The Choice (Hotch/Reid/Morgan)

Chapter 4: The Realization

Morgan quickly walks out of his room, a hour later, and sees Prentiss and Garcia grinning at him. "What?" He asks confused by the grins.

"What was that all about?" Prentiss asks and looks to see if Reid will be joining them. "Where's Reid?"

"We were just talking." Morgan answers the first question. "And he's still in there. He looked sleep deprived so I allowed him to sleep on my bed." He states.

Garcia tries not to giggle.

"What?" Morgan asks.

"Did you-"

"No." Morgan stops Garcia before she can finish. "No."

"Okay, so then why did it take so long and why is he now asleep, in your bed?" Garcia asks, with a raised eyebrow, thus meaning she is thinking something dirty. Morgan knows this all too well.

"It so long because he really needed to talk and then passed out while we were talking." Morgan explains.

"Okay Morgan." Prentiss grins and just goes back to the files.

"You dirty girls." Morgan mumbles and sits down, taking a look at what Prentiss wrote of the shooting.

Rossi, JJ, and Hotch basically are banging their heads against the wall with the case they have.

"This is making no sense." Rossi exclaims. "Why didn't we bring the kid?"

"Because he volunteered to stay back." Hotch answers.

"Why didn't you tell him otherwise?" Rossi also asks.

"Because I understand why he wanted to stay behind." Hotch states and tries to change the subject. "Have either of you searched anything of the witch trials?"

"Umm, basically just the Salem witch trials." JJ answers.

"Just call the kid and ask him." Rossi suggests.

"No, we can't bother him now." Hotch insists. "He was just shot at. And he needs to focus on that now."

Rossi feels that Hotch is just trying to find excuses.

"Okay fine." Rossi replies and then just gets up and walks out of the room, he calls Reid.

Reid hears his phone go off. He reaches for it and answers without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?"

"Reid, did I wake you?" Rossi asks, hearing the tired voice.

"No, no, what's up?" Reid asks.

"Need info on the witch trials that might help us." Rossi answers and waits for the information.

"What do you need to know?" Reid asks and sits up, rubbing his eyes.

"Tell me this, was it just females that were accused of witchcraft?" Rossi asks.

"Males could be accused but it was indeed mostly females who were hanged by men." Reid explains.

"Okay what was some of the other punishments?" Rossi asks as he sits down.

"Umm..." Reid tries to remember some. "Well hangings, burning, umm there was also drownings."

"Drownings?" Rossi asks.

"Yeah, if you were accused of witch craft, they would drown you and if you died you were human, if you live or brought back you were a witch and would be put to death." Reid explains.

"Brutual." Rossi mumbles.

"Yeah it is." Reid agrees.

It's an awkward silence between the two for a moment. Rossi changes that with another question.