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Five minutes later, the entire team had convened around the round table.

"Ten minutes ago, I received a call from Reid and an unsub, whom we later found out to be Jeremy Aremovic. Reid was taken some time last night. In order for Aremovic to release Reid, he is demanding we free his brother, Michael, who is scheduled to receive the death penalty in just a few days. He is also asking for $5,000. He is going to call back in five hours, so we don't have a lot of time. I need Rossi and J.J. to go to Reid's house and try to piece together what happened there. Prentiss, start working on the geographic profile. Garcia, look up everything you can on Aremovic. Morgan, you look into why he chose Reid specifically. I am going to go inform Strauss of the situation. We need to figure out everything about this man, because when he calls back, we will be ready for him."

Hotch hadn't taken a breath since he had started talking, hadn't looked at his teammates. He couldn't see how much this was hurting them, how much they all cared for Reid's wellbeing. Reid had never been the same after Hankle, and Hotch wasn't sure that Reid could survive another ordeal at the hands of a sadistic unsub. More importantly, Hotch couldn't stop because then he would think about the implications of this hostage situation. Statistically- historically- this would end in might break.

Across the room, J.J. was taking deep, calming breaths. She knew, logically, that this wasn't her fault. It wasn't the same as last time, when she had been with Spence, and they had split up. But J.J. couldn't help feel that she should have done something- anything- to prevent this. She could have offered him a ride home, or insisted he sleep at her place, or convinced Hotch to wait to fly back to Virginia. Anything that could have prevented this nightmare.

To J.J.'s right sat Prentiss. Her expression had hardly changed, a crease in her forehead the only indicator of her worry. But inside was a different story. She felt sick at the thought of what was happening to her friend at the moment. Moreover, the geographic profile was Reid's job, and Prentiss knew that she had only been assigned it because everyone else was crap at it. But if Reid were here, he would have nailed down Aremovic's location immediately. Ironically, in order to find Reid, they needed Reid.

Aside from Garcia, Morgan was the easiest person to read. His arms were crossed and his fists were clenched, barely controlling the anger that was threatening to bubble over. Morgan was determined to catch this man before anything else happened to Reid. The memory of Aremovic hurting his friend because of his threats was all too fresh in his mind.

Rossi was to the left of Morgan. His face was calm, but his body was all too tense to be natural. Rossi glanced over to Garcia, who was barely containing the tears welling up in her eyes. More than anyone else, Garcia was the one who hated the horrors the team witnessed in the field. She was the mother hen of the group. She worried and fretted over everybody's wellbeing, but Reid's especially. He was that much more fragile, that much more innocent than the rest of the group, Rossi mused. He glanced at his watch again, before looking to J.J. The clock was ticking, and they needed to head out.

Hotch left the round table and headed to Strauss' office. He always dreaded meeting with his boss, but today would be especially bad. He would have to not only explain why one of his agent's was missing, but also convince Strauss to let them stay on the case.

Hotch reached the door and stopped. Taking a deep breath in, he gave himself a moment to compose himself. After a moment, Hotch knocked.

"Come in."

Strauss looked up in surprise. She wasn't expecting Hotch; the BAU team was on stand down for the week, and didn't have any active cases.

"Strauss, there is something we need to talk about."

She nodded toward the chair in front of her desk.

"Sit."

"I received a phone call about twenty minutes ago. It was from a man claiming to be Jeremy Aremovic. He is holding Reid hostage until we free his brother, who is due to receive the death sentence soon. He is also demanding $5,000. Aremovic is going to call back in about five hours. I have sent out my team to work on a profile." Hotch stopped talking and waited for Strauss to formulate a response.

"You can stay on the case, but only if you keep me updated at every step. Your team is known for going… rogue, and I don't want to hear anything like that again. I will work on updating Agent Reid's status as missing. I will have to inform my bosses of the situation."

"Thank you. I'll let you know when Aremovic calls again."

Hotch left her office, careful to shut the door behind him. He stopped short, closing his eyes. This couldn't be happening. Automatically, Hotch began processing everything he needed to do before the next phone call, and shoved his worry to the back of his brain.

While Hotch was talking to Strauss, the team had dispersed, and Rossi and J.J. were driving to Reid's home. J.J. gave instructions when he needed to turn, but other than that, she was quiet. After several minutes of choking on the stifling silence, Rossi began to talk- ramble, really. He would do anything to stop J.J.'s train of thought.

"It's funny, really. I've never been to Reid's house. He's been to my place, of course, and I've been to yours. But I've never been to his. I imagine it's filled to the brim with heavy books and research papers."

She ignored his comment. "Turn right here, and then it's the second building on the left."

Rossi pulled the SUV to the curb and hopped out. It was a nicely manicured colonial, but nothing special. It was very Reid-like. J.J. walked straight to the door, separating a key from her key ring.

"Wait, you have keys to his house?" Rossi asked with a glance.

"Yeah, just for house sitting and stuff." Then she realized what he was implying. "Eww nothing like that- we're just friends!"

Rossi let out a skeptical snort. He knew they were just friends, but the teasing kept his mind off of what was happening.

With shaking hands, J.J. attempted to insert her key into the lock. After several attempts, Rossi gently took the key from her hand and unlocked the door. As he pushed it open, the door caught on something. He shoved a little more, and the object gave way.

Walking inside, the duo stopped dead in their tracks. The place had been ransacked. Rossi let out a long, low whistle as he took in the sight before him. What the hell had happened?

There was glass everywhere, and pieces of a coffee table littered the ground. Several stacks of books had been knocked over, and a few frames were hanging crookedly on the walls.

"Whatever went down, he put up one hell of a fight."

Books were scattered everywhere, and the mirror next to the door was shattered, with blood splattered all around.

Glancing at J.J., Rossi realized she was close to tears.

"Should we try to figure out what happened?"

J.J. nodded, still in shock.

"So I'm Reid. I walk in the door. He somehow realizes that someone was in his house. I don't see any broken windows, so that isn't how Aremovic got in. Could Aremovic have entered through the door?"

J.J. didn't respond, and instead slowly walked the perimeter of the room, inspecting the damage.

She let out a gasp. "The alarm. Do you see this box here? If the alarm is enabled, it should be blinking red. It also beeps when the door is opened. Spence must have noticed that it didn't beep."

"Okay, good. Now we know what alerted Reid. So he draws his gun and starts checking the rooms." Rossi walked towards the bedroom, looking for the beginning of the damage.

"This is where it starts. There is some blood on the wall. So let's say that Aremovic somehow surprises Reid and stuns him."

"Look, there are two bullet holes in the floor. How did the neighbors not hear this?"

"So after Aremovic hit Reid, Reid fired two shots into the floor, probably as they wrestled for control of the gun."

J.J. walked back towards the living room.

"So Spence tried to run, but the man follows. He threw whatever was in reach at Aremovic, but the man kept coming." She stopped again, looking around. "Oh- that's the vase I gave Spence when he moved in here." She took a deep breath before she was able to continue. "At this point, he must have also thrown the bowl, because they were both on the coffee table. So at this point, Spence must have thrown the bowl, which only angers Aremovic. Somehow the table is smashed, and Spence is thrown into the mirror, which breaks."

Rossi knelt to inspect the fragments of glass.

"Judging by the amount of blood here, I would guess this is when Aremovic knocked him out," he said.

"I think we've learned everything we can from here. I'll call Hotch, you call CSI and have them process the house," J.J. said.

She flipped open her phone and started dialing. This whole thing didn't make sense. Where were the neighbors? Shouldn't they have heard the noise? Two gunshots would have made quite the bang, and the houses were close together.

"Hey, Hotch?"

"How'd Reid's apartment look?" Hotch didn't even bother with a greeting.

"It was a wreck. Rossi and I will give you our theory when we return. But what's more worrying is that no neighbors called the police. The fight would have made a racket."

"Maybe the phone lines were down last night?" Hotch mused.

"But what about cell phones? Those still would have worked," J.J. countered.

"I'll have Garcia look into that when she has a moment. In the meantime, we have Aremovic's address. You and Rossi head over there and inspect it."

"Ok, we're on it."

Rossi had finished his phone call several minutes earlier and was waiting patiently for J.J. to finish.

"What did Hotch say?"

"He wants us to go to Aremovic's house. I think he just sent us the address."

Five minutes later Rossi and Hotch pulled up in front of a run down house on the wrong side of the tracks. It was a far cry from the neat colonial they had just visited. They both strapped on their bulletproof vests and drew their guns. Both were confident that Reid was being held somewhere else, but visiting the house would give the team a unique insight into the inner workings of Aremovic's mind.

Rossi knocked on the door.

"Jeremy Aremovic? Are you home? This is the FBI!"

Nobody answered. Rossi and J.J. looked at each other. J.J. took a deep breath, then kicked the door in. Stepping over the wreckage, she walked inside.

She immediately stopped in her tracks. "Rossi, do you see this? Hotch needs to get over here, now."

Thanks for reading, and sorry that it took me so long to get up! Midterms totally kicked my butt!