Criminal Minds Series Rewrite: Season Four

House on Fire: Final Part

Hotch and Rossi come back from the hospital, and you give him the basic rundown of what Penelope found out. They come back with an older man that they must have found at the hospital. His name is Dr. Rawlings, and he knows everything about everyone in this town. He's the doctor that people went to when they had any kind of problems both physically and emotionally.

"The bartender said that Jason stopped by the bar at the same time each day to pick up the cash and take it to the bank, which would have made him an easy target for anyone who knew his schedule," Rossi points out.

"I don't get all this," Chief Carlson says. "Jason was a good man. It may sound corny to you, but everybody loved him."

"Two days ago, Jason married Tina."

"She told me about that yesterday," Dr. Rawlings says. "All the tragedies made them not want to wait. It's a damn shame."

"What can you tell us about Tina's brother, Tommy?" Hotch asks.

"Tommy? Nobody's seen him around here in more than ten years."

"We think they might have but didn't recognize him. If he left ten years ago, he looks completely different than before, and he'd make sure to go unnoticed."

Penelope calls at the right time with more information on Tommy.

"Okay, from what I gathered, Tommy and Tina moved to Royal when he was five. Dr. Rawlings was his pediatrician. Apparently, early medical records indicated Tommy may have been emotionally unbalanced."

"Tommy was a little unstable. His parents dying brought that out," Dr. Rawling defended.

"Granted, I don't have a medical degree, but my guess is that watching his parents die in a fire didn't help Tommy's emotional well-being."

"What about Tina? How did the fire affect her?" Derek asks the doctor.

"Tina wasn't as damaged by it as he was. She adjusted more quickly. She was Tommy's lifeline."

"She was more than that. In a situation like this with no parents, a new environment, and grandparents probably too old to take care of them, Tina became Tommy's whole world. She was his sister, mother, and family. They were close enough that Tina distorted Tommy's love map. The way an individual gives or receives love is established by the age of six. With the death of the parents, Tommy's love map revolved exclusively around Tina, didn't it?"

"Yeah, it was like they were in their own little world. By the time they were eight, they even had their own language. It was a bit disturbing," the chief says.

"So, what happened?"

"What do you think happened? People talked. It's the only real occupation in Royal," Penelope scoffs.

"There were rumors that Tommy and Tina were too close. Nothing was ever confirmed, though. After the rumors started, things got ugly. People pointed fingers and Tommy got expelled from school."

"Based on nothing but hearsay," Penelope argues.

"Not true. The school had cause."

Penelope's anger is so strong that you can feel it through the phone. If you're being honest, you're getting a bit angry yourself, and it's not just Penelope making you feel that way.

"No, they didn't. I spoke to his teacher. She told me how the whole school and the whole town turned against him based on nothing but a rumor. She also told me another rumor. In this one, fourteen-year-old Tommy was beaten within an inch of his life by adults. Grown men."

"I didn't hear about it until after the fact. There was nothing I could do," the Chief responds.

"Broken bones and a punctured lung. All because of a rumor."