Bring Them Home, Morgan Chapter 3

BAU Headquarters – 2pm

Derek had eleven hours to find his team. Still shaken from the video of a hysterical bloody Garcia, he knew that he had to focus and call on all of his training and push aside his personal feelings for her and the others. Cruz had made good on his promise to begin his own official search and the bullpen was now filled with FBI agents from various other departments throughout the bureau.

Frustrated, he was still waiting on a technical analysis and although he was able to do simple searches his skill set was not adequate for what he needed. Just as he was about to go down to Technical Support and snatch his own tech he noticed an older woman enter the office. She reminded him of his grandmother; surely she was lost, he thought. He continued to watch her as she approached one of the agents and saw him look up and point in his direction. He watched as she proceeded slowly up the stairs toward the conference room.

“Can I help you?”

“Agent Morgan?”

“Yes.”

“I’m Mabel Henry from Tech Support.”

Morgan’s jaw dropped and it was no way he could hide his shock as he looked her up and down in silence. She was dressed in a bright orange skirt with red and white giant flowers; her blouse was white with black polka dots and a baby blue cardigan. Her used-to-be-a-dyed-blonde hair was graying and haphazardly pinned in a bun on top of her head.

“I get that a lot.” She chuckled as she returned his unbelieving stare, pushing up her neon green cat-eyed glasses.

“I-I…um I’m sorry…”

“No worries. Where do you want me?”

“Huh?” Derek shook his head trying to remember why she was there. “Oh…right here.” Pointing to the office next to the conference room.

Mable followed him to Garcia’s lair and opened the door.

“This is our tech’s lair. Please be careful she’s pretty particular about her things…her babies as she calls them.”

“Aren’t we all?” She quipped back.

The woman looked even older up close sitting her bag on the floor she took a seat in front of the bank of computer screens and made herself comfortable flipping switches and watching the screens spring to life.

For a minute it was as if Garcia’s future self had found a way to defy time’s continuum and stepped backwards into the present time.

“From what Unit Chief Cruz told me you’re in a bit of a time crunch.”

She saw the mix of anger, stress and sadness in his eyes even though he thought he had done a pretty good job of hiding it behind his tough guy exterior.

“My entire team has been kidnapped and I have less than eleven hours to find them or they die.”

“Okay. Let’s get to work. Give me the details.”

“We all left the office around noon for lunch. They went to Pelley’s about a mile and a half from here and I decided to work out instead of going with them.”

Mabel turned and looked him over with a discerning eye. She liked what she saw.

“An hour later I received a call from the son-of-a-bitch who took them.”

“So they’ve got to be close.”

“Yeah, right.” He responded surprised. “He’s close but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find them in time.”

“Giving up already, Handsome?” She said looking over her shoulder at him as her fingers continued to type.

“No I’ll never give up.”

“Good then get out of here and let me get to work.”

“Yes, ma’am!” He responded in surprise.

He watched in awe he hadn’t seen anyone handle multiple computers and screens like that before except…he closed his eyes for a moment to block her out of his mind. He had to remain focused there was too much at stake.

Unknown Location -

The door creaked and opened with a rush; the limp body of Penelope Garcia fell with a thud to the floor. Before any of them could utter a word the door slammed shut.  With their hands and feet still bound there was nothing they could do for her but watch and wait for some sign of movement from their friend. Blood smeared her neck and blouse and no one wanted to even guess what had happened while she was gone.

“Penelope!” JJ yelled at her friend frantically.

Hotch and Rossi looked on horrified knowing she was the least prepared for a situation like this and becoming a victim of such harshness and cruelty would scare her beyond the physical.

“Garcia!” Reid called out voice quivering.

She began to stir and move against the pain but she was alive and for that they all were grateful. Her hands and feet were not bound so that was also another thing to be grateful for.

“I’m okay…I’m okay…” She whispered to them.

Slowly she pulled herself to an upright position in the middle of the room then touching lightly the haphazard gauze that had been wrapped around her neck. It was painful to the touch but she knew it could have been a lot worse. It wasn’t meant to cause serious or life threatening harm. It was purely for affect, to get Morgan’s attention which no doubt had achieved its purpose. As much as it had scared her she got a small sense of satisfaction knowing that Derek would kill the evil bastard when he got his hands on him.

“Garcia! Untie us!” Hotch ordered taking charge and seeing an opportunity.

Garcia as quickly as she could, crawled over to the others and began untying them starting with Hotch who in turn untied Rossi.  Garcia moved over to JJ while Rossi untied Alex and Hotch finally untied Reid.  Once free they all rubbed their wrist and began plotting their next move.

“Now what?” Garcia seemed to speak out loud what the others were thinking.

“Good question, Garcia. We’ve got to figure a way out of here.” Hotch answered.

“What can you tell us? What happened?” Ross asked.

“He forced me to make a video for Derek. He wanted me to tell him that he was going to kill us if he didn’t find us in time. Then he cut my neck to show Derek he was serious.”

“Pen,  are you okay?” JJ asked.

“It hurts like hell but I’ll be fine.”

“Derek’s gonna kill that son-of-a-bitch!” Reid mumbled.

Just then the door opened again and Kirkwood and his two armed goons stepped confidently through the door. He examined the group and smirked so sure he was going to get away with his plan. The two men behind him had a similar smirk of overconfidence.

“So I see you’ve all made yourselves comfortable.  Well, it’s time for us to have some more fun!”

He motioned to the man on the left behind him and he obediently moved toward Reid and yanked him to his feet.

“Let’s go!”

BAU –

With the help of Mabel Derek had narrowed his search area to a five-mile radius. He and Cruz stood in front of a large map looking at all of the possible locations that would give Kirkwood the ability to hide six people without drawing attention. Even in the relatively small area there were too many places and too little time to check them all.

“I can start sending teams out to these locations…”

“No! If they stumble on the right location, you can guarantee he will be watching. If he sees anybody but me, he’s going to start killing them and I can’t risk that.”

“Come on, Morgan you can’t check all these by yourself!”

“Yeah, I know… we’ve got to narrow the list and we can’t afford to be wrong.”

Cruz ran his hand over his head and began pacing. Taking over Strauss’ old job didn’t look so attractive to him now. The BAU was indeed a rare special unit with nerves of steel and watching Morgan work to find his team he knew he was not capable of doing what they did.

“So what are you going to do?” Cruz asked in frustration.

Derek’s phone rang just before he could answer Cruz’s question. Another video had been sent to him by Kirkwood. He braced himself for the sight of another one of his team abused and bloody flaunted in his face by a man he wanted desperately to kill.

Reid, like Garcia had been forced to make a recording and to read a prepared script to further taunt Morgan. Unlike Garcia however, Reid paid close attention to everything around him as he was led to the room set up like a miniature studio equipped with expensive equipment that the average Joe would not have a clue even existed. He had to get a message of his own to Morgan and he hoped that his friend would understand and it would help him find them before it was too late.

Morgan sat on the edge of the conference table and pushed play. He watched as Reid was pushed down into a chair and handed a piece of lined notepaper.  He squinted against the bright lights and began reading silently at first.

“Read, Genius!” barked Kirkwood’s voice out of view.

Reid turned to his left as if he were looking at someone and then turned back toward the camera.

“Okay! I don’t understand what shooting an expensive movie is going to accomplish; this isn’t Hollywood!”

Kirkwood’s fist suddenly appeared in view landing hard against the side of Reid’s head. Reid tried but couldn’t hold in the cry of pain.

“Read the damn script!”

“Okay, okay!”

Reid glanced up at the lights before taking a deep breath and beginning.

“Time is running out… eight and a half hours from now and we will be dead if you don’t find us. No police, no FBI…come alone… your life for ours…”

Kirkwood stepped into view placing a gun to Reid’s head. Reid flinched then stiffened as the barrel pressed roughly against his temple. He closed his eyes praying that he’d gotten his message across and that they would be found soon.

“Eight and half hours, agent! If you don’t make it in time just know that I’m going to have so much fun with your friends making them suffer! They’ll all be screaming and calling your name wondering where you are and asking why you didn’t save them!”

The screen went black as the video came to an end. Cruz watched the torment and pain cross Morgan’s face.

“What are you going to do?” He asked again.

Morgan slowly looked up at the Section Chief and in a steady confident voice he answered him.

“I’m going to call for back up.”

He was more confused than ever. Cruz had given up on understanding anything and so, he stood watching the wheels turning in the agent’s head and after several seconds he left the room.

Morgan got up and moved to close the door. He couldn’t risk being overheard. He dialed a number that he hadn’t dialed in quite a while; he only hoped he’d get a warm reception without a lecture of how terrible he was at keeping in contact with friends.

The phone was answered on the third ring and he sighed at hearing her voice on the other end. No one, not even Garcia had known that he had kept in contact and knew where she was.  After her sudden departure her name was very rarely if ever brought up as if she had never been a part of the team. The two of them had become close and Morgan wasn’t one to forget about the few people whom he had let in. So, from time to time he would call to check on her and she him. It was their secret and he kept his word to keep her whereabouts to himself.

“It’s been a while, stranger.” She said cheerfully.

“Elle, I need you…”

Resurrection Day Chapter 11

The annoying monotonous beeps of the monitors seemed far into the distance.  As his eyes slowly opened the beeps became louder and he remembered where he was.  His eyes roamed the room landing on the sleeping form of Spencer Reid who’d volunteered to sit with him until he regained consciousness.  He immediately tried to sit up but was pulled back onto the bed by the pain now also awake in his body.  Reid quickly stood and approached the bed.

“You’re awake.”

“Garcia…”

“She’s fine. The doctor gave her something to relax her. It was just a panic attack; it’s to be expected.”

Morgan allowed his body to relax as he stared at the ceiling.  He needed to be with her. He wanted to apologize for upsetting her and for so many other things that would have to wait. 

“I tried to comfort her…to hold her but she just freaked out, man.”

“Morgan, it’s going to take time lot’s of time. You both went through a stressful ordeal.”

Morgan looked away from his friend; he didn’t want to see his face when he asked the next question.

“Did he rape her?”

“Morgan, I think you should…”

Morgan turned and faced his friend with fury and tears in his eyes.

“Did he rape her?”

“No Morgan, he didn’t rape her.”

Morgan exhaled and turned his eyes back to the ceiling.

“She’s still going to have the same feelings of violation and betrayal and anger.  If he hadn’t been impotent he would have raped her and none of us could have stopped him. Not even you.”

“I saw him on top of her…she was naked and his hands were…”

“You saw what he wanted you to see.  He was simulating the act and he did everything to her except penetrate her.  Morgan, look at me!”

Morgan reluctantly turned to face his friend.

“He knew you were coming.  He wanted her to wake up as he was attacking her so she would be terrified.”

“Why?  Why her? She’s never hurt anyone in her life and that sick son-of-a-bitch…”

“She’s a strong woman; strong enough to have found a way to defend herself.  She killed him! He didn’t see that coming!”

“No he didn’t.  How do I help her, Reid? She’s never going to get over this.”

“What about you?  The same thing he did to her he did to you.”

“No! What are you talking about?”

“Morgan, you know what I’m talking about.  Each time he stabbed you he was simulating the act of…”

“Don’t! Don’t say it! I know what it means, please. I can’t talk about this right now.”

Reid watched his friend’s body stiffen on the bed and withdraw from him as he resumed his fixed study of the ceiling his body slightly trembling as he fought back the tears. 

Penelope opened her eyes still heavy from a drug-induced sleep.  She saw her friend sleeping quietly in the corner unaware that she was awake.  She remained still feeling foolish and embarrassed at her earlier display of emotion.  Her mind was beginning to emerge from the fog caused by Anderson’s drug and she remembered the details of her minutes with him; minutes that felt like hours.  He’d wanted to terrorize her and humiliate her by drugging her and stripping her of her clothes and dignity.  He’d planned to use her shame and violation at his hands as his trophy proving that he had defeated Morgan and the others.  She could still feel his hands on her skin, could still smell his wretched cologne in her nostrils and the weight of his body still felt heavy as she moved to find a more comfortable position on the small narrow bed. 

She heard a slight groan and knew that JJ was awake and Penelope welcomed her company as she waited for her to look her way.

“Hello Sleepyhead!” She said trying to sound chipper.

“How are you feeling, Garcie?”

JJ cautiously approached the bed and looked down upon her friend.  She seemed pale and she wasn’t fooled by her vain attempt at levity.

“I’ve been better and I’ve been worse.”

JJ’s lip trembled as she fought the tears threatening to overtake her.

“Hey, no tears! I’m fine, really. It’s going to okay.”

“Yeah I know it is. I’m just…”

She wiped a tear and took a breath to compose herself.

“…Just happy to see you, that’s all.”

Penelope smiled for the first time since the nightmare had begun; she was happy to be seen as her mother used to say.  In spite of everything that had happened she knew that she had won.  Anderson’s plans did not included getting stabbed by his own knife.  He’d underestimated her light-hearted bubbly nature!  He confused it for weakness and she was not weak.

Then she remembered Derek and the look on his face of horror as she pulled away from his touch refusing his comfort.  He’d suffered unspeakably at the hands of Anderson and she knew he’d keep that secret even from her.  She felt her own tears now.

“Derek?”

JJ took her hand and squeezed it gently.

“He’s going to be fine.  He collapsed outside your room but he’s going to be fine.”

“I need to see him. I feel horrible for how I treated him, JJ.”

“Morgan loves you and he’s a profiler. He knows your reaction was normal.  Believe me he won’t hold it against you.”

“I knew he would come, I knew you all would come.”

“Of course.” She began still holding her hand. “I just prayed we weren’t too late.”

“No, never, you were right on time.”

“As it turned out you didn’t need our help.”

She joked and smiled hoping to lighten the mood.  Garcia smiled then quickly sadness covered her face.

“I never thought I’d have to kill someone.”

“It was self-defense, Garcia. Anderson was a sick, sick monster!”

“I know. I just never imagined…that’s what you guys do your trained for it. Me, I’m supposed to sit in my safe world with my babies and master cyberspace.”

“Well, we do what we have to do and tonight you showed just how strong you are and took back your control. I’m so proud of you.”

“Somehow that doesn’t make me feel better.”

Home of Derek Morgan – 2 weeks later –

She’d kept a close eye on him since he’d been home. He walked around gingerly still dealing with the pain of his wounds, still not talking about what had happened and still refusing to reveal his upper body as they lied together each night.  Her nightmares had kept her in a constant battle for sleep but she was managing them better now.  Morgan on the other hand was suffering and his nights were haunted by his experience with Anderson; joined now with Buford and Foyet…sleep was now just a distant memory for him.  He’d complied with the Bureau’s request for therapy and so did she both attending sessions separately and where she was finding some relief and understanding, he was going through the motions.  Something needed to change or she knew she’d lose him to the dark pit he was trapped in.

Like the night before and the night before that he hadn’t slept.  His body ached more from fatigue than it did from the still healing wounds.  Even now as he walked around his kitchen he found each step to be labored and slow and his mind was clouded with his never ending battle not to think.  He didn’t want to remember but the more he tried to forget the more his mind remained fixated on his captivity and torture. 

“Good Morning, Handsome.”

He hadn’t heard her enter. He flinched as she wrapped her arms around his waist and laid her head against his back.  She forced herself not to react to his tension, as he’d also been jumpy since being home.  Seconds later he relaxed and allowed her touch; another reminder that it would take time for things to get back to normal.

“Hey, it’s early you should still be asleep.”

“So should you.”

“Yeah, well…” he chuckled sadly.  “I’d love to still be asleep but…”

She carefully took the cup from his hand and laid it on the counter.  She turned him to face her and waited for him to look at her.  He did and her heart broke for him as she saw the pain and loss in his eyes.

He watched as her hands slowly approached his face he kept his eyes focused on hers as if it were his lifeline.  He steadied himself for her touch as she placed her hands on each side of his face and caressed lightly drawing him toward her.  Their foreheads met and he inhaled and pulled her tight against his body.  He realized he needed the contact between them; her touch was like a warm balm against his aching body.  Even though they’d shared the same bed he had not allowed any physical contact between them.

She felt him tremble slightly as she placed a light kiss on his lips.  She waited for his reaction before repeating the action.  She felt a twinge of hope as she again kissed him this time running her tongue across his bottom lip politely requesting entry.  She smiled against him as he let her in and she deepened the kiss.  He joined her as their tongues explored each other’s mouths and danced the dance of control.  The need for air caused their bodies to surrender as they breathlessly pulled apart.

He felt emotions stirring within him; emotions that he’d almost forgotten existed and he blinked back his tears willing them to stay in their place.  He didn’t want to cry, didn’t want to lose control…control meant power; power to say no and power to fight back and resist being forced to do things against his will. 

Then he felt her lips on his face, then moving to his neck.  He ran his hands through her hair gently pulling her away from him.  She saw in his eyes what he was sure was hidden from her; fear and uncertainty but she kept going for both of their sakes she knew they needed to feel again, to remind each other that the beast hadn’t won this time.  She refused to surrender and she refused to let him surrender…she was ready to meet his resistance.

She returned to his lips only this time she didn’t wait for his permission as she plunged her tongue deep within his mouth and hungrily devoured him.  His hands began to run circles over her back and shoulders; he was so consumed by the taste of her that he’d momentarily let his guard down.  Her hands began to creep beneath his t-shirt brushing purposefully across his abdomen then his chest.  He froze and broke the kiss and moved slightly away.  She looked up at him in silent expectation watching him process what was happening in his mind.

“I’m not Anderson.”  She whispered taking a step toward him.

“What?”

“I said, I’m not Anderson…and neither are you.”

He ran his hand across his face, neck and over his head trying to make sense of her words.  Backing away his body came to a stop against the kitchen island.  Quickly she closed the gap between them and facing him took his hands in hers.

“It’s time.”

“Time for what?”

“Time to stop letting him win, my love.”

“I don’t understand.  What do you want from me?”

“I want you to fight this! Derek, you have to fight or Anderson’s plan worked!”

He pushed past her and bolted from the room.  He suddenly felt dirty, worthless, like the little boy, who’d spent the weekend in a small cabin with a man who he thought loved him.  He found himself in the bathroom and with a trembling hand turned on the shower.  He caught his reflection in the mirror just before it clouded over with steam.  His stomach wretched at the sight of the scars that ran over his chest, stomach and arms.  The room began to close in and he couldn’t breathe and in that moment he wanted to die.

She heard the water running as she stepped into their bedroom walking slowing toward the bathroom she heard the gut wrenching sounds of agony.  She was conflicted in that moment knowing that he’d never want her to see him in this state.  But she had to save him; she had to throw him a lifeline because he was sinking fast into the abyss.  So, she pushed the door open.

The heat from the steam greeted her as she pushed her way in.  He sat on the floor his arms wrapped around his knees that were pulled tightly against his chest.  He didn’t acknowledge her presence but she continued to move toward him.  As she lowered her body next to his he turned his head to face her.  Tears mixed with the wetness of the steam illuminated his face as he sobbed and shook uncontrollably.  Tearfully and without saying a word she placed her hand on his arm and immediately he allowed his body to fall against hers as he continued to sob.  Wrapping her arms around him tightly she rocked back and forth whispering in his ear.

“I love you, Derek Morgan.”

He shook his head affirmatively unable to speak.

“You’re going to get through this…we both are going to get through this.”

Again he shook his head.  Then without warning he shifted and took her in his arms resting his head on her chest and this is how they remained for the next several minutes.  The water still running unused in the shower and the steam a thick smoldering cloud around them, the two sat in each other’s arms on the floor.  Both of them in pain beyond even their own realization, both needing so much from the other and both drowning and seeking solace in each other’s touch. 

“I need you, Penelope.” He whispered so softly he wasn’t sure she heard him.

She did and a small smile found it’s way onto her face.

“I need you too, Derek.”

Now their healing could begin…

“Love one another and help others to rise to the higher levels, simply by pouring out love. Love is infectious and the greatest healing energy.” - Sai Baba

The End…