Madison returned from her run and she was feeling so much better than she had. She stopped on her porch, pulled out her earphones and began to stretch for a minute when suddenly she heard Bailey scream. She was a mere second from running in when she heard another voice telling her to shut up or he would shoot the old lady. It was Stryder.

The Waiting Game

"Think, think," Madison told herself.

She couldn't believe of all the times she would regularly have her phone with her, she left it in her room. She looked around to see if anyone was walking around, no one. She had to call her father. She thought about running over to Katie's house; but didn't want to be far from ear shot and she lived around the corner. She looked next door to see if their neighbor, Mr. Knox was home. His car was gone. Madison thought about a few different ways she could get to a phone. She decided on going through Mr. Knox's doggy door.

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"Who are you? What do you want?" Ms Beacon asked.

"I'm Madison's boyfriend bitch and I want Madison! Where is she?"

"I don't know," she lied.

"Bitch! I know you know!"

Stryder began hitting Ms Beacon. She fell to the ground but it didn't deter him. He kept hitting her and punching her; taking all of his anger towards Madison out on the helpless old lady. Bailey was in the corner witnessing the whole thing, crying. Suddenly, in the corner of her eye she saw the house phone. She was terrified but from the constant training she got from her father and brother about safety, she knew she had to dial 911. She found all the courage she could find within her six year old self and made a dash for the phone. Her sudden movement caught Stryder's eye. He immediately stopped striking Ms. Beacon's face, jumped over the couch and cut Bailey off at the path. She looked up at him with true terror in her eyes.

"Where do you think you're going you little brat?"

"I…I…."

"Yeah, exactly, you are going NO WHERE!"

Stryder picked Bailey up and roughly sat her down on the couch. Afterwards, he picked up Ms Beacon and dragged her over and onto the couch. She was barely conscious.

"You will both stay right there until I talk to Madison. If you move, I'll shoot you!"

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"This is Spencer Reid."

"Spence, its Maddy."

'Maddy! Where are you calling from?"

"I snuck in Mr. Knox's house though his doggy door. I had to get to a phone. Stryder is in the house with Ms Beacon and Bailey. I think he has a gun."

"Did you see one?"

"No, but I think I heard him cock it."

Aaron, Dave and Derek were walking towards Spencer's desk as he was on the phone with Madison. He spoke before they had a chance to.

"One sec Maddy, don't hang up," Spence covered the mouth piece of the phone then gave eye contact to his superiors, "its Maddy on the phone. She's calling from the neighbor's house. Stryder is in our house with Bailey and Ms Beacon. She thinks Stryder may have a gun."

Dave held out his hand for the phone, Spencer didn't hesitate to hand it to him.

"Sweetheart, its daddy, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I was out running. When I got home I heard Stryder yelling at Bailey. I should have just gone in. I'm sorry."

"No, you did the right thing. Can you see anything from where you are?"

"No, nothing; should I get closer?"

"No, no, stay safe. We'll be right there."

Dave and Madison told each other how they loved one another and hung up. Madison looked around for something, anything to give her leverage with Stryder. She knew it would take the team at least 30 minutes to get to the house. She didn't trust Stryder would last that long without doing something really stupid. She looked around the house and found nothing very useful but then suddenly remembered a box she saw in their garage. She snuck back out and around their house and into the garage. She turned on the light and looked up all around. After a few minutes of searching, she found it. It was a box that read, Nick Reid on it.

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Dave, Aaron and Spencer were riding in one SUV.

"I'm going to kill him," said Spencer who was normally the calm one.

"Spencer, we can't let our emotions take over. You must stay calm, especially now," said Dave.

Spencer stirred in the back seat. The thought of his little sisters being in the danger they were in, he could hardly bare it. He started tapping his foot, his patients for the traffic was running thin.

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Madison managed to pull down the box. Inside she found exactly what she was hoping for. It was some old FBI equipment; a bullet proof vest, an ear piece and even a Glock 23 gun. She opened the barrel. It was of course empty. She made a face of disappointment; but, then remembered where she saw bullets in the house. She would have to sneak in the house and knew exactly how to do it. Madison put the vest on and even as tight as she could get it, it was too big on her. She told herself it was better than nothing. She placed the gun into her running shorts and snuck out to the side of the house where she could see her bedroom window. She took a breath of relief when she noticed she had left her window open. She shimmied up the tree as she had done a dozen or two times before when sneaking in and out of the house.

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"Can you drive any faster?" Spencer asked Aaron with panic in his voice.

"I'm going as fast as possible. We're almost there, hold on."

"Hold on? There is a good fucking chance that I could lose both of my sisters today and you want me to hold on?"

Normally, neither Aaron nor Dave would ever allow Spencer to speak to either of them that way but they let it go due to the extreme stress of the situation. Dave turned around from the front seat and spoke to Spencer as a father instead of his superior at work. He put his hand on Spencer's knee.

"Hey Spencer, panicking right now is the worst thing we can do for Madison and Bailey. You can't focus on the worst outcome right now. We all need you to be present and focused with what is right in front of you. Can you do that son?"

Dave spoke calmly yet with enough confidence and authority in his tone that Spencer knew he could trust him with his life and the life of his sisters. He took a deep breath.

"Yes, yes I can do that. I'm sorry."

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Madison quietly opened up her bedroom window and snuck inside. She found her cell phone on her bed, it was ringing. It was Stryder trying to get a hold of her. She could hear him get upset and curse when she didn't answer. She had no clue what she was doing and was going off of pure instinct. She figured she better find the bullets first. She made her way into Dave's bedroom and found the key to the lock box he kept in the hall closet. With key in hand she made it out to the hall closet and found the lock box. She carried it back to her room for a bit more privacy. She studied the gun, self-teaching her way into loading the gun and taking the safety off. She could hear Stryder growing even more impatient.

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"Damn, Bailey, where in the hell is your sister?"

Bailey didn't say a word, she was too scared.

"What the hell? Any other time I was over I could never get you to shut up and now you can't speak at all?

Styder was pacing back and forth trying to think of his next move.

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Madison loaded the gun and had it ready to shoot. She looked out her bedroom window. The B.A.U. team showed up with the local police and surrounded the area. She grabbed her cell phone and sent a mass text to the team since she didn't know who would be paying attention to their phones.

'I snuck in the house, I'm upstairs. I can do this. I love you. Bye'

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JJ felt her cell phone vibrate and had an instinctual feeling to look at it. She was right and ran over to where Dave, Aaron and Spencer were standing.

"Hey, I just got this text from Maddy." JJ handed her phone to Dave.

Dave read it then handed it to Aaron who shared it with Spencer as they read it.

"I am going to kill her!" Spencer said in frustration.

"Alright, we have to figure out how to sneak in there ourselves without Stryder knowing," said Dave.

Aaron tried to text Madison back but she had put her phone away and was already making her way downstairs.

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Madison stayed close to the wall as she quietly made her way to the top of the stairs. She could hear Bailey crying. It was only making Stryder that much more angry. She snuck her head around the corner. Stryder still had his gun in his hand as he picked Bailey up and was about to shake her. Madison couldn't let it happen. She took a deep breath and made herself known. She stood on top of the stairs with her father's gun pointing right at Stryder.

"Don't touch her ass hole!"

Stryder retracted his original plan and gave his undivided attention over to Madison. He put Bailey back down on the couch.

"Where in the hell have you been?"

"It doesn't matter, I'm here now. Let my sister and Ms Beacon go."

"No way. I let them go and then you won't talk. They stay."

"What do you want Stryder?"

"I want you."

"You can't have me."

"Why? I treated you like a princess."

"Sure, and the other half of the time you treated me like a punching bag. It's over. You need to just turn yourself in before anyone else gets hurt….please."

Stryder thought for a minute.

"You know what, fine! If I can't have you then no one can!"

He aimed the gun at Madison. She dared him to pull the trigger.

"Go ahead. I'm miserable anyway. You'll be doing me a favor," bluffed Madison.

"You're miserable? You don't know what misery is."

Stryder moved his aim off of Madison and aimed his rifle right at Bailey and cocked the barrel. The little girl looked at the fun in her face and froze in fear.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

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Dave, Aaron and the rest of the team couldn't believe they just heard gun shots. Spencer started running towards the house. Everyone else followed close behind.