Folding.

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

Derek was fuming with anger. He had an idea of what Reid was implying but he had never touched the boy in that way. No one had. It was just part of his nightmare, and now he had taken off in the SUV and Morgan was left standing in the parking lot in his bare feet, his work trousers and a white vest. He suddenly felt like a dark skinned version of Bruce Willis in Die Hard, and turned quickly back to the hotel pulling his phone from his pocket and calling Hotch.

……………

He awoke in darkness. He could hardly move and his face was covered just leaving his nose to breathe through. He pulled at the cuffs behind his back and tried to kick his feet, but he was very well secured. He lay still and tried to work out where he was. It wouldn't have taken his genius brain to figure it out pretty quickly though. The smell of gas fumes, the smell of oil, the movement. He was in the trunk of a car. Wonderful. Spencer attempted to roll over onto his back, but the way he was secured and the tightness of the space he was in wouldn't permit it so now he started to panic. No one knew where he was. He had dumped the SUV so he couldn't be traced. His cell was off. Actually the guys who hit him probably had his phone. His gun was gone and the other people at the gas station were dead, and he had seen them. This was not good. This was very bad. They wouldn't have taken him if they didn't have something planned. Not now he had seen them. Why hadn't they killed him?

Spencer pulled harder at the cuffs and could feel them cutting into his skin and making his wrists slippery. He didn't bother trying to scream. The car was moving fast, there was no way anyone would hear him. He would save that for when they stopped. He tried getting the gag out of his mouth and the blind fold off, but they were too tight. A small whimpering sound came from deep inside Reid.

……………..

Hotch got the call from Arlington PD. They told him what they had found and they told him of the letter. They however hadn't opened it.

"Can you open it for me, and read the message?" He could hear the sound of an envelope opening and the rustling of paper.

'Persecution of the innocents.'

"That is all it says?" Hotch was pacing. "Fax me a copy and get that one sent to the labs for testing."

He stood and thought of the message and what was going on and picked up his cell.

"SSA Hotchner. I need the clothing for Flanders re-tested. Something is wrong." As he closed his phone it bleeped again.

It was a call from Garcia. They had tracked Reid's SUV to the rental lot and they knew what he was driving now and they were tracking it as they speak.

……………………..

The vehicle was now going over rough ground. Reid could feel pot holes as the car pulled off the road and down into a forest lane. He renewed his struggles in the trunk of the car but only managed to cut the nylon binders deeper into his flesh. He needed to remain calm. There was not enough air in here to let him panic and the quality was poor. He didn't want to be sick. Being sick with a gag on was not a good idea and a panic attack right now was not what he wanted.

Stay calm. There will come a time when they will let you out. You are a profiler. You are an FBI agent. You can deal with this. You just need to keep a straight head. What would Gideon have done? But this wouldn't have happened to Gideon, he would have known what to say. He would never get compromised like this.

When the car stopped – which felt like hours later, he thought his heart would stop with it. The fear of being locked in the dark was now over ridden by the fear of being let out and not knowing what was going to happen. He felt the sudden rush of air on his face and heard the creaking of the trunk being opened.

He could feel the binders on his feet being cut then was grabbed under the arms and lifted out of the trunk. They still kept the blindfold on but finally they undid the rough gag. Spencer took in big deep gulping breaths. His legs didn't want to keep him standing and he could feel he was slowly sliding back to the ground again.

"What – what do you w w want with m me?" His voice was dry and faint. The familiar stutter of panic and the feeling that this was all going to end really soon. Hands grabbed his hair and pulled him back to standing again.

"Shut your mouth Fed or I will gag it with something."

With the hand in the hair still Spencer was dragged over the rough ground, his feet stumbling on things he couldn't see. He tripped on a small step and went down again to his knees. He felt the pain shoot through his knees and up his legs, but he wasn't going to let these two men know the fear and pain he was feeling right now. He was going to keep that inside him for now. He tried again to think of what Gideon would do and when that failed he tried to think how Hotch would handle this situation, but he knew neither man would get in this situation. Neither man would let Morgan do that to them.

Again Reid felt the cold metal of a gun. This time it was to the side of his face. "Try to escape and I pull the trigger and I would really like to kill a dirty Fed scum with his own gun, so don't tempt me."

Spencer made no noise and made no movement. He stayed kneeling with his own gun pressing into his flesh as one of the assailants cut the binders on his hands. For a brief second Reid felt the blood rushing back to his hands. The healing cuts on his wrists started to bleed again. His arms grabbed and now his hands were bound in front of him. The gun moved away from his face and was pushed up under his chin.

"I want to do it now." The voice of the man with the gun.

"Where is the fun in that? I want to see this thing beg." The gun was removed as he felt movement again and he was being pulled to his feet. "You don't look old enough to be a Fed. You on work experience or something?"

"Time to introduce him to our friends. Come on kid. Hope you like dogs."

……………………

Hotch got the call he was waiting for. The lab came back with more information on the GSR. OK yes Hotch was right; there was something strange about it. Flanders had GSR on his hands which would be expected. It was also on one side of his face and his clothes. All as they expected. Nothing strange. What they did think odd was that the retesting of the clothes showed GSR on his back, across his shoulders, and on the skin of his back which they had taken samples from when they removed the glass from him. The pattern was totally random, and it couldn't have got on his skin under his shirt unless someone else put it there.

Hotch was confused.

Flanders was un-cuffed.

Derek was beside himself with anger. He got the call from Pen. She had the location of the car Reid had on rental. It was stationary at a gas station.

This is where they headed.

Hotch drove, Morgan sat shot gun and Emily sat in the back.

"So they are releasing Flanders?" she said. "On the GSR results. Even though he was tripping when it happened?"

Hotch nodded. "I don't think he did it. As much as I dislike the man, I don't think he shot the people in his pool then got rid of the gun, then jumped backwards out of his bedroom window."

"If he was tripping on drugs though he could have done anything."

"He got rid of the weapon, and destroyed his valuable art? It doesn't fit. It's wrong. Whoever is doing these things to Reid did this too. Where would Flanders have got pictures of Reid in the pool?"

"He is a stalker. He admitted as much."

They pulled into the parking lot of the small garage to see crime scene tape. Morgan thumped the dashboard as Hotch pulled up and they all quickly got out of the SUV. They couldn't see Reid's rental.

Hotch walked over to the officer who seemed to be in charge and showed him his ID. "What's going on here?" Hotch asked.

"Feds?" the officer replied.

"Just answer the question." Morgan this time.

"A hold up. Two fatalities. Wouldn't have thought the Feds would be interested."

Morgan was looking around and Emily was walking over to the doors of the small building. She really didn't want Reid to be one of those fatalities.

"Any other vehicles?" Hotch again "We are looking for a small silver SUV."

The officer started to walk away. "It's round the back. Getting prints off it now. This way."

"Wait – who do these other cars belong to?" Morgan was looking over at two other vehicles park haphazardly in the lot.

The officer stopped and turned around. "One of them was stolen last night. Owner is in the city. One belongs to one of the victims. The owner of this place, well his car isn't here but he is, so guessing someone took it. We have no idea who the car round the back belongs to, but guessing you do. That's why you are here?"

…………………

Spencer was guided across what now felt like concrete. He could hear dogs barking and howling. Dogs and Reid didn't get on very well together. He hesitated and was rewarded with a slap around the head.

"Keep walking." And a push from behind. He stumbled again not being able to see where he was going, but he refused to let them know how scared he was. He knew this is how Gideon would have handled this. He knew Gideon wouldn't have freaked. He needed to keep that in his mind. Stay calm and they are far less likely to hurt you. Stay calm Spencer. If they were going to kill you they would have already.

A hand on the top of his head and he was pushed down to his knees. Someone was in front of him now dragging him forwards on his knees. He could feel the skin on his knees cutting, he could feel hot scared tears building up behind his eyes. The only advantage of the blindfold, he could let the tears go and they wouldn't know. He felt his hands being pulled forward and tied to something and someone removed his shoes and then this belt.

He stayed kneeling. He stayed silent. He didn't want to aggravate these men anymore than he had done already. So he kept his eyes down and his mouth shut. Spencer wasn't expecting the blindfold to be removed so suddenly, and the sudden light made his eyes hurt. He screwed them shut and remained still and silent.

……………………..

Floyd stood in the lobby of the Hospital. He was in agony. He felt like someone had stabbed him repeatedly in his back and coshed him with a bucket of bricks, but he wasn't staying here. Something had happened. Somewhere deep inside he knew something very wrong was going on with Spencer. He had no idea where he was, but he needed to warn him. Tell him to be careful. Something dreadful was heading his way. He knew – he just didn't know how he knew.

…………………..

Spencer opened his eyes a crack to see where he was. His first sight was of a line of bars – this is what he was attached to. He looked around and saw he was in a cage. A kennel. There were others joined on. The one he was in was more or less central. The others held dogs. Big drooling barking dogs. Dogs throwing themselves at the bars to get to him. He couldn't stand, as the space was too restricted. If he moved back he would be against the bars behind him and there was a rather nasty looking creature there trying to get to him. He felt dog saliva splash across his feet, and then over his face and he pulled on the restraints and screamed inside his head.

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