Mud And Maps

!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!

Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is not mine.

The map was opened up and placed on the table. Flanders leaned over it dripping blood onto the paper. He used his forearm to roughly wipe it away. He studied it for a while and could sense the pressure from Hotch and the hostility from Morgan.

"Agent Morgan." Flanders said in a quiet voice. "Come here." Flanders' finger was tracing over marks on the map. He timed it for when Morgan was leaning forward looking at what Floyd was doing. He planted his elbow in Derek's mouth. "Touch Spence again and I will kill you. I don't care who the hell you are you dirty son of a bitch."

Morgan staggered back with his hand over his mouth. Hotch took hold of Flanders arm to stop a follow up. "What do you think he did to Reid?" Hotch asked.

"He's here." A finger was circling an area on the map ignoring Hotch's question. "An old ranger's cabin."

Hotch looked over at Morgan who was wiping at his mouth and shaking his head.

"And you know this how?" Aaron so needed this man to be telling the truth. The thought of Spencer being out there with these two men was slowly killing him.

Flanders looked over at Aaron. "I just know. I don't know how I know – but I do and I know we need to get there now."

He started to walk towards the door.

"Floyd, you can't come with us. You are still high on whatever you took, and you just assaulted a Federal Agent. You will be staying here."

"You are going to charge me for that little love tap?" Floyd spun on Derek. "You do that to Spence and nothing happens?"

Derek shook his head again, still not sure but slowly wondering if he was talking about the nightmare Reid had.

Floyd sat at the table again resting his forehead on the place he had done before. "Just go and get him. Bring him back." Slowly he started hitting his forehead on the table again. If they failed Spence he would firstly kill Morgan, and then he would kill everyone who loved Hotch. He was sliding off the chair onto the floor before Hotch, Morgan and Prentiss had left the precinct.

……………

He dreamed of Reid buried under the mud. He could feel the terror and the defeat. He could feel Spence give up and accept the end. The officers stood looking through the window at this strange man laying whimpering and crying in his drug induced sleep.

About twenty minutes later two police cars followed.

………….

They drove fast. They had no idea if Flanders could be right about this and if he was right how he was involved in it. Derek drove and Hotch sat in a quiet panic. This was entirely his fault. He should have stayed loyal to Spencer. He is to blame for all of this. If he had stayed then Flanders would have kept away.

The road took them by the garage Spencer had been abducted from and carried on up into the forest.

…………..

His fingers almost seemed to glow against the darkness of the freshly dug earth.

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They drove up through the forest roads and up further and higher. Hotch looked out into the darkness and noticed how it had started to rain again. Emily started to say something but it felt hollow and stupid so she stopped and joined Hotch looking out of the window and wondering if they were going to find something. Derek was concentrating on his driving but glad they were doing something at last, even if it was a wild goose-chase. It felt good that they were doing something.

……………

A single tear ran down the side of his nose.

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They pulled off the larger road to a much smaller pot holed rutty track. Derek stopped to check the map again. "I think we are about half hour away." He muttered to himself. Aaron looked over at him.

"Take the road steady. No point in killing us before we get there." And to prevent Morgan from seeing the almost crazy anxiety he was feeling, he turned back to look out of the side window.

"He might not be there Hotch." Emily said softly. She saw his shoulders shudder and put a gentle knowing hand on it. "We just need to be prepared for anything."

Hotch sighed deeply. "I am ready. Believe me I am ready. Derek, carry on."

So they drove further down the old over grown rutted road.

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A soft sigh

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They fed the dogs with bits of stuff. Some of it was deer, some of it was sheep, and there were bits of bones and other things they dug up from around the place. It was raining again, but at least the dogs were quiet for a little while.

"I want to go back and look at him." Pepe started to walk off.

"Pepe, come in. Its raining and I gone done the food now. You can go look tomorrow. Plenty of time. He aint going anywhere now is he?"

Pepe looked back to the far side of the building and over into the woods. "Y'as right. I will go look tomorrow. I wanna take some pics you know."

"I figured as much. You cant do that so well in the dark. Leave him to rot. Take your pics in the morning. Get in now."

He took a last look over to where he had dragged Reid and then followed Benny back into their makeshift home.

…………..

He could feel rain falling now on the side of his face. He blinked.

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"Sexual sadists do not necessarily rape their victims." Emily suddenly said. "I don't think that Reid – I think that Pepe Randolph, I am sure it says he is impotent."

"It also said he tried to kill his lover to get sexual gratification." Morgan snapped back.

Emily looked down at her fingernails. "It said he was heavily into pornography. Not rape." She said quietly.

"We are all thinking the same." Morgan said as he put his foot down harder on the gas. "I Flanders has been messing us around, so help me god."

Aaron turned to look at Morgan. "I don't think it is his intention to manipulate us in that way. He is trying to help. We might not like it, but that man does have good intentions towards Spencer."

…………..

Red eyes and a mouth too big with too many sharp teeth smiled over at the shallow pit Reid was laying in. At last. Finally.

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Pepe and Benny had mushroom soup and bread they had lifted from the store earlier. Benny laid back on the dirty old cot they shared and looked at Reid's gun. "You should really have got rid of his personal stuff too. Make sure you do it in the morning when you cover up properly." He looked over at Pepe who was sitting bunched up looking down at the floor. "And you stop doing that you pervert. Go look at your comics."

………….

They could see the faint glow of light coming from the old shack. Hotch, Morgan and Prentiss got out of the SUV and looked around. They each pulled on a flak jacket. This was bringing back bad memories. Would they be as lucky again? "We need them alive." Hotch said and slowly they approached the shack. It was raining heavier now and the dogs started to bark again. Prentiss looked over to where they were and shuddered.

The door smashed in easily and Morgan rushed in shouting FBI. The two men looked surprised. One of them holding a gun the wrong way around in his hand threw it to the floor. The other one who was looking at a magazine of some kind just sat and giggled.

Benny didn't resist. "He did it. I wasn't even there." He said and smirked.

Pepe just giggled as he was cuffed. Morgan looked quickly around the room. The sight of Reid's shoes thrown over in a corner made his stomach churn. "Hotch." A quiet voice.

"I saw." Was the reply.

Derek went over to Pepe who was still giggling. "Where is he?"

The thunder and lightning made the whole place shake and light up and the torrential rain thundered on the roof.

Prentiss shook her head. "There is just this room. He's not here." She looked out to where the dogs were howling, and quickly left the building again at a jog.

………..

The water was running in rivulets down the side of the ditch he had been thrown in. He watched the rising water with a dead empty eye. Why was this all taking so long to end? The water reached his nose. Soon. Very soon.

………….

"Reid!" Emily called, but her voice was ripped away and taken by the wind. Her torch was shining over the kennels. She could see on the bars of an empty one a pair of plasticuffs. He had been here. Where was he now?

…………...

"Where is he Pepe?" Hotch had the man against the wall holding him by the front of his shirt. Pepe's hands restrained behind his back.

"Ya's all too late. I buried him out back with the rest of the rubbish." And a mad little giggle.

Benny who was cuffed to the stove just looked down and said nothing. Emily came running back in just as they were preparing to get Pepe to show them where Reid was. "Now!" Morgan was shouting. Emily could see the white face of Aaron Hotchner looking over at Reid's shoes again. "Mr Randolph is going to show us where Reid is." The four of them left the shack again and walked out into the driving rain, thunder and lightning.

………….

The fingers which seemed to glow moved slightly, and then twitched and then stopped.

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Pepe took them around the side of the building and over to a small row of mounds. He pointed a bit further off into the dark. "He's down there."

Hotch walked in the direction he was being pointed. Thank god he hadn't indicated one of the mounds. He shone his torch and saw a ditch in front of him. He started to walk around it. Shining the torch into the woods. Out of the corner of his eye, something caught his attention. He looked down and at first couldn't make out what it was he was looking at. The ditch was shallow and partially waterlogged but he could see something there in the mud. A hand and long slender fingers laying on the mud. The rest of the arm buried under it.

"Morgan!" Aaron shouted and reached down for the hand.

Morgan's torch caught some hair and the side of a face. It was bloodied and mud splattered and half buried in the mud and water. "Oh god." Derek wasn't sure if he had said the words or if he had just thought them. He bent down and ran a hand under the head and with a squelching slurping noise pulled it out of the mud.

Emily stood with her gun pointed at Pepe. He was giggling. She flipped open her phone and called for medics.

Morgan and Hotch dug with their hands until they were able to get hold of Reid and pull him out of the old ditch. He wasn't breathing. The water had been above his nose, but it must have recently happened. He was still almost warm. Rolling him over onto his back they looked down at the battered from. Hotch leaned over and applied CPR to the man he loved more than anything. The man he would willingly die for.

"Come on Spence, breathe for us." Hotch said with tears escaping from the backs of his eyes. In this rain though he could hide them. He wouldn't have show the emotions he was feeling. Morgan crouched in the mud next to him and took a hand.

"Hey kid, breathe." And he squeezed gently, not afraid to show his distress and the tears plopped off the end of his nose and mixed with the rain.

Emily stood with Pepe and whispered "My god Reid, what did they do to you?"

As the lightning ripped across the sky again and the thunder crashed, and as more cop cars arrived, Spencer let out and strange wailing scream. Hotchner carefully rolled the now panicking flailing Spencer on to his side and stoked his hair. "It's me Spence – it's Aaron." He sat down in the mud and pulled Spencer closer – wrapping his arms around his shoulders. "It's OK." And he ran fingers slowly over the battered face.

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!!I support the 2007 WGA STRIKE!!