New Fic: Missing Persons (Part 1/3)
May. 18th, 2007 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missmara13Title: Missing Persons (Part 1/3)
Author: Mara
Fandoms: The OC/One Tree Hill/Criminal Minds
Rating: R
Warnings: Crossover. Language. Violence. Blood. Pain.
Summary: A serial kidnapper is on the loose in Southern California, and the latest victims are Brooke Davis and Ryan Atwood.
Notes: A three-way crossover! lol... Hopefully it works out the way I want it to... Takes place 3rd Season The OC, 2nd season OTH, and 2nd season Criminal Minds. I'm slightly screwing with the timelines, but... whatever.
Little Timeline notes:
Criminal Minds - Takes place sometime in Season 2, so Prentiss is on the team instead of Elle.
The OC - Johnny's still alive. Ryan and Marissa are still together but it's shaky.
OTH - Brooke and Lucas have gotten to be friends again, but they're NOT back together.
Missing Persons
Newport Beach, California ~ The Newport Group Parking Lot
Ryan Atwood was fed up as he left the Newport Group. Matt was still acting pissy and like he was a god or something, and Sandy was still completely oblivious, while Kirsten was playing best friends with Julie. He pulled the keys to the rover from his pocket and was unlocking the door when he heard footsteps coming up behind him.
"I'm not going to another strip club with you, Matt. I'm gonna end up grounded for all eternity as it is," he snapped. When there was no response, he started to turn, only to get smacked across the back of his head with something hard. As he fell to his knees and tried to push himself back up, a folded cloth was pressed over his mouth and nose, and he could smell something on it... something that made his head go fuzzy...
FBI Jet Carrying The Behavior Analysis Unit
"Why are they just calling us in need?" Agent Morgan said as he flipped closed a file. "This kid is the 7th victim in a year, and they wait a week to call us for help?"
"It's possible they thought some of the kids were runaways," Dr. Spencer Reid said with a small shrug. "Maybe that the ransom demands were to fund continued lifestyles."
"So what's different about this one?" Morgan asked.
"Make that these two," Agent Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau said as she came back from the other section of the plane. "That was the local guys, another kid was taken last night. 17 year-old boy leaving the family business late. He was taken right from the parking lot, and all evidence on the scene says it's our guy."
"So he's moving up his timeline," Agent Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner said. "That means that the girl we were contacted for is probably already dead."
"There's no proof that any of the missing teenagers have been killed," Reid pointed out. "No bodies, no bragging about the killings... it's possible the UnSub is keeping their victims, a stable of sorts, ready to inflict more harm whenever they want."
"On first glance, the only thing any of them have in common is money and general area. The UnSub could have somewhat varying tastes," Agent Jason Gideon said thoughtfully. "Without bodies, we need to work on the presumption that these kids are all alive and we're trying to save them."
"Better than looking for bodies," Morgan agreed
Newport Beach Police Department ~ Conference Room
"We know you're worried, Mrs. Cohen, but we're doing everything we can..." Detective Malcolm Overman began.
"Your best isn't good enough!" Kirsten Cohen replied.
"Why are you wasting your time on some boy who probably ran away?" Anne Davis said. "Our Brooke..."
"Isn't any more important than Ryan!" Kirsten said.
"Look, the FBI's here, they'll help us find both kids," Malcolm said, smiling and nodding hopefully before pushing between the two enraged women to meet with the BAU. "I'm Detective Overman, thanks for coming so quickly," he said.
"We need somewhere to set up," Hotch said.
"In here," Malcolm said, directing them into the room with the warring mothers. "Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Cohen," he introduced. "The moms of the two latest."
"You're going to find my daughter, right?" Mrs. Davis asked.?
"And my son," Kirsten added.
"He's some delinquent who probably ran away," Mrs. Davis insisted.
"He wouldn't!" Kirsten replied.
"He's not even her real son, he's some delinquent from Chino of all places..."
"Weren't you broke until my father helped your husband get a job investing for all our friends?" Kirsten spit back.
"How dare you..." Mrs. Davis began.
"How dare you suggest that Ryan isn't as important because he's my foster son!" Kirsten replied.
"Ladies, please, this isn't helping anyone!" Malcom tried.
"Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Cohen," JJ began in her most soothing voice. "We'd like to know more about both of your children. It might help us find them. So why don't you come with Agents Hotchner, Prentiss, and myself, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Cohen, why don't you stay with Agents Gideon, Reid, and Morgan."
As JJ, Hotch, and Agent Emily Prentiss led Mrs. Davis out of the room, Kirsten let out a shaky breath. "My husband and other son are trying to get home from New York, they were visiting my mother-in-law when this happened."
"We have to ask, Mrs. Cohen, is there any chance that your foster son ran away?" Gideon asked.
"Ryan just sent his college applications out," Kirsten said. "NYU, Berkeley, and Stanford. Do you really think any one would do that, and then leave without a vehicle or clothes, or anything that means anything to them?"
"Statistically, no," Reid said. "But is there any chance of a recent stressor that might have driven him to leave?"
"Not since last spring," Kirsten said. "But everything from then has been resolved, he's been happy. He's excited about college."
"Mrs. Davis called Ryan a delinquent, can you tell us what she meant?"
Unknown Location
Ryan felt like he'd been hit in the head with a bat, and groaned as he tried to sit up, slowly remembering being carjacked in the Newport Group parking lot. Then he felt the heavy weight on his wrists and heard the sound of chains clinking as he moved his legs.
"Fuck."
"My feelings exactly."
Ryan's head snapped up, and in the dim light he could just barely make out a girl sitting nearby, her handcuffed wrists wrapped around her legs and a chain going from one ankle to a metal bolt in the wall. "Where the hell are we?"
"I don't know. But he took a girl away yesterday and I had her screaming for a long time before it just... stopped."
Ryan slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and lifted his hands to touch the back of his head, feeling the blood matted hair and wincing. "Son of a bitch hit me in the head with something."
"Me, too," the girl said. "I... I don't wanna die."
"We'll get out of here," Ryan promised. "What's your name?"
"Brooke," she said. "I swear, once I'm out of here, I'm going home to North Carolina and I am never coming back to California."
"I'm Ryan," he replied. "And I'll buy you the ticket if you'll help me stay awake."
"Why?" Brooke asked.
"I might have a concussion," Ryan explained. "Sleeping would be very bad because I might not wake up."
"Okay, so you get to stay wide awake, because I'd really rather not be all alone again," Brooke said. There was the sound of chain clinking together, and then Brooke was moving closer to him, as close as the length of chain would allow. "Come on," she said.
Ryan shifted, following her lead and ending up sitting with his back pressed against her back. "Just talk to me," he asked. "Ask me questions. Let me ask you questions. If I talk, I'll stay awake."
"We've been kidnapped by some psycho and you want to play twenty questions?" Brooke asked.
"Whatever works," Ryan agreed.
"Okay, fine. Are you from California originally?"
"Fresno the first 8 years, then Chino until I was 15, and now Newport with foster parents," Ryan said. "My biological parents are fucked up."
Brooke snorted. "My parents spend the holidays and most of my birthdays in Cabo or the Bahamas," she said. "Dad screwed up and we went broke, but dad got a job out here in California, so I moved in with my ex-boyfriend's mom so I could finish school with my friends. My 1st visit with them since then, and I get kidnapped."
"My girlfriend is emotionally cheating on me with another guy," Ryan replied. "He's more important to her than me, even though I forgave her for fucking shooting my brother in the back last spring."
"You're more screwed up than me," Brooke said.
"Thanks, I try," Ryan replied, unable to help the slight, pained, smiled. "My mother walked out on me and left me with some complete strangers when I was 15," he continued. "I haven't seen or spoken to her since. My father used to beat the hell out of me and my brother until he got locked up for armed robbery... neither them or my brother are gonna give a shit that I'm gone, but the Cohens..." he stopped, his voice cracking.
"Your foster family?"
"Yeah, they're really great," Ryan said. "They were so excited about the colleges I applied to."
"You're a senior?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Junior," Brooke said. "I'm head cheerleader and class president back home."
"I used to play soccer, but I quit after Sophmore year, too busy dealing with life being weird."
"I would go crazy without cheerleading," Brooke said. "My best friend, even though she did once steal my boyfriend, she's on the squad, and my other best friend, who's married, subs for us sometimes."
"My head hurts," Ryan said, chuckling.
"Yeah, and it's my life, I can't escape it," Brooke replied. She shifted again, and then rested her head on Ryan's shoulder as her hands gently wrapped around his bicep. "I don't wanna die here."
"We'll find a way out," Ryan said, trying to sound sure of himself. "Don't worry, you'll be cheering again soon."
Newport Beach Police Department ~ Conference Room
"Mrs. Cohen went to lay down in my office," Malcolm said as Hotch, JJ, and Prentiss returned.
"Mrs. Davis went home to wait for news," Prentiss said, making it clear by her tone what she thought of that. "Her child's missing and she wants to go wait in her own air conditioning because it's better than the department's."
"We found out a couple interesting things," Reid said. "Victim #8, Ryan Atwood, has had some problems over the years, but according to his foster mom he's more stable now than he's probably ever been. He applied to several colleges, plans to be an architect, he's got an internship at the company that his foster parents own and was working late there when he was abducted."
"This kid didn't leave willing," Gideon continued. "While he's a foster son, and in the eyes of many not worth much, it's clear that to his foster family he's just as important as the biological son. These people are more than willing to pay the ransom because to them, Ryan is their son. If our UnSub was watching his victims before hand, he would have seen that."
"Victim #7, Brooke Davis," Hotch said, walking to the white board to wrote her name on it. "No photos, her parents don't care any on them. They live here, she lives in North Carolina with her ex-boyfriend's mother, ostensibly so she can finish high school with her friends."
"I don't think the Davises take much interest in their daughter," Prentiss said. "They don't want her getting hurt, but Mrs. Davis couldn't even tell me when she last saw or spoke to her daughter, let alone what the girl was wearing. She couldn't even tell me what hairstyle Brooke had."
"We've got a picture," Malcolm said as the room quieted briefly. "Contacted the police in her home town and had them talk to the woman she's living with there, they got a couple pictures from her to fax to us." He used tape to secure two pictures of a cheerful smiling brunette girl up over her name, one of her in a cheerleading uniform and one of her with another girl and a boy. "She's a junior, cheerleading captain and class president. Can't do chores to save her life but tries hard."
"Sounds like the ex's mom is more of a mom to her than her own," Morgan commented.
"That's the impression I got," Malcolm agreed, smoothing the picture down and looking between her and Ryan. "But they don't have anything in common besides money. And even that... you said his foster parents clearly love him, but her parents couldn't seem to care less until something happened. Ryan's quiet and only has a small core group of friends, Brooke has dozens of them. Ryan's serious and taking AP courses, Brooke is barely scraping by in classes. What made this guy target them? And why'd he go from less than one a month to two in a week?"
"We have a theory that the UnSub is keeping a stable of victims," Gideon explained. "Keeping them alive and prolonging whatever sort of torture, physical or psychological, they're inflicting. Maybe some of their victims succumbed and they needed replacements, and that's why so fast."
Hotch picked it up from there. "Unfortunately, the UnSub could now have a taste for the killing, may run through victims faster."
"So we have to move like it's a serial killer," Malcolm said, getting it. "How do we find them?"
"We look for things in common between all victims, something besides the money," Hotch replied.
"All were taken while they were alone," Reid began. "Isolated locations with no one close enough to hear them if they called for help. Or at least no one close enough she'd do anything to help."
"Both Ryan and Brooke are distanced, either physically, emotionally, or both, from their parents. Brooke's don't pay much attention to her, they don't have any pictures of her on them. Ryan's father is in jail and his mother abandoned him," Prentiss added.
"From what Mrs. Cohen said, I think Ryan may have something of a hero complex. he's always trying to save people, whether he likes them or not. He's put himself in harms way more than once to protect others," Morgan said. "Anything similar with Brooke?"
"No," JJ said. "But Mrs. Davis didn't seem to know her daughter that well at all. It's possible she's the same type. Maybe we need to talk to this woman she's staying with...?"
"Karen Roe," Malcolm supplied. "She sounded really scared for Brooke."
Unknown Location
"If I had a paperclip I might be able to pick the locks on our ankles," Ryan said.
"What?" Brooke asked, twisting to look at him. "What about a bobby pin?"
"Like for hair?" Ryan asked. "Yeah, maybe. My brother taught me using a paperclip, but..."
Brooke shifted around, and a moment later she poked him in the arm and held up to bobby pins. "I was using them to keep my hair in place earlier the day I was grabbed. I wanted to make sure my hair could hold up to the new routine I was working on."
"You're my hero," Ryan said, taking the pins and shifting until he was stretched out alongside Brooke and able to reach the chain and padlock on her ankle. "You need to hold still," he said. "If I break these we're screwed."
"Don't worry, I won't move a muscle," Brooke replied, biting her lip. "Can I talk?"
"Sure," Ryan said. "Tell me more about North Carolina."
"One of the greatest people there is Marvin 'Mouth' McFadden," Brooke said. "He's the announcer for the basketball games, and he's great. A geek, but great. He's a good friend, and he sees me as more than just boobs and ass, unlike most of the male population of Tree Hill High."
"Well, I'm sure you're the prettiest girl there," Ryan teased.
Brooke smacked his leg. "You don't even know what I really look like," she said. "I'm covered in dirt and the lighting is really bad."
"You sound pretty," Ryan replied. "And I've never heard of an ugly head cheerleader."
"I am the hottest girl in Tree Hill," Brooke finally agreed. "But I hate that all people see is that."
"I promise, to me you'll always be the dirty girl chained to a wall," Ryan said wryly.
"And to me you'll always be the lock picking guy who thinks he's a lot funnier than he is," Brooke replied.
"Almost got it," Ryan said, and then there was an audible clunk as he yanked the lock open and pulled the chain out from around Brooke's ankle. "You're free."
"My hero," Brooke said, pulling her leg up and slowly rubbing the raw skin to get the blood flow started again. "Get yourself loose so we can get out of here," she added.
"Yes, ma'am," Ryan agreed, shooting her a smile.
And that was when the door opened, flooding the room with a bright light that made both teenagers flinch and turn away. Ryan heard footsteps coming their way and grabbed Brooke to put himself between her and the man, but she shoved him away and got to her feet, trying to punch their kidnapper only to have her wrist caught and her arm twisted until a snap rang out and she screamed.
"Leave her alone!" Ryan yelled, launching himself at the man's legs.
Their kidnapper released Brooke with a shove, and her head slammed into the wall with a sickening thud just as a knee caught Ryan in the face and he dropped to the floor in pain, his vision blurring more than it had because of the light. He barely even felt the prick of a needle in his arm before he lost consciousness, with Brooke's body crumbled against the wall being the last thing he saw as everything went gray and then black.
To Be Continued...
Part 2 is immediately following, and then part 3... lol
Author: Mara
Fandoms: The OC/One Tree Hill/Criminal Minds
Rating: R
Warnings: Crossover. Language. Violence. Blood. Pain.
Summary: A serial kidnapper is on the loose in Southern California, and the latest victims are Brooke Davis and Ryan Atwood.
Notes: A three-way crossover! lol... Hopefully it works out the way I want it to... Takes place 3rd Season The OC, 2nd season OTH, and 2nd season Criminal Minds. I'm slightly screwing with the timelines, but... whatever.
Little Timeline notes:
Criminal Minds - Takes place sometime in Season 2, so Prentiss is on the team instead of Elle.
The OC - Johnny's still alive. Ryan and Marissa are still together but it's shaky.
OTH - Brooke and Lucas have gotten to be friends again, but they're NOT back together.
Ryan Atwood was fed up as he left the Newport Group. Matt was still acting pissy and like he was a god or something, and Sandy was still completely oblivious, while Kirsten was playing best friends with Julie. He pulled the keys to the rover from his pocket and was unlocking the door when he heard footsteps coming up behind him.
"I'm not going to another strip club with you, Matt. I'm gonna end up grounded for all eternity as it is," he snapped. When there was no response, he started to turn, only to get smacked across the back of his head with something hard. As he fell to his knees and tried to push himself back up, a folded cloth was pressed over his mouth and nose, and he could smell something on it... something that made his head go fuzzy...
"Why are they just calling us in need?" Agent Morgan said as he flipped closed a file. "This kid is the 7th victim in a year, and they wait a week to call us for help?"
"It's possible they thought some of the kids were runaways," Dr. Spencer Reid said with a small shrug. "Maybe that the ransom demands were to fund continued lifestyles."
"So what's different about this one?" Morgan asked.
"Make that these two," Agent Jennifer 'JJ' Jareau said as she came back from the other section of the plane. "That was the local guys, another kid was taken last night. 17 year-old boy leaving the family business late. He was taken right from the parking lot, and all evidence on the scene says it's our guy."
"So he's moving up his timeline," Agent Aaron 'Hotch' Hotchner said. "That means that the girl we were contacted for is probably already dead."
"There's no proof that any of the missing teenagers have been killed," Reid pointed out. "No bodies, no bragging about the killings... it's possible the UnSub is keeping their victims, a stable of sorts, ready to inflict more harm whenever they want."
"On first glance, the only thing any of them have in common is money and general area. The UnSub could have somewhat varying tastes," Agent Jason Gideon said thoughtfully. "Without bodies, we need to work on the presumption that these kids are all alive and we're trying to save them."
"Better than looking for bodies," Morgan agreed
"We know you're worried, Mrs. Cohen, but we're doing everything we can..." Detective Malcolm Overman began.
"Your best isn't good enough!" Kirsten Cohen replied.
"Why are you wasting your time on some boy who probably ran away?" Anne Davis said. "Our Brooke..."
"Isn't any more important than Ryan!" Kirsten said.
"Look, the FBI's here, they'll help us find both kids," Malcolm said, smiling and nodding hopefully before pushing between the two enraged women to meet with the BAU. "I'm Detective Overman, thanks for coming so quickly," he said.
"We need somewhere to set up," Hotch said.
"In here," Malcolm said, directing them into the room with the warring mothers. "Mrs. Davis and Mrs. Cohen," he introduced. "The moms of the two latest."
"You're going to find my daughter, right?" Mrs. Davis asked.?
"And my son," Kirsten added.
"He's some delinquent who probably ran away," Mrs. Davis insisted.
"He wouldn't!" Kirsten replied.
"He's not even her real son, he's some delinquent from Chino of all places..."
"Weren't you broke until my father helped your husband get a job investing for all our friends?" Kirsten spit back.
"How dare you..." Mrs. Davis began.
"How dare you suggest that Ryan isn't as important because he's my foster son!" Kirsten replied.
"Ladies, please, this isn't helping anyone!" Malcom tried.
"Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Cohen," JJ began in her most soothing voice. "We'd like to know more about both of your children. It might help us find them. So why don't you come with Agents Hotchner, Prentiss, and myself, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Cohen, why don't you stay with Agents Gideon, Reid, and Morgan."
As JJ, Hotch, and Agent Emily Prentiss led Mrs. Davis out of the room, Kirsten let out a shaky breath. "My husband and other son are trying to get home from New York, they were visiting my mother-in-law when this happened."
"We have to ask, Mrs. Cohen, is there any chance that your foster son ran away?" Gideon asked.
"Ryan just sent his college applications out," Kirsten said. "NYU, Berkeley, and Stanford. Do you really think any one would do that, and then leave without a vehicle or clothes, or anything that means anything to them?"
"Statistically, no," Reid said. "But is there any chance of a recent stressor that might have driven him to leave?"
"Not since last spring," Kirsten said. "But everything from then has been resolved, he's been happy. He's excited about college."
"Mrs. Davis called Ryan a delinquent, can you tell us what she meant?"
Ryan felt like he'd been hit in the head with a bat, and groaned as he tried to sit up, slowly remembering being carjacked in the Newport Group parking lot. Then he felt the heavy weight on his wrists and heard the sound of chains clinking as he moved his legs.
"Fuck."
"My feelings exactly."
Ryan's head snapped up, and in the dim light he could just barely make out a girl sitting nearby, her handcuffed wrists wrapped around her legs and a chain going from one ankle to a metal bolt in the wall. "Where the hell are we?"
"I don't know. But he took a girl away yesterday and I had her screaming for a long time before it just... stopped."
Ryan slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position and lifted his hands to touch the back of his head, feeling the blood matted hair and wincing. "Son of a bitch hit me in the head with something."
"Me, too," the girl said. "I... I don't wanna die."
"We'll get out of here," Ryan promised. "What's your name?"
"Brooke," she said. "I swear, once I'm out of here, I'm going home to North Carolina and I am never coming back to California."
"I'm Ryan," he replied. "And I'll buy you the ticket if you'll help me stay awake."
"Why?" Brooke asked.
"I might have a concussion," Ryan explained. "Sleeping would be very bad because I might not wake up."
"Okay, so you get to stay wide awake, because I'd really rather not be all alone again," Brooke said. There was the sound of chain clinking together, and then Brooke was moving closer to him, as close as the length of chain would allow. "Come on," she said.
Ryan shifted, following her lead and ending up sitting with his back pressed against her back. "Just talk to me," he asked. "Ask me questions. Let me ask you questions. If I talk, I'll stay awake."
"We've been kidnapped by some psycho and you want to play twenty questions?" Brooke asked.
"Whatever works," Ryan agreed.
"Okay, fine. Are you from California originally?"
"Fresno the first 8 years, then Chino until I was 15, and now Newport with foster parents," Ryan said. "My biological parents are fucked up."
Brooke snorted. "My parents spend the holidays and most of my birthdays in Cabo or the Bahamas," she said. "Dad screwed up and we went broke, but dad got a job out here in California, so I moved in with my ex-boyfriend's mom so I could finish school with my friends. My 1st visit with them since then, and I get kidnapped."
"My girlfriend is emotionally cheating on me with another guy," Ryan replied. "He's more important to her than me, even though I forgave her for fucking shooting my brother in the back last spring."
"You're more screwed up than me," Brooke said.
"Thanks, I try," Ryan replied, unable to help the slight, pained, smiled. "My mother walked out on me and left me with some complete strangers when I was 15," he continued. "I haven't seen or spoken to her since. My father used to beat the hell out of me and my brother until he got locked up for armed robbery... neither them or my brother are gonna give a shit that I'm gone, but the Cohens..." he stopped, his voice cracking.
"Your foster family?"
"Yeah, they're really great," Ryan said. "They were so excited about the colleges I applied to."
"You're a senior?"
"Yeah, you?"
"Junior," Brooke said. "I'm head cheerleader and class president back home."
"I used to play soccer, but I quit after Sophmore year, too busy dealing with life being weird."
"I would go crazy without cheerleading," Brooke said. "My best friend, even though she did once steal my boyfriend, she's on the squad, and my other best friend, who's married, subs for us sometimes."
"My head hurts," Ryan said, chuckling.
"Yeah, and it's my life, I can't escape it," Brooke replied. She shifted again, and then rested her head on Ryan's shoulder as her hands gently wrapped around his bicep. "I don't wanna die here."
"We'll find a way out," Ryan said, trying to sound sure of himself. "Don't worry, you'll be cheering again soon."
"Mrs. Cohen went to lay down in my office," Malcolm said as Hotch, JJ, and Prentiss returned.
"Mrs. Davis went home to wait for news," Prentiss said, making it clear by her tone what she thought of that. "Her child's missing and she wants to go wait in her own air conditioning because it's better than the department's."
"We found out a couple interesting things," Reid said. "Victim #8, Ryan Atwood, has had some problems over the years, but according to his foster mom he's more stable now than he's probably ever been. He applied to several colleges, plans to be an architect, he's got an internship at the company that his foster parents own and was working late there when he was abducted."
"This kid didn't leave willing," Gideon continued. "While he's a foster son, and in the eyes of many not worth much, it's clear that to his foster family he's just as important as the biological son. These people are more than willing to pay the ransom because to them, Ryan is their son. If our UnSub was watching his victims before hand, he would have seen that."
"Victim #7, Brooke Davis," Hotch said, walking to the white board to wrote her name on it. "No photos, her parents don't care any on them. They live here, she lives in North Carolina with her ex-boyfriend's mother, ostensibly so she can finish high school with her friends."
"I don't think the Davises take much interest in their daughter," Prentiss said. "They don't want her getting hurt, but Mrs. Davis couldn't even tell me when she last saw or spoke to her daughter, let alone what the girl was wearing. She couldn't even tell me what hairstyle Brooke had."
"We've got a picture," Malcolm said as the room quieted briefly. "Contacted the police in her home town and had them talk to the woman she's living with there, they got a couple pictures from her to fax to us." He used tape to secure two pictures of a cheerful smiling brunette girl up over her name, one of her in a cheerleading uniform and one of her with another girl and a boy. "She's a junior, cheerleading captain and class president. Can't do chores to save her life but tries hard."
"Sounds like the ex's mom is more of a mom to her than her own," Morgan commented.
"That's the impression I got," Malcolm agreed, smoothing the picture down and looking between her and Ryan. "But they don't have anything in common besides money. And even that... you said his foster parents clearly love him, but her parents couldn't seem to care less until something happened. Ryan's quiet and only has a small core group of friends, Brooke has dozens of them. Ryan's serious and taking AP courses, Brooke is barely scraping by in classes. What made this guy target them? And why'd he go from less than one a month to two in a week?"
"We have a theory that the UnSub is keeping a stable of victims," Gideon explained. "Keeping them alive and prolonging whatever sort of torture, physical or psychological, they're inflicting. Maybe some of their victims succumbed and they needed replacements, and that's why so fast."
Hotch picked it up from there. "Unfortunately, the UnSub could now have a taste for the killing, may run through victims faster."
"So we have to move like it's a serial killer," Malcolm said, getting it. "How do we find them?"
"We look for things in common between all victims, something besides the money," Hotch replied.
"All were taken while they were alone," Reid began. "Isolated locations with no one close enough to hear them if they called for help. Or at least no one close enough she'd do anything to help."
"Both Ryan and Brooke are distanced, either physically, emotionally, or both, from their parents. Brooke's don't pay much attention to her, they don't have any pictures of her on them. Ryan's father is in jail and his mother abandoned him," Prentiss added.
"From what Mrs. Cohen said, I think Ryan may have something of a hero complex. he's always trying to save people, whether he likes them or not. He's put himself in harms way more than once to protect others," Morgan said. "Anything similar with Brooke?"
"No," JJ said. "But Mrs. Davis didn't seem to know her daughter that well at all. It's possible she's the same type. Maybe we need to talk to this woman she's staying with...?"
"Karen Roe," Malcolm supplied. "She sounded really scared for Brooke."
"If I had a paperclip I might be able to pick the locks on our ankles," Ryan said.
"What?" Brooke asked, twisting to look at him. "What about a bobby pin?"
"Like for hair?" Ryan asked. "Yeah, maybe. My brother taught me using a paperclip, but..."
Brooke shifted around, and a moment later she poked him in the arm and held up to bobby pins. "I was using them to keep my hair in place earlier the day I was grabbed. I wanted to make sure my hair could hold up to the new routine I was working on."
"You're my hero," Ryan said, taking the pins and shifting until he was stretched out alongside Brooke and able to reach the chain and padlock on her ankle. "You need to hold still," he said. "If I break these we're screwed."
"Don't worry, I won't move a muscle," Brooke replied, biting her lip. "Can I talk?"
"Sure," Ryan said. "Tell me more about North Carolina."
"One of the greatest people there is Marvin 'Mouth' McFadden," Brooke said. "He's the announcer for the basketball games, and he's great. A geek, but great. He's a good friend, and he sees me as more than just boobs and ass, unlike most of the male population of Tree Hill High."
"Well, I'm sure you're the prettiest girl there," Ryan teased.
Brooke smacked his leg. "You don't even know what I really look like," she said. "I'm covered in dirt and the lighting is really bad."
"You sound pretty," Ryan replied. "And I've never heard of an ugly head cheerleader."
"I am the hottest girl in Tree Hill," Brooke finally agreed. "But I hate that all people see is that."
"I promise, to me you'll always be the dirty girl chained to a wall," Ryan said wryly.
"And to me you'll always be the lock picking guy who thinks he's a lot funnier than he is," Brooke replied.
"Almost got it," Ryan said, and then there was an audible clunk as he yanked the lock open and pulled the chain out from around Brooke's ankle. "You're free."
"My hero," Brooke said, pulling her leg up and slowly rubbing the raw skin to get the blood flow started again. "Get yourself loose so we can get out of here," she added.
"Yes, ma'am," Ryan agreed, shooting her a smile.
And that was when the door opened, flooding the room with a bright light that made both teenagers flinch and turn away. Ryan heard footsteps coming their way and grabbed Brooke to put himself between her and the man, but she shoved him away and got to her feet, trying to punch their kidnapper only to have her wrist caught and her arm twisted until a snap rang out and she screamed.
"Leave her alone!" Ryan yelled, launching himself at the man's legs.
Their kidnapper released Brooke with a shove, and her head slammed into the wall with a sickening thud just as a knee caught Ryan in the face and he dropped to the floor in pain, his vision blurring more than it had because of the light. He barely even felt the prick of a needle in his arm before he lost consciousness, with Brooke's body crumbled against the wall being the last thing he saw as everything went gray and then black.
To Be Continued...
Part 2 is immediately following, and then part 3... lol
