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A/n hey all... Hope you're having a good weekend. Here's the next part of the story.

Pain

"He told me to come alone." Reid said as he hurried down the hallway.

His knee ached badly, forcing him to limp as they turned the corner to the stairway. The pain radiated up his leg as though someone had climbed into his skin and poked hot knives into the knee.

"Reid… Hotch won't let you go alone and you know it." She grabbed his arm just as he approached the first riser on the steps.

"I have to go alone." He repeated as though repetition would make his case for him. He yanked his arm out of her grasp, ignoring the angry scowl on her face.

She grabbed him again hanging on so tightly he thought he might lose the blood supply to his shoulder. "I'm not letting you out of here." She growled.

"You don't have a choice!" His eyes blazed in a way she had never seen.

"No… You don't have a choice. We're your family too Reid. We want to help you."

"I don't want your help," Once again, he ripped his arm away from her grasp, nearly tearing his light blue dress shirt sleeve in the process

He started down the stairs in a limping gait that resembled the shambling walk of Frankenstein in an old black and white horror movie.

"I have the keys… Or did you forget that little fact." She spat out at him as they hit the first floor.

A nurse, staffing the station near the door, looked over at them with a disapproving air. Reid recognized her from his last visit as someone that had always been good to his mother. He faked a smile at her. She had a look of confusion, but she didn't speak, as he was sure she'd been wanting to.

Reid held up the keys, letting them swing back and forth. "You mean these?"

"So you're picking pockets now."

"Whatever works? You shouldn't have put them in your jacket pocket."

"So that makes it okay, my putting the keys in the pocket." She stopped in front of him, making him halt inches from her.

"The rental car's in Rossi's name. I was just taking back what belongs to him."

Emily put her hands on her hips. "I don't think Rossi cares. Don't use him as an excuse to act like a jackass."

"Get out of my way!"

"No!" She shouted.

"Is there a problem?"

The both looked around at a very large black man in dark blue scrubs. He had a stethoscope around his neck and his arms crossed over his chest. His head was as bald as Morgan's and he had the same build as his friend and partner.

"No problem!" Reid snapped.

"Good… Because I don't want to call security."

Emily smiled up at the big man. "We're really sorry for making so much noise. We were just leaving."

They left the building in silence. Reid's head had begun to thump in time with his knee by the time he got to the SUV and climbed in. Emily got into the passenger side. She put a gentle hand over his fingers when he tried to start the engine.

"Spencer…" She said softly. "Please let us help you."

He looked over at her in the blue and purple twilight. "I don't want anything to happen to my family."

"Family takes care of each other." She said in the same low tone while caressing his hand. It was oddly soothing.

"He's taken too much already." He said, feeling the pain in his leg thump in time with his headache. "Lou Jenkins, Detective Hyde, and now Angie. He's got my parents and if I don't do exactly as he says, he'll kill them."

"He wants to kill them anyway Reid. You know that!"

He let her hold his hand because it took some of the edge off his headache. "I know… He wants them dead along with me. He's on a mission to avenge his brother. In a way I understand…"

"How can you understand?" She asked as the sky continued to darken outside the cab of the SUV.

"Because he was a child when his older brother was murdered for revenge."

"He was a pedophile? You saw his rap sheet."

Reid took his eyes off her and gently untangled his hand from her fingers. "Be that as it may, Michaels went after other little boys because he didn't want to hurt his brother. It's classic behavior.

"It all comes back to family." Emily said.

"Yeah… It all comes back to family. Michaels found a victim other than his brother when his urges overwhelmed him. My mother said she knew by looking at him that he was a danger to me. She said a mother knows. My family broke down under the strain of my parents' secrets and my mother's illness."

"Yes, but your family in the BAU will always stand behind you."

He looked back at her again, feeling some of the weight lift off his shoulders. However screwed up his biological family might be he could always count on his BAU family.

"Are you sure you're up to doing this? Your knee's aching isn't it?"

"Yeah… I have a bottle of Tylenol in my hotel room. If we hurry we can stop in there." He said, turning the key in the ignition.

"This is the second time we've argued about you running off on your own." Emily said in a teasing tone. "I hope it's the last time."

He looked over at her and smiled for the first time in the last hour. "Me too SSA Prentiss…"

"Let's get going Dr. Reid. Time's a wasting and we have a lot to plan."

He backed the SUV out of its parking spot and headed for the exit. It was time to get to work and end this thing once and for all.

William Reid began moving his arms up and down as soon as his captor left him alone. The ropes tightened around his chest for a minute before they began to loosen.

"What's going on William?" Dianna asked.

She'd stopped crying. Even though she had a bruise forming under her eye from Mason Parker hitting her, she was staying very calm. She sat across from him on the other side of the kitchen. Mason has tied her up much like William in his chair.

"Don't worry Dianna. I'm almost free of my ropes. I'll get us out of here." He moved his arms up and down like a piston, trying to drag the rope up over his fingers.

"Where are we going to go?" She asked. "Where's Spencer? He called me and said that he'd come visit me. He said you were in trouble."

"The man that brought you in here is a killer. He's responsible for the death of a colleague of mine. He has something to do with Riley Jenkins."

He pulled his left hand free of the ropes. Thank God he'd decided to pay attention when Spencer used to practice escapism as part of his love of magic. If he could just get his other arm free he could get to Dianna.

The ropes tightened again across his chest and around his legs. He been trussed up like a turkey and his legs were starting to go numb. The hemp of the robe rubbed painfully on the bare skin of his legs and chest. Still the pain had to be endured. If he could get free, perhaps they could find some way to contact Spencer and warn him of Mason Parker's plans.

"Riley Jenkins…" Dianna said. "Spencer solved that case. Why does this man care?"

"I don't know for sure. My colleague left me a file in a safety deposit box a few weeks ago. It had to do with Mason Parker laundering money. Now I'm thinking that was a diversion from his real purpose."

The ropes abruptly loosened around his chest and tightened around his thighs and groin. Oh well… It wasn't like he had to worry about damaging his privates as he'd lived the last twenty years without a woman. The only woman he'd ever loved despite leaving her, sat across from him.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Dianna said.

"You always speak your mind. Spencer gets that from you."

"What good does it do to stay silent?" She asked.

"Yeah… you're right about that. I was thinking about the first time we met."

"I don't remember." She said in a bland way that hurt him horribly. It was the medicine he knew, but it still hurt.

"You were so beautiful then, but not as beautiful as you are now."

"Don't be absurd William. We're tied up by a madman."

"Not anymore!' He pulled off the ropes, untied his feet and stood up. His legs were almost completely numb. He nearly fell when he attempted to take a step. He picked up one of his feet and stamped it trying to get the circulation back.

"Are you alright?" Dianna asked.

"Give me a minute to get the blood flowing. He's had me in a tiny little underground room for… Actually I don't know what day it is."

"I think it's Sunday." Dianna said, but she looked as confused as he felt.

"It doesn't matter."

He felt the pain of circulation coming back into his limbs. The pins and needles itched, but at least he could move and not fall over. He shook out both legs, trying to speed along the process to full use. The fact that he could stand after two days of confinement in that dark and dirty hole was amazing to him. Finally, he took a hesitant step forward, feeling the filthy tile floor under his feet as very solid. He hurried around the table to Dianna and began working on the tight knots in her ropes.

"I wanted to tell you again I'm sorry." He said to her.

"You've said that at least once a year since Spencer committed me. You don't have to keep saying it William. What's done is done and what's past is past."

He freed her arm and she reached out to cup his face in her hand. "You gave me Spencer." She said, tears coming into her eyes. "I didn't give you anything but misery for sixteen years before you left me."

"No…." He said, reaching up to touch her once abundant blond hair with his trembling fingers. "You gave me more joy than I'd ever known. I was the weak one Dianna. I was jealous of my own son. Both of you should hate me. I wouldn't blame you."

"We don't hate you." She said as he finished with her bonds. "I don't love you the same way I did William, but I'll always care for you."

"And I for you," He said helping her to her feet. "Lets get out of here and maybe we can salvage something with our son."

"I'd like that." She said.

He clasped her hand and they headed to the kitchen door. The door opened before they could reach it and Mason Parker stepped in with a gun trained on them. "Oh very good… The loving couple has bonded over a regrettably short escape attempt. I'm so sorry you'll be staying here until your son arrives. I'm happy to say he's on his way."