Hi. Thank you very much for all the reviews! I'm absolutely blown away. I guess people like this? I know I'm having a little too much fun writing it. ;) I hope you enjoy this new chapter. I promise the story will move along much further in the next one. Well, I hope so anyway.

Thanks again!

Susanne

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Aaron had been sitting forward, trying again unsuccessfully to reach his feet when the bullet had struck him. The impact had thrown the Unit Chief back against the chest stunning him. Instantly, Aaron found it hard to breathe. Between his side and his shoulder his body was refusing to listen to him. When he could finally pull a ragged breath into his oxygen starved lungs, his first thought had been to get the woman's attention. He needed help and he knew it.

Rachel's immediate response was to race to Aaron's side, to try to staunch the flow of blood but then the sound came again. The sound of the gun discharging into the room was deafening. Instantly, Rachel's focus moved from the men inside the room to the woman on the other side of the wall. Moving with speed she hadn't known she possessed, Rachel sprinted to the wall, caught hold of the gun's barrel and tried to pull it through.

The metal was hot and burned her skin but Rachel didn't let go. A silent tug of war ensued as both woman tried to pull the gun away. The only sound was the grunts of exertion as they both strained to maintain control of the weapon. The thought that Mary may just shoot her crossed Rachel's mind but she didn't care. If Mary killed her then her parents wouldn't have to go through the humiliation of a trial, of having to visit their daughter in prison.

Rachel's hands were beginning to bleed as she broke the blisters from the burns. It made it a lot harder to hold onto the metal barrel. Then it slipped through Rachel's fingers and disappeared onto the other side of the wall again.

"Mary!" Rachel screamed as she searched her immediate vicinity to find something to stopper the hole. "We need to stop this! You've shot the FBI agent."

"Good!!" Mary shouted from the other side of the wall. "I hope he dies, just like Danny!"

Deciding that arguing with the woman was wasting valuable time Rachel wiped her hands on her jeans and headed to Hotch. She'd found a metal plate and took the time to brace it against the hole. She'd also noticed the first hole and had covered it at well. Now she had to deal with Aaron.

"How bad is it?" Rachel asked. Hotch was still sitting against the chest, his good hand pressed against the slowly spreading blossom of blood. His face was white as a sheet and a thin sheen of sweat had broken out on his skin. When he looked up at her, Rachel was stunned by the pain in those brown depths. Yet, he never said a word.

Rachel knelt down beside the injured man and gently leaned him forward. She wanted to see if the bullet had gone through. It was what she'd learned from watching too much TV. Her stomach dropped when she found a much larger blossom of blood growing across the back of his shoulder. Now what should she do? Her first instinct was to lie him down so she could work on him easier but that would preclude her working on one wound or the other.

"Here, I have to get you to lie down," Rachel said. As gently but as quickly as she could, Rachel got Hotch lying down on his uninjured shoulder. She knew it was a position that was likely to aggravate his other injuries but it was the best she could think of.

The first thing she had to do was to undo all the bandages she'd had on the shoulder to keep it in place. They were just in the way at the moment anyway and she could use them to try to get the blood stopped. Under her ministrations Hotch remained completely still. He had his eyes tightly closed and she had the feeling he was holding his breath most of the time. She hoped that was the reason his lips occasionally turned a subtle blue color before he took a deep, heaving breath.

Without asking for permission, Rachel undid the buttons on Hotch's white cotton shirt once she was finished with the bandages. The shirt out of the way and the bandages gone, she had a better view of the damage. Rachel found that the entry wound was actually quite small. That surprised her as she wiped distractedly at the blood that seeped out of it. The exit wound was much uglier and too big. It was almost the size of her fist. The edges were jagged and nasty looking. Bile rose in her throat. At the same time she was grateful that it appeared that the bullet hadn't hit any of the important veins or vessels. Otherwise Hotch would have all ready bled out.

Hotch hissed against the pain while Rachel examined the entry and exit wounds. He knew he was in trouble. He wasn't sure if he was going to be able to last until the Calvary came. The pain medication was keeping the pain at a respectable distance. It made it easier for Hotch to compartmentalize what was going on around him. But it didn't numb him to all of the pain raging through his body. That would take much stronger drugs and general anaesthetic at this point. He hissed again as Rachel pressed a large bandage against the back of his shoulder.

"Sorry," Rachel responded automatically. She pressed another cloth against the entrance wound and sat still, trying to get the blood stopped before she bandaged the wounds better. She could feel Hotch begin to tremble under her hands. She figured it was probably due to shock. She was going to have to get the blood stopped ASAP and get him covered up. Despite her best efforts she found sitting beside the man while he was naked from the waist up rather distracting.

Hotch was closer to her own age. While Matt, Jared and Reid were young and beautiful, Hotch had a beauty that didn't make her feel like a pedophile. His body was in very good shape and he had a few scars but he was still pretty darn easy on the eyes. Shame flowed through Rachel again. This man was desperately injured and she was looking at him as if he were a potential lover. No wonder all of this had happened.

"Where is she?" Hotch managed. He still had his eyes closed. Rachel was thankful for this because he knew she wouldn't be able to hide the lust in her eyes. With a mental and physical shake, Rachel grounded herself back into the here and now and turned her thoughts to healing, not hurting.

"I'm not sure," Rachel admitted while she continued to press against the wounds. The one on the front was all ready slowing but the one on the back wasn't showing any signs of letting up. "I'm going to have to move you."

Before Hotch had a chance to protest, Rachel rolled him onto his stomach. She was going to have to depend on the pressure of him lying on the entrance wound to stop the blood. She needed both hands for the exit wound. Releasing the bandage on the front, Rachel pressed both of her hands against the large wad of cloth on the exit wound.

A low moan escaped from Hotch. The pressure was pushing the pain through the medication. It felt like Rachel had a burning hot poker pressed against his shoulder. At the same time Hotch could feel his other injuries protesting at the treatment. Darkness was gnawing at the corners of his mind. With Herculean effort, the Unit Chief pushed the darkness away. He wasn't going to do himself or Reid any good unconscious. Within seconds, the darkness was back, starting at the edges of his mind and working its way inward.

"I'm sorry but I need to stop the bleeding. Stay as still as you can," Rachel stated. The blood from the burns on Rachel's hands was soaking into the bandage she held on Hotch's shoulder. It hurt like hell but she wasn't letting up. Unexpectedly, the senior FBI agent's body went completely lax. He'd lost consciousness.

Huddled over the man, still pressing against the bandages, Rachel replayed the whole scene through her mind. It was then she remembered that Mary had shot twice. Startled by the revelation, Rachel sat up and looked first to Matt. Relief flowed through her when she couldn't see any obvious blood stains standing out from his still form. The same with Jared, the young man was curled on his side, his long knees drawn up to his chest.

Then she turned to Reid. There wasn't a lot of blood. She had to really look to see it but once she did it was all she saw. The younger FBI agent was curled up like Jared with his back toward the wall. His arms were wrapped around his midsection but that wasn't where the blood was coming from. It was on his topmost side. It looked almost as if Mary had shot him in the butt. As much as Rachel wanted to see just how bad it was, she decided to stay with Hotch for the time being. He was bleeding the most and was in the most danger.

OOOOO

The woods were dark. Too dark. Even with the flashlight Dave knew he was missing things. He'd thought briefly about going back to the others, waiting for dawn. Not bloody likely. His brother was out here somewhere, probably in the hands of a psycho. There was no way he was leaving Jared in that situation any longer than absolutely necessary. If that meant tramping through these godforsaken woods for the next year he was going to do it.

OOOOO

"This sucks," Morgan growled. They'd all ready examined the Jeep three times, each time finding exactly the same things as the first time. He couldn't even call Garcia to get her to do a satellite survey of the area or J.J. or Emily. There was no cell service where they were standing or anywhere he'd tried in the last half hour.

"I concur," Rossi stated. The two FBI agents were sitting against the hood of the police SUV. Morgan had his well muscled arms crossed over his well muscled chest. All this standing still while Reid and Hotch were in trouble was driving him absolutely nuts. Nervous energy was coursing through his muscles and he felt the need to beat the carp out of someone, anyone.

"How much longer?" Rossi asked, glancing over his shoulder at Sheriff Hicks who was sitting in the driver's seat of the SUV. The sheriff looked to be just as frustrated as they were. He'd been on the radio with the helicopter pilot for the last ten minutes, trying to get an update on when to expect the resumption of the search.

"Half an hour," Hicks stated. Absently he ran a hand over his face. The sheriff couldn't remember the last time he'd slept. If they didn't find the missing men, he wasn't sure he'd even sleep again. Guilt still ate at his mind and stomach. How could he have not seen what was under Mary's surface? He was trained in this. He should have seen it.

"I'm going to take a walk," Morgan said. "I'll be back before the copter shows up."

OOOOO

Time seemed to slow down for Rachel. A second became a minute, a minute became an hour. Finally, though, after three or four bandages, she got the bleeding from Aaron's shoulder to stop. It only took her a few moments to wrap the bandages in place and throw two blankets over the dark haired man's still body.

Quickly, she moved over to Reid. The young man hadn't moved since she'd laid him in the blankets. He hadn't even appeared to react to being shot. Tentatively, Rachel knelt down by his side and pulled the blankets back. There was a long, shallow furrow through the young genius's skin from his hip most of the way down his thigh.

"Shit," Rachel swore as she looked at it. It had seeped a fair amount of blood but nothing like Hotch's shoulder. It was ultimately going to need stitches to close the two halves of flesh but Rachel wasn't going to do it until she absolutely had to. She remembered hearing or reading somewhere that there was about a twelve to twenty-four hour window before the edges of the flesh started to die. She just hoped that this was all over with before that.

As quickly, as carefully as she could, Rachel cleaned up the furrow. It wasn't very dirty but she wanted to keep it as clean as possible anyway. While she rubbed gently at the wound, Reid began to shift around. Rachel couldn't remember how long ago it had been since Mary gave them their medication. She wasn't sure she really wanted to be here when they did wake up. They wouldn't be too thrilled with her and she didn't blame them.

"Hotch?" Reid said the word barely discernable through the slurring of his mouth. Clearly the drug was still in his system but had begun to loosen its hold.

"He's here," Rachel said while she worked. The young genius's muscles were twitching under her fingers. It was an unnerving sensation. She'd deliberately started at the far end of the furrow. The last thing she wanted to see was the young man any more naked than she all ready had. To that end she'd pulled the blankets off him but left them tented up to his sides, leaving just his hip to his knee bare.

"What's happening?" Reid asked. He was desperately trying to open his eyes but they wouldn't cooperate. He had vague memories of recent events but he wasn't completely convinced of their validity. A small part of him was still holding out that it was all a fever dream.

"It's kind of a long story. I'll let Agent Hotchner explain it all to you when he's feeling better," Rachel said. She'd chickened out. She didn't want to be the one to tell him or the others what had been done to them.

"Sick?" Reid was becoming very frustrated. Words were something he understood and was very good with. Yet the moment it took everything he had physically and mentally to string more than one word together at a time. He was dimly aware that he was naked under the rough blankets and that there were various aches and pains throughout his body. The worst one at the moment, however, was from his hip. Whatever the woman was doing didn't make it feel any better.

"Ah, I guess you could say that," Rachel hedged. When she reached that end of the furrow at the top of Reid's hip, she could feel the hip bone shift slightly under her hand. Instantly Reid sucked air between clenched teeth and his face tightened up in pain. The hip bone was broken. "Damn."