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Reid waited for everything to turn to nothing. But it didn't happen. Absolutely nothing happened. He looked up at Simon, unable to hide the vast amount of confusion that he felt. Simon's only response was the grin showing prominently on his face. Reid could only stare dumbfounded as he couldn't seem to make is mouth form any words.

Simon laughed at Reid's response. "I wanted to see if you'd actually do it. I knew you would. You have a lot of guts, Dr. Reid."

"What was the point of doing that?" Reid finally asked.

"I have my reasons. Now, I was lying about that, but I wasn't lying about your team. They will be here soon."

Reid wasn't sure if he felt relieved to hear that or not. His team coming meant this would finally be over. But Simon had done everything deliberately so far. He wanted them to find him. Reid could only wonder why. Simon had a plan for how this ended, and Reid had a feeling that it wasn't anywhere close to good.

Simon walked up to Reid and grabbed the fake device out of his hand. Reid was still too shocked to even try to fight back as Simon tied his free arm behind him again. Simon seemed to take a long time to do it, and Reid soon realized that his arms were bound together again, but not to the chair anymore.

It was only a minute later that they could hear vehicles pulling up to the building. Reid looked up at Simon. He was smiling again. He roughly pulled Reid up to his feet. The sudden change in altitude caused Reid's head to spin, and if Simon hadn't had a strong grip on him, he might have collapsed straight onto the ground.

Reid felt something cold being pressed against his neck. In some ways, the chill that it sent down his spine helped him focus. It was a familiar feeling, but not quite like the knife had felt against his skin so many times today. He didn't have to see it to know what it was.

The quiet room suddenly turned chaotic. The door burst open, and Reid could only watch as his team filed in with their guns drawn and vests on. Simon was using Reid as a shield.

"Drop the gun, Simon," Hotch ordered.

"Give it up, Agent Hotchner," Simon responded. "You've obviously realized by now why I'm doing this."

"Let Reid go. You said yourself that he had nothing to do with this."

"Oh, but he's the most important part of this whole thing. You had me hurt him every time. You could have chosen to spare him the pain."

"He knows we couldn't let you kill innocent people. He said himself that he didn't want that either."

"You don't get it, do you? Do you know what he did for you? For all of you people? I told him this place was rigged with explosives! I gave him the trigger and told him if he didn't press it, he could leave. But if he didn't press it, a timer would have set it off just as all of you entered the building. And you know what he did? He pressed the trigger!" Simon let out a laugh. "He was willing to die for all of you, and you repaid him by having him hurt!"

As Simon's words reverberated throughout the room, everyone's eyes turned directly from Simon to Reid. Reid returned each of their gazes as he tried not to think of the gun pressed against his throat. He hoped they would ignore what he had done for now and focus on Simon.

"Any of us would be willing to do the same for him," Hotch said after he recovered from his initial shock.

"Funny you should say that," Simon grinned. "Because I have another proposition for you, Agent Hotchner. Remember what I said to you earlier? You will choose it in the end?"

"You know I didn't have a choice to kill your father, Simon. How is making me choose going to help? It's not going to bring him back."

"You did have a choice!" Simon spat back. "You could have aimed to only disarm him! You could have let him go! Anything! There were other options!"

"No, there weren't. He murdered four women, and then he pulled a gun on us. I have no doubt that he would have used it."

"No! You had a choice! So, now I'm giving you one last choice, Agent Hotchner. Then this will be all over. Someone has to die here today. And it's either going to be you or the young genius here." Simon emphasized his point by pressed the gun deeper in to Reid's neck, making him involuntarily wince.

Everyone tried to keep their eyes on Simon and Reid instead of Hotch, where they seemed to want to wander to.

"So, what will it be, Agent Hotchner? Need I remind you that he was already willing to die for you once? I'm sure he'd be willing to do it again. Or are you going to take up your previous offer of dying for him instead?"

The room became deathly silent, and nobody moved an inch. Simon and Hotch stared at each other. Simon had a wicked grin plastered on his face, but Hotch's face showed nothing.

Hotch was the first one to make any move. He slowly began to lower his gun, and everyone else eyed him nervously. His lowered both his hands to his side in a sign of surrender. Simon's grin became wider.

"Hotch, don't." Reid was the first one in the room to speak besides Simon and Hotch.

"You shut up, Dr. Reid! It's his decision!" Simon said to Reid before addressing Hotch. "Are you sure you don't want me to kill him instead? He seems pretty damn willing!"

"I won't let you hurt him anymore," Hotch responded. "Not when I can prevent it."

"Ha! Do you see the looks your teammates are giving you right now? Of course you don't! You're only focused on me and this guy right here! Let me ask the rest of you something. I know you're all thinking he shouldn't be doing this, but wouldn't you do the same thing? I don't think any of you would say no."

"No way in hell we'd let you kill him," Morgan replied angrily.

"Apparently not. But that's okay with me. He's the only one of you who had nothing to do with the reason my father is dead."

"So, why did you bring him into this then?" Hotch asked.

"I had to use someone! It was pretty easy to see how close you all are and how protective of him you are. And I'm sure that you are all well aware of the fact that physical pain is not always the worst kind of pain."

"If you do this," Hotch began. "You'll be putting Reid through psychological pain, too. He doesn't need that. He had nothing to do with this."

"It doesn't matter!" Simon replied. "It's over! You wouldn't even be here if I hadn't led you straight here!"

With that, Simon began to point the gun away from Reid and towards Hotch. The gun stayed aimed at Hotch only for a moment, before it moved unexpectedly.

Simon pointed the gun back towards Reid.