AN: Thank you everyone for reading and for the reviews. I was getting down on myself because every now and then, I feel as though I've written myself into a hole. But either way, I will not be abandoning this story so no worries there. You'll have to be patient with updates because alas, I'm in college, working for Disney and looking at a future change in major to psychology. Bottom line, real life always gets in the way. But, I don't think updates will ever be too far apart.
Warning: Nothing really... except there's a lot of information in this chapter so pay attention. Oh! And this story was no beta'd so all of the mistakes are my own.
Okay, go for it!
PRESENT
Derek Morgan slammed his fist down on the desk in pure and utter frustration. He had been looking through these case files and pictures for days now, calling anyone and everyone who may be related to this case and had even been to Reid's apartment twice already to dig through everything the kid owned. To say he felt angry, devastated, terrified and even dirty for violating his partner and friend's privacy was a severe understatement.
The truth was, he couldn't handle the death of another agent and friend. Even though Prentiss was not actually dead, her presumed death had taken a very heavy toll on him and had him going to very dark places. And as horrible as Emily's "death" had been , if they lost Reid, it would be completely different. It was no secret that Derek had practically always seen Reid as his little brother whom he always picked on, yes, but whom he had the strongest need to protect. It was not that Reid wasn't capable, because he most certainly was, but it was simply because Reid still, despite everything, possessed this sort of innocence and naivety that Derek never wanted the world to be without.
This whole situation was killing him. About three days ago, a day after Reid had brought the case up in the first place, they had all arrived at work to continue researching the case when they realized Reid wasn't there. Being the profilers that they were, after calling several times, they stormed into his apartment to find Reid's badge, gun and wallet all neatly laid on the floor in front of the door, taunting them and letting them know right away that Reid had been taken by the same unsub they were currently tracking down.
From there, the case became extremely personal.
The hunt became all but frantic as they searched high and low for any surveillance cameras, witnesses, fingerprints or absolutely anything else that may give them a lead. Unfortunately, this unsub was very thorough.
So then, knowing that targeting Reid could not have been coincidental, they began looking into his every step to see all of the people he had come into contact with and match alibis. Currently, three days since Reid had gone missing, they were still getting nothing but it was their best lead at this point, so they continued.
"Okay, the only people he spoke directly with, as far as we know are," JJ began, the disparity in her voice growing just as the others' had, "Vincent Mallard of the Atlanta, Georgia P.D., Anna Lodgen of the Greenville, South Carolina P.D. and Robert Ashley of the Auburn, Alabama P.D… all of whom have alibis."
"What if it wasn't someone he talked to?" Garcia asked. "Most of us here talked with those departments, what if it was someone one of us talked to and they wanted to target the team but Reid was just the first one they got to?"
"It's possible but unlikely," Rossi stated, his hand rubbing at his head. "The unsub had to act quickly after finding out that we were onto them. The best course of action would be to go after whoever they talked to as opposed to searching out our whole team and then randomly attacking one of us."
Hotch nodded in agreement, "You're right. This had to be planned and fast. They had to have targeted Reid from the beginning to give adequate time to find out where he lives, get there and abduct him."
Morgan listened, his frustration not getting any better as these conversations were just that: all talk. They weren't doing anything. Sure, they had put out a bolo to every police station in the eastern United States but apart from that, they just didn't have enough to go on.
"It doesn't make sense, though," Emily interjected, "If the unsub knew we were after him, why would he go after one of us? I mean, wouldn't that make it easier to catch him?"
That was very true. Nothing this unsub did had been sloppy or stupid thus far.
"Well, he hasn't been noticed until now," JJ reasoned, "Maybe he panicked and didn't think it through."
But then something hit Morgan like a ton of bricks. "Wait a minute," he said as he stood up and began walking in the opposite direction. "He talked to those departments after we had our meeting, right? Once you gave us our assignments," Morgan questioned, looking at Hotch.
Hotch nodded in confirmation, his eyebrows now furrowed in interest in where Morgan was going with this.
"Didn't he mention that he had talked to someone before he came to us? When he was giving the presentation of the case, I'm pretty sure he said he had already talked to someone. He was making phone calls that morning, surely he talked to other people."
"That's true," Hotch said, "I do remember him making a few phone calls, I just didn't think anything of it," he continued with a look of shame on his face. Morgan knew it was not Hotch's fault but he didn't have time to console him.
"Well, before he came to us," Morgan continued, then turned to Hotch, "Before he came to you, I doubt he was telling these people we were actually picking up the case. He was probably saying that he was noticing a possible pattern that may turn into an actual case. I mean, at that point he wouldn't have been promising anyone anything."
Prentiss nodded then, seemingly catching on to Morgan's train of thought. "So what if the unsub assumed that Reid was the only person who was looking into these cases as being more than isolated incidents and decided that getting rid of Reid would mean the unsub could stay hidden."
"That could be why the unsub targeted at least one of the victims," JJ added. "Maybe he killed one or two and then someone started snooping and so he had to get rid of them too…?"
"That may have been why Rachel Harding was positioned differently," Rossi said, deep in contemplation. "Our unsub had to be at one of these departments that Reid contacted, right? And the only victim that was treated differently was Rachel Harding. What if the unsub worked with her but had no choice to kill her if she started figuring things out?"
"Okay, okay," Hotch said definitively. "All of this is great, but it's all speculation at this point. We need to thoroughly examine everyone who was working at the Atlanta police department yesterday morning and see if any of them could have done this. Atlanta is a very long drive..."
"Long, yes, but very possible," Garcia said, to which everyone nodded.
They were all about to be at their stations when Hotch's phone rang. At first Morgan thought nothing of it as his mission was very clear but then he happened to look up and noticed the unusually emotion-filled look on Hotch's face, and immediately stopped in his tracks.
Hotch, who was beyond relieved that they finally had some sort of lead, was about to get started with the task at hand and hopefully find Reid in time. So far, the other victims were found four to five days later and based on the autopsies, the unsub kept the victims alive until he reached the dumping site which gave Hotch and everyone else at least some hope that Reid was still alive as they were only on day three.
Regardless, hope was fading no matter how hard Hotch tried to hold onto it, but no matter what, he did not express this to the others.
Hotch took a deep breath and began to turn away to head to his own computer when his phone rang. He stopped temporarily to look at the caller idea and was surprised to see a number with a 904 area code.
" Hotchner," he answered, extremely worried at what this may be. Thoughts of a ransom demand or something of the sort ran through his mind.
"Hello, Mr. Hotchner," a man greeted on the other end, "My name is Dr. Parsa and I was given this number by a Spencer Reid. Do you recognize this name?"
"Yes," Hotch said immediately, his heart almost coming to a completely stop as he eyed any of his agents who were looking his way, letting them know this was a highly important phone call. "How is he?"
"Well it depends," the man said in a tone that, for some reason, rubbed Hotch the wrong way. "Physically he has sustained many injuries, most of which appear to have been from his car accident but none of them seem life-threatening at this point. I'm most concerned about his concussion. He seems to be under the delusion that he is a doctor and an FBI agent and…"
Rage suddenly filled Hotch's body as he noted the comical tone in the doctor's voice. This man clearly thought Reid had lost his grip with reality and was proceeding to make fun of him, though the man tried to mask it.
"Stop right there," Hotch demanded, trying his very best not threaten the man from the very start. "I will have you know that the man you are currently poking fun at not only holds three doctorates in Mathematics, Chemistry and Engineering and has an IQ of 187, he is in fact a very skilled federal agent who was kidnapped by a very dangerous serial killer that we are trying to hunt down," Hotch declared slowly through nearly gritted teeth. "Now, my name is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner with the FBI and I need information, and I need it right now. If you are prepared to show me and my agent some respect, I would like to hear it from you. If not, pass the phone to someone who can."
Though the relief of hearing that Reid was alive and in safe hands greatly outweighed the sheer anger pulsing through his veins, he couldn't help but despise the very idea of this man interacting with Reid who had no doubt already been through quite enough.
"R-right, right, I'm sorry Agent," the doctor fumbled. "What do you need to know?"
"Is Dr. Reid available for me to speak to?"
"No, he's having tests done and…"
"Fine, then I need to know what hospital you are at, the name, the city and the state and I need to know how he was found. Then, immediately after we hang up you need to make sure your hospital staff is aware that officers will be stationed outside Dr. Reid's room and only authorized personnel will be permitted, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes," the man replied quickly, "Yes, of course."
Hotch, now the center of everyone's attention, started motioning to the others, letting them know that they would very soon be heading to the jet to fly to Reid.
"Okay, go," Hotch said after the sad excuse of a doctor didn't give him the information he asked for.
"R-right, I'm sorry," he stumbled quickly, "We are at Baptist Medical in Jacksonville, Florida. All I know is that he was found in a crashed van early yesterday morning with no identification. He obviously has injuries indicative of a car accident but there are others… older bruises and abrasions that suggest he's been beaten."
Hotch's stomach clenched tightly as the doctor explained all of this but it was becoming more and more clear that Reid had lucked out majorly, although Hotch was not positive of that just yet.
"Is that all?"
"Yes," he replied, sounding almost relieved to have gotten the story out. "Is there anything else I can do?"
Hotch only needed to think about it for a moment before answering, "Yes, Dr. Parsa, find my agent another doctor but stick around so I can talk to you face-to-face when I arrive."
There was a pause on the other end before the man basically squeaked out an "Okay."
Hotch, with a slight grin on his face, hung up the phone before addressing his now excited agents.
"Baptist Medical, Jacksonville, Florida. Wheels up in twenty, I'll explain the rest on the plane but," Hotch paused for a moment as he finally took in the information himself and relished the fact that he was able to give his team good news, "He's alive."
The relief and elation that filled the entire room was palpable and Hotch would remember this moment for the rest of his life. Yes, it was brought on by a horrific experience, but the fact that it was going relatively well thus far was enough to make it more than memorable.
Everyone, after a brief personal expression of triumph, dispersed to grab their bags and prepare to fly to Florida. Hotch, on the other hand, grabbed his phone and was ready to dial.
"Garcia," he said quickly, "What's the number for the Jacksonville Police Department."
Garcia immediately turned to her iPad and began searching before promptly calling out the desired phone number. Hotch took a deep breath and began to explain the situation and give orders to the police department, letting them know exactly what was happening and how they needed to prepare.
Soon everyone was back together with their bags and they all began to move out.
"Hotch, what was that doctor like?" JJ asked, which was apparently a popular question as everyone turned to hear the answer as they walked.
"He was questioning Reid's sanity," Hotch said, still angered by the whole situation. "He apparently found it funny that Reid claimed to be a doctor and FBI agent."
Everyone seemed peeved by this, especially considering that when it came to Reid, his sanity was a very sensitive subject, but Morgan looked particularly irate.
"Good job then," he said quickly, "with what you said."
Hotch smiled slightly, still getting the welcome waves of relief that were so refreshing after the three days of purely negative emotions. Hotch sighed one last time as they neared the jet. With this job, there was almost always more devastation than miracles. And of those miracles, most were due to their investigative skills but every now and then, the miracles were based on pure happenstance. In this current situation, to Hotch's great surprise, it was looking more and more like Reid and the whole team would be able to consider themselves some of those lucky ones.
EN: Hope you liked it. Haha I really took it out on dear Dr. Parsa but it felt good. What I like about this new season so far is that everyone seems so much... stronger. Strong-willed, I guess. So I've used this in the story because I like it here and there, especially on characters like Reid and JJ were weren't really known for it previously. Alrighty well, thank you for reading, review if you have a chance/want to, and hopefully see you real soon!
