"I know you're out there
With rage in your eyes and your megaphones
Saying all is forgiven
Mad Dog surrender
How can I answer
A man of my mind can do anything..."

Steely Dan

David Rossi had to admit, he was skeptical when Erin Strauss told him Carrie Hendricks would be documenting this case for a future documentary. It wasn't that he didn't believe in Carrie's journalistic abilities, far from it. It was the BAU team that he was concerned about. He couldn't see them opening up and talking to her, didn't see them wanting to share their day to day duties with her. Much to his surprise, after an initial meeting with her, they all began to open up to her.

She sat back, observing, letting them work and to Rossi's surprise, they were explaining things, telling her things, including her in discussions, while doing their best to ignore the camera.

Carrie had been with them for nearly a week and as the case progressed, she'd carefully documented their frustrations and triumphs, capturing the roller coaster of emotions that the case had evoked. He gave her credit; she knew when to turn off the camera. She'd made sure she didn't film Morgan's frustrated tirade over the Unsub's taunting calls to the local PD or even Garcia's tears when she'd seen pictures of the latest victim, a five year old boy.

The BAU had warmed to Carrie, well, most of the BAU. Aaron Hotchner was the lone hold out, appearing on camera only when absolutely necessary and refusing to grant the one on one interview that the rest of the staff gave. When he was around Carrie, Rossi could feel the temperature of the whole room drop. Sure, both Hotch and Carrie were nothing less than consummate professionals, but that was about all they were to each other. Having witnessed the heat and passion of their relationship first hand, the coldness between them was a shock to his system.

Carrie had explained the whole situation to Dave and no matter how he tried to explain Hotch's point of view, it did no good. She could not be talked out of her anger and it was truly palpable when she even mentioned his name.

Hotch, on the other hand, simply shut down his emotions and functioned as he normally did. To an untrained eye, nothing differed from any other case. To the BAU team, however, the arctic freeze between their Unit Chief and the pretty reporter was blatantly obvious. Several possible reasons for their reactions were tossed about, but Morgan was the first to openly opine that their relationship had been more than professional.

It seemed that Morgan was quite taken by Carrie Hendricks and when he suggested taking her out to dinner once the case was closed, she turned him down. She told him she was quite tickled by his invitation, but she explained that she was seeing someone and, although the relationship was complicated, she really couldn't take him up on his offer.

Rossi had witnessed that interchange and was touched by the sadness in her eyes as she explained her relationship. He could see that Morgan noticed it to, but didn't say a word.

Rossi was pulled from his musings by a flurry of activity in the bull pen. Emily Prentiss caught his eye and motioned for him to join them. As he walked out of his office, he nearly walked into Aaron Hotchner.

"We've got a phone trace on the unsub," Hotch explained, as they rushed downstairs.

"Where is he?"

"Valley Brooke Corporate Center in Crystal City," Morgan explained. "The call came from a number assigned to a Customer Service Unit at an insurance company."

"Walter Becker," Rossi said, uttering the name of one of their prime suspects.

"Virginia State Troopers and SWAT are on their way and will contain him until we get there," Reid said, as they made their way to the elevators.

Rossi turned to find Carrie watching them raptly, standing in the bullpen with Eddie as he filmed.

"Well?" he said, "Come on, this is the stuff your viewers will really want to see!"

XXXXX

In her career, Carrie Hendricks had covered political rallies and trekked through warzones, but nothing prepared her for the tense excitement of a hostage standoff.

In the time it took the BAU to arrive at the Corporate Center, Walter Becker had figured out they were coming for him and managed to take four very frightened coworkers hostage in the locked down IT center. He held them at gunpoint and called the Crystal City PD.

Carrie stood to the side, watching while Aaron and his team coordinated their efforts with the local PD, the State Troopers, and the SWAT team. She stood, rooted to the black top, watching as Aaron, with only a Kevlar vest over his dark blue suit, walked into the open and spoke to Becker through a bull horn.

Aaron was calm, cool, authoritative and, she had to confess, he took her breath away. As she watched him open a dialog with Becker, she was struck by his selflessness and heroism. It both amazed and scared her that he was putting his own life on the line for the hostages and despite the sheer magnitude of what he was doing, it seemed that to him, it was just part of his job.

She was proud of him, probably prouder than she'd ever been of anyone she'd ever known, but along with the pride, she felt guilt and shame. She thought of how she'd been treating him, of how she'd continually brushed off his attempts to make up for his careless words, until he simply stopped trying and closed off his emotions.

She decided that tonight, after this was over, she would go to him and tell him that she'd been wrong. She would beg his forgiveness and hoped like hell that he would take her back.

"Shit," Eddie said, pulling her from her thoughts, "He's really going in there."

"What?" she blinked, not sure she followed him.

"Where were you?" Eddie asked curiously.

"Off in my own little world," she dismissed, watching as Aaron handed his gun to Morgan. "Why is he doing that? Where is he going?"

"He told Becker he would. Said that if he released the hostages, he'd go in and help him sort out this whole mess."

Carrie watched as Aaron walked towards them, her heart jumped, hoping that he might be coming to talk to her, but instead, he spoke to Eddie.

"Becker wants me to bring the camera," he advised.

Eddie shook his head, "No offense, Agent Hotchner, but neither of you is gonna be able to operate that thing. I'll go in with you."

"I can't ask you to do that," Hotch said, his tone grave.

"You didn't ask, I volunteered."

"Eddie," Carrie said, but stopped short. She knew she couldn't talk either of them out of going in and wouldn't waste her breath trying.

"I'll be right out," Eddie winked, "If this idiot wants his 15 minutes of fame; I'm just the guy to give it to him."

With that, they walked off and made their way into the building. A few moments later, the hostages emerged.

Carrier furiously scribbled notes in her steno pad, wanting to capture every nuance of the situation, wanting to preserve what Eddie's camera would not see.

Once the hostages were safely away from the building, the waiting game began. After a few moments, David Rossi approached her.

"How are ya?" he asked with a grim smile.

"How do you do this?" she asked, not even trying to mask her emotion. "How do you offer to exchange yourself for a hostage?"

Placing a calming hand on her arm, he quietly said, "You do what needs to be done."

"But," she began, stopping at the sound of a single gun shot. "Dave," she frantically said, hoping to get some sort of reassurance from him. She was trying desperately to maintain the façade of the seasoned reporter and not show the panic that was raging within her.

Rossi gave her arm reassuring squeeze, then pulled his pistol from its holster, "Step back, Carrie," was all he said.

Time seemed to drag and after what seemed like hours, but was only 20 minutes, another shot rang out. Carrie bit back the scream that welled in her throat and said a silent prayer for Aaron and Eddie. As if in answer to her prayers, Eddie walked out of the building a moment later. He carried his camera and wore a dazed expression.

"Becker's dead," he announced, "And Agent Hotchner needs a medic…bad."

All hell broke loose as people began to move around her. Carrie stood, seemingly stuck to the ground and watched as Eddie made his way to her. When he reached her she hugged him like a long lost brother.

"I'm good, Car," he gently said, squeezing her tight. "Agent Hotchner's not doing so well…"

Carrie looked over his shoulder to see the medics wheeling Aaron out on a stretcher. His face was pale, his eyes closed, and a nasty bruise was forming over his eye. Blood stained the snow white sheet that covered him. Without pulling her eyes from him, she said, "Eddie?"

"Becker shot him in the shoulder."

"And the black eye?"

The older man winced at the memory, "After he fell to the ground, Becker kicked the crap outta him. I tried to stop him, but he pulled the gun on me. He held it right here, Car," he said, holding his finger to the underside of his chin. "He demanded that I keep filming, while he killed Agent Hotchner, but as messed up as he was…your boy pulled a gun from an ankle holster and shot Becker. I got all of it on tape, Car. All of it."

"Damn…" she sighed, pulling her eyes from Aaron to Eddie just in time to watch his skin pale and his balance skew. Reaching out, she caught him before he crumpled to the ground. "Come on, Eddie. Let's get you to the ER…"

"I'm good," he dismissed as she eased him to the ground.

"You've been through a lot, stop arguing and let them take a look at you, "she said, in a tone that Eddie knew gave no room for debate.

"Okay…besides, I know you wanna go to the hospital to see Agent Hotchner."

"Yeah, I do, come on."