A/N: Thanks for all the wonderful reviews I have gotten on this story. It means a lot that you have stuck with me this long!
Onward with the story….
"Let me go, you freak!" Penelope screamed in fury at the shadowy figure standing in front of her.
A computerized voice greeted her. "Penelope, welcome. Make yourself comfortable. You will be here for a very long time." The figure stepped out of the shadows into the light.
Penelope felt a hysterical giggle bubble in her throat. "You're kidding me right? The ghost face mask… digital voice changer. This isn't Scream… we're not in a movie! Let me go. When Derek finds you, you will so regret this."
"Derek? DEREK! Derek Morgan is not fit to shine my shoes! I will regret NOTHING! And you should consider yourself lucky. Don't all of your profiler friends always say that if someone takes the time to conceal themselves that the victim has a better chance of survival?" The man in the Scream mask took a step forward. "As I said before, get comfortable, you will be here for a very long time. Long enough to make Derek Morgan forget you ever were alive in the first place."
Penelope watched as he walked away, tugging uselessly at the handcuffs securing her to the bed. All she could think of were the crime scene photos. How many women had she cringed as she had seen this same position, and wondered what they had been thinking? Now she knew… they were terrified, and feeling more alone than ever before. She curled her thumb up to touch her engagement ring. "Derek…" she whispered, as she closed her eyes against the terror.
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Two days later…
"Morgan! Sit back down. You're going to tear all your stitches." JJ pleaded with Derek as he began to get up and look for his pants.
"JJ, you have been looking for her for two days. TWO DAYS! She's been with some asshole. That's it, I'm looking for her now myself. I don't care about my stitches or anything else. Penelope is all that matters. I'm done… I'm not sitting in this hospital bed any longer." Derek's voice was cool, his body tense and stressed.
"Morgan, we will find her." Prentiss insisted. "You just have to give us some time."
"It's been TWO DAYS, Emily! Two days when I was lying here, nearly unconscious because of all the crap they kept pumping into me, when Penelope is out there, scared and alone." Derek purposely didn't allow any other options. In his mind, he knew, Penelope was alive! She was not dead, even though he knew that time was not on her side.
JJ and Prentiss shared a look behind his back. "Morgan…we haven't received any word. There has ben no attempt to contact anyone for a ransom drop. We even called her brothers to make sure. No one has been contacted. Hotch has checked his voicemail even. There is nothing. Crime scene only shows two sets of footprints leading to where she was hiding. But there's no match, nothing to connect anyone."
Derek sighed heavily. "We need Penelope to crack this. How do we do it without her?" Then more quietly, "How to I do this without her?"
JJ bit her lip, wanting to cry at the emotion in Morgan's voice, but knew he wouldn't appreciate it at the moment. "We all need her, Morgan. And if it's the last thing we ever do, we WILL get her back. She is ours, just as much as she is yours. We're a family, and we will get her back."
Prentiss stepped up and touched Morgan's arm gently. "Morgan, you made it possible to bring me back from the dead. You did it because we were family. We won't rest until our family is together again. I promise."
Morgan nodded. "I won't stay here. I'm helping you guys find her. I have to."
Prentiss and JJ again shared a look. "I'll go get a nurse" JJ replied. "Let's get you out of here then."
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Reid stood as Morgan walked stiltedly into the police station. "Morgan! Why are you out of the hospital! You just had major surgery. The bullet nicked your liver... you shouldn't be walking around yet."
"I'll rest when Penelope is found, kid. I couldn't stay there anymore. Fill me in. What do we know?"
Hotch nodded to Morgan. "We don't have much. There were four total sets of foorprints at the scene. We've matched one set to you, another to Garcia. The other two are generic shoe prints. One a size 10 mens boot, made by LL Bean. The other is a size 12 sneaker tread, made by Nike. Neither one stands out."
"We did find some blood at the scene. Good news is, it is NOT Penelope's. After Battle, she added her own information into the system, and one of the things she input was her blood type. She is O positive. The blood we found at the scene is AB negative."
"Well, it wasn't my blood then. I'm O Negative. So Baby Girl must've gotten a few hits in, got one of them bleeding. Any spatter pattern?"
"No, just a small puddle. Actually, it's kind of a miracle that CSI techs found it at all. It was lying next to her purse, which was shoved inside a tree trunk a few feet away."
"They hid her purse? Why? They had to have known that I was out there. What did the shooter say?"
Rossi growled. "He hasn't said anything. He refuses to speak. Actually the only time he did speak was to demand a lawyer. We can't get anything out of him."
"I want to talk to him." Derek demanded.
"Morgan, that's not a good idea." Hotch immediately refused.
"He shot me, Hotch! Then he helped two other assholes take my Baby Girl! What would you do Hotch? Hell, what DID you do?" Morgan's body radiated fury, at the thought of not being able to vent his rage on the shooter.
"Morgan, its not the same situation. Foyet played a game with me. This UNSUB is trying to torture you. He wants to get you riled so that you attack him. Then he can get the charges thrown out. Police brutality would do that. Then your career is over."
"You think I give a damn about my career, Hotch? I care about Penelope. Period. My career be damned. There other jobs… there is only one Miss Penelope Garcia. And I won't stop until I find the sons a bitches to dared to take her away from me. You don't like it, fine. Just step aside. You don't have to watch, you don't have to help. You just have to get out of my way." Morgan missed Rossi's nod to Hotch, as well as the resignation in Hotch's eyes.
"You will take Rossi with you. He won't interfere unless he feels that you cross a line, Morgan. Do I make myself clear?" Hotch deliberately stated as he stood directly in front of Morgan.
Morgan nodded shortly. Rossi walked up beside him. "C'mon. He's in interrogation room 3."
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"Tell me what you know."
"I know nothing."
"Bullshit! You shot at my fiancé and I. I want to know why."
"Why. That's such an interesting question. Why? Why does the sun shine? Why do birds chirp instead of meow? Why does an ele…"
"Quit with the cryptic shit! Give me the answers I want!" Morgan cut off the shooters' ramble mid sentence, as he slammed up out of the chair, slapping the table in front of him with both hands.
"Two roads diverged in a yellow woods and I took the one less traveled by. It has made all the difference"
"What does that mean? Are you working on an insanity plea? Is that your game?"
"Games…ah, yes. Games, I remember many chess games with my cousin in my grandfather's cabin in the woods."
"What is your name, you son of a bitch?" Derek demanded, determined to get at least some answers.
"My name is Nemesis."
Derek growled. "My name is Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan. Remember it, because I will be back. And when I do, you'd better have a better answer for me than Nemesis."
He walked out of the interrogation room, slamming the door behind him. He instantly dropped into a crouch. "Penelope… just hold on. I promise, I'm coming. Just hold on." He whispered desperately.
A/N: Good? Bad? Let me know!