The Telepath's Daughter

Beacons

Before Julio could reach the hospital, the old doctor had abandoned the professional, comforting façade of white coat and stethoscope, dropping them on his desk with an uncharacteristic lack of care. As he hurried down a hallway, he mentally ran through a list of the patients presently in residence and wondered if he'd be strong enough to shield them from the power he felt building a short distance away.

Such a little girl.

He'd underestimated her. Or overestimated himself.

Telepath! Meet me in the front lobby. Quickly!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Hotch, Rossi and Reid were silent and still, mesmerized, leaning against the nursery window, gazing at Reid's small son. Later, Reid would blame the peaceful enchantment of that moment for having missed the troubling telepathy emanating from his daughter. He would wonder if all that happened afterwards could have been averted, if only he'd picked up on Melinda's mind before the old doctor had. Actually, not before...but instead.

With no warning to his companions, Reid's spine stiffened. The power and urgency of the doctor's call overrode everything except the need to respond. Abandoning Hotch and Rossi, the young FBI agent took off at a dead run, making good use of his long legs.

The two older men exchanged baffled looks and then sped in pursuit, calling after their colleague as they ran.

"Reid! Reid, stop!"

"Reid, what's wrong?!"

It wasn't until Spencer reached the lobby and nearly collided with the old doctor that he regained the power of speech. "I don't know! It's Mellie?" he tossed over his shoulder at his friends. Doctor, is it? Is it Melinda? I'm feeling...something

Yes. Reach her. Distract her. Telepath, MAKE HER MIND YOU!

In the strange, multi-level communication that characterized telepathy, Reid knew that the doctor was extending the lion's share of his formidable energy into shielding his patients. Still, Reid could tell that the old man was also reaching out to Melinda, but in a diminished capacity. Aware that Hotch and Rossi had stopped peppering him with questions and were simply staring, Reid threw all of himself into touching his daughter's mind.

He systematically closed down stimuli from his other senses. Sight, hearing, taste, touch...all fell to a lower tier of importance. The slightly acrid scent of sterility that was the hallmark of most hospitals dropped away.

He wasn't aware of Julio's arrival.

The Palero priest had received all the information he needed in one brilliant burst of psychic energy from the doctor as he ran toward the hospital. He spared a glance for Hotch and Rossi, wishing there was time to explain the situation and alleviate their expressions of confused dread. But there wasn't. All he had time to do was glance at Hotch's wrist to reassure himself that the agent was wearing the beaded bracelet imbued with enough power to deflect psychic energy intruding on a brain unsuited to it. Julio stood beside the old man who'd mentored him into being a true healer and joined his energy to protect the fragile psyches of their patients and then realized...

More than the patients, priest. Protect the town. All you can reach!

A sick feeling dropped to the bottom of Julio's stomach as he understood that whatever was happening in the little girl's mind was so much bigger than anything he could have imagined. He pushed his mental powers outward as he never had before, seeking the sensitives in the village, trying to surround them with a psychic buffer against the white-hot energy that he could sense was growing somewhere on the street near Millie's Bed–N-Breakfast.