AN: Thanks to all my readers and those of you reviewing. Your encouragement is much appreciated. If someone can think of a prompt to send my way for the next chapter, that would be appreciated too.

Prompt: The Passenger - Deep Space Nine episode title

Dr. Eric Rollins walked out of the bedroom, leaving Morgan and Reid alone. The latter had been drifting off to sleep again, which given the stress this whole ordeal was putting on his body, was a good thing. The doctor made his way to the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water and opened it. Taking a drink of the cold liquid, he headed back to the living room.

As Eric lowered his body onto the couch, he realized how tired he was. Though he had been getting on Derek's case about getting rest, the truth was he hadn't had much more than his friend had, and what he had gotten had come while sitting in the chair. The doctor took another drink of the water, and then twisting the cap back onto it placed it on the floor beside the couch.

Laying down, Eric was soon in a light sleep. Long hours during med school and his residency had taught him to grab sleep whenever he had a chance. A knock at the door woke him up. He sat up on the couch, a glance toward the bedroom. Morgan was nowhere in sight, indicating that he either hadn't heard the knock or did not want to leave Reid's side. Getting to his feet, Eric crossed over the door. A glance through the peep hole showed a raven-haired woman, roughly around his own age.

Not sure if it was a neighbor or co-worker of Spencer's, Eric slid the security chain out of place and opened the door.

"Oh, Hi," the dark-haired women said, upon seeing him. "I may have gotten the wrong address," she told him, glancing toward the black numbers on the door. "Though I'm pretty sure Garcia told me it was apartment 426."

Eric smiled at the sight of the woman's flustered face. "Are you looking for Spencer Reid?" he asked her.

"Ah, yeah. I'm a co-worker of his."

"Then you're at the right apartment," Eric told her. The woman let out a quiet sigh of relief that the doctor just barely heard. "I'm Dr. Eric Rollins. I'm a friend of Derek Morgan," he told her, holding out his right hand.

"Emily Prentiss," she replied, shifting the containers she was holding to a secure position against her body and cradled in her left hand. She reached out and shook Eric's hand.

Before any more words could be exchanged between the two of them, a shout came from inside the apartment.

"NO! HOTCH!"

Both words were drawn out in a yell so full of fear and anguish that Prentiss suddenly felt a chill come over her. The silence that followed the yell was as bad as hearing the words had been. Prentiss' instinct was to rush in and see if she could do anything to help but she held herself back. Reid was already upset with her for other things she had said and Hotch had said it was his request that the rest of them stay away for now. That Reid wasn't up to seeing them.

Eric, seeing the stricken look on the face of the woman before him, was about to explain to her about the nightmares and assure her that Derek was with their co-worker and friend. He opened his mouth but didn't get a chance to speak as another shout came from the direction of the bedroom, this one just as fear filled as the other had been.

"Eric!"

Responding on instinct to the shout, Eric Rollins turned from the door, the woman standing out in the hallway completely forgotten. As he let go of the door, the momentum started pushing it closed. Through the diminishing gap between the door and the door frame, Prentiss watched Eric hurry out of sight. Before the door closed all the way, she stuck out her left foot and stuck it in the gap, keeping the door from closing.

Now standing alone just outside of Reid's apartment, Prentiss stood there unsure of what to do. She couldn't hear any more sounds coming from within the apartment. She debated on whether that was a good thing or not. There may have been no shouted commands but did that mean everything was under control or that there simply wasn't any need for them.

Prentiss stood rooted in the spot as minutes ticked by. She knew she should probably leave as Reid hadn't wanted any of them stopping by. Yet, after hearing his yell and then Morgan's shout for Eric, she just couldn't leave. At least, not until she knew what was going on. Without knowing that Reid was okay. Still, something stopped her from taking those final steps into the apartment.

A hand on her shoulder caused her to jump.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you," Hotch said, having walked up behind Prentiss.

"It's okay. I just stopped by to drop off some soup and corn muffins," she said, explaining to her supervisor why she was here before he had to ask.

"Then why are you standing in the hallway with the front door part way opened?" Hotch asked, unable to keep his concern out of his voice. He didn't need to be an FBI agent to know that there was something wrong with the situation.

Prentiss explained the situation to him, leaving out the fact that she had heard Reid yell Hotch's name. She wasn't sure what that was about and didn't want to cause her supervisor to ask questions that she couldn't explain.

"I haven't heard anything else since," Prentiss said, finishing her account.

"Let's go in and wait then," he told her, reaching past the female agent to push the door all the way open. There was no way he was leaving until he received an update on Reid, and Hotch had a feeling that Prentiss felt the same way.

Hotch allowed Prentiss to precede him into the apartment. Stepping inside, he pushed the door shut with his free hand. He looked in the direction of the bedroom. He could now hear a murmur of voices coming from within, but couldn't make out what was being said. As much as he wanted to go find out what was going on, he held himself in check. The last thing he wanted to do was to get in the way.

"I see you've brought something here yourself," Hotch commented quietly to Prentiss instead.

"Yeah, I made some soup and bought some corn muffins," she said, glancing down at the containers in her hands. "I wanted to feel like I was doing something."

"I know that feeling," Hotch told her. "Let's take this stuff to the kitchen and put it away for now," he suggested.

Prentiss followed her supervisor through the unfamiliar apartment, having never been there before today. She glanced around. Somehow, the appearance of the apartment didn't surprise her any. The dark-haired agent felt that it suited her shy, awkward, genius teammate very well.

The two profilers put the soup and the meals that Haley had prepared into the refrigerator without any other words passing between them. Prentiss placed the container with the muffins inside on the counter. Her back to the counter, Prentiss leaned against it gazing at the cabinets across from her. There were many things she wanted to say, wanted to ask, but she couldn't seem to actually put voice any of them. It was as if she were to say them out loud it would make everything more real. Finally, she couldn't stand the silence anymore.

"Did we wait too long, sir? I mean I knew something wasn't right back in Texas," Prentiss said, thinking of Reid's words about how she didn't really know him. "I keep thinking that if I had said something to you or Gideon about it then, well that maybe it wouldn't have gotten this far."

Hotch shook his head. "You can't blame yourself. I think we've all known something wasn't right and given what happened, why would it have been? The problem was we were all recovering from Georgia and we missed our chance to head it off. After things started, well, what we could actually do was limited."

"Perhaps if we had tried sooner . . ."

"Gideon did," Hotch told her. "He didn't get anywhere."

He remembered the night that Gideon had stopped by to see him. It was right after they had returned from New Orleans. Hotch could tell the older profiler was upset as soon as he had opened the front door. Gideon had refused to come in, asking Hotch instead to step outside. Gideon had admitted to confronting Reid and said that the encounter hadn't gone well.

"He's not ready. I may have made things worse."

"So what do we do?"

"We only have two choices - follow policy and give up on him or continue to wait him out."

"I don't like either choice."

"Neither do it. I feel like I'm the passenger on a train going through hell."

"Imagine how he feels."

The agreement hadn't been made in words. Both agents knew that no matter what the consequences to themselves, they couldn't go through official channels on this. Knew that Reid would see that as a betrayal and that they would definitely lose him for good. Neither agent was ready to give up on him then. None of them were ready to give up on him now.

~We just need to make him realize that. Despite everything, the only way we're going to get through this is relying on one another, ~ Hotch thought.

Footsteps caused both agents to look toward the kitchen doorway to find Dr. Eric Rollins entering the room.

"I thought I heard voices in here," Eric commented.

"How is he?" Prentiss asked, voicing first the question that both of them wanted to ask.

Eric hesitated, his professional training keeping him from readily answering that question. ~But we're not at the hospital or the clinic. This isn't officially happening and these people are his friends, just like Derek. I wouldn't hesitate to tell Derek something, and he figured if his friend was here now, he wouldn't hold back giving the information to them.~

"Spencer had a panic attack stemming from a nightmare. Derek and I got him through it, he's stable and is recovering from it. Derek is with him now, still trying to keep him calm. It's the best we can do right now."

Prentiss felt a wave of relief flood over her. After all the worst case scenarios she had gone through in her head, a panic attack didn't seem all that serious.

"Well, I should probably go. I just wanted to drop off the soup and corn muffins I brought over for you all," Prentiss said. Now that she knew Reid wasn't in any immediate danger she felt extremely uncomfortable in his apartment uninvited.

"We all appreciate it," Eric told her as she walked toward him to leave the room. He grabbed her hand as she passed by. He waited for Prentiss to look at him before he continued. "After he gets through this initial stage, Spencer is going to need all of you. I can only do so much for him. After that it's going to be up to his friends."

"We'll be ready," Prentiss said, with much more confidence that she actually felt.

Prentiss left, leaving Eric and Hotch alone in the kitchen. Before either man could say anything, Hotch's phone rang. Taking it out of his jacket pocket, he saw Morgan's name and number on the screen.

~Apparently, he doesn't know I'm here,~ Hotch thought as he answered the call. "Hotchner."

"Hey, Hotch. Do you think you could come over here? Reid needs to see you right about now."

"I'm actually out in the kitchen," Hotch replied.

"I'll be right out," Morgan told him.

Hotch was just slipping the cell phone back into his pocket, as Morgan walked into the kitchen. Discreetly, Eric headed back into the living room. This was a conversation that he didn't need to be a part of.

"Morgan, what's going on?" Hotch asked.

"Eric told you about the panic attack?" Morgan asked, not bothering with asking for an explanation for the unit chief's presence. Seeing Hotch's nod of acknowledgment, the dark-skinned agent continued. "It was set off by a nightmare. Apparently, Reid's been suffering from nightmares ever since Georgia, making it hard for him to sleep."

"Morgan, I need the Dilaudid. It makes the nightmares go away for a time."

Morgan tried to ignore the memory of his friend saying those pleading words to him. He knew Reid needed to talk things out in order to get a lasting peace from the nightmares but he finally felt as if he understood how his friend had became so dependent on the drug. Remembering his own nightmares that had haunted his sleep, Morgan could remember feeling like he would do anything to be rid of them.

"Right now, the one that seems to be bothering him most is one in which Tobias shoots you. Remember, Reid was forced to pick one of us to die and he reluctantly chose you."

"To give us a clue," Hotch said. "And given the circumstances I can't blame him for making that choice to save his own life. It wasn't like I was in any immediate danger."

"I know that," Morgan said, wondering if Hotch knew about the shot that Tobias had fired into the air after Reid had made his choice. The bullet that would have killed Reid in front of them for a second time, if he hadn't made that choice. Hotch had already left the room, but Morgan didn't know if he had heard it or not. "Apparently Reid feels guilty about making that choice and though he hasn't admitted it, I think he feels like you hold him responsible for that choice. This last nightmare was so vivid to him that he really thought it was real. Thought that Tobias had really shot you. That was what sent him into the panic attack. I'm still having trouble getting him to really believe it was just a nightmare. He needs to see you. Needs to hear you tell him that you don't hold that choice against him."

"Of course," Hotch said, feeling guilty that he hadn't already had that conversation with the younger man.

"I knew you'd understand."

Hotch had been too overwhelmed by his own emotions at that point to make a reply to those words. All he had been able to do was hold Reid tight, thankful that they had gotten the team's youngest agent back alive. He had thought that would be enough. Thought Reid knew that he wasn't responsible for making that choice. That there was no blame involved.

~I should have put it into words, ~ Hotch thought regrettably, as he and Morgan headed in the direction of the bedroom.