The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.-Ernest Hemingway
Once the team brought Dan Morris in they let the Andrews go. They brought Dan into an interrogation. Morgan and Rossi entered the room after letting him sit in the room for a while. Rossi and Morgan sat down across from him, trying to figure out how he worked, what would make him talk.
"So, you have a son," Rossi started.
Dan nodded, "I do, I gave him up when he was a few months old...his mother committed suicide. I couldn't afford to keep him."
"You've kept in touch with him though," Rossi asked.
Dan glared at Rossi, he was already getting annoyed. "Yes,"
Rossi nodded. "Sending him money…."
"Yes, since when is that a crime?" Dan asked.
"Well it isn't," Rossi replied.
"But when your son is taking women to the house he bought with that money, and killing them there….then it is." Morgan said.
"Killing? What? No. My son is not killing anyone."
"Well, that's where you're wrong. We have proof, we need to know where his address is." Rossi calmly stated.
"I'm not saying anything," He said as he sat back in his chair.
Morgan opened up the case file to show the four girls that had been killed. "This is what your son and his step-brothers are doing to these girls. They hunt them, they drug them and take them back to this house to have them choose to either kill, or be killed. So, if you want to let anymore innocent girls die, I suggest you tell us where their house is."
Amber could hear the boys coming back down the stairs a few hours later, she watched as they dragged the girl over to the support beam next to Sarah and they tied her up to it. The boys went back upstairs and let the girls sit there. Amber was starting to lose hope, it was slowly draining from her. But just because she was losing hope, didn't mean Spencer and the team wouldn't find her. She knew they would, she had faith in them.
Amber looked over to the two other girls, the one they had just brought in was still passed out. Sarah was sitting up, her head down and her hair covering her face.
Rossi and Morgan exited the interrogation room, to be informed that another girl was taken. They walked into the meeting room of the department and told the rest of the team.
"They only need one more girl. Where was this one taken from?" Prentiss asked.
"A club."
"That's not their usual place. They already took a girl from a club."
Morgan whipped out his phone and dialed Garcia's number. " Garcia, do you have any info on the girl that was taken."
"Yes, I do, her friend said her name is Brianna. She goes by Brie, I'm sending you guys her picture now."
The picture appeared on the screen that was in the room. She looked just like Amber and Sarah, the three of them could have been long lost twins.
"They probably figured that would be the easiest and fastest way to get a girl without being seen." Rossi said. "Was she with her boyfriend? Or with a group of friends?"
"No, she was with just one friend, they got separated in the club, the friend said she called Brie multiple times. Her call records show that she did infact call Brie many times."
"So the friend noticed, but no one else at the club noticed?"
"Nope, they took statements at the club and no one saw anything,"
. "Yeah but they took Amber at the restaurant and no one noticed…." Prentiss trailed off.
"The thing is, this club is outside of their usual place. It's way out of the way, almost an hour and a half away."
Spencer shot up out of his chair, carrying a file in his hand and walked to the interrogation room. He barged in and threw the file on table.
"These two girls have been missing. The one, Amber, has been missing for almost four days. The other, Sarah, has been missing for almost three. And now another girl is missing. If these girls….die. You will be charged with obstruction of justice ." Spencer said.
Dan sighed then said, " Alright. I'll tell you."
Spencer quickly exited the room and walked into the meeting room. "I know where they are." He said as he watched the rest of the team quickly head to the door. Spencer followed them as they hopped into their cars. "It's kind of far away," Spencer said, as they had the other part of the team on speaker phone.
"Well then, we will have to be quick," Rossi said on the other end of the line.
Amber watched Matt as he walked back and forth. He had a knife clutched in his hand. He looked up, saw that Amber was watching him and grinned. "Well, well,well," he said as he walked over to her. He let the blade of the knife trace the skin of her leg. Amber got goosebumps from the cold blade touching her warm skin. Matt dug the blade into her skin, blood oozed from the cut. Amber refused to let him see her wince. Matt took the blade out and made another cut next to the first. He took the blade out, set it down, and looked into Amber's eyes. Without thinking he wrapped his hands around her neck and started to squeeze, each second his grip got tighter. He could see she was struggling for breath, her face starting to become blue. He let go of her throat and she gasped for air, coughing a bit in between each breath.
"You are such a bastard," Amber whispered. Matt's hand met her face again in a hard slap across the face. Amber's face was starting to sting, as she just got the feeling back in her face.
The team pulled up to a house, practically in the middle of no where. Almost two hours outside of the city. The house was a ranch, it wasn't very big, but there was a lot of land on the lot. The team quickly got out of the cars, and headed to the house. "No one split up," Hotch ordered. "Stay with someone, they could be armed."
Morgan,Rossi and Spencer went into the house. Hotch, JJ and Prentiss went into the tiny barn that was adjacent to the house. "FBI," Morgan said as he pounded on the door. No one answered. He kicked open the door and the three of them quickly entered the house with their weapons drawn.
Hotch, JJ and Prentiss searched the barn, no sign of the girls or the brothers. They exited the barn, as they did, a car pulled into the driveway. They drew their weapons, and had them pointed at the car. "Don't move, FBI." Hotch shouted.
"Step out of the car, slowly, hands where we can see them," Prentiss yelled.
Two brothers stepped out of the car, just then, back up had arrived. Three more police cars had pulled into the dirt road driveway, surrounding the boys. Once the officers saw that the brother's didn't have guns, two of them cuffed the brothers and searched them. Once they did, they put them in the police cars as Hotch, JJ and Prentiss searched the car. They quickly went to the car and popped open the trunk. There was a girl tied up in the back.
"We are with the FBI,okay? We are here to help you," JJ said as she and Prentiss untied the girl and helped her out.
Morgan, Rossi and Spencer quickly searched the house, they then opened the door to the basement, quietly walked down the steps and turned the corner. The basement was nothing but concrete floors and walls. Morgan peaked around the corner, he could see Matt was pacing in front of the three girls.
Amber perked up the second she saw Morgan, thankfully, Matt had not seen her. Matt looked over at her and walked over to her yet again. He picked up the knife, it was covered in dry blood. Morgan, Rossi and Spencer emerged from behind the wall, weapons drawn.
"Matthew Morris, FBI." Morgan said.
Matt quickly turned to Amber, he wrapped his arm around her neck as he held up the knife to her neck. "Don't shoot or I'll do it...I'll slit her throat."
"Matthew, you and I both know that won't solve anything. Adriana will still be gone," Spencer said in a calm tone.
"I never even got to touch her…." He trailed off. He looked up at Spencer and grinned. "But Amber here, I got to touch plenty." Spencer was trying not to focus on Amber, acting as if he had never seen her before, that she was just another girl he was trying to save. He couldn't help it but have his eyes graze her body; two deep cuts on her leg, bruises on almost every inch of her skin that he could see and he didn't even want to think about what else had gone on. Matt chuckled at the agent, "I already know this is your bitch, you don't think I don't remember you? You are the reason I took her… that you two have what I want….what I will never have…." Matt said as he put the knife in her upper arm, he cut down almost to her elbow. Blood was now trickling down her arm.
"Matt, stop this," Ian said from behind the team. Morgan and Rossi turned. Ian put up his hands in defeat. Morgan walked over to him as he grabbed his hands and cuffed his arms behind his back. Once cuffed, Morgan let Ian walk over to his step brother. "Matt, they got us, just give up."
Matt thought for a moment; he then let go of Amber's neck, dropped the knife, stood up and put his hands up. Rossi quickly walked over to Matt, grabbed his hands and cuffed them behind Matt's back.. Spencer lowered his weapon and put it in his holster. "We need paramedics down here," Morgan said into his walkie. Spencer walked over to Amber and untied her. Just then JJ,Prentiss and Hotch appeared with the paramedics. JJ and Prentiss went over to Sarah and Brie and untied them. Two paramedics went over to the two girls, the third went to Amber.
"I knew you'd find me," Amber said to Spencer.
"You're going to need stitches," Spencer said.
"He's right," The paramedic said as she cleaned up the wounds, wrapped them in gauze. "You'll need to go to the hospital."
"We'll stay behind, get everything sorted out, you go." Hotch said to Spencer. Spencer nodded as he had Amber put an arm around his neck, to help support her.
"Spencer, I'm fine," She said.
"You have bruises all over you, and two huge cuts in your leg. You're lucky he didn't hit any nerves or muscle tissue." Spencer said.
Amber's heart sank in her chest. She was hoping Spencer would have been happier to see her.
At the hospital, Spencer told them to run every test, to make sure Amber was alright. The doctor came out out of Amber's room and walked over to Spencer in the waiting room.
"She's fine, just some bruises, she's a bit dehydrated but we are taking care of it, and we gave her some stitches. We asked her if she had been raped, she said no, but still allowed us to do a test. We won't get the result back for a bit. But you can go in and see her."
Spencer stood up, thanked the doctor and walked into Amber's room. Amber looked to Spencer, and she couldn't help but smile at him. "Hi," she said to him as he walked over to her. His hands cupped her face as he greeted her with a kiss on the lips, passionate, yet gentle. Their lips parted, Spencer slowly lowered his hands from her face and stood up straight as her parents entered the room.
"Amber," Her mom said as she walked over to her.
"Hi mom, hi dad," she said ash her father walked over to her.
"Thank you," Her mother said to Spencer.
"No need to thank me," he replied.
"You're an alright guy," Amber's father admitted.
"He finally approves!" Amber's mom somewhat joked.
"Yeah,it only took me getting abducted and having Spencer find me," Amber joked.
After her parents made sure she was okay, they left the room so that she could rest with Spencer by her side, Amber sat there as she watched Spencer, he was seated right next to her bed in a hospital chair, he was doing a crossword puzzle from the paper in ink. He looked up and realized she was watching him.
"Amber, you need to get some sleep, you have been up for almost four days. That's not good for your sleep cycle, or your health."
Amber put her head against the pillow. "Did you worry about me?" Amber bluntly asked. Amber watched Spencer as he looked up.
"Of course I did," Spencer replied as he set down the newspaper and pen. " why do you think that."
Amber hesitated to answer."you just didn't seem too happy to see me when you saved me. I feel like a burden."
Spencer almost couldn't believe what he was hearing, he leaned over to her and reached for her hand. "Because I wanted to get you here. So I could make sure you were okay. You are not a burden. You are a priority."
There was a knock on the door. Spencer looked up to see, Morgan, Prentiss and J.J were standing there. "Hope we aren't interrupting anything," Prentiss said as the three agents walked in.
Reid straightened up a bit, his hand still placed over Amber's. "No not at all," Reid said as he looked back at Amber.
JJ had a bag with Amber's stuff in it and set it down. "We grabbed a few of your things," she said as she set the bag down at the end of the bed.
"Thank you," Amber replied.
"How are you?" Morgan asked.
"I'm fine. It could have been worse," Amber sighed.
The doctor knocked on the door," Doctor Reid, May I see you in the hall," He said.
Spencer nodded as he let go of Amber's hand, stood up and walked past his friends. He walked out into the hall with the doctor that was taking care of Amber. "We just received the results. Amber was not sexually abused. We are going to keep her for a few more hours, to get her fluids up. After that she should be good to go," the doctor said.
Spencer let out a small sigh of relief. "Thank you," he said as turned to walk back into Amber's room. The three agents were still at the foot of her bed. Talking to her to see if she was comfortable. Spencer gave his friends a look, and motioned his head to the door.
"Well, um we are going to give you two some privacy," Prentiss said as she, JJ and Morgan headed towards and left the room. Spencer walked over to the door and slowly closed it. He then walked over to Amber and sat down in the chair next to her bed.
"The doctor said that you weren't….you know…." Spencer trailed off.
"Raped?" Amber blurted out.
"Yeah," Spencer whispered.
The two sat there in awkward silence for almost half an hour. Spencer went back to his crossword puzzle, he looked up to see Amber fast asleep.
Hours had passed and the doctors told Spencer that Amber was cleared to go. Spencer gently shook Amber awake. Her eyes fluttered open and she smiled at Spencer.
"Come on, it's time to go," Spencer said in a gentle tone. Amber sat there, she didn't move a muscle. She couldn't help but think about how just under 8 hours ago, she was tied up to a support beam in a basement. She could have been dead. But she wasn't. And yet she couldn't help but think, was it luck or strength that kept her alive. "Amber?" Spencer's voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Yeah," she said as she pushed back the covers of the hospital bed, swung her legs over the bed,and her feet touched the cold hospital floor. She stood up,grabbed the bag at the end of the bed and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. She quickly changed into her own clothes,being careful not to look at her injuries, she placed her hands on the counter and leaned against the sink. She looked up and gasped at her reflection. Her face was black and blue. Swollen cheeks, small cuts lined her chin and neck. She looked down, more bruises covered her ivory skin on her arms. Those bastards. They must have kept drugging us to beat us up when we were passed out. She sighed as she grabbed her empty bag and the paper like robe they made her put on. She opened the door,shut it behind her and walked to the empty bed. She set the robe on the bed, she slipped on the sneakers that JJ had brought her. But they weren't Amber's, they were Spencer's. Amber started to laugh, sounding like a crazy person laughing to herself. They looked like clown shoes on her.
Spencer walked into the room, to Amber laughing. "Amber?" He questioned with a confused look on his face.
"JJ brought me your shoes," she chuckled as she started to come off of her laughing high.
Spencer looked down at her feet and couldn't help but laugh as well. "Those look like clown shoes on you."
"That's what I was thinking!" She admitted. She then shook her head, "I haven't laughed in almost a week. I think it's terrible to go that long without laughing, don't you?"
Spencer nodded, "It is." Spencer watched her as she tried to walk in his shoes. She had already walked in his shoes, being a victim. It's an awful feeling. Having no control and doing anything to stay alive. The fear, not knowing if you are going to live or not. Spencer followed behind Amber as she walked out of the room.
Only the weak are cruel. Gentleness can only be expected from the strong.-Leo Buscaglia
A/N-I know this took so long. I've been busy with school and work. I shall have the next chapter up as soon as possible. Thank you for the reviews, faves and follows!