Chapter 21
Week 07

"I want you all to know." Strauss said. "There will be a change in the standard procedure for dealing with inter-unit trauma that will be applied throughout the Bureau as a result of this report. The details will be announced when they're finalized. Thank you all for your help."

As the meeting broke up Rossi sidled over to Strauss. "A change in procedure?" He asked.

"No more cowboy nonsense." She replied, clearly angry at what she had heard. "From now on when a team member or a family member is lost due to criminal action the entire unit will get counseling from a licensed professional, period. No exceptions."

Rossi nodded. "I'm not certain that would have helped in this case."

"And I am certain that having someone trustworthy to talk to would have helped mitigate the effects." She replied. "This is coming from the Director himself so don't bother to argue David."

"All right." Rossi gave up on that and headed back over to the group.

"This is my fault." Garcia was saying as she wiped at her eyes. "I work with people who have lost a loved one to violence, I should have known better than to get Morgan to push Reid into interacting before he was ready. But all I saw was my friend in pain and I just wanted to fix it, you know, just make it better right now."

"Yeah, well, you didn't start it." JJ said. Even her eyes were wet. "We should have been honest with the team after what happened to Emily. We should have trusted all of you."

"The Japanese say 'fix the problem, not the blame'." Rossi pointed out. "We could all sit here and point the finger at each other and at ourselves and it's not going to do a bit of good."

"We need to apologize." Morgan agreed.

"Oh we need to do more than apologize." As one of the few who had never broken trust maybe Blake had earned that hint of maternal chastisement in her voice. "As someone once told me 'apologies are easy, making amends takes work'."

"But how do we do that?" Hotch asked.

"I think we start by letting go of our collective pride." Rossi said, "We don't know everything about every mind." He turned to the woman packing up. "Excuse me, Dr. Cargill?"

"Yes?"

"My name is Dave Rossi. We're Dr. Reid's co-workers but more than that, we're his friends. We've screwed up big time, we know that now. He's going to need our help when he gets back and we need some help in figuring out how to do that, and how to make things right again. Would you be willing to sit down and help us with that?"

She looked them over and nodded. "I'll do what I can."

Week 08

A few days later Garcia's phone rang. Within moments they were all gathered around the conference room. "Hello Lizzy." Hotch said. "We're glad you called. Is everything all right?"

"I don't know. Mr. Kipling came. He and Uncle John had to go to the airport for something. Spencer told me to call because they were out. He said to call and stay on the line as long as I can."

"How is he, and how is Laura?"

"They're okay. Laura's had a stomach ache for a while, but I don't think she's that sick, she's still eating."

"I'm sorry she's been sick. Did Spencer give you a message for us?"

"Yeah, he said you need to find us, as soon as you can. He said we have to be home, the sooner the better, but we have absolutely have to be home by Christmas."

"By Christmas?" Rossi asked.

"Yeah, that's what he said."

"Did he say why?"

"No. Laura said not to tell."

Now that was weird. "Okay honey I want you to do something for me." Morgan said. "Are you sitting down?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, I want you to get comfortable and just relax for me. Take a few deep breaths and try to focus on what I'm saying." They heard her shifting around a little. "Now, what were you doing right before Uncle John and Mr. Kipling left?"

"I was washing dishes."

"Okay, now tell me what you did right after? Did you go downstairs right away or did you finish the dishes first?"

"I finished the dishes and hung up the towel, and then I went to the cellar."

"How do you get down there? What is the door like?"

"You have to go to the sun porch and move the rug out of the way and lift up the door. Then you go into the root cellar."

"What does it smell like in there?"

"Like apples. It's kinda dark; the windows are small and dirty. All the way at the end is the dark door, with the stairs down to the real cellar."

"What are the stairs like?"

"Dark, and creepy, and there are a lot of them."

"What does it smell like down there?"

"Like wood at first, but then you can smell coffee. It gets stronger as you go down."

"Okay, follow that smell of coffee down. Once you get down there tell me what you see."

"There's a door. I knock on it, and wait to hear them say I can come in,"

"Once you go in where are Laura and Spencer?"

"They're lying on the bed. They're kind of laughing and talking, but they're being real quiet."

"What happens when they see you?"

"Spencer gets out of bed and comes over to sit right up by the bars with me."

"Okay, what's he wearing?"

"A white t-shirt, blue pants and white socks. He drew on one with a marker; he said it's bad luck if your socks match,"

"Is he holding anything?"

"His coffee."

"Okay, what happened next?"

"I tell him that Uncle John and Mr. Kipling went to the airport. He looks back at Laura then he tells me to call Garcia and stay on the phone as long as I can. Then he says 'you need to tell them' and Laura says "Spencer, you can't tell her, she's a child.' and then he says 'you need to tell them that we need to be home as soon as we can get there. The sooner the better. But no later than Christmas, understand? You have to make them understand that we have to be home no later than Christmas. Can you do that?' and I say I can. Then Laura says 'I almost wish we didn't have to go back' and Spencer says 'I know, but we have to, you know that.' and then he says to me 'Go call them. And stay on the line as long as you can. Remember, we have to be home by Christmas, Uncle John won't need my help after that' and I say okay and go back upstairs and call you."

"And they're not hurt at all?" Hotch asked.

"Nope."

"Has anyone else gone down there?"

"Uncle John went down there once, just for a few minutes but that's it."

"You said they have a bed down there sweetie?" Garcia asked. "Do they have any other furniture?"

"Oh yeah, they have chairs and a table and a TV for videos and a thing you run on and a coffee pot and all kind of stuff. We have to keep sending books down in the dumbwaiter, it's a good thing Uncle John has a lot; they read fast. He does too."

"Dumbwaiter?" Blake asked. "Is that how they get food down there?"

"Yeah. I do all the cooking; Laura's been sending notes to help me get better. Usually we send notes, I'm not allowed down there. Oh! I hear cars! Bye!" And the line went dead.

They all stood there, staring at the table for a moment. "Christmas." Rossi said. "That's a deadline."

"Yeah, but what happens then?" JJ asked.

"Don't know." Morgan replied. "But knowing Reid, saying that the Unsub won't need him after that…" They all digested that for a long, quiet moment. Finally Morgan spoke up again. "'You can't tell her. She's just a kid'. Laura didn't want to tell Lizzy. Maybe she didn't want to scare her."

"Something's been bothering me." JJ said. "Why doesn't he just have her call 911? Or the operator?"

"Not available on Voice-Over-IP service." Garcia told them. "She would have just gotten a recording telling her that. At least it sounds like they're all right. The Unsub is looking after them, if nothing else."

"That's always a plus." Blake agreed. "But there's something more. How long do you think it would take a girl of that age to finish breakfast dishes for five people?"

JJ shrugged. "Thirty minutes, tops."

"And how long to have that conversation, navigate her way up and downstairs, and call us?"

"Maybe forty minutes." Hotch said. Garcia put a map of the target area up on the screen.

"Figure twenty to load up at the airport." Rossi said. "That leaves twenty out, twenty back."

"Say thirty for a safe zone. Garcia, can you put up a thirty minute travel circle around every airport in Pennsylvania." She did. "Now exclude all the circles that cover urban growth boundaries, or that are strictly commercial." They were left with forty circles. "That's still too many."

"But it's an improvement." Hotch said, "We're getting there."

"Yeah." Rossi said. "But can we get there fast enough?"

That was June