A/N: Sorry this update took so long. Blame it on an earthquake, Hurricane Irene, mandatory evacuation, and a bad case of writer's block. Also, I noticed that this story hasn't had many reviews since I resumed writing it, and I can only think it's due to the period of time that passed before I did resume it.

Chapter 10

Hunt studied the expression on his daughter-in-law's face as he undid the restraints holding Hotch to the table after the ECT treatment was finished. The profiler's head was slowly lolling from side-to-side as he mumbled incoherently.

"Once we get Agent Hotchner back to his room, make sure you content Dr. Reid and have him come here to question you."

"But wouldn't you prefer I sit was Agent Hotchner and monitor him?" Daria asked hoping Hunt would change his mind about her talking with the FBI, in particular, one Spencer Reid, as she moved the wheelchair closer to the table and locked the wheels. She continued waiting for him to respond as together, they moved Hotch to the wheelchair and Hunt strapped the agent in with Hotch's head falling forward, chin resting on his chest.

"We've already discussed this, Daria," Hunt said sternly. "You know why you must speak with Agent Reid. I'm not going to discuss it further." He took a deep breath and exhaled through his nose. "Besides, I'm sure Agent Hotchner will be fine if left alone for a short time. After you finish speaking with Dr. Reid, check on Adam before you leave the hospital. Ron and I will be waiting for you."

"Yes, sir," Daria said glumly as she released the lock on the wheels and pushed the wheelchair forward with Dr. Hunt walking just ahead of her.

The eight images in Hotch's mind were hazier than before, their faces more obscured than before. He could barely see them right now. His eyes opened a slit and tried to focus without success and he groaned as he weakly rolled his head around before his chin again fell onto his chest. He could see the hazy image of a child running towards him and wrapping his arms around his legs.

"Daddy!" the child said happily looking up at him with a toothy smile. "Daddy!"

"Aaron?" the faceless woman said staring at him. "Aaron, come back to us. Jack and I need you. Please come back to us."

Hotch lifted his head which felt heavy to him at the moment, and rotated it slowly. "Come back…." he muttered. "Must…come back…have to…come back…." He let his head fall forward again and was silent. The images in his mind faded slowly until they were gone completely.

The others looked up when Reid and Prentiss walked in. The young agent, ignoring the others, silently collapsed into a chair and stared dejectedly at his hands as he picked at his fingernails. Prentiss, sighing sadly, looked at her friend, worried, before turning and facing the others. She went on to explain what transpired in her meeting with Dr. Bowman.

"Bottom line is he didn't order any ECT treatments for either Andrea Ackles or Donna Marvel," she concluded. "In fact, he said both girls were responding to their medications and doing well."

"Then somebody else decided on their own to conduct experiments on these and the other women knowing that because of their psychiatric histories, nobody would question it," said Rossi, pyramiding his fingers in front of him.

"What I don't get is what these UnSubs are trying to do with these ECT treatments," said Morgan, confused. "I mean, we know they're subjecting these women to electroshock treatments, but what kind of experiments are they conducting that requires them to use electroshock in the first place?"

Rossi's eyes narrowed. "The ME said there was a drug that causes catatonia in people in the lab work on Andrea Ackles along with trace amounts of a paralytic drug. Now hear me out first. What if these UnSubs were purposely putting and keeping these women in a catatonic state, and then using electroshock to bring them out of it?

"But why put them into a catatonic state to begin with?" asked Prentiss.

"That's the question I don't have the answer to yet," Rossi replied.

"What's wrong, Reid?" Morgan asked seeing the young man's expression.

Reid didn't look up. "Nothing," he said listlessly.

"C'mon, Reid," Morgan said. "Don't sit there with that face and tell us nothing's bothering you when it's obvious something is. You know you can tell us anything. Now what's wrong? "

Reid would only shrug his shoulders. How could he explain what was bothering him so that he didn't sound like he was crazy or maybe delusional? Especially when he wasn't exactly sure himself of what he felt.

"Then talk to me," Morgan said quietly. "What's troubling you, kid?" Reid didn't respond but continued looking at his fingers.

Rossi and JJ exchanged concerned looks with each other before the blond slowly got to her feet and walked over to the man she considered her baby brother, and sat down beside him, facing him, resting a hand on his arm. The young agent looked up and allowed his hazel eyes to look directly into JJ's bright blue ones. She didn't need to be a profiler to see the pain in his eyes and believed she knew the reason behind it. She believed it to be the same reason they all felt but had to push into the background while on this case. She allowed a slight smile to appear on her lips.

"We still miss him, too," she said gently. "So you're not alone." JJ saw the corners of Reid's mouth turn upward slightly as he blinked repeatedly. Looking into the blond's eyes, he could see she knew and understood how he felt.

"I know," Reid said softly. "It's just that it's hard focusing on this case knowing that Hotch disappeared while we were working an identical case in Louisville three years ago with possibly the same UnSubs being responsible."

"Listen kid," Morgan said gently. "If you find you can't concentrate on this case tell us now. We won't hold it against you. We know it's got to be tougher on you especially so soon after Gideon's leaving like he did. But we could really use that big ole brain of yours to catch these UnSubs."

Reid swallowed the growing lump in his throat then exhaled deeply. He would not give up no matter how difficult things became during this case. Afterall, he owed it to Hotch to see things through, even if, in the end, they never found out what happened to their former Unit Chief. He looked between Rossi and Morgan. "I can do my job," he said.

"There's no question as to whether or not you can do your job," Rossi began. "That's never been the issue. The issue is whether or not you believe you can handle it if in the end, we find out what happened to Hotch, and the news isn't good, or we don't find him at all."

Reid looked at the older profiler and knew what he had said he didn't want to think of as even a remote possibility. He couldn't allow himself to think that. He was so positive Hotch was still alive that any other possibility had never even entered his mind until Rossi alluded to it just now.

"I owe it to Hotch to help solve this case," Reid said now looking Rossi directly in the face. He swallowed hard. "And if the worst case scenario happens, I'll owe it to Hotch to stay focused and find his killers. But I feel he is still alive but in serious danger."

"Why do you feel Hotch may be in danger besides him being a prisoner?" asked Prentiss now looking at the young man with concern. "Just because we haven't found him or his body yet doesn't mean he might not have been killed. Our UnSubs could have just hidden his body where we haven't found it yet."

Reid turned in his seat to allow himself to look at her. "Think about it," he began becoming excited. "We haven't found any new female victims since we were called to help with this case? Why?"

Prentiss was momentarily stumped and shrugged. "Maybe there are and we just haven't found them yet. But just because we haven't, doesn't mean that there aren't others. So I don't see where you're going with this."

"That's just it," Reid continued glancing around at the others. "Don't you see? UnSubs like this don't stop taking victims just because the FBI is involved. They would want to continue leaving bodies just to show their superiority to the local police and the FBI. I believe they stopped because they had now had something better. They had Hotch. And once they had him, they didn't need any more female victims. They had an FBI agent in their hands to use."

Rossi's eyes narrowed as he thought about what their young genius was saying. "He's got a point," he said. "It's possible these UnSubs are using Aaron the same way they were using these women. To use in some kind of sick, twisted experiment of theirs."

Reid turned his full attention to the older agent. "Exactly. And if they are, Hotch will lose ten percent of himself with each ECT treatment. And depending on how many treatments he received so far, he may never regain the parts of himself that he's lost. But what worries me is what they've been doing to him for three years. They could have spent much of that time putting him into a drug-induced catatonic state for the express purpose of conducting the ECT treatments. But, I'm also afraid if they've already given him the allotted number of electroshock treatments which would be between six to twelve in total, he may have already lost himself completely, and we won't be able to get him back no matter what." He saw the others all exchange looks amongst themselves.

"Meaning what?" asked a horrified JJ.

Reid looked at her. "Meaning, if and when we find Hotch, we have to be prepared that he might not be the same person that we knew, and may never be again. It's also possible he may not even know who we are or even remember us. Electroshock therapy can often affect a person's long-term memory, sometimes permanently."

Morgan turned his attention to the younger man. "Okay, I can see where you're coming from, Reid," Morgan said. "But what I'm not seeing is how do you know Hotch is being given these electroshock treatments? I mean, we have no proof he's even being held in that hospital."

"While I was waiting for Emily, I tried to get inside the room of one of the patients, an Adam Hefner. Dr. Hunt's daughter-in-law blocked my entry into the room. She also seemed extremely nervous with me being so close to even seeing inside. I also got the distinct impression she was doing all she could to keep me from seeing who was in that room. Add that to the fact that the name Adam Hefner is very similar to sounding like Aaron Hotchner." Reid saw Morgan and the others look at each other and then him again.

"But that still doesn't mean this Adam Hefner is really Hotch," said Morgan. "I mean, it's a psychiatric hospital, Reid. They naturally would guard a patient's privacy there from prying outside eyes."

"I know that, Derek," Reid replied. "And I can't explain it. But I truly believe Hotch is in that hospital even if this Adam Hefner turns out not to be him. It's the perfect place in which to keep him prisoner and hide him from outside eyes using a patient's privacy as a cover story."

Morgan sighed as his eyes fell on Rossi and noticed him tapping his pyramided fingertips together. "What are you thinking about, Rossi?" he asked.

Rossi straightened up in his seat. "We need to get a look at this Adam Hefner. If it is Aaron, we'll need to move and move quickly," he said.

"And what if it isn't Hotch?" asked Morgan matter-of-factly. "We could be letting ourselves in for a big letdown."

"Maybe," Rossi replied with a glance at Reid. "But at least we'll know. Plus, I think the risk is worth it." He then looked at Reid. "Do you think…." Before he could continue, he was interrupted by the ringing of Reid's cell phone. Removing it from his pocket, the young agent looked at the caller ID and saw who was calling.

"It's Daria Hunt," he announced looking at Rossi.

"Convenient," was the older agent's reply. "Answer it."

Reid pressed the cell to his ear. "Hello?" He listened to the woman on the other end while glancing at Rossi as he did so. "I understand. No. No, it's fine. I can be there in about an hour. Goodbye." He disconnected the call and tucked his phone back in his pocket. "She wasn't able to talk to me at the hospital before and I told her I had some questions for her. She wants me to come to the hospital now to speak with her."

Rossi nodded. "Interesting. Take Morgan with you. I don't want you going there alone even though it's only to speak with Daria Hunt."

"What about the profile?" asked Morgan as he got to his feet.

"We can handle it," Rossi said. "I don't want Reid to go alone."

"Why?" asked the young profiler. "I can handle the questioning on my own."

"I know, and I'm not worried about that in the least," Rossi assured him. "I just figure while you're talking with the good doctor's daughter-in-law, Morgan might be able to look around and see if he can get inside the room of our mysterious Mr. Hefner."

Morgan and Reid exchanged looks. "Let's go, kid," Morgan said as he started towards the door with Reid following.

"Just keep in mind…." Rossi reminded them, "If our Adam Hefner turns out to be Hotch, don't try to handle things yourselves. We don't want to tip anybody off that we're onto them. If you find Hotch in that room, call us, and we'll get an army out there."

"Help…me…." Hotch, eyes closed, moaned in a weak voice as his head slowly flopped from side-to-side. "Help…me…" His eyes were even too heavy to open. In fact, his head felt too heavy to even lift, and the energy he expelled just turning his head was rapidly tiring him out. "Where are…you?" he asked, not even knowing who he was asking for help from. In fact, Hotch was so out of it, he didn't hear the door of his room open, nor the footsteps of the man who entered silently before standing beside his bed looking down at him.

"You bastard," the man hissed in a low voice, his face contorted in anger. "You think you can take her away from me? Guess again!" He began clenching and unclenching his fists as his arms hung at his sides. He despised the man lying on the bed seemingly oblivious to his presence which was just fine with him.

Hotch, hearing a voice which sounded as if it were floating from somewhere above, struggled to open his eyes just a slit, but found they could not focus on anything. Everything was hazy. All he could make out was a blurry shape standing over him. "Help…me," he struggled to say in a voice just above a whisper.

"I cannot allow you to have Daria," the man said coldly as he reached a hand forward and removed one of the two pillows beneath Hotch's head. He then squeezed the pillow tightly in both hands as he tightly gripped the pillow, his eyes never leaving the profiler's face. "You think you can just come into the picture and take her away from me? I will not let you have her. She belongs to me!" He started to leave over the dark-haired man bringing the pillow close to Hotch's face.

"Daria?" asked Hotch, puzzled. Where had he heard that name? But more importantly and at the same time, he couldn't recall even having heard that name before. "Who's…Daria?" He swallowed hard. "Never heard name before. So…tired…" he murmured tiredly, closing his eyes.

The man paused holding the pillow just above Hotch's head at hearing the agent's question. But then, just as quickly, the man snickered and lowered the pillow onto the now seemingly unconscious agent's face and held it in place with both hands, applying pressure.