MIA MISSING IN ACTION
Chapter 10
The Beginning

"Remorse for what? You people have done everything in the world to me. Doesn't that give me equal right?" - Charles Manson

Student nurse Cathy Cox sat and stared at the monitors. There were two patients in the High Dependency Ward, and she had been left alone by the ward sister while she went for coffee. Just five minutes, and these two men's lives were in her hands. The beeping of the monitors seemed to blend in with the music that was playing.

"Excuse me?" Cathy looked up at the man. "I am Doctor Mason, Mr Reid's family physician. I have come to check on him."

Cathy had jumped when he began speaking to her. She was embarrassed. "Oh of c-course!" she stammered. "He's in the main ward. The only patient in there." He had a strange eye that didn't move as the other one did. A false eye? She made a point of not looking at it.

She pointed the way and went back to her screen watching. She suddenly remembered that she had not asked for his identification. She git up and followed him to the main ward.

Dr Mason carried on into the six bed ward, his hand in his pocket, fingering the twenty ml bottle and syringe. Reid was awake now, having come out of his coma several hours before. He stared out of the window, wondering why Rossi wasn't here. He needed to tell him about Hotch – where he was, and that time was running out for him. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the man in a suit. Tiredly he turned his head to greet his visitor.

"I need to..." he began, when he recognised who it was.

The man who had abducted them and tortured Hotch.

He opened his mouth to scream when Mason Lowe clamped his hand across Reid's mouth. He stared up at him with frightened eyes, his hands on the man's wrist, trying to pull his hand away.

"I said you wouldn't get away." Lowe smirked. "Pity I can't rape you here. Killing you will have to suffice."

"Hey! What are you doing?" Cathy shouted from the door. "Take your hand off him!"

She ran to him and tried to pull Lowe off Reid, and he swung a fist at her, striking her in the mouth, sending her reeling. As she fell she hit her head on the door frame and didn't get up again.

Skilfully he filled the syringe with the fluid from the bottle with one hand. He stuck the needle in the tube close to Reid's wrist and emptied the syringe into him. Reid twisted under the pressure on his face; Lowe released him.

"Any second now you will experience a sugar hypo. Not a nice way to go." Lowe smiled and ran from the room. Reid called out for help as Lowe exited the High Dependency Unit by way of the fire escape.

-0-0-0-

"Call Prentiss, Derek. Tell her we've found him, but tell her it's not good."

Morgan sighed. He left the waiting room and stood outside in the drizzle. He looked at his phone, wondering how he was going to break this news to Emily. He knew they had a relationship, and he knew it was pretty intense. Now he was going to call her and say that the man she loves was alive after all, but isn't likely to last.

How do you say that? Emily was just starting to get over him.

Hotch was a survivor.

He made the call.

As he put his phone away, he saw someone on the fire escape. He drew his gun and stood at the corner of the building. The man was in a suit. If he was a thief he was dressed strangely. As he alighted at the bottom of the steps and the ladder pulled away upwards he stepped out and trained his gun on the man.

"FBI! Freeze!"

The man turned and faced Morgan. He had a grin on his face and Morgan noticed that one of his eyes didn't move properly.

"Hands behind your head."

Mason Lowe obeyed, and Morgan cuffed his hands behind his back. He began to pat him down, and as he stooped, Lowe kicked him under the chin. Morgan fell back onto the wet ground, Lowe made to run.

Morgan caught him round the legs and Lowe went sprawling. Morgan was on him in an instant, sitting on his back, pressing the gun into the back of his neck.

"That was a mistake, you bastard. Go on; just give me a reason to blow your goddamned head off you sonofabitch!" Lowe didn't move. He just grinned.

"You are too late!"

Morgan ran his hands down Lowe's sides, checking his pockets. He was holding a small bottle up to the light when Dave came running out.

"Morgan! Reid's taken a turn for the worst. He needs us!"

Morgan dragged Lowe to his feet and Dave threw him his cuffs.

"Our UnSub!" Morgan announced. He cuffed Lowe to the hand rail of the fire escape, and the two of them left him there in the rain while they took the stairs two at a time to get to Reid.

A young nurse was standing by the door."You can't go in." She said. "Someone has injected him with something. They are trying to find out what."

"Insulin." Morgan said, handing over the bottle. "We got the guy as he was trying to get away!"

The young nurse pushed open the door.

"Insulin!" she shouted. "Mason gave him Insulin! The Feds got Doctor Mason!"

A doctor took the bottle off her. Reid was in the throes of a seizure on the bed, his face flushed and glazed with sweat, small cries of distress coming from him as his back arched and twisted. He felt hot to the touch as the Doctor held his head still, and squeezed 'Hypostop' dextrose gel into his mouth. Reid was being held down as he fought off the people trying to help him. Dave went in the room and got hold of his hand.

"Reid, it's ok, they are helping you."

Reid flung his head from side to side as he spat the gel out. Morgan held him still as the doctor tried again.

"Reid, kiddo, we have Hotch. He's alive! Now let us help you!" Morgan spoke gently to him, and gradually he calmed down enough for the Dextrose to be administered.

"Hotch?" Reid managed to speak, despite what was going on. "Hotch is dead. They killed him!" He started to fight again. "They raped him and killed him! I am so sorry, Hotch, they made me do it!"

Reid arched his back again and screamed Hotch's name. Morgan took his face in his hands and made him look at him.

"Listen to me! Hotch isn't dead. He's downstairs. It's ok."

Reid began to relax as the gel did its work and he realised that Hotch was still alive. He started to cry.

"Hotch is alive? You found him?"

"He's in a bad way, Reid, but he's here. Yes we found him. Thanks to you."

Dave arranged for Reid to be guarded while he recovered. Morgan stayed with Reid until the police guard arrived.

"It was Mason Lowe, Morgan. He4 took us from the crash by helicopter." Reid said. "Hotch was hurt before the crash. Lowe got out of his cuffs and hit him." It looked as if Reid was going to cry again. "Statistically, the chances of survival in the desert are..."

"It's ok. You did survive, Lowe is caught. We got him." And he hugged Reid to his chest and wondered how they had managed without him for so long.

-0-0-0-

Hotchner was too weak to go to theatre. They were flying in an eye specialist from Chicago, and they had a top renal unit there at Nevada. Scans told them that one kidney was crushed and needed to be removed. The other was split and could possibly be repaired. The muscles of his legs were wasted and needed months of physiotherapy. Six broken ribs, a star fracture to his skull, smashed nose and cuts to his face, and severe internal injuries caused by multiple rapes. They gave him an epidural injection as they attempted to repair the damage, and cut a colostomy so that he could heal. He was seriously malnourished, and the doctor told Dave that that alone could have killed him if they hadn't found him when they did.

"Recovery will take months; possibly even a year or two." He said. "I have not seen anyone so badly beaten and starved and still be alive. He is very strong. I'm hoping his strength will be enough to keep him going."

"What about his eye?" Morgan said. "Can you save his sight?"

"He will need a corneal graft and a lens. The eye itself should be ok. Whether we can restore sight is another matter."

"Can we see him?"

"Yes, for a few minutes. Don't tire him. He's very poorly."

They sat either side of Hotch, each gripping his hand; Dave stroked his long hair back off his face. He had a patch taped over his eye, and clips and stitches holding his nose together. His cheekbones stuck out prominently, his jaw line defined and un-natural.

They sat there all night, holding his hands, silent, infusing strength to him, praying for his recovery. At three in the morning, Emily arrived. Dave and Morgan left her alone with him.

When they had gone, Emily tenderly held his face and kissed him deeply.

"I really thought you were lost forever." She said to him as she kissed him. "Aaron, I am so in love with you." She ran her fingers through his tangled hair. "Get strong again, Sweetheart. I will be here for you."

She didn't realise she was crying until she saw that he was. Softly she wiped his tears away.

"I love you, Emily." He whispered. "I saw images of you. You gave me hope."

She kicked off her shoes and lay down next to him, her arms around him, her face in his hair, her lips on his neck, and she fell asleep.

-0-0-0-

Down stairs, outside in the rain, a one eyed man pulled the rail to which he was cuffed off the wall and slid the cuffs off his wrist. He ran off into the breaking dawn.

This wasn't over.

Not by a long shot.

-0-0-0-

END

A/N This is the end, unless people want more. An epilogue maybe? You tell me what you want.