Spencer woke up aware only of the silence. He had a vague memory of noise, and yelling and dirt and then falling. A shadow on the wall bent over him. And then the quiet. He began to stretch slowly and try to get some dirt off his face when he was suddenly stilled by the feel of something across his chest and legs.
Wiping dirt from his face and eyes he saw that Hotch was stretched out across him and then he remember Hotch yelling at him to be careful, to watch his step through the debris of the building they were chasing the unsub through. "Hotch." He said quietly, then remembered his boss's low hearing at times, "Hotch." A little louder.
He was terrified at how still his boss was, and then he was suddenly aware of his own loud heartbeat thudding in his ears. "Hotch." He made an effort to roll his boss over and off of him. A slight groan escaped Hotch's lips.
"Just stay still a minute, I'm going to try to get help." It was at that moment he saw that his gun was missing, a quick look at Hotch and he realized his sidearm was gone as well. "Hotch, Hotch do you hear me?"
Hotch stayed where he'd rolled off Reid, he looked unfocused, and didn't speak.
"Stay here okay." Spencer tried again.
No nod, no indication that he understood.
Spencer leaned in closer. It was too dark to see if Hotch's eyes were responsive, but the man breathed steadily. The blood in his hair was drying already. Spencer tried to get Hotch's eyes to follow him. "Hotch if you understand me, just nod."
No nod. But Hotch looked at him, almost a questioning look.
Spencer moved to where the floor had given way under him and Hotch. The gap was no more than seven feet above, he could pull himself out. He looked over at Hotch. "I'm going for help."
Hotch, now sitting on the floor, looked with incomprehension around himself.
Spencer ran back to him. "You'll be okay, I'm going for help. Morgan's in the building. My walkie isn't working."
No response, Hotch's eyes roamed the room and Spencer as part of it.
Spencer caught Hotch's jaw in his hand and made him look right at him. "I'm going to get help."
"I'm going to get help," Hotch mimicked in an almost too high voice. He's imitating me, Spencer realized.
"Stay." Spencer commanded.
Hotch frowned at him. "Stay?" but in his own voice.
Spencer smiled at him. "You have a concussion, you need to just rest, so stay here, I'll get help."
Hotch mimicked the smile as well. "I'll get help."
Spencer tapped Hotch's jaw twice. "Come on then."
Looking thoughtful Hotch got to his feet. "Come on then." He whispered to himself. "Come on then."
They stood below the hole they'd fallen through.
"Can you pull yourself out?" Spencer asked.
"Come on then." Hotch repeated and reached for the edges of the hole. "Going to get help?"
"Yep that's the two of us saving ourselves." Reid knelt to let Hotch get a step onto his good knee. The step was momentary and Hotch was out.
"Come on then." Hotch said looking down at Reid and extending a hand.
Reid was really unsure about how wise his plan had been, but with the edge of the hole under one hand and Hotch's hand balancing and pulling up he was out of their tiny prison in no time. He realized he hadn't had time to think about it, which is probably why it worked.
"Going to get help?" Hotch looked at him.
Spencer nodded and scanned the area for Hotch's walkie or phone, he discovered the debris covered phone within moments. "Here we go." He looked at Hotch, "if this works we'll be out of here in minutes."
Hotch stood watching. He was blinking away sleepiness and Reid could see it. "You have to stay awake."
"You have t'stay away."
"Listen Hotch no sleeping. Okay?"
"Okay." Hotch looked around the filthy room, the dust made him want to sneeze. He saw the shadow on the wall. He ran and pulled Reid down.
"Come on then."
Reid squealed, "What the…" And a bullet flew over their heads. "Good, good job Hotch."
"Come on then." Hotch whispered and started crawling to cover.
"Yes sir." Reid whispered back. "I'm following." Putting the phone near his mouth he called for Morgan. "He's got us trapped. Morgan. Back of the building. Watch out for weak spots in the floor, we already fell through. We're gonna need a medic."
"We're almost there pretty boy. Medic with us."
The unsub directed his bullets to the sound of Reid's voice, so Hotch hustled them to a new hiding place.
Spencer finally realized that the unsub must have been with them in that small space under stairs. His gun and Hotch's sidearm were gone. But the man had not taken into account Hotch's baby glock at his ankle, because seriously who does anymore.
Hotch had the gun out. Spencer realized Hotch was working on instinct and luckily that instinct included saving Spencer Reid from the bad guys. He didn't question Hotch, though he wanted to.
The unsub was silent. Reid found that very unusual, usually they wanted to explain. To let you know how reasonable it was that they did what they did. This one just stalked them. And then there was silence.
And Hotch coldly waited.