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Alone.

Staring up into the vast night sky, Reid had never felt more like an insignificant piece of dust in the cosmos than he did right now. He was all alone in this adventure and the realization of that fact was crashing down on him like a ton of cement. No one was coming to help him out of this. He was on his own and out of ideas.

He hadn't slept all night due to the pains emanating from his wounds. His abdomen was on fire, his alligator bite was throbbing, and the welts on his back were irritated from having to lay on them. He had tried to shift his body around a few times over the course of the night, but each time he moved searing pain would remind him why he needed to stay still.

In the end all he could do is lay there and think. Think about his pain, think about his wounds, and think about how useless it was to wish for his friends to come and save him. He knew now to stop hoping for a valiant rescue. He knew that when he looked up an airboat wouldn't be rushing down the channel blasting a megaphone calling out his name. The swamp was too big and there were too many hidden paths. If he wanted out of this he was going to have to do it by himself. But how?

He was startled out of his thoughts when he heard the front door open and John's mighty footsteps echoed on the porch. Reid realized that he had made it through the night safely without any encounters with the vicious creatures that roam the area. He propped himself up on his elbows and wearily watched the approach of the large man.

"Morning sunshine," John called tauntingly as he crouched down by Reid's feet. "I had an excellent sleep last night. How was yours?"

Ignoring the stupid question Reid resigned himself to observing John's movements and trying to hold back complaints of pain as his legs were jostled. He watched as the man released his ankles from their chains and wound them up.

"That bad, huh? Well, I've got news for you. Today you're going to spend your day indoors. Get up. Let's get a move on," John demanded watching as Reid struggled to his feet.

The pain in his abdomen was excruciating but the young genius battled through it. Honestly, he was worried that any noise coming forth from his lips would buy him another ticket into the water. It took him about two minutes to stand fully upright putting most of his weight on his healthy leg. Once he was steady on his feet he followed John back into the cabin and waited for instructions.

"Today you're going to clean the cabin from top to bottom. I can't stand a filthy home, and it hasn't gotten a proper cleaning since the last girl was here. So you need to do the floors, clean everything in the bathroom, scrub out the fireplace, sanitize the kitchen, dust the furniture, then change the bed and remake it with clean linens. You also have to have dinner ready by the time I come home. I was thinking stew or something hearty like that. When you finish with everything find something else constructive to do. I don't want to see you lazing around when I get back. Are we clear?" John asked after his long list of instructions.

"Yes, sir. Um…sir?"

"What?"

"Do you think I could take a shower and clean my wounds out first, sir?" Reid said with some hope laced in his words.

John looked him up and down and saw how filthy he looked even in the meek candlelight that was illuminating the room this early in the morning. He gave a grunt and flipped his hand toward the bathroom. Instead of shuffling off, Reid held his hands out to get the manacles unlocked so he could bath without his clothes on.

John pulled the key out of his pocket and said, "Don't think about trying anything."

Reid just shook his head signaling that he had no intentions of attempting any misdeed and limped into the bathroom. He heard John telling him to leave the door open a crack and did just that. The first thing he took care of when he reached the bathroom was his bladder. He held it in all night long hoping for a chance to use an actual toilet.

After his bladder was taken care of, he carefully stripped off his clothes trying not to upset his injuries. He turned the shower to temperature and wasted no time getting in. Immediately, his burns reacted slightly to the water so he tried to position his abdomen out of the direct stream. Cautiously, Reid lathered his body avoiding any sensitive areas. Throughout the rinse he swore he could actually feel the dirt cascading down his frame and into the drain. He wasn't sure how long he stood in the heated water, but he was jostled out of his thoughts by a hand thumping against the cracked door.

"Hurry up! I ain't got all day," John hollered.

Reid quickly cut off the water and grabbed a towel from the rack next to the shower. He got out and dried off. There were clothes sitting on the closed seat of the toilet waiting for Reid to don them. He slid on the pants but didn't put on the shirt yet. First he treated his burns with the little bit of cream in the kit and wrapped the remaining gauze around his waist. There were no bandages left over for his gator bite which had started turned red and angry around the puncture sites. Reid knew that an infection was setting in, probably from the horrid swamp water that infiltrated the wound twice.

He looked up from his shoddy attempt at first aid and saw John standing in the doorway watching him. How long had he been standing there? The look on his face was creepy too. It reminded Reid of the agents, himself included, that practically salivate over seeing one of Garcia's famous desserts innocently waiting to be consumed.

"Uh, sir? You're out of gauze, antibacterial cream, and burn cream. If you want me to stay healthy you're going to need to buy some more," Reid explained.

"Really. Maybe you should just stop trying to escape," John responded as he secured the manacles around Reid's wrists again. "Whatever. I don't want you dying on me too soon. Get in the kitchen and make a list of anything else we might need. If I have to go into town for your whiny ass, I might as well make the most of it."

Reid put his head down and walked past John into the kitchen. Taking a piece of paper from a notepad magnetically attached to the fridge, Reid made a list of foods he was comfortable with making. He handed the list of groceries and medical needs to John.

The man snatched it out of his hands and shoved it into the pocket of his overalls. Then he ran a chain from the eyehook in the floor to Reid's collar, securing him to the cabin. "Remember what I said. This house needs to be spick and span before I get home. Dinner will be ready and waiting and you will not be loafing around. Try following my instructions for once and maybe you'll finally get to sleep in a bed," John said before he walked out the door.

Out of habit, Spencer jerked on the chain to test its reliability. It was as sturdy as ever. Reid exhaled a large breath of air and looked around, trying to decide where to start first.

Morgan rolled out of bed earlier than usual. He wanted to meet Mr. Brookins at Maybell's diner and get the map straight away. The rest of the team was going to be at the station by 6:30 and they were going to break off into search parties.

Morgan arrived to the diner just in time to see John pull up in his airboat. The massive man wrestled an alligator carcass out and carried it up to the kitchen. Morgan walked up to the building following the same path that the fisherman had taken. He could hear snippets of conversation coming from the kitchen and decided to let himself in through the screen door.

"Good morning," Morgan said startling the only two people in the building.

"You again? Well good morning to you too. I hope you and your friends don't plan an interrupting me again during my morning rush," Maybell was quick to say.

"No ma'am. I'm just here to see if Mr. Brookins brought the map with him," Morgan explained turning to John.

"Oh yeah. I got it. I filled it out last night," John answered and reached into his pocket to extract the map.

"Thanks man, this is really going to help. I hope it wasn't too much of a problem."

"No problem at all. There isn't much to do at night where I live. I just had to take care of annoying critter that had been messing around in my yard. After that I had plenty of time to help ya'll," John replied thinking about how much fun he had last night straightening out the young agent.

"Well, thanks again. Oh, and remember to contact us if there is anything else about the swamp that you think we need to know about," Morgan said as he took the map and beat a hasty retreat.

"See ya later Maybell," John said as he walked out of the diner. All the way back to his boat he was congratulating himself on how easy it was to circumvent the FBI.

The day turned out to be longer than expected. The team wasn't able to fully gather back together until around five. JJ and Blake were the first to arrive around four, having been on the same airboat together. Their guide had driven them countless miles through the swamp but their journey turned up nothing but burnt out cabins and stranded boat docks. The women made their way back to the station and analyzed the large map that was displayed. Blake started making notations on the map marking off the places they visited. JJ's stomach started rumbling and she realized that she hadn't consumed anything since breakfast. Knowing that the rest of the team would be famished when they got back she made an executive decision.

"I'm going to run over to that grocery store food counter and get us all something to eat. I think everyone is going to need a good meal by the time they get back," JJ told Blake.

The other woman simply nodded her head and went back to what she was doing.

The grocery store had a few patrons walking the aisles and there wasn't anyone at the food counter. JJ walked right over and was immediately served by the same waitress as the first time she visited.

"Hey honey! Back for some more food? Where's that guy that was with you last time? I still want to hear the end of his story," the friendly woman asked.

"Um…he's busy at the moment. As for the food, I need enough to feed five hungry agents," JJ said.

"Sure thing! I'll fix ya'll up with something good," the waitress said taking the order into her own hands.

With nothing left to do JJ decided to profile the customers that were checking out. The first person in the checkout line had only a few items and they were all perishable. JJ figured that she was on an errand trying to get the odds and ends her family must have run out of at home. The next person in line startled JJ a bit because she kinda recognized him. It was the man that was sitting at the counter the night Reid told his story. Wanting to know more about him, she decided to listen closely to his conversation with the clerk and observed his purchases.

"Hi John! How are you doing?" the young man said in greeting.

"Hi yourself," John responded unloading his groceries onto the conveyer belt.

"Wow, you sure have alot of stuff today. I would swear you must be buying for two. Did you meet a lady?" the clerk asked not realizing how much he was annoying John.

"No," was the simple reply.

"Ah well, sometimes you just gotta stock up the pantry. Am I right? Huh, look at that. You are a cracker lover. I mean…who needs to buy both saltine and oyster crackers? They both do the same job," observed the clerk.

JJ's head perked up at that statement. Was it just a coincidence that she had said the same thing to Reid only a few days ago? She looked over the other objects on the belt trying to scrutinize whether or not any of Reid's other favorites were present.

"I don't know. Just ring up the purchase," the man grumbled to the nosey boy.

"Did you hurt yourself recently?"

"Huh?"

"Well, you don't look hurt. But I see you're buying lots of first aid stuff. Just stocking up on that too?" the boy pried innocently.

John didn't honor him with a response and chose to look around instead. His gaze settled on a pretty blonde woman sitting at the food counter. She was curiously inspecting his groceries and then she looked up and made eye contact with him. He immediately recognized her from being with his boy. At that moment he knew he needed to get out of the grocery store as soon as possible.

"Look hurry it up! I've got things to take care of at home and Maybell is waiting to drive me back to my boat," the man demanded as he started bagging his groceries in haste.

The young man finally heard the hostility in the man's voice and rushed to finish his job. He announced the total and took the man's payment. Both JJ and the clerk stared as John quickly pushed his way out the doors, almost knocking through the two customers coming into the store.

"Here's your order hun," the waitress said coming back with three bags full of steaming hot food.

JJ grabbed the bags and threw down enough cash to cover the bill. Leaving her change as a tip, she rushed out of the store and over to the station. She needed to talk to the others, now!

Reid's day of house cleaning was uneventful but agonizing. Scrubbing and washing were not exactly injury friendly tasks. He could see spots of blood soaking through the bandage around his waist which increased his worry about infection. Already he felt warm, but he wasn't sure if that was from working hard or some sort of bacteria battling it out in his body on a cellular level.

When it came time to start dinner Reid was at a loss for what to do. So, he started the fire in the stove and waited for it to heat up a bit. Then he grabbed a large metal pot and began dumping random ingredients into it. He decided that if John wanted a stew he was going to get one. Technically, a stew was just a mixture of solid foods cooked in a liquid and served in the subsequent gravy. So he was confident that whatever he ladled into a bowl later would pass inspection.

Once he had the stew cooking on the stove Reid sat down in the large easy chair. He knew that John didn't want him to be sitting around, but he had worked hard all day. He deserved a break! Exhausted he looked around the small cabin. It may not look large, but being told to clean every nook and cranny of the place really made it seem like a mansion inside. Lost in thought Reid reminisced on the strange things he encountered today too.

It seemed that John had an eyehook in every possible location throughout the cabin. Each room had multiple places to hook a chain, some on the floor, on the wall, and even a few attached to the bed frame. Reid also found a stash of women's underwear under the bed along with his boxers. There were three bras and three pairs of panties stashed in a box. He knew they were from the women that were here previously and hated the fact that his boxers had joined them. Overall John's creep factor just went up by a few notches. What did he do with the used underwear? Wait…Reid really didn't want to know.

He heard the approach of the airboat and jumped up. He acted like he was cleaning the window tracks with a cloth and watched John walk up with all the groceries. The man looked deeply disturbed by something and wordlessly dumped the bags on the kitchen table before walking out again. Reid immediately took to unloading the food and putting everything in its right place. By the time John came back in the table was clear and there was a steaming bowl of stew waiting the big man.

Reid stood by and watched the man eat, having already partaken of food before he got here. When he was finished with the meal John pushed the empty bowl away and went into the living room. Reid quickly cleaned up after him and went back to the arm chair.

Tonight he told the story of Philip Dowd and his hero complex. It was a hard story for Reid to tell because reliving a first kill isn't a good thing for anyone that isn't a psychopath. Throughout the story Reid would look up and each time John's gaze would be glued on him. It started making him feel uncomfortable and uneasy. Reid thought back to last night and how his captor brushed his tear away in an almost gentle way, and how today he was watching him in the bathroom. The signs weren't looking good for Reid and it scared him.

Once he finished with the story a silence hovered over the cabin. Reid anticipated a rundown of all the things he did wrong when cleaning, but one never came.

"The house looks good boy. See what you can do when you put your mind to it. Now remember what I told you before I left…if you follow my instruction you might get to sleep in a bed," John said as he stood up.

Reid mentally did a happy dance at the thought of sleeping on something soft for a night. The padding would definitely be gentle on the welts on his back, and maybe he could even cover up with a blanket. The other thing was that he could tell his body temperature was increasing, signaling a fever. He wanted to rest in order to help his body fight the infection before it got worse. So, wordlessly he stood up and waited for John to release him from the eyehook.

With a gleam in his eye, John walked over to Reid and unfastened the chain. He dropped it down to the ground with a thump and stared at the genius. The fisherman grabbed his slave's upper arm and steered him toward the bed.

"Wait…what's going on?" Reid questioned quickly not liking the direction they were headed.

"We're going to bed," John answered as he squeezed the boy's arm tightly.

"I'm fine with sleeping over there," Reid said, pointing toward the cage he woke up in three days ago.

"Not tonight," was all John would say as he pushed Reid down onto the mattress.

Not taking this without a fight Reid immediately began to struggle. He was about to roll off the bed when John's hulking form was hovering above him getting ready to attach him to one of the eyehooks in the bedframe. Instead of submissively waiting to be restrained Reid kicked out his legs and nailed John in the abdomen. His aim was true because seconds later John was hunched over clutching the nightstand gasping for breath.

Without many options at his disposal Reid chose to attempt to run out to the boat again. Deep down he knew that this was a futile plan, but he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he went down without a fight. He didn't even make it to the door when his captor's thick arms wrapped around his waist and tackled him to the ground.

White hot pain sizzled through his body as he fell on the floor, grinding John's hands into his burnt abdomen. Stars overtook his vision and the want to throw-up came on strong. He felt himself being lifted up from the floor and flung on the bed. No matter how hard he wanted to fight back he was too consumed with pain to even try. He could hear his collar getting attached to the head board and groaned when he felt a tugging at his feet. Moaning Reid tried to roll over onto his side, but he felt a weight pushing against his shoulders holding him down.

"I think you must be getting stupider every day. Didn't we go through this last night? You will give in to me, whether you like it or not. I was going to take it easy on you, what with this being our first time and all. But I think your little stunt just convinced me otherwise," John said as he climbed up onto the bed.

Yeah, we're going there in the next chapter...