Albany Police Station- 10 hours 45 minutes missing

"I just got off the phone with Mattie Kleau's boyfriend and he said that Mattie never noticed anyone following or watching her," Prentiss told Rossi in a hurried breath, "Since it was so late, the police couldn't find any witnesses to Mattie's kidnapping."

Rossi bent over the table and growled in annoyance. " Alright, alright- so what do we have so far?"

"Brunettes are the Dent's focus, they kill and dump those who don't live up to their expectations. The medical examiner told JJ that each victim suffered through all types of abuse- electric shock, whipping, beating- you name it. Should we alert the media?"

"No, we don't know the mind frame that our unsubs are in. Let's wait and play it by ear…Reid!" He called over to the youngest profiler who was concentrating on a map of the Albany area. Reid sat up, alert, and answered, "Yeah?"

"I need you to scout the mall again and this time: scout the blocks around the mall as well. There's got to be something that we're missing."

Reid nodded in agreement and picked up his jacket; Prentiss eyed him for a second before stating, "I'll go with him."

"No," Rossi said. He ignored her pouting and finished, "Emily, I know that you want to help, but…you fit the victimologoy. We lost Hotch because we didn't pay attention to that- I don't want to lose you too."

"Dave, I can't just sit here!" Prentiss exclaimed. She then lowered her voice, "I can't." Rossi raised an eyebrow and pulled her over to a corner in the conference room and asked, "Are you saying that out of concern for a friend or for someone that you want to be more than that?"

I don't even know myself. "Dave, I'll be more of help if I can go out into the field."

He sighed at her dismissal of his question. "I'm sorry, Emily, but you have to stay here." Prentiss watched him turn away and thought, He's right- what is Hotch to me? Would I want to be more than just friends?

Meadowfield Mall- 11 hours, 5 minutes missing

Reid walked slowly through the mall once again, picking up every detail his mind could take in. After walking through a four mile radius around the mall, he entered the nearly empty mall once again. He knew there was something that they were missing, something needed to be found fast.

Hotch's life was on the line.

"The Prince is good, the Prince is nice," he suddenly heard from the mall's dinning center. It was the same odd man that Reid had seen the last time that he was in the mall. The man was now sitting at a bench, rummaging through a large black trash bag.

Talk to him. "Sir, my name is Dr. Spencer Reid. Can we talk?" Reid called out cautiously, not wanting to scare the man. He slowly sat down on the bench as the man sang, "Everyone'll go to the ball again..."

"Sir, can you-" Reid froze when he spotted an FBI Kevlar vest in the bag- a vest with blood on it.

Changing tactics, he asked, "That's a pretty nice vest. Where did you get it?'

"From the Prince," the man answered excitedly. Reid nodded and asked, "Hey, do you want to go on a cool ride to a police station? It's a really cool place to see; I'll hold your bag while you're there and I promise that I'll give it back."

"Ok, but it can't be too long. Momma and Daddy are expecting me back!"

Reid carefully took the bag and opened it. He could see the vest, a bloody shirt, pants, and what Reid could assumed was Hotch's wallet. I think I just found our unsub.

Location Unknown: 12 Hours, 13 minutes Missing

It felt like it had been hours since the Dents had dressed and cleaned him up. Hotch felt fearful, violated, and anxious. To make matters worse, he felt like he was getting sicker by the minute. The Dents weren't planning to kill him, for all he knew, but they were unpredictable. The wife seemed the most delusional and for some sick reason their son seemed fascinated with him.

The touching, the staring, and even what Stanley had done after….

He was raped.

I can't believe that that happened. What would the team think of me? Hotch winced at the memory; it was like relieving the attack from Foyet over and over again.

I have to try to reason with Stanley or Mary-Ann! Daniel is the power holder and might kill me if I try to talk him out of this whole affair. He closed his eyes at the thought, trying to ignore the pain shooting through his body.

Hotch was so engrossed in his thoughts that he hadn't heard Mary Anne and Daniel come down the stairs. Daniel tightly gripped the arms of a bound and weak woman who Hotch didn't recognize. They kidnapped another person. At least it's not Emily….The thought of her going through the same torture made him wince again.

The bound woman was thrust forward onto the ground, landing on her knees. Daniel pulled out a pistol and aimed it at her, examining her as well.

"What do you think, hon?" he called back to Mary-Anne. "Do they make a cute couple?"

"Yep…yes- I think this will work," Mary Anne said, "Mattie and Aaron. I love the sound of that."

Mattie whimpered out a cry before she was taken forcefully back up the stairs by Mary Anne. Daniel smiled maliciously at Hotch before saying, "Oh, there's something that I've been meaning to do for a while now."

His next move was unexpected; Daniel pulled a cloth from his pocket and blindfolded Hotch.

No, NO-NO! If I can't see, I can't- they can't leave me alone blindfolded! Hotch heard the footsteps leave the room and then suddenly silence. The Unit Chief froze, taking short, staggered breaths.

Think about the team, think about Jack, Hotch repeated in his head until without knowing it, he fell asleep.

Albany Police Department- 14 Hours Missing

Morgan folded his arms and stared at Stanley Dent, the man Reid had found in the mall. Stanley now sat across from Morgan in the interrogation room. He was grateful that Reid had spotted him, but they were delayed once it was concluded that Stanley was a mentally disabled man. After hunting for a few hours, they had found a tense, irritable woman from social services to help them interview Stanley.

"What's your name?" Morgan asked as he dropped a case file onto the metal desk. The man sniffed and rubbed his nose, "Stanley Dent. Can I go home now?"

"Agent Reid found you talking about a prince. Can you tell me what you meant?"

"Did you trick Mr. Dent into coming here without an explanation?" The social services representative suddenly snapped at Morgan.

He responded, "Lives are on the line. We did what we had to do. If I were you, I'd hope to hell that none of those lives were lost after us having to hunt you down for four hours."

The representative instantly quieted down, allowing Morgan turned his attention back to Stanley. "What were you talking about, Stanley?"

"Momma and Daddy found the perfect prince and…I took a girl-her name's Mattie- she's going to be the princess! I need to get home-"

Morgan dropped a photo of Hotch in front of Stanley. "The prince that you keep talking about- is it this man?"

"Yeah- you know him?"

"He's my superior and a very close friend. Where is he?"

"He's with Momma and Daddy: he's going to be the prince."

"I know that, Stanley. Where is Agent Hotchner?"

"He's at the ball getting ready! Geez, you need to listen!"

Morgan put his hands on the table and glared into Stanley's eyes. The representative gripped her briefcase very tightly at Morgan's aggressiveness. "Where is Agent Hotchner?"the agent repeated.

"That's his last name? I didn't know that."

"You took him and you didn't know this?"

The representative darkened her expression. "Agent Morgan, what proof-"

"I didn't take him- Momma and Daddy did."

Morgan turned around and faced the interrogation window to catch his breath. Calm down and try this again. Now we know for sure that Mary- Anne and Daniel took Hotch. Hotch is over six feet tall; it's a two man job to take someone of his skill and physique down. After a minute of thinking, Morgan turned around and faced Stanley again.

"What have your parents done with Hotc-Aaron and Mattie?" Morgan asked in a calmer tone.

"They took Aaron, tied him up and put him in the basement. Mattie's tied up somewhere upstairs. Mattie's room is a really nice room- it has pictures of farms and-"

"Stanley, answer the question."

Stanley crossed his arms and pouted. "I did! You're really mean!"

"Your parents kidnapped and killed innocent people! What did they do to the people that they took?"

"Well, they tried to see who the best was. All I know is that Daddy took the losers to the shed and killed them- I don't know how. I'm glad we found Mattie and Aaron, though. I got talk to them, check them-"

"How did you do that?"

"I made sure that their bodies was good. I really liked them ," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "and then I did something really naughty."

Here we go. "What did you do, Stanley?"

Stanley put a hand near his mouth and like a child, spelled out in a whisper, "s-e-x."

Did he- did he do what I think he just did ? Morgan laid out a picture of every victim of the Dent's, including Hotch and Mattie. " For investigative purposes…..Which two did you do that to?"

Stanley rocked back and forth and touched a Mattie and Hotch's photos. Morgan stepped back, fighting every nerve telling him to strangle Stanley.

"You sexually assaulted Mattie Kluea and my friend?" From outside, Rossi's eyes widened as he felt concern; mostly for Hotch and a little for Stanley, who Rossi was sure Morgan was going to strangle any minute now. JJ closed her eyes in shock and Reid stepped towards the door, ready to stop Morgan if the agent snapped.

Prentiss turned her head away from the glass and walked over to the other side of the hallway. If those bastards did anything else to him, I will kill them. She bent her head down and swallowed. Out of the many times that co-workers, FBI or not, had been in trouble, she had only felt this sick and scared during one another incident.

It was with Foyet, a major incident where Hotch's life was in danger. She thought, maybe…maybe, I've fallen….no; I couldn't have fallen for him! Have I?

Back inside the interrogation room, Stanley told Morgan, "Yeah, it was fun. Mattie cried forever after...and your boss was real quiet after."

Morgan started to pace slowly as a way to deal with his rising anger.

"Anyway, so there's also a ball- do you want to come? I can tell you when the date-"

Morgan suddenly lunged forward towards Stanley, but was stopped short of Stanley by Reid, who grabbed his arm. Rossi sprinted into the room and grabbed Morgan's other arm and pulled him to the wall as Morgan yelled, " No- let me at him!"

Stanley jumped up and cowered back to the opposing corner as Rossi and Reid pulled their livid colleague out of the interrogation room. Rossi pulled Morgan into the adjoining conference room as Reid let Morgan's arm go and muttered, " That son of a-"

"That son of a bitch! I can't believe this!" Morgan yelled. He slammed a fist into the wall in anger as JJ sat down at the table in shock. "Hotch- My God- we need to get him home," she whispered.

"Morgan, he is a mentally disabled man- some of this could just be a misunderstanding! "Rossi exclaimed as Morgan started to pace in front of him. " We can't be sure of this until we find these guys and get Hotch and Mattie home!"

"He may be dead, Dave. You just said- he could be confusing all of this-" Reid stated quietly.

"Don't talk like he's dead," JJ snapped, " If we do that-"

"It's been 14 hours, JJ. The chance of him- the both of them surviving is getting lower by the hour. We need to be realistic-"

Rossi sent a glare to both JJ and Reid. "We can't tear each other's heads off and we can't talk about Aaron like he's dead. We're all upset and that is perfectly normal, but we need to focus and bring Hotch home. I'll go talk and speak with Stanley again."

In the interrogation room, Stanley fiddled with his fingers for fifteen minutes as the representative calmly explained the situation to him. At the end of the fifteen minute period, Rossi quietly entered the room. He placed the same folder Morgan had held onto the table.

"I assume he'll be disciplined?" the representative exclaimed.

"Sorry about my friend there. He's upset," Rossi said calmly, trying to earn over Stanley's trust. He ignored the rep's question. Stanley snorted, "He should learn some manners!"

"Yeah….we're trying that. Hey, Stanley, I know you're trying to get ready for the ball, but my team and I are Aaron's friends and we'd like him back."

Stanley placed both palms onto the interrogation table. "Uuuuhhhh….I don't know. A lot of them died and...We had to search really really hard...I think he caught a cold. Our basement's really cold-"

So they're alive…for now. "I'm sorry that they didn't survive. You said that you have Aaron in the basement?"

Outside the interrogation room, JJ watched the interrogation room with her hands on her hips. Her legs were weak from fatigue; the long case had her beyond exhausted. She was dying to sleep, but knew that if anything happened to Hotch while she took a nap, she would never forget herself.

"Anything?" Prentiss asked, suddenly appearing next to JJ. The blonde agent twitched at her friend's appearance; she was so out of it, she didn't even hear Prentiss walk into the room.

"No..I don't know. He's just babbling aimlessly. We do know that they have Hotch in a basement, he and Mattie are still alive, and that Hotch may be getting sick."

"Damn. Can we ever get any good news on this case?"

"No," JJ let out an exhaustive sigh, "Where's Morgan and Reid?"

"I sent them for a walk- they're upset, especially Morgan. I hope to God that Hotch is alright."

"Me too. Are you ok?"

"Yeah." I'm not, I'm scared. I'm so scared for him.