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She was here! How! She was supposed to be safe in Atlanta!
He paced the length of the room, limping on his bad leg and trying to ignore the pain that shot through the knee like knives in soft butter.
I shouldn't ignore it. I should embrace it. This is my penance for playing with Calloway.
His eyes skipped over the door to the bathroom. It mocked him with the promise of oblivion. The peace from pain and having to think about all the mistakes he'd made was calling him. His empty stomach clenched in his belly and his head pounded in time with his knee.
He walked faster.
Even if you had the courage to open the door, it won't be there anymore.
He stopped in front of the door. It was painted white. He never noticed that before. It was like the clouds on the ceiling.
Why didn't I notice that before? What does it matter?
It didn't matter because he could ignore it and go back to pacing. He could think about anything except the bathroom and a sliver tipped needle that gleamed in the light.
Austin… Think about her and how she going to hate you when this is over. .
His knee hurt so bad it was competing and winning the contest for his whole attention. The ice pack that Agent Curtis had given him hadn't worked for long. It was lying discarded on the couch and probably half melted by now.
How long have I been here?
He limped so bad that he staggered over the floor like a toddler learning to walk for the first time. The walls seemed to move around him and the door to the bathroom called out to him. There was enough in the needle to take the edge off the pain.
Austin flitted into his head, pushing away the need that was red hot in his belly and behind his eyes. The pain pulsed like someone was trying to drill in his head.
Get it together and figure out a way out of here. You have to be strong for Austin. Nothing else matters!
But it did matter!
The only thing that matters is remembering what happened.
"I don't want to remember!"
His voice didn't echo. It stopped at the walls as though cotton batting had filled the room from one end to the other.
Remember…
"No!"
Shut up or they will hear you!
He opened his eyes and he was standing in front of the bathroom door. His fingers reached out and grasped the handle. It was smooth and his fingers slipped over it as though testing the texture of a loaf of bread. It opened easily when his hand tightened and turned.
What are you doing?
His feet were bare! Why did you take off your socks?
The tile was shiny and white. It was very cold on his toes, the bright pain in his head and his knee blocked out the coolness of the tiles under his feet.
Where is it?
The needle wasn't on the floor where he'd left it. Calloway took it! He's trying to drive you into doing what he wants.
Rage lowered a red haze over his eyes. Where the hell was the god-damn needle?
Stop it! Stop hiding behind your fear. Nothing is as bad as Tobias Henkel.
That's not true. Emily took a beating for me. She must have thought I'd break.
Think Spencer, don't get distracted.
One hand had become a fist and was rapping against the edge of the sink. More pain didn't push away the memories that were beginning to surface.
The light was strong. It blinded him from the face of the man that had hit him over the head and put him in that dark trunk.
He tilted back and shoved his legs into the light. There was a loud groan and a curse as the light fell away from him into darkness. The half -light spilled onto the legs of the person that stood over him. The person was holding his mid-section and leaning over.
He couldn't see the man's face in the low light. Thunder boomed and he cringed. The man moved and he pushed away with his legs, clambering over the side of the trunk. He fell with crunch into leaves. They snapped and crackled under his body.
Someone kicked him in the ribs and he screamed. The smell of the earth and leaves mixed with the ozone in the air and the pain in his side. He screamed again when the foot connected with his arm. He rolled away and tried to climb to his feet. Lightning flashed and the white light mixed with golden light of the flashlight. He stood half doubled over from the pain in his ribs.
"Let's not panic." A familiar voice said. "We're in the middle of nowhere. There's nowhere you can run to.
Reid's eyes opened and new pain worked its way through the headache and body aches. The knuckles of his right hand were bleeding from rapping against the edge of the counter top.
He looked around the room as thought seeing it for the first time. The new phantom pain seemed to clear his head. The Dilaudid was gone. It had been squirted into Ramirez's eye.
Get it together! There's no easy pain relief here. Why did you think there was in the first place?
I'm losing it!
Yes you're losing it. Get it together before Calloway decides that you've served your purpose and kills you.
There's so much pain. I don't want to remember, something bad will happen if I do.
Get it together for Austin. Calloway will kill her if you don't!
He looked down at the counter top where he'd been rapping his red drops of blood fell, elongated and hit the white tile floor. They lay there like an accusation.
Do you want to watch her die? Do you want to have blood on your hands?
His hands started to shake again but not from the desire for the poison that had clouded his mind for so long. Fighting against Calloway was useless now because Austin would pay the price.
So get it together!
He ran his hand under cold water and then threw some up in his face. His eyes were red and they burned as though he'd stared at a computer screen or crime scene photos for too long.
You know who did this to you!
It wasn't him!
There's only one way to find out.
---
Calloway entered the room with Stark and Brooks following him. "You should have taken the Dilaudid when you had the chance Dr. Reid. You must be in a lot of pain."
The young doctor was sitting on the couch with his legs drawn up to his chest. He was rocking back and forth making the leather squeak under his body.
"What do you want?"
"I'm here because you looked like you'd finally come to a decision about out discussion."
"I'll tell you what you want to know. First, I have to verify that the facts are true, and then I want you to release Austin. She has nothing to do with this. If you let her go I'll promise to stay with you for was long as you want. I won't try to run again."
"You'll forgive me if I don't believe you."
Reid was fingering the edge of his pant cuff. "I don't really care if you believe me or not. I can get you the answers you're looking for."
"Why don't you just give me a name?"
"Because I'm not sure if my memories are real, I've had problems with it lately."
"Give me the name and I'll have Mr. Lynch look into it."
"He can't!"
"Why not?"
"Because if I am right, the only record you'll find is related to my education. I had Penelope Garcia encrypt my file a long time ago. It includes my medical records and my educational files. I have a lot of enemies and curious people that have tried to find out all they can about me."
"I'm sure that's true. Why don't you give the password to Brooks here and tell us what to look for."
"I can't! There's a virus attached to the file. If I don't go in and type in a certain code at the end of the file, the virus will wipe it clean."
"Why don't you tell us the code?"
"Shut up Brooks."
"He's right… We've got all the leverage we need in the room down the hall…"
"Be quiet Brooks!"
The other man fell silent. Reid continued to rock in his seat. His eyes were tied to the clouds on the ceiling as though no one else was in the room. They moved back and forth like they watched the clouds in the summer sky, gliding through the blue like sails on a boat.
"Are you listening Dr. Reid."
"I don't care what you do to me. Let her go and I'll help you."
"Alright, I'll let her go."
Reid looked down from the ceiling. His dark eyes focused intently on Brooks and the man shifted away as though struck.
"We can't let him dictate to us what to do."
"Shut up Stark. Take him to a computer. If he tries to send a message to anyone, kill the girl. "
"Calloway!"
"Just do it!"
---
Morgan and Emily met Rossi, Hotch and Jordan in the conference room. There were bags of food on the table which Jordan was opening. Morgan grabbed the roast beef and cheddar on sour dough and sat down.
"We went over Reid's apartment with a fine tooth comb."
Hotch was spooning up Italian Wedding Soup with a plastic spoon. He swallowed and said. "Did you find anything out of the ordinary?"
"Not unless you count the stack of Playboys next to his bed."
Jordan choked on her Cobb salad. "What!"
"Morgan!"
"Don't get mad at me. Hotch was the one that said he wanted to know if there was anything out of the ordinary. I consider porn mags in Reid's bedroom a little unusual."
Emily didn't look surprised which made Rossi grin over his ham and swiss on pumpernickel. "He said the articles are really good. And you know how he likes to "research," everything. May this is his way of 'researching' women." She said after swallowing a spoonful of chicken noodle soup.
"Right, It's all for research. Who reads those articles anyway?" Morgan snorted.
"This is serious Morgan."
"I know it is. I'm throwing you a bone here. We didn't find anything and neither did the CSIs, they said the place was sterilized."
"Have them go over it again." Hotch said.
"I already did that!"
"Alright, did we get his lap top?"
"Yeah, that's the only break we may have got from his place. If there's anything on it, Garcia will find it for us."
Hotch took another spoonful of his soup and chewed the small meatballs thoughtfully. "Let's go over all of it again. Starting with Austin's call to Garcia…"
----
Penelope Garcia typed furiously on Reid's laptop. She was deep into Reid's computer, but nothing out of the ordinary was there.
He was writing a book, she noticed, but resisted the urge to read the first seven chapters he'd finished. The title: Drug Addiction through the Eyes of an FBI Agent, spoke for itself.
Nothing weird showed up in his browsing history on the internet either. This was going nowhere, but she couldn't shake the feeling that something
She rubbed her temples. The headache that had started three days ago was like an ice pick in her brain. There was nothing she could do about it. It was purely stress related. The only thing that would cure it was for her sweet Reid to be found and back where he belonged.
She switched over to her computer system and typed in another command. She waited for the program to initiate. Once again, the command was slow. The program she'd written to look for invasive programs hasn't turn anything up yet, but soon she know if it was internal or an outside threat.
Who could it be?
This wasn't supposed to happen. She put in four extra layers of security when Randall Gardner had hacked her system. She'd also added a couple of layers when Battle had shot her and her encrypted files had been discovered by Kevin.
Wait… The last time someone tried to hack into her system had been…
There was a strident beep from the computer that was searching for the answers to Reid's disappearance. She shoved over in her chair and dropped her pen when she saw the data that was scrolling down her screen.
"What the hell it going on?"