Counter Torque

CHAPTER FIVE

Alex and Jack are playing in the yard when she gets a text, it's from Aaron. A.H. "Hey are you available to talk? Something's happened and I don't know where else to go." She smiles as she replies, "Of course, I'll meet you at my office."
A.H. "You're not there now?"
A.B. "No, I had a meeting."
A.H. "If it's too much trouble..."A.B. "No, it will only take me 15 minutes to get there."
A.H. "Ok, see you soon, and thank you."

Aaron is sitting in the parking lot of the school, reading over the conversation, thinking, "She's only fifteen minutes away." His mind is racing. If Reid was right and she is behind this, why? Why would she do this? And what about Maggie? She was innocent in all this. As he waits, he thinks of what he will say to her. Before he knows it, her car pulls into the lot and she waves. He waves back and gets out of his car and walks to her passenger door and climbs in. She smiles at him, "How are you Aaron? What can I help you with?" He looks at her, "They found Maggie. She didn't leave, she crashed her car into the Potomac and died." He maintains eye contact with her, watching her process the information. Finally she replies, "My god, that's terrible. Do they know why she died?"
"No, they're doing an autopsy, but there's not much to go on. She'd been in the water the entire time and there's barely any evidence." Aaron sees her face relax slightly. He controls his breathing and continues, "I just wish I hadn't said what I did to her. I feel so guilty." "What do you mean?" Alex asks.
"Well, we were seeing each other and she wanted to take things to the next level, but because of the favoritism situation, I cut things off with her. I used harsh words. Then Jack disappeared and she left, well I thought she left, and now..." He trails off, genuinely upset, but gauging her reaction. Alex reaches out and takes his hand, "Aaron, you can't blame yourself for what happened to her. She made her choices in the end." Aaron's head snaps up at her, "What do you mean? You think she chose to drive into that river?"
"No one will ever truly know, but if you keep this up you're going to guilt yourself into remorse. Don't blame yourself for what she did. She chose to play favorites with Jack, she chose not to come to work. Whatever her choice was in the end, you're not responsible for that." Aaron looks at her, "I just want my son back. I thought that if I found Mags, I'd find him. Now I don't know..."
She pats his hand, "I'm sure Jack is fine wherever he is. He's a smart boy." Aaron finds his opportunity, "Yes, but I worry about him, ever since Haley's death, he's been struggling. Even after all this time, he still misses her, I'm sure you know that."
"He's past all that, trust me. He's made great progress and I know eventually, if you do find him, you'll pick up right where you left off." Aaron nods, "Thank you so much for meeting with me. You've been a big help." He gets out of her car and back into his and drives off, simple as that. As he watches her pull out, he flips the car around and follows her. He pulls out his phone and dials a number, once it connects, he simply says, "You were right. She has my son and I'm going to end this and bring him home."

Aaron follows her loosely so she's unaware, until she pulls into a driveway just outside of Wiley. He drives past and parks two blocks away and exits the car. His phone has been buzzing the entire drive, he's sure the team is on their way back and Garcia is tracking his phone as he walks. It doesn't matter, they won't make it in time. His mind is made up...he's going to do whatever it takes to bring his son home. He sees her sitting on the porch of a one story home. It has a large front and back yard, a single car garage. Alex is reading a book, unaware of his presence. He keeps his distance and watches. He needs to see his son, needs to see he ok. Finally, he gets what he needs. He sees a small figure walk out, talk to her and run back into the house. Aaron is confused, he's not restrained, no signs of abuse, he's not afraid. Angry, he starts walking towards the house. As he approaches her, she stands, wide-eyed, "Aaron! Wh-what are you doing here? How did you—?" "Shut. Your. Mouth." He pulls his service weapon and draws down on her, "Where is my son?"
"Aaron, please, you need to—"
"Shut up! Where is my son? Jack!? Jack are you there, buddy?" He calls out, and finally he sees the door open. There he is, Jack, he's fine, unharmed, unscathed, no obvious signs of abuse. Aaron's eyes are blurry with tears, "Jack, are you ok? Did she hurt you?" "Jack you don't have to answer him if you don't want to.""Shut up," Aaron cuts, his eyes shifting back to her momentarily.
Jack looks to Aaron and back to Alex and shouts, "Why do you have a gun pointed at her? Are you going to kill her too?"
Aaron's face drops, "Wh-what do you mean, Jack?"
Jack doesn't answer him directly, "You can't kill her too! I love her! She's good to me! She takes care of me! Better than you ever did! She's always home, we have fun cooking and stuff. Not like when you were around. Don't kill her too!" "Jack, she took you away from me! You need to come with me so I can take you home. You understand, right?" Alex takes this opportunity to stand and walk towards the door where Jack is, putting herself in front of him. Aaron's eyes shift from Jack to her, his gun retrained on her form, "Don't." Alex backs into the house with him and slams the door. Aaron runs towards it and slams his shoulder into it, breaking it open. As he pours into the house he sees them, Alex is still standing in front of Jack, blocking him from his view. "You need to get out of my way and let me have my son. Don't make me shoot you."
"I want no such thing. I just want Jack here to be happy and right now, you're scaring him. He doesn't want to see you or Jessica anymore." Aaron looks down at Jack, cowering behind her body. He immediately sees fragments of cases he's worked in the past. Sympathy with the abductor, comfort in the environment...all of the classic indicators are there. When he does, he refocuses on her, pissed off. His lips purse into a thin line, his brow furrows, and his body is rigid with anger. He looks at her with daggers in his eyes, "What did you do to my son?" Alex smiles, "I only told him the truth. You would rather work and save others than spend time with him. Jessica is a drunk and Haley is dead because of you. Because you can't say no to your job. Let's face it, Agent Hotchner, you don't deserve him." Aaron grits his teeth so hard it hurts, "And Maggie? What did she do? Was playing favorites even real? Or did you fabricate that and force retirements to get to me?" Alex laughs, "To get to you!? You're kidding? I never wanted to get to you. I just wanted to give Jack here a better life. Everyone but you saw it. He was desperate for attention. He wanted your attention, but you were always too busy, so, I gave it to him." She looks down at Jack and Aaron sees him smile up at her. It breaks his heart and he grips his gun in his hand to the point his fingers are numb. Aaron looks at her, "Maggie was innocent. What did she do? What did she see or hear? What made you do that to her?" Alex smiles, "So you know it was me? What gave me away?"
"When you asked why she died instead of why she crashed and when you said he was better about Haley, everyone working with him at the time knew he wasn't better. If he became better, it was after he was with you. So I ask again, what did Maggie do?"
"I didn't like her talking to Jack, that's all. She filled his head with lies. Lies about you and how good you were for helping others. She justified his hero complex of you, so, I fixed it."
"You killed her!" "No one will prove that it was me."
"I'm going to kill you."
"That's right, Agent. Let your anger out, show your son who you really are." He grips his gun again, training it on her. She's laughing at him, her hand on Jack's shoulder, "Jack, do you like it here?"
"Yeah, I do!"
"Do you want to stay with me or go with him?"
"I want to stay. Please let me stay with you." "Ok, Jack, you can stay, but I need you to close your eyes really tight and put your fingers in your ears. Do you understand? Can you sing that song we sing together?" Jack nods and closes his eyes tightly and plugs his ears and Aaron can hear him start singing 'I Will' by The Beatles. Tears of anger well up inside him, "What is this? What's your end game?" Alex smiles and pulls a gun out from behind her back. Aaron looks at her, "What the fuck do you think you're doing?"
"How much do you love your son, Aaron? Do you love him enough to kill his mother again?"
"You bitch. I'm going to fucking kill you," he whispers, so only she can hear, gripping the gun even tighter, his skin turning white.
She points it towards him and puts her finger on the trigger, smiling, "Time to choose, Aaron. You can either walk away or you can end this, breaking your son forever."
"I'm going to kill you and I'm going to take my son home," he says. Alex starts to walk towards him and as she does, Aaron starts shouting commands, "Stop! Don't come any closer! I will shoot! Stop, Alex. Don't make me do this!" She continues forward and before Aaron realizes it, she pulls the trigger and shoots him. He instantly returns fire, firing multiple shots, and as he collapses he sees her crumble. Jack reacts to the noise and opens his eyes, screaming, "Mom! Mom, can you hear me?!" Aaron hears his son calling out for Alex, his mother?, before losing consciousness.
When he comes to, he sees his team. JJ, Reid, Prentiss, Morgan, Dave, and even Garcia. He puts his hand to his chest where Alex shot him and winces. EMTs are not yet on scene and his head is swimming. He blinks and calls out, "Reid, JJ, what happened? Where's Jack?" JJ is the one to respond, "Jack is fine. How are you doing?"
"I'm sore, but I'm ok. I found him, he's alive. After a year, I found him. Can I see him?" JJ looks from him to Reid and back, "No, Hotch, you can't. He doesn't want to see you. He is claiming that you," she hesitates, "killed his mother." Aaron looks at her in disbelief, "I can't see my own son?"
"Not right now, no. We have a psychologist coming to see how he's doing, but after a year in captivity, he's convinced of the lies that Alex was feeding him are truth."
"Alex...she shot me," he rebuts.
"Actually, she shot your bullet proof vest," Reid states.
"Reid, do not be Reid right now," JJ pleads.
"She's dead," Reid says, looking at the floor.
"He called her mom."
"Yes, she convinced him she was the only one worthy of his love and that you and Jessica did what you did to him on purpose," JJ says.
"He's going to need time, Hotch," Reid continues.
"I know, but at least I know my boy is home." They all exchange looks as the EMTs arrive. They give Hotch the clear and as he walks out of the house, he sees Jack sitting in the back of a squad car. It looks like an officer is taking his statement. Aaron sees him look up and they make eye contact. Aaron smiles at him and Jack quickly turns his head, wiping tears from his eyes. Aaron frowns, looking at the ground, shaking his head. If what JJ and Reid said were true, it may take months, years even, before Jack is normal again. He walks back into the house where everyone is waiting. He looks at each of them, "Thank you, you all put your asses on the line for me, for my son." They all exchange glances and nod. Dave smiles, "Aaron, we'd all put our asses on the line for you any day of the week, but you need time. Time to rebuild trust with Jack. Please, for your sake and his, take some time off." Aaron nods, "You're right. He's going to need a lot of therapy to recover after what's happened to him." He turns to leave and stops, "Thank you, again. Please, please come by and visit him. He's going to need you, all of you." They all smile and nod in agreement.