Reid tried desperately to keep his composure. He was in a great deal of pain and was terrified that he was going to die while his friends watched. Logically, he knew that JJ was probably right about the wound not being immediately fatal. But he could feel blood dripping down his abdomen and could actually hear the drops as they fell from the chair to the puddle forming on the floor. He couldn't look down to assess the wound up close, but he could see himself on the computer screen. Judging from the location of the wound, it was possible that nothing vital had been hit, but he couldn't be certain. Though he reasoned that, had a major organ or blood vessel been hit, he would probably already be unconscious from hypovolemic shock.
Most people have 10-12 pints of blood in their body. The human body can stand to lose about 40% of its blood volume before the massive hemorrhaging leads to loss of life, though there are some cases of people losing up to 75% of their blood volume and surviving. However, after losing 30% of their blood volume, most people will experience a massive drop in blood pressure, increased heart rate, shock, and a depreciating mental capacity. Blood transfusion is required immediately to reduce the risk of organ failure and death. Reid did not feel better knowing all of this. It meant that at a certain point, he would become too far gone to be helped.
While Reid wished his team didn't have to watch what could be his last moments, he was selfishly glad to have their voices and faces with him right now. They kept him from giving up hope. They didn't know where he was yet, but they were not giving up. He saw and heard their determination to find him.
Reid was glad that he had found a way to communicate with them. The Morse Code was exhausting – his mental capacity was definitely hindered by the situation he found himself in – but he had been able to give the team a clue that had narrowed down his location. Plus, it distracted him from the pain he was in.
It sounded like they already had an area of focus, so hopefully one more clue was all they needed. Unfortunately, Reid could think of nothing more to help them, and he had a feeling that Malcolm would be less than forthcoming with information. He looked around the portion of the basement that he could see given his lack of mobility. The laptop was directly in front of him, his cell phone and gun still sitting on either side, teasing him with their proximity. He could see the IV line leading from his body, but the actual IV bag was out of his line of vision. On the floor lay the bloody knife he had been stabbed with. The door that led to the basement was closed. His eyes moved on to the windows on either side of the stairs, which showed that it was pitch black outside. Then Reid had an idea. He wasn't sure it would be helpful information, but it certainly couldn't hurt.
He started blinking another message, only to be quickly cut off from Rossi. "Woah, slow down kid. Let me grab my pen and paper. Okay, go ahead, what are you trying to tell us?"
Reid started blinking his message once more. Short-long-long. Pause. Short-short. Pause. Long-short. Pause. Long-short-short. Pause. Long-long-long. Pause. He was about to continue with the next letter when JJ's voice cut him off.
"Windows? Reid are you trying to tell us there are windows in the basement?" JJ said, looking over Rossi's shoulder to what he was writing.
Relieved that they understood, Reid blinked once slowly as confirmation.
"Reid, can you see anything out the windows?" Emily inquired. She wasn't sure why the windows were important otherwise.
Reid blinked twice. No, he couldn't see anything. He was just hoping that the knowledge that there were windows would help to narrow down their list. He could see Garcia typing away on the other side of the screen before she looked back at him with a small smile. "That's good Reid, you just knocked five more houses off our list."
Reid could tell that Garcia was on the verge of tears and trying to hide it with the smile on her face. She must be so frustrated by this situation, her computers unable to help her find a definitive location like they usually did. And she was too empathetic a person to watch someone she cared about in pain without breaking down herself. Reid wished he could give her a reassuring smile, instead of just sitting there. He hoped his eyes conveyed the message that his mouth could not.
Reid felt himself getting weaker and more tired. He willed himself to stay awake and focus on his teammates.
Morgan and Hotchner pulled in to the parking lot of a large park to find several local police cars and uniformed officers. Aaron quickly assessed who was in charge and walked up to the older man.
Hotch extended his hand and shook while he spoke. "I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, and this is SSA Derek Morgan. Were you successful in apprehending our suspect?"
The other man terminated the handshake and began walking, indicating the two FBI agents should follow. "Detective Swanson. We were successful in getting Dr. Arthur Malcolm into custody. He has been handcuffed and is awaiting transport in the back of that squad car. I assume you would like him to go to Quantico for interrogation?"
Morgan corrected the man. "Actually, the matter we're dealing with is quite time sensitive. He's holding one of our agents captive somewhere, and he needs immediate medical attention. We need to interrogate him on the spot."
The detective sighed, but nodded. "Do what you have to do. Let me know if me and my men can be of any help to you."
"Actually, I do have a few questions for you before you go," Hotchner stated. "Do you know what direction Malcolm came from? And can you tell me exactly what time he was apprehended?"
Detective Swanson shook his head. "Unfortunately we didn't get eyes on Malcolm until he had already entered the park. There's just the one entrance, so he really could have come from any direction. And we apprehended him just five minutes ago."
The detective walked away to give orders to members of his team about securing the premises. Aaron turned to Derek and gave a meaningful look as Morgan pulled out his phone and hit the most common number on his speed dial. It was less than one ring before the call was answered.
"Derek, you're on speaker. Did you catch him?" Garcia implored from the other side of the phone.
Morgan answered. "Yes, thankfully the local PD apprehended Dr. Malcolm and he's in custody."
Morgan paused as he heard Garcia address Reid. "Did you hear that Reid? They caught Malcolm! Morgan and Hotch will have your location in no time. Just hang tight."
"Baby girl, listen. We are going to talk to Malcolm now, but we have some more location information for you in the meantime. He was apprehended at Franklin Park roughly five minutes ago. We don't know what direction he came from, but at least that should give you another search radius to compare to what we already have."
Garcia spoke quickly. "Thanks Morgan, I'm already working on it. I'll let you know what it leads to."
"Thanks baby girl," Morgan said, but the tone was more serious than usual due to the circumstances.
Morgan hung up his cell phone as Hotch addressed him. "Look, you and I are going to go over there and talk to Malcolm. But I need you to remain calm. He's going to try to antagonize us and get under our skin, and you can't let him do that."
Morgan nodded. "I know Hotch. As much as I want to give that guy a beating he'll never forget, I know that's not how we're going to find Reid. And that's more important than anything else right now."
With that, Morgan and Hotch headed towards the police car holding Dr. Malcolm. They could see him smiling at them from the back seat.
Well, the story is coming along! Thanks again to all of the reviews it's gotten so far. They've definitely inspired me to write a little faster than I otherwise would have!
I do have three more chapters written and in their final editing stage… so I'm aiming for a chapter a day for at least the next few days. And hopefully by then I'll have more written and can continue to post frequently until the story wraps up. It's weird, even though I've known what was going to happen from the start… I find myself anxious to get my own story written so I can read it! It really has a life of its own at this point.
Have a great day all!