Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship - never.
Charles Caleb Colton

Chapter twelve
Holman Farm
725 N. Co. Road 1550
Basco, IL

Spencer

Susanna jumped back like she had been scalded. "Who are you?" She asked as she very nearly stumbled before landing hard in her chair. "Why are you in my room?"

"I'm sorry." He said, trying to catch her and failing entirely. "I'm…I'm sorry. I…I didn't meant to scare you."

"Who are you?" She demanded. "I know that voice, who are you?"

"I'm…it's…doctor…Doctor Reid."

"Doctor….oh! I heard you on the radio." Her hand covered her mouth and she started rocking a little. "Oh…it's real. You're…you're real. Oh! Henry!"

"He's outside. He's with his parents. I assume you're Susanna." She nodded. "I don't…it's nice to finally meet you. Is there a light…?"

"No, not up here."

"But…you said you can see light…"

"My father…." She stopped and in the beam of his flashlight he watched her cheeks turn bright red.

He felt the dull anger he'd felt so often over the past month rise again. Of course her father. Of course just because she couldn't see clearly he wouldn't waste the light on her. Of course. "I understand." He said. "It's all right."

"This is all real, isn't it?"

"Yes. Yes, it is."

"What happens now?"

"We…go downstairs. I don't think anyone will be spending the night here, it's, uhhh… a crime scene."

"Then where will we go?"

"I'm not sure."

"What happens tomorrow?" She groaned. "I'm sorry; I don't mean to throw myself upon you like this."

"No, it's all right."

"I just don't know what to do…"

"Really, it's…it's all right." In the back of his mind he could hear Maeve's laughter. Take a deep breath and leap, Spencer she seemed to say. "After all you did for Henry…"

"Helping Henry was the right thing to do. It is its own reward."

"Besides, it would, um, be unchivalrous not to help."

"Chivalrous?" She laughed then, a delightful sound. "In that case, Sir Knight, I throw myself upon your mercy for the next few days."

"Good." Why was he smiling like this? "Why don't we go downstairs and we'll figure it out from there."

"Yes. Do I need to pack anything?"

Oh hell. "Um, no. This is a crime scene, any evidence…."

"Understandable."

"If there's anything medical you need…?"

"Only a few things." She stood and moved easily around the darkened room, collecting a large brimmed hat from the back of the door, and a long, red and white cane. "I don't keep a journal or anything like that. Everything else is replaceable. Lead on Sir Knight."

He lead the way down the narrow stairs, looking back to see her trailing her fingertips along the wall to find the way. "Thank you, by the way. For Henry."

"As I said, helping is its own reward. I'm just glad he's back with his family." He heard a smile come into her voice. "I should warn you, he wants us to marry."

"So he told me." Of course she said that just as they came into the light, just when he could see that she really was as enchantingly lovely as his flashlight had promised. At once he felt desire and guilt over Maeve and a comfort he had not felt since her company and anger at everything that had been done. He never did well with emotions, and these were enough to almost knock him over.

She smiled an unabashed grin. "Ah. I hate to tell him but given everything that's happening I don't think I'm quite ready for that."

That smile was contagious. "Yeah, I, uh, think we should try friendship first."

"I heartily agree, Dr. Reid."

"Spencer, please."

"Spencer. Susanna then." Something in her smile turned mischievous. "Are you sure it's not Lancelot?"

He laughed. He couldn't stop looking at her, and he could tell her full attention was on him, and at that moment something clicked. He still didn't know if he was ready for romance but at that moment he knew he had found a very special friend. "Percival, actually, or so my mother insists."

She smiled at him, enchanted for a moment. "Are you really?"

Percival, the knight noted for his purity…. "Um…"

"Would that make me…oh?" She sagged.

He was trying hard not to laugh, but he couldn't keep it out of his voice. "It does fit." Percival's sweetheart had been named Blanchfleur, literally "white flower." He thought he heard Maeve's laughter again. She wouldn't stop if she heard this one.

"Flatterer. I know what people see." She said flatly. They kept walking. "It doesn't even work in Latin. Flore albo, really."

Oh good heavens. "Tu loquerisne Latine?"

"Etiam. Docete filios ecclesiae membra tenentur. Dilexi discendum est." She paused before the last leg of the hallway. "This house is just full of people."

"You can tell?"

"I can hear them all down there. Everything is going to change now, isn't it?" She leaned into him, giving him the impression of a shy doe at the edge of the trees, considering running for cover.

"It already has." He took a deep breath. "Um, would you like some help getting downstairs?"

"Yes, please." Up until now she'd been using her cane to check for objects in her path but now she touched him, as light as a butterfly, gently feeling her way. It took him a moment to realize what she was doing but then he bent his elbow so she could take is arm, lightly curling her fingers around his bicep. "You're new at this." She murmured.

No, he wanted to say, I have felt this love before. But that wasn't what she meant. "Yes." He admitted.

"When we reach the stairs stay one step ahead of me and take your time."

"All right." For a moment he almost felt like he was leading her into a ball room.

But it wasn't a ballroom. It was a series of rooms crawling with FBI agents, local cops, forensic people, and scared children. Yet, as she appeared at the top of the stairs a hush fell over the crowd. Everyone turned to watch this apparition walk down the stairs. "What kind of a freak is that?" Someone in the back asked.

Spencer bristled. In his years in the FBI he had heard a lot of people called a lot of names. But if there was one thing that always, to this day, stuck in his throat it was hearing someone, anyone called a freak. Susanna was not a freak. People were never freaks.

The two women, older girls really, he'd seen earlier hurried over to them. "Susanna, what are you doing downstairs?" One of them chastised. "There are people in the house!"

"I noticed." Susanna replied dryly. She angled her head toward him. "Dr. Reid, I'd like to introduce my sister Rebekah, and I assume my sister Leah is here as well. Bekah, this is Dr. Spencer Reid." She gently tapped his vest. "Is this what body armor is?"

"Yes." He said, "Nice to meet you."

"Susanna." Rebekah took Susanna's other arm and literally pulled her away, nearly knocking her off her feet. "They're FBI agents!"

"Yes, I know. I invited them."

"You what?"

"I invited them. Specifically I told them where to come and get Henry."

"Who?'

"Joshua. That's his real name you know, Henry LaMontagine. He was never an orphan; he was taken from his parents without their consent. So I wrote to them and they figured out where to find us."

"He was telling the truth?"

"Shocking I know."

"Why did you write to them? Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because taking a child is an evil thing, and once that sort of evil starts going around you don't know who you can trust."

But Pastor Goodwin said that he was ours to adopt."

"Well that puts him at the top of the list of evil people you can't trust, now doesn't it."

Spencer saw Rebekah's eyes grow hard with anger, "Take that back!"

"No, not anymore. Matthew 7:17."

"Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit." Spencer said.

Susanna cocked her head in his direction. "Exactly." She turned back to her sister. "Pastor Goodwin isn't the Second Coming, he's not even a decent apostle. He's an evil man who is doing evil in this world and has done evil to our family."

Spencer never knew if she was going to clarify that, because at that moment her sister Rebekah lifted her hand and slapped her hard across the face.

Spencer jumped to her side even as Morgan moved to restrain Rebekah. The mark of her sister's hand stood out clear against Susanna's milk white skin, and the drop of blood that started seeping from her nose was the perfect shade of garnets. "Here," he said, pressing his handkerchief into her hand. "Are you all right?"

"I think so." She pressed the cloth against the bleeding. "I probably should have expected that. She's upset."

"That doesn't make it right."

"Don't arrest my sisters if you can help it, please. They never had the power to do anything, good or ill."

"I know." But he couldn't make her any promises.

Hotch made his way over. "We're taking the children to the hospital to get checked out. I think Miss Holman should go as well."

"All right," Spencer turned back to Susanna. "Ready?"

She nodded. "What did Bilbo Baggins say, about stepping out your door?"

Bilbo Baggins, the infamous Hobbit. "It's a dangerous business, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no telling where you might be swept off to?" As she curled her hand around his bicep again he covered it with his. "He has a point. You might want to hold on tight."