A.N.: Haha, I know how much you've been waiting for this one:D but who didn't see it coming that they'll get in trouble sooner or later?:) enjoy.
Thanks to cyn23, SeeMeInTheShadows, JustThinkHappyThoughts, jessalynnGSR, KASEY64, the-vampire-act and Sue1313 for reviewing and to REIDFANATIC for beta-reading.
Chapter 8: We'll Need a Plan
For a brief moment Emily Prentiss forgot to breathe. One horrible thought raced through her mind.
Reid!
But the sound of the gunshot wasn't followed by deadly silence. It was followed by a man's scream of pain and, after a couple of seconds, Prentiss realized it was Reid's. A wave of relief rushed through her, at least he isn't dead if he can scream so loud.
The man slowly and disgustedly pushed himself away from Reid and stood up. The younger man stayed lying on the floor, giving out small cries of pain and clutching his left leg, under which a small pool of blood had already started forming.
"Oh my god!" Prentiss gasped and started to move towards her colleague, but the man's voice stopped her.
"Don't move!"
With a lazy swing of his leg he kicked Reid in the head then in the side. Reid rolled away and hit the wall, dazed and merely whimpering as black spots started to dance in his already blurry vision.
Prentiss stared at him in shock and didn't dare to take a single step as the gun in the masked man's hand now wasn't pointed at her but at the skinny figure on the floor.
"Give me the phone now," he said once again, more slowly and with a horribly calm tone, "or I'll shoot him again, this time in the head."
She didn't have a choice. Carefully, she took a step forward and handled him her cell phone, then raised her hands as to give the sign of surrender.
"Good," the man said, walking back to Reid. "And can I have yours too?"
Without waiting for an answer he searched the young agent's pockets for his cell. When he found it he pulled it out victoriously then quickly backed away, gun still pointed at Reid but his words were addressed to Prentiss. "You saw it was he who looked for trouble. It's not my purpose to kill you, but don't think I won't do it if you act like this in the future."
With those words the man stormed out of the room, slammed the door and they could hear as he locked it from the outside.
"Reid!"
At last Prentiss could hurry to her injured teammate. Reid was lying on the floor next to the wall, still in a daze from the unsub's kicks and hardly noticing as Prentiss knelt beside him to examine his condition.
"Reid, can you hear me?" she asked as she took a close look at his leg. There was a small gunshot wound on his left thigh, just a bit above the knee. Fortunately it didn't hit the main artery, but blood was still flowing out of it at a remarkable pace. Prentiss didn't see an exit wound on the other side of Reid's leg, which meant the bullet was stuck somewhere inside, but she knew she wouldn't be able to get it out by herself. However, the positive thing was that he was bleeding from only one wound instead of two, though she knew they had to stop it somehow or Reid would lose a dangerous amount of blood. She quickly took off her scarf and tried to create a makeshift bandage around the young man's leg, putting pressure on the wound by pulling it tight with a knot. Reid cried out loud from the pain as she tied it, finally emerging from his dazed state.
"Prentiss" he stammered.
"Yes, I'm here Reid, don't worry," she answered, heart breaking at the sight of her colleague's pain.
"You... you okay?"
"Of course I'm okay genius; it's you I'm worried about. You shouldn't have messed with him, where did you get the crazy idea of attacking an armed man? Like you weren't a well-trained federal agent! Damn it, he could have killed you! And besides, I could have handled him alone."
"I'm sorry..." Reid apologized which made Prentiss smile. "I was afraid that he would hurt you... did you manage to finish the talk with Hotch?"
"Yeah, I did," she answered. "Right when he entered. But that isn't as good as it seems because Hotch now thinks we're all fine and leaving tomorrow morning. They will wait to pick us up at the turnoff..."
Reid turned to his side and tried to sit up, not moving his leg. It proved to be a pretty hard task as his aching body screamed in protest, but in the end with Prentiss' help he managed to prop his back against the wall and sit upright. He felt dizzy, his head was throbbing, and Prentiss saw an ugly dark spot forming on his cheek and another on the right side of his forehead.
"The crazy fellow locked the door it seems, so he probably won't let us go away free and even if we'd manage to escape, you can't walk long with your leg, so," Prentiss sighed, "we're in trouble, I presume."
"So we'll need a plan," Reid finished the sentence, slightly grinning through his pain.
Hotchner hung up the phone with a 'one less thing to worry about' sigh.
"Is everything okay?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah, they're fine" Hotch answered. "They've spoken to Hanson who was very kind and helpful but of course didn't know anything. They'll wait for us to pick them up at the spot where the road comes out of the forest."
"Great," Morgan said, then added with an ironic tone, "I'm really curious as to what this 'praying all the time in the middle of nowhere' kind of life is about. I bet they had a lot of fun."
Hotch merely shrugged and hurried away towards JJ.
I know it's short but isn't a short chapter better than having more days to wait after that cliffhanger? :)
