While the two FBI agents slept on, a blanket of fresh snow had fallen around them. The whole Alaskan wilderness now resembled a Winter Wonderland with almost every inch being coated with the white powder.
Morgan was tempted to squint when he awoke from his slumber. The white snow reflected the early morning sun harshly into his eyes, making them slightly burn. It took a few moments for Morgan to get used to the new lighting and actually be able to see.
He couldn't help but smile at his surroundings. The agent had fond memories from his childhood of running out into the freshly fallen snow with his siblings and playing for hours in it. He remembered building snowmen and having snowball fights that actually managed to leave bruises.
But now there was no time for fun and games.
Shaking himself even more awake, Morgan cursed softly to himself when he realized that he and Reid had fallen asleep while there was still an Unsub prowling the very same forest they were in. He quickly glanced down and breathed a sigh of relief to see that Reid was still right by his side.
Morgan placed a hand on Reid's cheek and cursed once again at how cold his friend was. He knew that Reid didn't have a heavy weighed jacket and with his small body fat he would be prone to hypothermia, but yet Morgan hadn't done anything about it last night.
He quickly removed his own large jacket and placed it over his freezing friend. Reid hadn't stirred once while Morgan had been moving about and that worried the profiler. With the cold and Reid's injuries from the bear, they would be lucky if Reid managed to survive another night unprotected in the bitter cold.
Morgan lied to himself that Reid was going to be just fine even as he saw the slight blue shade to Reid's lips.
The profiler stood up and shook the snow that had accumulated on his body while he had slept. He paced back and forth, attempting to get the blood flowing again in his body. The snow crunched underneath his shoes as he paced, but still Reid never stirred.
Morgan couldn't fight it any longer. He crouched down next to his sleeping friend and placed two fingers up to Reid's throat. It took a few seconds, but it was there…a steady thump thump that was keeping the young doctor alive.
"Thank you," Morgan said, casting a quick glance to the Man Upstairs. He wasn't sure if he could handle the thought that his best friend had passed away while sleeping against him in the middle of a forest.
After making sure his friend was still alive and breathing, Morgan set to work at figuring out where exactly they were in the forest. He remembered going over maps of the forest with the team back at the station, but didn't remember all of the details. He had been a little distracted with talking to one of the police officers and couldn't really be bothered with the maps.
Oh how he wished he had paid a little more attention.
"You probably remembered everything," Morgan whispered, looking at his friend who slept on.
He paced for a few more minutes, glancing around trees and into the depths of the forest, but his searches turned up nothing. Morgan's searchings were disrupted by the sound of a soft groan coming from the direction of his friend. He was at Reid's side in a second.
"How you feeling pretty boy?" he asked and put a slightly strained smile on his face.
Reid opened his eyes and blinked a few times before finally focusing in on Morgan's face. "We still in the forest?" he asked and attempted to push himself up, but stopped when his injuries prevented him from doing so. Reid's face scrunched up in pain as he did so.
"Take it easy there," Morgan said and placed a hand on Reid's chest to pause him from moving any further. "And yeah, we're still here. And look, it snowed while we were sleeping. Bet you didn't get much of that in Vegas growing up." He tried to keep things light, but in his head he was panicking.
If Reid was having pain just sitting up, then how were they ever going to be able to walk the miles out of the forest? He shook the thought from his head. They would cross that bridge when they came to it.
Reid didn't reply, but simply looked down at the jacket that was lying over his thin frame. He picked at it with a slender, pale hand. "This belongs to you?" he asked, not bothering to look up at his colleague.
"Yeah kiddo. Since you used your jacket as a bandage, figured you needed something to keep your skinny self warm," Morgan replied.
"Aren't you cold?"
"I'm from Chicago; this is practically summer for me."
"Take it," Reid said and pushed it back towards Morgan who immediately rejected it with a shake of his head.
"No way kid. You're injured and look like a gust of wind could blow you over any second right about now. You need it way more than I do. Keep it." The tone in Morgan's voice left no room for any counter argument.
"Okay," Reid said softly and pulled the jacket back to cover himself up more. He tried to hide it, but Morgan still saw the brief look of relief on Reid's face that he got to keep the only source of warmth for his own need.
"So I was thinking we can't just sit around and wait for the team to come and find us. We have to do something that will help them find us."
"Hotch will find us," Reid said with total trust in his voice.
Morgan nodded and placed a hand on Reid's shoulder, but Reid only shied away from it. Morgan frowned slightly and removed his hand, "I know that kid, but this is a big forest and it might take him a while."
"It's seventeen million acres," Reid explained.
"You looked at the maps before we left right, like you always do?"
"Well, not as much as I usually would. We had only been at the station for a few hours before you and I took off for the burial site, so I didn't have as much time as I would have preferred to study all the sites and maps."
"But you still looked at them, you remember them?"
"Of course I do."
"So, do you think you would be able to tell me where we are in this forest?" Morgan asked and looked around them. "Because I tried figuring it out, but I only came up with the fact that you and me kid are totally lost."
"We might not be totally lost, I mean…I've tried to figure it out, but all I came come up with is that we are at least four or five miles inwards, possibly even more. But other than that, without a compass I can't give anything else…"
"Can't you use the sun or something to tell where we are?" Morgan asked, standing up and looking at the rising sun. He couldn't keep the desperation out of his voice now that the seriousness of their situation was finally settling in.
Reid slowly raised his head, "The sun rises in the east and sets in the west-"
"Yes yes I know," Morgan cut his friend off. He gripped his head and clenched his teeth to try and control his anger. Last thing he wanted was to yell at Reid who always flinched away from people getting angry at him, especially his best friends. "Sorry Reid."
"It's fine," Reid mumbled. "So if the sun rises over there, that direction is east, but it might not be exactly east because of the changing seasons."
"That doesn't really matter if its exact or not, we can work off of guesses."
Reid once again attempted to sit up, "I remember that there is a tribe or little town somewhere to the west in these woods."
"A tribe?"
He nodded and tried to ignore the cold that seeped down into his bones and seemed to grasp every one of his organs and control his very being. Even with the jacket, Reid had never been colder and sitting on the snow wasn't doing him any good for now his legs were soaked.
"Yes. For years, Alaskans have come into the forest and made like villages for themselves. There are hundreds scattered throughout and it's another reason why the government wants to build roads through the forest," Reid explained.
"Alright, that sounds like our best bet. Do you know how far away the tribe or village thing is from us?"
"From the burial site we visited yesterday it was about ten or so miles. I don't know how far it is from here exactly…but we should be able to find it if we just keep walking in that direction," Reid said and shuddered at the thought of walking ten miles frozen and in pain.
Morgan rubbed a hand over his face, "It's not much of a plan."
"But it's all we have right now…until Hotch comes and finds us."
Morgan looked his friend's shaking form up and down, "Are you sure you can walk?"
Reid clenched his teeth as a wave of pain rolled over him as he moved his injured arm and brushed it against the tree trunk, "No, but we don't really have a choice do we?"
"I guess not," Morgan said and moved to crouch down by the young doctor. He felt his stomach grumble as he did so and placed a hand over his growling stomach. Now that they had somewhat of a plan, he was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger come over him.
"Hungry?" Reid asked with a slight smirk.
"Oh be quiet, not like you're not shaking with need for a cup of coffee right now," Morgan retorted, but he kept a light tone to his voice.
Reid nodded, "You have no idea."
Morgan laughed softly and then said with a much more comforting voice, "Do you think you can stand up now? Or do you want to wait?"
"Now, definitely now. The more we wait, the colder we'll be getting," Reid said with a determination in his voice.
Morgan helped Reid put the jacket on properly and ignored the soft hissing his friend made every time Reid moved his injured body parts that had been mauled. With the jacket securely on the doctor's thin frame, Morgan moved to help Reid stand up.
"This is going to suck," he said to the other profiler. Reid nodded, he already knew. Reid always knew.
Morgan placed Reid's non-injured arm over his own shoulders and grasped Reid's hand with his own. Morgan stood slowly from his crouching pose. Reid followed awkwardly after him, his face scrunched in pain as his nearly frozen body was forced out of the position it had been in for so long.
"You alright?" Morgan asked when the duo had finally stood. Reid had a fresh coating of sweat on his face and seemed to be three shades paler than he was before…if that was even possible for the already pale agent.
"Never been better," he said, panting slightly. "Let's go."
"Are you sure, I mean we can wait a second if you want to catch your breath."
"No, let's go now."
"Alright kid," Morgan said and took off with Reid right at his side. They moved slowly, their shoes sinking into the snow with every step they made in unison. Morgan could feel Reid shaking next to him, but whether it was in pain or cold he didn't know.
Morgan's entire lower half of his body was entirely soaked and he was beginning to feel the effects of the cold environment they were in. He was slowly losing feeling in his appendages and really hoped that the Unsub wouldn't come and attack right now.
He wasn't sure he would be able to fight off the killer with only feeling half of his body and supporting Reid.
There was a sound to their left and both FBI agents instantly froze. Morgan and Reid scanned the forest, but the underbrush was so thick it was hard to see anything beyond three feet in front of them.
Morgan was very tempted to call out who was there, but he knew that that was only done in cheap horror movies. A real serial killer would never answer that question.
Reid's breath hitched in fear next to Morgan and Morgan couldn't help but tighten his hold on the young doctor's hip.
Morgan released Reid's hand and reached slowly down for his gun. Just as he pulled his gun out of its holder, the unknown object let out a low growl.
"It's not the Unsub," Reid whispered next to Morgan, his voice thick with fear. "It's the bear."
Author's Note: I apologize for the wait. I had a hard time getting my last chapter up which was very frustrating. And then an old family friend passed away this weekend from cancer, so that's really put me off. But otherwise, I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend! And thank you for every review or alert or favorite!