Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
"Okay my Sweet Chocolate Thunder, I need to tell you that there are a ton of Mitchells and not one of them seem to be from Australia nor are their parents from Australia," Garcia said in frustration. "I need more details in order to find this guy who thinks it's okay to just crash into people and steal their friends," Garcia continued to rant.
"Well, try the man's uncle. His name is Kevin McPierce. Just search for any family members. We don't care if all you get is his wife. We need everything we can find," Morgan said calmly. He hoped he could help her focus.
"Morgan, do I need to come up there?" Garcia asked in a panicked voice.
"Baby Girl. You are in the best location to do what you do best. This case is based on your prowess and you've told me many times that nothing can stop you," Morgan soothed.
"But this is Reid and - OH MY GOD! Morgan!" He heard Garcia shout. In fact everyone looked up able to hear her scream through the phone.
"What the hell is going on?" Rossi questioned quietly. JJ simply shrugged and threw a paper ball at Morgan. Morgan put Garcia on speaker.
"By Girl talk to me, is everything alright?" Morgan asked feeling like he was asking the dumbest possible questions.
"NO!" Garcia shouted. "Check your laptop, PG OUT!" She said before hanging up.
JJ quickly rushed to the laptop and logged on into the FBI file. Hotch walked in and noticed the slight apprehension in the room.
"Oh my gosh," JJ whispered automatically stepping back from the computer. Morgan and Rossi quickly ran to the computer. Hotch watched as Morgan grabbed the nearest chair and threw it against the wall while Rossi cursed. Hotch walked towards the laptop and saw it. Reid. He wasn't sure if the man was dead or alive, but the bruises on the boy's neck made Hotch think more on the lines of dead.
"Something's loading," Hotch mumbled and Rossi came back to his side.
"What is it?" JJ asked trying to keep herself together.
"It's another message," Rossi said looking closer.
"It says, 'He chose you'," Hotch said with a frown.
"He chose us for what? Is that why Reid's… the way he is?" Morgan said angrily.
"We don't know Morgan," Hotch said pinching the bridge of his nose. He doesn't know what Reid did, but it may have cost the kid his life.
"Is…Is he alive?" JJ asked, her eyes wide with fear.
"It's too hard to tell. He could be unconscious or worse," Rossi explained slowly. "Let's take a seat," Rossi said pulling JJ down into a chair.
"Ethan said our unsub would want a seventh victim. Is it possible that it's Reid?" Morgan asked staring at Hotch.
"I don't know, get Garcia on the phone and have her track where that message and that picture came from. In the picture it's pretty obvious that Reid's in a basement. So also have Garcia search for houses near those swampy areas that has abasement attached. If he doesn't pick up JJ or Prentiss, or if he doesn't show up at the graveyard, we are tearing down every house we come across until we find Reid. Got it? I don't care if Reid is dead or alive, we are finding this man," Hotch said before pulling out his phone and walking out.
Morgan took a deep breath and pulled out his phone. He would have to stay calm for Garcia's sake.
"Baby Girl, I need you to calm down and try to find out where that picture and message came from," Morgan said softly.
"Oh I've already started on that he's going down and I will make sure he is destroyed," She said angrily.
"Okay baby girl. Secondly, search for houses with basements near or in Marshall's Swamp, or near Lake Phillips," Morgan instructed. "We are going to get him and we will once you get us those locations okay?"
"Okay," She sniffled before hanging up. Morgan immediately started pacing the room. He had to do something that would attribute to the case. He glanced up as Prentiss walked in with an unhappy looking Ethan.
"What happened?" Prentiss asked when she saw the shattered chair and an upset JJ.
"Laptop," Morgan growled. Prentiss walked over to the laptop and frowned at the image of Reid. She read the message and her frowned deepened.
"He chose us? For what?" Prentiss asked.
"We don't know," Rossi said in thought. "However from what the kid has told us and this entire situation, I'm sure the unsub asked Reid to help him with his real plan. Reid probably said no. Either way, maybe the unsub meant to kill him or maybe tried to show the kid who's side he should be on," Rossi guessed.
"Either way, Reid should have just went along with it. He should know that we don't need any protecting. He should have did whatever the man asked to stay alive," Morgan growled.
"No, he cares about you all too much. He wouldn't even chance it," Ethan said taking a seat wondering why they still wanted him there. He was ready to go back to Virginia and finish his vacation.
"If he's angry at us, then he should have just not bothered," Morgan disagreed knowing that his argument was futile. The entire team could be fighting, but each and every one of them would die if it meant keeping the others alive.
"I'm sure you already know that you are wrong about that," Ethan said leaning back in the chair.
"How are you not panicking? Reid is one of your friends. He's your best friend!" Morgan frowned in shock. Once more, Ethan shrugged.
"How is me crying about this, going to bring him back. Take action. This is a call for war," Ethan said calmly.
"We have to get the right guy first," Morgan sighed knowing that he really wanted to take action, but they couldn't take action against anybody.
"Morgan we may just have to wait until tonight. Hopefully by then our guy will keep sending us messages. Eventually he will mess up," Prentiss said calmly.
"You know what bothers me the most. This unsub doesn't even have a true motive for any of this! He's just killing and destroying people's resting places," JJ whispered.
"Yeah, this little town is going to be haunted," Ethan said with a nod. Hotch walked back in and frowned.
"Okay I alerted the FBI office in New York City, just in case this guy may run. I also set up an alert system for anything that may look like Reid. Lastly Garcia called and she finally found our unsub. Apparently his name isn't spelled like the standard "Mitchell"," Hotch explained. "The only problem is, he doesn't own a home so we have to do the stake out," Hotch frowned.
"Are you guys focusing on his home being located in the swampy areas?" Ethan questioned curiously.
"Yes," Hotch said quickly.
"Yeah don't do that. You see, those girls were all held in a swampy area and that's how Spencer was able to find the specimen on them. If they were held in that basement, then did he drag them? No. That would have been evident. Spencer is actually in a home or somewhere completely normal. Given that this is a small town, there are only three neighborhoods. Not wanting to live anywhere near his victims. I would check the only neighborhood that doesn't have a missing persons sign," Ethan explained. The team stared at him.
"Hey, I'm sure you guys would have thought of that too, but you are stuck on the fact that Spencer might be dead. In my opinion, Spencer's too annoying to just die. Plus the man took him for a reason. It would be stupid to just kill him off," Ethan shrugged.
Hotch nodded in thought.
"Okay, Emily and Morgan. I want you two to drive through the back streets of Greenville. Rossi, you and I will drive through the front streets. JJ you and Ethan will take the middle. If he sees us, he might try to flee. I want road blocks and cops checking every vehicle thoroughly on every entrance and exit connected to that neighborhood. If we don't find anything, we meet back up here at 8:00pm and JJ and Prentiss are our second option," Hotch said seeing his plan come together. The only way the unsub was getting out was through helicopter and even that would grab their attention. If this man wasn't going to try and hide, then this operation wouldn't be so bad.
He felt something cold hit him, and he automatically rolled over. His entire right side was in pain, but he was focused on the cold water that was dripping off of him.
"Well, you're still alive," Mitchell said in an unhappy tone of voice.
"What a pity," Reid coughed as he tried to sit up. He was slightly dizzy but it quickly dissipated.
"Well, I decided to ask one more time. Now that you know how far I'm willing to go to end you, I expect you to choose wisely. Your friends already have a glimpse of what I can do. Next time, they'll find your body," Mitchell said crouching down to Reid's level.
"My answer is no," Reid said as Mitchell grabbed the collar of his sweatshirt.
"I helped you out today. I think you should return the favor," Mitchell said in a dangerously low voice.
"I didn't ask for your help," Reid said keeping his voice even. He watched as Mitchell only got angrier. Reid wondered if the man was going to kill him this time around. He noticed Mitchell's grip on his shirt got tighter, and as if he weighed nothing, he felt his back hit the wall knocking the breath right out of him.
"You're weak compared to me. Having a strong mind won't help you," Mitchell said slowly walking over to Reid. The man bent down once more. Reid knew this man was just getting started. Before the man could grab him, Reid sent a kick to the man's face, knocking him over. Reid tried to use the wall to get up, but his leg gave out. He hit the floor and realized that running away was a rather painful and possibly impossible option. Mitchell was groaning from the broken nose and Reid tried again. He still couldn't stand. He didn't know the extent of the damage from the accident, but for once, he felt some type of fear.
Mitchell finally got up and Reid decided to just get as far away as he possibly could from that man. Mitchell focused on him and Reid watched as a bloody smile formed on the man's blood soaked face.
"What's wrong? Can't run?" Mitchell said humorously. "I guess I hurt you more than I intended, but seeing as you can't even thank me for getting you out of the clutches of that man who seems to think he owns you…" Mitchell shook his head.
"Wait what?" Reid said in confusion.
"I saved you from him… From them," Mitchell growled. "You don't want to help me take control?"
"Well you see, the difference between you and me is, you're a classic megalomaniac. You only want power because you've never had it. You're secretly glad I said no. You're going to do everything you can to overpower me, but in the end. I'll either kill you or my team will kill you," Reid spat. Once again his mind told him to shut up and buy some time, but Reid refused.
"I guess you don't value your life, or your friends' lives. In fact, I will pay one of them a little visit, and you know what? They will enjoy watching you die," Mitchell said walking away from Reid. "And guess what? When I'm done with you, they're next."
Reid jumped as the door slammed. Reid closed his eyes and took a haggard breath. He needed to get out of the cuffs. Then he needed to walk for at least ten minutes. If he could get his legs to work properly, he could escape without falling as much. Reid looked around. There had to be something he could use…
They had been driving around for hours. No sign of anything being suspicious. Morgan even kept an eye out for that vehicle that followed them. Reid knew the license plate, but Morgan had forgot to ask the kid to write it down. He had been so distracted by their falling out.
"Don't worry we are going to find him," Prentiss said looking for any faces.
"Is he even alive?" Morgan asked, all he heard was silence. "Yeah you don't know," He grumbled.
"Either way we are going to find him. We are not leaving Reid behind," Prentiss said giving Morgan a quick pat on the shoulder.
"I feel that if I had let Reid get in that taxi, he would have been in Virginia right now," Morgan sighed. "I couldn't give him any space."
"You know what Morgan?" Prentiss snapped. "You're right. All the bad shit that happens to Reid is because of you. You told him how you feel so he doesn't want to talk to you for a few hours. Instead of talking to him, you ran, giving him the impression that you hated him too. Now, here we are on a case. You kept bringing it up when both of you should have been focusing on the case, but nooo Morgan is stubborn as hell, so Reid decides he needs to get away from you and he just so happens to befriend the freaking unsub. You know, suckish lives tend to attract one another," Prentiss ranted.
"And now, Reid shows up all late, admitting that he's been out all night. He gets pissed and decides to take Hotch up on that suspension offer. Next thing we know you decided to go after him and you bring him back and then the unsub takes Reid," Prentiss continued.
"It is all your fault for everything. Let's just ignore the fact that maybe Reid is partially to blame. Maybe even me and Garcia for pushing you to tell him and we aren't even talking to him about it too. So Morgan, stop blaming yourself and get over it. You can work things out when you find him. Then you can tell him that you blame yourself. Just do it once we find him. Morgan, I need you to focus," Prentiss finally finished.
Morgan stared at her in slight shock. Although the words were slightly painful to hear, he knew it was the truth. He sighed and nodded.
"Okay, I'm not going to be distracted," Morgan said in defeat.
"Good, because that's probably why Reid was doing most of the work aside from Rossi and Hotch. All of us were focused on trying to hook you two up, that we didn't put our best efforts in the case and I think that also pissed Reid off," Prentiss sighed. "So let's just find him and we can all work this out before he ends up transferring."
Morgan nodded. Job first, Reid second. They looked at the clock and realized it was getting close to the end of their drive by.
"Either he knows not to come out or he doesn't live here," Prentiss grumbled.
"I know he's here somewhere," Morgan said. "I can just feel it."
Prentiss looked out the window and studied each house they passed by. She searched for people closing their blinds and peeping out of the window. Then again… She frowned. The unsub wouldn't hide at all. Suddenly she noticed how every house was alike. No one was hiding anything and that made them all suspects.
"Okay, we are heading out," She heard Morgan say. She nodded and felt defeated. They were probably only few houses away from Reid's captor, but they would never know.
They headed back to the station and once they were there, Hotch started giving off more orders. They could tell Hotch was determined to find Reid. Although this wasn't the first time Reid had disappeared, there was something different this time around. They just didn't know what.
"JJ you are going to neighborhood 1 with Rossi. Prentiss you are heading to neighborhood 2 with me," Hotch informed. "Morgan I will have to send you to the graveyard with a cop," Hotch said carefully. Morgan nodded. "Ethan you stay here and just try not to end up like Reid," Hotch said shaking his head. Ethan gave Hotch a thumbs up and sat down.
"Okay let's go," Hotch stated and they all went their separate ways.
Morgan sat in the police cruiser. His partner was quite young. Possibly a rookie. Morgan knew they put the kid there in hopes he would learn a thing or two from the former cop-turned-FBI Agent. Morgan watched carefully and when he saw a man dressed in black enter the graveyard Morgan grabbed his gun and got out of the car.
"Follow me," Morgan said to the kid as he entered through the gate. He followed the man quite a distance, but he heard a twig break behind him. Morgan turned, ready to tell the kid to watch where his foot falls, instead he was met with a man holding a bloody jackhammer.
Before Morgan could shoot, the man had already knocked the gun out of Morgan's hands. Coming to his senses, Morgan dodged each swing the man took. Morgan never imagined this man to be built, in fact Morgan had imagined the guy to be rather small, like Reid.
Morgan dodged another swing, but realized that either this man will go into custody and not tell them where Reid is being held at, or he could allow the man to take him. Morgan knew he would get to Reid. He could figure the rest out whenever.
When the man swung at his leg Morgan didn't bother to dodge it. Before he could even hit the ground he felt the hammer come in contact with his head. Everything went black.