Albany Police Station- 74 minutes later

"Dave, can I ask you a question in private?" Prentiss asked the eldest agent, who was pouring himself a cup of coffee. He stopped mid pour at the fearful look on Prentiss' face. "Yeah, everything ok?"

Prentiss swallowed and pointed over to Conference Room D. She entered it and closed the door behind Rossi. "I'm really worried about Hotch," she said in one breath.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, first, it's been a little over an hour and he hasn't been heard from," Prentiss stated, "That's just not like him."

"Well, did you call him?" Prentiss sighed, Rossi was always the one to be calm in any situation. She pulled out her phone and dialed Hotch's number. After two rings, it went to voicemail. "It went straight to voicemail, which means he could be in trouble or-"

"He's interviewing the Dents and doesn't want to be disturbed, Emily," He put a hand on her shoulder, " I know that…the last time a situation like this happened, Foyet had gotten a hold of him, but I assure you that Aaron's fine."

Maybe I'm just being paranoid. "You're probably right. I-I'm sorry."

"Nope, it's alright," Rossi motioned over to where the remaining teammates sat, "Come on, let's catch this guy and head home." She smiled and walked out of the room towards Morgan, who was sitting on a desk as he spoke to Reid. Prentiss suddenly slowed down her pace when she saw JJ speaking to an Albany police officer with a horrified expression on her face. The blonde profiler shook the officer's hand before sprinting towards the team.

"Guys, we have a big problem!" JJ exclaimed, "Hotch is missing!"

"What do you mean 'he's missing'?" Prentiss asked, her nerves rising. Please don't be as bad as I think it is…please!

"An officer was driving by the Dent household and they saw the SUV Hotch took just sitting in front of the house even though both vehicles for the Dents were gone. The officer decided to just walk by just to make sure everything was ok. He found Hotch's weapons, wallet, cell phone, jacket, and blood by the cellar, but not Hotch, Mary Anne or Daniel."

"He's been gone for an hour! Damn it!" Morgan exclaimed.

"I don't know how this happened, but someone needs to go to the house and check things out. The rest of us need to stay here and work on the case," Rossi directed.

"I'll go," Morgan volunteered. He was almost immediately followed by Prentiss volunteering, "I'll go as well."

JJ nodded and said, "Good luck," as the two agents grabbed their jackets. "Come back safe."

Dent Household

Morgan screeched the SUV to a stop before Prentiss jumped out and walked briskly to the Dent home. The area wasn't like what he had expected; it was a small house in the middle of a new housing area. There were only two other homes on the block and multiple open fields surrounding the area.

Morgan scanned the area and gulped. We shouldn't have had him do this alone.

"Morgan!" Prentiss suddenly called. The agent jogged over to her side where she knelt in front the path of blood drops the police officer had found earlier. She narrowed her eyes as she scanned the path which led to the small concrete driveway. "What do you think?"

"I think they hit Hotch and dragged him to a vehicle. We're in the middle of nowhere- it could be anything- a car, truck, van. Open area means no witnesses."

"Why would they take Hotch? We assumed that they had planned each abduction. " Prentiss stood up and began observing the details of the front yard, searching for something that would appear to be out of place.

"Victim of Opportunity? He…and you are both brunettes," Morgan suggested, noticing the neighbors peeking their heads out the doors at the sight of them.

"Well, that doesn't explain the planning-,"Prentiss closed her eyes and groaned in annoyance. The day before, JJ, Reid, and Hotch had walkthrough the shopping center, asking Albany residents if they had noticed anyone with any suspicious behavior. Near the movie theater, they had accidently been caught in the shooting of a news story in the mall, which within minutes, aired on televisions across the Albany area.. "Derek, the walkthrough that Reid, JJ, and Hotch did- they were caught on camera! Damn it! We shouldn't have let him go alone!"

"Emily, this isn't your fault!"

"Derek, he's been acting weird for weeks because of an aching feeling of his! Now, he must be-oh God, how did we mess this up?" She cursed under a breath and kicked one of the hedges in frustration.

Morgan pulled her close and told her, "None of this is your fault, you hear me? We'll bring Hotch home-safe. Ok?"

"Alright. Now what?"

"We hunt those bastards down," he muttered, pulling out his cell phone to call Garcia. "You're going to tell Garcia?" Prentiss asked with a raised eyebrow. The gentle technical analyst always freaked when one of her babies as she called them, got in trouble. This isn't going to go well, especially after with what happened with Foyet, Tobias, and Doyle.

"We have to." He speed dialed Garcia and heard after two rings, "Speak and it shall be done."

"Baby girl, I need you to do me a favor."

"Sure, sweet thing. Just name it and it's yours."

"I need you to promise to be focused and not freaked out after what I'm about to tell you." A silence followed; Morgan was certain for a moment that the technical analyst had gone into shock.

"Tell me."

"Hotch was kidnapped by the unsubs," Morgan paused before continuing, "I need you to pull up the footage from last night that Hotch, JJ, and Reid got caught on."

"….I can do that," Garcia said slowly, her voice shaking. "Anything…else?"

"I need you to keep digging and get as much as possible on the Dents. We're at their home and no one's here. See if they have any other properties and get officers and CSU down here ASAP. Ok?"

"Ok….I'll call…when I get something. Bye."

Morgan heard her hang up before muttering, "That went well. Let's head back. We'll rerun the profile and get Albany crime scene techs in the house to see if there is anything pertinent. It's going to be hard, but we need to treat this as fair as we can. Hotch is the fifth victim."

Prentiss nodded with closed eyes. Hopefully he'll come home to us safe as the last victim.

Albany Police Station- 2 hours, 6 minutes missing

Rossi clicked the pause button and froze the frame on the news footage from the previous day. The frame had included a panoramic view of the area near the theater where a viewer could see Hotch, JJ, and Reid. Hotch had been the most predominate one shown in the frame.

JJ stared at the screen with her hand on her chin. It didn't make sense; there was nothing that gave away that they were FBI to viewers. Rossi leaned back in the chair, lost in his thoughts. Morgan and Prentiss were on their way back from the household, empty handed. Reid had taken three officers and returned to the shopping mall.

Rossi heard a beep come from the laptop and he clicked it, pulling up Garcia through the webcam.

"Sir, I figured out something big," Garcia said, her expression fearful yet focused. She pulled up photos of all the victims.

"OK, look at each photo carefully. What do you see?"

Rossi closed his eyes, "We don't have time for this. Just tell us."

"They're dressed up for a party," JJ said softly, "It's like they're going to a ball…..like a fairy tale."

"You're serious?"

"Rossi, look at them. The men had jobs where they could sweep a woman off their feet- a surgeon, firefighter...FBI agent. This is a delusion for the Dent's...I think…they want to find a prince and a princess. I think that's why the kidnappings are serial-"

"Because they haven't found them yet."

"Exactly and yesterday they saw on the news or at the mall a tall, dark haired male that's-"

"Strong and handsome?" Garcia suggested with a smile.

"Yes and that's why they took him."

"How did they know that he was coming? Alone?"

JJ looked towards the bullpen filled with Albany police officers. "I don't know. I really don't."