"Where is my Chocolate Thunder when you need him?" Garcia grunted under the surprisingly heavy weight.
"At the hospital. Just a little bit further," Elle yawned peering around Garcia to see the outline of the SUV a few rows away. She must have been unemployed longer than she realized if she was this tired at 7 am.
"Still? Did he stay there all night?"
"Quietly, unless you want to explain to sleeping beauty that last night was not a night -"
"Elle, did you sleep at ALL?"
"After watching those videos, not a chance."
"You watched those videos with our –" Garcia whispered, glancing down at the woman whose head lay precariously on her arms -"VIP in the same room? Are you crazy?"
"There's this new technology now: they're called headphones. You should try them some time."
Garcia gaped at Elle in amazement, a former team member she may be, but Garcia didn't remember her being that – daring. "Very funny, Elle." If Diana had woken up….? Come to think of it, Garcia took a closer look at their VIP/hostage, she wasn't groaning in the throes of a nightmare or stirring at all in fact she almost looked…."Did you drug her?"
"Now why would I do something like that?"
"Stop it with the profiler games, Elle? Seriously?"
"Seriously, do you really want to know?"
Oh dear God, Penelope, what have you gotten yourself into? You're carrying a drugged woman through a hotel parking lot and in the company of – No, no, Elle is NOT a murderer. You keep telling yourself that "I'm surprised no one's tried to stop us!" she muttered. No wonder unsubs got away so often if no one reported this kind of behavior. She was almost hoping to get caught, at least that might restore her now failing faith in humanity.
"What are they going to do? Take us to the police for questioning?" Well someone wasn't concerned in the slightest. "You've got your credentials, right?"
"Of course, I've got my-"
"Then we're fine." She easily – almost expertly, Garcia thought uneasily – managed to unlock the SUV door while still holding onto their hostage/VIP's legs. Together they managed to maneuver her into the back seat and shut the door.
"I think I'll drive." Garcia made a grab for the keys but Elle was having none of it. "Elle, seriously. You're not an agent, Hotch will have a fit if he sees you driving a Bureau SUV."
"Hotch is already on his way to the field office, whereas we are going to the hospital. What he doesn't know –"
"You're hung over and sleep-deprived. Hand them over!"
"Fine," Elle conceded.
Garcia climbed into the driver seat and belted up. "So tell me, what DID you do to her?"
"Nothing," Elle replied a little too innocently.
"Elle, I'm not kidding, you know she's on psych meds –"
"I didn't drug her-"
"Elle-"
"Babysitting her was the only way Hotch would let me stay in Reid's room on the Bureau's dime…maybe next time he'll think twice before sticking me with a crazy bi-"
"Elle! That's REID'S MOTHER! Unless you want me to tell him -"
"Okay, okay!" Elle didn't doubt that Garcia would keep her threat. Not to mention that Reid was a mamma's boy. Heaven help the poor bastard – or bitch, in her case – who came between Reid and his mamma.
"Well what else was he going to do? Take her to his room?"
"She wouldn't mind - what?" she demanded at Penelope's raised eyebrows. "She thought he was her ex-husband!"
"The allegations would be a PR nightmare, false or not," Elle reluctantly agreed. That was more or less what Hotch had said when he dropped her off.
"So what did you do?" Garcia didn't miss the mischievous gleam in those drowsy eyes. "Elle?"
"It's not my fault water and vodka look so much alike!"
"Hi, Spencer. It's Daddy." William Reid stroked the bangs out of his son's face, tightening his grip on the ice-cold skin, his tongue caught in his throat. He had imagined over the years what his son would say to him if they ever met again: the possible scenes varied widely from cheerful reunions, hugs and forgiveness to far more realistic and depressing scenarios but right now? Right now, there were only two things that Spencer needed to hear. "I'm sorry, I never meant to hurt you -"
A soft noise of disbelief from the other side of the room stopped him in his tracks.
William lowered his head in his hands.
"You're sorry?" a hard voice sneered from behind him.
Damn, he wished David would leave.
"Yes." William's reply was curt and to the point, not sparing a glance for his nephew, too transfixed by the sight of son. Who knew that hypothermia could be therapeutic?
"For what?" his nephew sneered. "Nobody made you leave. Okay? You just show up out of the blue...and?" He huffed, setting his teeth on edge.
"I know." There was no point in arguing the obvious.
David growled. If they hadn't been in a hospital room...if there weren't delicate machines everywhere. He had imagined time and again what it would be like to see Uncle William again. Perhaps it had been a good idea that he had stayed away. Some of the ideas he and Spencer came up with could have given an unsub a run for his money. Some of those ideas sounded really appealing right about now...and how? How could Uncle William just be so...calm? It was almost like..."Don't you care?"
"Of course I do."
David's skeptical glare was locked on his uncle. "Really? You come to see him after all of these years after this? If you really cared, you would have called him up years ago."
William massaged his temple with a sigh. He did not need a headache right now. "David, what's this about?"
David paused, biting his lip. The confusion was gone from his eyes, replaced by anger. Much as he wanted to dig his claws into his uncle, now was not the time. He sighed, leaning back into his chair, his eyes on father and son. That should be enough for now, but it wasn't. As much as this was about Spencer and not him, certain depressing thoughts would not leave him alone. Getting Uncle William out of the room would solve that problem in his head, but he didn't have a right to kick William out. If hearing his father's voice brought Spencer any sort of comfort then who was he to take that away at a time like this?
An uncomfortable silence fell across the bedside, an unspoken truce as it were. William Reid took his eyes off of his son for the first time, turning his attention to his nephew. David was scowling at him, a look of controlled rage he knew all too well. It was the look of a man who was itching to say something that he shouldn't. It was usually seen right before a client broke under cross examination. "Look, David, I don't know why you're angry at me, and at the moment I don't care. We can talk about it when Spencer is recovered but right now, we need to just forg-"
"Forget about it?" David's fierce whisper took him aback. If they had been anywhere else, there would have been yelling and curses. "You really think I can forget - ?" He shook his head. "No."
"Then tell me what this is about."
"As if you don't already know!"
William frowned, not bothering to hide his confusion. In fact, wearing his heart on his sleeve might just be to his advantage at the moment. "What could I possibly have done to make you hate me? I haven't seen you since you were -"
"7." David supplied before William could finish that thought. "I was 7. You remember that Christmas, don't you?"
Oh! Oh! Right. Shoot Christmas of 85. Oh yes he remembered. "Of course." He kept his silence, obviously David needed to get something off of his chest, better now when Spencer was sleeping than stressing him out. As bad as those memories were- "David, I had nothing to do with your father's death. You know that, so tell me what's wrong?"
"It doesn't matter," he whispered, snapping his mouth shut. It was ancient history, Uncle William was right, it wasn't his fault. He'd been thoughtless, perhaps but he hadn't meant for...He ran a hand through his hair, his eye on his cousin. It was a wonder that this whole debate - the sound of his dad's voice - hadn't woken him up.
"If it's bothering you, it does." William was just glad he wasn't denying that something was wrong.
"The doctor said, 'happy thoughts'. Those are not happy."
Too true, there wasn't much that could be more depressing. "Do you have a music player on you?"
"Yeah, I've got an iPod. Why?"
"I got an idea. Give it here."
David pulled his silver iPod mini out of his pocket and handed it to his uncle who scrolled through the songs, searching...
"You got anything on here that's not metal?"
"Well there's the Lord of the Rings soundtracks."
"Yeah, that'll work." He click on the album and placed the earbuds in Spencer's ears. "There. It's just us, he can't hear. Now spill."
David scowled, reaching down to turn up the volume of the music. There, that was better. "Why? It's over it's done, nothing is going to change that."
William sighed, wishing that David had left when he had entered, but he hadn't the heart to kick him out. After all, David had been more of a cousin than he'd been a father. "Do you think Spencer remembers that night? I mean I know he has an amazing memory...but he was only four."
David's eyes hardened, trying to cling to his temper at the thought that they any of them could possibly forget."I know he does."
I know, I know this is creeping right along but at least now we've got William and David talking and Diana is en route. And since I got tired of re-writing depressing episode endings, I'm re-writing the Haley vs Foyet episode 100 entitled 'Broken Promises" if you want something a little more cheery to read.
Now let's see if I can manage to write chapter 23 without any rewrites.
Note: I'm sure I mentioned it in previous chapters, I just can't find the quote, but I have Diana and Daniel as brother and sister which makes Ethel and Diana as sisters-in-law I got a few PMs where readers thought they were sisters.