Discs.: I don't own CM or its characters!

A/N: This took also quite a while - thank goes again to Damned Lolita...

Hidden feelings

3. Anxiety

Gideon came out of his office, and joined the rest of the team.

"He's still not in?"

The others shook their heads. Jason pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number, while heading back to his office.

"Hotchner."

Haley answered the call.

"Hey Haley, it's me, Jason. May I talk with Aaron?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, he isn't answering his cell - wait a sec, he isn't at home?"

"No I thought he was working - that's what he told me before he left in the middle of last night...Jason, please tell me what's going on..."

"Calm down, Haley. It's probably nothing."

"What if something happened to him?"

"Trust me, nothing happened to Aaron...Okay, Haley?"

Jason only hoped he was right.

After he hung up he went to the bullpen.

"We have a problem."

The other agents of the team looked at Gideon.

"Hotch has vanished... according to his wife he should be here..."

"So what are we going to do now?" JJ asked.

"You and Reid start checking the hospitals, and call the local Police

Departments to check if he was involved in a car accident. Morgan, talk with Garcia, and tell her to check Hotch's phone records..."

The team parted to work on their tasks.

Twenty minutes later:

The team had met at the conference room to talk about the results of the researches.

"He wasn't involved in a car accident, that's for sure." JJ told them.

Morgan joined them.

"Well, Garcia found something..."

"What is it?"

Gideon looked at him.

"She checked Hotch's phone records, like you asked for. He called Elle and it seems like he had been on the way to her place while he was on the phone with her."

"Okay, Reid and Morgan get to Elle's apartment and check if she knows where Hotch is."

"Got it."

Morgan and Reid left.

Thirty minutes later:

When they reached their destination and got out of the car, Reid stated, "Isn't that Hotch's car?"

He pointed at it, and Morgan nodded.

"Let's go."

They rang the door bell, but no one opened. A moment later an elderly woman came out of the building, so they took their chance and went in. They went up to Elle's apartment. When they were close enough to see the door Morgan stopped Reid and pointed at it— it was obviously opened a bit, since the wood was partly busted. They drew their guns, and Morgan gave Reid a sign that he would enter the apartment first.

For a moment they were shocked by the way the living room looked. It resembled a minefield. There were obvious signs of a heavy struggle. They looked through the rest of the apartment, but didn't find any of their colleagues.

Morgan pulled out his cell phone and dialed Gideon's number.

"What's up, Morgan?"

Gideon answered the call.

"We have a serious problem..."

"What do you mean?"

"Hotch had been at Elle's place; his car is parked in front of the building. But they are nowhere to be found. The door had been kicked in— the living room looks like a battlefield..."

"Okay get the CSU there and then come back to the office."

"Got it."

They hung up, and Morgan did what Gideon had asked for.

An hour later, Reid and Morgan arrived back at the office.

Conference room:

"So, what do we have so far?"

Gideon looked at his colleagues.

"Not much...Hotch had called Elle around 3 am - on the way to her apartment. The neighbors seem to have noticed nothing at all so we don't know when it happened." Reid stated.

"It must have been at least three to four men." Morgan pointed out.

"Why's that?" JJ asked.

"Well, Hotch and Elle are trained Special agents of the FBI. If it had been less than three men it would have been impossible for them to abduct them both, probably not even one of them. And by the way do you really think that Hotch would just let it happen?"

"But how were they supposed to know that Hotch would be there as well? I mean he hadn't planned to visit Elle..." Reid said.

"That's a good one...Well, probably it was only a coincidence that it were enough men to handle Hotch as well. I think, two of them took care of Hotch, the other one or two got Elle."

"We only need to find out who it was, and where they're holding them." Gideon pointed out the obvious.

Tbc

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please take the time and review!