(Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or its characters)

Let's take a step back for a moment. I feel ike I've been too closed in with the narratives, you guys need to see the full picture.

More notes at the end.

Enjoy.

Rossi slammed the door of his car and started the engine. He was on the road when Emily started to call him. He grabbed the phone from the seat and answered it.

"Have you found him?" he asked. He slowed down a little as he waited for an answer. Emily didn't pause for long.

"Yes," she said and she sighed. "But you need to tell us what's going on? What happened?"

"Just send needs Hotch's location."

"Rossi how-"

"Meet me there."

Rossi hung up before Emily could say anymore.

"Damn it." Emily dropped her phone hard on the table and pushed her hand through her hair. She turned to the rest of her team- the only members left- and she grimaced as she shook her head.

"Must be bad then," Morgan said, and he grabbed his gun from the table.

"Why do I feel so in the dark with this case? JJ mumbled and she shook her head sadly.

Morgan snorted. "You and me both, Jay. Come on, I'll drive."

"Do you think Hotch is okay?" Emily asked as she followed Morgan out of the main doors. She glanced back and paused for JJ to catch up.

"He can handle himself," said Morgan.

Emily frowned. "With this unsub?" she asked. "He can barely talk about his experience... I don't think he can face him."

They got to the car and JJ tried calling Rossi again. "He's still not picking up."

"Hotch isn't either," said Emily as she hung up on her unit-chief's voicemail. She was about to slam her phone back down with frustration when it started to buzz. She unlocked it and she smiled weakly at the name on the screen. "It's Garcia."

"Answer it," Morgan muttered, taking a sharp turn that had JJ grasping at the back of Emily's seat.

Emily answered the call and put it on speaker.

"Baby girl," Morgan called, keeping his eyes on the road but turning his head toward the phone. "Do you know what's happening right now?"

"Hotch crashed."

Morgan had to swerve the wheel quickly when he took his eyes off the road to gape at the phone.

"Derek, road!" JJ cried.

"Penelope, what are you talking about?"

Morgan turned his attention back on the road but he was breathing erratically, glancing across at Emily as she took over talking.

"I called the station, I-I called Aaron... then I checked CCTV a-and I followed Aaron's car until-"

Penelope stopped talking and took a deep breath. "I saw him crash." Her voice came through the phone quiet and shaky and Emily glanced back at JJ who was watching her with a wide-eyes stare.

Morgan pressed his foot on the gas.

"Did you see anything else?" Emily asked, trying to keep her own voice steady.

Garcia replied with a quiet hum. "A car followed him... oh god, it's him isn't it? Oh god, oh god!"

"Is he okay?"

"It's the unsub... oh god-"

"Penelope!" JJ shouted from the back. "Is Aaron okay?"

There was silence for a moment, just Penelope breathing harshly down the phone before she mumbled, "I don't know. The guy... him... he got out and pulled Hotch out and... oh god! Please get there, please, please..."

Morgan glared at the road as the girls tried to calm Garcia. He gritted his teeth and griped the wheel, his eyes livid with hate. "He's dead," he muttered. "I'll kill him."

Spencer held his palm against his middle as the bus jolted. He held his breath for a moment before he felt able to breathe through it. He knew he'd pulled at least one stitch, if not the whole row; the spot where his hand was pressed felt warm, and his skin was itchy. Maybe getting a bus wasn't his greatest idea, but he needed to get away from the hospital.

He continued to hold that spot on his stomach as his other hand drifted to the gun in his pocket. He looked around the bus for a moment, looking at each person carefully.

He needed to find out where his 'father' was. Spencer paused on one man, but looked away quickly, his paranoid mind was conjuring his father's face everywhere he looked. Spencer squeezed his eyes shut and tried to think of where William might be. He knew William better than his entire team, and if anyone was going to find him, it'd be him.

Spencer turned to look back out of the window when a thought struck him. His hand moved away from his gun and he fumbled around in his pocket.

He found his phone and pulled it out, giving the bus another quick glance before unlocking it.

He went to his contacts and scrolled down until he found 'mom.' Spencer stared at her name with a scowl. She proabably didn't have the phone anymore. He'd bought it for her last birthday and told her it was in case of emergencies when she'd tried to give it back, insisting she'd never use it. But he knew she still had it. She kept it on her nightstand and her books were always stacked over it but it was still there. Spencer could only hope that she'd taken it with her to wherever they'd gone.

He took a deep breath and tried to push away the thought of William Reid... he knew his mother was loyal to him but she wouldn't have said anything about the phone... would she?

Spencer pressed his lips together and with a great bout of determination he hit call. He quickly pressed the phone to his ear, pressing himself into the window and shrinking into his seat.

The phone rang only twice before there was an answer. Or at least Spencer assumed someone had picked up, since they didn't speak.

He glanced around the bus before cupping his mouth against the phone to speak.

"Mom?"

There was a sharp intake of breath on the other end and Spencer waited another moment.

"Mom?" he called again and finally she answered.

"S-Spencer?"

Spencer frowned as he heard the bewilderment in her voice. It slowly occurred to him that she thought he was dead. Anger bloomed inside him and he gripped the phone hard, his other hand grasping painfully at his stomach. She thought he was dead and she didn't care.

"Did you ever love me?" he said in a low, angry whisper. He wasn't sure why he said it but he had and now he realised he needed an answer. He grit his teeth together until he was sure they'd crack under the strain and his other hand squeezed his middle harder, pulling too tight on a stitch.

"Spencer-"

"You let him," Spencer said. "You let him do it all. You let him kill me!"

"I didn't want to! Not you, baby."

Spencer pulled the phone away and took a few deep, angry breaths. He turned away from the woman who had glanced his way from the front of the bus and he put the phone back to his ear.

"-gone. A-and you're not dead! You're not dead!"

"You wouldn't care if I was," Spencer said, his voice bordered on a growl.

"I did. Oh I did!"

"And all the other times," Spencer asked. "When you took me? I remembered. You took my childhood! You ruined my real parents' lives. A-and all those other children, a-al-all the ones w-who you stood by and watched him murder!"

Spencer looked up quickly when he realised he'd said the last part a little too loud on public transport. Thankfully everyone seemed to be minding their own business.

Spencer's nostrils flared angrily as he adjusted the phone.

"I just wanted you," Diana said and her voice trembled. Spencer turned back to the window slowly. "You were such a sweet thing. I just... I wanted you a-and your father let me have you. You were my gift," she said and Spencer could hear the smile in her voice and he felt sick.

Spencer blinked at the darkening window before he said quietly, "where is he?" He listened to his mother's breath hitch.

Spencer took a deep breath to try and calm himself down. He pressed his hand lightly into his stomach and he winced at the sting that retaliated. He sighed. "Mom please, tell me where he is. I-I'll... I-"

Spencer thought for a moment, wondering what he could offer her.

"I'll come back to you," he said suddenly. "I'll be yours again."

Spencer's heart pounded and he listened hard as Diana paused.

"You'll come back to me?" she mumbled and Spencer nodded.

"Yes, yes, I'll be yours just tell me where he is."

"He'll come home too? It'll be just the three of us again?"

Spencer forced himself to breathe evenly when that awful idea clenched his heart. Never, he thought, but he didn't say it. He cleared his throat and said "the three of us."

"Okay, baby."

Hotch didn't know what woke him, whether it was the pain or the loud voices, either way, he woke to both. He winced and dropped his chin back against his chest, closing his eyes as he tried to think. He could feel his hands behind him. They were bound together tightly, he could tell as much as he moved them and the rope tightened against his skin. He pried one eye open and found that he was looking down at his knees. He felt the chair then as his other senses came flooding in. He shifted and felt that his feet too, were tightly bound.

His head was throbbing badly and he felt the need to reach up and wipe away whatever was making his hair stick to his forehead.

Hotch finally managed to lift his head up and he slowly opened his eyes, squinting around the bare room for a moment. The house was clean, although there were some spots on the carpet around him that were speckled in reds and browns he was sure hadn't been there before. Aaron glanced left where a door into the kitchen stood as well as a large cut-out in the wall which offered a view into the kitchen. The place looked newly built, there was plastic-wrap over some of the counters in the kitchen.

There was a hallway ahead of Aaron and he narrowed his eyes down it, willing them to focus. As his eyes started to clear he realised there was something at the end of the hall. Slowly, whatever it was started to materialise into a humanoid shape and Aaron blinked twice, trying to make the image ahead of him clearer.

The shape belonged to a woman. She was wearing a long dress, which was dirty and ill-fitting. Aaron straightened against the chair which creaked slightly and he stared at the woman. She seemed to look back for a moment before turning. Aaron noticed, despite the dark lighting, the phone clutched in her hand. He frowned at it until, along with the woman, it was out of sight. Aaron continued to watch where she had been, his heart pounding as he waited for her to come back. She didn't return but the feeling of dread continued to grow within Hotch

He looked to his left and found a window looking into a backyard. It was fairly big, a small tree growing in one corner. The window looked newly installed, the pane of glass immaculate, perfectly framing the afternoon light outside. Aaron sighed and turned his head back, looking down at his knees and twisting his hands in his restraints, gaging how much force he'd need to get loose from them. When Aaron looked back up at the hallway there was another figure stood at the end of it. Aaron's hand's froze mid-twist and he couldn't find the will to pull another breath in.

It's him, it's him, it's him. It was all he could think as he stared at the man watching him. The man was smiling, his teeth bared at Aaron like a wild animal.

When Aaron managed to breathe again he wheezed, panic overcoming him for a moment. The man heard him and he laughed and started to walk down the hall.

"Aaron Hotchner," he said as Aaron reared back in his chair, nearly knocking it over. The man walked into the room and under the light, revealing all the features Aaron had tried to recreate in his sketch's for so long. Aaron rasped as the man stepped even closer. He kicked at the floor to push himself away from the man.

"Aaron, Aaron, Aaron," said Meat-Man and he reached out and slapped his hands hard against Aaron's knee, making the agent inhale sharply.

"Miss me, kid?"

Aaron couldn't do anything, only stare back into the wild eyes of his tormentor. He realised that this was the face that Spencer was forced to grow up with, it was the face that Spencer had endured since his abduction. It made Aaron feel sick to think of how painful Spencer's childhood must have been.

William Reid was looking Aaron over with a nostalgic smile. Aaron forced himself to swallow and take a few steadying breaths.

"I'm glad I caught you," William said casually and he straightened up, standing over Aaron. "I got into some car trouble recently. You were so helpful all those years ago."

"No," Aaron said and his voice rasped, straining over the one-syllable word. He lifted his head but didn't quite meet William's eyes. "No," he repeated. "You won't do this to me again. I'll kill you this time. I'll tear you apart." Aaron said all this through gritted teeth and when he was done he panted heavily.

William was giving him an incredulous look, one of his eyebrows cocked mockingly. Then he laughed. "Really?" he asked and he stepped slowly around Aaron. As he walked behind him, Aaron turned his head quickly, keeping his eyes on him. "Because from where I'm stood," William said, stopping to Aaron's left, just in front of the window. "You don't exactly look capable."

Aaron glared up at him. "You're pathetic," he spat.

William rolled his eyes and started back toward the hall. He paused and glanced back. "I won't be long," he said. "And then you can kill me. You can try at least."

"If I don't kill you, Rossi will," Aaron muttered to William's turned back and the man stopped. He didn't turn right away but when he did his eyes were narrowed.

"The great David Rossi," he said slowly, his voice oozing sarcasm. "So 'great,' in fact, that he saved his kidnapped son... oh no, that's not right. He let him die."

"Except that wasn't his son," Aaron said quietly. He watched as William's smirk fell. "That was your son. That body Dave buried were your real son's remains."

Aaron shut his mouth and breathed heavily, watching William's reaction as he did. William considered his words for a moment and the corner of his lip curled upward.

"I know exactly what child I killed that night. Diana didn't want that one anymore, so I got her a new one," he explained as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "I wonder what your famous David Rossi would think if he knew I got to raise his son as my own. And when the time was right, I killed him just as I did my own boy. What would David Rossi say to that? If he knew that I kept his son from him and then killed him right under his nose."

William spoke the last words purposely slow and he took a deep breath and grinned to himself. "Would you like to know something, Aaron?" he asked.

Aaron couldn't take his eyes from William but he didn't get the chance to answer before the older man started talking against

"Don't you think it's a coincidence that my son joined the BAU? Just like his real father? I understand it was agent Rossi who planted the idea in your head but didn't you ever wonder who planted it in his?"

Aaron frowned. "He told me when we were in your basement. He knew what Dave did, that's why he wanted to join... he always remembered that-"

"He remembered nothing!" William spat. He stood up quickly, composing himself again as if shocked by his outburst. "He forgot everything. He wanted to be a physicist. I forced him into the FBI academy; I introduced him to Jason Gideon."

Aaron stared blankly at William Reid, trying to comprehend what he was being told.

"When you're a lawyer in my position you meet people. Gideon was talking to a friend of mine on a case and it only took one small conversation for him to agree to mentor my son. I was always right there." William raised a hand and pulled it toward his chest. "I was right in front of you all." He laughed to himself.

"Do you know how satisfying it was... that I gave David Rossi his son. It was like dangling a stick in front of a blind dog! He was still mine the whole time. David Rossi never even realised-" William paused and patted his chest. "It was euphoric. And then, just as he was so close to having him back, I took him away."

William snapped his fingers and stared at them with a fond expression. He seemed to come back to himself after a moment but he didn't speak. He just rolled his shoulders and walked slowly away, with Aaron watching him as he went.

Again, I'm sorry for being so late. This week has been a little stressful: my friend contracted coronavirus and it was just my luck that I'd seen him the day after he'd contracted it. I'm waiting for my test results to come back now. I may have a lot more time on my hands to write an update.

Anyway, stay safe guys, and I'll see you soon.