Lost in a Memory

Chapter Twelve

He closed his eyes, desperate to push the outside world away… if only for a moment.

It was too much.

Just too much.

Code flashing, trying to see everything before it was gone. His concentration overrun by memories that came so quickly, so clear, each almost a physical blow. With every flash f a memory came a flash of emotion, spinning and whirling his head in a nauseating trip.

This wasn't working.

He couldn't think.

He couldn't see.

He couldn't breath.

He just couldn't!

"By all means," spoke up Dr. Wesslim. "take a nap. I'm sure Agent Hotchner understands."

Reid opened his eyes again. Taking a deep breath, he turned in his chair so he could see where Hotch laid, the doctor standing over him, checking his pulse.

"Can… can I talk to him?" Reid asked.

Wesslim glanced at him. "It's your time." She frowned. "No, actually it's his time…" She might have said more, but the beeper in her pocket went off. Throwing him a glare, she stepped away so she could speak privately on her cell phone.

Reid watched her for a moment, making sure she was out of arms reach, before crossing the room to Hotchner's side.

He looked so pale. His finger tips and lips were starting to turn blue. His eyelids flickered. His skin glistened with sweat.

Reid almost wanted to touch him. Just to make sure he was really there and not just another discolored, out of place memory. But he was afraid to. If he wasn't there, then Reid was alone, and lost, and trapped in his mind. And, yet, if he was there, really there, then Hotch was going to die… die because of him and his stupid, stupid… well, whatever it was that got him into this mess, he was sure it was stupid!

Closing his eyes again, Reid tried to block out the world. Leaning over his friend, he whispered "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."

"Not… not your fault."

The young agent's eyes snapped open, startled to see Hotch blinking up at him. He couldn't help but be thrilled, if only for a breath.

He was weak, but alive, holding on.

But for how long?

For what?

"Agent Hotchner." Reid rested a hand on the man's shoulder, trying to offer some comfort for what he was going to tell him. "I.. I can't do what he wants. I can't give him the file."

Hotchner's eyes closed again and he swallowed. "Hotch. You call me Hotch." he reminded the boy.

Reid leaned back. "What?"

The older man looked up at him. "You call me Hotch. Remember?" He sighed. "I want you to remember me." he almost begged.

Like a last request, Reid couldn't help but think. Licking his lips, he whispered "Hotch."

Hotch managed to smile at him "Reid, you need to get out of here. You need to…"

"I can't leave you!"

"You can't… can't help me." Hotch had to stop to catch his breath.

Everything felt so… tingly. Almost felt like he was falling. Endless falling, the rushing air filling his ears, stealing his breath. Darkness closing in on him, blanketing the sky.

"Reid." he gasped, clutching to that one whisp of hope. He didn't have much time left. He had make Reid understand. Had to make him go, leave him. "You have to go. Find a way out. Reid… Jason… he'll find you."

The young agent shook his head. "They'll kill you."

"Reid, please… you can't help me." Hotch squeezed his eyes closed, trying to refocus them. Damn world was getting all fuzzy. "Can't help me… here. Get out. Get help."

Reid paused.

Get help.

The others were coming.

He had to get help.

But they would kill Hotch as soon as Reid stopped cooperating.

Reid shook his head. "I'm not leaving you." he promised.

They were just down the dirt road from the little back woods clinic. Already half a dozen FBI agents were there, donning vests and checking their guns as Morgan explained the floor plan to them. Morgan and Elle already had their vests on, their guns checked and ready to go when Gideon pulled up.

Abby and Spence followed close behind the lead agent, JJ behind them, keeping both under a suspicious glare.

"Morgan." Gideon greeted as he joined his agent.

"Gideon, we found them" Morgan reported with a glance at those following.

"What is she doing here?" Elle practically spat at Abby.

"Eeeeow, hiss, hiss." Abby answered, holding a hand up like a cat scratching.

"Oh, shut up." JJ suggested, pushing pass and joining Elle. She handed her vest to Elle while she pulled her hair up in a ponytail. As JJ prepared, both women stepped away so they could exchange whispered opinions on this and that's, throwing glares at Abby.

"Okay." Morgan breathed. But, deciding it was safer to stay out of female wars, he turned his full attention to the mission at hand. "Dr. Wesslim worked out of a clinic sponsored by our favorite Senator, Dommas. She showed up at the hospital an hour after Hotch and I got the call about Reid. She volunteer to relieve another doctor who had sudden. unexplained food poisoning. Clinic has been closed for six months now, but has recently received some fresh supplies. And!" He waved a hand to the west. "We're twelve miles from the Dommas home. They would have to drive right by that hunting shack to get from there to here." He nodded down the dirt road. "There are two trucks parked out front, one being Jackson's gray hummer."

Gideon took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Any idea how many are inside?"

His agent shook his head. "Doors and windows boarded up. Couldn't get a good look inside without yanking boards, and I didn't want to make a lot of noise until we had back up."

Elle reentered the conversation then, adding "I put a call in, but everyone was spread out, looking for our boys. It's going to take a bit to get a force here."

"We don't want a force." Morgan pointed out.

Gideon agreed. "We have two agents in there. We need cool, controlled heads going in."

"And that is reason six billion and one you need to back down and leave this to us!" Spence slammed his fist down on the hood of Morgan's vehicle, demanding attention. "For the last time: this is a CIA matter! If you go in there, you will all, all of you, be up on charges of…"

Abby rolled her eyes. "Thank god it's the last time."

"Screw CIA!" Morgan blew. "If you hadn't let some rouge unit loose Reid wouldn't be in this mess. And if the CIA is so hot to deal with this, why'd they send only one agent?"

Abby rocked back on her heals. "Because, they don't want to stop it." she explained.

"What?" Morgan growled.

Spence glared at the woman who just smiled back.

So Gideon elaborated. "CIA doesn't want Jackson. They're after the buyer."

"Of the Alpha/Omega file?" Morgan huffed. "What the hell's the deal with that thing anyway?"

"No." Abby bobbed her head. "Of the code breaker."

Elle couldn't believe it. "You're gonna sit back and let them sell Reid off to highest bidder?"

Spence sighed. "They can get a code breaker from anywhere if they looked hard enough. Genius kids have been coveted and trained by world governments for years. Same governments are falling like rocks and selling their kids off like hotcakes to fund arms and drugs and all sorts of bad, bad things. We need to stop the people who would use them." He shook his head. "These kids are gonna be on the market as long as there is a market for them."

"What about Reid?" Morgan challenged. "What about Hotch? Just gonna let whatever happens happen?"

"Some times serving and protecting means sacrificing…"

"Blah, blah, blah." Abby interrupted. "We gonna do this? Or what?"

Gideon took her hand in an almost friendly manner, earning him a smile from her. But then he slapped a cuff around one wrist.

Abby frowned. "Jason." she purred. "What are you doing? Don't you trust me?"

As he locked the cuffs to the handle of the car, he told her "I trust you. I know exactly what you'll do if you get a hold of Reid. Which is why you are staying here." He looked at Spence. "I understand the CIA wants to stop the buying of code breakers. But not with my people. You can help or…"

"Or you can stay out of the way." Morgan growled.

Spence glared at each of them, but, finally accepting that he wasn't going to change their minds, he threw up his hands. "Jackson doesn't surrender. He might be a lunatic, but he's no coward. And he will not give Reid up. He will kill the kid before that happens."

"What the hell is going on here?" Jackson demanded as he slammed his way through the door.

Reid winced, grabbing Hotch's arm. "I won't leave you!" he insisted.

"Wesslim! You let them talk?" Jackson continued to rage. He grabbed Reid by the shoulder and threw him back to his computer.

"My beeper keeps going off." the doctor protested. "I have to respond."

Jackson's eyes narrowed. "You've been getting phone calls?"

Wesslim stiffened. "Well, if you would hire better thugs, I wouldn't be getting phone calls."

"What are you talking about?"

"Franklin." she explained. "The blubbering idiot stumbled into the hospital and had them page me." She held up her pager just as it began beeping again. "It has been going off every two minutes since."

The sheriff tilted his head to one side, then his eyes went big. "You stupid bitch." he groaned.

Reid actually smiled. "Should have seen that one coming, huh, Jackson?"

The man slowly turned to glare at his prisoner.

"See what?" Wesslim wanted to know.

"They're tracking you." Reid supplied. When the doctor just gave him a dumbfounded look, he went on. "Every time your beeper receives a signal, it can be located." He shrugged. "Welcome to post 9-11."

Jackson threw a finger at the woman. "Smash it!" he ordered. He pointed at Hotch. "Kill him!" Then he stomped over to Reid and slammed the laptop close. Tucking it under his arm, he grabbed Reid.

"You said you wouldn't kill him!" Reid snapped, jerking his arm free.

"And if your great and mighty brainiacs had let it be, we'd have walked out of here without putting a bullet in his pretty head." Jackson answered. "Ain't life just crappy for him?" He made a grab for the agent again.

But Reid ducked under the arm, twisting around, behind the man, and giving him a shove.

With a curse, Jackson slammed head first into the wall, dropping the laptop.

The computer smashed on the floor, breaking in two.

"Son of a bitch!" Jackson roared. Spinning around, he slammed the back of his knuckles across Reid's jaw, dropping him to the floor. "You little piss!" he raged, kicking at the downed agent.

Air exploded from Reid's lungs as the toe of the Sheriff's boot caught him in the gut.

"Great!" Wesslim threw up her hands. "It's broken. What now?"

Gasping, Reid managed to chuckle. "Even your smart ones are stupid as a rock." he pushed, trying to get Jackson good and angry. "No wonder you were so easy to take down. FBI knew about you for what? A day? And they've already got you. How stupid can you be?"

If he could make Jackson mad enough, he just might win… in a round about way. The man would either be too distracted beating the crap out of him to make a run for it, or he was going to beat Reid to death. Either way, he wasn't going to get what he wanted.

"Shut! The! Fuck! Up!" Jackson snarled, kicking Reid with each word.

The agent collapsed on the floor, coughing, struggling for air.

"We need to get out of here!" Wesslim insisted as her pager went off again. She threw it away from her as if it had burned her.

"All falling apart." Reid panted. "Spy training these days, huh?"

Again, Jackson pointed at Hotch. "Kill him!" He grabbed Reid. "We'll wait for you in the car."

"No…" Reid gasped. "No, he won't. Sell me and keep the money all for himself."

Wesslim stopped. She turned her head to glare at her employer. "You would leave me, wouldn't you?" She shook her head. "Bastard." she snarled, taking a menacing step toward them.

Jackson simply drew his gun and shot her. He didn't bother to watch her fall as he dragged Reid out of the room and down the hall. "See what I have to deal with? There is absolutely no one anymore, anywhere, that can think! Really!" He slammed his prisoner against the walls as he dragged him along. "You don't know how long I've been working on this. And to have is all screwed up because of a couple of stupid armatures…"

Reid tried to swing at the man, only to be slammed against the wall again. His lips split and blood trickled down his chin.

This time Jackson held him there, his hand pressed against the back of the agent's head. "Keep up, brainiac. I will kill you rather than let some half-witted Fumbling Bureau of Idiocy waste you away." With that, he threw Reid down the hall, slamming open the back door and outside.

Morgan kicked in the door, then quickly stepped aside, giving Elle and Spence the space needed to storm through the door.

This was the fifth door they had busted through. At every door there was the slightest hesitation, hoping that behind that door would be their friends, healthy and unscathed, fearing it would them, dead or dying. There had been signs of activity here and there. Tables had been cleaned for use. A half filled coffee pot. A lamp left on. A file with pictures of the BAU team members. A newly opened box of brand new syringes.

"Clear." Elle called after a quick look.

"Clear." the CIA agent confirmed.

"No." Gideon breathed as he walked into the room. "It isn't." His eyes focused on curtain across the far wall. Not daring to look in any other direction, not wanting anything to distract him, he crossed the room and took a hold of the curtain.

His agents raised their weapons.

Closing his eyes, Gideon prayed. Then he pulled open the curtain.

"Oh, my god." JJ gasped. "Hotch!"

Gideon opened his eyes.

Behind the curtain had been a one way mirror, peering into another room. In the room Hotch laid on a silver table. His shirt was gone. He was strapped down. A line trailed from his neck down to a drain. A bandage stained with blood was taped to his arm. He was so pale, he looked dead.

"Where's the door?" Morgan demanded, glancing around. But the only door was the one they had come through.

"Step back." Gideon ordered, taking aim at the top corner of the window. His team moved quickly, out of the way, and the lead agent fired.

The window shattered, sending little shards flying through the room.

Morgan was instantly climbing through, ignoring the glass cutting into his hands as he hopped the sill.

"Careful!" Spence snapped, blocking Elle's and JJ's way. He yanked off his coat and used it to knock the shards out of the way.

Morgan barely glanced at the body on the floor before skidding to Hotchner's side. "Hey, Hotch, man." he called softly, hoping, praying for an answer. He hesitated when reaching for his neck to find a pulse. Like busting through the doors, it could go either way. But, grinding his teeth, he forced himself to check.

So faint he had to close his eyes and concentrate to feel it, but there was a pulse.

Morgan nearly collapsed with relief.

"Stop the blood flow!" Gideon yelled as he hurried around the bed. Not waiting for Morgan to react, he grabbed a clean bandage from the sterile tray next to the bed. Holding it against Hotch's neck, he pulled the IV.

Hotch responded with a low moan, his head turning away.

"Shh." Gideon whispered, leaning close to his friend. "We got you, Hotch. We got you."

"What… what did they do to him?" JJ couldn't understand.

"Draining his blood." Elle answered. "That's what they did to Sarah Dommas."

Morgan looked over his shoulder. "JJ, get us a helicopter. He's lost a lot of blood."

JJ was already on her cell phone.

Spence crouched down beside the body on the floor. "Troy Wesslim." he observed. "Guess we can knock her off the no fly list." Standing up again, he looked around the room. "So? Where's geek boy?" he wondered.

Gideon's head snapped up. "Reid." Glancing around, he saw an open door around the corner from the window they had climbed through. "Elle, keep pressure…" he started to say, but she was already there, taking his place.

"I got him." she assured.

Gideon ran out the door, Morgan a step behind.

Jackson spun about at the sound of the gun shot. "Shit." he cursed. Sure, they were far enough from the clinic that it would take a search team to find them, but, gun shot means they had found Agent Hotchner. Which meant that search team wasn't too far behind.

On his knees again, trying to catch his breath, Reid tried to smile at him. But, his split and swollen lips forced him to wince instead. "What? Can't out think your way out of this?" He chuckled. "Sorry. Forgot. You couldn't think your way out of a wet, paper…" His head slammed back as Jackson, once again, struck him.

Falling back in the dirt, Reid found himself staring up at the sky, wondering if he was seeing flashes of light from head trauma… or was someone setting off fireworks?

"Well, you're not going to get far that way." Abby noted as she stepped out of the trees and onto the trail in front of them. "I mean, he might be a little guy, but he's still a grown fella. Throw him over your shoulder, and you won't make it to your back up car before sundown."

"Amanda." Jackson hissed. His gun came up.

Reid kicked, his foot catching his captor at the knee.

Crying out, Jackson's leg went out from under him, his shot going wild.

Abby's shot was true, the bullet catching Jackson between the eyes.

He was dead before he hit the ground.

For what seemed forever, Reid laid where he was, staring at the dead body that had been his tormentor for… how long had it been? And now it was over. Jackson was gone. Wesslim was gone. Now he could just lay there and simply be left alone.

But then Abby crouched down beside him, blocking his view. With a long nailed finger, she turned his head so that he was looking up at her. "You and I… we need to have ourselves a private little chat."

Gideon and Morgan had just reached the back door when they heard the gun shots. All thought to safety was gone and the two ran down the path.

By the time they had reached the spot all that was there was Jackson. His eyes open, his face contorted in rage. One hand clutched his gun, the other reached out as if trying to keep a hold of something… or someone.

But, whatever, whoever it might have been was gone without a trace.

Morgan threw up his hands. "What happened? What now? Did the buyers get him?" he wanted to know as he spun around, Tired and desperate, all he could think to do was keep looking.

But Gideon could only shake his head. Dropping to his knees, he squeezed his eyes close.

This was it.

He had ran out of time.

He had failed.

He had lost Reid.

"Gideon?" Morgan called to him, feeling his own panic rise at the sight of the man, the mentor of the BAU.

Jason Gideon opened his eyes and looked up at him. In a tone void of emotion, he explained "Abby has him. She is going to kill Reid."