My Life Had Stood
Chapter 12: Recollections
His brown eyes noticed the girl looking around the park nervously. She wore what looked like a shawl wrapped around her left arm, and a faded yellow sundress with sleeves reaching her elbows. Her right arm had an ace bandage wrapped around her wrist.
The girl picked at the edges of the shawl.
"Hello." Spencer approached her as she paused beside one of the park's chess tables. "Do you want to play a game?"
The girl flinched slightly as he stepped right beside her, their heights similar. Her brown eyes slowly met his, her fingers picking at the edges of her shawl even more. Remaining quiet, the girl absentmindedly unwound the shawl, revealing the yellow-discoloration of healing bruises.
His eyes widened and he asked if she'd fallen or something; the next moment reciting what he'd read about bruises, how they formed and their various stages of healing. This spiel coming forth in response to the nervousness he felt. Even though he was only eight, he understood something wasn't right.
The girl listened patiently, not interrupting until he was done. She did however rebind her arm with the shawl.
"How do you play?" She asked, indicating the chess table. The fact that he'd seen her arm didn't seem to faze her. She was oblivious to his curiosity.
"Oh, I'll teach you. It's easy." He replied, enthused. He still felt uneasy at the bruises he'd seen, but he focused instead on explaining the game to the girl. The two of them sat on either side of the chess table. "My name's Spencer. Spencer Reid, what's yours?"
"...Adrienne Leigh Crawford." The girl replied, looking at the board and all the chess pieces. Enthused about making a new friend, Spencer started explaining the game and how each piece moved.-
Spencer awoke, his eyes fluttering open, the dream lingering in his thoughts.
About a week and a half had passed since Western New York and finding out about Rossi's son James. While the rest of the BAU had looked into how James and Kevin had been switched, Spencer's injury had forced him to take a back seat.
Until he got released from the hospital, and an evaluation saying he was fit to return to work, he couldn't officially help. Though, technically none of them could officially work the investigation since the higher ups had given the child-switch kidnapping case to another team. Once the connection between Rossi and James was discovered by the Bureau, the BAU was deemed too close to things to effectively investigate.
Spencer sighed, adjusting the hospital bed using its remote. After almost pulling his stitches a couple days ago he was careful not to overexert himself. It had occurred after he heard that the director had assigned another team to investigate the switch.
Despite everything, he knew none of his team would stop investigating on their own. Rossi certainly wasn't - the older agent had finally taken the vacation time he'd been accumulating, using the opportunity to search for information on his own.
Spencer rubbed his eye, thinking not about his team but rather the dream he'd awoken from. Because of everything that had happened, he had kept the first dream he'd had about the girl from his team. It didn't have anything to do with what was going on after all.
That first dream reminded him about the nightmares he'd had during his first few years of joining the BAU. The ones where he'd been too late to prevent a child from being taken by an unsub. After they had investigated Riley Jenkins and found out the truth of that case, he'd assumed all those nightmares until then had been connected to what happened to Riley.
Now he was questioning that assumption. One of the nightmares had been about a female child, rather than a boy.
"Alsie..." Spencer mumbled, his brow furrowed. While his first dream had sparked his suspicion, this second one confirmed it. They were both memories that he'd suppressed for some reason - perhaps from guilt at not helping her? He was certain now, however, that that girl had been Alsie.
The name Adrienne Leigh Crawford and its initials A.L.C - had been the origin of the nickname 'Alsie'. He had been the one to give her that nickname after she had expressed irritation at being called 'Adrienne' or 'Leigh'.
Spencer grimaced, considering how Alsie had given her name as Allison Schmidt when they'd met at the cafe. It was possible, considering the injuries she'd had when they met as children, that she had been removed from her family and adopted by another one.
Mulling it over, Spencer sighed and glanced at the room's clock. It would be a few hours until any of his team visited him, that was if they didn't get called in on a case.
'Should I call her?' He glanced at the phone beside his bed, thinking about Alsie. Though eleven days had passed since he got shot, and he'd been transferred to a local hospital eight days ago, he hadn't contacted Alsie.
He had wanted to, to ask about what he'd dreamed, but he hadn't wanted to explain her to Morgan and the others. If the situation with James hadn't happened, Spencer would've talked to Rossi about Alsie as the senior agent already knew about the cafe date. But considering things, he decided not to.
Instead Spencer had decided to wait until his team wasn't visiting him before contacting her.
Picking up the phone Spencer started dialing Alsie's cell phone number.
0
James Rossi leaned against the wall of his cell, humming. His dark eyes watched the hallway, following the guards as they made their rounds. He studied each of them carefully, almost obsessively.
'What is your move...' James mumbled, too low for anyone but himself to hear. After confessing and agreeing to plead guilty to all charges, he had bypassed the need for a jury trial. Instead accepting the max sentence for each rape and assault charge. He even accepted the thirty to life sentence for Julia's death despite not having murdered her.
Having a trial and a lawyer would likely have gotten him less time, but the look on David Rossi's face when James had refused both a lawyer and any thing less than the max sentence for each crime was worth it. Confusion, disbelief, suspicion and then guilt, and a bit of anger, once the older man realized James' motive.
He wanted the father he'd never known to feel guilt at not preventing things. For not realizing that James and the real Kevin Wagner Jr had been switched. Raping those women had proven a more effective means of getting back at the elder man than James had thought.
He decided not to tell anyone that the rapes had been an after thought, a way to leave DNA as a taunt as well as assure the attention of the BAU.
James resumed his humming, his thoughts less on David Rossi and more on the letter on his bed. It was from Somerfield's office. The same one he'd mailed the eyes he'd taken from each victim.
It had been sent to him under the name Kevin Wagner - the one thing James hadn't sabotaged was the BAU and his father keeping his real name secret. After all, he didn't know if or which of his fellow inmates had been put there by David Rossi. If they knew who James was - even though he hadn't been raised by Rossi - they would certainly seek revenge by attacking James.
Despite James trying to force David Rossi to shoot him as a method of hurting the agent, he wasn't suicidal.
James stopped humming, considering the letter Somerfield had sent. It was a congenial letter, though quite trite.
"Hey, hey!" One of the other prisoners across the hall called out. The guard wasn't expected back around for a few minutes.
James ignored it, still considering Somerfield's letter. It wasn't until whoever it was called out the name James Rossi that James listened. He tensed.
'Son of a...' He gritted his teeth, his eyes glaring at Somerfield's letter.
0
Alsie brushed back her hair, pushing the sienna strands behind her ears. Her burnt umber eyes stared into their reflection. Straying to her scar, then to the rest of the room reflected by the mirror.
The sound of her phone ringing pulled her attention. Briefly glancing at her scar, she pulled her hair from behind her ears, concealing it. After which she picked up her cell phone.
Her brow furrowed at the caller ID, which showed it came from a local hospital.
"Hello?" Alsie answered the call.
-"Um, hello, Alsie. It's Spencer." Spencer greeted after recognizing Alsie's voice. "I...um, just wanted to talk to you. Um..."-
"...what happened? You're calling from the hospital." Alsie replied, one of her arms crossed over her chest while the other held the phone to her ear. "Were you shot?"
-"Actually, yes. Though I'm fine now. Just convalescing." Spencer replied, pausing as he considered what next to say. "Um. I may not be discharged for another week, and I thought...well, I wondered if you'd mind visiting me? There's something I wanted to talk to you about." He paused again, recalling the last conversation he'd had with Alsie. "Actually, there's two things I wanted to talk about."-
"Um. Okay." Alsie answered, after only a brief hesitance. Something about the call and Spencer's tone felt uncanny. She narrowed her eyes, thinking. "...I've been thinking about when we first met."
-"..." Spencer blinked, brow furrowed. "You mean at the park...?"-
"...when we were eight? Yeah. I..." Alsie replied, standing in her bedroom doorway. She rubbed her right eye, then lightly touched her scar. The feeling she had being proven right. "I didn't think you..."
-"I didn't actually remember at first, which is strange since I have an eidetic memory, but I guess I must have blocked it out from guilt or something after seeing those injuries you had and not doing anything about it. I did a similar thing when my father left, but that was from anger at him leaving me and my mom." Spencer replied, barely taking time to breathe during his spiel. He did briefly wonder at how comfortable he felt talking to Alsie and telling her things it took years for him to confide to his team. -
"...oh." Alsie listened, her lips twitching briefly at the part were Spencer talked about his father leaving. The expression in her eyes turned frigid as she processed his words, though the next moment she shook it away. Her demeanor once more reserved but not uninviting. "So what did you want to talk about?"
-"Uh, well, actually that was one of the things I wanted to talk about. I...I wanted to apologize for not doing anything to help. I should've told someone about those bruises you had back then. I..." Spencer said, his tone mixed with regret and worry. Worry both that his apology wouldn't be accepted and that he'd find out that the abuse Alsie had suffered lasted longer because he didn't tell anyone back then.-
"Oh, come on. We were children. There's nothing either of us could've been expected to do about it." Alsie replied, her mouth a mix between a smile and a frown. "Besides, I got out of that family not long after that."
-"Oh, that's good then. Um." Spencer furrowed his brow again, not quite relieved. "What about that scar you said you got by falling on glass? You didn't have it when we met as children. But it's clearly old enough to be from childhood."-
Alsie didn't reply at first. Her expression livid as she recalled the memory. She controlled the anger with a deep breath. "...what else did you want to talk about?"
-Spencer made a sound as though to question Alsie changing the subject. However he stopped himself from actually voicing the question. "I'd prefer to talk in person. Though, I'd understand if you don't want to..."-
Alsie heard the dejection in Spencer's voice, though he tried to mask it. "No, it's all right. I'll visit. It's...look, I don't want to lie to you, but I also don't want to talk about my scars. Anything else is fine."
-"Oh, that's fine. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories. I just felt there were so many years we missed out on being friends." Spencer's mouth twisted in thought. "...I went to that same chess table every day for a month after that."-
"...um, how long are visiting hours? I think I'd rather talk in person too." Alsie asked, not commenting on either of Spencer's statements. Instead she slipped on a pair of heeled shoes and grabbed a light jacket.
After receiving the answer, she ended the call saying she would be on her way.