Their second day as hostages passed much the same as the first had. This time it was Emily who was taken away from them and locked alone in the room, her screams filling the air. Those who had been left together did what they could to be good captives, and hopefully lessen the pain that Emily would endure. They sat together, talking about aimless things, anything other than their current situation. For a while they debated what future pets each would have, and what kind of houses they would live in. There was a brief conversation about future children, but the looks on JJ's and Hotch's faces as they thought about their sons upstairs put a quick end to that topic.

"We have a limited amount of time down here, you know."

"What do you mean, Reid?" replied Hotch.

"There's only so many of us. . . And if they take someone new every day then by the time it gets back around the second time we won't last very long." His words silenced them all, as they contemplated the consequences.

"I can't take another day of that. I just can't handle it." whispered JJ, quiet enough that from across the circle Garcia could barely make out her words.

"They'll have the money soon, don't worry. It won't get to that point." Derek tried to assuage their worries, but to no avail.

"Derek! There have been no mysterious phone calls, actually, there have been absolutely no phone calls at all. All that fancy computer equipment on that table? Hasn't been turned on once while we've been here." Spencer paused his rant to take a deep breath. "How could the money possibly be on its way? There hasn't been any sort of contact, and you know as well as I do that by Bureau policy that can't hand over ransom money unless there's proof of life!"

"Spencer, man, calm down. They must be doing the communication while we're out of the room, like last night some time. Look, kid, everyone is already freaked, please don't make it worse." No matter how hard he tried to calm the younger man, Derek could see the turmoil in his eyes, the fear reflected in them.

"I can't take this. . ." murmured Spencer, squeezing his eyes shut against the world. "Too many memories, and no hope."

"You really think Strauss is going to let her best team rot in this basement? All the paperwork she'd have to fill out about our deaths? No way, man, not her." This time, his words drew a smile out of the devastated man.

"You're probably right. I mean, we aren't too far from where we were camping. And if I know Kevin, he's already gone through my computer records so he knows I was researching the forest. They've got to be looking for us around here." Added Garcia, drawing the attention of everyone in the group.

"How do you know that we aren't far?" Inquired Hotch when no one else seemed willing to ask the question.

"When they went around knocking people out, I noticed that it was a different guy than I'd been fighting so I just pretended to be unconscious. They weren't checking too close, they were too busy breaking down our camp and carrying us to the trucks." She answered calmly, trying to keep her voice low and even in case any of the men were listening to this particular conversation.

"How far away are we?" questioned Rossi.

"I'm not sure. I couldn't really tell how long the car ride was. Maybe an hour away max?" She answered apologetically.

"Garcia, you did good. We can't be that hard to find if we're that close." Soothed Derek, leaning into her to show his gratefulness.

"Then why haven't they found us yet? It's been over 24 hours!" The dismal lights in the room started flickering, cutting Garcia's outburst short. They all sat silently, staring at the ceiling, hoping that the lights would stay on, and wouldn't plunge them into darkness.

"Old place, things like this happen." Said one of the men. "Ignore it."

"Okay." Hotch answered for the group, and the man left to go join the others in a card game. For the first time they sat to observe their captors, trying to figure out what kind of people they were. For the duration of the flickering lights, about an hour, the profilers watched the men out of the corners of their eyes, watching their movements. It was Derek who first picked up on it.

"Hey, guys. They're passing something. Watch, the one with the beard has it right now." Even Garcia tuned in to watch the table, noticing how one man would put his hand on the table, or under it, it leave his glass upside down and the next man in the circle would take whatever it was that they were passing. All of the sudden it stopped, and when they looked around to see why, they saw that the man in charge had come out of the room where Emily was.

"What were they passing?"

"I don't know, PG, but whatever it is, they don't want the boss to know." Replied JJ, but she couldn't take her eyes of the door of Emily's room. She alone knew the pain that her brunette counterpart was enduring, and she wished more than anything that none of them were in this situation.

It was Spencer who deduced what the men were passing around the card table.

"Guys, its drugs."

"Spencer, don't think about drugs. This is not Henkle, okay man? There won't be any drugs, you don't have to worry." Spencer's sentence didn't surprise Derek, he knew that the younger man was having as hard of a time with his memories as JJ and Emily were having with their present injuries.

"No, I know that. I mean, what they were passing: its drugs. Look at them! They're acting different, more out of touch with reality." His words spoke the truth, there was a difference in the composure of each man, they all looked as though they could be overpowered by a bunny, except for the guns they clung to.

"We have a chance if they do this regularly, they'll slip up and maybe we can escape." Garcia spoke the thoughts that were on everyone's minds.

"Only if we can get the guns away from them. They might not be able to aim properly, but we don't want anyone getting hurt in random crossfire." Added Hotch.

"The only other problem is the boss, he doesn't partake and it will be difficult to get the upper hand in a fight against him and his gun." Continued Rossi. They bounced around the circle a few times, each of the spewing out ideas on how they might be able to incapacitate their captors, but to no avail. When night came, and darkened their room even further they still had no ideas, and the effects of the drugs were wearing off- they had lost whatever chance they might have had.

"Alright, you know the drill, one at a time, up and into your room." The harsh voice drew them out of their thoughts, mechanically answering his commands. One by one they trooped into the room they'd slept in the night before. When JJ went to follow Rossi, she was stopped.

"You're going with the other one." Was the only explanation she got, and JJ felt her heart soar as she realized that Emily would not have to spend the night alone and in pain as she'd feared. When she entered the small room, slowly, due to her injuries from the previous day, JJ felt the tears slipping down her face again. Emily was curled up into a ball, as though she was trying to protect herself from a new onslaught of pain. When there was none, she risked a glance upwards, and saw JJ. The blond could see the walls going into place in Emily's eyes, and she couldn't bear that thought.

"No, Emily. Stay with me. I know how bad you're hurt, inside and out, but you can't hide away. Please, you didn't let me do that, and I can't let you." she said, lowering herself carefully to the ground. When she didn't get any sort of response, she tried a different tactic. "C'mon, lets compare scars, huh?"

In the dim light of the room, JJ could see the walls crumbling a bit behind Emily's eyes, and she watched as they filled with tears, sobs soon emanating from the older woman. As carefully as she could, for both of their sakes, JJ wrapped her arms around Emily.

"You don't have to be strong all the time, Em, I'm here."

What do you think? Review and let me know!

Sya