When she was told to visit William Devries, Megan was confronted with a problem. This episode had been popping up in her notes a lot. An episode where Elle Greenaway had been held hostage on a train by a paranoid psychiatric patient. There were a lot of options for Megan to fix it (or avert it).

She could avoid the train all together with a simple car drive. In the episode, Elle admitted she could've taken a car but chose the train. Megan could just choose the opposite. That would stop a lot of her presence in the episode.

If Megan took the car, she would make it to the prison without issue. The problem there was that Megan wouldn't have a lot of time to research this case beforehand. If she couldn't study it well enough, then William Devries could use that against her. Any weakness would be spotted, torn down, manipulated for his purpose. He was a child murderer. Megan wouldn't give him any advantage.

The biggest problem was the episode's events weren't entirely in her hands. The train incident itself started in little part because of her presence. A suicide would still happen in front of the train. Megan had no control over that. The person was unknown, the exact time was unknown, the exact location was unknown, and that was a detour that would make her late for the prison meeting. Megan couldn't afford being caught in this mission. She would end up admitting to a lot- she had to work on that. The fact that someone died without any thought in the rest of the episode did upset Megan too, she would mourn later.

After that event, a guard would still enter the train car of Dr Ted Bryer. Ted would see the guard, his paranoia would act up. Had it been increased by Elle's presence? Yes, but the paranoia was already there. He still saw all the people as agents regardless. After the train stopped, his delusional paranoia would latch on to the idea that it was all a plot by the 'higher authority' against him. Ted would grab the guard's gun, then start shooting.

Megan not being there could change how that was handled. The BAU would still be called. They had been before anyone even realized it was Elle's train. Would the team go forward with the same determination if one of their own wasn't onboard?

If she took the car, the BAU would appear without Megan. She would be with that child murderer. She didn't want to give him any advantage, half her focus going towards her friends and the civilians on that train.

So taking a car was out. A train then. The next big problem: her gun. Ted would find out she was an agent- Megan wasn't gonna sit bored, she would go over case notes. Ted would take the guard's gun, and then Megan's own. She didn't want to give him another gun. She also didn't want to get in trouble for not having it on her person. She was on the clock. The last thing Megan needed was being asked 'why weren't you carrying your weapon?' 'Oh cause I knew Ted was gonna grab it.'

See? Problem.

Next: Ted's main delusion was that the higher authority was watching him all the time. If Megan was on the train, she would want to take steps to avoid the scene. What if she did something to give herself away? Said the wrong thing, without any context? She could rule up his paranoia just by being herself.

Everything was working against her. It was more exhausting than actually working a case.

But oh...oh how Megan loved it.

==BAP==

In the end, Megan took the train. She was willing to risk whatever happened in the known issue of Dr Ted than the unknown of Devries. Maybe they'd let her try again after a few days to settle.

Megan was willing to try. She was taking this whole train ride as testament to doing Devries right.

She was in her seat on the train. The car was occupied with the others, Megan kept up on a mental checklist. She reclined in the seat, her back against the wall. Now she had a better line of sight for the whole space.

When Dr Ted and Linda sat down, Megan thought of killing him right there. She ignored this option. Killing a man for a crime he hadn't committed yet was generally frowned upon. Instead, reviewing the Devries case was the better option. In her opinion, mainly.

There was another problem. Megan's mind tended to wander as she studied the case, her gaze falling towards the seat across from her. This happened to be Dr Ted's seat.

Great. Just great.

She snapped herself out of it a few times. Each time she snapped back, Megan could feel the growing tension from Dr Ted. That would've made her suspicious.

Ugh

Her phone started ringing. That surprised her a bit. The caller ID said it was Gideon, there was no reason not to answer. Megan answered it.

"Sir?" Megan greeted.

"Devries cooperating?" Gideon asked.

Megan blew out a soft, silent breath. "Actually, I won't be there for an hour." She could hear Gideon's silent question. Damn, he was good at that. "I took a train from El Paso instead of renting a car. I thought it would be a better idea to look over the file before meeting with him. You know? Because he can't lie if-"

"If you know the crime better than he does. You do pay attention."

Megan smiled to herself, a little bit of pride blooming in her chest. She was doing something right. That helped ease the growing tension in her stomach.

Those good feelings immediately vanished. Static started coming from the other end of the phone. The good feelings were replaced by the buzz of anxiety.

"Check-whe-don-"

"Wait." Megan sat up in her seat.

"Megan, I'm-"

"Sir? Gideon?" Megan tried to hear him. Fuck she knew what came next, she knew what was coming soon. The phone couldn't disconnect. She wasn't ready. Where did the time go? "Wait... I'm losing you."

This was such a dumb idea

I should've taken a car

I shouldn't have been on this train.

I don't want to be alone!

"Megan, I...time right now, we can talk to when you get back."

"I mean yeah, sure but-"

"Megan-"

The call dropped with Megan's stomach.

She didn't say anything. Her words wouldn't have gone through anyway...

Megan Quinn was all alone.

==BAP==

She was stressed, she was stressed now. This was a stressful situation.

Megan did the only thing that helped in stressful situations. She sought out someone to help. If she helped solve a problem, she could feel less stressed.

The closest stranger was Dr Ted.

So Megan hopped down from her seat to the one next to Dr Ted's. Without thinking, she just started going with it. "Hey, are you okay? You looked a bit stressed."

Dr Ted twitched his jaw. He wasn't saying no, nor was he saying she couldn't. His eyes glanced over his shoulder. He gave a soft shake of his head. Megan briefly reminded herself he could be talking to the voice in his head.

"Is it traveling? Cause I get that- always a little carsick." Megan admitted. "My mom did every time we were in the car. It helped her to talk."

Dr Ted shook his head again.

"Sorry for being nosy. I'm FBI, always getting a little too deep into people's lives." Megan assured her. "I'm just trying to get my head off work. Thought I would talk to you. What are you going to do in Dallas?"

Dr Ted was quiet for a moment. Megan feared the voice in his head- Leo- was telling Dr Ted to be scared of Megan, to be suspicious about the agent talking to them. "J-just work."

"Oh, yeah! What kind of work do you do?" Megan asked.

Dr Ted's eyes darted up ahead to Dr Linda. He glanced over his shoulder, hsi jaw twitching again. "I-It's just- it's nothing."

"No, it's alright. I really want to hear it." Megan explained. "Please?"

Dr Ted sighed...but then he started talking. "Linda. I'm going with L-Linda. We're headed to a conference."

Megan glanced ahead. "Is that Linda?" Dr Ted nodded. "She looks nice. Oh! I'm Megan Quinn, who are you?"

"T-Ted." He answered.

"What kind of conference, if you don't mind my asking?" Megan asked.

The two chatted for a while. Megan's anxiety eased off as the chat continued on. Dr Ted was super nice, and calm when he wasn't listening to Leo. Megan was happier getting to know him.

Then the train stopped.

"What the hell was that?" Josh- a different passenger- asked, standing to his feet.

Megan held her breath as the guard walked in.

"Everything is alright folks. All right just relax, everything is gonna be fine. Everything is fine." The guard assured them.

"What happened?" Megan asked him.

"Nothing ma'am." The guard answered. He glanced at the file in her hands. "You on a job?"

"Aren't we always?" Megan joked, trying to calm the painful thumping of her heart.

The guard knelt by her seat, giving a cautious look at the nearby passengers. He lowered his voice. "Suicide, somebody jumped in front of the train."

"Oh no! Is there any help you need?" Megan asked.

"Unfortunately we have this procedure down fairly well." The guard replied. Her heart kept on thumping, aching with each pulse in her chest. "Everybody just relax, everything is going to be fine. We are going to be back on underway again shortly."

Megan winced as Ted leapt at the guard. The gunshots made her reach for her gun. She pushed herself back to avoid Ted's initial attack.

"Oh my...!" Linda gasped.

Megan didn't want to anger him. He whipped the guard's gun at her head. Megan wanted to swear, feeling the gun break skin. It was still hot from when it shot the guard. Her head burned and stung. Being pistol whipped wasn't fun.

As she reached for her hurt skull, Ted took her gun. She hadn't wanted to tuck it in her bag. Now Ted had two guns.

"Nobody move!" Ted demanded.

"Okay. Ted, please, you don't have to hurt anybody else." Megan pleaded with him.

"What are you doing?" Linda yelled.

"Shut up!" Ted waved the guns around again.

Everyone in the car watched him with baited breath.

So far, so bad.

Megan really should have tried harder.

==BAP==

Meanwhile, in Quantico, hundreds of miles away...

JJ set up the TV in the conference room. It was showing security footage for their newest assignment. She waited for more agenda to walk in so she could give the full report.

She got three in there. JJ pressed play.

"Okay, this is from one of the security cameras inside the train." JJ explained. "Five hostages in a car stopped on the tracks. We have one security guard dead from the initial gun fire." JJ reported

"Is this going on right now?" Reid asked. His focus was on the gunman.

"Yeah, in West Texas." JJ answered.

"Why are they asking for us?" Morgan wondered.

Hotch was reading from the ofe official file. There wasn't much on the people yet, only the gunman. "There is a particular psychological aspect of the hostage taker, which we're especially equipped to handle."

"Can you back the picture up a few frames?" Reid asked. JJ did so. "Tardive dyskinesia."

"Once more for those of us without an encyclopedic memory?" Morgan asked.

"Severe facial tics. The kind that develop after years of taking antipsychotic medication." Reid clarified.

"So this guy's a psychotic." Morgan huffed, shaking his head.

"A psychotic with hostages." Hotch pointed out to Morgan. It would be helpful if they took the man seriously.

"And two guns." JJ added, helpfully.

Gideon rushed in. "Hostage situation on a train?"

"Yeah, in Texas." JJ replied.

"The train in Texas." Gideon breathed to itself. He dismissed the idea, like he did when he first heard of it. However when he saw the frozen frame on the screen he couldn't ignore it. "My god!"

"What?" Morgan asked.

"Megan!" Gideon revealed, eyes locked on the screen.

All the agents tensed up, rising to the defense.

"Megan?" Morgan asked. Yeah, Megan was in Texas but what were the odds? She was in a rental, right? She didn't take the train.

Everyone looked closer. Sure enough, even in the black and white image, they spotted their friend's red hair and profile. The cut on her head was visible in the frozen frame.

"Wheels up in ten." Hotch instructed.

==BAP==

The team landed, wasting no time in heading over to the site.

"Local authorities have the train surrounded." JJ reported. "Bureau, hostage rescue teams, and snipers are in position. But they are hesitant to take actions until the negotiation is exhausted. The feeds from the train's two video cameras are being routed to monitors on a mobile command center that the local bureau office brought in."

"We need to know who on that train is going to be a help and who's gonna be a problem." Hotch explained.

"All right, let me get Garcia to work some magic on those video feeds." Morgan pulled out his phone. He dialed Garcia.

She answered fast, as she always did. "Como se dice 'Hottie'?"

"Garcia." Morgan greeted, tone somber and not at all cute.

"Precisely." Garcia cheered, always ready to tease and have fun.

"Okay listen. No playing." Morgan instructed. There wasn't time for that today. Not with Megan's life on the line. "We're gonna be feeding you with some security camera video from a hostage situation over a security line. Can you work a face recognition software over it and tell me who's who?"

"If they have the picture on file anywhere, I'll find them." Garcia replied.

"Penelope. Megan is one of the hostages." Morgan revealed.

Garcia was silent for a moment. Morgan had never gotten a reaction like that from her. "I'm into it."

Morgan hung up the phone. "She'll get us the names."

"Do we have any contact inside the train yet?" Gideon asked.

"No. It took two hours to convince him to allow a two-way phone." JJ explained. "But he won't speak to anyone except what he calls 'the higher authorities'."

"God?" Hotch asked.

"No mention of religion thus far." JJ answered.

"Has crisis negotiation's lead claimed to be the higher authority?" Hotch asked.

"The unsub won't speak to him any longer." JJ answered. "He gave a deadline of three hours to produce this authority."

"Three hours. When was that?" Reid asked.

"Um...two and a half hours ago." JJ answered.

"Well, he wants to speak to the higher authority." Hotch began.

"Then we better give it to him." Gideon stated. "Put the lights on, sirens, honk the horns, make people get out of our way. Get as close to the barricade as possible. When we stop, we sit. We wait 30 seconds. Then we step out."

Hotch followed the instructions.

==BAP==

The scene they arrived at was much different than the one they expected. Something clearly went down in the time between their last contact, and their arrival. Still, those thirty seconds of looking around gave them plenty of time to see what happened.

Reid spotted her first.

"Megan?"

The other agents followed his gaze. Sure enough, their friend was sitting on top of a nearby cop car. An officer was checking her out.

All of them walked out from the car.

"Don't look at the train. Ignore it." Gideon instructed them. "The higher authority isn't concerned about losing a few civilians."

"I'll talk to the HRT commander." Hotch stated, walking off from the group.

They were approached by a man, before most of them could do anything.

"I'm Frank Moretti, Dallas field office." He stated.

"Hi." Gideon returned the greeting. "What's going on?"

"I'll tell you what, that agent of your's is either the smartest lady I've ever met, or the craziest." Moretti replied. He pointed over to the police car where Megan was seated.

"What happened?" Gideon pressed. "Just tell me what happened."

"Would if I could. I don't know how she did it. She talked him down." Moretti explained. "Didn't even fire a shot."

They looked over to Megan. She was still being bandaged, no worse for wear. They could finally see the other hostages. Even the unsung himself was in the back of a car.

==BAP==

Megan could hardly believe she'd done it. She could not believe it. It worked. Her half brained idea worked.

She finished explaining everything to the officer when her team walked up to her. She left out a sigh of relief.

"Hello, higher authority." She greeted with a wide grin. "Gideon, will you tell him that I don't need to go to the hospital?" Megan asked. "I'm fine. Really, I'm fine."

"Regulations are regulations." Gideon answered. "You're all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Sir." Megan answered.

"They said you talked him down?"

"He was convinced of a higher authority, the government. So I just pretended to be a member." Megan explained. "He thought there was a chip in his arm, see, so I popped out the one in my phone."

"He bought it?" Gideon asked.

Megan thought Ted clearly did, seeing as everyone was free. "Yeah, just sleight of hand."

"You can do that?" Reid asked.

Megan smiled. 'I learned it to impress you.' "Yeah."

She was shocked Ted allowed her to do it. She tried to talking him before as a friend. When it was clear he only accepted the word of the higher authority, Megan began work on that. She whispered conversations with Linda, gaining more information. When she had enough, Megan used it to her full extent.

A quick work of her phone and a pocket knife, she was able to perform 'surgery'. The sleight of hand trick took effort to learn. She originally did it to impress Spencer yeah...it was just her luck that she used it here.

No way in hell would she let Spencer Reid on this train. Megan wasn't gonna risk it. Reid was a capable agent, fully able to do this himself. That didn't stop Megan from asking what if he died? She wouldn't lose anyone. She couldn't be the reason someone died, exactly like that guard.

Reid- for his part- smiled at her. Satisfaction settled in her chest. She smiled back.

"You did good, Megan." Gideon praised.

"Could enough not to need the hospital?" Megan prompted.

Gideon laughed. He walked off, JJ and Derek at his side. Reid was left with Megan.

An EMT walked to them. "Alright. You ready?"

Megan slumped her shoulders. "Guess so."

They started walking towards the ambulance. The EMT turned to Reid. "You coming with her?"

Megan fought the urge to look back at him. She could feel the hope shining in her eyes.

"Megan?" Megan was never good at telling people no. She looked back at Reid's "You go to the hospital. I'll see you there."

Her smile widened. The corners turned up in thankfulness. She didn't often think she deserved a reward, she was doing what anyone would've done. What Reid himself would've done. But she wouldn't complain.

==BAP==

AN: You know, I actually do want this story to update more than twice a year. It would be nice, wouldn't it?

Thanks to AlyssaMcGrath, Jelisa Johnson, demonicKitsune2, hadrianlopez1, reigningrain, death-becomes-her3, livesinasong13, dmoncada42, TwinTigerLover, PanPanPixel, WalkingSaint18, for favoriting

Thanks to AlyssaMcGrath, perplexxingthoughts, Malicia88, demonicKitsune2, hadrianlopez1, reigningrain, death-becomes-her3, livesinasong13, dmoncada42, panravenc, Angel-Peyr, TwinTigerLover, WalkingSaint18, for following!