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For quite some time, it seemed like everything was a haze. A haze of an ambulance ride. A haze of lights rolling above him. A haze of faces of doctors and nurses. Then there was the haze of his team members—that one, he wasn't entirely sure if it was real or not, but it was a comforting thought anyways.
The haze finally broke.
He should be sick of lying down. He had been lying on that table nearly the entire time he had been in the hidden room. Then, he had obviously been lying down for however long he had been here, in a hospital room, he was fairly sure. But here he had the comfort of a soft bed and warm blankets; no Pierce, no knife.
He would have liked to just stay that way, hovering on the line between sleep and consciousness, but he knew he should wake. His first attempt to open his eyes resulted in them fluttering briefly before falling closed again. He just lay there for a while longer, deciding to give it another try in a moment. He breathed deeply, nearly relishing in the fact that he no longer needed to worry whether or not he was going to find a piece of tape covering his mouth. A simple, but gratifying relief.
Someone shifted next to his bed.
"Reid?"
Deciding now would be a good time to try again, Reid refocused his efforts on opening his eyes. He was able to keep them open this time after adjusting to the light in the room. The white ceiling above him was much more appealing than the dark cover of that hidden room. Another simple relief.
"Reid?"
Reid turned his head slightly and looked as the voice came again. Morgan was sitting in a chair near the bed, now getting up to take a step closer.
"Hey," Morgan greeted. "You with us now?"
Reid looked at Morgan for a moment, contemplating the meaning of his question. "Was I awake before?" he asked a little groggily.
"If you could call it that," Morgan answered, smiling softly. "You woke up for a couple minutes a few times, but you weren't quite... with us. How are you feeling?"
"Tired," Reid answered truthfully. "But okay, I guess." Reid glanced around his room, briefly taking in the monitors around him. "Where is everybody now?"
"At the police station, still trying to find some sort of lead," Morgan paused. "Listen. You don't have to talk about it right now if you don't want to, but we need to know. Did Pierce mention anything about where he was going or what he was planning on doing?"
"No," Reid answered promptly, shaking his head.
"Alright," Morgan responded before resuming his seat. "Well, we've basically got nothing, and he could be long gone by now."
That much Reid had expected, but Morgan's statement brought up another question. "How long have I been here?"
"You've been out for nearly two days," Morgan stated before continuing slowly, predicting what Reid's next question would be. "You were in that room for about twelve hours before we found you."
Reid wasn't quite sure if his response should be 'that's it?' or if it should be 'that long?' It felt both like it had been an eternity and like it had still gone by quickly at the same time. It was probably the lack of knowing the time that had made him feel that way.
Reid closed his eyes. He didn't miss seeing the guilt in Morgan's eyes and also wasn't all that surprised by it. He knew he should address the issue and say something to him, but he was beginning to feel how tired he really was...
He woke to soft chatter in the room around him. As he opened his eyes, he found that Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss had joined Morgan in the time that he had been asleep. It only took a moment for them to realize he was awake.
"Hey," he greeted first. "Sorry for falling asleep on you," he directed towards Morgan.
"It's fine, Reid," Morgan assured him. "You need your rest."
"How are you feeling?" Prentiss asked.
"Better," Reid replied as he sat up in his bed, wincing slightly as he felt the discomfort of his stab wound.
"You okay?" Morgan asked, and Reid nodded.
The room was quiet after that, filled with an unnecessary tension. It felt like everyone wanted to say something, but didn't know what to say or how to say it. Reid decided he couldn't take the silence any longer and was the first to break it.
"I know it's probably not going to help any by saying this," he began, "but I still have to say it. Don't blame yourselves for not finding the room. And thank you. For finding the room when you did."
"Reid, you do realize that we had nothing to do with the reason you're still alive," Morgan said after a moment. "That was all you."
"You still found the room in time," Reid replied, refusing to take all the credit. He paused for a moment, thinking. "How did you find the door?"
"The house was dark this time," Morgan answered. "There was light coming from under the wall."
Prentiss shook her head. "We were definitely suprised when Garcia traced your phone back to the house."
"We didn't think Pierce was stupid enough to go back to his house," Rossi commented. "Turns out he was smart enough to never have left it."
"Reid," Hotch asked slowly, "do you know why he would have taken you?"
Reid knew the question was an attempt to get him to start talking about what happened. He didn't want to talk, but he knew he'd have to eventually.
"He thought it would get the rest of you to leave sooner," Reid finally answered. He stayed quiet for a moment, not quite ready tell them what all happened. "Did you find any evidence of a fifth victim?" he asked instead. He knew they immediately saw his attempt to detour the conversation, but he ignored it. And by their questioning looks, they hadn't found the fifth victim. "Pierce said there were five," Reid continued, "And if we had known about the first, we would have known that it was him."
Hotch shook his head. "Reid, we've searched through every part of Pierce's past, and there's no indication of a previous victim."
Reid didn't know how to respond to that, so he didn't. He doubted Pierce would lie about something like that, and if Pierce thought the victim would have led them to him, they should have found the connection if they dug deep enough. It didn't make sense, but then there were things about Pierce that just weren't typical in an unsub, mainly the photographic memory.
"Still no indication of stressor either," Rossi added.
"There won't be one," Reid informed them. "Not a recent one anyway."
"What do you mean?" Hotch asked.
"He, uh... he has a photographic memory," Reid began to explain. For some reason, he was unable to meet any of his teammates' eyes and instead stared down at his bed. "That's why he never recorded his victims. And I think something happened in his past involving a girl. Whatever it was, he couldn't forget it because of his memory. Not being able to forget it might be what caused him to snap now."
Reid suddenly felt tired again, but he tried not to let it show.
"An unsub with a photographic memory," Rossi shook his head. "I think that's a first."
"We'll look into it more," Hotch said. "You should get some more rest, Reid."
So much for hiding it, Reid thought as he watched Hotch, Rossi, and Prentiss leave. He and Morgan were left alone in the quiet.
"You don't need to stay here," Reid finally said. "Especially when I'm hardly even awake."
"We're not leaving you alone, kid," Morgan replied. "From what we could tell, Pierce left you to die in that room. If he finds out you're still alive, he might want to come back and finish the job."
"He will," Reid corrected. "If he hears that I'm alive, he'll come back. He was certain he was leaving me to my death. And he'll be watching for news of my body being found."
"We haven't released the information about you being found, but there's always a chance he could find out somehow, so we're playing it safe. At least one of us will always be here with you."
Part of Reid was annoyed. The other part was glad.
"We should let him find out," Reid suggested after a moment, knowing there was probably only one way they were going to catch Pierce.
"You mean use you as bait?" Morgan asked.
"Yes."
