The Reid Method: A New Chapter

Chapter Thirteen- These Little Wonders

The Reid Method: A New Chapter

Chapter Thirteen- These Little Wonders

Spencer was sitting on the couch in the living room of Doctor Thomas Barton's house when he received a distressed call from Emily.

The team had been called back into the office only three hours after returning from a case at a farm in Ontario, Canada. Hotch hadn't shown up when the team was called to the house so Emily went to check on him.

Emily explained that there was blood on the floor and a bullet hole in the wall but Hotch wasn't inside his apartment.

"What?" Spencer questioned, concern evident in his voice.

Doctor Barton became concerned worried that the call was about his son Jeffrey. Jeffrey had left the house this morning to go to school despite having been told by local police to stay inside.

"What happened? Is it about Jeffrey?" Doctor Barton asked urgently.

"No, it's not about Jeffrey" Spencer said quickly. He needed to keep Doctor Barton quiet so he could hear Emily.

"What could be more important than my son right now?" Dr. Barton asked, irritated.

Spencer could understand his frustration. Dr. Barton had lost his wife to cancer a few years ago and now someone was threatening to hurt his son.

"I'm going to let you get back to Dr. Barton. I've got everything covered here, Garcia is calling around to see if he was picked up by ambulance and brought to the hospital. Reid, don't tell the rest of the team. They need to have their focus on Jeffrey."

"Okay, I'll talk to you soon" Spencer said and hung up the phone. Dr. Barton had left the living room.

"Dr. Barton?" Spencer called out.

Dr. Barton came back into the room, his eyebrows furrowed in frustration.

"I'm so sorry. I had to take that phone call but we can go right back to the list of surgeries. I'm confident that we can find the person who wrote that note."

"I just want to protect my son" Dr. Barton sighed.

"I know" Spencer nodded. "I have three sons of my own. My oldest is twelve, that's not much younger than Jeffrey. Let me help you protect your son."

Dr. Barton nodded and sat down on the couch next to Spencer, shuffling through the papers again.

Spencer's phone vibrated inside his pocket and he took it out, scanning the screen. He had received a message from Henry.

Spencer smiled and went to open the message when he thought about Dr. Barton and how worried he was about Jeffrey. Spencer put his phone away and went to the next surgery in his stack of papers.

He read the details aloud for Dr. Barton hoping something would trigger his memory. Dr. Barton was a trauma surgeon and preformed surgeries every single day.

This case was about a young boy who had died before he was even brought to the hospital. He was killed on impact in the car crash.

Dr. Barton remembered the father of the patient getting upset with him because he wouldn't even try to operate on his son.

"That's why his case didn't stand out" Dr. Barton realized aloud. "I didn't operate on the boy."

Spencer called Penelope to get more information on the patient and his father, whose name was Jason Myers.

"Send me everything you have on him, please Garcia" Spencer said.

"It's on its way" Penelope replied.

As he hung up from Penelope, Emily called back.

"Hey" Spencer greeted her.

Dr. Barton looked at his watch and stood up from the couch, leaving the room.

Spencer craned his neck trying to see where Dr. Barton was going.

"Just one second, Emily" Spencer said and held the phone to his chest.

Dr. Barton re-entered the room with his keys in his hands and a jacket over his arm.

"Where are you going?" Spencer asked. He was responsible for keeping Dr. Barton inside the house while they investigated. The team hasn't determined if the threat was about Dr. Barton's son or about both of them.

"I'm picking up Jeffrey" Dr. Barton replied. "Your team said to stick to the same routine and I always pick him up on my days off."

"I'm going to go with you" Spencer said and placed the phone back to his ear. "I'm going to call you back from the car okay, Emily?"

Spencer could hear Dr. Barton's footsteps retreating to the front porch and then the sound of the door being opened.

"Doctor?" Spencer could hear another man's voice. It was coming from outside the house.

"Dr. Barton!" Spencer ran to the front door where from behind Doctor Barton he could see a man pointing a gun directly at him on the front lawn.

Spencer dove forward knocking himself and Doctor Barton to the lawn in the front of the house as the sound of gunfire rang out.