Chapter Eight – Inertia is a Property of Matter

It had only taken their unsub about half an hour to come skipping into the room to remove the heart monitor.

"That was fun, wasn't it? Different from what you were expecting? Worse than usual?"

"A real ball of fun," Rossi growled back, refusing to give the man any real answers.

"Considering how quickly your heat was beating I'm sure it was," he replied as he wound the wires around the monitor and tucked the machine into his bulging bag. "Welp, I think I will give you all some time to sit and eat before we move on to round two. It's a good plan, don't you think?"

He looked around at all of them with a huge grin on his face. Before any of the agents could share their opinions, he continued.

"I think it's a good idea! So food it is!"

He started dolling out peanut butter sandwiches and bottles of water to each of them, explaining absently as he went along.

"Can't disrupt the experiment by having more than one variable. It would ruin the whole thing. You all need food. So one for you… and one for you…"

He continued until everyone had their meal before grinning at them once more.

"Bon appetite! I will be back before long! Don't miss me too much~."

Once the door clicked closed JJ spoke up.

"So Bill is actually feeding us?"

"Bill?" Emily asked in confusion. The unsub hadn't deemed it necessary to share his name with them, so she had no idea where "Bill" had come from.

"Yeah. It's just what I've been calling him."

"Why Bill?" Morgan asked as he peeled his eyes off the distasteful sandwich in his hand to look at JJ.

She shrugged. "You know that kids' show they used to air called Bill Nye?"

"The science guy," Hotch added.

The rest of the team looked up at him in surprise. They hadn't expected Hotch to have any idea what JJ was talking about, especially since none of them did.

"Bill Nye the Science Guy?" Morgan asked incredulously.

"Jack says he likes it. They show it at school sometimes," Hotch explained.

"He's basically this weird little scientist that explains science concepts in a way kids would enjoy and understand," JJ continued. "Reminds me of our unsub only less… dangerous I guess."

"So you've just been referring to him as Bill," Rossi laughed before starting in on his sandwich. He wasn't overly hungry after what he had just seen, but he knew that he needed to eat. If he waited until his stomach completely settled the food might be gone.

"Pretty much," JJ confirmed.

"I guess it's better than the guy or the kidnapper," Olivia mused.

"I'll stick with unsub thanks," Emily grumbled after taking a sip of her water.

She'd inspected the bottle and found it sealed. Nothing had seemed out of place, so she figured it was safe. The sandwich was a different story. She had no idea how Rossi could be so sure it was safe to eat.

"These things safe?" Morgan asked as he held his sandwich up questioningly.

"Your friend hasn't died yet," Olivia pointed out blandly even though she didn't trust the sandwiches either.

"He doesn't want us dead, and there wouldn't be anything odd in them. That would add another variable, and you can't have that in a valid experiment," Rossi explained.

"Rossi is right. We all need to eat," Hotch replied.

With that the agents all started in on their sandwiches with various levels of disgust and hesitation.

"Think this creep is going to be kind enough to give us bathroom breaks since he gave us food?" Morgan grumbled.

"Doubt it," Emily groaned. "Not having a real bathroom doesn't change the conditions of an experiment like food does."

Before they could go further down that line of discussion, Hotch steered the conversation in a different direction. A far more important direction.

"Dave, was anything different?"

None of the other agents would have understood what Hotch had asked. Since Rossi and Hotch had worked together for such a long time, Rossi could easily read between the lines. He didn't need to think about the odd question at all to see what Hotch wanted.

"A little more surreal than usual and rather out of order, but otherwise, no. There were parts of it that, if they weren't so correlated to that case, would have been good."

Hotch nodded without a word. Rossi's answer gave Hotch what he needed. The unsub, Bill, (Thank you, JJ. Now he was never going to be able to separate the two again.) hadn't managed to do what he really wanted to yet. He may not have known what Rossi had seen, but it sounded like it could have been a lot worse. That's what Bill had promised after all.

The room lapsed into silence as everyone continued eating. Even when all of the food was gone silence remained. Each person was lost in their own thoughts, none of them good, and nobody wanted to share. It had been around twelve hours since they'd been taken, probably even a little bit more. Someone had to realize they were missing right now. They had to be searching. It was impossible that they weren't. All of the prisoners knew they would be found eventually. They just hoped it was soon. Very soon.

None of them wanted to experience what Rossi had. He'd only been the first trial, an imperfect one, yet he'd screamed. What would happen when the unsub got it right and it was their turn? How much worse would it be?

0~0~0~0

Unknown to the agents, Bill had come to the same conclusion Hotch had after listening to Rossi's explanation of his dream. He recorded all of the information he'd just learned from listening to the conversation the agents had when he wasn't in the room right under the stats he'd gathered during the actual experiment. The dosage still wasn't quite right. He'd been hoping for a much better result, a stronger reaction, seeing something that hadn't happened before. It hadn't worked.

Frowning he jotted down a few more notes. He would need to alter the balance of drugs for the next trial. If that still didn't work he would just have to increase how much he used. This was turning into quite the challenge, and it was exciting!

He just wished he could actually see what the agents were seeing in their dreams. Perhaps he'd work on a method of doing that for later. Truth serum would at least get him answers to questions that could help him form his own images of what they saw. It wouldn't be perfect, but at least it was a start. He added the thought down on a separate sheet of paper so he wouldn't forget it and headed off to start working on the dose for his next round.

He'd test a female this time. The brunette, though not the one he'd taken a shine to. His little snapping turtle was so much fun to watch. Potentially dangerous, but not if he stayed an appropriate distance away. He would have fun with her without a doubt. The detective would be last, which left the other one. What was her name? Ah, right. Agent Prentiss.

He did a little gleeful hop, one food up then the other while he was still in the air. Ooh, this was going to be so much fun!

Author's Note: Did anybody pick up why the chapter was named what it was?