I'm sorry. :(
I wanted to get this chapter up quick after I finished it, so there's slight a chance of a typo or two. :P
"What happened?" Gideon demanded.
"Well, I think it'd be best to wait until you got here."
"No, I need to know now." He half shouted. "I'm already on my way to pick up my team, and we'll be there as soon as we can, but for right now, I'd like to know how in the hell George Foyet escaped from custody."
A quiet sigh came from the other end of the line. "Foyet injured himself to the point where he needed medical attention, and I'm not sure about the whole story, but all I know beyond that is that he somehow got away. I've already sent a majority of my free officers out to search for him."
"What about the boy, Aaron Hotchner?" Jason asked. "Foyet already made an attempt on his life once, he could be headed for the orphanage as we speak."
"Not to worry, I had a couple officers go and get him." A brief pause. "In fact, they just got here with the Hotchner kid now."
Gideon breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, keep him safe until we get there." Without saying goodbye, he ended the call and was already dialing Morgan's number as he grabbed all his things and rushed outside toward his SUV. By the time the keys were in the ignition, he was backing out of the parking space and speeding down the road with the siren blaring. "Morgan, we need to go back, Foyet escaped. I'll explain once we have everybody, just be ready when I get there." After that he hung up, knowing that Derek would finish the job of informing the others.
Damn those people. Jason thought sourly as he drove. Although he was just as upset with himself as he was with the police department. Being the profiler he was, he should have known that Foyet's words should've been given extra attention, but he disregarded them, which was the more logical solution at the time, and now, the man actually escaped from custody and is free yet again. Gideon felt bad for Aaron, the boy has put up with enough as it is since the BAU first came by only two days ago, and it hasn't ended yet. On the flip side, he's currently safe, they managed to bring Aaron in before Foyet could get to him, but that doesn't mean the Reaper won't try again. As he approached Morgan's street, he noticed a man walking along the road with a dog, Gideon did a double take as he bared a resemblance of Foyet. The FBI agent quickly shook his head. Pull yourself together, Jason. As team leader, he needed to stay focused rather than almost jump a potentially innocent stranger. Foyet thinks he can beat everyone by playing these games, and quite frankly, he was winning. Of course his capture was way too easy, aside from the fact that he tried to get to Aaron the first time, why else would he have basically turned himself in like he did?
Once he had the whole team on board, the questions came raining down upon him.
"What the hell happened, Gideon?"
"How on Earth did they let Foyet escape like that?"
"The odds of such a successful escape like that would probably be one in every-"
"Quiet, all of you!" Jason barked, then sighed loudly. "I don't know what happened, but I can guarantee we are going to find out."
When they eventually got to the station, Gideon immediately demanded to know the full story. One of the men who'd been present explained that Foyet cut his wrists, but the guards managed to stop the bleeding. Knowing that he needed medical attention, he was taken to an infirmary, but en route, he managed to get away and hide, as nobody was able to find him. Gideon could only shake his head at the level of patheticness.
"How did Foyet have anything to do that to himself in the first place?" Rossi questioned.
"None of us know." Came the only answer.
Half of the team wanted to lash at the men and point how stupid they were for letting a serial killer get away, but they all knew that would make no progress whatsoever. They were told that they have at least two dozen units on the hunt for Foyet, and they set up roadblocks everywhere. They knew this wasn't enough though, as Foyet is most likely on foot, and despite being wounded, who knows what he's doing this very moment.
Gideon's cell phone rang, he picked it up and saw that the caller ID read 'Unknown'. Curious, he lifted the device to his ear and answered. "Agent Gideon."
"If you stop hunting me, I'll stop hunting them." A deep, very sinister sounding voice spoke.
"Who is this?" Jason asked quietly, in order to avoid drawing attention to him, though he already had a good guess on the identity of the person on the other line.
"An old friend." He was sure the man was smiling at that point. "By the way, tell Aaron and Dr. Reid I said 'hi'." With that, a woman's scream filled the Unit Chief's ear followed by dial tone. Gideon stood there frozen, not even a single flinch.
"Who was that?" JJ asked.
After regaining some composure, Jason exhaled and stared at the carpet. "Foyet." After the name went through his lips, everybody's eyes were on him.
"What did he say?" Rossi inquired.
"He said 'if you stop hunting me, I'll stop hunting them.'" Gideon repeated.
"Hunting who? Families?" Reid pondered.
"After he said that, I heard a woman scream before the line went dead." Jason added.
"Son of a bitch." Morgan cursed.
"Do you suppose he's still stalking the neighborhood where the Hotchner's lived?" Prentiss spoke.
"I wouldn't doubt it." Dave shook his head. This almost felt like it was never going to end.
"So, Foyet allows himself to be caught, only to escape police custody, then he calls Gideon and basically tells us to stop working the case and he'll stop killing people?" Derek mused.
"Pretty much." The BAU leader grumbled.
"Alright, people, we're profilers, we can figure this out." Emily said. "Okay, starting with what Morgan just said, what does that tell us?"
"It tells you that Foyet is trying to control the whole situation." A new voice piped in, startling everyone. All heads turned to see none other than young Aaron Hotchner standing a couple meters away, still wearing the same clothes they last saw him in, Reid's profiling book was tucked between his arm and torso. His stoic expression made him unreadable.
"Hi, Aaron." Reid greeted with a wave in an attempt to break the awkward silence.
"Hello again, Dr. Reid." The teen returned with a nod.
"Brushing up on profiling, I see?" Rossi observed with a smile.
Aaron met eyes with the Senior SSA and shrugged.
"So, Aaron, would you like to offer an opinion?" Gideon asked, crouching slightly. He honestly wanted to see the results, he didn't think much of the whole 'conflict of interest' thing, Aaron seemed to be doing fairly well for himself mentally wise. A biased opinion truly sounded unlikely.
"Sure." The boy replied, stepping closer to the agents. "George Foyet murdered my family, but kept me alive, in hopes of doing more damage than just taking four lives, it's possible that he may have performed similar acts in the past."
"Aaron, we also found out earlier that Foyet was also the Boston Reaper." Emily stated. "That's a case that the BAU had been working on for years."
Aaron eyed the dark haired woman for a second but his expression didn't change. He continued. "Foyet believes that he's eternally damaged me emotionally, added the fact that I had originally thought he was deceased, only for him to make himself known once again by killing more families. In addition to that, he feels that willingly turning himself in, only to escape and by calling Agent Gideon and saying the exact lines 'if you stop hunting me, I'll stop hunting them' he has complete control. He'll continuing killing unless the BAU draws it's attention away from him." By the time he finished, he noticed that everyone had been listening intently, which only struck as mildly surprising to him. Gideon found himself nodding approvingly, the young man certainly proved himself for a first timer. "Well done, Aaron, I think you hit it spot on." He complimented.
"Thanks." Aaron said. After a short silence, Morgan opened his jaw to speak, but Aaron spoke first. "Though that still doesn't tell us where Foyet may be right now."
"Man, kid, you seriously just took the words right out of my mouth." The dark skinned agent chuckled. A barely visible smile formed on the teen's lips.
"There is still the chance that Foyet's still stalking that same neighborhood." JJ added.
"That's a pretty big neighborhood." The police chief said suddenly as he emerged from around a corner. "Even if Foyet is there, we'd need a lot of heads to scan the whole area without leaving an escape route."
"We could try to bait him into a trap." Prentiss suggested.
"No, too risky." Rossi shook his head. "Foyet is unpredictable about his victims, he may be targeting only families right now, but there's absolutely no pattern whatsoever. Random street, random house. The only thing that his latest victims have in common is that they all reside in the same neighborhood."
"Okay, but what about cars, or pets?" She questioned.
"Some houses had pets, some didn't, few had fancy vehicles, while others didn't." Gideon pointed out.
"If you ask me, I'd say we're stuck again." JJ sighed.
"Pretty Boy, you got opinion?" Derek asked.
"Pretty Boy?" Aaron raised an eyebrow.
Reid's face quickly turned red. "No, it's not like that, Aaron, it's just something he calls me." Amusement was becoming more evident on the boy's stern face, the girls also shared a look of their own. "To answer Morgan's question," Spencer said after clearing his throat. "I actually don't have one, Aaron kind of stole mine." He chuckled weakly.
"So, we really are at a roadblock?" Emily said, more like a statement than a question.
"Looks like it." Morgan rubbed his tired face.
"So, what do we do now? Wait for him to kill somebody else and just hope that we catch him?" The chief said exasperatedly.
"There's got to be another way." Rossi grumbled.
"Like what?"
"I could try luring him. After all, I am the one he wants." Aaron offered, causing everyone to send shocked looks his way.
"Aaron, no, you're not doing that." Came a stern reply from none other than Spencer, a tone the team rarely hears come out of Reid's mouth. In fact, they've never heard him say such a sentence before either, usually because it's always one of them that has to say that to him. Yet another reminder to Jason on just how much his youngest really cares about the boy, very much like a father would with their son.
"If the BAU stops working the case, Foyet can go into hiding and possibly even go to another area only to resume his killing spree." Aaron countered.
"He does have a point there." Prentiss mused. "Not that I'm agreeing about him putting himself in danger, of course." She quickly stuttered.
"Regardless, you're still not doing that, Aaron. That's final." Reid folded his arms, the father figure within the young genius was making itself known, but Spencer himself didn't seem to realize it. The team almost didn't recognize Reid, they've never seen him like this before, ever. He didn't seem at all fazed by the attention he was receiving, another unusual trait. Aaron's stoic expression made it difficult to tell whether he was upset or calmly accepting the decision that was made for him. Either way, he didn't appear to be willing to argue.
A couple days went by with no activity, or even so much as a lead. Due to the lack of leads, Foyet so far has ceased 'hunting' anymore families, probably because it seemed like the BAU basically wasn't working the case at all because they had nothing to go off of. Sad to say, with nothing from Foyet, they couldn't make any progress, and all they really needed was to know where he's hiding. It looked as if Aaron was sort of right in a way, Foyet could very well be somewhere else in the country doing the same thing he did here, though nothing proved that, since there hasn't been anything on the news regarding anything of the sort, besides Foyet escaping and a small group of angry protesters that have recently been standing outside the station.
Things were going nowhere fast, soon it will have been an entire week with the BAU not one step closer to finding Foyet, it looked rather hopeless, and they were not about ready to let Aaron so foolishly endanger himself like he had once suggested, not in a million years.
Unfortunately, it was getting to the point where the BAU would have to call off the case, as others are bound to come with needs for their assistance. With nothing to go off of to find Foyet, they really were basically doing nothing, and it annoyed them that Foyet was actually smarter then they thought. With no crimes committed by him, or anyone recognizing him, they had no trail that would lead to him. It's like he turned invisible. In addition to that, they knew with The Reaper on the loose, they couldn't leave Aaron here, the orphanage was too vulnerable, and Foyet had already entered the police station once already, probably with the original intention to kill Aaron, but ended up getting caught, only to escape and increase his own self confidence. Perhaps he might slip up though, if the man let's his guard down enough, they'll eventually catch him again.
As for Aaron, it was no surprise at this point that he needed to come back with the team to the DC-Quantico area, Foyet didn't know where any of them lived, so it was really the safest option there was. But what was really surprising is when Gideon spoke.
"Reid, Aaron is going to stay with you."
"Me?" Spencer inquired. Although he was a little shocked by his mentor's proposal, he was also quite pleased to know that he and the boy would get to spend some more time together. Why was he feeling that way? It must be the so-called 'father figure' Reid never even knew he had.
"Is that really a good idea, Jason?" Morgan questioned, causing Reid to swallow thickly.
The BAU leader just smiled. "Why wouldn't it be?"
"I'll be fine with Dr. Reid." Aaron said suddenly. All eyes were on him now, but it didn't effect him, Reid on the other hand would be dancing around nervously in such a situation. Derek wanted to ask 'are you sure', but the expression on Spencer's face was enough to keep him from doing so. The muscular agent and the young genius had practically become best friends, but sometimes Morgan still questioned Reid on occasions. The thought of him taking care of a teenager sounded awfully strange, but he was willing to trust Gideon's judgment. After all, Reid did manage to get the kid to talk, he even turned him into a mini-profiler..
"I guess we should pack up and head back." Rossi announced. After a collection of nods and affirmatives, they set out. Reid followed Aaron to the room he'd been staying in to help him pack his things, they did it in an awkward silence until Spencer broke it.
"So," He cleared his throat. "How far have you come on the profiling book?"
"I've come a ways." The teen replied. "I've still got a few pages to go."
Spencer nodded. "Nice."
Outside, Gideon spoke to the police chief, who promised the Unit Chief that he would call them as soon as they got any news on Foyet. Jason thanked the man before Reid and Aaron appeared with the young man's bag. They left the station and piled in the SUV. They were all exhausted from the whole week they spent on this case with not an ounce of progress, but Foyet was still on their minds. It all felt like deja-vu, heading home late at night from a case, only this time, the outcome was different. The man they thought had finally been captured is free once again, the only surviving victim of his attacks was going home with them. Speaking of which, Morgan took the liberty to sit in the second row seats with JJ and Prentiss so that Spencer and Aaron could have the third row to themselves. He glanced back before a grin slowly formed on his face. He quickly tapped the girls on the shoulder and pointed behind them, JJ emitted a quiet "aww" at the sight before them.
Reid was leaned back in his seat, his mouth open slightly, Aaron was leaning against him, both of their eyes were closed. Spencer's lanky arm was wrapped around Aaron's shoulder. Emily quietly pulled out her phone to take a picture of the two, it could make for great use for blackmail sometime in the future.
"They barely know each other." Derek whispered.
"I'm not the only one who never imagined Reid being a kid person, right?" Prentiss asked.
"Actually, one time he offered to babysit Henry for me." JJ pointed out.
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that." Emily said.
In the front row seats, Gideon and Rossi were vaguely listening to their team's conversation, the subject made them both frown deeply. They were all aware of the connection Dr. Reid has formed with the surviving victim of a murder case, but such a bonding was risky business for a federal agent, not to mention having family was near impossible with their job, Jason and Dave both knew such experiences all too well, especially Rossi, the man has had three ex-wives for crying out loud. Although the first time they parted ways wasn't much of a hassle, they couldn't imagine how well it would go a second time. Having Aaron stay with Spencer would only fuel their 'relationship', but it's not like the teen would stay with anyone else. As far as Gideon could tell, once they finally manage to catch that bastard Foyet again, Reid will have to give up Aaron once more, the boy will end up back in that orphanage, hopefully for too long. With any luck, he'll get a good home for the remainder of his youth until he's old enough to live independently.
And there's no doubt where he might end up by the time that day comes.
The BAU leader could already picture an older Aaron Hotchner alongside the team, yes the kid has not only shown interest in profiling, but he's already proven himself worthy at fourteen years of age, probably thanks to Reid's book. Then again, regardless of one's ambitions, this could be a very damaging job, as if family and other relationships wasn't hard enough, the things they see on a regular basis effected even the strongest of minds, Jason couldn't quite predict how well Aaron would fare seeing mutilated bodies and all the other unmentionables that comes with the career, though he did manage to look his own family's killer right in the eye without so much as a flinch.
And then there's Reid way back when Gideon first met him, despite the young genius's age, it never occurred to him how it would effect Spencer seeing so many horrible things, perhaps the faith he had in him completely overlapped any thoughts he may have had at the time. Maybe he could the same for Aaron if he does choose to go into criminal justice once he's old enough. The teenager was no genius like Reid, there was no way the Bureau would make an exception for his team a second time, not that Jason would even think about trying to enroll Aaron at the age he did Spencer. No, Aaron would need a break in his life before considering working at the FBI, he's still got many years ahead, but how's he to get that break knowing that George Foyet is on the loose?
With a sigh, Gideon shook his head, he could only pray to God that Spencer didn't get too attached to Aaron, because Foyet won't be free forever, and once the man is for sure in custody, Reid will have no reason to keep the boy with him.
Rossi noticed his boss's body language and assumed that they were having similar thoughts. This case so far has brought them to a bit of an awkward moment, it's not everyday that they bring a victim home with them, a kid with Reid no less, but they can't say that the unimaginable hasn't happened, because now it has. The Senior SSA's thoughts were interrupted when the vehicle slowed and he realized that they had arrived at Spencer Reid's apartment.
One step at a time. Dave thought to himself, and that first one involved deciding who would wake up the young doctor and his charge.
To be continued...
Yeah, my ability and inspiration to write died quicker than a mouse in a trap, while I can't guarantee that it won't happen again, here's to hoping it doesn't.
Please accept this chapter as the best apology gift I could give, and enjoy for those who are still reading.