She Can't Do It Alone

Ashley and I sat in the front of the police station for a while, talking and laughing about old stories and getting to know more about each other. We did actually have a lot in common.

She pushed back her hair and played with the purple streak. "My roommate probably hasn't noticed me missing." She sighed. 

She told me she had been living with a girl for the past two months in order to get away from her mom and sisters. I didn't blame her from the sound of it. 

"They took your cell away,  how could you know?" I asked. 

"Because she isn't even at home. She's been off with her boyfriend for a week now." Ashley stood up and picked at her jeans. "I'm bored!" She whined. 

I giggled. "I can help with that. Follow me." I got up and walked down the hallway. I was sure they had to be done figuring things out by now. 

I opened the door to the office they were in. Reid was sitting down now and talking to Hotchner. Morgan could be heard talking sweetly to somebody on the phone. I would assume it was Garcia. 

I walked in with Ashley on my tail. Reid turned around with a frown, which turned into a grin when he saw me. "How are you two ladies doing?" He asked. 

Hotch wasn't smiling, but the corners of his mouth twitched as though he wanted to keep it a secret. 

"We got bored." I shrugged and sat in Reid's lap. I noticed JJ and Prentiss not in the room. Rossi was looking at the flat screen, not paying us any attention.

Reid slid an arm around me and placed his other hand on my knee. "And we can help how?" He asked.

"Think of a way?" I pouted. 

Something seemed to click inside his head because he suddenly stood up, and placed me on the floor. He cleared his throat then said, "We need to talk." 

Reid grabbed my arm and led me out of the room. When he turned to me I backed against the wall. To be honest; right now I was a little frightened. I wasn't sure what he was going to do. 

Reid paced in front of me for a few minutes and then turned to me. "We-we can't do that in public." 

"Why not?"

"Cory, if they found out I am attracted to somebody on the case I could lose my job. Negative, I'd lose it if they found out we made love. That will be the termination of myself." Reid looked around nervously.

"You are so sexy when you act like this." I smirked and pulled him by his tie. He rammed his hands onto the wall and kissed me gently.

"This is a way I could get in trouble."

I shrugged my shoulders. "So? What if you don't." I asked. 

"Well, if I don't then.. astounding. But I can't take that chance."

I sighed and let my hands drop from his chest. He stood up straight and gently creased my pale cheek with his hand. "Spence, I didn't speak the whole story in there earlier."

"What do you mean?" He asked. 

"They follow me. They know where I am right now, and they probably know our secret." I muttered. 

Spencer's eye brows formed together as if he were thinking of this possibility. "How do you know? Have any of them contacted you in any way?"

I shook my head. "No, but I have my ways."

"Listen, I need you to tell me who told you, how you found out. I need you safe. We need you safe. I can't let you be that one case we never solve, or that one case that fails completely." He whispered the last part as if he were scared to speak those words. 

I sighed and nodded my head. "I understand. But you won't understand if I tell you what is wrong. How I found out- it's complicated." 

Spencer bit his lip and walked away. He walked back and crossed his arms, staring at the horrid grey carpet beneath his feet. "Alright. So, these guys are watching you. We need a plan." He said this about the same time his phone rang. Spencer picked up his iPhone from his pocket and answered. "Garcia?"

He put her on speaker phone and walked back into the little office they were using. I sighed, but followed him anyway. I could hear Garcia talking in a hurried speech. "I-I found out about her mom. It's.. It's- Is she in the room?" 

They all looked over at me, Ashley included. "Maybe you two should leave." Aaron Hotchner looked at us, and then the door.

"I'm staying." I crosses my arms and sat on the table.

"You may-may not want to hear this, sweet cheeks." Garcia's sweet voice came over Spencer's iPhone. "It's not going to help you one bit."

"Come on." Reid stood up from his seat and reached out towards me. I crossed my legs and looked away from him. He mad a sound of sorrow before he turned towards the phone. "Go on, Garcia."

"Alright, baby. Well, it turns out that Ms. Alberta isn't even her real name. Her real name is Bonnie Sherwood, and she is from New York; she was born and raised in a small farm in New Jersey. At the age of twelve, she and her family moved on to New York after selling the house and ever since she turned fifteen, she's been arrested five times for drugs, and once for drunk driving. She has also been known to date men or women in secret that later go missing, or gets caught hanging around small gangs to find cheap drugs." Penelope Garcia spoke on a single breathe. 

"She told me she was from Florida where she met my dad.." I muttered. Ashley walked over and hugged me gently. 

"So, she's been into gangs before." Morgan leaned over on the table and looked at Reid's phone. 

"Of course! She got close to people before dating them. Hence how all the relationships were created so fast. She more than likely met Mr. Vega, hoping to receive free drugs, but she changed him. So they got mad and murdered him." Spencer Reid was all too into this case now. He took no breathes until after he spoke. 

"There is..something else, too." Garcia muttered. "I also searched her last husband. Andrew Vega. He had a daughter before marriage." 

I blinked. "I have a-a sister?"

"No, darling. You were the daughter before marriage. You have none of 'Anne Alberta's' or even Bonnie Sherwood's blood in your body. Your mother supposedly died almost ten years ago." Garcia spoke slowly this time. I felt something inside my body rise.

How could my 'mother' just tell me all these lies? I trusted her, and it turns out she's been helping this gang for years.

"What's the rest of Andrew Vega's story?" JJ asked. She chewed on her pen and paced around the room.

"Well, he married Cory's real mother just two years before she was born. When Cory was born, they apparently lost everything. House, car, bikes, you name it. He was in this gang before but got out of it by paying them a bunch of money and giving them a few drugs in return. But when the Vega's lost everything, Mr. Vega had to go back into the business of drugs and killing. Mrs. Vega didn't like this too much so when Cory was two, she divorced him but left Cory with Andrew because she couldn't afford both of them. When Cory was five, he met Bonnie whom was taking the identity of Anne Alberta. They were happily married three years later and then.. I believe you know the rest." Garcia never seemed to breathe. But I was impressed, and upset over the information she had given us.

"There is one more thing we need to do about this. Cory is being watched." Spencer looked around the room at all the worried faces.