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"What happened, Hotch?" Rossi asked as Hotch approached him in the waiting room. The rest of the team was still at the crime scene.

"I don't know," Hotch answered. "I heard the shots and went to find Reid. He was on the floor, but there was no one else in the room. Jacob snuck up behind me when I was helping Reid. He took my gun, and then he knocked me out."

"Reid's in surgery, but he should be fine," Rossi informed him before he fell silent in thought. "Does it strike you a bit odd that we were able to talk him down?"

"Yes, it does. He refused to talk to you on our phones, and then he seemed pleased when I told him it wasn't going to end well for him. Where is he now?"

"He's being transported to the police station. This is going to be an interesting interrogation."


"There were two shots, right?" Morgan asked.

"Yeah," Prentiss answered. "They were close together, but I definitely heard two."

"Where's the second one?"

"What do you mean?"

Morgan walked over to where a small pool of Reid's blood was. "Reid was probably standing about here when he was shot. The bullet went through him and into the wall behind him," he said as he pointed to the hole in the wall. "Reid's gun was definitely fired. It would have been in the opposite direction."

Prentiss understood what he was saying. "There isn't any other bullet hole anywhere, and Jacob wasn't hit."

"Right. Something isn't adding up."


Reid still felt tired, but he sat up in his hospital bed anyway, careful of the sling on his arm. He had woken up not long ago. He didn't remember much after falling to the floor, only glimpses of the ambulance ride and arriving at the hospital, but he knew Jacob had surrendered and that Hotch was okay.

"How are you doing?" Hotch asked as he came into the room.

"Fine," Reid answered as he absentmindedly rubbed his shoulder. "How's your head?"

"Nothing a few stitches couldn't fix. Are you up to telling me what happened?"

Reid nodded before he began. "When I came into the room, the door on the other side was closed. I saw someone moving underneath the door. I was going to wait for you, but he opened the door. I knew it wasn't the unsub, but he had a gun aimed at me... You can probably figure out what happened after that."

"Wait a minute, Reid. What do you mean, it wasn't the unsub?"

In Reid's still somewhat groggy state, he had forgotten that they didn't know about the second unsub. "Jacob wasn't the one who shot me, Hotch. We screwed up on the profile. There's a second unsub."

Hotch sighed. "Hold on a minute. I need to call the team."

Hotch left the room to make the phone call, and Reid waited patiently for him to return. He came back only a few minutes later.

"Morgan said he noticed something wasn't right. They couldn't find your bullet at the crime scene, which means you must have hit him. Garcia is going to search for any hospital records of people recently admitted with gunshot wounds. Do you think you could describe him to a sketch artist?"

"Yeah," Reid nodded.

"Rossi's on his way to interrogate Jacob. Maybe he'll be able to get something out of him." Hotch watched Reid carefully for a few minutes. He still saw the guilt in his eyes. "Do you want to tell me what's bugging you?" Hotch finally asked.

Reid was not all together surprised by Hotch's question. He probably would have been more surprised if Hotch hadn't said anything. "I, uh... It was my fault."

"What was?" Hotch asked as his curiosity grew.

"The whole thing. I should have taken the shot sooner."

"Reid, these things happen. Sometimes they're just unavoidable. Don't start second guessing yourself."

"I'm not, Hotch. I know I could have taken the shot sooner. The second unsub wouldn't have gotten away, and we wouldn't have been distracted... I hesitated..."

"What made you hesitate?" Hotch didn't want to blame Reid for anything. Most likely, Reid had done nothing wrong, but he still wanted to hear what he had to say.

"Simon."

That had been the last thing Hotch expected to hear out of Reid's mouth. He didn't deny that he still thought about what both Simon and Reid did, but he thought that case was in their past. He thought Reid had gotten past that as well, but apparently he was wrong.

"Simon? I thought we've been through this, Reid. What is it about him that made you hesitate?"

"Something he said to me."

"Reid, is there something you didn't tell us? What could he have said that didn't get to you until now?"

"He didn't exactly say it." Reid stared down at his bed as a feeling of shame washed over him. He had not told anyone about the letter he had received from Simon. He now realized what a stupid mistake that was.

"What are you talking about?"

Reid took a deep breath before he began. "After I got home from the hospital, there was an envelope sitting on my coffee table. It was from Simon. He made sure it would have gotten to me."

"Why didn't you tell me? What did it say?"

"I didn't think it mattered," Reid answered honestly. "Simon was dead."

Hotch listened intently as Reid recited the letter from memory. "You should have told me about this, Reid."

"I know. I'm sorry I didn't. I didn't think it would bother me. And it hasn't... not until today."

Hotch was silent, and that only made Reid feel more nervous and more guilty. Finally, Hotch broke the silence. "Look, Reid, I understand your reasoning for not telling me, but I need you to promise me you won't do something like that again."

"I won't," Reid promised.

"Good."

Reid desperately wanted to change the subject. "Why did Jacob give up?" he asked.

"He might have been covering for his partner," Hotch suggested. "That's probably why he took the time to create a hostage situation. He was giving him a chance to escape. Did you see where he went?"

"No. I didn't even realize he wasn't in the room until Jacob sent everyone out of the house."

"We'll find him, Reid. You just focus on getting better."