Hey guys! Remember me?? Sorry for the delay, but here we are again.

Thanks a lot for all the reviews! I haven't been able to answer them all, but I'll try to catch up with the replies soon.

This one goes especially for the wonderful CMAli. Love you Momma!

Disclaimer: The usual thing...

With nothing else to say, ENJOY!!!

Chapter XIII

The soothing and constant sounds of machines in the room didn't help to calm Emily's Prentiss' nerves. She could hear the shuffling of feet outside her hospital room, while sitting on her less than comfortable bed.

"Can you calm down?" JJ's voice sounded as if her mind was far away from there, while she kept looking out the window at the sky above.

Without turning around to look at her colleague, she added: "Just wait till we have your results. Then, if the doctor agrees, we'll leave."

Prentiss sighed and lowered her head until her chin touched her chest. "I feel completely useless here. We are wasting time that Reid doesn't have." Then she closed her eyes and let her head rest on the pillow. "JJ, what if we can't..." Emily whispered words were interrupted by JJ's strong retort.

"Don't say that! Don't do it!" The media liaison's blue eyes were swimming in unshed tears.

"Oh, JJ, I'm so sorry." Prentiss apologized, patting the bed by her side inviting her friend to sit down there.

Once the blonde woman sat down, they held hands in silence, sharing unspoken worries.

"Emily?"

Prentiss looked up.

"It's 1 p.m." informed JJ.

Prentiss closed her eyes to ignore the tears forming in them and sighed: "He'll make it."

Little did they know that their youngest friend was finding it really hard to do so.

A black SUV made its way through traffic with its sirens loudly howling advising other drivers to move to their side and proceed to empty its lane. Nothing would deter it from getting to its destination, like nothing could stop the sun from rising from the east every morning.

"Still no answer?" asked David Rossi gripping the steering wheel much tighter than he would normally would.

In the passenger seat, SSA Derek Morgan held his phone to his right ear, listening just one ring after another. That was not what he expected to hear when he decided to call Reid to check up on him. A wave of renewed fear bathed his body.

"No, nothing." He answered with his eyes fixed on the road and his mind 10 miles from the FBI headquarters.

"We are one block away from the office. We'll find out soon what's going on" stated the senior agent.

After parking the SUV in the building's parking lot, both federal agents rushed towards the elevator.

"We have one hour to find this bastard" said Morgan.

"We should start checking Miss Jacobs and the Unsub's connection" informed Rossi. "And we could ask Garcia to check find out where his Upward Elevator's checks are sent.

"Right." Derek took a deep breath. "I swear I won't be gentle when we catch this guy" promised Morgan when the elevator's doors opened.

"That's fine by me" answered David, purposefully striding into the bullpen.

While walking to the BAU meeting room, they saw Garcia rushing towards them with her head down, not exactly paying attention to anyone in her way.

"Hey, baby girl." Morgan greeted her with a small grin.

"Garcia, how's everything in..." David interrupted himself after seeing the sea of tears bathing the technical analyst's face.

Penelope lifted her head and focused her eyes on Derek, before crashing against his chest.

"Oh, Derek." Garcia's voice sounded strained with tears.

"Wow, what's going on, sweetheart?" worriedly asked Morgan, his protective arms settled around the woman's sad figure.

Garcia sobbed against his chest and tried to answer: "He's not... responding."

Rossi looked puzzled, fear and understanding creeping up on his face.

"What do you mean?" quietly asked Derek, feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

"Reid's unconscious and he's... just laying in there" answered Penelope in a tear-filled voice.

Morgan carefully broke contact with Garcia and started to run towards the BAU meeting room with his heart jumping in his throat, chocking him.

Penelope looked at Rossi, who stood there paralyzed, considering the whole situation.

"I can't go in there again" said the woman heading to the women's restroom.

Rossi nodded and as in a state of complete numbness, he made his way up the room where he'd watch the image described by the technical analyst.

Morgan entered the room, struggling to control his worries.

SSA Hotchner had his hands on the table and kept shouting: "Reid! Answer me!"

Derek's eyes watched the screen. He saw the blonde girl crying at one corner of the elevator, holding her broken wrist with her other arm. Sebastian Malucci looked distressed on the other side of the enclosed capsule, as if not knowing what to do next.

And in the middle of them both, laid the unmoving figure of the BAU youngest agent sprawled on his stomach. A pool of red liquid rested on the floor of the elevator where the boy's head laid, blood trickling down the agent's curls from the reopening of his previously acquired injury.

"Reid! Answer me!" yelled Hotch, desperately wanting to be able to transport himself to where his youngest subordinate was and shook his motionless body.

Agent Rossi stood at the Unit Chief's side looking troubled at the scene unfolding before his eyes.

"Linda, listen to me" said Hotch in an uncharacteristically strained voice. "I need you to help him. Try to wake him up."

The girl looked up, scared and completely lost, with big tears spilling down her face.

"I don't know what to do. I can't... I..." answered Linda in shock.

"Just try to touch his shoulder. I need you to try."

"There's so much blood. I don't... Oh God!" The girl's good hand covered her mouth, looking down and shaking her head no.

"Please, you have to do it." Hotch tried again, but the girl was too much in shock to even move from her spot.

Suddenly, Sebastian Malucci carefully started crawling to Reid's side.

The three men in the BAU room remained in silence, uncertain at what to expect.

The smelly guy placed a hand on Reid's shoulder and slightly shook him.

"Hey, wake up."

Nothing changed. Spencer's body remained in the exact same position, oblivious to the people expecting a reaction.

"Come on, man, open your eyes" said Sebastian.

Nothing.

"Mr. Malucci, check his pulse." Hotch's authoritative voice was heard through the intercom.

Sebastian nodded and placed two fingers under Reid's chin to one side of his neck.

Morgan, Hotch and Rossi waited, holding their breath and hoping for the best.

They were so caught up in their own thoughts and the scene in front of their eyes that they didn't see JJ and Emily entering the room.

JJ had seen the three men up in the BAU room and struggled with her own feet not to run and instead, she helped Emily up the stairs. Once inside the room, she understood the grim look on her co-workers' faces.

"Oh my God!" she gasped, using a hand to cover her mouth.

"What happened?" asked Prentiss, sitting down in a chair, as if her legs couldn't resist her weight any longer.

Without looking at his female subordinates, Hotch answered. "He's been like this since the last fall." He knew he should ask Emily how she was after leaving the hospital, but that would have to wait. He felt as if the situation was getting away from him, no matter how hard he tried to get a grip.

"He has a weak pulse" quietly said Sebastian.

Unable to hold his words any longer, Morgan gave a step forward and asked: "Is he breathing?"

Sebastian looked up, confused at the lack of recognition of that new voice. But without asking anything, he placed a timid hand on Reid's back and felt the young agent's torso going up and down, almost imperceptibly.

"Is he?" asked a crying and distressed Linda.

The smelly guy looked up and nodded.

A huge wave of relief bathed the five BAU members.

"Why isn't he responding then?" Linda's question danced around everybody's mind, but no one had dared to ask it. And no one had the answer for it.

"Hotch, he banged his head. There's no time now. We have to get him out!" Frustration covered every one of Morgan's words.

Hotchner knew exactly how frustrated Morgan felt watching his friend laying there, without being able to help him.

"Reid, if you're listening, you have to wake up" pleaded Hotch.

Just then, the last thing they wanted to hear came out of Anderson's mouth. The agent was standing by the door.

"He's on line two, sir."

"Son of a bitch!" exclaimed Morgan, crashing his fist on the table.

The unit chief sighed, took a deep breath and tried to put his anger in check before answering the phone call.

"Jonathan Sturz." Hotch's voice did not show his pent-up hatred at the man on the other side of the line.

"Agent Hotchner." A hint of laughter and enjoyment presented itself in the Unsub's voice. It reminded Hotch of Foyet's voice, a fact that sent his anger to a sky level.

"So I see you agent's gave up the fight." A malicious loud guffaw rang out in every corner of the room.

JJ closed her eyes, which silently let go a stream of tears that soon covered her cheeks.

"This is so dramatic. It's like watching a soap opera!"

"You're wrong. A soap opera is fiction. You're not killing fictional characters; you're killing innocent human beings," Hotch made a pause and added, "just like your son."

Silence filled the room. The federal agent had touched a nerve there.

"Leave my son out of this or your agent will..." A loud noise, as if from a far away engine running, was heard, eating up the man's words. "...the consequences."

Then the phone call was over, leaving a tense silence dancing around the room.

"Hotch, man, if we keep pushing him, he'll blow up the elevator" Morgan blurted out, pacing back and forth.

"I know, Morgan, but we have to remain calm and work with what we have" sternly said the senior agent.

"Calm?! How can you be calm with Reid laying there, with minutes to live?" The dam holding Derek's anger finally gave up.

"If you can't do it, I'll be forced to take you out of the case" retorted Hotchner.

Rossi cautiously got in between the two furious men. Morgan gave a step forward, standing right in front of his superior, not really considering the consequences of his actions, too blinded by his own rage.

"You wouldn't dare do that" quietly said Morgan, looking directly and almost threateningly at his boss' eyes.

David placed a hand on Derek's chest to stop him from moving any further. Prentiss watched the scene with incredulous eyes, unable to move from her seat.

Ignoring the battle of wills of the two alpha male agents, JJ kept her eyes fixed on the screen. And then she saw it.

"Guys!" JJ exclaimed, drawing the attention of her colleagues and pointing at the screen with her hand.

The four agents looked at her, then at the screen and finally Rossi asked in confusion: "What?"

"He's moving" answered JJ in a whisper.

Indeed, Spencer Reid was timidly moving his long thin fingers, slowly regaining consciousness.

WOW, that's a bit longer than I'm used to...

So what do you think?? They have one hour to find the UNSUB... I better hurry so you don't have to wait so long to find out what's going to happen. But let me tell you, prepare yourselves, the end is coming...

As always, thanks for reading and reviewing!

P.S.

Slery: Do you still hate me??

Final Frontier Voyager: Was it worth the wait??