The End and What It's Worth- Chapter 5

Missing

"..............sorry, but it seems as though I update this story the least. whoops! Please R&R!"

"Hotch still isn't here." Prentiss said. She was beginning to worry that the noise was something more than they all bargained for. "I'm going to give him a call." Morgan nodded.

"Yeah- that seems like a good idea. I'll see if I can get anything else from Reid." he agreed.

"I'll book us hotel rooms." JJ offered.

"Rossi, can you call Garcia?" Prentiss asked. He nodded.

"Alright, so we'll all meet back here in an hour." Rossi announced. He dismissed the team, and they all went on their separate ways.....

Morgan looked at Reid as he coughed. Although he looked better than he had yesterday- he still looked like hell. His normally brushed and washed hair was greasy and knotty, his pale skin was deathly pale, and the sparkle that was in his eyes were gone. Morgan frowned. When Reid had Anthrax, that sparkle went away, too, and he hated to see his young friend without that.

"Please stop staring at me. It's um............making me uncomfortable." Reid said shyly. Morgan nodded with a smile. 'At least he still has that.' Morgan thought. Reid had always been shy- which didn't help his low social IQ at all. He may be book smart, but when it came to conversing with someone without mentioning statistics or work, he was helpless.

"Sure kid." Morgan smiled. Reid returned the gesture.

"I'm assuming you're here to ask me about the UnSub?" Reid asked. Morgan nodded. "I didn't see him- at all. I was at rehab, got out, and visited my mom. Before I knew it, I was here. Sorry, but that's really all I remember." Reid said-sounding defeated and helpless. "I honestly can't tell you HOW this happened."

"That's okay, kid. If this guy is as good as we think he is, you won't." Morgan smiled. Reid nodded.

"I just hate being here. I WANT to help, but there's nothing I can do. "Reid mumbled. Morgan placed his hand on Reid's shoulder, and gently patted it.

"Hey, we're going to find him, kid. You know that, right?" Morgan asked.

"We can't say that for sure." Reid answered. Morgan frowned.

"Try to stay positive- I KNOW we will find him. For you, kid. Promise."

"Don't."

"Don't what?" Morgan asked- looking confused.

"Don't make that promise." Reid stated.

"Why?" Reid sat up a bit, and sighed.

"I just………………I just don't want to be disappointed if you can't….." Morgan frowned- knowing that Reid was speaking out of experience.

''Hey- you're dad was an idiot for leaving you like that. And Gideon wasn't gonna stay here on this job- that had nothing to do with you." Morgan said.

"That's not what I meant." Reid mumbled. Morgan, unfortunately, had caught that.

"Then what do you mean?" But all Reid did was look away. Morgan got up, and crouched down next to Reid. "Hey." He said softly. But Reid still looked away. Morgan lifted Reid's chin up, and made him look at him. "Explain, then, pretty boy."

That was when Morgan noticed the tears forming in Reid's eyes. Morgan frowned, and wiped them away with his finger. "Reid, I want to help you, but you gotta let me know what's goin' on in that big brain of yours." Reid closed his eyes, and let his tears fall.

"I'm tired, Morgan. Of all of this. I……………..I just don't know how much more I can take. I'm sick of being hurt, and I just wish hat for once I wouldn't have to be hurt." Reid stuttered through his tears. Morgan's heart nearly broke at Reid's words. He could understand what the kid was saying, but it hurt him to hear them from his young colleague. Everyone on the team treated Reid differently- but not in a bad way. Reid was the youngest, and seemed to be the team member that got hurt the most. Between his father and Gideon leaving him, the Anthrax scare, the Riley Jenkins case, Tobias Hankle, Adam Jackson, and so many other horrible stuff Reid had had to deal with, Morgan was shocked the boy hadn't had already broken down.

Morgan sat up, and wrapped his arms around the young man. Reid cried into Morgan's shoulder, and Morgan stroked his back to try to comfort him. After a few long minutes, Reid's tears had finally stopped. "Reid?" Morgan whispered- almost positive he had fallen to sleep. When no reply came, Morgan gently moved his arms from around Reid. He laid him down, and pulled a blanket around his thin frame. Before he left, he looked at Reid one last time. He looked peaceful in his sleep, - something that he knew Reid wasn't. Silently, Morgan opened the door, and left Reid to his sleep………….

Emily Prentiss redialed Hotch's number for a fifth time. He still wasn't answering. ''Damn it Hotch……….answer." she mumbled. Despite her efforts, there was no answer. She sighed- not sure of what she should do. Finally, she whipped out her cell phone, and dialed Rossi's number. "Still no answer." She said when the phone picked up.

"Alright. I'll ask Garcia to check it out. If she thinks anything's wrong, you and I will head back." He answered.

"I don't know………." Prentiss said- still unsure.

"What is it?"

"I……….." she sighed. "I just have a feeling something's wrong." She answered.

"Yeah, me too." Rossi mumbled. "Maybe………..maybe we should go back. If something's up, we'll get the team and head back to Quantico." He suggested.

"Yeah, okay. Where do you want to meet?" Prentiss agreed.

"There's no point in taking the jet until we're positive something's wrong, so I guess we'll just meet up at that airport we crossed when we were driving to the hospital." Rossi answered.

"Uh………….Vegas Air?" she asked.

"Yeah- we'll meet there."

"Alright." With that, the line went dead…………

''Okay, so that was Prentiss and Rossi." Morgan announced to JJ. "They said they were going to check on Hotch- he still hasn't shown up yet."

JJ sighed. "That means- at the moment- Prentiss, Reid, Hotch, Rossi, and Garcia are all busy. Looks like we'll have to do this one on our own." JJ said. Morgan nodded.

"This is gonna be a pain in the ass- considering we have no idea what we're even looking for." He added.

"What do we have to g off of?" JJ asked.

"Reid was at the Rehab center and his mom's sanitarium most of the time he was in Vegas. I'm thinking our UnSub snuck in and paid him a little visit." Morgan prompted.

"Yeah- you're right. It would've been the only way for him to have gotten to Reid." JJ agreed.

"Now, we have to do is figure out how he got in, and why he chose Reid." Morgan thought out loud.

"Well, if Hotch IS in trouble, then that might be a connection. Like our guy is targeting the team." JJ said.

"Let's hope it's not that- cause if it is, then we're all pretty much screwed.

"Considering how easily he got to Reid, I think he got a uniform or something so he would blend in." he added.

"And if we are right about the UnSub targeting the team, we have to find him soon before he strikes again. He took Reid down with poison easily. I bet if he wanted to, he would've killed him." JJ said.

"I hope for all of our sake's that we're wrong, but if we aren't, this is going to be one hell of a case."

When Hotch finally woke up, pain laced his body. He wanted to scream at the bullet in his arm, but knew it would be useless. Instead, he lay on the ground, and hoped that he could reduce the blood loss by staying still.

His captor never once came in to the room. Hotch was starting to wonder if he had just left him to die. But Hotch didn't want to think about that, so he looked around him. The walls were gray, and the white tiles are marked with charcoal stains from a fire. He wondered where he was, but knew it didn't matter. What did matter, though, was that if he didn't get food, water, and his wound looked over, he would surely die. Hotch held his head with his arm that didn't have the bullet in it, and closed his eyes- silently praying that the team would find him……………

Penelope Garcia typed away on her keyboard. Her fingers flew across it as she frantically searched for anything that might help them find Hotch.

Suddenly, a cool object touched her throat, and a gloved hand covered her mouth. "Shh……….I'm not going to kill you." A voice said. The knife was taken away from her neck, and Garcia calmed down a little.

Unfortunately, she didn't see the crow bar in his hand as he hit her with it.

"I won't kill you YET, anyways…………………."

"…………………………omg!!!! Cliffy! Yay! K, so im going out of town again(sorry! This Is what happens when u things come up!) so I wanted 2 post once more b4 I go! Please R&R!"