Thank you yet again for all the wonderful reviews! I just love it.

Again a shorter chapter but it seemed like the right place to stop. You'll understand when you get there! I hope you enjoy the new chapter.

Susanne

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The first response Rachel had was to pull her hand away from Mary. But she fought it. If she let go of the gun, Mary would shoot her and possibly even the agents. Hotch couldn't afford to lose any more blood. Frantically, Rachel tried to come up with a possible solution while it felt like her hand was on fire. Mary wasn't about to let go any time soon.

Only one possibility came to mind. Bringing her head down as fast as she could, she tried to head-butt Mary. Unfortunately, she'd never done it before. It was harder than it would appear. While she did manage to dislodge Mary, she also knocked herself senseless for a full minute.

The two women fell to the ground, their heads resounding like gongs. Rachel still had a death grip on the gun. She knew her life depended on it. Her eyes closed, Rachel breathed heavily while she tried to recover. How the hell did guys do that?

While the two women tried to recover, Hotch managed to slide forward, ignoring the screaming complaints from his battered body. He too caught hold of the gun as well and wrenched it away from the women. If either one had been even half aware of what was going on around them he wouldn't have been able to do it.

Scooting backward on his butt, Hotch put as much distance between him and the jumble of limbs as he could. Holding the gun, his gun, up with both hands, he aimed it at Mary. Within seconds, the gun started to tremble. He just didn't have the strength.

"Step back, Mary," Aaron ordered. He tried to put as much strength into his voice as he could manage. The sound of it brought the evil woman around. Gasping, she jerked away from Rachel, who hadn't quite recovered. Climbing to her feet, Mary turned to face the federal agent. A smirk spread across her face as she watched the barrel of the gun start to shake a little bit harder.

"You're not really going to shoot me, are you?" Mary stated. To prove her point, she took a step toward the shaking FBI agent.

"He might not, but I would," Rachel growled as she slipped up beside Hotch and extracted the gun from his fingers carefully. "Give me the key for the shackles."

"Go to hell," Mary hissed. She took another step forward. Without any hesitation, Rachel stood up, brought the gun up to point at Mary's chest and waited. If Mary pushed her, she would pull the trigger. It would save the two agents and Matt and Jared the shame of going to trial. Thanks to her plea bargain, no one knew exactly what had gone on down in the tunnels except for the medical teams and the people that had been there. She would have liked to keep it that way.

"Okay, okay. I just have to go to the back of the basement and get it," Mary said, allowing the smirk to slide off her face. She didn't believe the younger woman had the guts to shoot her, despite everything she'd done to her.

"I'm going to be watching everything you do. One false move and I'll shoot," Rachel said. She glanced down at Hotch. The agent was lying beside her right foot, he'd used up every ounce of strength he'd had. Randomly, Rachel thought about just shooting the chain off of her foot, only as a last resort. Impatiently, she waited while Mary searched Doug's pants pockets. He'd been the last one to have the key.

Secretly, Mary was hoping her big brother would wake up and beat the crap out of the bitch. Mind you, he hadn't quite managed it so far. Finally, she felt the familiar shape in her fingers. Pulling it out of Doug's pocket, Mary held it up so Rachel could see it. She tried to keep her body between the woman and what her other hand was doing. When she'd knelt down to search her brother, Mary had seen a tin of food that was lying on the ground. Picking it as she stood, Mary quickly flung it in the direction of Rachel's head.

"You throw as well as I do," Rachel stated as she easily side-stepped the tin. "That's your last chance. Another strike and I shoot you."

OOOOO

As quickly as possible, Rachel had Dr. Reid and Hotch released. Finishing with herself, Rachel relished shackling Mary to the wall as well as her brother. She used her own shackles to lock them together. Stepping back, she admired her handiwork.

"You're not going to leave us here, are you?" Mary stated. She didn't want to be left alone with her brother. He was still unconscious but he was going to be royally pissed when he came to.

"That's exactly what you deserve," Rachel growled. "Now shut up."

Turning her back on the West's, Mary turned her attention to the federal agents. She'd all ready raided the back of the basement of everything she thought they might leave. The metal bed frame was now covered with layers of blankets. She'd put both agents on top of the blankets and then covered them with more. This was after she located clothes for both of them.

Moving both of them had been difficult. Reid's hip was beyond sore and his thigh wasn't much better. The only good thing about Doug's ministrations had been that they hadn't really hurt him. Not yet anyway. Rachel had felt awful as she helped Reid pull the clean underwear from Doug's bag up over his legs and hips and then a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. From the way the younger man's body almost instantly relaxed, she knew it was the best thing she could have done for him. Clothes had undoubtedly never felt so good.

Finished with Reid, she'd turned to Hotch. She wasn't about to take his boxers off. She'd seen enough of the man the last time this had happened. Now she just wanted to make sure he was comfortable. Before she'd pulled similar clothes over his trembling limbs, Rachel took the time to clean the wound on his side and reapply a clean dressing. Keeping it in place was a dilemma. Tying it around Hotch's midsection was out of the question because of all the cuts from his earlier beating. Taping it in place was the best alternative. She'd been extra careful of where she put the adhesive strips. Pulling them off of a wound would have been horrific for the senior agent.

While she worked, Rachel could feel Hotch flinching and trembling. He was trying very hard to keep his discomfort to himself. It was bad enough that Rachel had had to take the gun from him. He didn't want to admit any further weakness. Being as gentle as she could, Rachel tried to not notice. Let the man maintain what dignity he could find.

"We need to get out of here and find help," Reid stated. He was lying on his side, facing Hotch who was resting on his back. It seemed to aggravate his multiple wounds the least. Rachel had found Tylenol and fed some to both of them. While they weren't as strong as what either man had hoped for, they were starting to take effect.

"Hopefully help is on the way," Rachel stated. She helped Hotch drink some Gatorade. That too she'd found at the back of the basement. Once the senior agent was finished, she handed the rest of the bottle over to Reid.

"What are you talking about?" Hotch asked as he forced his eyes open. They were nearly perfect. At least something in his body was nearly healed. Now there were just the other four or five things. Now that he could stare at the two West's secured to the wall, some of the other aches and pains were not quite as bad.

"When I was upstairs the last time, Deputy Cullen managed to escape. Hopefully by now he's found help and is on the way back here," Rachel stated. She'd moved the bed as far away from the wall as she could. She wasn't taking any chances that Mary or Doug could reach them.

"I'm not sure I want to be rescued," Reid muttered to himself. He was staring at Hotch. His superior and father figure looked awful. He imagined he did too. He wasn't sure he wanted to spend endless hours with Dr. Heinz, analyzing the terrors of the last hours over and over again.

"It beats heading off to prison," Rachel stated. She still had the gun. It was tucked into the waist band of her prison pants. She'd dragged a padded chair over beside the bed. She didn't know if she could get off the ground again if she had to. Sinking onto it, she began to wrap her hand. Mary had taken a chunk out of it. Rachel still intended on going to jail. She figured it was where she deserved to go.

"With any luck we will wind up in the same prison, Rach. Then we can spend all kinds of time together," Mary stated. She figured she might as well say whatever came to mind. At this point it didn't really matter. "I know I really miss how close we used to be."

"No judge would place the two of you in the same prison. Even if a mistake was made and that happened, the warden would transfer one of you out. They don't need to look for trouble, there's enough of it present all ready," Reid stated. He'd said it because he'd seen how Rachel's face had paled slightly at the comment. Clearly she didn't want that to happen.

"Prisons are crowded. There isn't always a lot of choice," Mary added.

"What part of shut up do you not understand?" Rachel asked. Momentarily she considered gagging the woman. While it would be incredibly satisfying, it wasn't something she would allow herself to do.

"I'm hungry. When's breakfast?" Mary asked. She wasn't particularly hungry. She just wanted Rachel to wait on her. She'd seen how badly the younger woman's legs were shaking by the time she'd collapsed onto the chair.

OOOOO

"Are we lost?" Sheriff Hicks asked gently. During the last twenty minutes, he'd seen his deputy struggling to remember. He'd been right. The world looked different in the dark.

"Maybe," Jack finally admitted. Disgusted with himself, he hung his head and stared at the map. It had helped at first. Now, though, it just seemed to mock him.

The radio crackled. Before they'd all set out, Hicks had handed Jared a walkie-talkie. After all, their cell phones didn't work in this area.

"Hey, Sheriff. What's the delay?" Dave's voice demanded. The Sheriff's cruiser had pulled up onto the shoulder of the road. He wanted to get to Mary's location ASAP. He wanted to be the one to put a bullet between her eyes.

"Deputy Cullen is tired. He's having a little difficulty remembering," Hicks said. He glanced at his younger friend. Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he should have brought Roy and Johnny with him. Cullen's face still had traces of blood on it. Clearly he'd been struck at least once.

"I know where we found him. It's about two miles from here. That might job his memory," Jared said. He'd grabbed the walkie-talkie away from his brother. Dave would have had a slight idea of where they'd picked up the deputy but Jared had been the one working with the map.

"Lead the way," Sheriff Hicks stated. It would give Cullen a few minutes to relax. All ready his eyes kept slamming shut while he was slumped in the passenger side of the car.

Amid a shower of flying gravel, Dave's car pulled out and sped by the police cruisers. He loved it. It was one time he didn't have to worry about getting a speeding ticket.

"Slow down, Dave. We need to get there in one piece," Jared groused.

OOOOO

"I think they've stopped," Garcia called from the back seat. "Please let them have found Reid and Hotch." The last had been said very quietly, almost like a prayer.

"How far away are they?" Rossi asked. Morgan was still driving like a controlled madman. The senior agent was wishing they'd thought to ask for a portable light unit. If they were going to drive this fast, they should have the flashing lights to warn the other driver's sharing the road with them.

"About eighty miles. Keep following this highway, I'll warn you before the turn off," Garcia answered. Her eyes were plastered on her computer screen. Just as she thought that the Sheriff had found them, the GPS blip started moving again. "Damn it."

"What?" Emily asked, concerned.

"They're moving again. They haven't found them yet."