Disclaimer: See chapter 1

----------------------

Searchers started to arrive at the precinct by the dozens. Detective Townsend had called several fishing shops that showed up with waders for the searchers to wear while in the drains. Some local electronics places showed up with waterproof walkie talkies and flashlights. Hotch and JJ had made up assignment sheets. When everyone had congregated, Hotch called for quiet and told the assembled group, "We want to concentrate our efforts on this section." He pointed to the area Reid had circled. "Dr. Reid has determined that is the most likely area to find the girls. We call it the perpetrator's comfort zone." Sergeant Tillman rolled his eyes. Hotch noticed and longed to say something to the man but that would only embarrass Reid and he couldn't waste the precious time. "We can dismiss any grass swales or concrete channels as they're too open. We can also dismiss any asphalt and stone channels too small to fit a man. That narrows our search down a bit. If you will all see Special Agent Jareau," Hotch pointed to JJ, "she will give you your assignment. One of the BAU team will be in each of the six sections mapped out. Radio one of us if you find anything. Thank you all for your help."

The group dispersed and JJ was inundated with searchers but she handed out assignments in an orderly fashion. After receiving their assignments, the members of the search party went to vans to take each group to its assigned area. Reid was the first in the back of his van since he'd chosen his own assignment. He was clad in a navy blue wader and carried a waterproof flashlight and his walkie talkie was stored in the wader's chest pocket. The next person to enter the van and sit across from him was Sergeant Tillman. The man eyed Reid who stared back. Finally Tillman looked away. The van soon filled and they were on their way into the stormy night.

After what seemed like an endless drive through the hazardous conditions, Reid and the five others in his van were let out near a concrete outfall in a grassy area just off SW Burlingame Road. The six men traveled a short distance together to where the outfall separated into six channels. Each man took a channel and went in to investigate. The channels were much more compact than the outfall itself and Reid had to stoop to get through. He trained his flashlight from side to side in the pitch blackness, looking for any sign of the little girls. He could feel the sandy sludge beneath his feet as dead leaves floated on the water. The farther he got into the channel, the faster the water flowed around him and the deeper it got which only increased the urgency to find the girls.

Like Reid, Morgan was also stooped in a channel a few miles north. He also noticed how the water was deepening the farther in he got. He swung his flashlight and wondered if Sergeant Tillman had any idea how hard this was for Reid. The guy was afraid of the dark for crying out loud! He didn't like the feel of silt or the damp leaves under his feet. It brought back bad memories. Yet he was here. He never balked, not for one second. He had been the first to choose an assignment. Morgan thought of the teasing he put his buddy through. Some said it was mean but he couldn't help it. He knew deep down Reid knew that he loved him. He also knew what those not close to Reid didn't; underneath the nerdy quirky façade, Reid had balls of steel.

Hotch, Rossi, Prentiss and JJ were in the same situation as Reid and Morgan, trudging through the blackness, looking, praying for any sign of the three children. As the water seemed to get deeper with every step, so their hopes seemed to get inversely more shallow.

Sergeant Tillman was cursing "Dr. Reid," and Lyle Tillman wasn't a man who cursed very often. Here he was, stuck in a storm drain for God's sake, up to his…in dirty water and for what. Nothing, that's what, nothing would come of this like nothing came from the arrest the mighty BAU had made. They came in with their earth shattering profile that it's someone seeking revenge. Well yeah, an eye for an eye, a third grader could have told you that. Oh well, when it was all over, at least it would be, the oh so highly educated Dr. Reid and not the TPD that would have egg on his face. He swung his light around and thought he saw something move. He swung his light back to the spot but it was gone. He heard a noise; at least he thought he did. Oh my God, this was getting ridiculous. Now he thought he was hearing things. He stilled his movement in the water and listened more closely. He did hear something faintly over the flowing water. He sped forward as fast as he could, his movement making small waves in the flowing water.

Then he saw it. He couldn't believe his eyes. A little girl was dog paddling in the water. He could barely see her head over the water. He closed his eyes and opened them again to ensure himself what he was seeing was real. He grabbed the walkie talkie and screamed at the top of his lungs, "Help, it's Tillman in channel one. I can see one of them!" He dropped the walkie talkie back in his pocket and hurried toward the child.

Reid heard the call from Tillman and attempted to run through the deep water. He wasn't swinging his light like before and barely noticed the darkness around him. He had to get to those children.

Tillman grabbed the little girl who screamed. Tillman shone the light. "It's okay honey, I'm a policeman. We've been looking for you. Where are the others?" he asked. The little girl pointed a little further up the channel. Tillman trudged forward with the one girl still in his arms.

Reid reached the opening of his channel and ran into channel one. He was short of breath from trying to propel himself quickly through the water. He swung his flashlight from side to side frantically, looking for Tillman and the girls.

Tillman was finding it even more difficult to negotiate the water now that he had a child in his arms, as well as trying to swing his flashlight from side to side so they could see. He came a short distance when he saw another girl attempting to keep her head above water by jumping. She obviously didn't know how to dog paddle like the first girl. He swept her into his arms when he heard a voice.

"Tillman," Reid yelled, "where are you? Can you hear me?"

"I'm over here," Tillman yelled as loud as he could, "quick." Tillman could see the light from a flashlight bobbing towards him. "Over here," he yelled again. Reid followed the voice and then he saw in his flashlight beam, Tillman holding Mindy Sangstrom and Rebecca Ramos.

"Where's the other one?" he asked urgently, "where's Jessica?"

"Sh…sh…she was h…here," Rebecca said as her teeth chattered from emersion in the cold water.

"Jessica," Reid yelled in the darkness. "Jessica," he yelled again with no response from the child. Reid sucked in a breath and put his head down in the water and, with the aid of his flashlight, he saw her in the water only a few feet away. Reid covered the distance quickly and his arms came out of the water with the lifeless body of Jessica Adderly. They could hear voices as the others from their team had arrived. "Radio for paramedics, now!" he told them. Reid rushed through the water with a strength he didn't realize he possessed. He had to get the child to a place where he could effectively do CPR. The going was rough in his stooped position carrying a child but he eventually made it to the outfall and to the grassy area beyond where he deposited Jessica on the ground.

One of the newcomers had taken Rebecca from Tillman and they were making their way out of the channel while a teammate lit the way with his flashlight. On the grassy knoll, Reid expressed water from Jessica's lungs as best he could and began CPR, totally oblivious to the rain that pelted down on him. He could hear sirens in the distance growing louder and soon an ambulance arrived. The paramedics jumped out into the downpour with a stretcher and their medical equipment to find Reid on the grass, one hand on the small girl's chest and the other on her forehead to keep her head tilted for rescue breathing. He maintained a steady rhythm of compressions and breaths until the paramedics took over.

Reid sat on the grass beside the child while the paramedics worked on her, one starting an IV and delivering epinephrine while the other continued compressions and breathing with the help of an ambubag. Reid took hold of her small hand and squeezed softly. It's what he would have wanted someone to do if this had been his Joanna. One of the paramedics yelled, "I have a pulse," as he felt the carotid artery in her neck. Jessica was still not breathing on her own however and the other paramedic continued to deliver breaths with the ambubag. Reid squeezed the tiny hand again and closed his eyes willing the little girl to breathe.

Reid's mind registered Sergeant Tillman and his other four partners coming out of the outfall with Mindy and Rebecca and heading for the ambulance and shelter for the delicate little souls. He couldn't leave Jessica. He would stay with her as long as it took to get her back.

Suddenly the three men noticed a cough beneath the mask. The paramedic pulled the mask away and Jessica coughed up water and began to breath again. The paramedics quickly but gently transferred the girl to a stretcher and took her to the ambulance. Another ambulance had arrived for the other two girls. The paramedics didn't question when Reid got into the ambulance beside Jessica and continued to hold her hand. When the ambulance had started it's trip to the hospital with sirens blaring, the child opened her eyes. She didn't know where she was and she should be scared she thought but somebody held her hand. She looked up at the person. He was all wet and dripping. Hazel eyes met brown ones. The brown eyes smiled. "Hi Jessica," he said.