Sorry for the short chapter. I wanted to make sure I got an update out before Christmas.
What do y'all think, should Reid and Alex be found sooner, and I can spend more time focused on their recovery with the BAU team, or should I focus more on Reid and Alex's experience with the trafficking ring? Or both?
Let me know via PM or review!

"If you fucking touch him, I swear to god I'll kill you!" Alex threatened from the chair where she was restrained.

"Shut up!" One of the men growled, moving behind her and forcing a knotted cloth between her teeth, effectively gagging her.

"Look, you don't have to do this" Reid said as two of the masked men uncuffed him, retying his wrists and torso to the arms and back of the metal chair. "Just let me talk to my team. They will back down if I tell them to."

"You really believe that?" one of the men laughed, unrolling some kind of leather tool kit on a nearby table.

Reid pulled against his restraints, but found he could only move a few centimeters in any particular direction.

"Yes, if I tell them I'm ok and that everything is going to be alright."

"Well now's your chance," The man sneered, "they're watching right through that camera. Don't worry though," he said picking a knife from the toolkit, "I'm sure this will hurt them just as much as it will you."

"Hotch!" Garcia called out panicked as she ran through the squad room, "Has anyone seen Hotch?"

"Garcia, whats wrong?" JJ asked, running into the room, Morgan hot on her heels.

"They took Reid and then the feed just went black and, oh god, I just know something awful has happened!"

"I'll call Hotch." JJ said as Morgan and Garcia ran back to her office.

Within a few moments they were all gathered anxiously around Garcia's wall of monitors, the center one showing their missing team member.

'...Don't worry though, I'm sure this will hurt them just as much as it will you.'

A man dressed in all black with a black ski mask walked into view of the camera, a serrated hunting knife held in his hand.

"No, no!" Reid begged, struggling against his restraints, "Please don't do this!"

"Garcia, can we get a trace on the source of the feed?" Hotch asked.

"I...I can't seem to make it through the sea of proxy servers." Garcia shakily replied, "They've made me practically useless! If I can't do this then we can't find Reid and then..."

"Hey," JJ interrupted, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, "It's gonna be ok."

"I know, I know, I just..."

Reid whimpered as the man lashed out with his free hand, striking Reid in the face, then slashing at his upper arm, the jagged blade of the knife tearing rather than slicing at his skin.

"MMMPH!" Alex protested from somewhere off-screen.

"You see that?" The masked man jeered at the camera before turning back to Reid and making a matching cut right below the first, and then another, and another "You see this? You can't stop this!"

Morgan's hands were shaking and his heart felt like it was physically breaking in his chest. Everything in him wanted to beat the shit out of the man torturing Reid, then just scoop up his kid up and carry him home. How were the others so calm? Well, except Garcia, but she had always been the most kind-hearted of the team.

"If you even try to come after us, his blood," the man said, holding the dripping knife in front of the camera, "is on your hands. If you try to track us, if you try to raid one of our locations, or try to arrest one of our operatives, he" the man threatened, holding the bloody knife against Reid's neck, "is dead. Understand? You do anything other than just watch, and he is dead! So back the fuck off!"

"I...I can't do this!" Garcia gasped, fleeing from the room, tears in her eyes.

"Morgan?" Hotch asked, nodding after Garcia.

"On it." He replied, going after her. He hated to leave. It felt as if he was somehow abandoning Reid, but he knew that right now Garcia needed him more than ever, and if the team didn't have her, there was no way they were going to find Reid.

"So what now?" JJ asked.

"I don't know." Hotch solemnly replied, eyes transfixed on the last image still lingering on the screen. Reid, their kid, broken and bloodied.