Fic: Visitors of Several Sorts, Chapter 4 (Criminal Minds, Reid / Morgan, Hotch / Chad)
Title: Visitors of Several Sorts, Chapter 4
Pair: Spencer Reid / Derek Morgan,
Aaron Hotchner / Chad Christensen
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
Criminal Minds Main List
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Morgan walked further away from the main entrance and chose number two on his speed dials.
“I expect some serious crawling, YummyBun.” Garcia started. “I called you three times! I demand attention.”
“Sorry, we were having dinner at Hotch`s place.”
“You’re sucking up to our Fearless Leader behind my back?”
“No, I was eating lamb behind your back. We’re at the hospital, so I couldn’t keep my phone on.”
“Hospital? Was the food that bad?”
“Chad’s mom had some kinda seizure.”
“Sorry, tell him I’ll send him some serious cyberhugs.”
“I’ll tell him. Why were you calling me?”
“I told you I couldn’t find anything about the evil twin.”
“I talked about it with Hotch. We agreed to use the term Creepy Twin, not Evil Twin.”
“Whatever, this is really creepy. I contacted J.T.”
“Who?”
“J.T. You know him, he works in the Dallas office. Anyway, he couldn’t find anything either, but after we talked he got curious and did some more digging.”
“Did he found something?”
“Your creepy twin was mentioned in a Dallas PD case report four months ago. He was interviewed because he was named the contact person in the parish files.”
“Parish?”
“Yeah, and this is the point where the story gets creepy.”
----------------------------------------------------
“Anything new?” Reid sat down next to Chad on one of the waiting room couches.
“They haven’t told me anything yet. Where’s Morgan?”
“He went to get some coffee and Hotch had to make some calls.”
“I called Cain, but he had his voicemail on. He’s somewhere with Sean, they were supposed to drop by tomorrow.”
“You’re not allowed to use cell phone here.”
“I know.” Chad turned to face him. “While we’re waiting, I want the whole story. What the hell happened?”
“We were talking and suddenly she stopped. Her speech became incoherent and he collapsed.”
“I have a feeling you know more about this so let’s hear it.”
“She had two TIAs within a week.”
“TIAs?”
“Transient ischemic attack. It’s caused by the changes in the blood supply to a particular area of the brain, resulting in brief neurologic dysfunction. If symptoms persist longer than twenty-four hours, it is categorized as a stroke. It’s often referred to as mini stroke.”
“And she had two of them.”
“Yeah. I talked to her and she agreed to check into the hospital. We were packing her overnight bag when she had the attack.”
“So this was…. what? Another TIA?”
“This is not exactly my area of expertise-”
“Spencer.”
“I think this was a lot bigger.”
“You mean a real, full-on stroke.”
“Yeah.” Reid paused. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t. Good thing she wasn’t alone when it happened.” Chad got up and marched across the room. He slammed his fist against the wall hard enough to crack the paint. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I thought she was just getting old and demented.”
“It’s not easy to see the signs, especially if the victims tries to hide them. And you did notice the signs, you just didn’t know what they meant.”
“Coffee’s here.” Hotch walked in carrying a tray loaded with take-away cups. “Have they told anything yet?”
“No.” Chad took a steaming mug and pressed it against his bruised knuckles.
“What are you doing?”
“Little bit of pain takes away some unwanted thoughts. Where’s Morgan?”
“Still outside, he got a call.”
“Excuse me.” A grey-haired man in white coat came in. His eyes went from one man to the next. “Are you here for Christensen?”
“Yeah. How is she?” Chad responded.
“Are you a relative?”
“She’s my mother.”
“So you are….” The doctor scanned one of the prints on the patient chart. “Zachary?”
“Yes.”
“You’re listed as the secondary contact person. The primary was Jeremy Christensen, but we couldn’t reach him.”
“My dad’s on a fishing trip in Florida, he usually keeps his phone off.”
“Well, your mother had an ischemic stroke. That was the assumption of the paramedics and she was treated accordingly.”
“How bad is it?”
“We can’t say for sure until she regains consciousness.”
“Is she paralysed?”
“It’s too early to say, but that is almost certain. Only twenty percent of stroke victims survive without any level of paralysis.”
“Did you get her medical records from Cleveland?” Reid interrupted.
“Not yet. Do you know if she has had any previous health issues?”
“She has had two TIAs within a week.”
The look on doctors face turned into a deep frown.
“How serious?”
“She had memory problems, clear signs of Dysphasia, and paralysis of her right hand.”
“Was she under medication?”
“Yeah, Heparin and Warfarin.”
“Does it effect her recovery?” Chad asked. “Does it make this one more serious?”
“Stroke is always serious. But if she already had two smaller attacks before this her prognosis will be grimmer.”
“And you can’t tell anything more now?”
“We need to wait till she’s conscious.”
“So she will wake up?”
“Yes.”
“Can I go see her?”
“Yes, she was just moved to the ward. I’ll show you her room.”
Chad followed the doctor to the hallway. They passed Morgan, who was leaning against the doorframe.
“How is she?” He asked.
“Pretty well, all things considered.” Reid sighed. “What took you so long?”
“Penny loves to talk, especially when she has some gruesome details to tell. And I didn’t wanna interrupt while those two were talking.” He gestured to the hallway.
“What gruesome details?”
“Your number one fan and his double.”
“You want some privacy?” Hotch asked.
“No, you’ll wanna hear this too. About four months ago there was some vandalism on a cemetery in Dallas. They were expanding the cemetery, and they left some of the machinery on the site while the workers went away for the weekend. Some kids managed to get them going during the night, and apparently had a lot of fun violating graves.”
“I admit, that’s gruesome.” Reid stated. “How many graves?”
“Fourteen. The whole wing of the cemetery was in chaos, so they had to identify all remains before they could be reburied.”
“How did they do the identification?” Hotch asked.
“Some coffins had those identification plates, most of them were identified with dental records.” Morgan took a deep breath. “Mark’s coffin was one of them.”
“That was four months ago.” Hotch gave Reid a worried glance. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“The coffin was empty.”
“Well….” Reid looked like he was struggling to get a sound out of his throat. “The act of grave robbing is as old as mankind. Did you know that one of the most common methods for body-snatchers in the 19th century was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade too avoid loud noise. When they reached the coffin, they broke open the lid, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were usually careful not to steal jewellery or clothes because that would cause them to be liable to a felony charge-”
“Pretty Boy, listen to me.” Morgan placed his hands on the genius’s shoulders to get his attention. They had the same thought. Or…. Almost the same. Anyway, they investigated the coffin. According to Garcia they couldn’t find the normal traces from the linings of the coffin.”
“Normal traces?” Hotch tilted his head to the side and tried to process the information. “Meaning what?”
“When a human body decomposes, it leaves a mark on whatever is under it.” Reid explained. “Imagine putting a piece of meat on a canvas and letting it decompose. The fabric will soak up a lot of the side products of the decomposition process.”
He saw the realisation on Hotch`s face.
“You mean….?”
“The coffin was empty when it was buried.”
Chapter 5