Take my Breath Away

Emily had woken up hours ago and since then she had been dozing on and off. She would wake every time she heard a noise that sounded like the Unsub entering the room. As of yet he had not come but Emily dreaded the moment he would. She may have said goodbye last night but she wasn't ready to die. She would fight with every ounce of strength she had left in her body. Which wasn't much, but it was said that people on adrenaline highs could do amazing things, maybe there was a miracle waiting for her yet. A statistic from Reid would have made her feel a bit better right now.

She didn't want to count her team out of it, she still hoped they would find her in time. but with current events going the way they had she couldn't count them in either.

Finally the Unsub entered the room carrying a pistol. He walked over to her and in response she sat up ready for a fight.

"Time to die" He said with a grin and then laughed.

Before the Unsub could make a move Emily attacked him, getting that gun from him was her last chance to save herself. She flung herself at him with all her strength, she clawed at his eyes and face hoping to disorient him. Unfortunately she was no match for him, he threw her on to the bed, but she continued to fight, clawing and scratching at whatever part of him she could reach. He then grabbed her left wrist and twisted as hard as he could. Emily could hear the snap of her bone followed by the blinding pain that coursed through her arm. As though someone threw a switch all of the fight and strength to fight left her body. The adrenalin pumping through her veins stopped with the shock to her body. The Unsub could feel the fight leave her and let go of her wrist.

"They all fight just like you did but a crack of the wrist and the fight is over before it can ever start. You are all so predictable. Goodnight Princess."

And with that he pistol whipped her as hard as he could across the side of her head. The action had the desired effect of knocking Emily completely unconscious. He then stood up and left the room. He was gone for less than a minute just long enough to turn off the camera.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hotch the Unsub turned the camera off." Garcia's panicked voice said as soon as he answered his phone.

"I can see that, does that means you can't trace the signal anymore." He replied, this was the worst news he could have received and he desperately wanted to hit something.

"No I can still trace, it he left the signal open he just turned the camera off which means we have no idea what he is doing to here, we have no way to know if she is still alive. it could mean she is dead" The panic grew as she spoke.

"Keep tracing the signal we have to assume that she is still alive until we are given reason not to." He said as calmly as he could and then disconnected the phone conversation.

Some time later JJ came rushing into the conference room. "Hotch this one name keeps popping up but I can't find much more about him at all. All I can find is an old DMV photo which looks like it could be our guy but I can't guarantee that it is."

"See if you can find anything about him; find someone who knows him, it can't be a coincidence that he keeps coming up."

Before JJ could leave Detective Klein caught sight of the picture. "That is George Grant."

"You know who he is?" Hotch said becoming very interested in who this man was.

"Yeah kind of, his family is descended from one of the great robber barons from the 1880's, the family is beyond rich. He is all that is left now, his mother died several months ago."

"That could have been the stresser." Rossi added.

"But if he has so much money why isn't there any paper trail and why couldn't anyone identify him."

"His mother, Mrs. Grant, she never trusted banks she kept all her money locked up in their house. To say she was eccentric is an understatement; she also wouldn't let her son out of her sight she kept him in that house just like the money. He had private teachers who came to the house he never went to college but the rumors were that he was all about computers so he never had to leave the house."

"That could explain how he could hide the video link." Reid added.

Morgan choice that moment to return to the conference room "Hotch I checked out all the Community Colleges and I contacted the ones who had welding to see if they had a student who paid for all his classes with cash and fit the profile. Well New Haven Community College had one guy George Grant, who paid for over two dozen classes in cash, he took computer programing and stain glass window making classes and other construction based classes, plus he took biology and general nursing classes. All the classes he took were ones you would need to pull off these murders"

"If you think this is your guy you are going to need more than this before we go barging into his house, he is a very wealthy member of the community." Detective Klein informed them.

Before anyone could say anything the video feed returned. While the camera was off the Unsub had changed Emily's clothes into the classic Disney blue and yellow Snow White dress. The action would have been highly cliché if this whole mess wasn't a matter of life and death; the Unsub had put her in a glass coffin and sealed her in. She was still unconscious; he had even put a red ribbon in her hair.

"How long was the camera off?" Hotch demanded, fear and adrenaline now flowing through his veins.

"About two hours" Garcia responded.

"That means she has about two hours of air left at most, being unconscious is good she will use up less air that way." Reid said.

"Which means we have less than two hours to find her" Morgan added.

"If she wakes up and panics it could be less." Reid corrected.

"Thanks kid put the pressure on even more." Morgan shot at him.

"Sorry." Reid said, everyone was silent, they all were on edge and ready to go they just needed to know where and then Garcia interrupted the silence.

"I did it Hotch I found the source of the signal it is coming from a house belonging to George Grant outside of New Haven." She said triumphantly

"Reid, JJ stay here keep me posted on what is going on in that room." Hotch said as everyone else headed out the door.

"Bring her back Hotch." Reid said.

"I will."

It took Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Detective Klein and the local Officers forty five minutes to reach George Grant's house. In the intervening time Emily woke up, she was confused and disoriented, her head hurt from where the Unsub had hit her with the gun. She tried to sit up but hit her head on the glass. It took her a few moments to realize what was happening and then it hit her like a ton of bricks. She was in the glass coffin, she was going to die, and then the panic set in. She began to pound her fists on the glass ignoring the searing pain in her wrist. She began to scream and cry, she was in full survival mode and no longer thinking rationally.

She didn't just feel trapped she was trapped, confided on all sides unable to move in any direction and all she wanted as to be let out of this box. The walls felt like they were closing in on her and she was in the midst of a full fledged panic attack. If she was thinking logically she would have remembered that by panicking she was using up what little oxygen she had left but, logic was nowhere to be found.

"Help" she screamed over and over pleading for escape. As a result of her screams there was soon very little oxygen left in the glass box. It became harder and harder for her to breathe which did little to stop the panic that was consuming her. A short time later she began to feel light headed and a few minutes after that her lungs were burning for air. With no oxygen left she passed out.

Once they arrived it had taken very little time for Hotch and Morgan to bust down the front door. If Emily had remained conscious for a mere minute minute more she would have heard the police breaking down the door and the shoot out that inevitably followed. The group had entered to find the Unsub, George Grand standing there with a revolver in one hand and in the other was a glock that looked very much like Emily's service weapon. He was blocking their path to the rest of the house and Hotch's initial reaction was to shoot him. But flat out shooting him was not an option and he was forced to make a choice, take down the unsub or rescue Emily.

The choice had already been made days before and he whispered to Dave

"Distract him get, him to move."

It didn't take Rossi and Morgan very long to do just that and miraculously Hotch and a local officer were able to slip past the Unsub as he ranted and raved at the police and FBI. Hotch quickly found the open steel door with a glass coffin inside on some kind of platform where the bed clearly had once been. The Unsub had welded the coffin shut and Hotch was initially thankful he that has asked Morgan to get him the proper tools to get her out, but then he saw that she wasn't breathing as she was when he last saw her on the video feed at the station. He had to get her out of there quickly which meant he no longer had the time to cut her our. He was taking a moment to weigh his options when the choice was make for him. The officer with him smashed the glass on the lower part of her body, he then moved to break the glass in front of her face.

"Stop you can't just break the glass that way, if we aren't careful the glass could puncture her internal organs or put a shard of glass right into her head." Hotch warned. It didn't look like any serious damage had been done by the officer's actions but she would likely need some stitches in her knees.

Quickly he decided that the only way to get her our was to break the side panels of the coffin. He instructed the officer to break that glass as gently a possible hoping to cause the least amount of damage. It took less than a minute for the officer to break the glass but to Hotch it felt like hours. As the Officer worked Hotch heard a volley of gun shots coming from the floor above and he knew the Unsub was dead, and if he was honest he was glad. He could hear the footsteps of the officers on their way and he shouted to them.

"Were in here." All the while his attention was on Emily.

Once he was done the officer and Hotch lifted and pulled Emily out as carefully as possible. The whole process took longer than Hotch liked but once she was free he picked her up and laid her on the floor.

"We need a medic in here" He yelled. She wasn't breathing and he could only feel a faint pulse. He quickly began CPR, he knew he was probably doing more harm to her broken ribs but it was a necessary price to pay to make her breath again. It took a minute but he was finally able to get her breathing again, she began to cough and as the EMTs arrived he saw her eyes flutter open. She was quickly loaded on to the stretcher and taken to the ambulance, Hotch following her.

"Rossi take care of things here please I am going with her to the hospital." Hotch yelled as he passed his team.

"We got this Hotch don't worry, tell her we will see her soon." Rossi replied and with that Hotch and Emily disappeared into the night.

A/N See I promised, I hope you all enjoy it!

(BTW I am never going to mention the possibility of an editing issue again because the moment I did my printed copy of the story with hand written edits decided to take a nose dive into the bathtub, all is well and chapter 13 is drying as we speak and should be uploaded tomorrow, but just to be safe and superstitious, I will never ever mention the possibility of such issues again.)

Again Thanks so much for the Reviews!