Chapter 9
I love being evil to poor Reid =P. I've noticed this is not just a me thing, poor danger magnet gets picked on a lot. Here it goes, hope you like it.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. – Sir Winston Churchill
Garcia and Hotch were alone in his hospital room. Morgan, Prentiss, Rossi and Seaver had taken a moment to grab some coffee so that they had a chance of staying awake even a little longer. Hotch had wanted them to rest after their search of the electronics store had turned up nothing but the police were still checking 5th street and until at least that was done none of them would give in to him, even if they knew he was right and they did in fact need sleep. He himself had just closed his eyes, because he wasn't sure he could keep them open even a moment longer. That's when Garcia, with her usual perfect timing, screamed. His eyes darted open and rested on her pale face.
"Garcia what's wrong?" He tried to scramble to an upright position ignoring the pain in his chest. Jesus, couldn't he just heal already. He felt so useless.
"Sir, someone's trying to hack my computer." The start she'd gotten was gone and she was in full teckie mode, typing so fast that her hands almost seemed to blur, her eyes never leaving the screen. Hotch watched as she started to mumble under her breath.
"Oh no you don't, you've picked the wrong teck goddess to mess with." Her typing speed doubled but he could see her starting to sweat. Whoever it was, if they were giving Garcia a run for her money then they were good, really good.
"Damn!" Her fingers pulled away from the keyboard. "They're in, and there's nothing I can–" She stopped suddenly her face suddenly turning even whiter. "No, oh god, no! No!"
"Garcia, Garcia what is it!" Hotch could feel her panic, and he had to struggle even harder to keep his own down. What had her so freaked?
"Sir I…" Garcia paused, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before opening them again.
"Tell me Garcia. What is it?" He tried his best authoritative voice.
She moved the computer onto his lap. "I was right." Her voice was soft, quiet, but caught in her throat. Hotch forced himself to look at the screen, even though he really didn't want to, and there was Reid.
There was Reid bound to a chair staring down the barrel of a revolver being held by a figure whose face was entirely obscured by a ski mask. Hotch felt his breath hitch.
"Get the rest of the team." Hotch never took his eyes off the screen for a moment as he gave the order to Garcia. She nodded but she didn't seem to be able to tear her eyes away from their teammate either. "Garcia, go!" This time she did as he asked and left the room. He turned his attention back to Reid and the figure on screen, noticing how slight the one in the ski mask was.
The figure began talking. "Say hi to your teammates, Dr. Reid." There was a moment of silence where Reid continued to look down at the ground. Before anything else could happen, the rest of the team burst through the door all talking at once fear lighting behind their eyes, animating them. They were just in time to watch the hooded figure slam the revolver roughly into Reid's face and then it was being held to his temple as blood started to poor from his mouth.
"I said say hi, Dr. Reid." This time Reid did react. He looked up, his brown eyes seeming to reach into the camera towards them, and spoke.
"Hi guys." His voice was quiet and a little shaky. Hotch's insides squeezed themselves. This shouldn't be happening to him, not again.
"Now," somewhere in Hotch's mind it registered that the voice was a woman's. "Shall we play a little game?" Reid's glare, along with his voice, was full of pure loathing.
"I have a better idea, how about you let me go!"
"Don't push it kid." Morgan instructed under his breath. His hands were clenched into fists and Hotch knew how hard it was for him not to break something. He knew because he was feeling the same way.
The woman holding the revolver pulled the trigger without warning and Emily screamed while Morgan shouted no and the rest of them jumped forward. Tears were threatening in Garcia's eyes.
Reid, to his credit, never screamed but his eyes betrayed his fear.
"Dr. Reid please play nice, or I'll be forced to continue pulling the trigger on this revolver until we do find the single bullet residing inside it and I send it through your skull. I'm sure your friends would love that." Hotch could imagine her smiling sweetly underneath the mask. "Anyhow, where were we? Oh yes, this game of mine. You see you're not much fun, at least not alone because you don't give a damn about yourself–you already proved that by giving yourself to me–so here it goes. We'll subject you to increasing amounts of pain while your friends watch and if you make even a sound, one sound, then one of your team mates will find themselves joining you here by tomorrow morning."
Hotch watched Reid's eyes grow wide. "No." He started to struggle against his bonds. "No! you said if I did as you asked you wouldn't hurt them! You promised!"_
NO! He could not let this happen. He'd let himself be taken to keep them safe and he wasn't about to put them in danger all over again. Just the thought of one of them being taken because of him made him feel sick all over.
He stared into the barrel of his captor's revolver and felt calm wash over him. This was still in his hands.
"You lied to me." The words came out as a whisper. The barrel of the revolver pushed harder into the side of his head.
"I did lie, Dr. Reid–"
"You lied but it doesn't matter." He felt his voice strengthen, grow louder. "Because no matter what you do I won't let you hurt my friends. I can take whatever you do to me."
His captor's voice when she replied was cold, devoid of emotion.
"Oh I seriously doubt that, Dr. Reid." He ignored her and turned his face towards the camera.
"I'll be fine guys, please don't worry about me."
Her voice was slinky and smooth, teasing. "Oh no Dr. Reid, I promise you won't be."
"What we do for ourselves dies with us. What we do for others and the world remains and is immortal." – Albert Pike
What do you think? I'd love to know!
