Reid clutched at his chest, breathing hard from the fright he had just had. "Hello Reid" Rossi said thoroughly amused at the kids visible reaction.
"Rossi you scared me! Why didn't you say something when I first came down?" He cried slightly irritated at having dropped an egg in his panic.
"I've always had a flare for the dramatic" Rossi chuckled. "Scrambled eggs…original." He said sarcastically. He was red in the face from laughing at the young man's entrance.
"Yeah well that was your egg" Reid sneered causing Rossi to laugh loudly again. "What are you doing up so early anyway?" Reid tried to steer the conversation away from himself.
"Nightmare" the older man looked down, seeming ashamed of admitting such a normal thing.
"You wanna talk about it?" Reid asked, concerned. He was always concerned for others and always ready to help when someone needed something. Rossi supposed it was due to the fact that nobody had cared for him when he was a child. He knew how much it would have meant if someone had cared enough to ask and Rossi admired him for modelling that in his adult life rather than becoming bitter about it as many lesser men may have done.
"I dreamed that our team was drowning." Rossi started "at first I could see you all and I was trying to reassure everyone, but then one by one you disappeared from view until I was alone and someone grabbed me from under the water, they pulled me down and I fought to keep my head up but they were too strong… and then I woke up".
Reid thought for a moment and was about to reply when he was interrupted by the thud of feet on the stairs, Garcia wandered in, a pink sleep mask depicting two eyes was sitting on her forehead, her eyes were half opened and she grumbled loudly as she walked.
"…and I need every minute of sleep I can get, so whoever it is down there better have an damn good reason for disturbing my dream time with an uber hot stud willing to fulfil my every wish!" She looked at the puzzled and slightly awkward looking couple in the kitchen and groaned.
"Whatever you're cooking better taste amazing Dr Reid" She looked at the kid standing there in his nightclothes and the mess of ingredients behind him, chuckling at him. He was so intelligent but always managed to appear young and innocent, Garcia loved that about him.
Reid turned almost automatically and started preparing the one meal he knew he couldn't mess up, he'd practically lived on scrambled eggs at University, his mom had taught him how to cook it when he was young, they used to enjoy it together every Sunday morning until she decided that the eggs all contained tracking devices placed there by the government. He missed those Sundays.
Rossi cleared up the broken egg since it seemed Reid had forgotten all about it. Garcia gazed out of the large window sighing, "It's so beautiful isn't it?"
"Yes you are" Morgan called from the stairs chuckling; he was far too awake for this time in the morning.
"Good morning lover" Garcia chirped, visibly happier now Morgan had entered the room.
"Good morning baby girl" Morgan sang "you are looking divine this morning" Morgan laughed looking at Garcia's unusual pjs.
Reid finished up his scrambled eggs and shovelled them onto a large plate so the team could help themselves. Morgan was the first in there grabbing three large spoonfuls and helping himself to some of the toast Rossi had made while Reid cooked. He then grabbed a second plate and filled it with food drawing looks from Reid and Rossi as he set the second plate down in the place next to his at the large varnished wooden dining table. "For you, goddess of the morning" he gestured to Garcia and she grinned contentedly as she ate next to him.
JJ stirred from her sleep to smell fresh coffee being brewed, she stretched and got up to go to the bathroom and wash, savouring the heavenly smells coming from the kitchen. She was dressed and ready in no time and entered the kitchen to see Morgan playfully tickling Garcia, Reid laughing along with an open book by his side and Rossi reading the paper with a steaming cup of coffee by him, he looked very grandfatherly as the younger agents behaved like children before him.
JJ strode cheerfully in to the sound of her teammates warm welcome, she was in the best mood and the team only made it better. She grabbed some toast and perused the cupboards to find some jam to smear on the top, Prentiss joined the team also in a cheery mood, she grabbed one of JJ's slices of toast and took a bite provoking a playful smack of the hand from the agent.
Hotch was the last downstairs, he was already dressed in his suit and had his briefcase packed and ready to go, unlike the rest of the team Hotch looked completely serious, he didn't grab himself any breakfast. He went straight to the front door opened it and sighed in frustration.
"What's wrong?" Rossi called. "We're snowed in" Hotch called back. Reid ran to the door to have a look, the small road on which they had travelled was deeper in snow than Reid was tall, the trees had protected the cabin and its immediate vicinity from becoming deeper than ankle height in snow.
"Reid, how long will that take to melt?" Hotch asked masking his frustration. "I'd say at least 3 weeks provided no more snow falls, in which case it could be much longer." Hotch dropped his briefcase and reached for his phone.
"No service" he grumbled. "Reid try and phone for Sheriff Levi, we won't be able to help with the case in person." Reid went as instructed and found no dial tone. "Phones are down" he called.
"Do we have a radio?" Hotch called back sounding panicked now. "Yeah we do!" Morgan hollered from the kitchen. "Good radio the Sheriff's office and ask if there's any way we can get out of here that doesn't require that road." Hotch ordered.
Alex had been watching the team all morning, he had been delighted when they had been informed that there was no hope of rescue, they would have to wait the snow out and that there was no way of getting food up to them any time soon.
He had made a few determinations since he had begun watching them, firstly the boy, Agent Reid was the weakest physically, and he liked to separate himself from the others, he wouldn't be a threat and would be easy to pick off. Secondly the chubbier blonde woman, Garcia as she had been called was the weakest mentally, he could scare her easily but he also knew that the strongest guy, Morgan never took his eyes off her, so he would have to separate them if he wanted to target Garcia. Thirdly their leader, Hotch was quiet and greatly agitated by their situation, which meant he wasn't on his guard and so would be easy to surprise. Morgan was the strength of the team, but he could take him using his protectiveness. He can't protect everyone at once and he could use this to break him down and make him feel like he'd let someone down. The old man, Rossi was very impassive and peaceful, he wouldn't be able to put up much of a fight if challenged and Alex was confident of his chances as long as he planned his attacks well.
He was going to start by scaring the youngest and the sweetest, Reid and Garcia, he determined that the team would be sufficiently distressed should anything happen to those two agents.
The team had been pretty calm since the news had come in that they weren't leaving anytime soon, Morgan had decided to treat it like a holiday and everyone except Hotch had been perfectly happy to go along with it, why not take the time to relax? There wasn't anything else they could be doing right now anyway.
Morgan and Garcia had gone outside to built a snowman they had a good sized body built and were now working on the head, Reid was now joining them to help construct a face from the most effective materials.
Garcia ran towards the trees which surrounded them to find a few pebbles, breaking the eye-line of the guys she picked up a few to make the mouth of the snowman, she knelt down to pick up another one and stood up to come face to face with a stranger, she cried out and fell backwards.
"I'm not going to kill you…yet" The man grinned darkly. Garcia screamed and his fist came down knocking her out cold, he reached into her pocket and grabbed what he had come for. With that he vanished into the tree's leaving Garcia where she lay.
Morgan had heard the scream and taken off without waiting for back up, he sprinted into the woods leaping over a large tree root in a single bound, he unholstered his gun and called for Garcia frantically.
He came across her lying limply on the ground and holstered his gun, not caring about his own safety he lifted her up as though she weighed nothing and carried her back to the cabin, Reid had alerted the other agents of the danger and they went to search for the man while Morgan took Garcia to her room.
He lay her carefully on her bed and checked her pulse, she was breathing.
"Baby girl." Morgan said softly "can you hear my voice?". Garcia's eyes opened slowly and confusion creased her features.
"Morgan?" She whispered as tears began to fall down her bruised cheek.
"I'm right here Penelope" he returned stroking her forehead tenderly. "Who did this to you?"
"I didn't recognise him, he said he wasn't going to kill me…yet" she shook as her emotions took over and she sobbed violently.
Morgan shushed her softly "he's not going to touch you baby girl, you hear me? No one is going to get anywhere near you because I am gonna be right there waiting for him, you hear me?" Garcia buried her head in his chest unaware that her key to the cabin was now in the hands of her attacker and his game had only just begun.
Alex was ready. Before nightfall he had been signalled by his contractor, he was ready to start the game.
He waited until every one of the team were asleep, Agent Morgan was now sharing a room with Garcia as planned, he would be fully concentrating on Garcia and Reid would be easy pickings. He crept into the house and to the foot of the concealed flight of stairs, none of the agents would be aware of it and he could slip into Reid's room undetected.
The young agent was sleeping soundly, he was curled up in a ball with a book by his side, Alex padded silently towards him and quietly lifted the agent's gun from the dresser by his bed. He pressed it to his temple and shook him awake.
"Listen kid" Alex hissed "we have your mother, if you ever want to see her alive again you will do exactly as I say, if you deviate from my rules, he will give the orders and she will die, understand?".
"He?" Reid gasped.