A/N: I've been thinking about writing a criminal minds/five nights at freddy's crossover. What do you guys think?
My Life Had Stood
Chapter 8: Ceases To Be A Secret
"Rossi." Hotch followed the older man outside, not content with his claim on needing fresh air. "What is it?"
"It's nothing, Hotch." Rossi replied, though it was evident that something was agitating him. Hotch studied him quietly. "Amy Vaughn gave us the name of the unsub. Kevin Wagner. Garcia's checking it out now."
Hotch was about to respond, when Rossi's cell phone rang. It was Garcia. Placing the call on speaker, Rossi greeted her.
"Garcia, you're on speaker, what have you found out?"
-"Well, I was able to find a Kevin Wagner Sr. who had been on the sex registry. He died around seven years ago." Garcia replied. "Before you interrupt, I was able to find out he had been married. To an Amy Wagner, who, going by the ID photos is Amy Vaughn. They had a son, named Kevin James Wagner." Garcia replied, giving a few more details like his birthday. -
"Does he have any history of violent behavior? Any sexual in nature?" Hotch asked, eyeing Rossi briefly after the elder agent drew in a breath at the name and birth date.
-"That's the strange part. There's files on him until age twelve, including ones that show he was in and out of hospitals a lot. About three to five times a month. With everything from sprained ankles, broken bones, you name it." Garcia said, her tone reflecting her anguish as she read files that clearly revealed horrible abuse.-
"...that many hospital visits must have had set off some flags with child services." Hotch replied. Rossi remained quietly listening, his expression showing deep thought.
-"You'd think so. But there's none. No reports to child services."-
"What?!" Rossi interjected.
-"Yeah," Garcia replied, outraged herself at the lack of notice given for such a blatant case of abuse. "And it gets worse and stranger. After Kevin Wagner Jr turned twelve there's nothing on him. No police files or missing persons or even a death certificate. Nothing."-
"Thanks, Garcia. Call us if you find anything else." Hotch said, watching Rossi. He had noticed the perculiar way the older man had acted during the conversation.
"We need to question Amy Vaughn again." Rossi said, about to head back inside after putting his phone away.
"I agree. But first..." Hotch grabbed Rossi's arm, stopping him from darting back inside. "What is it, Rossi? What's got you worked up?"
Rossi considered the question, wondering if he should voice what had occurred while interviewing Amy Vaughn and his suspicions to what it meant. He could be way off base, despite his gut telling him otherwise.
"I met Amy Vaughn before." Rossi replied. Hotch's brow rose slightly, but otherwise didn't respond. Just knowing their witness/victim wouldn't have caused Rossi to be this agitated. "She was at the hospital when I visited Carolyn after our son..."
Hotch listened, knowing some about Rossi's son with his first wife dying shortly after birth. As a father himself, he empathized with Rossi. The amount of agitation coming from his friend and team mate, though, seemed off. "Rossi, I..."
"When Reid and I questioned her, Amy Vaughn grew terrified after hearing who I was." Rossi continued. "She wasn't afraid when she was brought in, and she calmed down after she realized I was questioning her about the serial rapes."
Hotch listened, following along Rossi's train of thought. His eyes widened before narrowing in thought after he realized what the senior agent had been thinking.
"You think she..."
"She's hiding something. And it isn't about this case." Rossi said, meeting Hotch's eye. "I...I don't know whether I want to be right or wrong about this, but...my gut is saying that she switched..." Rossi drew in a breath, steadying himself. "And I've been in this field long enough to trust my gut."
"...there's a simple way to find out one way or the other." Hotch replied, not revealing whether he agreed with Rossi's gut feeling.
"No." Rossi suddenly said, shaking his head. "We need to find this unsub. He likely already has another victim. Everything else can wait until afterwards."
Rossi headed back inside the building, and towards the room where Amy Vaughn had been left. It took only moments to realize that something was wrong.
Some sort of commotion had started up in that room and Spencer's voice was among it. Suddenly the sound of a gun firing and the smell of gunpowder filtered into the hall.
0
Kevin James Wagner sat back, meditating while listening to the woman's sobs. Her pleas for him to let her go had grown weaker during the interval between when he had finished with her remaining eye till moments ago. She merely cried now, her lips quivering.
'Finish. Finish.'
Beneath the dim yellow light placed above his workbench, he studied her. He nibbled on his fingernail, counting as her sobs grew quieter. The part he enjoyed best was almost over.
He smirked, his dark eyes focusing ahead. Taking a syringe from among the items on the workbench, he licked his lips and injected himself. As the intoxicating liquid made it's way through his bloodstream, he made his way towards the woman.
0
Spencer held his right hand clenched over his left abdomen, his dress shirt quickly turning red. Blood gushed from where the bullet had hit him. He struggled to stay focused, his brown eyes staring forward at Amy Vaughn standing and pointing his gun at him.
He had simply been attempting to inform her about her daughter Julie, when she had collapsed. Though, he'd realized too late, that she'd only pretended to collapse. Shortly after he had hurried to help her up, she grabbed his gun, wrenching it from its holster.
He had struggled to stop her, but it had gone off.
"Put the gun down!" He heard the door burst open, and Rossi's voice. Followed by Hotch and JJ giving Amy Vaughn similar commands. Each of them had their own guns drawn, Rossi and Hotch from the doorway, and JJ from the windowed side of the room that ran along the north hallway.
Spencer applied more pressure to his wound, struggling to stay awake. The whole time hoping that Amy Vaughn wouldn't fire on his team. He didn't want to think about any of his team getting shot by his gun.
"Put the gun down, Mrs. Vaughn." Hotch moved closer to the woman, reading the terror on her face. It was mixed with horror at what she'd just done. "Rossi, check on Reid."
Rossi did so, putting away his gun and heading to where Spencer had fallen. He helped apply pressure to the young agent's wound, while Hotch situated himself between them and Amy Vaughn.
"Mrs. Vaughn, this won't help you. Put down the gun. You're in a police station, filled with cops, there's no way you'll be able to shoot yourself out." Hotch spoke firmly, the officers in question aiming their own guns from the hallway side of the windowed room.
While Hotch talked to and approached Amy Vaughn, Rossi helped move Spencer to the hall. There he and a few officers provided first aid to the barely conscious agent while waiting for the paramedics.
"Rossi..." Spencer blinked, his vision blurred. The blood flow from his wound slowed, but not stopped.
"You'll be okay, kiddo." Rossi said, staring at the youngest of their team. The agitation he'd felt earlier was erased, replaced by worry. The paramedics reached them just as another gun shot went off.
"That..." Spencer mumbled, trying to see what had happened only to be forced onto a gurney board by the paramedics. He passed out while mumbling that Amy Vaughn had taken his gun and that he didn't want them shot by it.
"Spence!" JJ stowed her gun and hurried to the gurney taking Spencer outside to the ambulance. She followed behind.
It was at this moment Hotch finally left the room, Amy Vaughn lying dead on the floor behind him.
"How's Reid?" Hotch asked Rossi, who replied that Spencer had passed out and was being brought out to the ambulance. Also that JJ was with him. "You go with them. I'll call the others and meet you there."
Rossi did so, not that he would've done otherwise.
It wasn't until Rossi had exited that Hotch called Garcia.
-"Sir, I haven't found any..."-
"Reid's been shot. He's on his way to the hospital now."
-"Oh my god! Is he going to be okay? What happened?" Garcia started panicking, eyes watering at the thought of not being there when one of her team was hurt.-
"Garcia," Hotch said after reassuring her that Spencer would be okay, and explaining that it was unclear what had happened. "I'm going to need to call Morgan and Lewis, but...there's something I need you to look into."
-"What is it? Is it something to do with Reid being shot?" Garcia asked, more than keen to do something - anything - if it was to help their youngest member. -
Hotch glanced at the room where Amy Vaughn still laid, recalling what she had told him after he'd been forced to shoot her. After she fell, he'd rushed to check on her, and heard her mumble an apology.
He'd first thought it was about shooting Reid, but when he asked she clarified what she meant.
x
"Tell him I'm sorry." Amy Vaughn whispered, her dying voice just loud enough for Hotch to hear. "I just wanted a baby. I just...I lost two, I couldn't...I just wanted a baby...and James...tell Rossi I'm sorry..."
x
"I need you to run the DNA sample from our unsub against the FBI database." Hotch told Garcia, interrupting her when she tried to protest that it'd been done and that there had been no matches. "It's not to find the unsub, but to see if he's related to someone. And when I say the FBI database, I mean the agent database. He...he may be related to an agent." Hotch hesitated, deciding not to reveal his suspicion to Garcia. "And, Garcia, don't tell anyone else on the team about this."
-"But..."-
"No buts. This stays between us until the results are in. Trust me." Hotch said, ending the call shortly after in order to call Morgan and Lewis.