Morgan didn't know if it was the pain in his neck that had woken him up or the fact that he couldn't feel his legs anymore. What he did know was that this wasn't how he'd planned on spending his first night of freedom. Opening his eyes he found himself staring sideways at a lampshade, which would explain the pain in his neck, he thought as he lifted his head that had slipped off the couch and turned it to the front again. There he was treated to the sight of Reid, sprawled over the armchair in a fashion that made him look part man, part insect. His mouth was open and his head tilted back. Morgan smiled malevolently. He wouldn't be the only one with a crick in his neck today. Looking down at his legs he found Garcia curled up like a kitten with most of her upper body in his lap. She was still wearing her glasses, he noted. Sunlight was streaming into the room and Morgan squinted to see a watch. 12.34 p.m. He hadn't slept that long since his college days. But then again, they hadn't fallen asleep until after dawn.

He didn't remember falling asleep. They'd just sat there, talking about anything and everything, leaving the difficult subjects behind them and moving on to office gossip and other normal subjects as they became more relaxed in each other's company. He didn't remember who'd first succumbed to sleep. The last thing he remembered was seeing the sun creep up over the rooftops outside Garcia's window.

The shrill signal from a cell phone woke Reid and his body jerked in a comical fashion that almost made him fall out of the chair. Reid searched his bag frantically for his phone, but before he could quiet it Garcia was already stretching in Morgan's lap, once again reminding him of a cat.

"Morning," Morgan said to Garcia who was blinking at him while Reid had risen and stood by the window with his back to the room and talked on the phone.

"Morning," Garcia said with a thick voice. "Why are we sleeping on the sofa when there's a perfectly good bed in the next room?"

"I have no idea," Morgan answered, rubbing his neck and helping Garcia sit up.

"Actually, I can do that, sir," Reid said, turning around and running a hand through his hair, wincing as it got caught in a knot. "He's here with me… uh-huh… no, her too actually. Yes, I'll tell them. We'll be in in about an hour." He hung up and grimaced. "That was Dobson, he wants all of us at the office as soon as possible."

"Why?" Garcia asked, understandably suspicious.

"Well, he wants my report, he wants Morgan's statement and you have a meeting with the legal department."

"The legal department?" Garcia looked surprised. "Why?"

"They probably want to make sure that you're not planning on suing them for wrongful imprisonment," Morgan said.

"Oh. Oh! I hadn't even thought about that," Garcia said with wide eyes. "Should I?"

"No one would blame you if you did," Morgan said. "I guess we'd better go get it over it."

"I'll go get dressed," Garcia said.

"We're going to have to stop for breakfast on the way," Reid called after her. "Or rather lunch," he amended once he'd looked at his watch.

"Oh, hamburgers," Garcia suggested, popping her head out of the bedroom.

"Oh, separate cars," Morgan groaned.

The team slowly trickled in one by one during the day to write their statements, mostly to get them out of the way so they could start putting this horrible week behind them. Only JJ didn't show. She had, despite heavy protests, been kept at the hospital and was under strict orders to stay in bed for the next couple of days.

The statements were given to Dobson, who, despite it turning out to have nothing at all to do with terrorism, was still credited as the lead agent on the case. Especially since both Hotchner and Gideon were considered victims in this case.

The next day Dobson set up personal interviews with the whole team, as a complement to the statements and then they were sent to see an in-house therapist before they were finally dismissed. After that Hotchner decided to give everyone the rest of the week off. He himself felt a strong need to spend some quality time in bed, preferably with Haley and Jack snuggled up close.

A week later, the BAU team gathered in the round table room first thing in the morning so that Hotchner could tell them everything Dobson, who had spent the week sorting through the evidence found in the house, had told him.

He looked around at his team. He'd been in contact with them during their leave, but this was the first time he'd seen them. They all looked rested, though perhaps not as well rested as he would've liked to see. But still, it was a nice change from the hollow-eyed and pale agents he'd sent home last week. All minor injuries had healed, and even JJ had gotten some color back in her cheeks.

"Good morning everybody," Hotchner said, looking his usual clean self. "It's nice to see you all look so well. JJ, what did the doctors say?"

"I'm cleared for duty," she answered promptly. "They say I pretty much healed on my own while we were still held captive. I would've preferred to heal with the comfort of painkillers, but I guess you can't have everything." She smiled to show that while it was weak, it was an attempt at a joke.

"That's good," Hotchner said. "Now, we're here because Gideon and I had a rather long debriefing with Dobson yesterday and I wanted to share his findings with you."

"Where is Dobson?" Reid asked. He'd expected to see him for the briefing.

"He's gone back to anti-terrorism," Hotchner answered. "He said he wanted to put this behind him to start focus on real terrorist threats."

"Shall we start?" Gideon asked.

Hotchner nodded and opened the thick file lying in front of him on the table. "There was a lot of physical evidence against both Henry and the other three men in the house where we were being held. They had documented their plans extensively from day one. There were a lot of photos and written reports that showed that they have been following all of us for several months already. Their planning was quite ingenious actually, very elaborate. We know that Henry Caswell first met up with Garcia seven months ago, but this must have been at least a year's worth of planning."

Hotchner looked up, but as no one seemed very surprised he continued. "They had us numbered one through six, but only Morgan and Prentiss were locked as number one and two. Morgan was first because his apartment had the easiest access. We found a whole lot of plans concerning Elle that had been thrown out when she quit, so they had less surveillance on Prentiss than the rest of us, but once they noticed her midnight shopping habit, they decided that she would make an easy second target. After that they sent the first ransom note, which was written long in advance by Henry, who'd spent a couple of nights chatting up the leader of HBM to get a feel for his language. He also sent them an anonymous tip that the FBI would soon be paying them extra attention and that it would be a good idea to stay out of sight for a while, which is why Swartling had problems finding anyone to question. Oh, by the way, they had chosen the HBM as a scapegoat early on because of Donnie Nelson. They had researched all of us to find a good way in and when they figured out that Garcia had a cousin in prison on terrorist charges, they built their whole operation around that."

"Amazing," Garcia reflected. "I didn't even know I had a cousin who was a terrorist or in prison. They must be really good investigators."

Hotchner continued. "Knowing that we would want to question Nelson and Marquez as soon as possible, they timed the ransom note to a point of time when they knew there would be little traffic along the road out to Lincoln. There are no prison transports or visitors allowed on Sundays, so the road would be mostly deserted. They figured that by now we should be spooked enough to travel in pairs, so they expected to bag two of us, only they didn't know which two. Then they, and rightly so, figured that the two of us who were left would be put under protection and be kept apart as much as possible. By dictating the time and place for the phony prisoner exchange, which they had no intention of ever going through with it, they could time one of Henry's visits to Garcia so that he would have a maximum chance of seeing the plans. They counted on that at least one of us would insist on being there. They had trained for several scenarios for that kidnapping and simply chose the one that matched my position the best.

"Setting Garcia up as a scapegoat was a two-part plan. The first was to have the investigators looking in the wrong direction and cement the suspicions against HBM. The second reason was that the discovery of Garcia's perceived betrayal was timed so that whoever was left, number six, would be alone and that he would go see her at the prison out of duty. They couldn't predict if number six would believe that Garcia was guilty or not, but they figured that either way he would go see her, either to yell at her or out of sympathy. They had researched which prisons it was most likely Garcia would be sent to and had devised scenarios and getaway plans for all of them. Then-"

"Then," Reid interrupted him, "All they had to do was wait for me to call them and tell them exactly where I was going and when."

"You called them?" Morgan asked, surprised.

Reid shrugged. "Garcia asked me to call Henry and tell him what had happened, so of course I did. I told him which prison Garcia had been sent to and when I was planning to visit. I served myself up on a silver platter."

"But you got away," Prentiss pointed out.

"Yeah... not really my doing though."

Hotchner continued. "They'd been on alert from the moment Landon Jones showed Dobson the pictures he found on Garcia's computer. Apparently the program had a spyware in it that alerted Caswell that the files had been opened. But then Reid evaded capture and all of their plans fell apart. They hadn't counted on that, they'd probably gotten cocky with four successful operations. But now they had to make new plans, which, fortunately, gave Reid enough time to figure things out and find us. They were just about to finalize their new plans on how to get Reid. It was a very good thing that you found us when you did…"

"Why?" JJ asked. "What had they planned?"

Hotchner turned to Reid. "The day after you found us, two of them were supposed to transport us to a location that's only mentioned as 'location B' in their notes, and the third one was
scheduled for a morning flight to Las Vegas..."

Reid paled. "Mom?"

Hotchner nodded. "They figured that your mother's death would make you come running."

"It would have," Reid said, horrified. "How…?"

"Are you sure you want to know?" Hotchner asked.

Reid nodded.

"They had found a prescription drug," Gideon said, "That when combined with you mother's regular medicine has been known to induce heart attacks."

"Oh, god." Reid felt nauseous. So close and he hadn't even suspected…

JJ put her hand on his arm. "Don't think about it. You found us in time. You stopped them."

Hotchner looked at Gideon who nodded and then turned to Reid. "About that… When Hotch and I had the final briefing with Dobson yesterday he told us you found us pretty much single handedly."

"Yeah?" Reid said guarded.

"Yes," Hotchner confirmed. "He admitted that they had been wrong not to listen to you more."

"Dobson said that?" Morgan said surprised. "You must've really made an impression on him," he said, turning to Reid. "I've never known him not to take anything less than full credit on anything he's ever been even remotely involved in."

"It wasn't really their fault," Reid protested. "Sure, their stubbornness was frustrating, but in truth, I just had a different perspective, that's all. It was a cleverly designed ruse; they just followed the path staked out for them. The thing that went wrong for them, the kidnappers I mean, was that they didn't get me. If they had, then we would have all disappeared and Dobson's trail would've gone cold sooner or later. But since they didn't get me and because I refused to believe Garcia had anything to do with it, then I was deliberately looking for other solutions. If they hadn't framed Garcia, I probably wouldn't have found you either."

"But you were skeptical before that too," Garcia reminded him. "Remember, you said that it didn't feel like a terrorist act."

"I wasn't the only one who thought so," Reid pointed out. "Swartling also said it was uncharacteristic behavior for HBM."

"Yes," Gideon said. "But you were the only one who acted on it. Where they only saw illogical behavior, you saw an illogical situation and you thought outside the box."

"All in all," Hotchner said, "We have evidence to put Henry and the three henchmen in jail for a long time, even if the three of them were masked at the abductions and it's impossible to tell who did what, like who shot Miller and Marcus and who was just the driver."

"What about Walker then?" Reid asked.

Hotchner grimaced his displeasure. "He's been interviewed and was very friendly the whole time, but predictably he claims to know nothing about any of this. He says he barely remembers us and doesn't understand why we would think that he would have any interest in kidnapping us. And of course, nothing ties either Henry or Walker to HBM and Walker claims he's never heard of them either. He also said that while Henry did work for him, he's not to be blamed for his crimes. If a disgruntle mailman runs amok you don't blame the Postmaster General."

Several heads were turned his way at the cliché and he held up a hand. "His words, not mine. Walker hasn't stepped foot in D.C. in at least nine months. His subsidiary company, the one Henry works for, is in the process of opening up a factory in Virginia that will produce cell phone components. That factory is said to need more than 600 employees, so the local government doesn't take our meddling too kindly. According to Walker, Henry was moved here to oversee the practical details. Walker claims he bought the house in preparation for the commuteonce the factory is up and running. As his trusted employee Henry was given the keys to the house to oversee renovation and decoration. The other three men Walker claims never to have heard of, and that they must have been hired by Henry without him knowing about it. Walker says that if Henry thought he was acting on his orders, then something must be very wrong with him. But there's not one single piece of hard evidence suggesting that he was involved. The three henchmen have never even heard his name."

"Really?" Morgan interrupted. "Didn't one of them say that the boss was eager to meet us? They must've at least known that there was someone higher up than Henry that they were working for."

"Doesn't mean Henry had told them who it was," Prentiss said. "Some people don't care where the paycheck comes from as long as it's big enough."

Hotchner nodded. "And while we should be grateful that Henry immediately confessed to having framed Garcia and pretty much everything else we've put in front of him, he isn't giving us anything that could even implicate Walker. All we have are Reid's theories."

"Theories?" Reid looked up. "But-"

"Relax," Morgan said. "We believe you, remember?"

"But he's going to walk?" Reid asked.

"He walks," Hotchner confirmed solemnly. "He knew what he was doing and he played it smart. We can't get to him. But at least he can't try it again, then he'd be our prime suspect from day one." He closed he file to show that he had no more information to give and that the floor was open for discussion.

"It's kind of interesting though, isn't it?" JJ said. "That they made plans for Elle but then scrapped them when she quit?"

"Elle wasn't with us on that case in Texas either," Morgan pointed out. "The one where we first met Walker. She hadn't started yet."

"Maybe she became unworthy when she quit," Hotchner theorized, thinking of Reid's profile of Walker. "That to be on the team and stay on the team you have to be the best."

"But if they made Garcia such a big part of the plan, then why didn't they consider her part of the team?" JJ wondered.

"Simple," Garcia said. "Because I'm not the best. I might be a computer goddess, but there are some seriously gifted geniuses out there."

"And Walker probably employs half of them," Morgan said.

"Yeah," Garcia agreed. "They did figure out about Donnie. Not to mention how they moved money around to and from HBM's account."

"You would've figured it out too," Morgan assured her, "If you'd been spearheading the investigation. Even if you didn't remember him you would've understood it if you'd done a deeper background check."

They fell silent for a moment, but then Prentiss spoke up. "I wonder what Walker had planned to do with us. I wonder what would've happened to us if he's succeeded, if he'd gotten all of us where he wanted us."

Others nodded in agreement. They had wondered too.

"That's not what I'm wondering," Gideon said, his eyes on his own hands. They all looked at him questioningly, silently. He raised his eyes and met theirs.

"I'm wondering if he's done it before."

The End

A/N: I hate to disappoint all of you who were hoping that Dobson was one of the bad guys. He may be obnoxious and unbearably irritating, but he's actually a good guy and he means well, in his own way.

I hope I've remembered to tie together all plot points. If I've missed anything, please let me know. And a huge thank you to everyone who has given this story some of their precious time. I'm grateful for each and every one of my readers. And thank you, thank you, thank you for all the wonderful reviews!