A/N: GUYS. I am so unbelievably sorry for this very sudden and unexplained hiatus. This semester got really busy and then I left the country, but there really is no excuse. For those of you who have stuck with this despite my absence, I thank you so very much. I still see you and appreciate you immensely. Now, I know this chapter might be a bit shorter, but we're winding down now, and the next upload will probably be the epilogue. Again, so sorry for the lengthy absence. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and pretty please let me know what you think!
Joey's breath was caught in her throat. Her heart raced as she made the split decision to look to Reid first. There was a small trickle of blood running down his temple, but Joey could make out the faint rise and fall of his chest. Feeling relief flood through her, Joey turned to Chief Pearce sitting in the armchair, his hands folded on his stomach. A wicked grin was spread across his face.
"Good morning."
"What are you doing here." Joey spat. It was more of a challenge than a question.
"Well, I've come to collect what is mine." Pearce replied conversationally. He slowly stood and Joey felt herself draw back slightly, apprehensive of what he would do.
"The recordings aren't here. I don't know where they are." Joey said hastily, casting another glance toward Reid's motionless figure.
"That's not what I meant." Pearce answered with a smile. He reached toward the window ledge where a neatly folded pile of clothes waited. He dropped them on the end of Joey's bed. "Get dressed." He ordered, his voice suddenly sharp.
Joey stared blankly. There was no way Pearce thought he was getting her out of there without drawing attention. "What about the guards outside my door?"
Pearce grinned. "Funny how quickly they moved once they got word that someone fitting my description was seen in the parking garage. Must be rookies since they both left without backup."
"My team gave your photo to the nursing staff and doctors. They know what you look like." Joey replied, feeling the anxiety well up in her again.
"The staff just switched rotation. New nurses. They haven't gotten the memo yet." Pearce nudged the clothes. "Now, get dressed. Time's wasting."
Still Joey didn't move. Her mind was racing. She had to find some way to alert someone that Pearce was here. She glanced toward the nurse call button, wondering if she could get to it and push it without Pearce noticing.
As if reading her mind, Pearce moved to stand over Reid's limp body. "Maybe I didn't make myself clear." He reached behind him and pulled out a hand gun with a silencer on the barrel. "Get dressed. Now."
Joey held up both of her hands in surrender. "Okay…. Okay." Carefully, she untaped the needle in her hand and pulled the IV out before taking off the hear rate monitor. She leaned forward with a grimace and pulled the pile of clothes toward her. "Are you going to give me some privacy?"
Pearce smirked. "I don't think so."
Cheeks burning, Joey self-consciously untied the hospital gown and tried to get dressed while keeping herself as covered as possible. It was a slow and difficult process, as putting a bra on and pulling a shirt over her wounded shoulder shot sudden spikes of pain through her chest and arm. She kept glancing toward Reid to make sure he was at least still breathing.
Once she was fully dressed, Joey swung her feet over the side of the bed and stood. The room tilted, but she clutched the IV drip stand to keep her balance.
"Good." Pearce tucked his gun into his waistband behind his back. "Now…" He reached down toward Reid and Joey instinctively lurched forward. Pearce held up a hand. "Easy now." Joey watched as Pearce hauled Reid up into the armchair, arranging him so that it looked as if he were sleeping.
Pearce then moved toward Joey. She shrunk away as he came close. Pearce grabbed her upper left arm and Joey hissed in pain. "We are going to walk out of this room and to the elevator down the hall." Pearce breathed into her ear. "And if you so much as try to indicate that something is wrong, I will shoot everyone in the nurses station before anyone can reach the phone. Is that understood?"
Joey nodded, her hands shaking slightly. She said nothing as Pearce began to pull her toward the door. She was thinking fast. If she could just get Pearce out of the hospital, maybe she could make a run for it. Not very likely, in this state. Joey thought to herself. Maybe there would be someone outside that would notice something, or maybe one of the new nurses would recognize her from before and alert Hotch.
Pearce silently shut the door behind them and guided Joey toward the elevator. She was certain that while they waited for the elevator to arrive, someone would notice she was missing. However, no one passed by, and it was only as the elevator doors were sliding shut that Joey saw one of the nurses from the station lean over the counter and give them a curious look. Pearce's hand instantly tightened around Joey's arm, so Joey threw the nurse a nervous smile before dropping her gaze to her feet.
Joey's arms and legs felt heavy, and the dropping of the elevator made her stumble. Pearce righted her, making Joey flinch in pain again. "Once we get outside, if you make a run for it, I'll be sure that the good doctor upstairs is well taken-care of, if you understand me."
Joey nodded. "I won't run."
She was expecting they would be headed for the parking garage, but Joey was surprised when the elevator doors slid open in the main lobby. As it was still early morning, the lobby was mostly empty. Pearce steered her toward the front door and out into an open-air parking lot. So he can run, himself. Joey realized. If somehow the team gets tipped off, it would be easier for Pearce to make a run for it out here than in a parking garage.
Joey tried to look around, but there were no sirens or flashing lights approaching, only the morning sun glinting on the roofs of cars as it peeked over the neighboring building. She was starting to have trouble breathing again, and the pain was coming back in full force now that she was disconnected from the morphine.
Pearce was pulling her through rows of cars, avoiding the main aisles whenever possible. Joey tried to slow down at one point as she was overcome by a fit of coughs, but Pearce yanked her back to his side. Joey felt stitches on her stomach tear open, and a warm trickle of blood run down the inside of her shirt.
"Pearce." She protested, but he kept going.
Pearce finally stopped in front of a seemingly random car. Joey slumped against its side, holding her wounded arm close to her. She needed to stall, but her mind wasn't up to speed.
"Why are you doing this?" Joey mumbled.
"You know why. You're a loose end, and I need to tie you up." Pearce pulled a long thin metal piece out of his jacket and started to jimmy it under the driver's side window of the car.
Joey shuddered at his response. "Why me, though? All of this, why me?"
Pearce smirked. "Honey, don't take it personally. You weren't special. You were just a means to an end. Expendable. You were just another unimportant, eager young agent trying to prove that she was worth something in the Bureau."
Joey dropped her gaze to her shoes as Pearce pulled up on the metal piece and the car unlocked. He moved to open the door.
"You won't get away with this." Joey spoke again, thinking of anything that would slow Pearce down. She decided to go after his ego. "Even if you take me again, my team will hunt you down. They'll find me like they found me last time. You'll always get caught."
But Pearce merely laughed. "Oh Agent Ryan," He reached out and stroked Joey's cheek. "I'm afraid no matter what, it's too late for you."
Joey pulled away from Pearce's touch. "What do you mean?"
Pearce gave a dramatic sigh and stuck his hands in his pockets. "You see, even if your team finds me, even if they come to the rescue again, I've already made arrangements for you." He smiled wickedly. "I've called your brother."
Joey felt her heart plummet to her stomach. "What?" She asked, barely more than a whisper.
"Yes." Pearce pulled the car door open, but waited to get in. "Your eldest brother, actually. He was very interested to know where you and your father were. Apparently he's been searching for you for years. I thought it was time for a little family reunion."
Joey was rooted to the asphalt beneath her. Panic coursed through her veins. "What have you done?" She breathed. Then she moved, not to run, but to advance on Pearce. Angrily, she started throwing punches, aiming to hit whatever part of Pearce she could. "Do you understand what he'll do? Do you understand who he is? He won't stop. It won't just be me he'll go after. What have you done?"
Pearce pushed one of Joey's punches away and reached back into his pocket, pulling out the long metal tool and hitting Joey around the ribs with it. Joey reeled back, wheezing through the pain that now seared across her stitched-up abdomen.
A deep voice suddenly rang out behind them. "Pearce!"
In one swift movement, Pearce used one hand to drop the metal tool and pull out his gun, and the other hand to grab Joey and pull her in front of him, using her as a shield.
Joey looked up, and for an instant was flooded with relief. She had never been happier to see her team leader in her life. Hotch had his gun raised, his face set, and was slowly advancing toward them between cars. JJ and Morgan were fanning out behind him. That relief, though, was short-lived as Joey felt the cool barrel of Pearce's gun press into the back of her neck.
"Let's just stay right there, agent." Pearce's smooth, nonchalant voice called out. Hotch, JJ, and Morgan all froze, but their guns remained raised. There was a beat before Pearce spoke again. "You found me." It was a statement more than a question.
"One of the nurses saw you leave on the elevator, but was suspicious when Dr. Reid wasn't with you. She went and found him in Agent Ryan's room, and called me." Hotch explained, his eyes never leaving Pearce's face.
"You got here awfully fast." Pearce remarked. "I hope I didn't wake you."
"We weren't sleeping." Hotch shot back. A surge of guilt rushed through Joey. Pearce was right. She was hardly out of the academy and now her team was losing sleep and risking their lives for her, all because she'd been stupid enough to say yes to Pearce.
"It's over, Pearce." JJ called out.
Pearce chuckled. "I don't think so. You see, Agent Hotchner, you're too sentimental." He tightened his grip on Joey and she gasped. "You don't want to see one of your team members here get hurt, so you're going to let me go, or you're going to have to go inside and ask for a body bag."
Morgan shifted his weight angrily, but held his position, casting a glance to Hotch for instructions.
"I can't let you go." Hotch said calmly, though his mouth had become a very thin line.
Suddenly, several things happened at once. Hotch moved to take a step forward. As he did, Pearce pressed the barrel of his gun farther into Joey's neck. The sun burst over the building across the street and Joey closed her eyes as the warmth spread across her face, prepared for Pearce to pull the trigger.
Then, a shot rang out. Joey jumped, and then felt herself being dragged down as Pearce's limp body hit the ground. Ears ringing, Joey scrambled away from Pearce's figure, which was slumped against the front tire of the car, a thin trail of blood leaking from the bullet hole in his forehead.
JJ lowered her smoking gun as Hotch and Morgan moved forward. Morgan kicked Pearce's gun away while Hotch checked for a pulse, a mandatory field procedure. Hotch slowly stood with a solemn look on his face. Exchanging a glance with Morgan before turning and nodding to JJ, who called for a medic on her comm line.
Hotch turned and bent down to help Joey up. As she stood, though, she pushed herself away from her team leader, taking in deep breaths.
"Ryan?" Morgan asked tentatively.
"Hotch, I…" Joey felt a sob rising in her chest, but she pushed it down. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…for all of this. I just…Pearce was right. I'm just some expendable new agent out of the academy, and I'm not worth all this trouble that I've put you through. I mean I've probably wasted so much of the Bureau's money, and you guys are out here risking your lives, and you haven't slept in a while because of all this—."
"Hotch never sleeps." Morgan cut Joey off mid-rant.
"Ryan, that's not at all how we see it." Hotch said, ignoring Morgan. "You're not expendable to us. You're part of the team. And I assure you we've spent far more of the Bureau's money for far less. We don't blame you for what happened with Pearce. He's been using young agents for years, now. We're just glad we finally caught him, and that you're okay."
Joey met his eyes for a moment. They were kind and gentle, reassuring. She nodded once before dropping her gaze again. She heard JJ softly call Hotch's name, and she shifted her gaze to Pearce's lifeless from as Hotch excused himself to address the medics who had just arrived.
"Hotch," She called before he could get too far. The team leader turned back to her. Joey felt her hands begin to tremble. "Hotch, Pearce said he contacted my brother. He said he told him where my father and I were."
A looked of mixed concern and sympathy crossed Hotch's eyes. He nodded once. "I'll look into it." He cast a look to Morgan before turning away again.
Joey felt another sob rise up in her as she stared down at Pearce's blank eyes. Everything that he had done to her, everything he had made her do, all of it was over now. She expected to feel as if a weight had been lifted but instead she felt weary. Perhaps it was the medicine still wearing off, but every part of her felt heavy. Heavy with the weight of secret meetings and late night errands and the feeling of Pearce's hands on her skin.
As the adrenaline wore off, Joey swayed. Morgan moved toward her again. "Ryan." He grabbed her forearm hesitantly.
"Morgan, I…" Joey couldn't take her eyes off of Pearce's body. Suddenly, she couldn't hold the tears back any longer. All the emotions she had kept in check for the past several months crashed over her all at once. Morgan gently pulled her into a hug, being mindful of her shoulder and stomach. Sobs wracked Joey's shoulders as she leaned into Morgan's chest, tears streaming down her cheeks.
Morgan rested his chin on top of Joey's head and gently stroked her hair. "I know, baby." He said softly, pulling Joey in a bit tighter. "It's all over now. You don't have to worry about him anymore. It's all over."