Okay… So I originally was going to make this into two chapters; the entire thing rounded out at over 2,000 words (Without quotes and author's notes). But I did promise you all a great big dose of Reid last chapter, since he wasn't there last time. And I haven't updated this story since… last year (Yes, bad joke, I know). Which means that you receive a nice long chapter to start out the New Year!

I didn't ask for Criminal Minds for Christmas; I just asked for a season. Now I have a tee shirt and Season 5 (Which means: Continuous Mosley Lane Marathon!), but otherwise, I don't own Criminal Minds.

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The pen is mightier than the sword. ~Benjamin Franklin

The moon glowed brightly, its form and grace echoed in the waters of the midnight ocean. Clouds were gathering for a midnight storm, but the moon still kept watch on the world.

Beneath the moon's light was a small leisure boat, complete with a small cabin for her two passengers. Linda and Connor Holden were enjoying the last night of the first part of a small honeymoon they had planned; after being married in a small chapel in Rockport, they had driven to Corpus Christi to retrieve Connor's boat, and begin a month-long romantic getaway to Miami. They had been married about 34 hours, and were already looking forward to exotic drinks and sandy beaches. The boat was simply their means of getting there and back.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Connor asked his new wife as she sat next to him, laying her head on his shoulder as he slowly steered the boat toward its final destination. "If you want me to, I can do a George Bailey and try to throw a lasso around that beautiful moon, bring it closer to us."

Linda smiled up at her new husband. "Actually, I think it's just perfect, but I'm more than happy to see if I can find something for you to make that lasso."

He chuckled. "I'd do anything for you, my Lindy-Lou!"

She playfully smacked him before her eyes glanced at the open water before them. She paused, a fine patch of wrinkles clouding her forehead as she looked. She snuck a glance at the GPS before doing a double take at what she saw in front of her.

"Hey Con-Con," she asked. "Where are we?"

"Lemmie see… We're just off the coast of Orlando. My friend Devon lives by the shore here, and I was thinking we could drop anchor by his place; he's visiting family in Jacksonville so we can rest there in our boat and go out for breakfast in the morning. He said it was alright."

"Are we supposed to see land now?"

"No, there's nothing to be seen, not for a bit. Why?" He was concerned; there was something in the way Linda was asking these questions that was putting him on edge. "Are you alright?"

"I feel fine," she admitted. "But… I want to know…."

"Know what, Love?"

She took a deep breath. "Connor, why is there a… Pirate Ship sailing in this direction?"

As she spoke, the ship came into view. A majestic schooner, complete with sails, rigging and mast, she was a beautiful sight in the moonlight. She had dropped anchor and the sails were folded away, but she still was awe-inspiring and breath-taking.

"Oh, my God…" Linda murmured. "Holy… Connor, get the camera! Get the Camera!"

As Connor fumbled with the cubbyholes beneath the wheel, he accidently knocked over the Sirius Satellite Radio that they had been listening to earlier that day. Connor had turned it to a news station earlier the evening to gauge the weather conditions for the evening; it was supposed to rain, and the clouds moving in above proved the oncoming storm. Now, the radio was broadcasting the news, and from the sound of it, it was a press conference being held by the FBI.

"…As of this moment, our team has a working profile of the kidnappers that we will be releasing to the public. There are multiple offenders, all under the delusion that they are pirates-"

Connor stared in renewed horror at the ship in front of them, his mouth open wide enough to catch a fly, while Linda let out a choked sob, he hand over her mouth and tears in her eyes.

"-But only one of them is smart enough to pull this off. He is a white male in his mid-forties to late fifties who may have recently suffered a major and devastating loss that he has not recovered from. He is extremely obsessed with the literary work Peter Pan, as well as any companion novels and media.

Connor fumbled with the camera, turning it on and setting it to night settings before handing it to Linda. She immediately began snapping pictures, her fingers shaking as she did so.

"His delusions, along with his obsession, have led him to believe that five young men, including an FBI agent, are Hook's nemesis Peter Pan himself. He will most likely dress as a pirate, talk like a pirate and has probably mutilated his body in some way to resemble that of Captain Hook…. We are asking that the entire city of Orlando, as well as the residents of the Walt Disney World Resort, keep an eye out for anyone who may fit this description…."

By now, Linda was whimpering as she looked up at the ship. Connor was also looking rather pale and frightened. But even as they stared, they heard shouting, laughter and someone screaming in pain from the deck of the ship.

"We should do something!" Linda cried, wincing as the screams continued. She switched the settings on the camera from picture to video and began recording. "Whoever he is, he's in pain." Connor didn't speak for a few minutes; he couldn't say anything. Instead, he walked over to his wife, wrapped his arms around her for a moment and kissed her before he started the boat.

"We'll tell the cops, the FBI and the Coast Guard," Connor said, wincing at the inhuman screams and jeering laughter coming from the ship. Meanwhile, the radio had returned to the main late-night reporter.

"That was Special Agent Penelope Garcia with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, or the BAU. The team was called to Orlando Wednesday morning to help with the recent rash of murders that appear to be based on a children's story. So far, four young men have been abducted and murdered, along with a member of the team as a fifth victim who is currently missing, presumed alive."

As they pulled away, the clouds unleashed their heavy burden, and it began to rain.

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Reid came around just after sunset. His head hurt, his body hurt, and his wrists were covered in blisters and rope burns; Johnny had cut away the rope from earlier that morning. Johnny had also tended him the best he could, but without proper medicines, it was hard. As the sky darkened, the pain in Reid's body lessened to a dull, throbbing ache.

The most terrifying part of the evening came when the moon was starting to peek in through the grating that covered the ceiling. As the two were drifting off to sleep, the sound of booted feet stormed toward their door. It was thrust open, and a second later, both boys were grabbed by thickset men who smelled like stale sweat and alcohol. Reid kicked out at his captor, a blonde man with hate-filled eyes, and a bandage wrapped around the fleshy part of his palm; Reid had a feeling that this was the man he had bitten earlier. Johnny was being handled by the black-bearded one that had dragged Reid up to the deck that first time.

They were rushed up the stairs and quickly thrust onto the deck, where the other 'pirates' were waiting. No sooner were they on deck were they grabbed by different men; Reid lost sight of Johnny as he went one way, back toward the cabin, and he was taken toward the bow. Suddenly, he was shoved to the ground, and someone was holding down his wrists; there were another man holding down his ankles, and a second later, he felt someone sitting on his legs. He shouted as the weight of the 'pirate' rested on his injured leg.

"Get… Off!" Reid snarled, forcing his uninjured knee to jab at the guy with as much force as possible. There was a gasp, and the man rolled off the profiler to land on the deck of the ship, his mouth agape, grasping his groin with both hands.

There was a split second where a feeling of triumph came over Reid before a third set of hands yanked his shirt up and the cool feeling of a blade ran up and down his unprotected stomach.

A blade… or a hook.

"Hello, Peter," whispered the voice of 'Hook' from the darkness. "Miss me?"

Reid glared. "For the last time," he hissed. "My name is not Peter! And you're not Captain Hook, James!"

A second later, a slice of pain rose from Reid's torso, and he howled, struggling against the hands that held him down.

"You're lucky I don't kill you, boy!"

"But you're willing to kill your nephew, the only family member you have left?" Reid shot back, wincing in pain. "Look at yourself! After your wife died, you let yourself go. You started believing that a classic story about a boy who could fly was your life. You wanted to live in that story because you and your wife had shared a love for that story, and with her gone, all you could do was bring her back to life with a children's story!"

Another slice of pain burned through Reid's stomach, and he screamed. This one seemed deeper than the last one. Deeper and more painful to him.

"I get it!" He said. "Your nephew was your FIRST victim! He put you away in a sanatorium, and was planning to get rid of all your stuff. Your clothes, your trinkets, your ship… But you escaped. You and everyone who listened to you boarded a ship, kidnapped your nephew and sailed out as far as you could go without leaving U.S waters. Then, you deluded yourself into thinking that your entire family had died in the accident that killed your wife and your nephew's brother. And Johnny became a ghost in the hold, someone you remembered, but you didn't believe he was real."

"Shut up!" 'Hook' roared, and another slice of pain ripped through Reid's stomach. But this time, the younger man didn't scream. He laughed.

Reid continued to speak, undeterred by the pain in his stomach. "And after you'd been on the water for a few weeks, you realized you were missing something, weren't you? As Captain Hook, scourge of the Island of Neverland, you needed Peter Pan, you enemy. So you sent a bunch of your men to the mainland to kidnap a young man to play Peter. He couldn't be too young; you would be reminded of your nephews. He couldn't be too old, either; Peter Pan never grows old, after all. Men in their early to late 20's worked well for you, as well as a few teenagers, am I right?"

This was the last straw. 'Hook' grabbed Reid with his right hand and thrust him hard into a group of 'pirates.' "This one's walking! Get the plank!" He snarled.

A grim cheer went up and a second later, Reid felt his hands being pulled behind his back, rope fastening them together. Another group of men brought out a wooden plank and set it over the edge of the ship.

And Reid felt a cold pit in his stomach, as if he'd swallowed ice cubes.

This was it. He was going to die.

He heard the sound of a wooden door opening and a struggle breaking out by the cabin.

"NO! Uncle James, don't do it! Please!"

Reid felt his bare feet slide along the deck toward the plank. Hands pushed him, kept him moving toward the plank. Voices laughed, jeered and catcalled. He thought of his mother; did she know what was happening to him? He thought of his team; he wondered how they would feel when his body washed up on the beach.

Hotch would blame himself. Of that, Reid had no doubts. He would say it was his fault that one of his agents was taken from under his nose while in the field.

"Stop this!"

Morgan would be angry. A rampant, undeterred force of nature hell-bent on finding who it was that had killed him. He would not rest until each man on this deck who had wanted Reid dead was dead themselves.

"Uncle James! What's he done to you?"

Prentiss would consider his death a failure to herself as an agent, and a friend. She would compartmentalize until the day she retired, but she would never be able to live with herself. She would feel as though she had failed him by not being there to save him.

"Leave him alone! He's trying to make you see reason! Can't you see reason, Uncle James?"

Rossi would go on. He would continue to be the rock of the BAU, the core that the unit, that the team, had been founded on. But when he was alone, Reid knew that he would sit back in his chair with a bottle of wine, and wonder. Wonder if Reid could have been saved. Wonder if Reid would have made a good agent.

"No! Spencer! Don't let them win! Uncle James, let him go!"

Garcia would be broken. She would blame him for the pain he'd caused. She'd blame herself for not being there. She would cry over his death for days, weeks, months, and even years. She had seen him die before, die and come back, and she would be convinced that he could be saved. But it wouldn't be possible.

He was snapped from his reverie by hands pushing him onto the plank. He stumbled and a hand roughly straightened him out.

Johnny's voice continued to yell.

"Stop it, Uncle James! You don't have to do this! Leave him alone!"

Reid looked out toward the black ocean beyond. Voices echoed in his mind.

"We don't always beat the monsters to the babies, but we make the job worth it."

"Your mind… Such a treasure."

"It's called empathy. And it's a good thing."

"I stopped being surprised by Spencer's mind a long time ago."

"I think you need to read that letter again."

"Well done, Agent Reid."

"A mother knows. We're animals, Spencer. We feel things."

"You are stronger than him. He cannot break you."

Gideon… Morgan… Prentiss… Hotch… JJ… Rossi… Garcia… His parents… The people who counted on him, who cared about him… The people who loved him.

Reid knew in that moment what he had to do.

"Hook!" He yelled, turning back around to face the man. "Hook! I challenge you!"

'Hook' looked at the young man. "A challenge of what, exactly, Peter?" the man sneered.

"I challenge you to a fight." Reid replied. "You and me, we'll fight with swords tomorrow, when the sun is at its peak. If I win, you have to let me and Johnny go free, and you and your crew must turn yourselves into the Orlando PD and the FBI."

"What if I win?" Hook asked. "Do you want to know?" Reid continued to glare at the man. "How's this? If I win, you can pick your fate."

"What fate?" the profiler asked.

"Option one: You walk the plank and your body washes up on the shore. Only this time, you are the last victim, and I'm never found again."

"What's option two?"

'Hook' looked around at the crew, all of whom were looking at the boy. "Option two, you become my personal cabin boy… and the crew's chew toy." The other 'pirates' started to snicker. Reid saw Johnny's face turn pale; he realized the implications of 'chew toy.'

Morgan had always said his 'Pretty Boy' features would get him in trouble…

"No! Spencer, no!"

But…

"Do we have an accord, boy?"

…It was a chance he would have to take.

"It's a deal!" Reid said. At his words, the hook slashed through the rope and Reid's hands fell to his side. As Spencer sealed the deal, the heavens opened and a torrent of rain streamed its way from the sky to land in the ocean and onto the ship itself, soaking the people gathered on the deck within seconds.

"Indeed." 'Hook' proclaimed. Reid thought something flashed in the man's eyes for a second before he lifted his gaze skyward. "Tomorrow shall be… interesting."

:::

Life is a long lesson in humility. ~James M. Barrie

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A/N: And one more thing: Back in September my aunt had a baby girl… And she was baptized this past weekend…. Her parents, my aunt and uncle, asked me to be the Godmother, which was a real honor! They called me the day before and asked. I am still reeling, and I've been walking on air for the past few days. Again, it was a real honor, and I am so happy to be able to be a part of her life in that way!

Thanks to my reviewers: Noel Ardnek, zannabanana, SSAFunbar, 68luvcarter, SayidRocks, The-Vampire-Act and RIPCURL. aus

RIPCURL. aus: I agree; that reporter should have kept his mouth shut. My guess is that Morgan took him down a back alleyway and made it look like he was thrown out of a bar. I believe that Garcia's experiences with the team have molded her into the person she is today. She is stronger than most people think, the same way Reid is. And Reid with a sword should be in a few chapters; for sure sometime after the chapter I'm finishing now; I wrote down an epic (to me) quote that Reid says during this scene, and I hope to have it, and this entire story, written soon.

So… Love? Hate? Kinda Meh? …Please leave a review with one of our friendly staff members in the blue button below.

*~N_CBAU~*