Reid went limp and Rossi had to grab him to keep him from sliding to the floor. He recovered quickly though, he grabbed his stick, Hotch had placed it and his bag next to the fireplace. He heaved himself to his feet and hurried out of the cabin dragging his foot behind him. The others hurried after him, but Hotch stopped them

"Rossi and Morgan will go after him. The rest of us need to contact Garcia and go through the cabin see if the Unsub left anything else."

Rossi and Morgan quickly hurried out. Reid's trail was easy to see through the newly fallen snow. They tracked him to a clearing, with a frozen over stream. Reid was sitting on a rock, hunched over. They cautiously approached him, not wanting to scare him. Reid heard them though

"I found this the second day I was here. The first day I walked six hours down the road hoping to reach civilization. After that I knew it was hopeless to try and escape on my own so after that I explored the forest. This place was the most beautiful spot I found. I would stop here every time I would leave the cabin, and I would actually stop thinking. It was odd at first, but as time passed it became peaceful, this is the only time I ever actually felt rested. When I sleep I always dreamed of escape, of rescue, or of being home, here though….." Reid trailed off

The two men walked over to him and just took in everything, the white snow covering the ground, the trees, and the stream with patches of ice showing through. The green evergreen trees, other bare trees, the few rocks strewn on the ground, the blue of the sky, the utter silence in the air.

"You're right kid, it is a peaceful place" Rossi said

"I know I'm not quite here. I've spent three weeks just trying to survive. I'm so cold I can hardly feel by body anymore. I'm always hungry; it's a constant pain in my stomach that never goes away. My body has shut down to the bare necessities and it's a chore just to move. The worst though is hope, false hope. When I was with Hankle I knew the team was coming that you would rescue me. Here waking up every morning alone after spending the night dreaming the team was here it made it much harder to keep going. Intellectually I know Hotch was right to not leave yesterday, to stop driving because of my foot, but emotionally I feel gutted. Then to learn that everything I endured, everything I suffered was amusement for some sick mind…" again he trailed off

Morgan put on his hand on Reid's shoulder; Reid leaned in to his touch.

"Come on Reid, we should go inside. The others will be wondering where we are." Rossi said after a few minutes .

Reid nodded and Morgan picked him in up in his arms. Reid didn't object just put his head against Morgan's shoulder. Rossi grabbed his stick and they went back to the cabin. When they returned they find the table, logs, bowls, pot, and even firewood outside. When they went in crime scene equipment was scattered around, bricks were removed from the chimney. The fire was out, Hotch was examining the camera, JJ was going over the fireplace, Emily helping her. When they saw Rossi, Morgan, and Reid they all hurried over to them.

"Is he alright?" Emily asked

"He's fine, just tired. He went to a clearing in the woods. "Rossi answered

"Here Morgan put him down here."

JJ said leading him over to a corner in the cabin where a sleeping bag had been laid out, and a pile of blankets set up next to it. Morgan carefully set Reid down, before propping him against the wall JJ wrapped a blanket around him, and as soon as he was settled put another blanket over his legs. After he was settled, Morgan and JJ went over to Hotch and the others. Rossi had already told them what had transpired in the clearing and Hotch actually looked slightly guilty. Emily filled the two men in on what they had which wasn't much. They had only found the camera so far, it was remote activated, expensive, but that was it so far. They had called Garcia and were waiting for her to call back, like magic Hotch's phone rang just then he answered it and put it on speaker phone

"So I checked out the camera and it's a sophisticated piece of tech. It records everything for a set amount of time before it gets downloaded to a remote location. I was able to access some of the recordings and as soon as I get my hands on it I should be able to recover everything. Now this camera dumps its date every three days, if Reid has been there twenty one days I should be able to trace the Unsub when he accesses his camera. But if it was yesterday it's too late.

"Great job baby girl, let me ask Reid."

Morgan walked over to Reid

"Reid Garcia needs to know if it's been twenty one days since you woke up here or twenty two?"

"Twenty one, I couldn't have been unconscious for very long or the fire would have burnt out before I woke up. "

Morgan gave him a questioning look, but walked over to Hotch and relayed the information. Garcia asked about Reid upon being assured he was okay she hung up so she could get to work. A thorough inspection of the cabin turned up nothing else. Hotch carefully removed the camera and packed it up for transport to Quantico. Emily went and asked Reid if there anything in the cabin the Unsub might have left. Reid said most of the stuff had been lying around the room, he had carved most of the bowls, the kidnapper might have left him the axe though. Emily went and retrieved it. A knock came at the door as they wrapping things up, Morgan opened it the paramedics had arrived.

"Hi, we heard there a man up here with an injured foot."

"Yes come in, he's over here."

Morgan led them over to Reid who was leaning against the wall his gaze focused on the two strangers

"Sir, My names Doug Paul and this Henry Cline, we're here to help you."

Reid nodded

"Can you tell us your name?"

"Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Alright Spencer, can you tell us how you injured your foot?"

"I don't know, I do know I started needing a stick five days ago."

"You don't know how you're foot got injured?"

"I stopped really feeling my limbs days ago. I just know it's gotten harder to walk around about ten days after I woke up here."

"Woke up here"

"Listen, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm really tired, could the questioning wait until we're off the mountain."

"Sure, we just need to examine you're foot than we can go."

Reid took the blanket of his legs and the paramedics examined his right leg and then his foot. They carefully felt around, but Reid still groaned in pain. Then one of the paramedics pulled off his shoe releasing a terrible smell into the cabin.

A/N Next time Will Reid finally leave? Will Garcia be awesome as always? Keep reading and find out. As always thank you to those you reviewed and please push the review button and keep those reviews coming.