK, we believe you," he said, laying his hand on top of hers. She laid her head on the bars.

"The Scorpions," Reid asked. She looked at him, seeing the seriously on his face then noticing Hotch recognizing the name.

"They are not welcome here," she answered.

Then she directed her attention to his boss, "I used to be one of them," she said.

"And she bears their mark," Reid stated.

"Alright, I will make arrangements to put you in solitary confinement for now. Meanwhile don't talk to anyone. Do you have a lawyer," Hotch asked.

She shook her head, "Not exactly. A friend of mine told me if I ever needed one, use his."

Hotch nodded, sticking his hand inside his jacket pocket. He pulled out a small pad and a pen.

"Write down his name and number and I will get a hold of him," Hotch instructed, handing her the paper and pen through the bars.

"Her," Ashley corrected him. She took it and quickly wrote her name and number. Then she wrote down:

Tell them that you are Darcy's walk in.

She handed back the pen and paper to him where he saw the special note.

"That is what I have been trained to do," she explained.

Crap, now I have to explain that to his boss. This is definitely the second worst day of my life.

She knew that Hotch took notice in her explanation, but he didn't press her. He put the pad and pen back inside his jacket pocket.

"We will get to the bottom of this," he said.

He left Reid and Ashley along where she saw Detective Lucas waiting for them at the end of the hallway. Reid placed his hand on her face with his thumb rubbing against her cheek, trying to clean the ink off of her face.

"I'm scared," she said, her voice was in a bare whisper.

"It will be alright," he tried to assure her.

"Reid," Hotch called out. They looked over to where the two gentlemen were still waiting for him.

"Go," she said.

"I will be back as soon as I can," he promised. He hurried to the other side of the hallway, catching up with the other men as he opened his messenger bag. He pulled out several sheets of paper.

"Ashley Cassidy is not a drug runner, not anymore. She admitted to being one years ago so she knew how to hide them better than in the trunk of her car. She has fully cooperated with you without asking for a lawyer," Hotch started to explained, going into his former prosecutor mode in his days of being a lawyer. They walked into the main area where there were several desks of other police working.

"She was set up," Reid interrupted. He couldn't wait for Hotch to finish. He handed the detective the first piece of paper that was a bank statement.

"In three months, Ashley will have access to her trust fund, which was worth ten million dollars. But notice the withdraws," he explained, pointing out to the highlight area. He then placed another paper in his hand.

"At first, I thought it was for the repairs of the house. But this was happening months before the accident. All of the money have been transferred to Rose Ashburton's account." He placed yet another bank statement in his hands.

"It was later transferred to Vinnie Bristow's account who is a known bookie." The three men arrived at his desk.

"I," Detective Lucas started to say before Reid interrupted him again. He handed two typewritten statements that were signed.

"I have two affidavits from Ralph Smythe and his assistant. They both identified Rose from a photo line-up as the woman who tried to bribe them both to switch Ashley's medication. I have a lab running an analysis on her medication right now to see if it was actually switched. But that was one of the things that Ashley agreed to before getting access to the account. She had to stay on her medication, she had to continue with her treatment."

The detective was about to say something when Reid spoke again, "Then there is."

"Reid," Hotch stopping Reid. "Let him speak."

"Thank you," Detective Lucas said. "I know. It was what I didn't find that made me suspicious of the whole thing. Fingerprints." He picked up the file that was on his desk.

"There were fingerprints on the bag, box, scales, but none of them matched Ashley. Her fingerprints were on the car, but not inside of the trunk."

He set the blanket that was still in its plastic bag. "She did admit of using that blanket in the house and I did find quite a few hair strands on the blanket, some of them matched her color. But there was also a blond hair and another color."

Reid felt himself going hot, realizing that it was the same blanket that they used when they went into the forest to have sex. Hotch noticed Reid's face, but ignored it that too.

Detective Lucas picked up the second file folder. "The lab just came in with Miss. Cassidy's blood work, there were no narcotics in her system. Just the medication and aspirin that she is taking."

"So why do you still have in her jail," Reid asked, not fully understanding this situation.

"Agent Hotchner, you were right. Where the drugs were found first raised my suspicions. In all my years as a narcotic detective, I never seen a case where drugs were so easily found in someone's trunk, especially after reading Miss, Cassidy's arrest record. She was arrested for drug smuggling and prostitution, so she would know better. Then it was the lack of fingerprints." It was Detective's turn to pull out a sheet of paper, handing to the two FBI agents.

"Rose Ashburton was the one that phoned the captain about her tip. She didn't go to the desk sergeant like most people would. She went directly to him. She raised a fit seeing Ashley putting the drugs in her car. She claimed that she was worried about her being with the children that she taught. And Ashley did tell us that she loan her car to her. Plus the lab found tiny traces of cocaine in the bag, not even enough to charged her with possession."

"Get your filthy paws off of me," Reid heard Rose from behind. Both Reid and Hotch turned around to see Rose being escorted by two police officers.

"Wait, when she did she get back," Reid asked.

"From Toronto? Its turns out that she never left Quantico. We found her staying at the Westin Alexandria Hotel. Dr. Reid, it was her fingerprints that we found."

Reid then spotted Ashley coming into the bullpen with another officer. He noticed that she was limping, barely putting on any weight on her leg. He knew that she was hurting very bad if she couldn't hide it from anyone.

"Miss. Cassidy is being released right now." Reid let out a sigh as relief just washed over him. He wanted to take her home with him, not bothering with the paperwork and the protocol.

He just wanted to hold her in his arms, take care of her and her hip and forget this whole night. Except with his eidetic memory, the image of having his girlfriend behind bars scared would always stick in his mind, forever.

He watched the police officer offering a piece of candy wrapped in gold foil paper. She smiled, thanking him, taking it. She unwrapped it, putting the wrapper in her pocket and pop the candy in her mouth.

"You whore," he heard Rose screaming. He turned around to see Rose running up to her with her face flushed with anger and spit running down her. With her hands reaching out to her, she charged toward Ashley.

Ashley took a step back, stepping on a wheel of a chair, almost losing her balance. She sucked in her breath where the hard candy blocked her airway. She grabbed her throat with her right hand, struggling for air. Rose pushed her down on the floor. Ashley banged her head against the desk.

"You filthy whore. You killed my son. You ruined my life," the old woman screamed as she grabbed Ashley's head with both of her hands. She started to bang her head against the floor.

As Ashley started to lose conscious, she could see both Hotch and Reid running up to her with panic on their faces.

Reid raced up to Ashley as a couple of the police officers managed to pry Rose off of her. Rose was still screaming and now fighting with the officers as they carried her away.

"Call an ambulance," he screamed. He put his ear to her face, hoping to hear or feel her breathing. But nothing. He tilted her head back, opening her mouth where he saw a piece of candy lodged in the back of her mouth, blocking her airway. Picking it up with his fingers, he dropped it, not caring where it landed.

With tears building up in his eyes, he cradled her head in his lap. He couldn't lose her, not after what they have been through.

"Please, don't leave me," he begged.