Time seemed to run together for Spencer as he lay on that cold floor. His brain was drifting in and out, not really focusing on anything anymore. Life seemed to have drained from him. Because of that, he didn't flinch when the door opened or even footsteps angrily echoed around him. But when a hand gripped tightly in his hair and yanked him, he couldn't stop his hoarse cry. Pain exploded through his scalp and then, as he was dragged over the floor, down to his back and the rest of his body. All he could do was bring his hands up weakly to his head, reaching for the hand that was cruelly fisted there.
Suddenly Spencer found himself thrown down to the floor. This time he managed to keep the cry locked inside. His hands braced on the ground and he lifted his chin, looking up at Marcus, terror growing in him. What had happened to make the man so furious? Had…had Noah done something to his friends? Had he broken the rules? Just the thought of that made panic wrap around Spencer's lungs like a vise.
Pulling out his gun, Marcus pointed it down at Spencer. "Eli!" He snapped out. "Get him up. We're leaving; now!"
The words surprised Spencer. He licked lips gone dry and tried to force his throat to work. "What's going on?" He croaked. It made him wince to hear how dry and weak his voice had become. How long had he simply been lying on that floor? How long since his friends had been taken? Please, oh please, let them be ok. Let them be alive! "What happened?"
"What happened?" Marcus shot back. "You want to know what happened? That idiot Noah got himself arrested, that's what happened! Drove right into the damn Feds! So we're getting the hell out of here before they show up. Now, Eli, get him up!"
Gentle hands touched Spencer's arms, bracing him and helping him toward his feet. The young doctor looked up, his eyes meeting Eli's, seeing something he hadn't thought to see there. Compassion. When Eli shifted to better help Spencer upright, it put his back to Marcus and the man took advantage of it to mouth at Spencer 'I'm sorry'. The honesty on his face left Spencer stunned. They had thought that Eli was a submissive in this and that he might be easier to break, but they hadn't predicted this. Either JJ had worked on him and had broken him from this a little, or Eli had never wanted to do it to begin with. The man had been polite from the start and he'd tried to care for them. He'd been the one to give Spencer the blankets after he'd been hosed.
As he gained his feet, a tiny spark of something lit down inside of Spencer. Not hope; not quite yet. But the start of hope. Maybe there was a chance he could still get out of here alive. Maybe, just maybe, he might have an ally he hadn't expected. Those thoughts bounced in his mind as Eli helped him limp toward the staircase. The potential consumed Spencer, distracting him from the pain, distracting him from the withdrawal that felt as if it was growing inside of him. If he could just figure out some way to get Eli to help him, there was a chance that he might be able to get free. To see his friends again.
When they finally reached the front door, stepping outside, Spencer saw the area around the place for the first time. Wherever they were, there were no houses immediately in view. All he could see were trees and more trees. In front of them was a dark blue Ford Explorer with all the windows tinted. His eyes instinctively sought the plates; XFG-6813.
Marcus hissed for them to get in the damn car while he hurried forward. Eli's hands stayed gentle at the same time that he picked up the pace, moving Spencer hurriedly forward. The cold air reminded Spencer that he was dressed only in pajama pants; even his feet were bare. The pebbles in the driveway cut into his feet, making him stumble so badly he almost fell. Only Eli's hands kept him from dropping to the ground over and over. Finally, they reached the car. Marcus was at the back, tossing his bags in, and Eli led Spencer to the backseat, carefully helping him in.
In that moment that Spencer was in his seat and the back hatch closed, before Marcus had made it around the car to the driver's door, Spencer looked right at Eli and mouthed 'Help me'. Eli froze, staring at him, his hands suddenly unsure.
The sound of Marcus opening his door and swearing once more spurred Eli back into action. He finished helping Spencer get his legs inside the car. Then he grabbed the seatbelt, pulling it over him and buckling him in. When he was hooking the buckle, it put him right near Spencer's head. "I'll try." He whispered.
That small start of hope was fanned to life, growing inside of him. Maybe, just maybe, he would survive this. Holding tight to that thought, Spencer closed his eyes and did focused all his energy into thinking, to changing around the plans he'd already had in place. Those had been the plans of a man sure he was going to die. Now, they were going to be the plans of a man fighting to live. He just hoped it would be enough.
When Emily Prentiss hurried into the hospital room of her Unit Chief, it wasn't surprising to her to find that he was already sitting up in bed and demanding his clothes from the nurses. Though only two hours had gone by since she'd busted Noah releasing her friends, it had been an interesting two hours for Emily. Dealing with transporting Noah to the Bureau for interrogation, handling the officers that were put on guard for the team just in case they were still at risk, talking to Strauss on the phone to let her know that all agents but Reid were accounted for, and then trying to get the doctors to tell her what was wrong with her friends.
After a while she'd been told that they were going to release most of the agents. None of them had any lasting damage. So Emily had given out their go-bags to the nurses so that her friends could have clothes. One, she'd kept. As soon as she'd been given the 'all clear' to visit, she went to see Aaron. If there was anyone that would be able to answer questions, it would be him. Not to mention that Emily was more than willing to hand over the lead in this investigation to him. She trusted his judgment and couldn't help but think that she'd much rather trust the life of a friend to Aaron than to shoulder the responsibility herself.
Aaron looked up from his argument with the nurse when he saw Emily walk in. "Prentiss." He said her name almost like it was salvation for a moment. When he saw the go-bag in her hand, he visibly sighed and held his hand out. "My clothes?"
"Yes, sir." Emily told him easily. She put the bag on the bed beside him, ignoring the glare the nurse sent her way.
The matronly looking woman put her hands on her hips and turned that glare to Aaron. "Agent Hotchner, you need to stay in this bed. The drug has barely cleared your system and you've got three bruised ribs! You need to rest!"
Aaron didn't argue with her, didn't even look her direction. Instead he reached into his go-bag and pulled out a pair of boxers and pants. Emily, seeing the frustration and determination on Aaron's face, stepped away and put her back to him, allowing him the privacy to get the bottom half of his clothes on. The whole time, she heard the nurse ranting, demanding he stop and get back in bed this instant. Judging by the sounds, Aaron had his bottom half dressed and was working on his top half, so she deemed it safe to turn around.
Buttoning up his shirt, Aaron lifted his eyes to Emily, pinning her with that stare that had cowed so many people. "What exactly happened out there? My memories are slightly hazy."
"Ours too." Another voice joined the mix. The door to the room had opened and Morgan, Dave, Garcia and JJ came rushing inside. The nurse somehow found herself pushed to the back of the group as they all crowded around the hospital bed, eyes fixed on the dark haired woman. The nurse shook her head, resigned to the fact that no one was going to listen to her. Discreetly she left the room.
Emily tried not to let herself squirm underneath the intense stares she was getting. With a deep breath, she asked "Did he tell you guys what happened to me? How I left?"
"Yes." Dave said with a grimace. "He told us about the deal he made and about having to drug you."
"Well, he didn't give me a high dose, I guess. I kept coming in and out of consciousness in the back of the van. When it stopped, I pretended to still be out. It was easy to do. Eli was so gentle with me when he laid me down. As soon as he was out of the way, I looked at the van and memorized the license plate." She smiled a little when Morgan clapped a hand on her shoulder and Garcia chuckled. Then Emily continued, glossing over some of the finer details "When I finally woke up enough to be coherent, I made my way to the street and flagged down a car for help. They got me to the hospital and I got checked out. Then I went straight to work. Everyone has apparently been looking for us for days now. After a fight with Strauss, I got permission to work the case with Eric's team; they're the ones that were looking for us."
"They're a good team." Morgan murmured.
Emily nodded at him. "They are. I gave them as much information as I could and we put a BOLO out on the van. But we haven't been able to find anything that could connect it all. Kevin Lynch was helping us. Just a few hours ago he found three different properties in different locations that could've possibly been where we were held. The teams were just getting ready to go when we got the call that our van had been spotted. That's how SWAT was ready to go so easily. So we went to the location the officer tailing him gave us and, well, when Noah started pulling you guys out, we came out and arrested him."
For a moment the team just looked at her. Then Aaron gave one of those rare smiles of his that always seemed to make a person want to puff up with pride. "You did exceptionally well, Prentiss. Not everyone would have been able to not only think to get the plate, but remember it."
"Thank you, Sir." Suddenly nervous all over again, she looked around at them all, her voice quieter than normal as she asked "What happened after I left?"
It didn't surprise her that it was Aaron that answered. Everyone else seemed to have suddenly turned to stone; unmoving, their faces hard. "Reid apparently made a deal for our freedom as well." He explained in a voice that he couldn't quite keep all the emotion out of. "He came in and drugged us and…said his goodbyes. He doesn't plan on making it out of this alive, whatever his plan is."
"I wanna know what the damn deal was this time." Morgan snarled out. His hands were clenched into fists on either side of him. "What the hell is that bastard making him do in return for us being free?"
A choked sob caught all their attention. As one, the group turned to look at JJ. She was holding her hand up to her mouth, tears bright in her eyes. The bruise on her face from being slapped seemed to stand out even more as the rest of her face lost its color. "Marcus isn't making him do anything." She whispered through her fingers. The words seemed so loud in the room. Heart breaking, she looked at them all, hating what she had to tell them. "Spence made the offer. He told Marcus that he'd give him the one thing in the world he wanted if he'd let all of us go."
It didn't take but a second for them to make the connection. "Gideon." The name was whispered by them all, a soft curse in the air. For one instant the room seemed to stay frozen .Then everyone was talking at once.
Aaron started handing out orders. "Prentiss, I need you and Rossi to get back to the Bureau. If anyone's going to be able to get Noah to talk, it'll be you two. I want you in interrogation. Garcia, I need you to track down Jason. Find him so we can warn him what's coming. I'd assume that Reid knows how to get a hold of him…"
At the same time, Garcia was pulling her phone from her pocket—Emily had made sure their phones were in each of their go-bags—and she was talking to someone in a voice that was harder and faster than was normal for her.
Mixed in with the chaos were Morgan's protests. "The kid's got to have a plan, Hotch. No way he just plans on giving up Gideon, no matter what the guy did to him. There's just no way. He wouldn't trade Gideon's lives for ours like that. He just wouldn't do it!"
As these conversations ran together, each person speaking over top the other, JJ stood by silently, her hand still up at her mouth. She hated herself for it, yet she couldn't stop her mind from wondering. Does Spence really have a plan? He's been through so much here. What if this…what if they finally broke him? What if he doesn't have any plan but to go and die, or to actually give up Gideon? I hope not. God, I hope not. I want my friend to come home. Please, God, don't let me lose him she prayed fervently.
Yet still, she couldn't stop herself from thinking that maybe, just maybe, this had broken Spencer enough for him to turn his friend in just to end the pain. And, if it had, could any of them really blame him?