A/N: Hello again, everyone!
A shout-out to ahowell1993, tannerose5, Susan, Betty, Kelly, Skylar, Martha, and Amy for reviewing Chapter 15!
A special shout-out to maggie little girl and manyfandomsgirl for following and/or favoring the story.
Get ready for the EPIC, AND I…MEAN…EPIC SHOWDOWN BETWEEN GRIFFIN AND REID!
With a quick appearance from a very special someone!
Also, it may be a while before I write the next chapter since I start school again next week!
After frantically hearing that Reid went to the Hamptons in New York, where Élise may possibly be held by Griffin as a part of his endgame, Prentiss immediately told Garcia to get Anastasia and pack some bags because she needed to meet them on the jet to get to New York.
You've reached Dr. Spencer Reid. I can't your call right now…
Hanging up as his phone went to voicemail again, "Reid still isn't picking up," Prentiss said as she put her phone back in her pocket and sat down next to JJ. "Can't believe he just went out on his own. How long before he left?"
Garcia whispered as she had Anastasia in her arms, "After he figured out the message Griffin left on Drake Wendel's body and where Griffin could be holding Élise, he asked me if I could book him a seat on a non-stop flight to New York while you guys went to see Tina Foster; it was just after you guys left. He called me from JFK when you called. Reid promised me not to tell you until he got to the Hamptons. I'm sorry."
"It's understandable," Rossi said, looking at his phone. "So, Reid has already got a head-start. It would take an hour and twelves minutes to get to New York from Virginia by flight…"
"And it would take about two hours to the Hamptons from JFK by car; again, head-start."
"Why the Hamptons?"
"And the hell did he manage to get the Hamptons with Élise without being noticed?"
"Maybe the Hamptons has some significance to Griffin."
"You are right about that. It turns out his biological parents owned a place in East Hampton; a compound to be exact, it's about between 25-to-45,000 square feet, over 40 acres. Barns, carriage houses, farmland, a whole lot of shebang. Also, I…managed to get a photograph of Élise before he did whatever he did to my system." Garcia hands the team the photograph.
It was Élise and there was no doubt in any of the team's minds that she clearly looks scared, not to mention beaten and drugged.
"What a bastard." Rossi commented.
"Agree."
"If Reid gets to Griffin first, I hope he saves some of the beatdown for us."
The second Reid got off the plane, he wasted no time and rented a car and drove himself down the Hamptons. Reid thinks of the hell-and-back Griffin has caused within the months Élise has been missing…
To learn that he has stalked Élise since she was in college; he abducted her from her own apartment; tortured her; not only did he just Élise he stalked, but his team members, who are like a second family to him, his daughter Anastasia and to hear that he has also stalked his mother…; he killed an FBI agent and used him to access his files; the people he had abducted, raped, tortured, murdered over the years…
Richard Griffin had to be stopped.
And he was damn determined to stop.
Even if he has to kill him.
Élise felt as she has been feeling often since this bastard held her up at gunpoint, abducted her from her own apartment, and has been doing whatever he has been doing to her. As always, he moaned and groaned in pain; shallowly breathing. She had her days where she felt her vision would be hazy; she would be too drowsy, too sleepy, confused, nauseous to the point where she felt like vomiting. Sometimes she felt it would be too painful to open her eyes.
Or even move her body; whether it was her head, her fingers, even her toes.
Sometimes she couldn't move her body.
Sometimes it even would hurt to cry.
At least now she was not restrained or bound in chains but was uncomfortably slumped on the dirty and dusty barn floor barefooted but at least she had clothes on. She took a quick sniff and the place smelled as if nobody's been here for a long time. Sometimes she wanted why she was still alive after everything this bastard had put her through, even now.
Sometimes…she put those thoughts on hold when she heard a big door unlocked and slammed shut. Sometimes it felt like her ears were ringing non-stop, or loud, or buzzing, or whatever they were feeling at a certain moment.
Who else could it be than the bastard who is Griffin to crouch down and uses his hand to grab her hair again, crying out in agonizing pain. She could only do nothing other than stare at him in hazy disgust and watched him smirk at her with delight. "Reid will be here soon. Élise."
After reaching the FBI office in New York, the team strapped up in their Kevlar vests before heading up the roof where helicopters were waiting for them when one of them gets a call,
"Prentiss?"
"Hotch?" Everyone was especially surprised that Hotch was calling them. "What happened?"
"Rossi told me Reid went after Griffin by himself."
"Honestly, I don't know how to react." Prentiss rubbed her temple as she soon put the phone on speaker.
"Just hope he doesn't shoot him in the groin."
This moment causes everyone to get confused.
"What?" Prentiss almost laughed.
"I once tutored Spencer in shooting for a gun qualification test and he made a groin shot on a paper target. And his first kill was a shot to the head, although Reid told me he was aiming for his leg. And honestly, I hope he makes Griffin cry; Reid once made a suspect cry during his first solo interrogation right after the suspect asked Spencer if I was his daddy; we were investigating Karl Arnold."
"We'll make sure of that, Hotch."
"See you when you get back."
"Same." After hanging up,
"Based on learning more about Reid's reputation that you guys fail to tell me about," Alvez comments. "I wished I was warned to never piss him off because now I think I'm going to have nightmares about him. I mean it, he's going to scare me now more than Hotch did." The team snickered for a few seconds,
"Come on. Let's get to work."
"Hoo-ah."
"And stop this bastard once and for all."
Seconds later, the team ran towards the helicopters; some put on waiting headphones, so they could hear before the helicopter took off as the doors were closed.
Élise continued to slowly inhale and exhale and try and let her mind take her somewhere else other than being here; she figured she would need all her strength and energy. Sure, her body was aching in pain, but anything to get away from the bastard…
And speaking of the bastard…he had just returned from doing whatever he was doing…and just smiled at her. If she wasn't having such a headache, she would…hell, she was having too much of a headache to think at the moment. With every step, her ears were ringing loud echo-like booms. Again, he yanks her hair and looked into her eyes,
"Oh, Élise," He smirks. "Out of everyone…all the people I've ever encountered…you…are special. And my absolute favorite."
That just gave Élise a chilling and disgusted feeling. He declared her…as his favorite. Honestly, she felt like vomiting her stomach's kicking knots out. Sure, his breath smelled minty, but he disgustingly reeks. He grabbed Élise by under her shoulders and had her sit up against the barn wall. Her vision may be a bit hazy, but she could swear she can see the barn doors were wide door. And her legs…She wondered…
"Has someone ever told you how special you are?" He tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear. "I bet Reid has told you just how special you are." He starts to caress her face. Élise felt the chills. He soon leans in closer, whispers in her ear, "Tell me. Do you think I'm special, too?"
Élise felt like she had so choice but to do this… She couldn't nor was she about to let this chance go by. Leaning in closer to his ear, "I…think…that you…are…"
Taking the risky opportunity, she bit his ear as hard as she could before the risky chance to scratch him with her bitten nails and elbowed him as hard as she could, causing him to fall on the hard and cold barn floor. Finally picking herself up, despite the numbness in her legs and how weak she was feeling, she ran straight for the open doors but fell when Griffin had his hand wrapped around her ankle.
"Ah!"
"Hold it there…" Élise didn't give him a chance to finish his sentence when she smashed her foot into his face, scrambled back on her feet and ran as fast as she could to get the hell away from Griffin. And she was finding herself running into the traditional-like-English-manor-architectural-styled-estate/mansion.
Finally reaching, Reid rolled the vehicle to a skidding halt and immediately step out. Grabbing his revolver from his holster, he sees someone running into the house.
"FBI!" Reid fires his weapon.
BANG!
It was Griffin, who caught sight of Reid, who soon returned fire at him twice—missed twice—before running into the house. Reid soon runs after him. Reid enters the foyer, its hall before entering the conjoining living and dining areas.
BANG!
Griffin fires his weapon again at Reid—he missed again before running up the stairs.
BANG!
Reid fires another round at him. "Come back here and face me like a man!"
"Come and get me, doc! COME AND GET ME!"
Just as Reid was coming up the stairs,
BANG!
Élise jumped, covered her ears when she felt she was trapped in the midst of the chaotic war from the attic on the top floor of the house. Her heart started to race at an impossible rate like it was about to burst at any moment now, her muscles tensed up. She figured she had to do something other than just wait and see what's going to happen. She knew she had to take a stand, even if she felt she had little-to-no chance of surviving, it was better than nothing.
She hoped at least.
She took a quick and thorough look at some of the boxes that were there in the attic; something that she could use as a weapon. Finally, something caught her eye: a knife hidden inside of a book. Perfect. She thought. She knew she couldn't hide in the attic forever, even if it meant she had running into Griffin herself. She took a deep breath before leaving the attic; looking both ways of the hall, tiptoeing down the stairs. She quickly had an idea. She opened a slammed a door before hiding in one of the other rooms and hides in the closet.
She took a deep breath before just about to step out but quickly stepped back in when she heard someone else come in. Taking another quick peek, she leaned back when she saw Griffin entering the room, holding her breath and trying not to make a sound. She can feel him getting closer and closer to the closet that she had no idea what came over her; she just threw some random clothes in Griffin's face before making a run out the door. Griffin quickly recovered and fired his weapon—misses.
"Ah!"
"Élise!" Reid calls out her name.
Griffin sees Élise making a run for the stairs before firing again—misses, but this causes Élise to tumble down hard on the stairs, falling into a hemp at the bottom of the staircase and drops the knife. Despite Élise attempting to crawl away, Griffin grabs and pulls her up by the arm, pushing her against a wall and attempts to take her clothes off,
"No…Stop…!" Élise tries to scream, but Griffin held his hand over her mouth and had her arm twisted behind her back real tightly. "Hmm! Hmmm!"
"Shh. Shh." He whispers to her. "Now-now-now, Élise. You know what I want to do? I want to take this moment…nice and slow…"
Reid came up from behind Griffin and tackles him; and goes tumbling down, down, down the grand staircase with him, causing Reid and Griffin to drop their guns. Still finding the strength that allowed himself to get back up, he delivers a good kick to Griffin to his chest before grabbing him by his shirt, throws him against the wall and socks him in the face and stomach before Griffin manages to break free. Despite this, Reid still bangs Griffin's head against the wall a couple of times before and grapples him back down to the ground again.
Élise weakly manages to step down the stairs to the conjoining living and dining rooms as she saw the two of them throwing punches and kicks at each other, grapple each other, throwing each other against the wall, into the furniture. She sees a fire iron and takes a swing at Griffin's back, only for him to backslap her down to the floor. Griffin takes another swing at Reid, causing the latter to fall as well. Griffin soon took the fire iron and used it to strangle Élise. Élise attempts to keep Griffin from strangling her but with little-to-no-success. Reid sees this and noticed there was a knife next to him. He knew he had to do an unthinkable but liable opinion.
He grabs the knife and stabs Griffin.
And once he started, he couldn't stop.
For every stabbing, it was for every single person Griffin had done to over the years; the images of his victims, the people he had either abducted, raped, tortured, beaten, murdered; for everything he had put them through flashing in his head.
And especially Élise. Stalking her since college; abducting her from her home; torturing her, keeping her hostage and captive.
He just kept stabbing and stabbing; Reid was so blinded by his own rage, he couldn't even hear or see anything else around him other than what he was doing to Griffin.
"Spence! Spence! SPENCE!" JJ pulls Reid away from Griffin and tosses the knife aside. "That's enough! Spence, stop. It's over. It's over." The team arrived with their weapons drawn, but shocked by this…
Reid had to take a moment at what he did to Griffin; the blood splatters almost everywhere before looking up to see Élise in the corner.
Scared. Numbed. And she was also covered in some of his blood. It was no surprise she started to have difficulty with breathing. Reid slowly got up and walked gradually towards her.
"Hey," He whispers. "Élise. Élise." He wrapped her arms around her.
And she wrapped her around him. And allowed the tears to flow.
"It's okay. It's okay."
Finally, "Don't leave me."
"No." He continues to hug her. "Come on. Let's get you checked out." He pulls Élise into his arms and started to carry her. He did not care if every bone in his body was broken; all he knew was that he had to be there for her. "Try not to move, okay? Don't look. Don't look." As Reid left with Élise, the team continued to stare at Griffin's mortally wounded and presumably dead body.
"Damn." JJ was surprised Reid did this.
"It's official: I'm scared of Reid." Alvez declared.
"At least he's dead." Rossi commented.
"Yeah, but what about Élise?"
Meanwhile, in the ambulance, Spencer was sitting on the bench with a paramedic near Élise, who felt like she was seeing a light above her.
"S-spencer…?"
"It's okay, Élise," Reid assured. "I'm here."
"S-spen…cer…?"
"What is it, Élise?"
Before Élise could say anything else, the already-attached monitors started to beep wildly.
"Wha-what's happening?"
"She's having a reaction."
"To what?"
"She's hyperventilating. Her pupils are dilating."
"Élise!" Reid shouting; he started to hold her hand.
"You have to sit back down, Agent," One of the other paramedics said. "You're in quite a lot of pain."
"Help her!"
"She's starting to have a seizure!"
"HELP HER!"
"Put a rush on it!"
"Come on, Élise!" Reid pleaded, still holding her hand. "Stay with me! Stay with me! I'm not going anywhere! I'm right here! Come on, Élise! Don't close your eyes! Stay with me! Think of me! Anastasia! Family! Please, Élise!"
Élise felt her eyes closing against her will as she soon became overwhelmed by darkness.
A/N: Sorry for leaving you hanging! Also, as I said in the beginning, it may be a while before I write the next chapter since I start school again next week!