Chapter 66

Harris had lost weight, Spencer realized, and he had shaved off his distinctive facial hair and had grown out what hair he had and combed it back into a ponytail. He was standing there in scrubs, with a hospital ID attached, pointing a gun right at his nose. Christ, how? There were two agents at the door and half the team outside, how?

They had, of course, carefully vetted the midwife. She'd worked with Alex's husband James for Médecins Sans Frontières for a few years and as a result was utterly unflappable. "I can't cut the cord until it finishes pulsing." She said calmly.

Harris growled out his impatience. "Fine. In the meantime why don't one of you secure the good doctor here?" He held up a set of cuffs. "I don't want him getting any ideas."

One of the nurses came and cuffed Spencer's hands behind his back while the other caught Laura. Then they started easing her back on the bed. "Why?" Spencer asked drawing Harris' attention on to him as he slowly backed in the direction of his overnight bag. "You were never part of Rudger's original plan. You didn't care about us back then. Why now?"

"Because he's dead," Harris said keeping his weapon trained on the person he was speaking to, showing his lack of experience. "And he was my friend for years. Only man I ever trusted. The child he commissioned…."

"Commissioned!" Spencer couldn't help that, he was distracted by the pain of popping his thumb back out of joint so he could slip one hand free of the cuffs.

"…is all that's left. I knew this sow here was well chosen, she did a good job in breeding, now it's up to me to honor his memory by raising him right." He looked down at the baby, still down between Laura's legs. Hopefully she was too out of it to remember this part. "It stopped pulsing. Hurry up." Out of time the midwife set about clamping and cutting the cord.

Spencer waited for three agonizingly long heartbeats until the baby was free and then snatched the gun from his bag and pointed it at Kipling's nose. "Drop it!" He said. Sure enough Harris' attention and his gun were instantly on him, giving the midwife the chance to run from the room, the baby in her arms. Thank heaven. "I said drop it!"

"Uh-uh." Harris replied. "One of you bitches get on the phone and tell her to bring that back or you're not walking out of here."

But the nurses didn't move. They stayed where they were shielding Laura. Instead the curtain rattled back and Hotch and JJ were standing there, their weapons pointed at Harris. "FBI!" Hotch said. "Drop your weapon!"

Harris turned, looked at them, and pointed his gun at Laura.

A barrage of gunfire filled the room.

It was an hour before things calmed down enough for Spencer to stop thinking like an agent.

The team stepped back as Harris' body was rolled out to the coroner's van. "He started working here right after you two signed on with the midwife program." Rossi said. "Under an assumed name, of course. Started out in housekeeping. He actually went to classes to become a floor tech, what they used to call an orderly, just to maintain the cover."

"That is one patient Unsub." Morgan pointed out.

"That's how he was able to get around security." Blake pointed out. "They let employees through. He hid the gun in a pile of supplies."

Hotch hung up the phone. "Garcia said that it looks like he hacked the records system to get to the ultrasound report, so he'd know if he was getting what Rudger wanted this time. She's on her way."

Spencer blinked at him slowly as his world started to shift again. "You mean…"

"You don't know?" Rossi asked.

"I haven't had a chance to see the baby yet." Spencer admitted.

"Well go!" Blake said. With that they all shooed him deeper into the hospital.

Laura had been moved to a new room, of course. He headed down there and showed his badge to the agents at the door to be let in. There was a curtain blocking off the rest of the room, for privacy. From the other side he heard the now familiar suck-slurping sounds that went straight to his heart. "It's me." He said as he went to wash his hands. "Are you all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Laura replied in a dreamy voice. "They helped me get a shower. Even brought some warm milk to help me calm down. I'd forgotten how good this is."

"Is it?" He stepped around the curtain. She was sitting in bed, propped up against a pile of pillows, the baby nursing away. In that moment it finally clicked. "You're beautiful." He said to both of them.

She just smiled. "Going to come say hello or what?"

Spencer went over and eased in behind her, looking over her shoulder at that perfect little face. "Hello Daniel." He said softly. "I'm your Dad."