Reid's mind raced, Alex had said they, so he wasn't working alone, he was too organised to be in a psychotic break from reality, so there had to genuinely be another person, he had to figure out who that was. He thought about his mother, could they have her? He doubted it, but was he prepared to take that risk?

Alex flashed a picture of Reid's mother in front of his face, she was tied to a chair, her face was tear streaked and the left side of her face was bruised. Reid's eyes widened and tears filled them, his mother, the most loving, gentle woman had been subjected to this because of him. He was responsible for reducing her life to the walls of the sanitarium and now he was going to be responsible for ending it as well. He couldn't have that on his conscience, he couldn't do this to her again.

"What do you want me to do?" Reid gasped, Alex had his arm pressed firmly against his throat. Tears rolled down Reid's face increasing Alex's excitement.

"You are going to kill Agent Hotchner." He sneered clearly enjoying himself. "Or I am going to kill the rest of your team".

"no" Reid snapped panic building up within him, he couldn't kill Hotch but he also couldn't let his mother and team suffer. He had to think of a way out of this.

A loud noise woke Morgan up with a start; he told Garcia to stay in the room and went to investigate. He opened the bedroom door and heard a crash downstairs, the front door of the cabin then slammed shut.

Morgan drew his gun and slowly headed downstairs, he heard a noise above him and turned, it was Hotch and Prentiss, they had heard it too. The three agents descended the stairs, Morgan's senses were heightened and adrenaline was pumping through his veins.

Prentiss was the first to spot the blood by the font door of the cabin, there wasn't a great deal but it was splattered from the door of one of the downstairs bedrooms and the front door. "Who's room is that?" Hotch whispered to Prentiss.

"It's Rossi's" She whispered back.

"Prentiss check that bedroom and Morgan come with me to check out this blood trail" They moved exactly as Hotch had ordered them too, no need for a reply or to think twice.

Morgan opened the door, surprised that it had been left unlocked, snow was falling heavily but there were still definitive drag marks on the ground leading into the woods surrounding the cabin.

"stay close" Hotch ordered as they followed the trail which was slowly disappearing before their eyes, they reached the edge of the woods and the trail went dead, Morgan shone his torch ahead of him to see if there were any more clues as to who had left the trail and why they had been there.

Prentiss approached Rossi's door slowly, she pushed it open to find the room in a state of chaos, she flicked on the light switch and saw JJ lying facedown on the floor by her gun, a small trickle of blood snaked down her forehead. There was no sign of Rossi whatsoever.

Prentiss turned JJ and checked her pulse, she was breathing. "JJ can you hear me?" Prentiss called. JJ's eyes fluttered open and she grimaced.

The memories flooded back to JJ like a bad dream, the loud crash, getting up to investigate, the blood, her friends limp body and then darkness. She grimaced at the memory and sat up swiftly, making her dizzy and nauseous.

She looked up at Prentiss; she saw her lips moving but couldn't hear the words coming out of her mouth.

"JJ can you tell me what happened?" Prentiss repeated. JJ wrapped her arms around Prentiss who helped her to stand and took her to the sitting room.

Reid was in his room, he had heard the gunshot go off after the stranger had left. He had been locked in and left with a photograph of his mother, scared and alone.

The unsub's words were sweeping around Reid's mind. "I am going to kill the rest of the team". Reid had refused him, he had said it before he even had chance to think and he knew one of his team members had paid for it. "One every night until you end his life, starting now".

Reid had been unable to stop him, he had shouted for help when the gunshot went off but nobody heard him, someone was dead and it was his fault. He had to think of a way to make the unsub think Hotch was dead, without actually harming him, he couldn't be responsible for the destruction of another life.

"Rossi's missing" Prentiss informed Morgan and Hotch upon their return.

"The trail went dead" Morgan sounded frustrated and tired.

"Has anyone seen Reid?" Hotch asked. Without a word Morgan leapt up the stairs he tried Reid's door and found that it was stuck.

"Reid, man you ok?" he called. "Morgan, I'm locked in" Reid called back pathetically, he couldn't tell Morgan anything about the unsub which had visited him during the night, the man had forbidden that but he had to find a way to let Morgan know without telling him directly.

Morgan kicked the door knocking it completely off its hinges, "Reid what happened?" he blurted rushing to the kids side, he could see the distress on Reid's face as if it was labelled.

"Is someone hurt?" Reid mumbled not looking directly at Morgan.

"We don't know for sure, Rossi is missing and JJ's been hurt but she'll be fine" Reid was out of the room in a shot, he rushed down the stairs to see JJ, she was reclining on the couch with a make-shift ice pack on her head which Prentiss had fashioned from a plastic bag and some snow and ice from outside.

Reid rushed to her and took her hand gently, a single tear fell from his eyes "I'm so sorry" he whispered.

"Its ok Reid, there's nothing you could've done and I'm ok" JJ looked into his eyes and her voice took on the tone of a mother calming down a small child.

Reid got up to fix JJ a drink and saw Hotch talking to Morgan, he saw the concern in Hotches eyes, it was 5am and Reid had to figure something out by the time Hotch was in bed otherwise someone else would lose their life because of him.

Earlier

Rossi awoke with a start, two men loomed over him in his bed, one carrying a video camera and the other a gun, no…Reid's gun.

"Come with us" The camera man spat. "Why don't we just talk about this" Rossi had reasoned, "here I'll grab you a scotch and we can talk".

"No!" The man with the gun yelled. "That's not how the game works!".

"Where's agent Reid?" Rossi asked, he was answered with a bullet to his shoulder, knocking him backwards. The bedroom door swung wide open and JJ came in with her gun at the ready. Rossi had been unable to talk or warn her, she was struck on the head with Reid's gun, falling to the ground.

The gunman grabbed Rossi and dragged him from the bedroom and out into the night. The snow swirling about their heads melted in Rossi's hair and blood stained the ground red.

Rossi heard shouts, a man, and he saw a torch being shone in his direction, he was dropped by the gunman and him and the video camera man, who had caught the whole thing on tape, opened a large door concealed beneath a tree, where little snow could fall to trap them in.

They threw him down first, he landed hard on his already painful shoulder and cried out, he was dragged down a concrete corridor and into a large room with eight sets of shackles lining the walls, Rossi's eyes widened as they shackled his hands and feet, he held his wound to try and stem the blood flow. He looked at the figure occupying one of the other sets of shackles, he was sure he'd seen her before but he couldn't place where.

A picture was projected onto the wall Reid's room, it was dark, Alex pressing his arm to his neck, the woman began to wail in the corner. A picture was handed to Reid, it was the woman in the corner, it was Reid's mother!

There was only one man in Reid's room, the other had been hiding in what appeared to be a secret staircase in the hallway which Rossi hadn't even noticed. He froze as the man told him to kill Hotch and then headed off to prove his point by kidnapping him.

Reid thinks he's dead, would he work it out? Or would he kill Agent Hotchner? The kid couldn't live with himself if he did and then discovered he didn't save anyone's life.

"We're all going to die" Reid's mother whispered from her corner.

"We are all going to die"