"Stop the car!" Spencer yelled.
Hotch veered the car off into the shoulder and looked at his young agent with concern. JJ noticed that Spencer's shoulder's tensed and his color was white as a ghost. Emily and Dave, who were sitting farthest in the SUV trying to figure out what was happening.
"I can see how you fell for this one, Doctor Spencer Reid. She is very passionate, isn't she?"
"Paul, where is Rebecca?" Spencer asked.
"Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Now, for being the mind behind the BAU, you would have to know I wouldn't tell you that. Foolish sinful boy," Paul said, circling Rebecca as she was blood in an ocean filled with sharks.
"Why her?" Spencer asked.
"We attacked the heart, now we must attack the mind of the devil. Once both are defeated, the world will be ready for the Lord's purity."
"Let her go, she has nothing to do with this!" Spencer said, getting frustrated.
"Oh, but she does, she does," Paul said looking down at the panicked young woman.
The rattler had bitten on her left inner thigh and the poison began working its way through her body. She moaned loudly and her vision was getting worse. Her leg felt like it was on fire and that the flame would never be put out.
Diana had watched with malicious glee as Rebecca was suffering in the tent. She grabbed a stick and moved toward the trapped woman. With a dark smile, she smashed the stick into the injured leg and Rebecca cried out in pain.
Spencer winced when he heard the young woman over the phone. He gripped the phone and the door handle tightly and felt a rush of anger he had never experience before. This experience reminding him so much of Tobias, but now it was moving beyond personal into a darkness he knew too much of. "Tell me where she is!" he growled into the phone.
Paul laughed at the anger he heard from the phone and the suffering displayed in front of him. "Now, why would I do that, Doctor Reid. If you come, our sinner won't repent. We need her, Spencer."
"Please," Rebecca moaned. "Run, Spence."
Diana laughed and hit Rebecca over the head sending her into unconsciousness.
"Times ticking, Spencer. Remember, a father will always protect his sons." With that he hung up the phone.
Spencer took a deep breath as he closed his phone and his eyes. His heart was beating rapidly in his chest as he began to visualize the hell Rebecca was going through. He couldn't help but blame himself. How could he not? He remembered her smile, the way she looked in his scarf, her kiss and now he has her pain filled yell burning its way into his long term memories.
"Reid! Reid!" Hotch said shaking the young man beside him.
Spencer looked at a man he not only considered one of his heroes, but a brother. He swallowed and said, "Paul Tymes has Rebecca."
JJ and Emily looked at each other with sadness in their eyes and Rossi looked angry. "How?" Rossi asked.
"I don't know, we need to find her!" he said getting anxious.
"Spencer, we need to view this with clear minds."
"Clear minds? How can I view this clearly. The past three weeks have been some of the most intense I have ever experienced, not to mention the past 72 hours. Now a woman I have grown to care about deeply is suffering and I can't find her. You want me to just analyze this and keep separated like our other cases? I can't Aaron, I just can't!" Reid slammed his fist against the passenger side window, forgetting his strength and the window shattered.
"Spence!" JJ yelled.
"Damn it!' Reid said, feeling the sharp shards cut into his hand. "Im sorry Hotch," Spencer said looking down at his new injury. Emily moved up next to JJ and began helping clean out this new bloody cut without touching the slash upon that same arm.
Hotch only nodded understanding the confusion and pain Spencer was feeling.
"What can we do?" Spencer asked sadly.
Hotch looked at the rest of his team members and gave them a knowing smile once he met all of their eyes. "We are going to pick up Morgan and then we are going to find Rebecca. That is what we are going to do."
Morgan had woken up early and was relieved to find his Baby Girl sleeping. He looked down upon the ring he slipped on her finger in the dark of night and his heart raced with pride and anticipation. Though he wanted to shake his baby girl awake and ask the very important question, he knew she needed to recover. The more rest she had, the better she was healing.
Derek glanced down at the ring and took in the seriousness of that piece of jewelry. It was the ring his father gave his mother when he proposed, the ring she wore the 16 years they were married. The greatest man he ever knew worked to give that ring importance and honor. When the ring was delivered to his home 4 years ago, he didn't understand why his mother did it. The note she left inside wrote: "For when you are ready, my beautiful boy. Trust me when I say she is worth it. Love, your Mama." The ring upon his baby girl's finger looked as if it was made just for her. His heart swelled with pride and he kissed her hand softly, touching her hair and memorizing every part of her he possibly could.
He yawned and realized that he should straighten himself up before he proposed to the love of his life. He kept the bathroom door open so he would be able to hear when she woke up. He turned on the sink and threw water into his face as he felt himself growing nervous. "You can do this, Derek. This is your baby girl. You can do this. You were made to do this."
He dried off his face and straightened up his shirt. Cracking his neck and knuckles out of nervousness, he took a deep breath and turned to see the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.
Penelope had woken up when she heard him move out of his chair. She quietly stretched her body as she heard him moving around her room and the bathroom. She looked down at her left hand and felt tears move to her eyes when she realized she didn't dream this ring, that Derek loving her wasn't a dream and that this was a very important moment.
Her eyes looked away from the ring and she met the smiling stare of her Derek. She felt a tear roll down her face as she looked at him with love and disbelief. "Derek?..."
"Good morning, gorgeous," he said moving closer to her.
"Derek? What is..."
"Baby Girl, I want you to shush that beautiful mouth of yours and listen to me for a little bit. Can you do that for me?"
She nodded and stared at him as he sat beside her on her bed and he gripped her hand tightly.
"Baby Girl, I was a lost man before I met you. I didn't have any desire for consistency or balance. I lived in the moment and didn't look toward the future other than for the success of my career. I didn't believe or desire love in my life. I felt myself hardening as a man and saw a future in the men we work with that predestined me to be alone. Then you came into my life like a tornado and turned my world upside down. Nothing I had known, nothing I believed in mattered as much as what we had and what we knew about one another. I wake up every day for you, I breathe for you, and I was too stubborn to see that until you were almost taken away from me again."
He wiped away her tears and looked down at the ring that was placed upon her finger. "My father was the greatest man I ever knew. He had heard the rule that a man buys a ring for the woman he loves that is worth 3 of his scheduled earning. He felt my mother deserved better. He saved his money for 7 earnings, and when he gave this ring to my mother, she said yes and were happy together for 16 years. When she gave this to me, she told me I would know when I was ready and that she would be worth it. Penelope Garcia, you are more than worth this ring. You are worth everything to me."
She couldn't believe her ears. Her heart was racing and she could only touch him to keep this from being a dream, another fantasy.
"Penelope, you are my reason, my heart, my light. I think of our life together, our silly movies, our love and our laughter. I think about our future together, our 4 children, our dogs, our home. Most of all I think about how grateful I am to you that you came into my life. You are my world, Penelope. And I would want nothing more than for you to do me the honor of becoming my wife. Will you be mine, Baby Girl."
Releasing more tears, she nodded with a smile. "Yes, my Derek. I will marry you."
He rushed forward and brought her lips to his, kissing her with a passion that could have lit fireworks. There was nothing that could taint this moment for them. He was just granted the greatest wish of his life. Penelope Garcia was going to be his wife. He smiled as their passionate kiss ended, he resting his forehead against hers and her tears streaming down her face.
"I love you, Derek Morgan," she whispered, looking into his love filled chocolate brown eyes.
"And I love you, Penelope Garcia." He kissed her softly and held her close to him, feeling her heart beat against his skin.
Derek looked up at the window and saw Hotch staring at him with a serious glare. As much as he wanted to rejoice in this moment with his woman and their friends, he could tell from the look Hotch was giving him that their nightmare wasn't over yet.