Author's Note: Holy Smoke Batgirl! I cannot believe the volume of readers I got for this story in its infancy! Special thanks to HGRHfan35 and EmmaBerlin for being the first to REVIEW my story and motivate me to continue writing it! To the reading!


Voices, Or at least what she thought were voices stabbed through the fog in her head, beckoning her from her sleep. She took a moment to try to understand the voices, or at least recognize who they belonged to before mentally berating herself for the amount of liquor she must have consumed for the cadence of drums banging and crashing away in her brain. A sudden flip in her stomach forced a groan from deep in her chest and she instantly knew she was going to be sick.

Hotch shot to his feet before the groan had even subsided back into Emily's chest. He called her name gently and watched as her hand blindly reached for some invisible hold, shaking as it met the wall in front of her and flopped back to the floor. For the hundredth time since waking up he wished he could see more of her then just her back.

"Prentiss, wake up." he called over to her, pulling in vain at his shackled wrist.

Emily turned her head into the floor, resting her forehead against its cool surface while praying the panting of air from her lungs would ease the knots in her stomach. When another muffled voice broke into the darkness of her brain she finally recognized its owner and for a moment was embarrassed that she might puke in front of her boss. After a moment, she slid her hand up her side until it was pressed palm down against the concrete near her head and slowly pushed herself into a semi upright position. Still not willing to open her eyes to the pain she knew would follow, she reached out until her hand made contact wig the solid surface of the wall. With another groan of pain she twisted against a jabbing pain in her side to rest her back against the wall in a slouch.

Hotch and Reid watched their friend struggle into a semi sitting position and were instantly concerned by the amount of effort it had taken her and by the fact that she didn't seem aware of her odd surrounding at all. Now that she was facing the m they got a clear view of the large dark oozing gash at her hairline that had dripped blood down into her ear and soaked through her collar and down the front of her shirt. Hotch made a mental note of the way her hand had gripped on her side with a sound of pain at her movements. As soon as she settled against the wall he noticed her body begin to relax and his chest tightened in panic.

"Prentiss!" he barked, his voice echoing through the dark room.

She flinched, startled awake by the sound of her name reverberating off the walls and winced at the pain in her head.

"I'm sorry Prentiss but I need you to stay awake ok." he said quieter and she blinked heavily, fighting to focus on his face.

"What happened?" she finally managed to ask.

Both men released the air they held in their chests throughout her trip from the floor to the wall. She still did not look well but she was awake and talking and that was a start.

"We were forced off the road. I think the man holding us here is our Unsub. You've been out for quite awhile. How do you feel?"

For a moment she wanted to laugh at the preposterous question. Of course she felt like she'd been hit in the head by a truck, but the concerned looks on their faces pleaded with her to be alright. Unable to decide how to answer the question she lifted her hand with a weak thumbs up. At the movement she noticed the weight of the thick handcuff on her wrist and blinked at it a few times confused then looked back to her friends.

"Wonderful." She grumbled sardonically and dropped her hand to her lap. "Where are we?"

"In a basement of some sort I think." Reid offered. "There aren't any windows and the walls appear to be just painted concrete."

"Prentiss, he tossed some keys back into the corner behind you somewhere." Hotch spoke once he had decided she was coherent enough to understand. "Do you think you can reach them?"

"Keys?" she asked, grimacing as her ribs protested against the mere thought of moving away from the support of the wall.

"I think there might be a key to our restraints on it."

She peered around the corner and eyed the slight glimmer of the key ring. Though they were only a few feet away from her, they may have been miles when it came to forcing her aching body from its current position to get to them.

"Why would he give us keys?"

"I think he's toying with us." Reid offered. "You were unconscious when he threw them over there. I think he wants us to feel helpless knowing that escape is only feet away from us and yet we may not be able to get to it."

"I'm not so sure." Hotch disagreed. "He's testing us."

Emily's brow furrowed as she tried to follow along with the events that had happened in the room before she had awaken to join them. Hotch glanced at her for a moment, satisfied that she was following along and continued.

"He talked a lot about hunting. In his eyes, he is a sportsman. I think he wants us to escape because he needs the challenge of hunting us back down."

"There's no sport in killing something that's chained to a wall." Prentiss added dryly and Hotch nodded.

"That's why he moved us from the SUV. We would have known our way back and he knows that someone would come looking for us and would start in that area." Reid caught on.

They all sat silent for a few minutes, the severity of their situation sinking in and theories and what to do weighing on their minds.

"So what do we do?" Prentiss finally asked.

"Nothing." Hotch answered quietly.

"Nothing? We can't just sit here and freeze to death Hotch."

"If we run, we play right into his game and we risk losing." Reid affirmed. "He's got a huge advantage on us as he knows where we are. It's his own controlled environment. He may have even gone to the extremes of setting traps for us."

"So if there's a cuff key on there we may have a chance in fending him off if and when he comes back to see why we aren't escaping." Prentiss stated through a sigh before turning to look around the corner at the keys.

"Take your time Emily," Hotch instructed with a concerned tone. "He probably won't be coming back for awhile."

"I'm alright," she lied, "My butt's starting to freeze to the floor anyway."

With that she carefully pulled her feet up and braced her hand that wasn't around her ribs to the floor and hauled herself up onto her knees. Taking a few deep breaths to calm her nerves and ease the pain in her head she put her left foot under her and with the support of the wall heaved herself to her feet, clenching her teeth until the wave of dizziness passed. With one hand against the wall for support she quickly took a few steps until the shackle on her wrist stopped her from going any further. She swore and attempted to collapse her hand down small enough to squeeze through its grasp but the pain in her thumb told her that it was no use without dislocating the digit. Okay Emily, she thought to herself, the guys are depending on you to get those damn keys. Plan B. She carefully sat down onto her haunches and stretched her leg out toward the keys, the toe of her shoe just touching them.

"You've got to be kidding me," She groaned and finally gave in and sat down, pulling her wrist painfully against the restraint and stretched her foot as far as possible, finally able to slide the keys with the toe of her shoe a foot closer, then another until she could pick them up with a shaking hand.

"Got 'em" she grinned, dangling them in front of her by the small round handcuff key for the guys to see, before jabbing it into the lock of her restraint and grinning as they fell away and she pushed herself back up to her feet to help the her friends.

The loud click and creak of the door to her left made her freeze as a burly man stepped in. A sharp echo bounced off the walls as he slowly clapped his hands together, eyeing Prentiss with a predatory gleam.

"Well done Agent." He chided in a cold and menacing voice.

"Who are you?" Hotch's voice came out an octave higher then he meant it to and Emily's heart stopped for a moment when she realized that this man was not that same one Hotch and Reid had been contacted by earlier. Their Unsub had a partner.


Dun Dun Duh...Chapter 3 is already in the works folks. Want to read it? Just hit that little review button and let me know!