All These Scars... (A Criminal Minds fan-fiction)

Chapter Three

Spencer's POV:
   After saying goodbye to JJ I hopped into my dilapidated Jeep Cherokee and drove off. It didn't take long to get to my apartment but the car ride felt like it took an eternity.
    I couldn't get the thought of seeing my mom out of my head. I hadn't seen her in so long and the doctors were telling me that her condition was continuing to get worse. I was constantly afraid she would forget who I was but whenever she seemed to get absent minded I asked the doctors to remind her of me, and they did.
    Mostly, I was afraid of seeing my father. I hadn't seen him since I was younger and the thought of coming face to face with him made me shudder. I couldn't stand him. He abandoned me and my mother instead of helping her and being a father figure. He could've been at the hospital and I had no desire to see his lying face.
    She didn't deserve that and neither did I. Everyday I asked myself why he did it. I always thought that maybe it was something wrong with me or my mother. When he found out about her...illness...he left, packed his stuff up and ran. She couldn't help it.
     After I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex I pulled my bag out of the trunk and headed up to my floor. I unlocked my door and tossed my bag onto my dusty couch then headed for my room to pack fresh clothes, books and a few photos of my family. The team.
     Before repacking, I decided to head to the laundromat a block down the road to wash my already worn clothes since I had time. It was right by the drug store so I was going to pick up some medicine that helped with headaches. The effects of my...medicine wasn't working as well as it used to.

      JJ's POV:
   When I pulled into our driveway I instantly noticed something was off. It was nearly 2 a.m and most of the lights were still on.

     Henry was supposed to be in bed but his light was on, the yellow glow lighting up his patterned curtain.

     I sat in my car for a few minutes as I mentally readied myself for an outburst from Will. Or worse.
    After a few minutes of dreading the inevitable I turned my car off, grabbed my stuff and slowly made my way to the front door, ignoring the fallen leaves that had gathered beneath my feet on the sidewalk. The dead of autumn.
     As soon as I approached the door I could hear the tv blaring, the clanking of glasses and the sound of my heart racing.
    Will is unpredictable most of the time.
    I slowly unlocked the door, slowly pushed it open and saw Will on the couch flipping through channels on the television.
   "I'm home," I told him and set my bag by the stairs.
   "I noticed," he laughed an annoyed laugh. 
   "So...uh...where is Henry at?" I asked but he just shrugged his shoulders.
   I began to feel panicked.
   I shut the door and casually walked up the stairs to Henry's room as I tried to not drawl attention to myself, show him that I wasn't worried. As soon as I got out of his sight I make a dash for Henry's room and flipped the switch on.
    He wasn't there.
    I went into my room too.
    Not there.
    I checked every room upstairs but no Henry so I went back downstairs to see if Will would calmly tell me where he was. It was obvious he was drunk. Empty vodka bottles littered the coffee table, a half filled whiskey bottle was spilling out on the floor and the place was a mess. Not to mention he looked like crap.
    His eyes were distant and he kept mumbling to himself, completely dazed.
   "Will, honey, where is Henry at?" I asked calmly.
     He quickly jerked his head in my direction and started to get up.
    "It doesn't matter. The boy would not shut up so I had to do something." His words slurred together and he swayed as he approached me. "Now, where have you been? You're always getting home late!" He shouted and threw the tv remote against the wall, it shattered into several pieces and I flinched. He noticed.
    "Why are you so tense, baby? Let's just have a drink together." He pointed to the couch and indicated me to sit down.
   "Will, you're drunk. You're not thinking straight. Tell me where Henry is, now," I demanded as I began to lose my patience.
   A look of annoyance crossed his face but quickly vanished, turned to anger.
   "You never answered me, girl. Why are you always home so late, huh? You been cheatin' on me?" He shouted and threw a punch at me but fell from being unbalanced. I raced to the kitchen and grabbed a knife from the drawer.
   "Will, I have never cheated on you. I get home late because my job makes me late. There. I have answered your question so please, answer mine. Where is our little boy, Will?" By the end of the sentence I was already in tears and trying not to let my voice waver.
     He rubbed his face with his hands and said, "Listen, JJ," which was muffled out but I could still understand him, "enough questions. Just come over here and let's drink," he laughed and smiled menacingly.
    He doesn't just want to have a drink with me, he wants to take all of his anger out on me and I can't let that happen.
    I wasn't going to stab my husband. I couldn't. So I hid the large knife in one of the drawers and made a dash for the stairs, hoped he was too disoriented to be quick but before I could put one foot on the first step he grabbed my ponytail and pulled me toward him.
    He wrapped me into a chokehold and lifted me off my feet as I flailed and kicked at him, knocking over a vase of flowers in the process. He got them for me as an apology after the first time he hit me.
     Even though he's drunk he is powerful. And dangerous.
    After almost a minute of flailing around I elbowed him in the ribs and caught my breath. My vision had become blurry but I stumbled away from him and saw a shadow on the blinds of the glass door that lead to the back porch.
   The door was locked.
    He locked Henry out of the house? But why?
    Before I could fully dwell on it a set of hands grabbed my body from behind and threw me to the ground where he proceeded to jump on top of me and punch me repeatedly in the face.
    "Will, please stop!" I screamed and pushed him off of me, ignoring the explosion of pain in my face.
    The beatings were never this brutal, ever. He threw me down the stairs once and that was the worst. Usually it was just a kick in the knee or a slap to the face. Once he slammed me on the wall but that beating couldn't begin to compare to the one that, for the first time, involved Henry.
     I ran as fast as I could and grabbed a frying pan from the cabinet under the stove. I quickly held it up, ready to beat his head in but he was just getting up when I saw him.
    "Listen, you bastard, leave this house and never come back. I have given you chance after chance to quit drinking, to quit hurting us but all you care about is alcohol. More than us. Leave, Will, before I call the police!" By the end of the sentence I was shouting and letting all of my anger come out.
    Tears were falling down my cheeks but I didn't wipe them away.
    "Oh, I'll leave," he said and picked up an empty bottle of liquor from the ground. "Your beer supply is low anyway," he laughed and within a millisecond the glass bottle was flying through the air and coming in contact with the side of my face before I could dodge it.
    Everything went blurry as I crumbled to the ground, unsure of what to do. Henry was still outside but I couldn't find the strength to get up off of the hard, wooden floor.
    Just before everything went black I watched Will grab a few full bottles, money out of my purse and his coat before he headed out the door.
    As he slammed the door my head began to throb and I could feel myself getting sick.

Maybe he wouldn't of done this if he knew...

    But before I could finish my thoughts everything went dark and I passed out, leaving Henry on the back porch and my beaten body on the floor.