A/N: I'm so sorry that it took me a while to update but I've been insanely busy lately. (winces)

First off, of course… Thank you so much for all those reviews! They really do mean a lot to me. (beams and HUGS) I hope you won't give up on this now that we're so close to the end.

Aaaalrighty. (takes a deep breath) I really hope this turns out worth the wait!


… And Back


As soon as Emily showed Aaron what the team investigating the chuch had found he understood why she'd told him not to bring Derek with him to see it.

It was a letter from Spencer, stained by blood.

"I think Foyet made him write it." Emily's voice sounded strangled, like there'd been something stuck in her throat. Her eyes were suspiciously moist. "It was his way to make Spencer say goodbye."

Aaron read it through although it was quite possibly one of the hardest things he'd ever done in his life. He read on, desperately trying to close his mind from the emotions it aroused inside him. Desperately trying to shield himself against the despair and sadness in those words.

Once he was done Aaron took a long moment before looking at Emily once more. He swallowed. "Whatever happens… We can't show this to William and Morgan." Foyet had already caused more than enough pain. If there was a way to avoid more of it…

Emily nodded, wiping her seemingly dry eyes.

Aaron barely had the time to hide the letter before the door of his office was thrown open. There was a look of pure terror on Penelope's face. "Morgan… He made it to the interrogation room. It's not looking good."

Aaron's whole body turned incredibly cold as the three of them sprinted to a desperate run, hoping and praying that they weren't too late.

The letter was forgotten to his desk, into a darkness to which only a tiny lamp provided light.


George Foyet had always been convinced that on some level people know when their time is coming to an end. He most certainly knew when he opened his eyes that morning and surprisingly it didn't bother him. He'd had plenty of time to finish his work. The only thing he was disappointed with was that he didn't get the chance to see it all come down.

Watching how Derek turned the interrogation room's camera so that they wouldn't be seen, Foyet knew that his time was running out.

"I'm giving you one chance to tell me where he is. Only one." Derek's voice shook and the man's eyes were screaming. The steps approaching him were those of a attacking wild beast. "After that… I'm going to beat the answer out of you."

Foyet tilted his head, something he couldn't quite understand flickering in his chest. "You really do love him, don't you?"

Derek's eyes narrowed, became something dangerous as the animal inside the man was unleashed. "Where… is… he?"

Outside the room shouts and hassle could be heard. Someone tried to open the door, only to discover that it'd been bolted. They'd never get in before it would be too late.

Foyet felt perfectly calm. He even smiled, meeting Derek's eyes. It was almost a relief that it would all be over soon. "Do you know what was the last thing he ever said, Derek?" He held a pause, watched as realization dawned on the agent long before the actual words. Watched the flames burning the other man alive. "He begged for your life, for your safety. He cried out to you."

It came so fast that he had no chance to prepare himself. Derek kicked and the chair went down, making Foyet collide with the floor so hard that he lost his breath. A gun was pointed directly at his head, only an inch away from skin. Derek's eyes were not human anymore.

One.

There were shouts through the bolted door, calling out to Derek.

Two.

Derek's finger tightened on the trigger. The agent's breathing pattern changed.

Three.

"Derek!"

The gun was pulled away, holstered. Instead Derek grabbed one of Foyet's ankles, twisting so hard that he winced. Just a little bit more and…

He couldn't recognize or read the eyes meeting his anymore. "There's dirt on your shoes", Derek observed in a deviously calm voice. "You took him outside, didn't you?"

Foyet smiled once more despite the pain. "I already told William that Spencer would be laid to rest next to his uncle." He knew Derek had studied all the details carefully, pulled out every last bit. The agent would figure it out.

For several endless moments Derek simply stared at him with wide, wild eyes, understanding sinking in like acid. And then the chair was yanked up, with such speed that it made Foyet dizzy. He winced a little at the pain radiating from his cuffed wrists as they protested against the harsh motions.

Derek stared at him unblinkedly, then took a step away. "I'm letting you live, knowing that it's on a whim. Knowing that you lost this game. Because I'm going to save him. And you'll spend the rest of your miserable life locked up into a cell." With those words the agent left the room.

Foyet glanced towards the clock hanging on the room's wall, still calm. Seconds ticked by.

He wondered if he should've told Derek that if it wasn't by some miracle, it was already much too late for Spencer. He also wondered how a victory could possibly taste this bitter.

The second Derek made it out of the interrogation room the door leading to the small space before it gave way. His entire team was there, looking at him with eyes that had the question loud and clear in them.

Adrenaline made Derek's head spin and his heart hammered furiously. "I know where Spencer is", he blurted out. "We've gotta get going, now."


Lying in a pool of her own blood, knowing full well that she was dying, Ellie Spicer got lost into her favorite memory.

When she was a child her dad took her to a beach far past her bedtime. She was too young and excited to notice the dark circles around his eyes, to notice that his eyes were red and puffy. They lay on cool sand, side by side with her held in her dad's secure embrace, looking at the stars that seemed unnaturally bright.

Ellie smiled, back then. 'They're pretty', she half-whispered with child's sheer honesty.

Her dad smiled as well. 'And you know what's the best part? There's one up there for every single one of us.' He caressed her hair with one hand. 'No matter how lost you feel you can always look up into them and find the answers. And whatever happens… I'll always be right up there, looking at you.'

Ellie looked at him, very serious all of a sudden although she was much too young to understand the real meaning of his words. 'Promise me, daddy?'

He nodded, also serious. 'Yeah, sweetie. I promise.' Five days later he was dead.

It was just dark enough for some of the stars to be seen and Ellie found herself staring at them, long since free of the pain and cold that'd been ravishing her body.

She wondered if her dad was true to his word now – he'd always been before. She wondered if he really was up there, looking at her. She wondered what he thought of her now.

Maybe that was why it was raining. Perhaps he was crying over her. In the moments she suspected to be her last she regretted making him so very sad.

For a moment she toyed with imagining that she actually had options left, despite the five gunshot wounds on her body.

To live, and be locked up for the rest of her life? Because there was no way she'd ever manage to escape now. Or to die and face the horrors of hell?

It was a 'lose or lose', really.

There, on the edge of losing herself into the dark that was calling out to her, she heard a voice all of a sudden. Never even realizing that she'd closed her eyes she opened them to see the very same woman who put her into this situation.

There was her blood all over Elle Greenaway's clothes when the older woman looked at her with sad eyes. "Morgan asked me not to kill you so I tried not to although you'd deserve it. It might even be merciful." The woman put away her gun, eyes still firmly on her. "Trust someone who's been there. For your own sake, I hope that one day you'll be able to understand how lucky you are to have someone who won't give up on you, no matter what. If you don't these shadows will swallow you up in whole. The choice is in your hands."

Just then sounds of sirens could be heard, swallowing the tiny snort Ellie emitted. Elle gave her a one last look before getting up and disappearing like a ghost.

Left there all alone Ellie looked up to the sky once more, ignoring the rain that hurt her eyes. And for the first time since her childhood she felt free.

She closed her eyes and let herself float away.


As soon as the team made it to the church Derek was running, not wasting time to tell those still investigating the building what was going on. He headed straight to the cemetery like there'd been fire on his tails, rushing towards a tiny mausoleum that had a small angel kneeled into a prayer on top of it.

He didn't know what it was leading him – despair, a hunch, hope. It didn't even matter at the moment. All that mattered was reaching his destination before it'd be too late.

Derek nearly burst into tears of relief as soon as he saw the name engraved just above the mausoleum's door.

'Daniel Reid'.

He eyed on the door frantically, only to discover that it'd been sealed recently.

Frustration rushing through him like lava he banged on the door. "Spencer?" Of course he should've known not to expect a reply but it still chilled him to the bone when there was absolutely nothing. He didn't spare the rest of the team a glance when they finally reached him, instead banged on the door again. "Spencer! Hang on! We're coming! Just hang in there!"

"I spoke to the team investigating the church", Aaron announced quietly. "They'll bring the necessary equipment as soon as they can. Then we'll get in."

Derek didn't hear the unit chief, instead let his horrified eyes scan through the mausoleum. There were plenty of tiny airholes. Spencer wouldn't be suffering from lack of oxygen. But with his injuries…

Gasping, only then realizing that he'd been holding his breath, Derek let his eyes stray towards the stone floor beneath his feet. His heart skipped a beat.

There were several droplets of blood. The ceiling had managed to keep them from being swept away by rain but they shimmered ominously on the humid suface. Like fate had whispered 'You're too late'.

Derek's eyes narrowed while they rose once more, only sheer willpower keeping them from filling with tears. He stared at the door that was the only thing keeping him from getting to Spencer. In a flash all control vanished.

"Morgan, what are you doing?" Emily demanded with slightly widened eyes when he took a step closer to the door, then delivered the first kick.

The whole door shuddered. Derek's eyes flashed.

Obviously it wasn't sealed as tightly as he'd first feared. The mental image of Spencer's face coaxed him forward.

Derek kicked and kicked, ignoring the pain it brought, ignoring the fact that bones were almost fractured. He never even noticed that he was screaming Spencer's name until he lost his voice almost completely.

Tears blurring his eyes he kept kicking, firmly pushing away those trying to make him stop, deaf to voices of reason. And when kicks wouldn't do he threw in punches, to a point where his blood stained the door.

Then, so unexpectedly that Derek stumbled a step backwards, the seal was broken with a loud, deep moan.

The door slid open.

There was no power in the universe that would've kept Derek from barging in at that very moment. And in a flash he was already there, facing the gruesome sight that finally made tears fill his rapidly widening eyes.

There, right beside the stone made coffin where Daniel had been buried under a impossibly heavy lid, lay Spencer. There wasn't a lot of blood on the floor, but Spencer's clothes… They were completely stained in red. Derek didn't dare to even guess how many stab wounds there were all over the man's tall, slim frame. Spencer's face held a unhealthy, almost greyish shade of pale while the younger man lay there with his eyes closed. It was impossible to tell if the genius was even breathing.

Once again Derek was moving, didn't even notice the masses of pain that waved through him when he crashed on his knees beside Spencer. His hands were shaking while he caressed the younger man's hair and face, eventually realized to search for a pulse. He actually cried out when there was one although it felt frail under his fingertips. At the moment it didn't matter to him how much audience he had, how many pairs of eyes saw him cracking. Only one person mattered.

Spencer was struggling but at least breathing. Spencer was still alive, hanging on. And then, against all odds, the younger man's eyes fluttered open. At first there was a heartbreaking, spaced out look of pain in them but eventually they recognized him. Derek didn't think he'd ever seen anything as beautiful as the look that appeared to Spencer's eyes just then.

Derek couldn't keep himself from smiling through the tears once again filling his eyes. "I promised, didn't I?" he whispered so that only Spencer heard. He took the younger man's uninjured hand, trying not to stare at the missing finger on the other one, and held on with all his might. "I'm here. So hang on, okay? Hang on."

It clearly took absolutely every ounce of Spencer's strength but eventually the man's fingers curled around his.

Not another word was needed.

And then the moment was over. Paramedics arrived with shouts and loud clattering. Fortunately Aaron gave them all the necessary information so he didn't have to. "The patient's name is Spencer Reid. He's been stabbed – we don't know how many times. He's lost a lot of blood."

Derek felt a sharp jolt of terror when Spencer's eyes closed but the younger man's squeeze never faltered.

And then the paramedics were pulling him away.

Derek's eyes flashed while he struggled against the hands pushing him further. "No! I'm not leaving him! I… I promised him…!" His voice, already strained too far, faded away.

One of the medics, a gentle looking woman in her fifties with bushy black hair and blue eyes, gave him a look of sympathy. "I understand that you want to be there for him but you need to let us treat him, alright? We'll take care of him, I promise."

Derek nodded, stumbling back although it was the absolutely last thing he wanted to do. Only Emily's hand on his shoulder gave him some comfort.

It all happened in blur, so fast that Derek couldn't even process it. One second Spencer lay on the floor, the next the brunet was rushed away with the medics spouting out words he couldn't understand. Derek moved to follow but the same female paramedic who'd spoken before stopped him. "I'm sorry, but we need all the room we can get, just in case." Her eyes were full of sympathy but Derek didn't even notice. He couldn't consider them kind anymore.

And then Spencer was gone. Derek had never felt so cold in his entire life.

"C'mon", Emily whispered, squeezing his shoulder. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

Derek nodded, following her numbly. All he could feel was Spencer's hand holding his, the sheer determination in that squeeze.

Spencer… He was hanging on so tightly. There was no way he'd let go now.

Right?


TBC, for a lil' bit more.


A/N: Oh boy… (wipes forehead) At least he's been found, but we're not out of the woods just yet. Nothing's certain until 'the end'.

PLEASE, leave a review and let me know your thoughts! It'd make my day, especially now that the story's almost over. (gives puppy's eyes) Pwease…?

IN THE NEXT ONE: As Morgan waits for news on Reid, Foyet's decision leads to a dramatic collision with William Reid. The story almost reaches its end in 'Coda'.

ONLY ONE CHAPTER AND AN EPILOGUE LEFT, FOLKS!

I really hope I'll c ya all next time.

Take care!

HAVE GREAT HOLIDAYS, EVERYONE!