Natalie

Chapter 27

Matthew Ainsworth turned out to be a real bust. All Derek and Emily could seem to get out of him was the gross details of his and Cindy's relationship. Things that they genuinely didn't want to know, but there was one slip-up when they were talking to him.

"Freddie was 26 year old idiot who still liked to hang out with teenagers," Ainsworth replied to a previous question Morgan had asked him.

"Why'd you stick around with him if he was such an idiot," Emily glared at him.

"How else do you think I got my supplies. If I stuck around him with Cindy, he'd lower the price for me. I assumed it was because he trusted me enough to bring him more business,"

That was all Derek and Emily needed from the interview. That tiny bit of insight about Freddie Miller as a person. If I stuck around him with Cindy. At the time, he was an older man praying on troubled children. Specifically, the teenage girls that his buyers brought along with them. Someone like Matthew came along with his girlfriend looking to buy off of him and Freddie had everything he needed to lure them into his plan. 

"I still don't like what this is turning into," Morgan said on the drive back to the precinct.

"Me neither," Emily mumbled, leaning back into her seat.

"I still don't get why Reid even took her in. I mean she's a nice kid, but I just don't think he was ready to have a teenager," 

Emily looked up at him and then looked back at the road, "Yeah," she laughed.

"What is it?" Morgan smiled, looking at her.

"How awkward do you think it is for her to have him around? I mean Spencer Reid having serious conversations about girl issues. Like what if she asks him to let her get birth control? How's he gonna react to that?" Emily asked.

Morgan laughed, "He'll start giving her statistics on the effectiveness of it, and how it helps other problems besides conception,"

"Either that or she'll completely fool him into saying she needs it for her acne," Emily said.

When they pulled into the police station, an older woman was walking up the steps to the main entrance. That woman was Freddie and Ray Miller's mother, a woman who had lost her son years ago. When Freddie went missing, it had changed her and her family forever. No one seemed to care that her son had suddenly disappeared just because of his track record. It wasn't proper justice in her book.

As she entered, Hotch greeted her and guided her to the room that the Thompson's had been sitting in not long ago. He was going to the bottom of the relationship between the whole family before they could let any lie come out of Ray Miller's mouth. It was either going to be a very big coincidence that Ray Miller lived in the same town as his brother, or it was going to lead them exactly where Natalie's parents went.

Shortly after, Morgan and Prentiss entered the police station and watched Hotch start talking to Mrs. Miller. They both turned to look at each other and continued into the conference room and joined the rest of the team. There, they noticed a pretty distraught Spencer Reid trying to piece together a proper timeline.

"All we could get was that Freddie is ten years older than Cindy, and probably had a history of taking advantage of teenage girls," Morgan said, falling into a chair.

"So, did he continue that pattern or did he suddenly change when he went missing and had Natalie?" Rossi pondered.

JJ began to dial for Penelope. She figured now was as good a time as ever to do some more digging into other cases in the area. Once Penelope picked up, JJ said, "Hey P, can you look into any unsolved cases of girls that went missing around the same time Cindy did in this area?"

Oddly, Penelope was pretty silent on the other end. Normally, she liked to give humorous remarks as she did her job, but right now, she was whole-heartedly focused on her job. "There's not a single case like that,"

"What about runaways?" Emily piped in. 

After a moment, Garcia finally let out a 'huh' leaving the rest of the team in wonder. Before letting any of them question her, she spoke up, "There were two girls, on the exact day Cindy went missing. Jessica Parker and Kaylee Novak. Says here they were troubled young girls who basically packed their bags and skipped town, no questions about it,"

"What if Freddie offered them some sort of deal to leave town with him?" Morgan asked.

Spencer turned around, shocked at what Morgan just said, "Cindy had no reason to do that, she had a loving family. Besides, what exactly could he have offered?"

"If you wanna know... Kaylee Novak lives about a mile out of town," Garcia said from the phone.

"Send us the address baby girl, Reid let's go for a ride," Morgan said popping back up from his chair. He was aware that Rossi normally gave commands when Hotch was busy, but he needed to be alone with Reid for sometime to see how he was doing. There was no way this whole thing wasn't eating away at him.

In the car, Spencer was much quieter than usual. Normally, he'd be rambling on about some facts regarding the case, but this just wasn't the time. Spencer let his mind wander as he glanced outside the window, watching the buildings pass by as they drove down a busy street. It hurt his heart thinking about what he would have to tell Natalie.

"You okay, kid?" Morgan asked, getting tired of the silence.

Spencer nodded, "Just thinking,"

"You do a lot of that. Wanna tell me what you're thinking about?" Morgan pushed the issue, keeping one hand on the wheel. When driving, Morgan tended to lean back in his seat a lot. It was more comfortable for him, but Reid could never understand how the man could see the road.

"Just Natalie, you know, how I'm going to tell her that Ray Miller is her uncle," Spencer said, sarcastically.

"She could've gone her whole life not knowing. I'm not judging you, I just don't understand why you pushed it this hard," Morgan said.

"Everyone thinks I'm doing the wrong thing-" Spencer began, before Morgan cut him off.

"No one is saying that," Derek attempted to reassure his friend.

Spencer laughed, "I said thinking," he corrected. "I saw how you guys responded when I showed up to work after that case. I'm not oblivious to the remarks behind my back, and the stares whenever it comes to her, but Derek, something in me says this isn't the wrong thing. Oddly enough, it's not my brain because that thing has been telling me to stop for weeks. Besides, in about five years she would've figured all this out herself,"

Derek grinned, "I trust you kid, and I'm sorry it all just happened so fast. I thought I would get a bit more of a warning before you became a dad. By the way, we don't really talk behind your back, except for today... Prentiss and I were wondering how you would handle an issue like Natalie wanting birth control,"

Spencer raised his eyebrows, but didn't even wince like the older profiler expected. The awkward genius, just nodded, "I'm a man, Derek. It's her body, and unless she has a serious medical condition I don't know about that prevents her from safely taking it, I'm not going to stop her,"

"That doesn't make you uncomfortable?" Derek asked.

Shaking his head, Spencer sighed, "If you're referring to her wanting birth control as a contraceptive, I would still be fine with that... but, I really don't think she'll need it for that."