Chapter 5

Here is the new chapter! Thanks to Lizzabet my Beta for correcting it, I hope you'll like it, tell me what you think.

When Lights go down

"I don't know Spencer, it's dangerous…"

"I can't go on starving!"

Four kids were hiding behind bushes, near Marc Potter's farm. The man and his wife were nowhere to be seen and Spencer knew it was a good opportunity. He was hungry, very hungry, his dad hadn't given him anything to eat in three days and his friends weren't allowed to give him food. Emily had tried to sneak some away, but her grandma caught her and had punished her badly. She had a big bruise on her face now, and Spencer didn't want any of his friends to be punished again for him.

"I'll go alone, just watch out and warn me if they are back."

Before they could stop him, Spencer stepped in the farm with a big plastic bag. He was walking silently to Marc Potter's vines, there were big grapes on it and it was making his stomach growl. He ate some and put a bunch of grapes inside the bag. When he was done with it, he also took some apples. This should be good enough to stop him from starvation, at least for now.

He began to walk away when he suddenly saw Marc Potter exiting his house. Spencer turned white. He wasn't supposed to be here! The man saw the boy in his garden and gritted his teeth. He ran to him and caught the kid by his forearm.

"What are you doing here! What the fuck do you think you are…"

The man saw the fruits Spencer had stolen and his grip on his arm tightened. Spencer saw his friends exiting the bushes, screaming at Mark to release him. The farmer didn't pay any attention to them and instead torn Spencer's arm until he heard a crack. The boy screamed in utter pain and the man threw him on the ground. Jordan and Gary were immediately at his side while Emily was screaming at the man.

"You're sick! You're crazy!"

He slapped her hard.

"Get the fuck out! That's what thieves like you deserve!"

The kid had gone away. They asked the first person they encountered to call an ambulance. When he learned about what happened, Spencer's father was furious, not at Marc Potter but at his son, doctors weren't working for free. He didn't beat him but locked him in a closet for half a day and forced him to help him at his work for two weeks. He also got in a fight with Potter but only because what he did to his son made him loose some money. In the end William's anger didn't last that long, because he blackmailed Potter into paying back for his son's medical charges. He simply threatened the man of telling the police if he didn't. Potter yielded and hated Spencer and his friends even more. It was since that day the kids began to call Potter the bogeyman.

It was always hard to see an old enemy and even if Mrs Mira Potter wasn't the one who hurt Spencer the most, she was still one of the numerous people who had made him suffer in his life.

"So, are you gonna tell me who the hell did that?" demanded Mrs Potter in a furious voice

"We don't know yet, we are investigating. Mrs Potter, do you know if your husband had enemies?"

"Everyone has! Some people in town didn't like him, Marc wasn't always social, but he didn't deserve this! There is this stupid plumber, who Marc refused to pay some times ago, but that idiot failed to repair the toilets properly, I don't see why my husband should have paid him!"

"Your husband could be violent when angry," began Spencer, "is there anyone who could have…"

"What do you mean young man? You didn't know him at all."

"I did madam. My name is Spencer Reid. Maybe you remember me; your husband…broke my arm one day."

She seemed quite lost at first, then her face lightened with realisation.

"You! I remember you, you were stealing from us! That's why he broke your arm!"

Spencer let out a snort while Hotch was looking at both of them with an expression between horror and confusion.

"Maybe he should have also cut my hand off like in Middle Age!"

"Reid, come with me."

They exited the room and went in the next room. The younger man sighed when he realised what he let slip.

"Can you explain to me?"

"As I told you I sometimes stole food from the Potters."

"Why? You are not exactly the kind. Plus it's weird, I made researches about Marc Potter, he never pressed charge against you, and I didn't see any charges against him for breaking your arms. Your parents never learned about it?"

"My mother was already dead and my father…He simply told me: be glad he broke your arm before I did."

Hotch reflected over this. The first day he had seen Reid, he had thought that it was highly possible that the genius got ill-treated during his childhood. Still it was quite sad to hear it like this.

"Where is your father?"

"I don't know. When I was fourteen he got arrested because the police finally discovered he was beating me. He went to jail, I went in foster care. I never heard of him again."

"Did he hurt your friends too?"

"Occasionally, but we didn't steal anything anymore when Lloyd March offered us help against food."

"Why did you steal that food?"

Spencer sighed.

"From time to time my father decided we had to save as much money as we could, so he would stop feeding me for a few days. When it happened, I had to find food one way or another, Emily and Jordan couldn't feed me because their grandparents didn't want them to sneak food out. Gary's mother didn't like me so she would have been…angry if she had known."

"Okay…I'll finish this alone; I don't want her to pretend you harassed her or something. Go and study some files about Gary."

The genius just nodded and left. Before going back to Mrs Potter, Hotch called Garcia:

"Computer Goddess, at your service!"

"Garcia, I want you to make some research about Reid and also about his father."

At this, the tech analysis was hesitant. She just couldn't break into the genius life like that, couldn't she?

"But sir…"

"Do it and call me when you're done."

He hung up and went back to his interrogation. Meanwhile, Reid caught JJ, Elle and Morgan talking about the notebooks. He couldn't feel more exposed.

After that, he went to the bathroom and closed himself in. He leaned against the wall and slid slowly until he was sitting. Gary…He should have been able to do something. He was the only to whom Gary actually told his secret and Spencer had been unable to do anything. The team would discover soon, because Gary's secret had been revealed after his disappearance in a very sordid way.

He held back his tears, he couldn't help but think about that day when Gary told him his secret, that conversation took his sleep away from him for a year. One day he decided to tell the Sherriff, and this god damn man did nothing about it!

He breathed hard and exited the room. He would do what Hotch told him and study the files about Gary. He wouldn't let his feelings stop him from discovering the truth. He was soon joined by Emily who was back from the morgue.

Meanwhile, Jordan was drinking a coffee, they didn't ask her much for now, but she knew it would come. She had seen Reid heading for the bathroom, she thought about catching him up but realised he needed space. He had been interrogating Marc Potter's wife, she could guess it hadn't been pleasant to him. She saw Agent Hotchner coming toward her and knew her time had come.

Taking a deep breath she stood up, knowing the man would certainly lead her in a quieter room.

"Can you come with me, Miss Todd? I would like to talk to you, agent Prentiss isn't back yet, I guess."

"I don't know, I didn't see her."

He nodded and she followed him to another room, her coffee in her hand. She sat down and waited for him to speak.

"While we were interrogating Mrs Potter, Reid told me about what happened with Marc Potter, the day he broke his arm."

"Yeah…I remember that."

"Apparently his father wasn't really angered for his son."

"No, only his money mattered. I don't know if you read the notebook?"

"Not yet, why?"

She felt a little stupid; she didn't really know what to say. It was terrible somehow, she had made studies, she was a good doctor, and yet she was now again becoming the poor little girl getting beaten almost everyday by her adoptive grandparents.

"Well please remember it was our outlet somehow."

"I will. I would like to know if he hurt you too."

She sighed, it was quite hard to remember, and harder to tell a stranger about it. She hated to feel exposed like this, and for a moment she hated this agent for asking this to her. She reasoned herself, realising that it was wrong; agent Hotchner was only doing his work.

"He did, once he dragged me by the hair, and another time he slapped me so hard I fell to the ground."

"Miss Todd?"

She looked at Jason Gideon who was back from the morgue, Emily wasn't with him, she had decided to help Reid with the files about Gary when she saw him reading those alone.

"Do you know where Reid is?"

"I don't know, why?"

"I wish to talk to him about the Sherriff; there is something between them, isn't it?"

Gideon knew he was right when he saw the sudden look of anger in her eyes, she lowered her head and her lips twisted slightly.

"What is it?"

"Ask that damn man! He doesn't even deserve to be a sheriff!"

Both men were quite startled, and Jordan felt a little stupid at her reaction. The door being open, some people, the Sheriff included, heard her yell. The beautiful doctor shook her head.

"I am sorry, I think I need some fresh air."

With that she left and looked at the Sherriff with icy eyes before exiting the place, Gideon thought that if looks could kill the sheriff would be dead cold. He went to him as well as the rest of the team who was wondering what was happening.

"Sheriff, I think we need to talk."

While Jason was demanding explanations, Jordan looked at the sky, the sun had disappeared to let the night come, and the stars were now adorning the sky. She hadn't even realised how much time had passed. Suddenly, she remembered being a teenage girl, she was fourteen, her parents understood that the girls were being ill-treated and quite surprisingly they were very angry. They didn't sue the grandparents but took the girls back with them and obliged their tormenters to pay big amounts of money for their study and everything else the girls could need.

Though the sisters were thankful to their parents for taking them away from such a violent home, both had been depressed about two things: first they were always moving away due to their parent's work, and worse of all: they were away from Spencer. The boy had been sent in foster care when he finally got the chance to denounce his father's abuses, and their only chance to see each others again was thanks to a pact they made. They swore each others that when they would be eighteen, the 6th June (Gary's date of abduction) they would all meet each others before Emily and Jordan's old house.

It had been hard to loose Gary and now they were losing another friend. It had been even harder for Jordan who got a crush over Reid at the time.

She remembered one evening like this one; Emily and she were looking at the stars, while listening to the song Carrie by Europe, a sad song about a couple being separated. When the song neared its end, she had let a tear out, thinking about everything they endured; about the fact they might never see the boys again.

Can't you see it in my eyes?

That this might be our last,

Goodbye…

Carrie, Carrie,

Things they change, Carrie, Carrie…

Carrie, Carrie

She told Emily about the feelings she had for Spencer, and how it was horrible to not know when they would see him and Gary again, if only that happened. Emily agreed, Jordan had seen back then in her eyes how she was sad and worried.

Maybe will meet again, Oh somewhere

Again.

When lights go down…

This song was really beautiful and sad. She had been oh so happy when at eighteen years old, they had found Spencer waiting for them. She had cried out of joy, not only because she could see him again, but also because she hadn't hoped in vain. And if Spencer was back, Gary could be.

Now that she looked at the star the old wounds were slowly reopening. The need to know where Gary could be, dead or alive, was urgent, just when she was a kid.

"Where are you, Gary?"

Exactly at the same time, some streets away, someone was hiding. He had seen Spencer, Jordan and Emily come back here and he couldn't be happier about it. Finally he would have what he had been waiting for since eleven years back. He had to be patient however, that would come in time. Now he had to prepare Emily's present, she was certainly waiting eagerly for it and it would be cruel to make her wait more. She would get the best present, she always had some kind of fascination for Jack the Ripper…

When he saw his next target entering her home, he smirked. He would do that at night, no need to be too hasty. Emily would have such a beautiful surprise!

I advise to listen to the song Carrie by Europe, personally I love it. For those who also read Three Reapers, I'll try to update soon. Review please!