White Rabbit - A Criminal Minds Fic

Nine

When she got another door at the top of the stairs, she pushed it open. Reid could see that it had an outer lock on it which hadn't been shut. She led him into a open plan apartment, a kitchenette across one side with what he assumed was a bathroom leading off from it. There was a living area, with a large couch and TV as well as a desktop computer, scanner and printer, and a laptop bag. Two huge strategically placed bookcases separated a large bed from the rest of the room and Spencer watched as his companion walked between the cases and dropped her towel as if he wasn't even there. Spencer spun around, facing the other way and waited until he heard her voice again before turning.

When her looked at her again she was dressed in an oversized t-shirt.

"Sorry. I'm not used to having company." Was all she said to him before walking over to a closet and pulling out some blankets and a pillow.

"The couch pulls out into a bed. Can I see your gun please?"

Spencer took it out and held it out to her. She eyed it carefully.

"Smith and Wesson Model 65?" She asked him and he nodded in surprise.

"Thats not an FBI approved gun."

"I have a waiver for it. I find it easier to operate than others."

"But you CAN operate others right?"

He nodded and allowed her to take his gun out of his hands, watching her handle it.

"I prefer Desert Eagles or Glocks."

"Alice, you know guns?"

She checked the chambers making sure it was loaded and handed it back to him.

"I know guns. I know how to fire them, how to assemble them and how to clean them. We were taught how to defend ourselves at the compound."

"Defend yourselves from what?"

"Everything and anything else."

"Alice, what hap....."

"I'm going to sleep now Dr Reid. I'm tired. Feel free to use my shower or to watch TV. Make yourself at home. I have a feeling you'll be assigned to me until you've got the information that you need."

So did he.

...

When he awoke the next day, she was fully dressed and sitting on the floor by her bed, sorting items out from a box under her bed. There were Polaroids, which she had piled up along with a small box. When she felt his eyes on her, she glanced up.

"Sleep well Dr Reid?" She asked, much calmer than he'd heard her so far. It was then that he realised that his gun as no longer it's holster and was by her bed.

"Please, call me Spencer. I keep telling you that. How did you sleep?" His eyes flickered to the weapon, wondering at what point she'd taken it.

"Better than I have in a while. Knowing that there's an armed federal agent in my room definitely helped."

"I'm not sure what good I'd have been though if anything did happen, considering my weapon is all the way over there."

She gave him a very childish grin. "Sorry. You can have it back." She placed it on the wooden floor and slid it across to him.

Spencer tossed the blankets back and pulled on his courdroys which he'd discarded last night to sleep and then padded across to her, picking up his gun as he went.

"What are you looking at, Alice?" He settled onto the floor across from her, crossing his long legs under him.

"You can call me Ally, you know. Ellen and Rob always do." She handed him some Polaroids and he leafed through them.

"Which do you prefer?"

She shrugged and slid the small box over to him as well.

"Alright, I'll call you Ally if you start calling me Spencer rather than Dr Reid."

He opened up the small box, seeing that it contained leather bracelets. The same ones he'd seen in the photo she'd given him before.

"You all wore these?"

She nodded. "The tattoos are too low down our necks to be easily seen. We wore these on our wrists so we could easily spot our family.... I mean, the other members."

"Children wore only one though." He continued to sort through the photos seeing pictures of happy looking people going about their day to day life. From he could tell in the photos, the compound looked self sufficient, there were shots of people tending to chickens, grooming horses, photos of what appeared to be a school lesson in progress.

"Yes. The children wore only one until they came of age and were matched."

"Matched?"

She looked at him, focusing her eyes on his.

"Yes. Matched. See Meg here?" She tapped a face on a photo. "Meg was nineteen before they decided on a suitable match for her, one she was happy with. A band on your right arm signified you were underage and therefore off limits. When you turned 16, it was moved to the left arm to show that you had come of age. When you were matched, you wore a band on both arms."

Spencer assumed that being 'matched' was their version of being wed.

"Was everyone matched then?"

"Not everyone. There were a few people who chose to remain loners, and a lot of the younger people didn't want to be matched straight away. They wanted to have fun. They didn't force you into a match if you didn't want to be. That was the good thing."

Spencer recalled the photo of Alice, bands on both arms.

"Ally, how old were you when you were matched?"

"The ceremony took place on my seventeenth birthday." She locked eyes with him again.

"Who were you matched to?" He knew the answer to the question before he'd even asked it.

"Lewis."