A Voice Cries Out

Chapter 3

Morgan looked over at his passenger.

"Hey, Kid…how are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, Morgan. It's not all that hard to distance myself. Runs in the family."

Morgan picked up the bitterness in Reid's tone, as well as the anxiety. He knew from the last case involving William Reid how resentful his colleague was toward the man. But he also knew the man sitting beside him very well. He had too good a heart to be indifferent when his father might be in mortal danger, no matter how unworthy the elder Reid was of the title 'father'.

"Okay, then. But I would understand if you needed to step back…any time. All right?"

Reid knew Morgan was coming from a good place. But he hated to look weak in any way, even when it might have been expected of anyone.

"All right. But I'm fine. And I'll be fine. You don't need to worry about me."

"Fair enough. We'll play it your way." Far be it from me to worry about my kid brother. "You want to take the lead with the florist, or do you want me to?"

"Doesn't matter. Be my guest."

Morgan kept silent for the remainder of the trip, ruminating. Reid was anything but 'okay' about this. That much was obvious. But the fact that he wouldn't admit it would make it hard for the others to be supportive. He had the sinking feeling that he might be piecing his Pretty Boy back together by the time this case reached a conclusion.

"Your husband is in denial."

JJ would have considered the statement to be impertinent and intrusive, had it come from someone other than Dave Rossi. But she knew how fond Rossi was of her whole family, including her very stubborn husband.

"He's not….well, maybe a little. He admitted to me that he cares, although he doesn't understand why."

"That…is perfectly understandable." Rossi turned the words around on her. "His father wasn't exactly deserving, as I recall."

He remembered that other time in Vegas. That time when he'd first heard the details of how William Reid had abandoned his wife and son. And how, even without knowing the man, Rossi had wanted to condemn him every bit as much as his son had.

He had the chance to be a father. He had the chance. God, what I would have given! For even a second day with my son! And this…..idiot….walks out on a frightened kid and his sick mother. What a sorry excuse for a man!

JJ responded to him. "No, you're right. He wasn't much of a father. I don't even know what kind of person he is. I've never met him."

Of course she hadn't. But that fact had escaped Rossi.

"What was he like when you met him, Rossi?"

He would have to finesse this a bit. The senior profiler spent a few seconds in consideration.

"Well, you have to remember that we didn't meet under the best of circumstances. His son had just accused him of murdering a child."

JJ had to concede on that. "Okay, fair point. But what did you think of him?"

"Well….he seemed…..small."

"Small?"

"Smaller than I would have thought. He's not as tall as Reid. But I didn't mean 'small' just in terms of his height. He just seemed..…insubstantial."

"Insubstantial." The kind of word Spence would use. How appropriate that Rossi thought it would apply to her husband's father.

"Yeah. Like he could have disappeared right in the middle of your conversation….and you wouldn't even notice." He paused, thinking of another word. "Inconsequential."

"Insubstantial and inconsequential. You sound like Spence." She paused. "In fact, that's probably exactly how Spence has described him to me. I always thought it was because of what he did to them. But now, you're saying….he's really like that."

Rossi thought a moment. "Perhaps I was influenced by knowing what he did as well, Cara. I will admit that I was angry with the man even before I met him."

JJ smiled at her older colleague's demonstration of caring for her husband.

"But, to answer your question…yes, I think he is really like that. The most vehement he got about anything was when he invoked his right to an attorney. Nothing about how good it was to see his son after so many years. Nothing about how impressed he was with what Reid had made of himself. He didn't even get all that riled when he realized Reid suspected him of murder. It was almost like it didn't matter enough."

Several minutes passed without words, JJ staring off out the window. Rossi glanced across at her, but could see she was lost in some thought that seemed to require her attention. He waited her out.

When she spoke again, it was preceded by a sigh. "I wish I'd met him."

He was surprised at that. "You do?"

"I wish I'd met him, so I would have known what he was like. Because then I might not have tried to let him into our lives."

He hadn't known about this.

"You spoke with him?"

JJ shook her head. "No. I wrote to him. When Spence was so badly hurt, in New Orleans. He was Spence's only blood relative…I thought he should know. I thought he'd want to know."

"Let me guess….no response, right?"

"None. Well, not right away, anyway. He did send a plant, and a note, a couple of months later, for the New Year. He apologized to Spence in the note."

Rossi was surprised. "How did that go over?"

JJ gave a bitter laugh. "Not all that well. Especially when Spence realized I'd been in contact with his father. He was pretty angry with me for a little bit."

"You only meant it for the best, I'm sure, Cara. But I'm not surprised at Spencer's reaction."

She looked over at him. "You sound like the voice of experience. Was it like that between you and your father?"

Rossi smiled as he shook his head. "My father was a good man. He was a better father than I was a son."

It sounded like there was a story there, but JJ didn't feel privileged to ask. She just pondered the seemingly countless array of relationships between fathers and their sons. A smile came to her face as she thought about the father and son closest to her.

Rossi noticed. "What makes you smile, young one?"

"My two guys. Spence and Henry. They love each other so much, and it's so obvious…..it's so hard to picture any other kind of relationship between a father and a son. And they're not even related by blood."

Rossi smiled in approval. "As it should be. Blood, in my opinion, is overrated. Every good Italian knows…love comes from the heart." He looked over and winked at her. "That's amore."

Hotch and Emily, having procured some space and established a working relationship with the Las Vegas office of the FBI, were on their way to the home of William Reid.

"How do you think he's handling it?"

A few years ago, she might not have felt as free to discuss a fellow team member with their boss. But that was before Hotch had forced a returning Emily Prentiss to agree to confide in him.

"You'll inevitably have bad days. I just want you to tell me when you're having them."

He'd known how hard it was for her to open up. But he also knew a person couldn't survive what she had…..the attack, the pain, the ensuing isolation…..unscathed. Her survival alone had demonstrated her strength….but the willingness to admit weakness was a more important demonstration. He'd banked on her having that strength….and he'd been right.

She had confided in him. On more than one occasion. And, although they remained in a supervisory/subordinate set of roles, those sharings of confidence had also cemented their friendship. Now, Emily routinely confided in Hotch. And he, though more circumspect, confided in her. He could be no less than honest with her now.

"I don't know. You know how he is. He doesn't want anyone to see how it's affecting him."

She agreed. "He thinks we baby him. Here, he's married and has two kids, and he still thinks we baby him. And he thinks that, if he gives any hint that this is difficult for him, we'll think he's weak."

Hotch agreed, to an extent.

"I think it's more complex than that. He's protective of his mother. And even though it was his father who left them, somehow, in Reid's head, it reflects poorly on his whole family. So he wants to play down the impact his father had on all of their lives, to protect his family."

Emily chewed on that for a minute. "Hmm. I wouldn't have thought that. But now that you mention it…how many times have we encountered abused kids who continue to defend their abusers?"

Hotch's affirming smile was grim. "People need to reconcile their pasts with their identities. To question the past….let alone to denigrate it…is to denigrate the person they've become."

"Even if it makes absolutely no sense. Yes, I guess you're right. So, he's not going to let on how much this is getting to him….correct?"

"At least he has JJ. I think he'll be honest with her. But I don't think we can expect her to share it with the team. We'll just have to trust that she'll handle it."

"She will." Emily was emphatic. She knew both of her friends very well.