Chpt 36.

Don't own CM….as usual, just debt and OC's.

"And there is nothing more dangerous in this world, in any world, than someone calm, clear and angry." (Audrey Hart, The Dig)

There was another case that took the team out of town for the better part of a week. They were in Nevada; it was a Thelma and Louise case…..outcome, death by cop. It was way less glamorous than the movie. The women had made everyone, not just Hotch, think of Alecta. They had both had broken homes…..alcoholic abusive parents, both parents…not just their fathers. One of the UNSUBS' mothers had even been a prostitute that had taken to selling her daughter for money when her own 'career' started falling off. Both of the suspects had dropped out of school at young ages. There were times in their lives that they were in the foster care system; much like Alecta, they had seen the dark side of the system. In contrast to Alecta, it almost seemed that neither woman ever had anyone that had fought for them. They had been left to take care of themselves. After years of this life, they had finally broken; they had finally snapped. The only people they could count on other than themselves had been each other.

They were both petite women; one a wispy blonde with green eyes, the other had darker hair and stunning grey eyes. Both women were actually quite attractive, but completely emotionally unstable.

The final moments had come when they got the upper hand against Reid and Hotch. They had guns drawn on the men, having hit them over their heads with a 2x4 and a pipe….both men had been struck and then tumbled to the floor.

JJ had gone running in, with the others covering her, and engaged in some hand to hand with the brunette. The young woman had managed to take JJ down and was using the same pipe she had hit Hotch with to try and strangle JJ. Reid had managed to roll over and get his hands on a gun, rolling back onto his back and pointed at the woman that was currently trying to kill JJ and just fired….he kept firing until the woman dropped to the floor. Her friend, had been shot between the eyes by Rossi whenever she made a move to try to finish off Reid.

As the brunette fell to the ground she turned her head and looked at Reid for a moment, a calm demeanor coming over her face, and she said 'Thank You' to him.

The whole way back to the Nevada police department that they had been working from and the entire way back home to Quantico, Reid seemed upset by the fact that the young woman had thanked him for killing her. He was unusually quiet.

Upon landing back in Virginia Reid had arranged to ride home with Garcia and Morgan. Both Pen and Derek could tell something was troubling the boy, so they decided to head for a diner that was open 24 hours a day, considering that it was nearly 11 o'clock at night by the time they left the office, having to tie up loose ends with paper work.

Morgan got a bacon cheeseburger. Garcia got a BLT with some fries….even though she was a vegetarian, she did like a little bit of bacon from time to time, just for a little something different.

What Spencer ordered was actually quite telling. He got French toast with blackberry fruit topping, no whip cream…..telling the waitress 'the whip cream only gets in the way of the blackberries…."

Once the food came, Reid sat there and stared at his food for a minute chewing on his bottom lip, a lost look on his face.

Garcia took one of his hands in hers, 'Spencer, sweet heart, what's wrong?"

Without even looking up from the plate, mumbling more to himself than anyone else, 'She thanked me for killing her. I have never had anyone thank me for killing them."

Without missing a beat Garcia kept talking to him, 'Oh baby boy. Those poor women, although they did a lot of bad things to a lot of innocent people, they weren't always bad. Before the world broke them down, they were just two little girls that had nobody that loved them or cared for them. Finally, they turned into these people….But somewhere inside of them, those two little girls were still there just fighting for a chance to surface again….they never got that chance, they were buried under all those years of cruelty. She was probably just grateful that it was over, that she wouldn't have to wake up in the morning and hate herself any more for the things that she was doing."

"I know that, I do. I keep thinking….what if….what if….What if Alecta hadn't had Kevin when she was growing up? What if she had never met Lady Heather? She could have so easily turned out to be just like them. I mean, what if in some other scenario she had been one of the UNSUBS? That girl just reminded me of her so much. She was intelligent, despite not having finished school. Judging by some of the photos left behind at their hotel room, there was a side to her that was humorous. If you didn't know she was a murderer, she would have looked like almost any other woman on the street."

"Kid, you miss Alecta something awful don't you?"

Reid merely nodded, 'Yeah. I mean, she was one of the few that...I could start rambling and she would just let me, and she would actually listen. I guess I just keep picturing the flights home….Alecta and I, sitting together on the plane and picking apart some inane historical ideas that we have read or heard about before.

Since she's been gone the nightmares have been so much worse.

Sometimes, before she moved in with Hotch, after a case, if we couldn't sleep we would meet here. She always got the blackberry French toast. I was never very hungry at that time of night, but I would pick off of her plate, we'd share...and either continue our protracted discussion or move on to the next thing. Talking about all of these crazy ideas kept my thoughts from going back to the case….she kept me from worrying about whether we had done everything we could….stuff like that. The nightmares had all but vanished.

She was my friend; now she's gone and I don't know where."

"And now you can't eat the French toast?"

"I want to. I do. And I need to eat; but I'm afraid it won't taste the same or mean the same as it did before."

In all this time, Spencer had not looked up from the French toast in front of him…..it was like he was afraid if he did that it would vanish, too.

"Spencer, Spencer look at me please." Garcia requested.

Reid raised his eyes, glassy from the tears that had gathered at his melancholy thoughts.

Garcia reached out and cupped the boy's cheek, 'I just found out the other day, Alecta is in Istanbul."

"Does Hotch know?"

"Yes, he does."

"Then why hasn't he brought her back then?"

"I think he's afraid that she might still be angry with him. You know how things were when she left."

"But he's not even trying to get her back; he needs to go get her and bring her back to Quantico."

"Spencer…."

"No, Morgan. She's my friend, too. She's one of the few friends I have that accept me for ME. I don't have to change a thing about me to make her happy to know me. She's never made fun of me for anything, she's never tried to change who I am. I know Hotch misses her, I know he does. But I miss her to damn it! He needs to go get her and he needs to do it now."

"But Spencer…." Garcia was trying to help placate him.

Seeing the look on Garcia's face, 'She's in danger again isn't she?"

Morgan and Garcia both nodded.

"All the more reason for him to go to her. He has to do it now."

The friends continued to talk over things for another half hour, finally getting Reid to eat at least a little of the French toast that he'd ordered.

They got up and walked over to the register to pay their bills. Morgan was paying for his meal and for Garcia. Reid had decided to get his own. They kept chattering some more, not even paying attention to the man sitting in the second booth to the left of the register; he was leaned over reading a newspaper, trying to stay up on current events, or so he seemed.

"I know I'm probably just over reacting, I'm sure of it. But I still think that Hotch needs to go to Istanbul and bring her back to us." Reid was heard to say one last time as the three of them made their way over to the exit.

Finally looking up from his newspaper the large blonde haired man looked in the direction that the three friends had taken.

"I couldn't agree more Dr. Reid. I couldn't agree more." The stranger mumbled under his breath as he got up to leave, not altogether following the friends out into the parking lot. He went to his rented car and got in, he turned on the dome light and pulled out a map and a small note pad, to make it look as if he was merely a tourist. He watched as the three friends piled into a dark SUV and began to drive away. He didn't have to follow them. He knew where they all lived. He only had to bide his time and wait.

Post AN: So that chapter quite literally fell out. I think I managed to write this in just a couple hours or so. I thought since most of my work has seemed to center around Hotch and Alecta, with a splash of Morgan and Garcia tossed in for good measure that it was high time to get an opinion from someone else for a change. And who better to give you a piece of his mind than the huge brained Dr. Reid? Lemme know peeps, the usual.