A/N: Phew, a week goes by quickly! I've been ill and not able to update, but now I'm back in action again! Now, let's see if the team finds Reid... Beta read by the lovely LT!

-o-o-o-

With determined steps, the BAU walked through the doors of Saint Thomas Hospital in Nashville, TN. Hotch had taken the lead, naturally, and the rest of the team followed anxiously. They had no information as to what condition their youngest member was in, or what had actually happened to him. All they knew was that he had been admitted here three hours earlier and taken immediately to the intensive care unit.

The team was worried and confused about the entire situation. It was all so bizarre. One moment they are deep into a frantic search for one of their members, the other moment he calls and tells them where he is. Nothing made sense. They had all agreed that the bag found in Cincinnati had been a complete wild goose chase.

On the plane ride over to Nashville from Connecticut they had been trying to profile whoever took Reid in the first place, and why. After some time of talking and bouncing ideas, they had agreed to wait with forming a complete profile until they had seen what shape the young agent was in. It would perhaps give them a better idea of what motive the UnSub had had for taking him. Plus, Reid could tell them about what happened and it would aid them in their search for the kidnapper.

They reached the ICU reception desk and Hotch planted one of his palms on the counter with a slightly too loud bang, making the nurse behind the desk jerk her head up in surprise.

"Spencer Reid?" Hotch voice was firm and left no room for negotiation.

Nevertheless, the nurse decided it would be a good idea to snap at him. "Family only", she said dismissively and pushed her nose back into the crossword puzzle in her hands.

A second later, something was dangled over her magazine, catching her attention. It was a very official looking identification badge with the letters FBI at the top. The nurse looked up at the man holding the credentials three inches from her face. He looked right back at her with the darkest, sternest eyes she had ever seen.

"This makes us his family."

The nurse cleared her throat as the identification badge was removed from her line of vision. "Room 404. But he's very tired, he needs to rest."

Hotch gave the nurse a single nod before turning away. "Thank you." Taking lead once again, he led his team towards Reid's room; none of them knowing what exactly they would find once they got there.

They slowed down as they reached the door, and Hotch entered first. Setting his jaw, he prepared himself for whatever he would be faced with.

They all stopped a few feet into the hospital room. None of them knew what to say.

Reid lay on the bed, covered by a thin white sheet. Tubes ran in and out of his arms and an oxygen mask was loosely placed over his mouth and nose. His skin was bright red and blistering. There wasn't a sign of life from him except for the beeping of the monitor next to him, showing his heartbeat.

"Oh, God…" Prentiss whispered a bit too loud, but she was unable to contain it.

Hotch approached the bed cautiously. He wanted nothing less than to disturb his youngest subordinate, but the situation did call for at least some sort of response and information about what had happened.

"Reid?" he said in a much gentler voice than usual. "Reid, it's Hotch." He took hold of a chair next to the bed and pulled it closer, sitting down by Reid's side.

The rest of the team stayed where they were, anxiously awaiting the young agent's answer. Morgan pulled the door shut behind him. He didn't know what feeling was appropriate right now. He felt angry, confused, relieved, ecstatic, tired and determined to find whoever did this. His mind was a mishmash of emotions and he decided that right now, all he could do was be happy that they had found their youngest alive and…well.

When there was no response, Hotch placed his hand lightly on Reid's brightly red fingers. "Reid?"

Reid's eyelids flickered for a moment, and then slowly opened. It took a few moments for his eyes to focus, but once they did and his sight fell on his superior by his side, his breath quickened. "Ho-otch…?" he wheezed into the mask. A great wave of relief rolled over him and he finally knew for sure that he was safe.

"How are you feeling?" Hotch voice was pleasantly familiar in Reid's ears.

"I'm…a little…tired…" Reid panted weakly.

"I know. We're gonna let you rest soon." Hotch moved forward a few inches. "Reid, who did this to you?"

The young agent slowly shook his head the best he could. "Don't…remember…"

"That's okay. What do you remember? Can you tell us anything?"

Reid closed his eyes in dismay. "I…don't…" He winced from the pain of frowning. "…anything…"

"It's okay, Reid." Morgan stepped forward towards the bed and into Reid's field of vision. "We'll talk when you feel better. We're not going anywhere."

"You should rest", Prentiss said softly. "You've been through a lot."

Reid nodded weakly. "Sorry…"

"Don't be sorry", Hotch interjected. "We're just glad you're okay. Now you rest, and we'll come back when you're stronger." He rose and nodded to his team to leave. When he and Reid were alone in the room, he turned back to the young agent. "Nothing?"

Reid closed his eyes, sighed deeply and shook his head once again. "Hotch…"

"It's okay. We're right here. Just sleep and we'll take this up once you're well." Without waiting for an answer, Hotch opened the door and left the room. He met up with the rest of his team outside. "Morgan, go get hold of a doctor."

Morgan nodded briefly and stomped off towards the nurses' station to grab hold of someone who could tell them more about Reid's condition.

"God, what happened to him?" Prentiss shook her head and ran her fingers through her fringe. "He looks terrible!"

"He must have been out in the sun for a long time", Rossi said. "Looks like severe sunburn."

"Who would do this to him?" Garcia said anxiously, fiddling with her fingers. She had demanded to come to Nashville when she heard Reid had been found, and had taken a commercial flight on her own expense. She had landed an hour before the rest and had wandered the airport in desperation, waiting for her team to arrive. Now being here, seeing their youngest member in this condition broke her heart. "Why?"

"I don't know", Hotch said with darkness in his voice. "But we'll find out."

"Excuse me?" a voice came from behind them. They turned and came face to face with a man in his 40's, wearing jeans and a checkered shirt. "Are you friends with Spencer?"

"Yes." Hotch scrutinized the man before him. "And you are?"

"My name's Jacob Hall. I found him outside my door a couple of hours ago and took him to the hospital." There was genuine worry in the man's eyes. "They won't tell me how he's doing because I'm not related, I thought you might know."

"We don't know any more than you do, Mr. Hall. Can you tell us what happened around the time you found Dr. Reid?" Hotch was still very suspicious towards this unknown savior, and he wanted answers.

"Well, sure…" Jacob frowned slightly. "You're FBI, right?"

Hotch nodded. "We're members of the BAU. Now, Mr. Hall – what happened?"

"Okay, well. I came home after work in Nashville, and I found Spencer on my porch, passed out and red as a stop light. That poor boy had been walking the plain in his underwear! God knows for how long… I don't understand how he managed to get that badly burnt; the plain is only two miles across. Kid must have wandered in circles."

Jacob paused to scratch his head.

"Anyway, I came home and found him and took him inside. He was out cold for a while, so I put some wet towels and cold compresses on him to chill him off. I called the hospital and asked what I should do and they said to bring him in. Just before I was gonna put him in the pick up, he woke up and was completely out of it. Didn't know where he was or how he got there, or what day it was. He just wanted to call his boss – I assume that's you." Jacob indicated to Hotch and got a short nod in return.

Jacob continued. "And once he'd called you, I brought him in to the hospital and they took him here. I figured I'd stick around to make sure he's okay, but no one's talking to me." He sighed and ran his hand over his receding hairline. "When you find out, will you tell me?"

Hotch gave him another short nod. "Mr. Hall, could you please tell us your whereabouts starting last Friday?"

Jacob frowned. "Why do you wanna know that?"

"It's standard procedure", Rossi interjected. "Dr. Reid was abducted from his home at some point after Friday and you are the first person known to see him after that."

"Oh, man…" Jacob's eyes told a clear tale of shock. "I hope you don't think that I…no!"

"Mr. Hall, if you could just tell us where you were during the time Dr. Reid was missing and let us verify it, there will be no problems."

"Well, yeah… I was working on Friday and when I got off I went with some of the guys to Steve's house to watch a fight on TV. Didn't get home until 2AM or something. Saturday and Sunday me and the guys went on a fishing trip and Monday I was back to work."

"Can your friends and employer verify that?" Hotch looked at Jacob through the eyes of a lie detector.

"Well, sure."

"Good. This is Agent Jareau", he said, motioning JJ to step forward. "She'll be taking the names and numbers to your friends."

JJ stepped out from the group. "We can go right over here, Mr. Hall." She took a few steps towards a set of seats along the wall, and Jacob followed.

Hotch turned back to the rest of his team. "Garcia, go help JJ with the alibis. There might be something you can check online."

"You got it." Garcia hurried over to JJ, pulling her laptop out of her metallic blue oversized shoulder bag.

"We have very little to work with." Rossi shoved his hands into his pockets. "We have to do the best with what we've got."

Hotch eyes had already fallen on Morgan who was quickly approaching them, accompanied by a doctor in a white robe.

"Spencer Reid?" The doctor stopped in front of Hotch. "I'm Dr. Sheldon."

"Agent Hotchner. How is he?"

The doctor flipped the chart in his hands open and eyed it through. "He's suffered severe sunburns on 90 percent of his body. He's also dangerously dehydrated, but we have him on fluids and nutrition IV, so he should be fine."

The entire team simultaneously exhaled silently in relief.

"The sunburns are going to take some time to heal and he's been scheduled for a skin biopsy in four months from now."

"Skin biopsy?" Prentiss frowned.

"With sunburns this severe, the risk developing of malign melanoma is 46 percent higher than with usual sunburns."

"Skin cancer?"

"Unfortunately, yes. On the bright side, his kidneys are in full working condition. When dehydrated this badly, one is at risk of kidney failure, but your friend has managed to escape that."

"Thank god…" Prentiss breathed.

"Dr. Sheldon", Hotch interjected. "Dr. Reid was taken from his home last Friday. Are there any signs of physical trauma not caused by the sun or dehydration?"

Dr. Sheldon once again flipped through the chart. "A few scrapes on the knees, but other than that – no. However, he did have two bright red marks on the back of his neck that we haven't been able to determine the source of yet, but that's about it."

Hotch frowned. What had been the objective of taking the young agent from his home only to drop him off in the middle of Tennessee, hundreds of miles away from home, with no physical trauma at all?

"I have other patients, so you'll have to excuse me, Agent Hotchner."

"Yes, thank you, Dr. Sheldon."

The doctor turned to walk away, but stopped after only a few steps. "Oh, I almost forgot."

Hotch's head snapped up.

"Dr. Reid's tox-screen came up positive for pipecuronium."

"Pipecuronium? What's that?" Hotch frowned deeply.

"It's basically a preparatory drug given along with anesthesia to induce muscle paralysis. It's a neuromuscular blocking agent. How that got into his system is beyond me, it's not exactly an over-the-counter drug. And I'm guessing he hasn't had any surgery in the last days, since we found no recent scars or procedural traces."

"Who has access to that drug?" Hotch instantly inquired.

"Only licensed anesthesiologists", Dr. Sheldon replied with a quizzical look on his face. "He's not…?"

"No, he's not a medical doctor. Thank you, Dr. Sheldon."

"I don't know what happened to Dr. Reid since he was abducted, Agent Hotchner", the doctor said. "But if someone injected him with this drug, and didn't put him under anesthesia, whatever was done to him, he would be able to feel everything."

"What?"

"Pipecuronium is only a muscle relaxant. Dr. Reid would have been awake and completely unable to move, but fully aware of anything going on around him. He would not have been able to defend himself."

Hotch felt his insides turn, but he bit it back. "Thank you. You've been a great help."

The doctor nodded and walked off to his next patient.

"I don't like the sound of this at all", Rossi mumbled.

"You and me both", Morgan concurred.

"He doesn't remember anything about what happened. Maybe his mind will clear up once he gets some fluid back in his system?" Prentiss wanted to stay hopeful, even though something inside her told her very firmly that she was wrong.

"Don't count on it", Hotch muttered under his breath.

"Hey, guys." JJ walked up to the group. "Hall's alibis checks out, down to the store where they rented a boat and bought bait for fishing."

"Well, that's one less road to go down." Rossi sighed and placed his hands on his hips. "That leaves us with…none."

Hotch pulled up his phone. "We'll figure it out. Somehow. Prentiss, go tell Hall that Reid's okay, he seemed genuinely concerned. I'll make reservations at that hotel we passed on the way here. We're not leaving without Reid."

As Hotch walked away towards the exit, his mind was spinning. So many questions and so little answers. There were no witnesses, no leads, no clues and no apparent motive. For once, the experienced profiler was at a loss.

All he knew was that first thing in the morning, his team would sit down and go over every known detail of the case and try to piece together a profile. But right now, they all needed to sleep.