And here we're again. Sorry for the delay...
Thank you all for the reviews. Thanks for still reading this story.
DISCLAIMER: The usual thing.
ENJOY!
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Chapter XIV
Two puffy, teary-red eyes looked at themselves in the mirror. Eyes that showed the innermost feelings of the owner of those eyes.
Terror / frustration / sadness / anger.
Two plump and delicate hands with colorful fingernails splashed fresh water over the flushed face holding the eyes.
"Get a grip of yourself, damn it!"
Penelope Garcia looked at herself in the mirror of the ladies restroom in the FBI headquarters.
She wanted to see the good in people, but she was finding it really hard to believe that Jonathan Sturz had a pinch of goodness left in his bitter self. At first, she'd felt pity for the man, after discovering he had lost his own son. But for God's sake, she'd lost both her parents at an early age and even then it never crossed her mind taking revenge for that loss killing people, taking the lives of innocent, sweet people like her baby genius.
A new wave of sadness assaulted her, tears threatening to leave her eyes. But she fought with all her self against them.
"Come on!" She exclaimed out loud. Her face looked like a punching bag for all the crying.
Like if that woman on the mirror wasn't herself, she said: "You can do it. You're going to freshen up your make-up and leave now."
She closed her eyes, took a deep breath to calm herself and started her task ahead.
After only a few seconds, she felt ready to leave the security of the small room. The FBI technical analyst gave one last look at her own reflection. And with renewed determination, stated:
"This isn't over till it's over." She paused. "And it'll be over when Reid is safe again with us."
With purposeful steps, she strode out of the ladies restroom and took the corridor which would lead her to the BAU meeting room.
When she entered the room, she felt the tension could be cut into half with a knife. Nobody noticed her presence, as everybody was too caught up in the scene unfolding before their eyes. Each member of the team had their eyes glued to the screen as if trying to send their strength to the youngest member of the group who seemed to be struggling to move his body, even if that movement was almost hardly noticeable.
"That's it, baby, you can do it," whispered Garcia, as if she was right by Reid's side and not miles away from the boy.
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SSA Dr. Spencer Reid groaned, shifting a little his battered body, slowly regaining consciousness. His eyelids felt like they had a ton of bricks attached to them.
"Reid." Someone was calling his name.
"Hey, do you hear me?" Another voice asked. This one was closer.
What's going on? He asked himself trying to piece together the voices, the worry he sensed in them and the pain he felt in his head which seemed to be yelling at him in discomfort.
And then he remembered everything.
As if startled by the memories of his hellishly reality, he pushed his body up with the help of his arms, with his eyes still closed. Unfortunately, he did it so fast that a split of a second later, he felt like falling down again.
"Take it easy, man" said someone by his side, placing a hand under his armpit to give him support, preventing Spencer's face from crashing down against the floor.
"I... mm..." The FBI agent coughed squishing his eyes, in an attempt to control his words and his thoughts.
"Reid, are you OK?"
Hotch.
Spencer carefully opened his eyes, blinking several times before finally shaking away the blurriness in his eyes, and slowly looked around.
To one side, Linda was looking at him with tears in her eyes. Then to the other side, he found Sebastian giving him a concern look, as if waiting for a sign that would show him that Spencer wouldn't fall down if he took the hand supporting part of his weight.
Apparently, Mr. Malucci considered it was okay to take his hand off and so he did. And asked again: "You OK?"
Reid gradually nodded, sitting in a more comfortable position. He let his head rest against the elevator's back wall and closed his eyes once again. He lifted one timid hand to feel his head. There, his fingers felt the sticky, warm liquid running from his head wound.
He flinched and half-opened his eyes enough to see the small pool of blood on the floor. He had to breathe deeply and gulped to stop the bile from raising in his throat.
"Here."
He looked at Linda who was holding a handkerchief in her hand.
"Put it on your head." She said encouragingly.
He cleared his throat. "Th.. Thanks."
A couple of seconds later, he heard a well-known cell phone ringtone. The noise succeeded in increasing his headache. He knew his team was surely the ones on the other side of the line. He searched with his eyes while keeping his hands over his ears trying to deafen the stubborn noise that seemed to be piercing through his skull.
Suddenly, the noise stopped and Spencer saw Linda holding the phone in her hand stretched out at him.
The blonde girl smiled at his grateful look. He took the phone.
"Yeah."
"Reid."
"Hi, Hotch" said Spencer recognizing his boss' voice.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm fine. Don't worry." He lied.
"Reid." His boss' stern voice showed how bad he was in the "lies" arena.
The young FBI agent sighed and again rested his head against the wall behind him, closing his eyes. "My head is killing me."
"I figured. Are you hurt anywhere else? From here, we just see your head wound.
Reid assessed his body. Despite some discomfort in his whole body, limbs screaming to stretch out and his unbearable need for coffee, he was fine. "No, just my head."
"Alright, just hang in there. We have new leads, we'll get you out of there." His unit chief paused. "I promise. Trust us."
"I do. You guys do what you have to do. I'm not going anywhere." Tiredly answered Reid.
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BAU
"I'm not going anywhere."
SSA Aaron Hotchner wondered if his subordinate had said that in an attempt to make a joke.
"I'll call you later." Hotch ended the phone call and looked at his worn-out team.
"Come on, guys, let's get this bastard." He stated.
"OK, so Miss Jacobs was murdered in her house before we got to talk to her" explained Rossi, taking a seat.
"Garcia." Hotch gave the cue for the technical analyst to start giving all the information she had found.
"Yes, sir. I've been doing some research on our UNSUB's past" stated Penelope.
"And?" encouraged Prentiss.
"Well, nothing. Just what we already knew" answered Garcia.
"Please, tell me there's a 'but' coming" begged JJ.
"But then I checked Janey Jacobs' past. Here's where things get yummy. It turns out that Jonathan Sturz's father had an affair with Janey Jacobs' mother." continued Garcia.
"The UNSUB and Miss Jacobs were siblings?" asked Prentiss, not quite believing that the man had actually killed his own half-sister.
Penelope nodded her head. "Mr. Sturz didn't want to have anything to do with the girl, so she kept her mother's last name. But when she was a teenager, she wanted to meet her father and started looking for him. By the time, she found him, the old man was already dead, but she found out she had a half-brother." The woman took a deep breath.
"And they had different last names we didn't make the connection between them before" added Morgan pacing back and forth.
"Garcia, do you have anything else?" inquired Hotch.
"Please, bossman, are oranges orange?" She smiled and continued. "I crisscrossed every piece of background information I could find on Miss Jacobs and the UNSUB. And you know, I wouldn't stop until I found something useful." Garcia's words stumbled out of her mouth at a high speed.
Derek got behind her chair and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Princess, you know I love your voice, but we don't have much time."
"Ok, at the request of my chocolate God, I'll make the story short" said Penelope, smiling at Derek, who smiled back.
"I managed to find 2 addresses connected to both the UNSUB and his half-sister. Both within a 10 miles radius of the university."
"Good, but we don't have time to check on both and go back to the university" informed Prentiss getting to her feet, unable to remain seated.
Then, Hotch remembered something he had heard in the UNSUB's last call.
"Garcia, play again the last phone call."
The technical analyst typed something on her computer and the UNSUB's malicious voice started to be heard through the loudspeakers.
"Agent Hotchner. So I see you agent's gave up the fight."
Unable to stand the man's mocking tone, Hotch requested: "Fast forward a bit."
"There!" exclaimed the unit chief.
"What is that?" asked JJ at the engine like noise heard over Sturz' voice.
"Garcia, can you isolate that sound?" asked Morgan. The woman nodded and they distinctively heard what it was.
"It's a train" said Rossi.
Penelope rapidly started working on her computer.
Not half a second later, she exclaimed: "There's a train track one block from on of the locations I found earlier." The excitement was evident in her voice. They had finally been able to catch a break.
"We found you, son of a bitch" whispered Morgan. Planting a kiss on Garcia's cheek, he said: "I knew you wouldn't fail me, momma."
"Ok, people, let's go get him" ordered Hotch. "Prentiss, David, we'll go to this address to get Sturz." Then he turned to Derek. "Morgan, JJ, go with the SWAT Bomb Squad to the university."
The team was already on their feet ready for action.
"Morgan, as soon as we neutralize the UNSUB, I'll let you know when to deactivate the bomb in the elevator's base." Morgan nodded and turned towards the door.
"And Morgan" called Hotch. Derek turned around to face him. "If you don't receive my call, I want you out of the building before the clock hits 2 pm." said the unit chief.
Confused, Morgan answered: "But Hotch..."
"Nothing. I don't want another agent inside the building if something goes wrong. It's an order."
"Yes, sir." But Derek Morgan knew in his heart that he wouldn't leave his youngest friend in there alone. It was an order he was too willing to ignore and later, he would face the full consequences of his actions.
"Come on, we have 30 minutes to save out boy" said Rossi heading for the door.
Penelope watched them leave and when she was alone in the room, she turned to face the screen portraying the image of their young friend.
"Hang in there, sweetheart, they're coming for you."
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I'm not too happy with this chapter, but well... There you have it.
Thanks for reading and reviewing! See you next time!