A/N: Hey everybody, I know you've been waiting for this - so without further adue, here's chapter 3! Wish our heroes good luck... Beta read by the lovely LT!

-o-o-o-

"Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance."
-- Samuel Johnson

-o-o-o-

Wednesday

The night between Tuesday and Wednesday, Morgan had slept with his phone in his hand, just in case Reid would call. Not that he had gotten much sleep in the first place. His entire body was in turmoil. One of their own was missing without the shadow of a trace, and there was nothing they could do.

They had sent out an APV and listed him as a missing person, but basically they had done all they could. Reid's apartment was completely clean except for the broken lamp. Hotch had called in CSU the day before to process the apartment, and they had come up empty. Not a single fingerprint, fiber or hair, no blood or traces at all. The way it looked at this time, it was like the young agent had simply thrown some things in a bag and taken off.

Morgan was about to hit the ceiling. He hated feeling this helpless, especially when someone this close to him was in possible peril. If it was up to him, he'd call in every agent all over the country to go knocking on doors, but naturally that would be absolutely impossible. He just wanted to find Reid.

There was this nagging feeling inside Morgan that told him that something was very, very wrong. There had to be foul play involved, and his team concurred with him. They all knew Reid well enough to know that this was not something he'd do voluntarily.

As Morgan stepped through the doors of the BAU-office, he once again hoped that he would find his youngest team member by his desk, fiddling with his papers and drinking his coffee. But his desk was gaping empty. He walked past his desk and up the stairs to Hotch's office, and without knocking he went inside.

"He's not here. Has he called?"

Hotch looked up from his pile of papers, worry in his eyes. "Not a word. I've put out a report to all the field offices about his disappearance but so far I haven't heard anything."

"Goddamnit!" Morgan was close to slamming his fist into the wall, but he knew the situation wouldn't improve by doing so. "Hotch, we've gotta find him."

"We're working on it, Morgan." Hotch's dark eyes stared straight into Morgan's. "Keep a cool head; we need the entire team at their best."

"The entire team, yeah. That means Reid too." Morgan gritted his teeth.

"We're all doing our best. Rossi and Prentiss are over at Reid's place knocking on doors to see if anyone heard anything, and they have eight officers with them. Garcia's keeping his phone under surveillance."

"And what am I supposed to do? Sit here and twiddle my thumbs?"

"You are going to his coffee shop and wherever he usually goes when he's not at work and see if anyone's seen him."

"Alright." Morgan nodded. "I'll check in with Garcia before I go."

"Keep me posted. I have an appointment with Captain Gardner in half an hour to arrange a search." Hotch put the papers away and turned out the desk light. "I'll call with the details later."

The two men nodded in agreement and Morgan left the room, sight set on Garcia's little bunker. As he reached it, he knocked the door frame. "Hey sweetie."

Garcia spun around in her chair, deeply focused on the information she was currently processing. "Oh! Morgan! Don't do that!"

"Sorry. How's the search going?" Morgan entered the room and stood next to Garcia as she turned back to her computers.

"I'm coming up with absolutely zilch here. God, I have to find something…" Garcia's voice was muddled with held back tears.

Morgan could sense her pain. He felt the same way. The helplessness. The desperation. It was overwhelming not to be able to find Reid and it was a knot in everybody's stomachs not even knowing who took him. "I have something for you to find."

Garcia's head jerked up, and hope shone brightly in her eyes. "What?"

"I need you to pull up information on his credit card."

"Give me 20 seconds", she said, and her fingers were already flying across the keyboard. A few moments later, the screen lit up. "Here we go. It hasn't been used since last Wednesday for a purchase of coffee in Salt Lake City. Damnit…"

"That's okay, honey. Now tell me what places he usually uses the card in so I know where to go to look for him."

"Okay…" Garcia scrolled the page down and compared purchases. "Starbucks on Grover Street nine times per week, Utopia Bookstore on West twice per week and an Italian restaurant on Bleecher Avenue called La Vita Bella every Tuesday. You need more?"

"That's enough for now; I'll call when I need more to go on. You did good, baby." He gave Garcia a short hug and a smile before walking towards the door.

"Tell me we'll find him." Garcia swallowed hard as she asked a question she couldn't bear getting the wrong answer to.

Morgan drew a deep breath. "We'll find him." With that, he left the bunker to hopefully catch a scent of his kid brother.

-o-o-o-

Prentiss and Rossi left the 12th apartment, just as empty handed as they arrived. None of Reid's neighbors had heard a thing from his apartment for days. They were used to the silence; the young resident never made much noise when he was at home. They would most likely have noticed if there was anything out of the ordinary happening in the apartment. This was a nice neighborhood and there weren't many disturbances. If anything happened, one could be sure that the neighbors would be aware of it.

"This is taking us nowhere", Prentiss concluded. "Whatever happened here went by completely unnoticed. How is that even possible?"

"Well, if there was no struggle, there wouldn't be anything to notice", Rossi replied while stuffing his credentials back into his pocket. "Everything supports that he knew the abductor. There were no signs of forced entry, no signs of a struggle. He could very well have let the perpetrator in voluntarily."

Prentiss knew that Rossi was right. Everything pointed to the fact that Reid had been taken by someone he knew. If he had been taken at all. No one knew for sure. All they knew was that Reid was missing and they needed to find him.

"We have nine apartments to go. Better get moving." The two agents continued down the hallway towards the next apartment, hoping to get some sort of information from the residents.

-o-o-o-

Morgan exited the Utopia Bookstore with a grim look on his face. The owner and employees knew Reid very well, but couldn't provide any information about him at this time. They hadn't seen him for over a week.

He waited outside the bookstore after receiving a call from Prentiss that they were on their way over there to go with him to the next destination. None of the residents of Reid's apartment building had been of any help, although all of them wanted nothing more than to be able to assist. They all liked the young, silent man on the first floor and hoped that nothing bad had happened to him.

The black SUV pulled up to the curb next to Morgan, and he approached the passenger side. "Anything?"

Prentiss shook her head. "No. They haven't heard a thing."

"Damnit", Morgan mumbled. "We're running out of roads to go."

"There's gotta be something more we can do."

Rossi's phone began ringing, and Morgan and Prentiss fell silent as he answered. "Rossi. What? Alright, we'll be right there." Click.

"What?" Morgan felt a sharp sting of fear in his chest.

"They've found Reid's bag." He started up the car.

"Where?" Morgan's heart jumped half way out his chest as his legs made a move towards his car automatically.

"Cincinnati!" Rossi called as he pushed the pedal to the metal and sped off, narrowly missing a head-on collision with a semi.

-o-o-o-

Six hours later, the BAU walked into the Cincinnati PD headquarters. A detective greeted them at the door.

"Agent Hotchner, I presume?" he said, reaching out a hand.

Hotch took his hand, shaking it briefly. "Yes, hello Detective Holden. This is my team; Agents Morgan, Rossi and Prentiss and media liaison Jareau."

"Would have been nicer to meet under more pleasant circumstances", the detective said, motioning the team towards one of the conference rooms. "I'm sorry to hear about your agent."

"You found his bag?" Morgan asked, having grown tired of the casual talk. He wanted to see with his own eyes what they had found.

"Yes, it's right through here."

"How did you know it was Reid's?" Rossi asked as they entered the room, and his eyes fell on the green bag on the table.

"Mainly because of this." The detective pulled on a white latex glove and lifted an item from the bag. It was Reid's credentials.

Reality hit all of the agents at once. They had the proof they needed to know that Reid was in trouble. Up until now, everything had been purely coincidental and nothing had made sense. It still didn't make sense, but now they could take a firm hold of the situation. Hotch cleared his throat.

"Do you have an extra?" He reached for a glove and slid it on his hand before reaching into the bag, pulling out item after item.

"Someone sure wanted to make it look like he went willingly. Shirts, shoes, socks. Toothbrush." Morgan watched as Hotch examined the contents of the bag.

Hotch put the things back into the bag. "We need them all thoroughly processed."

"I have a CSU-team standing by to take care of it; we were just waiting for your clearance."

"This is a federal case now." Hotch pulled out Reid's gun, checking the bullets. They were all there. "I'll call the Cincinnati field office and have the tech lab set up for this."

"Whatever you want, Agent Hotchner." Detective Holden knew it would be no use trying to convince the unit chief that his CSU-team was just as good as the federal team. The case concerned one of their own, and he completely understood that Agent Hotchner wanted his own people on the case. "Let me know if I can be of any help. My department is at your service."

"Where was the bag found?" Rossi wondered.

"In a dumpster outside a Chinese restaurant."

"Give me the address. Prentiss and I will go check it out and talk to the staff and people around." Morgan wanted to spring into action; he couldn't stand being unproductive any longer.

Hotch nodded. "Go. I'll stay here with JJ. Rossi, you go to the field office and make arrangements."

"Alright." Morgan turned quickly, giving Prentiss' arm a pat. He wanted to go now.

Hotch's cell phone began ringing and he pulled off the glove before answering. Unknown number.

"Hotchner." A short moment of silence, and he spun around. "Morgan!"

Morgan and Prentiss stopped just before they reached the front door. "What is it?"

Hotch waved his hand frantically for them to return. He put his focus back on the phone. "Are you okay? Where are you?" he asked eagerly.

Prentiss looked at Rossi. "Who's on the phone?"

Rossi shook his head.

"Alright, we'll be there soon. I'll send someone to meet you there. Stay there!" He emphasized the last words before hanging up.

"Who was that?" Morgan asked excitedly, hoping he'd get the answer he wanted.

"Reid." Hotch was already dialing a new number on his phone.

"Is he okay? Where is he?" Prentiss blurted in pure relief as she felt her heart skip a couple of beats.

"He's okay, but a little out of it." Hotch put the phone to his ear.

"Where is he?!" Morgan wanted to strangle his slow-speaking colleague.

"Nashville."