Reid's POV
I am sitting at my desk looking through the case files from the case we just closed when I see her walk in, she sets her bag down and then smiles over at JJ and Prentiss who begins having a conversation with. I see her smiling and I feel my heart begin to beat a little bit faster. I set down the file and put it into one of my drawers and decide to get up and go talk to her, watching from afar is starting to get creepy. I stand up and try and run my hands through my hair real quickly. I walk over to them and I watch as her face lights up when I get closer, that must be a good sign. "Hi Spencer" Izzy says to me.
"Hey Spence" JJ says to me.
"Hi" I say to all three of them. I smile at Izzy and she smiles back at me. I get that feeling in the pit of my stomach again, that feeling I haven't had since Maeve. Izzy moves her hair behind her ear and I feel like I've made the situation awkward, something I seem to do often. I am about to say something when Garcia races in.
"Where is the rest of the team?" She asks.
"I think Hotch is in his office, same with Rossi but I haven't seen Morgan yet" I answer for her. Just then Morgan walks in with coffee in his hand.
"Sorry I'm late, Hank was up most of the night" He takes a sip of coffee but then notices the look on Garcia's face. "Penelope, what's wrong?"
"We have a case, and we need to hurry and get the team together right now"
"I'll get Hotch and Rossi, I'll meet you all in the briefing room in a minute" Morgan puts his arm around Garcia and tries to clam her down a little, Prentiss goes over to the stairs and heads towards Hotch and Rossi's offices and JJ follows behind Morgan and Garcia leaving Izzy and I.
"We should hurry, I haven't know her long but Garcia really seems to be shaken up by this and we shouldn't keep her waiting. Just let me take my coat off, you don't have to wait for me" She gives me a smile.
"I'll wait for you, it's not problem at all. Let me help you with that" I say and I help her take her coat off, she smiles at me.
"Thank you"
"Your welcome. Your hair looks very nice today" I try, just anything to keep the conversation going on a little longer.
"Thank you, we'll talk more later" She smiles and I follow her up the stairs and into the room. I sit down in the chair next to her's and Prentiss is on my other side. Garcia stands in front of the monitor ready to give us our newest case.
"Just this morning outside a doctors office here in Virgina a Mary Gibson was found laying next to her car with her stomach bloody and cut open, she was unconscious and found by a doctor who was walking out to their car. She was 8 1/2 months pregnant"
"Was?" JJ asks.
"When she was found the baby was gone, it looks like the unsub preformed a c-section of her in the parking lot, she passed out from shock and loss of blood, she was rushed to the hospital and after surgery is now stable"
"Was the baby developed enough to have survived?" Hotch asks.
"The doctors believe so, as long as he didn't die when he was removed from the mother" Garcia says.
"So there could be a baby out there, meaning we are treating this as a kidnapping. Garcia I need you to go through security camera footage at the doctors office, Prentiss and Rossi I want you two to go to the doctors office and look at the crime scene, Morgan and JJ I need you to interview everyone who was there and could have saw anything, Reid and Izzy you come with me to the hospital to interview Mary and ask her about what she remembers" We all get up from the table and head outside to go get into the cars.
Izzy's POV
I sit in the back of the car while Reid sits in the front, Hotch is driving faster than I sure is the legal limit but it doesn't matter, a woman's baby has been taken, physically ripped out of her womb, it's too important to worry about safe driving. Silence fills the car and I have time to think about Reid's behavior this morning, it was definitely out of the ordinary but very sweet. Seeing him trying so hard made me know he must care, it's nice that he is trying so much for me, I can't remember the last time someone did that. Hotch pulls in and we are all getting out of the car, we go inside and show our badges to the nurses and are lead up to Mary's room. When we go in she is propped up on in bed with her head leaning against her pillow, her husband is holding onto her hand as she sobs into his shoulder, her body rocks with sobs and I can hear her wince from pain, it must be hard to move her body after being ripped open like that. "Mrs. Gibson, I'm SSA Hotchner and this is SSA Santiago and Dr. Spencer Reid, were with the FBI"
"Have you found my baby?" She chokes out.
"Have you found our son?" The husband asks, he is crying too. They are both worried about their son and my heart breaks for them.
"We haven't yet, we just came to ask you a couple of questions and see if you remember anything that will be able to help us find him. Can you tell us what you remember from this morning?" She is crying heavily and she takes a few deep breaths before answering, trying to gain some composure.
"I woke up and went straight to the doctors, I made an early appointment so I could go shopping with my friend later. When I got to the doctors office there wasn't many people there, the appointment didn't take very long, they just needed to draw some blood and then checked on the baby to make sure he was okay" Just at the mere mention of her son she dissolves into tears again.
"I know this is hard but do you remember what happened when you were leaving?" She takes another moment again and then continues talking.
"When I was leaving the parking lot was pretty empty, I didn't see anyone when I was walking to my car"
"Do you remember what happened when you were attacked?"
"I was about to get into the car, the door was opened and I was standing on the drivers side when I felt something large hit my head, I must have fallen to the ground because that's what I remember next, then someone was holding my legs down because I remember struggling, I stopped when I felt them cutting into me" She puts her hand over her stomach. "Just this morning he was inside of me but now he is gone" She is crying again.
"What is your son's name?" I offer, trying to get anything to make her feel better about the situation.
"Luke, his name is Luke"
"That's a nice name"
"Thank you, it's after my father, he died a couple of years ago"
"I'm so sorry about that, I promise you that we are going to do everything we can to find your son and bring him back to you" I don't know if I've overstepped my bounds but I can't stand to just watch this poor woman suffer without giving her anything to hold onto.
"Thank you"
"Did you see who attacked you? Do you remember anything about them?" Hotch asks her.
"I don't, I'm sorry" She is apologizing but Hotch assures her that she is okay.
"Why don't you try and get some rest, we will tell you about anything we find" Hotch tells her, she nods her head and Hotch motions for Reid and I to follow him out to the hall.
"What are you thinking?" I ask Hotch.
"What we all assume, that our unsub is a woman, specifically one who can't have children or lost her own"
"I was thinking the same thing" I agree with him, it would make the most sense that our unsub is a woman. I study Reid's face and can tell something isn't sitting right with him.
"What is it Reid?" Hotch asks him, he must notice the same thing that I've noticed in him.
"I know that everything fits with our unsub being a woman but what I don't understand is that the attack isn't that like of a woman, woman aren't usually messy, their crimes are usually clean and if this woman is looking to have a child then she wouldn't have attacked the mother like that, by attacking the mother there could be risk to the child that was still inside her, if this woman really wanted a child that bad or has convinced herself that child belongs to her then she would have made sure both the mother and baby would have been safe to give the child the best chance he could have"
"Why don't you talk to the doctors and try and get some more information about how she was cut and the state she was left in, Izzy and I will head back in there and talk with the husband, it's too early to do a cognitive interview with the victim but we can ask the husband about anything happening recently" Reid nods and then walks away to find the doctor, I follow Hotch back into the room where a nurse is now standing next to the bed, the sound of crying is now gone and Mary's eyes are closed, her husband is still holding her hand. "Mr. Gibson, if we could we would like to ask you some questions"
"Of course" He answers.
"If you want we can step outside not to wake her"
"Don't worry about that, the nurse had to sedate her because they were afraid she would break her stitches, she was crying too hard"
"We can talk right here then. Do you remember anyone following you in the past few weeks or anyone making Mary uncomfortable, anyone being too invested in Mary's pregnancy?"
"I can't remember anything specifically, I mean there are always people who want to touch her stomach even if she doesn't want them too but that happens to everyone, do you think whoever took our son knew us? Knew Mary"
"That's a possibility, this type of attack isn't opportunistic, it was planned, this person must have known that Mary had a doctors appointment this morning, followed her and waited for her to be alone"
"I can't think of anyone, I'm sorry"
"It's okay, we will contact you if we find any new information"
"Thank you, just please find our son" He walks back into the hospital room and I see Reid walking back down the hall towards us with a file in his hand.
"Find anything?" I ask him.
"From what the doctors found I can tell that whoever the unsub is they didn't have any medical knowledge but had enough to know how to successfully remove the baby without harming him, there was evidence that it was a clean cut and none of her organs were damaged. But what still bugs me is that it was still very messy, something uncommon found with a female unsub"
"We will go over it with the team before we give the profile" Hotch offers him. Hotch starts to walk away and we follow, we are a little farther behind Hotch so I can talk to Reid a little privately.
"Don't worry, we will see what the team thinks, I'm sure your on to something"
"I just hate that we can't give a profile sooner, if we are considering this a kidnapping case most children are killed within the first 24 hours"
"I know, but not having all the right information could cause a false profile and that won't help anyone"
"I just hope it's not too late" I rub his arm and try and make him feel better.
"Don't beat yourself up over this" He gives me a weak smile and we are walking out of the hospital and getting back into the car.
We walk into the briefing room and everyone is sitting around the table, there is a dry erase board already in there and there is writing on it, a list of who the unsub could be. "Rossi, Prentiss did you find anything at the crime scene?"
"There wasn't any DNA or anything the unsub left behind" Prentiss answers.
"JJ or Morgan did you get anything from anyone who was there?"
"No one remembered seeing anything or hearing anything, all we got was an account of what the doctor saw who found her out by her car, she said that she know Mary and recognized her and thought it was odd that her car was still there even though her appointment was over 20 minutes ago"
"So we don't have much to work with, where is Garcia?" Hotch asks, just then Garcia comes in ready to show us the footage from the doctors office security footage.
"I am right here sir" Garcia says and then goes over to turn the screen on. "This is the footage from the doctors office, there isn't much to go on as the car was parked father way from where the camera, I'm sorry I couldn't find more"
"It's okay, this just further adds to what we already thought about this being planned"
"If we can't find much evidence then we will have to rely on the profile we have to build" Rossi offers.
"So what do we have so far?" Morgan asks.
"It's most likely a white female in late 30's early 40's, she is unable to have children or had a child that was taken from her or died" JJ says.
"Yes, but there was something about the crime scene that looks like it was a male unsub" Reid says, he is sticking to his gut feeling.
"Okay, let's say it is a male unsub, then what would be the reasoning behind this?" I offer, I don't want to shut his idea down but I know we all will need more of an explanation as to why he thinks it's a male unsub.
"Well both Mary and her husband have blonde hair and blue eyes, children with blonde hair and blue eyes are going to be sold more on the black market" Morgan says.
"Yes but if they needed a baby the unsub could have simply stolen a baby that was already born, why take the time to cut out a baby from the mother" JJ says.
"Maybe the unsub was on a deadline, maybe they needed a baby exactly today" Prentiss says.
"This isn't helping anything, we need to focus on what Mary said during her interview" Reid says and then turns to the white board, he is starting to get frustrated. "What is it that we already know about this unsub?" He asks the team. He begins writing on the white board as she speaks. "This unsub is organized and goal oriented, they have little or basic knowledge about some medical information, specifically how to safely remove the unborn child out of the womb"
"They have to be strong, I mean Mary said the unsub was able to hold her legs down while cutting into her, you would have to be pretty strong in order to hold down someones legs and their torso at the same time" I say. Thinking about that now something really isn't adding up, most woman are short and while they can be strong it is unlikely that they can be careful and precise while focusing on holding down her legs along with the rest of her body.
"That's right, I can't believe I didn't see it before. Guys it's a team"
"A team?" Hotch questions.
"Yes, we weren't wrong when we initially profiled the unsub as a woman, but what if she knew that she couldn't complete the task herself, so she got a partner, a man" Reid says, he sounds more relaxed, like he finally figured out exactly what has been bugging him.
"And that is why the crime itself didn't fit the profile of a female unsub, it must be the man who had the medical knowledge or the woman who was telling him exactly what to do" Hotch comments. "We need to give the profile"
We stand in our office with eyes from the local police all on us, I've stood with my team and given profiles before but this seems different, we are standing in front of people in our own city trying to find a missing baby. Hotch starts speaking to start the profile. "Our unsub is a team of a white female in her mid to late 30's or early 40's and a white male in mid to late 30's. Our female unsub is going to be the dominate one in this partnership, we believe it was her idea to steal the baby and now that he is in her possession she will do everything in her power to ensure she does not loose him"
"Our female unsub is smart and the crime was goal oriented, she had been planning this so it's likely the victim knows one or both of the unsubs. Something about Mary Gibson's child made her fixated on having him. We believe she may be under the delusion that this is her own child or was always meant to be her child" Prentiss follows.
"The unsub has some medical training or at least knowledge on the subject, from the way that Mary Gibson was cut opened so precisely as to not harm the baby, another indication that this was a planned attack" Reid adds.
"We are looking for unsubs that have suffered a loss in their life, it is possible that this a married couple that lost their own baby or is unable to conceive so the female unsub was able to convince her partner that stealing one was the only option, one of the partners in this relationship could be a nurse or even a medical student studying to become one" I add after him.
"This is a kidnapping case so we need to be quick with finding this baby, what we can hope is that because these unsubs went through all the trouble to take the baby that they won't harm him and that he is being well taken care of" Morgan says.
"Right now we need to be patrolling the area of the scene of the crime and also even checking local hospitals to see if anyone had come in needed medical assistance for a newborn, while we know it was a controlled procedure if anything started to go wrong this person would care enough to risk getting caught to ensure this baby stays alive" JJ adds.
"We will give any new information we find as we get it ourselves, any questions?" Rossi asks as he finishes. We walk into Garcia's office where she is typing away going through all hospital records from this day, trying to find someone who may have brought in a new born baby.
"Garcia, I need you to look up possible medical students and or practicing nurses who work in the area where Mary was attacked" Reid asks her.
"That doesn't really narrow it down, there are a lot of practicing medical students around the area" She replies as her eyes scan over the list that goes on and on.
"We profiled that the female is the dominate one in the relationship so narrow it down to just woman" Reid adds.
"Checking, that still doesn't bring it down much" Garcia continues to look through the names that appear on her screen.
"Check for woman that have lost a child in the past year" Hotch says. Garcia types away and finally a shorter list of names comes up.
"This does help narrow it down, there is still a tragically longer list of names than I would like to see of mothers who lost their children but I can work with this to help find our unsub"
"Garcia I need you to go through the records of all those woman and find any that work near this area and would have had anything overlap with Mary Gibson to where she would be the object of the unsub's obsession with getting a child"
"Will do sir" Hotch leaves the room and Reid and I follow behind. We walk back into the briefing room and go through what we have trying to find this unsub.
I am focusing on the files in front of me and can feel the headache coming on, Reid sets down a cup of coffee in front of me and I smile up at him. "Thank you"
"No problem" He smiles back at me and then sits back down. Garcia rushes in ready to pull up something on the screen.
"I think I have found one of our unsubs" She turns on the monitor and pulls up a picture of a woman's driver licence. "This is Carla Thomson a 36 year old woman who is not only a practicing nurse but she also unfortunately the mother of a stillborn child, William"
"What about her do you think makes her our unsub?" Hotch asks.
"That's what I was getting too. William, her baby that I mentioned, he died one year to this day"
"We found the reason why it had to be today that she abducted Mary's baby, she must have felt that his birthday was symbolic and she needed to get a baby the exact same day to make the replacement even more real to her. She has worked so hard to convince herself that he is her child and by having his born on the exact same day will convince her he is the perfect replacement" JJ says.
"The husband must be the other unsub" Morgan suggests.
"And that's what brings me to something else, she has never been married. I didn't let that stop me so I went back to William's birth certificate and found out the father's name, the most logical answer would be that the male unsub is the father of William and that is when I came across another death certificate" She pulls up a death certificate for a man by the name of Adam Wilson, he committed suicide a couple of weeks ago"
"And there is the stresser" Prentiss says.
"If she isn't working with the father then who could be the other unsub?" Rossi asks.
"That's what I was looking for, what I found could potentially lead you to who could be the unsub. I did find a post from facebook that was posted on Carla's page that was a condolence from a page dedicated to a support group for people who are dealing with grief. It is called Hopeful Hearts and they meet every Sunday"
"We don't have time to wait for Sunday to come around, she could be gone with the baby by then. Are you sure she is apart of this group?" Hotch asks her.
"This isn't the first time she has interacted with that page. I felt icky about doing it but I already went through all the followers of that page and looked through the records to find any recent deaths in their family and I can confirm 14 and out of the 14 people 5 of them are men so there is a possibility that one of these men is your other unsub"
"Great job Garcia, forward the addresses to all of our phones" Hotch walks out in a hurry and the team follows behind him.
"Good job baby girl" Morgan tells her as he walks out of the room.
"Find that baby for that family" Garcia says, I go over to her and give her a hug.
"Don't worry" I follow the rest of the team out, I check my watch and see that five hours have passed since we first interviewed Mary at the hospital, that may be a big head start for the unsubs but we still have time for the odds to be in our favor.
I wait in the car as Hotch and Morgan go up to the third house, it feels wrong invading people's personal lives but there is a baby who was kidnapped and there is no time to wait. Reid is in the car with me and we sit in a silence that only I can manage right now, the first two men checked out and were clearly innocent, just confused how they got wrapped up in a FBI investigation. I hear Reid's phone buzzing and he sets it to speakerphone and answers it. "Garcia you are on speakerphone"
"Reid I have vital information, where is the team?"
"Hotch and Morgan are finishing interviewing the third person on the list, Jacob Nelson, we don't think it's him though, and Izzy is here with me. JJ, Rossi, and Prentiss are interviewing their half of the list right now" Hotch and Morgan walk out of the house and make their way back to the car as Reid answers Garcia. They are opening the door when Garcia begins talking again.
"Well get them on the line because this is urgent"
"Garcia?" Hotch asks as he gets into the car.
"What is it baby girl?"
"Have any of you already visited the residence of Louis Wright?" She asks us.
"We haven't, I'll call JJ and see if they have" I say as I pull out my phone and dial her number, it picks up almost instantly.
"Izzy" JJ says from the other line.
"Have you guys already visited a Louis Wright's house?"
"Actually he is next person on our house" She says from over the line. "Is there something going on?"
"I think so, Garcia is on the other line I am going to put you on speaker, get the rest of them"
"Are you guys ready?" Garcia asks.
"Yes, we are all here" Hotch says and Prentiss confirms on her end of my phone.
"Okay, so something was bothering me about Carla attacking Mary outside of the doctors office, Carla lives a few towns away and that is where she works, she works at an office near where she lives so it was weird to me that she went out of her way to attack Mary so far away so I looked into her work history and found out that she had just gotten transferred to the exact office where Mary visits just a few weeks ago. That would have to have been when the the obsession with Mary and her baby began. She had easy access to see her everyday and the reason I am calling is because the only person on that list that I gave you to be in close proximity to that doctors office was a Mr. Louis Wright. Louis works at a hardware store just a few blocks from where Mary was attacked and lost his wife to a car accident a few months earlier"
"So it was the perfect dynamic, Carla lost a spouse and a child and Louis lost his spouse, she must have convinced him they could be together if he did this for her. She found a solution to put her family back together by convincing him this was what he needed to do for her" Reid says.
"Garcia, why was Carla transferred offices?"
"There is no official reason listed but my best guess is that she moved in with Louis, she put her house up for sale just a couple of weeks ago"
"The final piece, she needed to get rid of the reminder of all she lost and start again. Do you think she would be there?" Morgan asks.
"We have to hope so, Prentiss, JJ, and Rossi I need you to meet us at Wright's house" Hotch says.
"Were on our way" JJ says before hanging up the phone, Hotch buckles up and speeds away heading into the direction of our unsubs.
Hotch pulls into the driveway of Louis Wright's house and I can hear the car with the rest of our team in it screech to a stop behind us. I open my side of the door with my gun ready in hand, anything could happen with a kidnapping situation, especially with a a woman we profiled to be under delusions. I step out of the car and am surrounded by my team, Hotch and Morgan go to the door first and have their weapons down by their side as not to startle one of the unsubs. I stand back by Reid and JJ and Rossi and Prentiss don't stand too far from us. A man with dark brown hair who is tall and clearly looks exhausted, his dark brown eyes have dark brown bags underneath them. There is a mix of shock and utter defeat in his eyes, he knows it must be over. "Louis Wright, I am Arron Hotchner with the FBI we need to know where Carla and the baby are" I silently beg him not to run, things are always harder when they decide to run.
"I don't know what you are talk about" He says but his voice is shaky, he isn't going to give up easily.
"Louis if you cooperate things will be so much easier for you, we just need to find Carla and the baby" Morgan calmly says to him, and this is when he decides to run. Morgan and Hotch chase after him and the rest of us go around the back of the house to try and corner him. We run through the back door and I already see that Morgan had taken him down and is putting handcuffs on him. I look around the house and see how bare it looks, there is just a couch in the middle of the room with a TV against the wall. I look around at the walls and don't find any pictures, for anyone who is dealing with the loss of someone they tend to build a shrine to them, leaving everything exactly how it was. Leaving the moment stuck in time to the last time their loved one was there. I walk into another room and see the exact opposite of what I saw out there, the room is painted a light blue and a crib sits in the center of the room, a chair in the corner with a teddy bare sitting in it. I look at the walls and see that directly over the crib is a picture of Carla holding a baby in her hand at a hospital. She is smiling in the picture but her eyes are red and puffy, tear stained as she clutches the baby who is already gone in her arms. Standing next to her is a man who is clearly not Louis, he is the father of William. Having the parents of a stillborn child bond with them is something that doctors always encourage, it's a way for them to understand and process their grief easier, something that obviously didn't help our unsub. Spelled out on the wall is the name William in baby blue foam letters, she had been planning to take him home here, this was supposed to be his room. Reid comes in and stops when he sees the room, he is as surprised as I am.
"The baby isn't here, neither is Carla. We are going to take Louis in for questioning" I nod my head at what he just said and I hear JJ calling from the other room.
"Guys, I found something" She calls out. Reid and I follow the sound of her voice out into the garage where there is a stack of picture frames and piles of clothes. "It looks like this is where all traces of Louis' wife are right here"
"Carla must have made him get rid of everything that reminded her of his wife, wanting him to encourage her fantasy of having her family being put back together" Reid says.
"Being reminded that he once had a wife before her made things less real for her, in her delusion she is the only woman in his life and he is super committed to raising a child with her" Rossi says as he walks into the garage. I walk back into the house and watch as Morgan walks Louis out in handcuffs, we need to get any information we can if we have any hope of locating that baby.
I stand behind the one way glass and watch as Hotch and Prentiss try and get anywhere will Louis, he hasn't requested council yet but he hasn't really said much, it's like he wants to tell us what he knows but he can't, he is so depressed and was taken advantage of that during the worst time of his life and now he feels like he owes everything to her. I watch his reaction to when Prentiss talks to her, we thought by putting a woman in there it would rattle him, Carla is clearly the dominate one in the relationship and by having a woman question him he probably would be more willing to give up information to her. Reid comes to stand next to me and is watching intently as everything is unfolding. "Has he given anything up yet?" He asks me.
"No, he keeps avoiding questions" I reply to him.
"We have patrol cars outside of his house in case she goes back there, we also have a car located at her house in case she decides to go back there"
"I don't know where else she would go, I mean she made him get rid of everything that was his deceased wife's and set up a room for this child they stole. I mean I want kids but I wouldn't ever dream of stealing a child from it's mother, actually cutting out the baby out of her"
"You want kids?" He asks me.
"Yeah, do you?"
"Yeah"
"That's good to know" I give him a small smile and he returns the smile to me. Prentiss and Hotch walks out of the room and comes out to talk with us.
"Izzy I want you and JJ to give it a go, I think he might respond better to two woman"
"Yes sir" I go into the interrogation room with JJ and sit across from Louis, he refuses to make eye contact with us. "Hi Lious, I'm detective Santiago and this is detective Jareau. We just want to know where Carla and the baby are"
"William" He whispers under his breath.
"William, is that the name of the baby?" JJ asks him.
"Our baby, he's our baby" She has convinced him that he is their son.
"Your's and Carla's baby?" JJ asks him, at the sound of her name he tenses up and stops talking.
"We know you know Carla, we know what she made you do" I tell him.
"I don't know what you are talking about" He replies, he's retreated back to acting like he doesn't know anything about her.
"We found your bloody clothes at your house, we've tested the blood on the clothes and it matches Mary Gibson's" JJ tells him.
"Why are you protecting her Louis? She made you hurt that innocent woman, she made you steal her baby. I know that it wasn't your idea, just like it wasn't your idea to get rid of all your wife's belongings" I say to him. This really sets him off, I can see something ignite in his eyes.
"I didn't get rid of anything, all of Lauren's stuff in just in the garage" He yells, we have stuck a nerve.
"Why is it fair that you had to put all her stuff in the garage? I mean in the room you two were going to raise your son in she put up a picture of her with her ex, the father of their son William" I say to him.
"William is our son!" He yells, he is very angry and gets louder after every word I say.
"No William is not your son, William is the name of Carla's son who died, he was her baby with someone else. And that baby isn't even her's or your's, his name isn't even William. She made you give up everything only to benefit her. What did she do? You two met in your support group and you started dating and she convinced you that to make both of you happy you needed to take a baby, you got a new wife out of it and she got the baby"
"You don't know her!" He is screaming and standing up now, I am standing up and getting closer to him as I talk. I remain clam but am vibrating from anger.
"I do know her, she is a manipulative woman who deliberately set you up to take the fall for her crime. She made sure you were the one who cut open that woman, she walked you through the process specifically so you could take the blame when we came for you. She probably told you that it had to be you to do it because she wasn't strong enough but you always knew deep down that she was just going to take that baby and run. She made you change your entire house and your entire life just so she could turn around and put up a framed photo of the man she really loves on your wall in the room that was supposed to be for your son. She ran the first chance she had so you could take the fall and she would get to keep the baby and you go to jail"
"She did not leave! She is waiting for me at the hotel we planned to meet at, right by the house" He is breathless and realizes what he has just said, he has finally given it up and while there is the look of regret in his eyes he looks a little relieved, he is finally free. JJ and I walk out of the room and we find Hotch and Morgan and Reid watching.
"We've got them" JJ says to Hotch, she then turns to me and smiles. "You did really good in there"
"Thank you" I follow the rest of the team as we go back to the car as Garcia sends us the address to the nearest hotel to Louis' house. The sirens from the car are blaring as we race to the hotel. Hotch pulls into the parking lot and we all jump out of the car, this arrest has to be very discreet, this is a public place and we need to remain calm so that we don't disturb any of the guests. We walk up to the front desk and Prentiss pulls out a picture of Carla and shows it to the woman working here.
"Have you seen this woman?" Prentiss asks. The woman looks hesitant to answer, Prentiss pulls out her FBI badge and the rest of us do the same.
"She checked in this morning"
"Was there a baby with her?"
"Yes, she checked in with her baby. She's in room 305" Prentiss thank's her and we all rush up the stairs to the third floor. We find room 305 and stand outside of the door, Hotch knocks on the door and wait for a response. We hear the door unlock and she opens up the door.
"Louis" She says and looks hopeful, it's when she sees that it is actually the FBI that she runs, she tries to close the door behind her but JJ won't let her and pushes it back open. The hotel room isn't very big and there isn't anywhere to go. She stands against the window holding the baby in her hands. He is small and screaming but he is alive and looks healthy, he may haven't had a smooth time coming into this world but at least he looks taken care of. Sometimes that's the only silver lining to these kinds of cases is that the unsub is going to take care of who she kidnapped.
"Carla I need you to hand the baby over to us, it's over" Morgan tells her.
"I won't let you take my son" She says as she holds him close to her.
"He isn't your son, I am so sorry what happened to your son but his mother needs him back" Prentiss tells her.
"You don't want take away someone else's baby the way yours got taken away" I tell her.
"I didn't take him, he belongs to me. I was supposed to be happy with him, I am a good mother" She is crying now as she looks down at him. "He is my baby"
"I know you've lost so much, with loosing William and then William's father but stealing someone else's child, taking their happiness isn't going to help you get any of your back"
"He lied to me, after William he told me we still had each other and then he went and killed himself, leaving me to be alone" She is crying harder and harder every single word she says. I get closer to her as she talks, JJ follows close behind and Prentiss goes on the other side of her.
"I just need you to hand him over to me, I will make sure nothing happens to him" She keeps crying and I reach out to take the baby into my hands, I take him and step away as JJ handcuffs her. They are leading her out when she stops by me holding the baby.
"I took such good care of him" She sobs.
"I know" I tell her as I clutch the baby close to me. I look down at him and feel his forehead, he is a little warm but other than that he seems to be fine. Reid comes up to me and places his hand on my back.
"They have called an ambulance" Reid tells me.
"Is it okay if I ride with him to the hospital?" I ask Hotch.
"That's fine"
"I'll go with her" Reid tells him and Hotch nods his head.
"We're notifying the family now" JJ tells me and the looks down at the baby and reaches down to stroke his face.
"Does he look okay? I haven't seen a baby since my sister was born and I was only five years old, I don't know how they are supposed to look like" I tell her.
"He looks pretty good under the circumstances, I'm sure he will be fine" JJ smiles at me and we walk out of the hotel room with Reid following behind. We walk down the stairs and there is an ambulance waiting outside. I walk up and get inside with Reid following behind, we both climb in and JJ tells us she will be meeting us at the hospital. I sit down and hand the baby over to the EMT's and watch them as they wrap him in a foil blanket and start examining him. Reid takes my hand and I smile at him, it's nice to have him here for comfort. The EMT hands me the baby back.
"You need to keep him warm, hold him close to you so that his body temperature can remain normal" I nod my head and hold him close to me as we race to the hospital.
"It's okay Luke" I say as he begins to cry. I shush him and try and calm him down as we get closer and closer to the hospital.
I look through the window as I watch Mary be reunited with her son, she is crying heavily and giving him small kisses as her husband takes her hand in his, a family being reunited. I walk out of the hospital and get back into the car, JJ is driving and I sit in the passenger seat, we both wanted to be here to make sure Luke was alright. "I can't wait to get home and see my boys, cases like these make me just want to go home and hold Henry and Micheal and never let them go" She says as she pulls out of the parking lot.
"It must be hard sometimes, having kids and seeing these cases day after day" I tell her.
"It can be, but it also motivates me to want to work even harder. I love my sons and would never trade them for anything. You were really good today with that baby, do you want kids?" She asks me.
"Yeah, I've always wanted kids"
"Well you would make a great mom"
"Thank you"
"You know Spencer really likes you" I can feel a blush creeping up.
"Really? You think so?" JJ is one of the closest people to him, I know how well she knows him.
"I can see it, his whole demeanor. I can see the way he lights up around you, I haven't seen him act like this before" I don't know what to say, I have so many thoughts running through my head. "He would make a great father" She jokes with me, I laugh.
"We haven't even gone on a single date, and besides I don't really think he was planning on asking me out anytime soon"
"Is it because he is a little awkward sometimes, you will get used to that but don't worry he likes you"
"It's not that, I actually think that is pretty cute. I'm just worried I'm not smart enough for him, that he won't find me very interesting because I am not on the same intellectual level as him"
"I have known Spencer for a very long time and I know that isn't a deal breaker, he may be a genius but he has a big heart and when he cares about someone he cares very deeply"
"Thank you JJ"
"You welcome, and he's the godfather to both of my children and Morgan's son and he is very good with children" I laugh.
"I'll remember that" I see her smile and I look and see that were almost back to the FBI.
Reid's POV
I feel my palms begin to sweat and I rub them against my pants, I get up from my desk and go over to Izzy's desk where she is sitting. She looks up at me with her big brown eyes and brushes a strand of her hair out of her face. "Hi Spencer"
"Hi Izzy" I smile at her and she returns the smile.
"You did really good today" I tell her.
"Thank you, you did too"
"You were really good with that baby"
"Thanks" She smiles. I need to keep the conversation going, I need to think about anything to keep talking to her.
"So you have a sister?" I ask her.
"I do, her name is Lola. How did you know that?"
"You mentioned it earlier"
"Wow, and you remembered?"
"I have an eidetic memory so I couldn't really forget" She begins to laugh, she must think that I am funny.
"Well that gives you an unfair advantage in getting to know each other" She says. "Tell me something about you and I promise you I will remember it. Do you have any siblings?"
"No, I'm an old child. Do you only have the one sister?"
"Yes, she is five years younger than me" I know it's impolite to ask a woman her age so I decide not too. "I'm 29"
"I'm 35" I tell her.
"It's almost my birthday and I'll be 30, so I'm really not that much younger than you" She laughs.
"When is your birthday?" I ask her, I know that I can't forget things but I know her birthday is something that's important, something I need to remember.
"March 21st, when's yours?"
"October 28th"
"That's really close to Halloween"
"I love Halloween, It's my favorite holiday" I can feel the excitement inside of me, Halloween is something that I could talk about non stop and it isn't hard considering I know a lot about it.
"I like Halloween too" We have found something that we mutually agree on, here is my chance to go for it.
"Do you want to get dinner? With me? We could go right now or if you didn't want to we could go a different time" I am talking a lot, I want to stop talking but I can't make myself stop.
"Dinner sounds great, we can now"
"Okay, great" I asked her out and she said yes, I can feel that same excitement in me again and my heart is beating fast.
"Where do you want to go?" She asks me as she puts her coat on.
"I actually don't know very many places around here so you can pick" I try and rack my brain and then think of a nice Chinese place that I think she would like.
"Do you like Chinese food?"
"Yeah, that sounds great right now" She smiles at me and we begin walking out of the building and start walking down the street.
"So did you move here recently?" I ask her, I know that she mentioned she didn't know many places around here, maybe she moved recently.
"Yeah, I was originally from California but moved to Virginia to take a job working in sex crimes and then moved closer to begin working at the FBI. What about you?"
"I'm from Vegas, I grew up there with my mom before moving here to join the FBI"
"Wow, that's crazy that we both moved from the same region to end up meeting all the way across the country"
"I'm glad we did" I tell her.
"Me too" We get to the restaurant and I open the door for her, we wait for a table and I keep sneaking glances as her. When we get seated and are ordering when I try and think about something else to say to her, I could talk to her for hours. I watch her looking over the menu and I try and seem less creepy than just staring at her. "You okay?" She asks me.
"Oh yeah, I'm just a little nervous that's all"
"Don't be nervous, I don't usually bite" She laughs and I crack a smile.
"That's reassuring, it's just I haven't been on a date in a very long time"
"Neither have I" She tells me and it surprises me, it must show on my face because she gives me a questioning look. "What?"
"It's just hard to believe that you haven't been on a date recently, I mean your so beautiful"
"Thank you, but since my last boyfriend I haven't really dated anyone" I can see the sadness on her face when she talks about her boyfriend, something must have happened.
"My last girlfriend, her name was Maeve, she was murdered by an unsub we were tracking. I only met her in person once" She gets quiet after I say that and I know I've said the wrong thing, I've shared way too much way too soon. "I'm sorry"
"No, it's okay. My last boyfriend, his name was Tony. He was my boyfriend through our last few years or high school and then the firs two when we were in college, we actually were engaged for a little while, but anyway he was a really great guy but he had a vice, he was a heroin addict and died of an overdose. After he died I moved to Virginia to start over" It's now my turn to get quiet, not only was she engaged but she dated a guy with a drug problem. I remember when Maeve didn't tell me about having a fiancee, it was hard but we had been dating for so long and she never told me, at least Izzy was upfront about this. Her telling me that he had a drug problem, I haven't used in years but not telling her could only hurt any relationship we may have.
"I want you to know that I really care about you and I'm telling you this because I don't want to hide anything from you, years ago I was kidnapped by an unsub named Tobias Hankel, he tortured me and injected me with a drug called dilaudid, when I got away and killed him I became addicted to it for a little while, I haven't used any in a very long time I can promise you that but if it's too much because of what happened with Tony I understand" She pauses and then takes my hand.
"I am so sorry, it was hard what I went through but I know you aren't some druggie, it was hard what I went through with Tony and for a really long time I just ignored it because I loved him and that's something I will never forgive myself for but I know you are a good person and I really like you too, and I'm so happy you told me. You can tell me anything and I'm so sorry about Maeve" I squeeze her hand and feel really happy to be here with her, I've told her some of the hardest thing's in my life and she didn't shy away, she's still here. The waiter comes over to take our order and I notice that she is still holding my hand.
I walk her all the way to her apartment, we have been talking non stop since we sat down, it was so easy for us to smooth the conversation back and get into getting to know each other better without having to fish the depths of each others souls, we've only known each other for almost a month but being with her makes me feel like a brand new person without having to change much about myself, she likes me for who I am. It's always been hard to talk to beautiful woman but she doesn't shy away, she sometimes seems like I make her nervous, something I didn't think was possible. I stop at her door and know that I want to kiss her, I never got to kiss Maeve and I know that I'm not going to let a chance like that to slip through my fingers again. "I had a really nice time, thank you for inviting me to dinner"
"Thank you for coming" I tell her, she is looking up at me when I feel her take her hand and wrap it around the back of my neck and she gets up on her tip toes to meet my lips halfway. Her lips are warm and still taste a little sugary from the desert we ate. She moves her lips underneath mine and I'm kissing her back. She pulls back and has a huge smile on her face.
"I'm sorry"
"Don't apologize, it was very nice" I say to her. "If you hadn't kissed me I probably would have kissed you first" I add.
"I really want to do this again" She tells me.
"Me too"
"I'll see you tomorrow, and I will call you because I know that you don't really like texting"
"That is correct, I prefer talking on the phone, that way there is no mixed communication between people if they are actually talking on the phone"
"That is very true" She says. I lean down and kiss her quickly and can feel her smiling.
"I'll see you tomorrow" She unlocks her apartment and goes inside, giving me one more quick smile before she closes the door behind her. I walk down the steps and out of her building, I pull my scarf around my neck a little tighter waiting for the December cold to hit me but don't feel it, I can still feel the warmth of Izzy's lips against mine and can feel the way my heart is beating against my ribs, still feeling the joy of the night I just spent with Izzy, a night like this I hope to have more of.