Reid said "We need to establish some communication with them."
"I'll call Garcia." Derek speed dialled the BAU technical analyst.
"Oh speak to me my vision in kevlar armour." Penelope Garcia answered with breathless anticipation.
"Hey love. We need help here, badly."
"Mama is here sugar, tell me what you need."
"Check for cell phone records from either of the Gordon brothers. We need to talk to those guys fast."
Penelope frowned, but still continued to type her search in phone records, "Haven't you boys and girls busted their perverted asses yet?"
Morgan sighed. Since he and Hotch had almost died in a bomb blast in Annandale Virginia, he knew that Garcia lived in terror that one day one of the team members might never come home. There was no way to say this without worrying her, so he just said it, "Sweet girl, Hotch and Rossi have been taken hostage." He heard Penelope hiss.
Penelope Garcia loved her job as a technical analyst for the BAU. As such, she had access to the best equipment, be it audio or computer. The buxom thirty year old blond with pink highlights, it matched her mood of the moment, couldn't see herself do anything else. Her work had meaning, it was important to the cases the BAU worked. Often, she would find clues that the profilers couldn't. Not everyone could do something that made a difference in people's lives. That made all of it, looking at gruesome crime scene pictures day in, day out, all worth it, to be able to catch those monsters and bring some closure to the families of the victims. As an added bonus, she liked the team she was assigned to. Morgan was her closest friend. They had bonded immediately through their friendly bantering that sometimes came close to flirtation, if not seduction. On the other hand, Spencer Reid was like a little brother to her. She felt protective of him even if she knew he didn't like it. She liked to confuse him. He was so cute in that state. Her best gal pal was JJ. The blond Communication Director was easy to talk to and fun to hang out with. Emily Prentiss had a wicked sense of humour that Penelope found entertaining. Hotch was a demanding boss who never asked anything from his team that he wasn't prepared to do himself. His best quality, in Penelope's opinion, was that he genuinely cared about the team, how they coped emotionally with the horrors of the job and about what was going on with them professionally or privately. He was never shy or too proud to ask their opinion and he respected them - which after working with Supervisor Erin Strauss, they all agreed was another of Hotch's virtues. As for Rossi, she had no opinion of the BAU founding member. He was too new to the team for her to make a valid judgement. That did not mean she did not want David Rossi back safe and sound. No, she wanted all of them back safely in Quantico.
She had to ask the question even if it scared her, "Are they ok?"
"Um, sweet girl, no, we think Hotch was shot."
"But you're not sure?" Hope, 'Please God, don't make it be real, please!' Despite his austere demeanor, Garcia liked their unit chief. Hotch was unfairly viewed, in her opinion, by those who didn't know him as cold, uncaring, and someone who didn't make friends. True, he rarely joined them for drinks after work, although since his divorce with Haley, he did try to mingle more. But still, he was a good leader and she knew first hand that if one of them got hurt he would stop at nothing to get whoever was responsible.
"No Penelope but..."
"Until you know for sure then I'll just pretend that all is well and do my best to help get those bastards. And Derek... , they don't have any cell phones or for that matter any land phone registered to their name or address..."
"Damn, we need to..."
BANG!
Morgan took out his gun while crouching down behind the SUV. Everyone did the same while looking at the house. The shot came from the second floor; it was followed by some screaming. They couldn't make out any words except that many people were yelling at the same time.
"What the hell?!" Prentiss shouted.
"What is going on?" JJ asked nervously.
Reid just stared at the second floor window, wishing he could discern what was being said up there.
Morgan could hear Garcia yelling in a panicky voice, through his cell phone, "What was that Derek?!? Derek!"
"A shot Baby girl, I'll call you back."
***
The bullet tore through Hotchner's left calf. The pain took his breath away. He closed his eyes and tried concentrating on breathing. Trevor Gordon took Hotch's ankle weapon out of his holster and pointed it at its owner, "See Stew, he would have killed us! See how these damned feds want to help us!"
Trevor was waving the gun menacingly at Hotch. Rossi was afraid that the man would finish off his friend at any second; he needed to draw the brother's attention even if it meant getting shot himself. "Listen calm down, no one wants to kill you."
"What?!? The bastard went for his gun!" Trevor said as he handed the gun to his brother and went to check his hostages for any more weapons. He found nothing.
"But only because you wanted to kill us. You gave him no choice." Rossi said.
Trevor wasn't paying attention to Rossi. He was looking at Hotchner who was trying his best not to pass out. He was losing a great deal of blood and the pain coming from his leg was excruciating.
"Listen, both of you, if you kill us, you'll get the death penalty. That's the price to pay for killing FBI agents. " Rossi said as he stared at Steward. He concentrated on the younger brother's fear of the electric chair to maybe manipulate him into convincing his dominant brother to surrender.
Steward whimpered but said nothing.
Rossi went on, "Think about it Steward, even if you kill us, how do you plan to get out of here?" Steward chewed at his bottom lip.
"Don't listen to him Stew!"
"Look outside Steward, I'm sure our colleagues have already called for more backup, the house is surrounded by cops, FBI agents, snipers. There is no way out except through negotiation."
Moving to the side of the window and lifting two slats of the blinds, Steward peeked at the street below. "Oh my god" He whispered. The street was full of police cars and cops in body armour, all pointing their guns at the house.
"He… he's...right Trevor! They're all over the place, everywhere!"
Trevor joined his brother at the window and looked. The fed hadn't lied, they were surrounded.
"We can't get out Trevor, what will we do?" He looked pleadingly at his older brother for some answer. Trevor had always been the one who took care of things. When their parents died without leaving them any money except for this old house, Trevor had been the one who found the contracts. It was easy work, just set up the room in the basement with cameras and a high speed internet connection. Some Mexican guy brought in the kids; sometimes they were white, sometimes Mexican. It didn't matter much to the client, as long as they were young and the client could do anything to them. He and Trevor would record the session, but they had to make sure the client couldn't be identified. Then, they would upload the session on the internet. They made good money. Life was good, until today. Now they were here with two feds, surrounded by more feds and cops, and nowhere to go unless Trevor came up with something.
"Let me think will ya'?"
***
They were all standing beside the government issued SUV. The last shot and screaming had unnerved the BAU agents. They had no idea what was going on in that house and until they did, they couldn't decided on a plan of action.
"Let's call them!" Reid said suddenly.
"Reid, they don't have phones, Garcia checked it out already"
"No, no, no Morgan. Not the Gordon brothers, call Hotch's or Rossi's cell phone!"
"He's right!" Prentiss exclaimed, "God, we should have thought about this before."
Morgan took his phone off his belt, pushed the speaker button and then speed dialled Hotch's phone. It rang six times before it was answered. "Who's this?" A young and aggressive voice answered.
Morgan took a deep breath, "I'm FBI Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan, who am I talking too?"
"What the fuck are you playing at fed?!? You're the one who called so what the hell do you want?!?"
Morgan bit back an angry retort. He thought to himself: 'Calm, remember the first rule of negotiation is to remain calm and in control no matter what'. Morgan said aloud "We want to know about our people, Agent Hotchner and Agent Rossi. How are they?"
Looking at his hostages, "Well, let me tell you g-man, the old one is alive and kicking, the other one has holes in him and he's leaking pretty bad, he's staining the floor! " Snickering, "Hope you feds will pay for the clean-up." Trevor said.
Tightening his grip on his cell phone, but still in a steady voice, Morgan said, "Let me talk to them."
"Why would I do that g-man?"
"To show some good faith."
"Good faith? Okay I'll show you some good faith." Trevor went to Rossi handed him Hotchner's cell phone and shoved his gun under his chin, "Talk."
"Who's this?"
"Rossi, its Morgan, are you alright?"
"Just restrained but otherwise I'm fine, Morgan."
"Enough!" Trevor yanked the phone away from Rossi and went to Hotchner. He grabbed a handful of dark hair and yanked his head back but Hotch, having once again lost his fight against unconsciousness, didn't react.
"The other fed isn't up to chatting g-man."
Derek closed his eyes, he tried not to imagine the worst but if Hotch couldn't talk on the phone..."Mr. Gordon, let Agent Hotchner go, he is hurt and is of no use to you or your brother."
Trevor shook his head. His short, blond hair fell in front of his blue eyes, "No, I think I'll keep him. That should keep you boys from doing anything stupid."
Morgan wasn't a very patient man, that was Hotch's department, "Listen, what do you want?"
Surprised, Trevor stared at the phone, "I'll get back to you." And he closed the line.
"What do we do now?" asked a surprised JJ as Morgan stared dumbfounded at his cell phone.
"We wait."
"Morgan we can't!" Prentiss wasn't one to not voice her disapproval and she didn't hold back now, "You heard what he said, Hotch is badly hurt, so much so he can't talk on the phone. We have to do something before it is too late!"
"Like what? What do you want me do to? " Morgan was too angry to give her a chance to answer his question. He went on, "You know if we go charging in there they will shoot and the first one they'll shoot will be Hotch and then Rossi." He got closer to Prentiss, invading her personal space, "Have you ever dealt with a crime scene where it is your colleagues and friends that are lying lifeless in a pool of their own blood?"
Emily shook her head, no she hadn't.
"I'll tell you this; I've seen what this can do to someone and how this person spent the next six months asking himself what he should have done to stop it. It's a living hell. I hope you never have to find out what that's like." With that Morgan walked away ignoring all the looks he got.
***
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