Don't own Criminal Minds

Thank you all reviewers!

Hotch's face was bruising rapidly and the EMT said that they would have to take him to the hospital for x-rays to see if his cheek was broken. And it was only after a few minutes of soft pleading from Reid that he agreed to go.

"I'll ride with him." Prentiss assured Reid, "Morgan'll take you the police station and we can meet up at the hospital when you're done there."

"Alright…" Reid looked down and Morgan gently placed a muscular arm around his thin frame.

"C'mon, pretty boy. Let's get this done quick."

Rossi hung up his phone with a sigh of relief, his friends had been found with relatively minor injuries when he considered what happened to the first few sets of couples. He frowned when he noticed an older man leaving the interrogation room that was still holding Mitch.

"Who are you?" Rossi asked, the man didn't look like a lawyer.

The older man looked up with a wrinkled grin, "Sorry, I must have gotten the wrong room…"

He walked off before Rossi could say anything further and he took a step to start following the older man when something caught his attention.

The door to the room was still slightly ajar and as he passed it, he could see that Mitch was hunched over. He altered his course and pushed the door open, cursing loudly and rushing over to the young man. He was covered in his own blood, eyes glazed over and his wrists raw from desperately trying to break free of the cuffs to save himself. Rossi felt for a pulse but didn't find one. He left the room, running into another officer.

"Lock down this station!" He barked, pointing at the dead body in the room as he rushed to go after the older man.

The police station was a scene of complete chaos when Morgan and Reid arrived.

"What's going on?" Morgan asked a tired looking detective. The man sniffed and waited to see Morgan's credentials before speaking.

"Double murder inside the station."

"Inside!" Reid blurted out in shock.

"That's right. Some older guy just slipped in and murdered those two boys your friend brought in."

Rossi approached the three men wearing a look of cold fury that Reid rarely ever saw on the man.

"That's enough, Detective. Your c.o. wants you back inside."

The detective shrugged as if it made no difference to him and walked off, leaving Rossi to soften his expression when his eyes fell on Reid.

"Hotch?" He asked, letting the question hang for a moment.

"At the hospital getting x-rayed," Morgan supplied, "He's fine besides that though."

"And you kid-"

"Rossi, how the hell did this happen?" Reid interrupted, looking almost distraught.

"Lots of sloppy work on this end," Rossi admitted, the anger returning to his face, "The desk sergeant wasn't checking ids, nobody was sitting with the kids…everything that could work in our unsub's favor happened."

Reid sighed heavily and Rossi suggested that Reid look at the video cameras to confirm that the man who entered the police station was indeed their unsub.

Rossi and Morgan left Reid with Detective Summers in the camera room and stood outside of it, both looking extremely serious.

"Summers is going to send a guard to be stationed outside Kline's son's room, just until he gets moved."

Morgan arched his eyebrow and looked back towards the door that Reid had disappeared behind, "You think he's going to tie up all his loose ends?"

"You can't tell it's really him on those web videos of the murders, he probably thought that he could kill those two and make it back in time to finish off Hotch and Reid."

"Do you think he'll head back to the warehouse?"

"Doubtful, he's too smart for that. I get the feeling he'll abandon his son and get out of the state."

"Some father…"

Rossi folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the wall, "He picked couples with one older partner and one younger to reflect his own perverse relationship with his son. It was all about getting off for him, he never cared about his son…"

The BAU team left the next day with all of them agreeing that Kline had probably fled the state since he didn't care about anything enough to tie him to the area. A police APB was put out and Garcia was instructed to keep her eyes open for any activity on his credit cards or bank accounts. It was all they could really do and they flew back to Quantico feeling as if the whole case was a failure. Hotch was in his usual seat, his face covered with deep purple marks. He was going over the case file as he would need to report to Strauss what had occurred in Los Angeles.

"How are you feeling?" Reid asked quietly as he slid into the seat across from Hotch.

"Frustrated...tired…" Hotch replied, looking up from his files to take in Reid's appearance. The younger man was sporting a black eye and looked as tired as Hotch felt.

"How are you?"

Reid shifted slightly, looking almost as if he wanted to wrap his arms around himself for comfort. "I'll be alright."

Reid had waited for Aaron by his desk while Hotch reported to Strauss, the others had been dismissed for the night but reminded that they were on call for the next few days in case Kline showed up in any of Garcia's drag nets.

"Hey Reid…" Garcia approached him with a cautious smile, "Is Hotch around?"

"He's speaking with Strauss…"

"Oh, I wanted to tell him and you of course, Reno police picked up Kline." She said brightly.

"He got as far as Nevada?" Reid asked.

"Yeah but they got him…" Her eyes darted back towards Hotch and Reid gave her a small smile.

"It's your date night with Kevin isn't it? Go ahead, I'll tell Hotch about Kline."

"Thanks Reid!" She gave him a peck on the cheek, "I'll bring you an extra large coffee!"

She bustled off leaving Reid alone with his thoughts until he decided that he probably should go and break the good news to his two superiors. He walked up towards Strauss's office and knocked quietly. The muffled voices inside slowly quieted until Strauss's voice rang out clearly.

"Enter."

Reid walked into the room and Strauss looked faintly surprised, "Doctor Reid, what are you doing here still?"

"…my car is in the shop, ma'am. Agent Hotchner offered me a ride home."

"I see. We'll be done in a moment."

"Garcia wanted me to tell you that Kline was captured in Reno, Nevada." Reid hastily announced and Hotch gave him a sort of nod.

"Well, Agent Hotchner that is good news." Strauss picked up the file and tucked in under her arm. "It's getting late and both you and Doctor Reid need rest. We'll speak more on Monday."

Hotch glanced back at Reid, who backed out of the door way so the older man could leave the room and they walked back towards Hotch's office.

"…she wasn't yelling at you, was she?" Reid asked as Hotch somewhat shut his office door behind himself and walked over to his desk to grab his briefcase.

"No, she wasn't."

Reid sighed and took a step towards his lover and reached out to take his hand. "Can we go back to your place now?"

Hotch pulled Reid close to himself and closed his eyes, wrapping his other arm around the younger man. They had been so close to complete disaster on this case and now that it was over what could have happened was slowly hitting Hotch.

Hotch then pressed what he thought was a quick kiss to the top of Reid's head and Reid leaned closer into him, blinking a bit when he felt his lover tense and stiffly pull away.

Erin Strauss had entered Hotch's office for one last signature and was now staring at them with an almost unreadable expression on her stern face.

once again, uh oh