The team stood and watched as the 14 year old girl was put into the back of the police cruiser. Rebekah hadn't offered to tell them where Brittany was. Hotch figured she was somewhere on the property. There was a large wooded area in the back plus there was a huge barn where the family's horses were kept.
"Okay, JJ and I will take the house. Emily and Reid will take the horse barn, and when Rossi and Morgan get here they can take the woods." Hotch said.
Mumbled replies echoed throughout.
"Look, here comes Rossi and Morgan now. We'll brief them on what's happened. You two go on ahead." Hotch told Emily and Reid.
"Okay, come on Em, let's go." Reid said as they headed off behind the house.
Reid pushed the door open and heard the sound of horses whinnying.
"Hello? Is anyone in here?" Emily called.
Nothing. Just more horse noises.
Reid and Emily looked into 5 stalls and found nothing. There was one more. They looked and again, saw nothing.
"She isn't in here." Emily said.
"I know, but look. Is that a door?" Reid said.
"Only one way to find out."
They walked further into the stall and tried to move what looked like a door at the floor of the stall. It opened with ease. Reid looked down inside and found a ladder that went down into the ground about eight feet.
"I'll go first." He said.
"Okay." Emily replied.
Reid lowered himself into the whole and climbed down the ladder with Emily following. He held up his gun and turned on the light, so he could see what was in front of them. After Emily was standing beside him, they two started walking down into the long tunnel. After walking for 10 feet, they saw a light flickering inside a small room. Reid fast walked into the room and found her. She looked horrible. Her hair was a mess. Her face was smudged with dirt just like her clothes. Her hands were tied behind her back, and there was a very long cut from her shoulder to her wrist. He looked down and there was a large gash on her right leg that was bleeding profusely. It looked like It had just happened. Reid ran over to her and started untying her hands while Emily started to pull the duct tape from her mouth. Emily started unbuttoning her white shirt so she could wrap her the open wounds. After all, she did have a light blue tank top on underneath.
"B-b-b-bomb." Brittany stammered as Emily was wrapping the wounds up.
"What?" Reid asked.
"B-b-BOMB!" Brittany yelled. Sure enough, over in the corner of the room was a ticking bomb. Reid scrambled over to where it was already ticking. When he reached it, it said 2:00.
" Come on, come on, Let's go." Reid screamed.
"I know it's gonna hurt a lot, but you have to run as fast as you can, okay?"Emily said as she and Brittany started running down the hall with Reid following.
Emily got to the ladder climbing up with Brittany following her. The three crawled out of the whole and started running towards the entrance of the barn. Right before they could reach the door, it exploded.
Hotch and JJ heard the explosion from inside the house. They ran outside and saw the barn smoking and full of flames.
"EMILY! SPENCER!" JJ screamed as she started running for the barn.
Hotch caught her and wouldn't let her go.
"STOP HOTCH, EMILY AND REID WERE IN THE BARN! WE HAVE TO HELP THEM! WE CAN'T LET THEM DIE! LET ME GO!" JJ wailed.
"JJ, there's nothing we can do. The whole barn is in flames."
"YOU IDIOT! WE HAVE TO HELP THEM!"
Hotch still restrained her. She was no match for him. JJ finally gave up and fell into a heap on the ground sobbing.
Just then, Hotch's walkie talkie beeped.
"Hotch, what the hell was that?" Morgan said.
"The barn blew up. Prentiss and Reid were inside."
"PRENTISS AND REID? AND YOU'RE JUST STANDING THERE? AREN'T YOU GONNA GO HELP THEM, MAN?" Morgan yelled.
"There isn't anything we can do, Morgan!"
"THE HELL THERE ISN'T!" Morgan yelled. Hotch heard static as Morgan dropped it on the ground in a pile of leaves and started running for the barn.
"Rossi? Rossi? Can you hear me?" Hotch said as he paged Rossi who was in the woods with Morgan.
"Yeah, I got you." Rossi replied.
"Go after Morgan. Make sure he doesn't step one foot into that barn. We don't need to lose him as well."
"Copy that." Rossi said as he started running out of the woods.
Hotch couldn't believe what was happening. He had just lost his wife, and now did he just lose two of the best on his team? They were his family. What was the team going to be like now without Reid's smarts and Emily's good vocation skills? Just then, he looked up from the ground and at the smoking barn. Through the smoke, Hotch saw the silhouette of three figures emerging from the barn. The smoke cleared some and he saw the faces of Spencer Reid, Emily Prentiss, and Brittany P., the hostage.
"EMILY! SPENCER!" Hotch yelled as he directed them to where He and JJ were.
"JJ, look! They are alright!" Hotch said as he helped the blonde up from the ground.
"Emily, Spencer!" JJ screamed as she ran for her fellow teammates.
"Hotch, get Brittany to paramedics." Emily said as she was attacked by JJ's hugging.
"Morgan, Rossi. Emily and Reid are alright. They are with us now, don't worry. They are fine."
"Come on, Brittany. Let me get you to paramedics." Hotch said as he helped the teenage girl.
JJ's hugging soon turned to Reid.
"I thought you guys were… gone." JJ sobbed.
"Well, we are here now, and that's all that matters." Emily said as she smiled and walked towards the ambulance. She had to make sure Brittany knew something.
