BAU Office- Quantico, Virginia

Garcia sprinted out of the elevators as soon as the doors opened on the floor of the BAU. She had hoped to get the team into the conference room and talking quickly while Anderson and the other techs were digging for evidence back in Danville. The TA expected to hear footsteps behind her, but didn't. Garcia turned around to see her five teammates slowly walk out of the elevator with confusion and sadness in their eyes.

"What's wrong?" Garcia called out. Rossi walked towards the bullpen and said, "Thought I'd never see this place again."

God, this must be hard for them. I should have realized that ahead of time. "Everything's pretty much the same," Garcia said. "Your offices are empty- I begged Strauss to leave them empty."

"You didn't have to do that, Penelope," JJ said, peeking her head into one of the conference room. Like the other agents, JJ felt as if she was a new kid at school, regardless of her seven years at the BAU. Garcia wanted to remind them of the time, but she stopped at the sight of Hotch. He was staring with Prentiss at their photos on the Wall of Fallen Agents.

"How did you…" Prentiss trailed off. She touched her photo and looked over to Garcia, "How did you come into work…and see this every day for a year?"

"If I knew," Garcia said, "I'd tell you. Come on, we need to get to work."

"What exactly do you want us to talk about?" Reid asked, taking a moment to glance over at his picture.

"Um….let's start with how you escaped." Garcia pointed towards the conference, "That'll definitely be a good place to start."

Once in the conference room, Garcia stood next to the whiteboard as the team sat around the table. She wrote Escape on the whiteboard and turned to her team. "Anyone can go."

After exchanging looks with his teammates, Reid said, "I guess I can tell it. Garcia, I know that you've heard the beginning of the story in pieces. So after we had all woken up in the room, he-I mean Colmanshire took Hotch out without telling us what he was going to do with him. Within a few days or so, Colmanshire showed up and gave Prentiss Hotch's bloody shirt and then told us that…he was dead. From then on, Colmanshire's men would take one or two of us out of the room at a time and just…," Reid swallowed hard before continuing, " I still can't get JJ's screams out of my head." JJ squeezed his hand in support and brushed away a tear running down her face.

"Anyway," Reid continued, " It was Morgan and Emily's day…."

3 Months Ago

Reid let out a cough and spat out blood onto the concrete floor. He lifted his head back to see Rossi staring at him quietly, no words needing to show his concern. The young genius had once again lost track of whether it was night or day; whenever light below the forever locked door would creep through the hinges, Reid could tell that it was night. He had developed that system whenever he was dragged out of the hallway to receive a beating, a name calling fest, or even just plain torture. On his first day- hours after they had lost Hotch- Reid had realized that there were no windows, but a light switch. After that, Reid took the light being on as night.

"Da-ve," Reid called out to the oldest teammate. Rossi only gave a weak nod in response. He could barely speak due to his broken jaw. Apparently, Colmanshire had found the team's, especially Rossi's questions regarding the Unit Chief's "death" to be problematic, leading to Rossi's broken jaw. The pain was now a dull pain, only allowing him to say no more than a few words a day.

Lying on her side at the other corner of the room was JJ. The blonde was shivering, her jacket wrapped around her ankles for warmth. Her body ached as she laid there after being tortured, and raped, the day before. She closed her eyes to fall asleep, but couldn't when Reid repeated, "Da-ve!"

"No…Spence. You're too loud," JJ called out. She expected Reid to counter back, but only heard the sound of unlocking and the turn of the doorknob. JJ rolled over to see Morgan and Prentiss being thrown into the room. The door quickly shut close before it was locked again.

Morgan watched the door close before he dropped the keys on to the ground. Five shocked eyes fell on the keys, the dull metal shining as if it were gold.

"Where did you get them?" JJ asked.

Morgan lifted his head and said, "We got the keys…from Hotch."

"Alive?" Rossi exclaimed. He then winced at the shooting pain in his jaw. Morgan pushed the keys towards the eldest agent. "He's alive. Hotch….was lying in the room where they," he looked at Prentiss, "did things and….we have to try and escape again! Here's what we-"

Present Day

"Wait a minute," JJ said. Reid stopped mid-story and stared at JJ. " Emily and Derek weren't….chained up! Every time someone was taken out of the room and brought back, they were always chained back onto the wall," she said in awe, "How did we not catch that?"

"We were desperate and injured," Rossi stated, "Anyone would have missed it."

"Focus on right now, guys. It was a simple mistake," Garcia told them, "Go on, Reid."

3 Months ago

"Here's what we do," Morgan said, " Someone steps out and sees if the coast is clear before we all make a run for it."

"Derek, we don't know where we are or if Colmanshire and his men even left the damn place!" JJ exclaimed. The African American agent dropped his shoulders and said, "JJ, I don't think we have a choice. We can't sit here and hope for the best anymore. I'm sorry, but we either die in here or die out there."

"….Ok. You're right," JJ said, " We need to be unchained first and second, who steps outside?"

"I'll do it," Reid volunteered. Morgan slid the keys across the room towards him. He first unchained his ankles and then his wrists before pulling himself to his feet. Reid unchained the rest of his team mates one by one with his eyes focused on the door.

Once he was finished, the youngest agent limped over to the door. He unlocked and slowly pulled the door open before stepping out into the hallway. It was different stepping out into the hallway instead of being forcefully dragged. It was a nice change….

Reid quickly looked both ways before quietly walking down to the room he recognized to be the "torture room". He paused every few seconds, listening out for any signs of Colmanshire and his men. When Reid made it to the room, he dropped his shoulders in relief at the sight of Hotch.

The Unit Chief was alone in the room, chained to the wall like his teammates. He looked just as terrible as the rest of the team, but was no doubt alive. Reid limped to his friend's side and unlocked the chain around the man's wrist and ankles.

"Whe-re…we?" Hotch stammered. Reid noted that Hotch was completely out of it, stuttering or omitting every few words that he spoke.

"You don't remember?"

No….." When Hotch's wrists were free, Reid helped him to his feet and asked, "How did you get the keys to Morgan?"

"I don't-I saw…trou-ble. The keys….. tabl-e-" Hotch's legs gave out and was caught by Reid. Reid put Hotch's arm over his shoulder for a walking assist and started walking with him towards the door. "Was there anyone here?"

"Alone…who-"

"It's ok, Hotch. Just come on." Slowly, they returned to the room where they found the remaining team members in twos: Rossi stood with JJ while Prentiss stood with Morgan, ready to help him walk the best she could.

"There's a door upstairs, I think," Reid said, "It didn't sound like there was anyone else here. Everybody ready?"

"Yeah," JJ and Rossi walked into the hallway. JJ took a second to turn around whisper back to her teammates, "Let's go."

Present Day

"From then on, we just ran…or limped. We stopped every few hours," Reid said as he finished up the story, " and took time to rest. When Rossi had heard a car horn, we all decided that I would try to get help."

"Wow." Garcia looked at the whiteboard where only the word she hadn't written a word. Once Reid had started his story, she had completely forgotten about it. "I do have a quick question," Garcia asked. It was about the pile of clothes found in Manchester. " We found a pile of clothes that had been left-"

"My idea," Prentiss stated. Garcia smiled at her, "Thank you for that. If you guys hadn't done that, we would have never known to look in Manchester."

"You would have eventually got to it, kid," Rossi said. Next to him, JJ sighed in disbelief, "I can't believe he had let us go like that. I had really thought that we had escaped on our own."

"Don't worry about it- we'll catch him. Anyway," Garcia quickly changed the subject, "We need to do the press conference. All of you will be standing with me while…..Hotch delivers the speech."

"What?" Hotch looked up from his seat in complete shock. During Reid's story, he had become pale and incredibly quiet.

"You're the leader of this team, Hotch," Garcia stated, "It'll have more impact if you do it."

"I can't! I barely remember anything of what happened!" Hotch's voice cracked, " Penelope, I can't."

"Aaron, you can do it," Rossi assured, "Just be yourself."

"I can't- I'm not myself-"

Garcia "Nor am I- I'm nowhere near my old self. Please, Hotch, do it for the team-do it to get Morgan back. Please!"

Hotch grimaced before quietly saying, "Ok. I'll do it."

Seven miles south of Danville, Virginia- 4 Hours later

Michael Colmanshire considered himself to be a brilliant man.

He knew the silly little TA would crack if she lost Morgan. Colmanshire had watched her for six months and knew every little aspect of Miss Penelope Garcia: she was a scared woman trying to play fed. He was excited to finally meet her and teach her a lesson or two about making things hard for him. The two men he had lost because of her was collateral damage, but they had been good men nonetheless. The last two men he had were still good and would still be able to get the job done.

In his mind, his brilliant plan would go off flawlessly; the remaining team members would give the press conference highlighting his achievements and then would surrender to him, finally completing his puzzle. Colmanshire felt that he deserved to be recognized, not only just for his killings from the previous year, but also for taking down the FBI's best.

Now, the man sat on a ragged couch with a cold beer in his hand in an old warehouse. According to news reports he had heard within the last hour or so, the press conference was going to air on many local and national television stations. Colmanshire was ready; he had been waiting for this moment for months.

"And now to the front steps of the FBI building located in Quantico where Unit Chief Supervisory Special Agent Agent Aaron Hotchner will speak on behalf of his team…" blared from the television screen. Colmanshire placed down his beer, a little confused. He had expected Garcia to give the speech, not Hotch.

The television screen suddenly showed the team with Hotch behind a podium. All five agents and TA looked confident and professional, especially Hotch, who stood in crisp new suit with a serious expression on his face. Hotch took a breath and began to speak,

"Good evening. My name is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner and I'm calling this press conference to speak in regards of the kidnapping of my team on July 27, 2010. One of our team members Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan was taken hours ago by our kidnapper, Michael Colmanshire. Through negotiations, Colmanshire had demanded that my entire team including technical analyst Penelope Garcia to surrender ourselves to him after highlighting his achievements in a press conference, which I will do so now."

Colmanshire leaned forward with a grin on his face. This was it….

"Michael Colmanshire is a coward-"

"WHAT?" Colmanshire threw the beer against the wall in anger. He kneeled in front of the television screen to hear the rest of the speech….

"This man used torture, name calling, and other forms of abuse to deal with seven individuals that he feels are threats to him. He also functions under the delusion of treating my team and me as if we were his objects, trophies as you may, that he must so urgently get back. This delusion intensified when his lack of focus during our kidnapping only took six of our seven man team.

This man is under the belief that he conquered a team of agents and destroyed them emotionally and physically. That belief is false- we are here alive, strong, and will fight for the rest of our lives against any trauma that he and the men that works with him had done against us. And to you, Michael, we have a message: although you have kidnapped Agent Morgan again, keep in mind that we will rescue Agent Morgan. You will be caught, Michael, and you will pay for what you have done to us. Thank you- no further questions." Hotch gave a nod towards the group of reporters before walking off the stairs with the team.

"Son of a bitch!" Colmanshire yelled. He pushed the television onto the floor and let out an angry scream. He didn't know what was worse; being made a fool on national television or one his objects- his objects - call him by his first names as if they were equals.

He marched towards a back room where Morgan sat in a corner, bound. Colmanshire took out a pocket knife and slashed Morgan across the face. The agent barely winced which angered Colmanshire even more.

"Aaaahhh! You want to play with me, agents? Huh?" Colmanshire yelled into an empty corner of the room. Morgan thought to himself, He's losing it.

"Fine, we'll play," Colmanshire took out Morgan's cell phone and speed dialed Garcia, irate and ready to end this…..