Thanks a lot for the alerts and faves to LoveReid, Namira 0-0, CMSP, take-me-down-higher and Shining Sunny! *yyaaaaayyys*
No beta, english is not my mother tongue and CM is sadly not mine.
Have fun!
"... Damn, no."
Once again she heard the bended paper clip fall to the ground, echoing. Haley stayed silent. Don't push him. He doesn't need even more pressure. But she couldn't help growing more and more impatient and he could sense it.
Reid had tried to open the door several times now, but the clip always slipped from his shaky hands and it took so much time to find it again, try it again; he even started cursing. His heart was racing, he felt like choking, fainting, but he didn't, for whatever reason. Instead he seemed to cough even more with every breath he took. It was so, so cold in here and it just got worse. Exhausted he leaned his forehead to the door.
It was really just a matter of time until Max came back, wasn't it?
Reid was about to attempt to pick the lock another time, when out of nowhere he heard muffled noises, somewhere across the hallway. Instinctively he looked up, of course seeing nothing but black, but he couldn't take his sight away from where he thought the sound had been coming from.
"Did you hear that?", Haley whispered. She was looking around, as well, with wide open eyes.
"Mmhm..." His throat scratched and he couldn't keep the upcoming cough inside, literally folded himself in half. You're too loud, too loud, no, no, she will come up, it's too hard... Calm down. Breath. Listen. Eventually he stopped.
The girl and the agent sat on the ground in complete silence, sometimes being interrupted by the rattling windows and whining, whistling of the wind. They could've mistaken the sound, couldn't they? Both of them?
"... Reid?", a well-known voice called out after some time, insecure and unusually confused, but Reid couldn't help smiling. "Spence, are you there? Man, answer me!"
On all four Reid padded forward, his hand with the paper clip stretched out far, until he could feel the metal again; Haley would not leave his side. Knocked on the door. "Can't-", was the only word he managed to croak before he hacked up half a lung again, searched for the lock and tried picking this one now. He left his eyes closed all the time. He felt like a damp blanket was crawling up on him, over his back, up to his neck, uncomfortable and heavy and creepy and pushing down his head.
"What- How did you-" Morgan was too overwhelmed and surprised to form a gramatically acceptable sentence, he was rather listening to the sounds behind the door. Reid was alive. He was just about to free all of them. He did it.
This time unlocking the door went surprisingly fast. Maybe because the voice and presence of his colleague was more motivating than all the silence around him, more optimistic than not knowing if Prentiss was fine enough to stand up on her own, cause Reid sure couldn't help her with that, more helpful than the feeling that he had to carry all the responsibility to save these people all alone. Whatever reason there was, the door opened quickly. Just like before Reid pulled himself up on the doorhandle and opened the big door.
"Hey, Morgan." Speaking hurt but it was definitely worth it. He was so happy that he lived, that he was with him, that he wasn't on his own anymore.
"Kid, you- Wow. Great to see- Are you okay?" Morgan stretched his arms out, coming up towards Reid's lightweight, sunk down figure, pulling him in for a hug. He didn't mind when the poor kid coughed into his shoulder, but rather when he wouldn't start talking to him and when he felt the heat and the younger getting heavier and heavier, until he completely collapsed against him.
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, Spence, slow, slow... Are you here with me?" Morgan cautiously kneeled down to the ground, somehow trying to place Reid into a comfortable position, which was really difficult with the little amount of light coming from outside the window. Only more groaning coughs as an answer. "You did great, do you know?", Morgan chuckled, trying to comfort Reid the best he could. He really meant it. Reid had gotten through a lot. He felt a physical pain in his chest when he noticed how the younger was struggling to answer. "You're burning up, kid", Morgan whispered. "Knew that stupid cold-"
"What is with him?"
Morgan totally jumped at surprise when he heard the girl's shy, trembling voice coming out of nowhere. His heart stopped for a moment.
Must be one of the kidnapped kids. Haley. He remembered. She slowly came closer, hardly lit-up when she entered the room.
"He's... not feeling good", Morgan answered truefully but understated, forcing himself to look away from Reid. He looked so terrified. "Can you tell me what happened?"
Haley nodded. "He got knocked out by Max at first."
"Max!", Morgan hissed. "Is that the guy's name?"
She frowned. "...No?" Haley shook her head in confusion. "Max is a woman. I have seen no man."
"It's two then?" the agent concluded, not actually believing what- Right, right, Max, Maximilia, the witness, I completely forgot... We did some awesome profiling there... He wanted to punch himself for actually accepting that Reid came with them. Just a witness, fuck that.
"I woke him", the girl continued, pointing at Reid. "He gave me his jacket because it's so cold. Somewhen Max came up and was checking on us, wanted to know if we were sleeping. She left us alone. But that other woman..."
"Prentiss!", he hissed.
"I think it was her. Mr. Reid was very upset. She wanted to protect the boy, who was... taken with me. And then she fought with Max, but Max won... That was not too long ago."
Morgan hadn't noticed any of this. His head hurt like hell, he must have slept it through up to now, from when he was attacked up to now. So much time was lost. The unsubs could've done anything to his team members and he wouldn't even know.
"Where is she?", he demanded, trying to stay as calm as possible. As far as he knew, he was the only one able to do something actively to save everyone, regarding the feverish Reid and Prentiss probably knocked-out at least two times.
"Behind the door over... there." Haley pointed into the dark hallway. "It's two or three doors from here. Max threw her in again and left then. Mr. Reid had an idea. He used a paper clip to open our door." Now Morgan understood. His magic tricks. "But she'll come back. Soon. She'll punish us."
The agent stood up now, stepping towards the girl. "Don't worry, Haley, alright? We'll all get out of here, I promise. Okay, now come here." Quiet, quiet steps. She wore socks. The jacket dragged on the ground behind her. Morgan held her hand. Carefully. Led her to Reid backing to the wall, just like before. He couldn't stop coughing and Morgan wondered, why nobody had come upstairs up to now; judging by that volume they must have noticed long ago. The younger didn't bother to calm himself anymore, glancing at the other two, uncoordinated but at least awake. Haley sat down on the ground. "I want you to look out for Reid here, alright? Talk to him, help him staying awake."
"I'm still-" The rest of Reid's sentence got lost in another series of harsh coughs.
Morgan picked up the paper clip and smiled reassuringly at Haley, though he couldn't hide the deep worry in his eyes. "I'll be back in a minute."
"Is there no other option? No other way to send help?", Hotch asked once again. He just couldn't believe that they were totally useless right now, while his agents were in danger and most probably not even able to answer their phones at that moment. He was sure now, something must have happened.
Hutton shook his head. "We can only wait for the storm to calm down and send our men then. I'm verry sorry." The sheriff answered, being literally pierced up by Hotch's sharp, brown eyes. He shifted. "I'm really sorry, but there's nothing we can do at this point." He left, shuffling steps. It was almost 3 a.m. Everyone needed sleep desperately, but no one dared to relax, no one could.
Rossi leaned back in his chair. "At least the unsub can't escape as well." No one answered.
JJ's phone rang, violently breaking the silence. "Garcia? What happened?"
"Why isn't Derek answering his phone?", she asked snappily. "Or Spence? Or Emily? You're the first I actually got to reach!"
JJ swallowed, looked at Hotch who shook his head no. "We have a blizzard over here, in Chicago. Sometimes the connection's very bad, Penelope." She would only tell half the truth.
"Oh... Right." That seemed to make sense to her. "I heard about the storm. Are you all doing fine? How's the case?"
"We're... pretty close to the unsub, actually." Too close to be honest. "It's just the weather, we can't get away from the department."
"Oh, okay... Can you give me Derek, please? He asked me to find out something for him."
"You can tell me right away, Garcia", JJ answered a little too fast. "I'm gonna tell all of the team."
"It's not about the case, he asked me to look up something for him, privately... Can I talk to him now?"
JJ's eyes widened, looking at Hotch again, trying to find an acceptable answer. "Uhm, actually..." Her head was empty. No ideas, no lies, no sorry excuses. She sighed, resigning. There was no use trying. She would find out sooner or later. "Actually, he's not with us. I can't give him the phone right now."
"... You just said he was. That you all can't get away from the station." Garcia stared at her computer desktop as if the answer was there to be found. She didn't understand.
JJ stayed silent. Waiting for realization hitting Garcia. It was awful and cruel but the words were stuck in her throat. She couldn't tell her and she didn't wanna listen to what was coming. Closed her eyes.
Garcia gasped. "What has happened to him?", she asked, surprisingly calm.
"It's not... It's not only him", JJ almost whispered now. "Prentiss and Reid were with him. You had to tell us everything about Maximilia Benett, possibly the unsub, you know?"
"Of course I do." Prentiss and Reid, too? But Reid was sick! He's not supposed to be with them... The analyst kept these thoughts to herself, now beating the desk with her funky pink pen in impatience and nervousness.
"She claimed to be a witness, wanted to tell us something about a car she has seen at the crime scenes or... You know. They were going to her house. And... they didn't come back. They're not calling, not answering their phone..."
"... Why didn't you tell me right away?" Garcia sounded genuinely hurt.
"... We don't know if they're really in danger or not, but..." JJ gestured, coming under pressure to offer an explanation, looking at the ceiling as if it would help her stating what she felt, commenting on why they did what they did, but it was unexplainably hard.
"... I'm gonna call later, JJ."
I knew it was a mistake. Right away. How could she be so fucking stupid?
Now we don't even have a chance to escape. We're freaking trapped. The snow is everywhere. You can't see anything in here without turning on the lamps. Snowed in. With three FBI agents.
Biggest mistake she could've done.
I couldn't sleep so I turned on the TV. Max is sleeping like... a rock. Drugged like a fuck. Doesn't care at all. It's been her fault that we're stuck in this shit and she doesn't care at all. Not a thing.
I shouldn't have teamed up with her. I'm really stupid, too.
My last chance is acting as if I did nothing. Staying innocent.
I know I've blasted that one's head, but... I was acting in self-defense. I thought he'd broken in. Right. And that chick, she's... Seriously, I didn't know they were in the house at all, that's what I'm gonna say. I thought they'd kill me if I didn't fight back. Didn't know they were FBI agents interrogating my ex-wife.
Max is starting to snore. Gotta make the TV louder. Fucking weather, it's loud outside and loud inside, it's fucking annoying. Shit.
2:56 a.m. They say it's gonna be calmer in the morning. Hopefully. Need to leave here as soon as possible.
Haley poked Reid in the shoulder once again. "Hey. Stay awake."
Morgan was fighting the door's lock a few feet away, creating a soothing cloud of background noise, when he was silently cursing like a sailor.
The funny cat's back, Reid thought at the girl's touch, smiling lightly. That means, pain will go away for a while. Finally.
He didn't react, at least not in a way that she could see, his eyes were closed. He looked almost relax. "Mr. Reid." She grabbed the shoulder now and shook him, not too strong and not too weakly, hoping not to hurt him. Just an unnerved groan as response.
Cat, you're starting to be annoying, seriously... Leave. Please. It started pushing him from the side, rubbing its head to his shoulder, then into his side. Gently, but constantly. It wouldn't let him fall asleep. He waved into nowhere, slowly, not seriously, missed her. Go away.
When Reid still didn't bother to wake up again, the girl leaned down to his ear, as close as possible.
Cat's whiskers were really tickling on his cheek. Warm breath. He flinched, turning his head away. Too tickly. Stop it, silly cat.
"PSSHHH!"
Reid jumped up, eyes wide open, touching his ear in shock, then looking at Haley next to him, jaw dropped down in indignation. "What the-"
"You wouldn't wake up", the girl simply said, staring at her hands. She had been so loud in his head, he thought he'd have a heart attack.
"... That- was really... awful", he somewhen said, his voice hoarse and scratchy. He sounded like he had just ran a marathon. And he felt like that; hot and sweaty and exhausted and short-winded and dizzy and queasy. He didn't want to think about getting up any time soon.
"Only way to wake you up, like I already said." Haley looked at him from the side. Reid sat up uneasily but didn't close his eyes again. She concentrated on the background sounds. They had a chance. They were able to escape. She couldn't believe it. The little girl grabbed her knees and pulled them closer, than put the jacket around all of her body like a blanket, diving her head into the neck line."I want my mum and dad", Haley suddenly said, her voice not half as strong as before. Reid couldn't see the tears in her eyes. Now that's when the levee breaks... But she couldn't hold them back, started sobbing.
Reid coughed into his hand. He thought his throat has never been drier, his tongue was like glue in his mouth. Water... Water would help. Every coughing attack felt worse than the one before. And it tasted awfully... Like iron. That wasn't good, he knew it, something was terribly off. He looked at the inside of his hand, hoping the dark-looking liquid there wasn't what he assumed it was. He felt sick to his stomach. "Want them, too", Reid breathed. Haley lifted her head, staring at him in disbelief.
"Hey, guys, you okay now?" All of a sudden Morgan stood in the doorframe, having sneaked up from out there. He looked worried sick. Reid nodded slightly. He wouldn't tell him about the blood. Morgan couldn't help him anyways. "I could open the door, but... I need your help." Morgan went on speaking, specifically looked at his friend. "Can you stand up?"
Reid swallowed. "... not so fond...", he murmured, but already tried to stem himself up with help of the ground and wall. In the twinkling of an eye Morgan was by his side, holding his arm. Reid's head fell forward, his knees knicking in. "... everythi-... swirls..." He cleared his throat which resulted in a cough, grabbed Morgan's sleeves.
"Easy, easy... No stress. You're doing awesome." Minutes passed with nothing else happening than Reid catching his breath and controlling his balance.
"Okay, now", he eventually whispered, looking up. "Okay. What do you-" Pause. "- want me... to do?"
Morgan hated to ask for the following. "We need to go downstairs."
Downstairs? He thought they were already as downstairs as possible? How much did he miss out?
"We have to go down", Morgan continued explaining his battle plans. It didn't sound like something else to Reid. "Find out what our chances are. What they're doing there. Find out if we can get out."
Reid left his eyes closed cause he feared his environment would be still swirling when he opened them, but he knew something wasn't right. "... What about... Emily?" If Morgan had chosen him to come with him and he already was totally useless, Prentiss must be ... even worse? No, no. Reid raised his head. "Seriously- What-" He was wide awake again.
"She's unconscious. Breathing, but unconscious", the agent finally answered. "I don't know what they did to her, but I can't wake her up, for god's sake."
It was painful to hear. There was just one small hope... "How's... Mike... the boy?", Reid asked, concentrating to speak out every word properly. Maybe if he simulated to himself that he was okay, he would feel okay.
Morgan bit his lip, unusual for him, showing that he too wasn't confident of the situation. He got knocked out as well. Out of nowhere. It made him feel vulnerable, though he would have never admitted it. "He lives and he's awake. Good for the circumstances." He looked at Haley, his eyes warm. "You might look after him. Together you'll feel better." The girl stood up as if on command, hiding her face from the agents but going into the room Prentiss was in, too, not saying a word.
When she disappeared behind the door, the younger agent nodded, straightening his back as far as he could. Now was the time. "... Let's go."
"Come on, let's go, Anne!" She runs. On her wobbly legs. I see her getting bigger. Growing. Her hair longer, shining in the summer sun. She smiles. She's so precious. My baby. My little baby.
The day she was born. Painful is an inappropriate word for giving birth, but, yes, worth it. Worth everything. Her beautiful, bright, blue eyes. Her soft hair on the big head. She smiled. Smiled a lot.
She didn't lose that smile when she got older.
She suffered so much, but she never lost hope. She was taken from me, taken from her mother. She was all alone. Scared. Her big eyes, pleading. She begged. She didn't wanna leave me, didn't wanna go to that new family, she was so afraid. My little Anne was brutally taken away. I did nothing wrong. I cared for her. I could've never hurt her. They were wrong. I could never do that. It's their fault she... she died.
And he got to live.
Why is he alive?
She didn't deserve this. My birdie deserved a far better death. Peaceful. Fall aleep, my little beauty. Dream of a better life.
