Author's Note: So here's my promised new story! I hope you'll like it. Beta-read by REIDFANATIC.
Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds. I don't even want to. Writing stuff about it without borders is more fun I think:)
The Fugitive
Chapter One
The trees were beautifully green and nicely sunlit in the late spring morning. A gentle breeze was blowing in the forest, making the leaves shiver and shake with joy. Birds sang their blissful songs everywhere; a river was babbling nearby. Nothing seemed to spoil nature's beauty.
"We can't lose 'em," Derek Morgan murmured softly into his speaker.
With weapons held at the ready, four FBI agents advanced forward in the morning forest.
"He probably ran to the west," Rossi said, keeping his voice down, "Northwest, maybe."
At the riverside Hotch motioned with his hand and the group split up.
"I see fresh footprints along the riverbank," Morgan announced. "More than one person ran here not too long ago."
"There's someone moving over there," Prentiss whispered. "Can't see them clearly..."
All of a sudden, several shots were fired. Rossi and Prentiss crouched down instinctively, not stopping to look for the source of the bullets. Morgan turned his head around wildly, desperately trying to locate the shooters, but all he saw were trees and bushes. He took three or four steps forward, running. There! He saw movement, a good twenty yards ahead of him; a dark, slim figure, trying to move away from where the agents were. Morgan couldn't see him properly; there were bushes and a mass of leaves covering the space between them.
"I got you, you bastard," he whispered to himself before he took aim and pulled the trigger.
The dark figure tripped and disappeared from his sight.
Morgan didn't rush immediately to check if he had really hit him. He knew that there were others around, only waiting for him to come closer and make himself an easy target.
"I think I got one of them," he muttered into the speaker. Soon, Hotch caught up to him. The forest was silent. Even the birds weren't singing anymore; they had gotten frightened by the sounds of the shooting and hid away deeply in their nests.
They heard Rossi's voice through the speakerphone. "I think they're gone."
Dammit Reid, I'm so gonna kick your ass for that, Morgan thought, but he never said it out loud. He and Hotch cautiously advanced forward, ears sensitive for the slightest sound of the forest, but nothing was heard. They slowly reached the place where the unsub Morgan had hit should have been lying, but there was no one around.
"He was here," Morgan told the others. "He was standing right where I am now."
"You missed him," Hotch established.
But Morgan couldn't accept that he had failed. "No," he crouched down. "See this? I did hit him." He pointed to something on the ground. Hotch squatted down too, and finally he saw the sanguine liquid on the ground. It was already half soaked up by the soil, but it was definitely there, and it led further away until it reached the river.
"Shit," Morgan cursed. "He got away!"
"Right," Hotch said just as Prentiss and Rossi came up to them. "Morgan, go back to the other agents and start looking down the river. If he had climbed out somewhere, I'm sure he won't get too far, judging by the blood loss. We're going further upwards to find the others."
With that, the agents split up again and continued their search.
Reid was running for dear life. He was surer than at anytime in his life that the moment he stopped he was dead. Everyone in a one mile radius wanted him, and the guns were coming closer by the moment. He was getting out of breath and his side was stinging; he knew he had to rest or he'd collapse soon, but there seemed no way out of his situation. He heard footsteps from all around him, could see dark figures moving behind the cover of trees and bushes, even several gunshots were fired somewhere behind him.
There were more of the unsubs. He guessed that P.D. had sent more of his men after him. He could just hope that Hotch and the others would catch them first. They must be more important than him right now.
For a brief glimpse he saw Morgan among the trees, about a good twenty yards behind him. He was dangerously close to him and was approaching. Reid panicked and started running forward. So the main target was still him! No matter how many freak criminals were running around waving guns, the qualified agents of the FBI didn't give a damn about them if they had the opportunity to chase after one of their own, who by the way, had committed nothing!
Of all the trouble he was in at the moment, the most painful was the betrayal of his colleagues. He trusted them and relied on them and would have sworn to his life that he could count on their help in everything. Yet no one seemed to believe him now, in fact, they were even determined to catch him and turn him in.
He was thrown to the ground and hit it hard almost the same time the sound of the gunshot was heard. His mouth got full of dirt but suddenly he realized that he was in much deeper trouble than that as he felt sharp pain shoot through his right side.
It can't be… Has Morgan just shot me?
He bit back a cry as he tried to move. His hand flew to the wound and he felt warm blood streaming down towards his stomach. It hurt like hell, but the pain of the knowledge that it was his friend that wanted to kill him was a lot worse.
Reid was slowly accepting that he had lost. They had got him; only moments and they would reach him and take him away. He had failed.
Or maybe not yet…
He suddenly became aware of the babbling of a nearby river. As he lifted his head, he could even see where the ground met the water; it wasn't more than five or six yards away. Gathering all his strength, he started crawling towards the riverbank. He only needed to get in and climb out somewhere further and they would lose his track… for a little while at least.
The water was ice cold and the current was strong. Reid ended up falling face first into the waves and when he finally managed to get back over the surface, he was coughing, snorting and gasping for breath. The current grabbed him immediately and pulled him fast with itself. Reid let himself be carried by the river and he stared into the pale sun twinkling behind the passing trees as he drifted away.
Jessica Gore stepped out of her family's house and sniffled the fresh air that was heavy with the scents of early flowers, trees and wet soil. She loved this scent. It surrounded her when she was home, far from the noise and stink of the town, becoming especially strong in the spring, and she literally felt nature calling her.
She decided to take a walk to the riverbank. It was one of her favorite places; she often lingered there for hours, just sitting on a stone and listening to the whispering water, the music of the tree branches and the singing of the birds.
She had almost reached that place when suddenly she saw something strange, something that didn't fit in the picture. She saw clothes first, a sweater and pants, but as she took a step closer she finally saw that it was a man lying under one of the bushes.
Jessica felt her breath and heartbeat quicken. What should she do? What if the man is dead? She almost turned around to run back home when she saw the slow rising and falling of the man's chest; he was breathing. She cautiously approached the guy to take a closer look at him. He was lying on his side; his longish brown hair half covered his face but to Jessica he seemed pretty young; not much older than her although she was only sixteen.
The man suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the girl. His whole body flinched and Jessica saw a glimpse of fear in his eyes for a brief moment while she herself took a step backwards too. But after the first shock, both of them seemed to calm down a bit. Jessica walked closer and that was when she noticed a large, unnaturally red stain on the young man's sweater.
"You're hurt," she established in a soft voice as she kneeled down next to him. There was no more fear in the man's big, brown eyes, only exhaustion and pain.
"What happened to you?" Jessica asked, but as she didn't get an answer, she tried something else.
"Okay, my name is Jessica, what's yours?"
The man remained silent; he just kept staring at her with those big, sad eyes. Jessica carefully lifted the end of his sweater to see how bad his wound was, but he pulled away, even pushed away her hands with his as if trying to protect himself.
"It's okay, I just want to help," Jessica explained, and drew back her hand only to put it down on the guy's shoulder. This time he didn't resist.
"I live in a house not so far from here. If you came with me, I could treat your wound. It looks bad, you need help with it. Or do you want me to call an ambulance? Though our phone is not working right now but I can…"
The man shook his head wildly.
"Okay, then you should come home with me. Can you walk?"
The man didn't answer, just laid his head back on the ground tiredly and closed his eyes. Jessica sighed. She needed help to be able to help this guy.
She turned and started hurrying back towards the house.
When Reid opened his eyes next time, he saw a grown man standing above him. Scared that it was one of his pursuers, the young agent gasped and tried to get up as fast as he could, but he failed. His limbs were stiff and the pain in his side was so bad that he only managed to crawl backwards a few inches. Defeated, he looked up once more, and then he saw the girl who had already been here before. She was standing next to the man, and they didn't move.
"It's okay, buddy," the other man said now. "My sister said you were hurt. I came to help."
Reid didn't answer. He didn't know whether he could trust these people, but the girl seemed too young to have any malice. Anyway, he was so exhausted and at the end of his strength that he couldn't have done anything to protect himself. So he decided to just give up, and let things happen – even if he was about to die.
The older man now crouched down and reached for Reid's arm.
"Are your legs hurt?"
Reid closed his eyes and shook his head. He felt like he was lying here under the bush for ages, and the idea of getting up seemed just unreal. Besides, though he didn't remember hurting his legs, they were pretty stiff and refused to move, probably due to the long time spent in the ice cold water. He just realized how cold he was and started to shiver.
"Come on, I'll help you get up and then you can lean on me."
He distantly heard the voice of Jessica's brother, and soon he felt strong hands pulling him up by the arms. He was dizzy but they held him firmly, not letting him fall over. His rebelling feet seemed to start moving at last. Jessica and her brother put his arms around their shoulders and started escorting him back to where they came from.
Though Reid fought with all his strength to keep walking and stay upright, his head was hanging down to his chest and the majority of his weight was practically carried by the two siblings at the end of the quarter mile distance that separated the river from the house. He was barely awake when they guided him to a bed, and by the time he was laid down properly, he was unconscious.
"He seems to be out cold," the brother established as he panted from the effort and looked over the now still figure.
"That's good," Jessica nodded. "I won't have to worry about anesthetics when I dig that bullet out."
Tell me what you think! Is there any need for continuing? :) FFV