Hotch purposely waited in his office until he knew that all of his teammates had arrived. All except Spencer Reid, of course. He wanted to explain the situation to everyone at once, and knew he would be bombarded with questions the moment he stepped into the room. Hotch sighed, grabbed his phone, and walked out of his office towards the conference room.
As he entered the room, the light chatter that had been happening died down. He expected that they were already theorizing about what could have been important enough to call them in so ealy in the morning after just wrapping a case. Hotch scanned the room before he started to speak. Exhaustion could be read on each person's face, and he was sure that it was etched into his as well. He couldn't delay any longer. "I expect you are all wondering why I called you in," Hotch began.
"Aren't we going to wait for Reid?" Morgan asked. Hotch looked Morgan in the eyes and could see a glimmer of worry starting to form.
Hotch tried to keep his voice calm. "Reid's not coming." He continued speaking, not allowing the team time to react. "Approximately twenty minutes ago, I received this photo to my cell phone." Aaron clicked a button on a remote to bring the image up on the large screen in the room. He stared down at the table instead of the screen, having already committed the details of the image to his memory. He gave the team a few seconds to absorb what they were seeing. He knew he had to remain strong and in control, as the leader of the team. He had to hide his feelings, which at the moment consisted of worry and fear for his colleague and friend.
"Oh my god! Who would do this?" Garcia exclaimed. She was the first to speak. Hotch looked up at her and could see tears already forming in her eyes. He looked at the rest of the team's faces, one by one. Derek Morgan looked angry more than anything else. Hotch suspected that if he wasn't holding Garcia's hands to comfort her, he would be punching something. JJ's right hand covered her mouth in shock as she tried to take in what she was seeing. Emily was looking away from the screen, trying to reign in her emotions. She looked dangerously close to letting her worry show, and Aaron knew that she was attempting to appear as strong as he was trying to be. Rossi seemed to be studying the picture. Hotch knew that he was an expert at compartmentalizing his emotions, and was already into profiler mode.
"So what do we know?" Rossi asked. The rest of the team seemed to be snapped out of some pretty dark thoughts and brought back to the present.
Hotch nodded a silent thanks to Rossi for keeping the team on track. That was of the upmost importance right now. "We know very little. From examining the image, it appears that Reid has been hit in the head. There don't appear to be any other visible injuries, and he's not restrained in any way that I can see. There's not much in the background of the photo, but it's clearly not Reid's apartment. I tried to call Reid's cell phone a couple of times, but unsurprisingly it went straight to voicemail. I've already ordered a forensics team to Reid's apartment to see if there are any signs of struggle there. Prentiss and Rossi, I want you to go over there and see if they find anything. Garcia, I need you to see if you can trace where this message came from. You should also use GPS to find the locations of Reid's cell phone and vehicle in case they are with him. JJ, I want you to start getting ahold of your media contacts. I want every person in America to be on the lookout for Reid. Morgan, you and I are going to stay here and start working on a profile." Hotch took a deep breath and softened his expression. "Look, I know we are all exhausted and worried about Reid. But we need to focus and work this case like we would any other. Based on the photo, we can assume that Reid is alive and okay for now. The unsub wouldn't send this to me if he was just going to kill him. We WILL find Reid, I have no doubt about that. In the meantime, none of you are to go anywhere alone. If this is an attack on the BAU, I don't want any of you to be the next victim."
Victim. Hotch knew that Reid would hate that word being used on him. Reid had been a 'victim' more times that any one person had a right to be. Hotch wondered what the probability was of one person encountering so many dangerous situations in such a short life. If Spencer had regained consciousness yet, he was probably calculating those very odds right now. But Reid was strong. He was a survivor, and he would make it. Hotch was sure of this. Reid's mind was the sharpest Hotch had ever seen. But it was his warmth, his innocence, and his enthusiasm for life that made him such a wonderful person to be around. Such an integral part of the team. Hotch just hoped all of those qualities would remain when Reid returned to them.
"Hotch? He's going to be okay. This is Reid we're talking about," Morgan said. Hotch looked around the room and realized that the rest of the team had left to carry out their assignments.
"Let's get started." Hotch wasn't going to waste any more time. Every second that passed was another second where God knows what could be happening to Reid.
Reid's felt his pulse quicken as a pair of shoes came into view. Black dress shoes. Then grey slacks. A blue collared shirt with a tie under a white coat, like a doctor or psychologist would wear. As the unsub's face came into view, Reid instantly recognized him. It had been a couple of years, but the man was unmistakable. Anger rose in Reid as he glared at the man. If he could move his hands, they would be balled into fists, he was sure of it. It was all starting to make sense, and Reid knew exactly what was happening to him. He knew why he was here. And he was fairly certain that this man had something very painful in store for Reid.
"Shall we get started, Dr. Reid?" The man approached Reid and bent down so that his smiling face was level with Reid's. "We have a lot to cover."
Reid had no choice but to look the man straight in the eye. He didn't like what he saw – amusement and a hint of pleasure at having Reid at his complete mercy. This man had clearly suffered a psychotic break since Reid had last seen him. Reid knew that didn't bode well for him. Stay strong Reid. The team will find you. You just have to survive until they do.