The team stared dumbly at the screens in front of them. Had Reid actually just do that? Did he really pick one of them to die? And did he pick Hotch of all people? It all just seemed so strange.

"Hotch, he didn't mean it like that, you know that. He was just trying not to get himself killed." Morgan tried to assure Hotch, but it was so hasty as to be ineffective.

"I know." He did know that, but it still stung to know that Reid would choose him to die. "What do we do now?"

"We wait until the bastard shows up to kill you, ambush him, get him to tell us where Reid is, then bring the kid home." Morgan asserted firmly and the others seemed to agree.

"Don't forget the part where we cross our fingers and hope that that lunatic doesn't slice one of our necks open before we catch him." Prentiss said pointedly, as strangely level headed as she has been almost this entire time. "Hankel is pretty swift with that knife, we need to be careful."

"We can do this, we can do this and Spence will be fine, right?" JJ asked, looking to the room for some support.

"Of course."

"How long till he gets here?"

"It's impossible to tell, he could be here in fifteen minutes, or one of his personalities could emerge and hold them up arguing or worst, punishing Reid more. All we can do now is wait." Hotch sighed.

And so they waited.

Not all that much longer, out in a cemetery in the middle of nowhere, Reid shot his captor, effectively rescuing himself. He first looked up at the horizon. No one was in sight, no one had come for him. He then looked back down at Tobias, who's eyes he had just watched the light leave. Guilt munched at the edges of his heart. Tobias had only wanted to help him, it was the other personalities that was the problem. Tobias had been pushed, snapped by an abusive father, Reid felt bad for him, and now he had killed him. Suddenly something else was biting at his heart. Reid gave a small cursory glance up before gently reaching into the pocket of the corpse below him and sliding out two tiny, lightweight, and yet strangely heavy, glass vials. Dilaudid. He pocketed them and heaved himself to his feet.

Reid looked around, trying to pretend he hadn't done what he just did, even though there was absolutely no one around to see his actions. He padded off in the direction he thought the road was in, his bruised foot stinging against the rough ground. He could go back to the shed and get his other shoe, but he didn't he could handle going back in there, with the tiny chair and the burning fish organs. Not so soon after he had literally died there. He had questions about what he saw when he died, but for now he would focus on getting the hell out of dodge. It was freezing out, but Reid couldn't stop, he had to escape, he can't handle the memories. He needed to distance himself, quick. After limping along for fifteen minutes, he made to the street. He looked back and forth. It was late, he was in the middle of nowhere, there was no chance that he would be hitch-hiking. Looks like he was walking.

Reid sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets, both to warm them and to roll the vials of narcotics around with his fingers. He looked up at the sky. Good thing about the country sky, it was clear as water, and all the stars and the moon were clearly seen. Books on astronomy Reid had read when he was a child flashed in his memory. He remembered a paper he read about people navigating with the stars, and figured that if he followed this road east, he would eventually reach the police station. He found east and he was on his way. Limping into the darkness. This was going to be a long night.

After so many hours of waiting with no Hankel showing and no new videos or streams, they decided to retreat to the hotel. There was nothing more to do there. They had no leads, and no new evidence, and they were all tired. After being up for so long, they need to rest. They weren't even sure if Reid was alive anymore. In the morning, they would check in at the police station and see if they had found a body or not.

Boy, were they in for a surprise.

After being in the office for thirty minutes, to their complete show, a bruised, sweaty, and exhausted Spencer Reid stumbled into the police station, declaring a weak 'it's okay, I'm fine' before collapsing to the floor.

"Reid!" The team gasped all at once, rushing over to their fallen comrade, who had a small crowd of concerned bystanders shuffling around him. Morgan was the first to reach him, kneeling down by him and lifting his torso up onto his lap.

"Reid, Pretty Boy, hey. Hey, look at me. Wake up." Morgan prodded the genius and his eyes fluttered open. Reid's eyes were bloodshot and slightly glazed over, clearly exhausted, they flicked open and shut rapidly for a few seconds, then rolled to the side before blinking again and then coming into focus.

"Morgan." Shit, he sounded just as bad as he looked.

"Reid, hey, there you are. What happened?" Morgan asked, but he looked up at the rest of team, an unspoken request for someone to call an ambulance. Garcia was quick to comply.

"Charles wanted to bury me alive… I was digging… shot him." He started off somewhat cohesive but started to drift off. Morgan shook him slightly, remembering Reid's little brush with death. He was slammed back pretty hard, he could have a concussion, it was best to keep him awake. "In a cemetery."

"A cemetery?" Morgan prodded, trying to keep him alert. By now JJ and Prentiss had joined him on the floor.

"He was keeping me in a cemetery. I left clues, hinted… didn't you get them?" Reid recognized how tightly Morgan was holding him and he was fairly certain that it was JJ's hand that was stroking his hair.

"…Hints?" They were genuinely curious.

""Leave their remains behind like a poacher", gave the wrong bible verse." That didn't really clear much up. Reid's eyes wandered to the side again, a telltale sign that he getting distracted. "I killed Tobias."

The heartbreak in his voice didn't escape anybody.

"He kidnapped you." Prentiss pointed out.

"He meant well… He saved my life." Reid was fading again, his head starting to jerk to the side as he fought sleep. "The other two were the problem."

"Alright, Reid, stay with us." Morgan lifted him up more, jolting him awake and bringing him into something that resembled holding, but was more of a hug. JJ got in closer, wrapping an arm around Reid and grabbing Morgan shoulder before pulling him into a sort group hug with Morgan. "We're just glad you're back."

"I was so worried about you." JJ said into Reid's hair. Reid became more alert.

"Are you okay? You didn't run into any trouble at the barn? I'm sorry we split up, that was stupid." Reid nodded his head back to try and look at JJ. "Large plot of land, dangerous unsub, with only the two of us. Stupid."

"Yeah, not our brightest moment, was it?" JJ was almost smiling, but she sounded like she might cry. "I'm fine, Spence, just had to deal with some mangy mutts."

"Those dogs would have been malnourished, so that they would eat the girl, they had to have been rabid with hunger, even after eating the girl." Reid was definitely more aware now. Good. And concussion or no concussion, Reid was still sharp. "The victim was likely already dead when you gotten there, that must have-"

"It was jarring at first, I'm fine now." JJ tried to sooth, but she also didn't want to talk about that quite yet. She was pretty sure the remains of that woman were going to haunt her for a while.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure, Spence. How did you get here?"

"I walked… from the cemetery, followed the road going east." Reid's head started to roll to the side. "My feet hurt, I'm tired."

"Try to stay up just a bit longer, Reid, an ambulance is almost here." Hotch said from his position about a foot away, where he was lumbering protectively, glaring at the officers who were trying to crowd around, daring them to even try to get closer.

Soon after, Garcia took herself a position by Reid's side, distracting him from slipping into unconsciousness with talks about Doctor Who. Something about a Tenth Doctor, with Garcia talking about how yummy he was and Reid praising the storylines and the quality of acting more than anything else. Reid spit out a fact about the actor who played him- David something-or-other – that made Garcia smile. Nobody had any idea what they were talking about.

When the ambulance arrived, and took Reid away, the team relaxed considerably before starting to make their own way to the nearest hospital. They were so happy that their little genius had found his way back to them, if slightly guilty that they hadn't found him themselves and slightly worried that the kid would never truly be the same again. Maybe what they were feeling wasn't so simple, after all. Reid, on the other hand, was sort of happy be going to the hospital. While he was unhappy that he would be prodded and questioned, he was eager to see if they would give him some medication. His last dose that Tobias gave him wore off on the walk to the station and he was itching for a new escape from the reality he was currently occupying. One were his eidetic memory was flashing images of the horror and pain that he had experienced at the front of his mind, no matter what he did to try to stop it. One where his team was no doubt not going to be giving him looks of pity and treating him like he might shatter at any moment. And he might, but that didn't mean he wanted to be treated that way. For the team, this ordeal had just ended, but for Reid, it had just begun.

Author's Note:

Alright, so I love Criminal Minds, and I super love the episode Revelations, the DVD commentary for the episode is one of my favorite things. But I can't be the only one that noticed that Reid sort of rescued himself, sure they figured out where he was in time to come pick him up, but if they hadn't, I'm pretty sure Reid would have still shot him to save his life. So the teams whole part in that episode was sort of useless from a plot stand point, I still love the episode, but it's a pretty big problem.

So, I snooped around for fics where the team didn't get his hints, and Reid just rescues himself, but I couldn't find any to my liking. So I decided to write one myself.

Not my best work, was a really quick write, so that's to be expected.

Leave a review, tell me what you think! Also, I should note that I don't care how old this story becomes, feel free to leave a review. I'm cool with PM's too….