"But with every falling apart, there is a coming together"
-Seeker-
Late night text. Garcia texted the team late at night and informed them on an important case. It had to be important enough to wake Maya out of her amazing slumber. Maya hands her duffel bag to one of the flight attendants and proceeds to get on the jet.
"Hey" Derek greets making Maya groan in annoyance.
"Sorry, I'm really tired. I hate late night cases, they're always the worse ones" Maya says, taking a seat on the jet and Derek takes a seat next to her as the rest of the team gathers onto the jet.
"Yeah, we don't get these often. I wonder what it is" Derek states before Garcia calls Hotch off his tablet. "Hi, Hi. Sorry for the cryptic late- night text, but I promised I'd fill you in on the way here, and I keep my promises" Garcia starts off while everyone takes their seats, some tired and some look as if they're ready to start the day.
"This boy was found two hours ago in the middle of nowhere. Technically he was found outside of Crawford, Arizona. My point is, he has clearly been to super hell and escaped some sort of captivity" Garcia explains before Derek hands Maya some of the photos of the wounds on the boy's body and she can't believe her eyes.
"How do we know he wasn't just dropped off there?" Derek wonders. "He has fresh cuts on the bottom of his feet from the local cactus fields, and that's away from any roads and his skin is rubbed raw around his ankles from chains" Garcia explains, her voice getting lower as she explains the brutal torture this kid has been through.
"Oh my god..." Maya whispers to herself as she looks how scared and nervous the kid is in the photos.
"He must've had a chance to escape, and he took it" Derek suggests. "Thank god he did" Maya adds on. "My god, you guys, look at his eyes" Garcia urges and when Maya flips through the photo of the child's eyes she can't believe it.
"He's jaundiced" Maya states. "He probably hasn't seen daylight in a while" JJ adds on.
"Are there any missing children in the area, Garcia?" Reid asks. "None until now, but sir you may have more information than I do" Garcia says, referring to Hotch.
"Earlier tonight another boy was reported missing in flagstaff" Hotch explains. The recent abduction of, Billy Henderson, was in the area within hours of the escape. Roadblocks were set up and alerts went out, but no clues have come up so the only way they can get more information is figuring out what the first victims knows... if he knows anything at all.
As the team drives into town, Garcia reveals that a helpful woman went to the police station to inform them that she remembers a similar crime from thirty years earlier. Then she saw a picture in a glass display case, got freaked out, and fled the station. Luckily, she left her name and is on video, so it shouldn't be too hard to track down.
_____
Derek and Maya get to the hospital and discover that the kid won't let doctors touch him. JJ was going to come but Hotch thought she would be better on finding Samantha Allen, the women found on surveillance in the police station.
"He has the most severe case of C. E. R. I've ever seen" The doctor informs and Maya sighs as her and Derek start walking to the child's room. "C. E. R.? That's worse than PTSD" Maya states. "He had an adrenaline rush when he escaped, but coming down from that will be just as extreme" The doctor informs.
"I'm sure he's sensitive to light and sound" Derek declares which he was right about. "We're keeping it as quiet and dark as possible" The doctor says.
"Which is something he's used to" Maya says, continuing their way to child's room while the doctor states everything bad thing the kid has, making the list longer and longer.
It's hard for the doctors to tell how old the kid is considering he's been locked away from ears and kept in the dark causing his growth the decrease and major tooth and skin decay which is clearly from a massive vitamin D deficiency. But the best guesses the doctor could come up with age is, possibly sixteen years old.
Maya and Derek reveal their badges to the police officer guarding the door and the officer allows them to go through. Maya stops before she reaches the doorway and takes a deep breath.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Derek asks. "I'm good with talking down serial killers and sexual sadists into not killing themselves but I'm not good with children. I- I care about them but I don't know how to talk to them" Maya confesses, not wanting to walk in and say the wrong thing and frighten the kid which is the last thing she wants to do.
"You need calm down. It'll be difficult but you have to realize what this kid went through" Derek says as he rests his hands on both of Maya's shoulders. "Derek, even adults are afraid of me. That kid is going to look at me and- and run away" Maya says softly.
"I'm not afraid of you, because I know you. You're a good person and that kid will see that if you give him the chance to" Derek says before he puts his finger under Maya's chin and raises her head to look at him. "You can do this" Derek encourages, forming his lips into a smile which seemed to be contagious as his smile made Maya smile as well.
"Okay" Maya mumbles before she and Derek pull their shirts down over their gun to seem non-threatening before talking to the kid. Maya and Derek bend down to the kid who hides underneath the table, refusing treatment from any of the doctors.
"Hey" Derek greets softly. "I'm Derek and this is my partner, Maya. We're the good guys- or gal" Derek corrects, looking over at Maya, smiling jokingly at her.
"The doctor says you have been eating much. I know it's a hospital but for what it's worth, the food looks pretty good" Maya says, trying to build some trust between her and the frightened child.
"You must be thirsty" Derek says as Maya turns her head, seeing a bottle of water on the food tray. She grabs it and hands it to Derek who hands it to the kid, but the kid quickly throws it across the room.
"Okay, it's okay" Maya says softly before narrowing her eyes at the child who can't even bare to look at her.
"This is years of conditioning" Derek says as him and Maya lock eyes. "Which means it's going to take some time before we can build his trust" Maya says as her and Derek slowly stand to their feet.
"I'll have Garcia go to 2009 for missing kids" Derek says as he grabs his phone out of his pocket and leaves the room so he can Garcia.
Maya looks at the kid who's still hiding underneath the table and gets down on the ground and sits up against the hospital bed, wanting to be leveled with him so he knows she's not a threat. She grabs the water bottle that the kid has thrown earlier and holds it in her hand and thinks when he's ready to eat and drink he'll do so.
Maya sighs as she continues sitting up against the bed and looks out the door to see where Derek is but sees no sign of him. She looks over at the kid who has finally made eye contact with her since she got her.
"I'm not good at this. Talking to kids" Maya confesses before setting the water bottle down on the cold hard floor next to her.
"I know you're scared, and I know you think the man who did this to you can still hurt you but you're safe here... I promise" Maya declares, locking eyes with the kid. "Even if he was here, he'd have to get through me to get to you and I may not look the part, but I can kick some ass- or butt" Maya corrects making the kid smile slightly before it quickly faded away once Derek entered the room, twirling a coin in his hand.
"How's it going?" Derek asks quietly as he takes a seat up against the wall, still twirling the same coin. "Uh, he smiled at my joke so... we're getting somewhere" Maya answers before noticing the child's interest in Derek's coin.
Derek notices it as well and slides the coin over to him. The kid stops it with his hand and takes a good look at it, admiring it before he slides it over to Maya.
Maya lifts up the coin, analyzing it as well. See the large eagle plastered on it. "What is it? Some type of lucky coin?" Maya asks and Derek shrugs before Maya slides the coin over to him.
"Something like that" Derek says as he catches the coin being slid at him.
______
A few hours later, Maya and Derek started to gain the kids trust and were able to get him used to the light. Maya took a call out in the hall when Garcia called and walked back towards the room when she saw the kid slide the coin in her direction, prompting Maya to catch it with the end of her boot before bending down and picking it up.
She quietly walks over and sits next to Derek before handing the coin back over to Derek who twirls it in his fingers. "What did Garcia find out?" Derek asks. "Uh, she broadened her search, but found nothing that matches his description" Maya says sadly as she looks over at the tired, quiet kid.
"Somebody's got to be missing this kid" Derek declares. "I know but-" Maya starts off before she is quickly interrupted by the sound of a loud alarm blaring through the hospital, which frightens the kid causing him to run back under the table where Maya and Derek originally found him at.
"Wait, wait wait" Derek urges. "It's not for us, okay? It's for the doctors" Maya reassures as she shows the kid her hands, letting him know she or anyone else isn't a threat.
"It's alright. It's ok" Derek says softly before the boy slowly comes back out of his hiding spot that took him so long to get out of. "Here" Derek calls out quietly, handing the kid the coin with the eagle on it before all three of them can relax again.
"Does he know his name?" Maya asks as she locks eyes with Derek and notices that they're really close together. "Uh, uh. Yeah, but all I've gotten is a nod so far" Derek says as the two of them can practically feel each other's heart beating.
"Have you tried Spanish?" Maya asks, bringing her eyes down to look at Derek's lips before she quickly raises her eyes to his, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of seeing her checking him out.
A smile curls up on the corners of Derek's lips before it quickly fades away but keeps finding its way back. "Does it really matter the language if he won't talk?" Derek asks. "I guess not" Maya declares before she turns her head to look at the kid sitting in front of her and Derek. The teen shows Maya the coin and points to the wings, then to his back.
"Wings? Wings... Angel. Is your name Angel?" Maya asks, looking down at the coin then back up at the kid who forms a smile on his face, verifying his name is Angel.
_____
Over at the police station, Hotch talks to the latest victim's parents, trying to get a sense of how he would have been abducted when he was known to be a cautious kid. Then the woman returns to the station, obviously feeling guilty about shutting them down earlier.
The opening of her conversation with Emily involves the woman describing her father's love of every manner of sports, which is so random that it's probably going to be important later. Then she claims that there were just flashes of a boy in chains from her memory, and that she doesn't even know if they're accurate.
Hotch and Reid are ready to make an unfounded assumption about the killer's M.O. - since the killer is so controlled, Angel couldn't have escaped from his cell, it must have happened during transit. Then they announce that the latest victim must have been targeted, since it's implausible that the killer would have lost Angel and then immediately driven an hour to Flagstaff in the hopes of randomly coming across a kid that met his twisted fetishes.
_____
Back at the hospital, Maya watches from the doorway as Derek helps Angel learn how to twirl the coin in his finger like he saw Derek doing. Suddenly, her phone vibrates. She turned off the sound because she knew how sensitive Angel was/is to it.
"Garica, please tell me you have something" Maya states, answering Garcia's phone call. "I'd love to but there's no one in the tri-state area whose name is Angel. I even did a nationwide search but- I came up empty" Garcia states causing Maya to let out a helpless sigh before looking back over at Derek and Angel who continue to interact.
"Why wouldn't anyone report him missing?" Maya wonders but Garcia has no clue. "Okay, go back to 2004 and check to see if any kids name Angel dropped out during grade school" Maya orders nicely as she starts to pace around the hospital hallway.
"Got one!" Garcia cheers while over the phone Maya does lets out a sigh of relief. "Second grader Angel Suarez" Garcia concludes before sending a picture of him to Maya's phone and all his mother's information along with it.
Derek leaves the hospital room as the doctors enter and walks over to Maya who looks over the mother's information. "What do you got?" Derek asks, walking up to Maya, placing his hand on her back.
"His name is Angel Suarez, and he was in second grade before he went missing, but his mother never filed a missing report so hopefully when I call her it's not... weird" Maya explains before taking the call someplace private.
Maya and Derek are worried about Angel being exposed to his mother, what with all the shame he must be feeling from a near-decade of abuse. Speaking of shame, Derek and Maya walk into
his room and see the sight of him slashing his wrist with a sharp object that a doctor left in the room with the extremely emotionally disturbed teen.
"Angel, no no!" Maya calls out as she and Derek rush to the kid and quickly grabs his arms. Maya takes the sharp object away from Angel and tosses it to the side. "Get a towel!" Derek urges and Maya does just that and wraps them around Angel's wrist.
He pulls through, though, but he's bandaged and barely conscious when his mother arrives and is told that she can't see him just yet. Maya walks back into the room and sees Angel feels safe enough to touch Derek's hand. Thinking there's hope.
______
Later, JJ meets Maya out in the hallway. "I heard the mothers here. Hotch wants me to interview her" JJ says as she looks into Angel's hospital room seeing how comfortable he is. "He looks better" JJ notices and Maya nods her head, thinking the same thing before showing JJ where the mother is at for the time being.
JJ interviews Angel's mother, hoping to discover a clue about the day of the disappearance but only discovers that the mother didn't call the police in order to keep the rest of her family from being deported.
Maya walks back to the hospital and takes a seat next to Angel's hospital bed, looking across at Derek. "And you said you weren't good with kids" Derek declares, stating what Maya said to him earlier. "Maybe not all kids" Maya corrects before she watches Angel grab the coin off the table next to him.
"It's called a challenge coin" Derek state. "Legend says an American pilot in World War 1 was gunned down over Germany. And he crawled, across no-man's-land into French territory" Derek tells Angel who looks interested.
"What happened to him?" Angel asks, shocking both Maya and Derek with his voice.
"A French shoulder recognized the insignia on the coin. So, they set him free" Derek concludes.
"Angel, the man who took you took another boy, and we have to find him. Can you help us do that?" Derek asks and just as they think they're getting somewhere Angel sets the coin down back on the table and looks away from Derek and Maya, clearly not wanting to help.
Maya and Derek lock eyes, unsure of what to do before Derek gets an idea. He grabs the coin off the table and shows it to Angel. "I want you to have this. It's kept me safe" Derek says as he grasps Angel's hand in his.
"Listen to me.... Carl Buford" Derek states to Angel but raises suspicion to Maya.
"That's the name of the man who hurt me. I was just a young boy like you, Angel. And I thought about doing that very same thing to myself. But I kept the pain buried inside of me and it tore me apart" Derek explains causing a single tear to roll down Maya's cheek.
Angel notices and places his free hand onto Maya's.
"Joseph Perez" Maya states, looking down at her jeans. "I looked to him like a father and- and he hurt me too. He hurt me and many other girls" Maya informs, Derek looking over to her with his eyes filled with shock.
The only difference between Maya's story is that she was going to get her revenge.
"We want to make sure this man doesn't do this again. Not to you or any other kid out there" Maya reassures as she sniffles in her tears. "I say us 3 are a pretty good team. We can take away what he took from you all these years and that's his freedom" Maya explains, trying to get through the Angel and let him know that he's not the only one who's been hurt and is going to get hurt. His story can help save another.
"So, will you help us do that?" Derek asks and Angel nods his head. "Yes" Angel declares making both Maya and Derek smile with joy.
JJ enters the room quietly and Angel doesn't even jump so it's obvious he's making progress with getting in touch with others. "Can you tell us if any of these men look familiar?" JJ asks, showing 4 pictures of 4 different men to Angel, but he says that it was always so dark that he never saw the killer's face.
______
Emily keeps trying to convince the woman that her father is a murderer, claiming that she's buried memories of her father's inappropriate behavior. Emily goes to the well of standard serial killer behavior and asks if he ever gave her gifts when he was especially upset. He did. A bike and a catcher's mitt. The kind he'd have stolen from the young boys he murdered.
All of the evidence comes together quickly - the last trophy the daughter got was a puppy, and Angel's mother remembers puppies being given away on the day of the abduction. Also Angel was repeatedly bitten, but then he stopped, and the woman remembered her father having his teeth recapped a few years earlier.
_____
Maya and Derek come across JJ in the hallway who is taking a call. "What's going on?" Derek asks. "They're going to find J.B. Allen" JJ informs, referring to the unsub. Maya and Derek look over at each other with determination, knowing what they have to do before moving past JJ and on their way out of the hospital, but with two different ideas in their head.
The team searches the father's house, but comes up empty. Luckily there are a few outbuildings, but when they find the concrete pit, the kid has already been moved from it. The team assumes that father will want to bury the kids someplace he can visit a lot.
The team figures that since young boys love to hang around construction sites, the killer would give them rides on his backhoe, so that's probably how he met his victims. The daughter then explains that every couple of years he adds a new house to his first development, so there must be a kid under every single one.
The team arrives just in time to save the kid from being buried alive. Derek and Maya watch as J.B. Allen makes a run for it and they both start to chase after him. Maya separates from Derek and manages to make it in front of Allen and hits him across the head with her gun before cocking it back and pointing it at him as he lays on the ground.
"Maya! Maya, no! We said we would take his freedom like he took away Angels'" Derek says, wanting to let this man suffer.
"I know what I said but- but if I pull this trigger, it ends everything and makes sure he doesn't get to do this again" Maya says as she looks down at Allen who has blood dripping from his forehead and all she sees is her abuser. Joseph Perez. Not a day goes by that she doesn't think about him.
"Maya, don't do this. I want him dead to, but prison will be worse for him".
"It won't! He will get a meal every day and even a bed to sleep on while Angel will have to go through so much therapy to feel like a person again" Maya declares, looking up at Derek who slowly steps towards her.
"Maya, put the gun down" Derek demands, looking into Mayas eyes and she knew she could do it. She could end a man's life right here right now. It wouldn't be the first time. But with Derek begging her, she couldn't... Maya sniffles in her tears and slips her gun back into her holster before looking down at Allen, seeing a smirk perk up onto his lips which only angered Maya even more.
______
The next day, Maya and Derek decided to stay and extra day and watch as Angel reconciles with his mother, it's a super-happy ending all around. Maya watches smiles happily before her smile drops slowly after remembering his abuser is still alive.
"You alright?" Derek asks, walking up next to Maya.
"You should've let me kill him" Maya says before she walks away from the scene, filled with anger.
Case closed...
"When you care for someone more than they deserve, you get hurt more than you deserve"
-Unknown-