Rossi had grabbed the pen and paper the second Reid started blinking more Morse Code. Earlier, he had told the genius to save his energy unless he had something important to say, as communicating this way was clearly draining for him. So this must be an important message.
Reid had finished blinking his longest message yet, and sat staring tiredly as Rossi worked to decode it.
Rossi looked down at the code he had written down. It said 'L-O-W-B-A-T-T-E-R-Y.'
Rossi held it up for Garcia to see. She frowned and turned to Reid. "Low battery? Like on the computer?"
Reid blinked once.
David looked at the kid. He wasn't looking so great. They needed to get to him, and soon, if he was going to make it. "How close is the team?"
Garcia pulled up a map on the second computer screen and left it there. "I'm tracking their cell phone signals. It looks like JJ and Emily are coming up to their first house now, and Morgan and Hotch aren't more than a minute out from the first house on their list."
Rossi nodded and addressed Reid. "Well kid, let's hope that you are in one of the first places on the list. We'd hate to lose the connection before team gets to you. But if that happens, just keep hanging in there. The team is close by."
Garcia nodded. "I always hate this part, where there's nothing left for me to do but wait and hope you all come home safely."
With that, the room fell into an uneasy silence. Rossi and and Garcia linked hands and gave Reid the best hopeful faces they could muster, but the worry in their eyes could not be masked. They watched the screen and hoped against hope that the team would appear on the webcam and save their friend.
Morgan and Hotch had accepted help from the local PD in searching the houses on the list in order to get through them as quickly as possible. They formed two other teams to aid in the search. Each team was given five locations, with the extra going to Emily and JJ who had arrived in the area just ahead of everyone else.
The four teams were tuned to the same radio frequency, allowing them to notify each other of their search progress. Morgan briefed the everyone over the radio as they approached their first houses. "Okay everyone. Remember that we do NOT have probable cause to search houses. So you are to knock on the door and announce yourself. If someone answers, apologize for the disturbance and move on. If you get no answer, circle the house with eyes on the basement windows. If you're at the right location, you'll see a basement light on and our agent inside. If you find him, call medical immediately. They are standing by. Is everyone clear?"
Morgan and Hotch heard a chorus of "yes sir" coming through the radio.
"Okay then. Good luck everyone." Twenty seconds later, Hotch pulled up to the first location on their list. Morgan looked to Hotch and nodded, before they both exited the vehicle. They hoped desperately that Reid was here.
Reid wasn't at Prentiss and JJ's first location, nor their second. The other search parties were keeping pace with them, and had also come up empty.
The locations were all very close together - some even neighbouring others. It didn't take long for JJ and Prentiss to reach their third house, only to knock on the door and get an earful from a man who claimed they had woken his entire family and was very unimpressed.
JJ apologized to the man. "We're very sorry to disturb you sir. Thank you for your time. Have a good night."
As they headed back to the car, Prentiss pressed the button on her vest connected to her earpiece in order to relay their most recent information on the radio. "Team one checking in. Our third location was a bust. Heading to number four."
As they entered their vehicle, the other teams reported the same.
A tear rolled down JJ's cheek and Prentiss started the vehicle and pulled out. "Hey JJ. You okay?"
JJ wiped the tear and nodded. "I will be once we find him. I just can't imagine this team without him, you know? I mean, if he had been working this case with us, we probably would have found him yesterday." JJ couldn't help but feel that she was failing her friend with each minute that passed that they hadn't found him.
"Hey, we've done everything we could. And Reid knows that. Don't worry, he's going to be at one of these locations, you'll see. Has Garcia ever failed us before?" Emily tried to assure JJ. They had pulled up to their fourth location. It already didn't look promising, with two vehicles in the driveway, but they approached the house nonetheless.
Morgan and Hotch sat in their SUV after coming up empty on all five of their locations. So far the teams had checked 20 houses, and they held their breath as they waited for JJ and Prentiss to check in from their sixth and final house.
Morgan sighed heavily. "Hotch, what if he's not there?"
Hotch met his eyes. "Then we'll have to go back and figure out what we missed. But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it."
Morgan shook his head. "We don't have time to go back and rethink this thing. Garcia's been sending me texts. Reid's getting pretty weak, and the webcam is about to die. We might not have eyes on him much longer."
Hotch opened his mouth to speak, when the radio crackled and Emily's voice came over the line. "This is Team One. Nothing at our sixth and final location. What now?" She sounded defeated and exhausted.
Morgan slapped the dashboard with both hands in an act of frustration. "DAMNIT!" He brought a hand to his eyes, covering the fact that tears were threatening to fall. Hotch looked away, giving the man some privacy, and holding in his own frustration that was desperately close to surfacing.
Hotch pressed the button on his radio. "There's a community centre about a block north of my location. Let's all meet in the parking lot and we can conference call Quantico from there."
Garcia knew what the news was before she answered her ringing phone, having been tracking their movements. The webcam was still rolling and Reid was still alone on it, so she knew no one had found him. Garcia stood to answer her phone privately, walking away from the computer and leaving her seat for Rossi to temporarily fill as she spoke with the team. She didn't want Reid to hear the bad news. "Garcia."
Hotch got straight to it. "Garcia, we're all here. We need to figure out what we missed, and we need to do it quickly." The tone in Hotch's voice was one of no-nonesense. He was only ever this serious when he was using it as a shield to cover other emotions.
Garcia squeaked from the other side, "I don't know sir, I'm sorry. Rossi and I will recheck everything. Give me a few minutes to figure out where we went wrong." The woman was clearly frantic.
"Just take a few deep breaths baby girl. You'll figure this out. I know you will." Morgan was trying his best to infuse his voice with a sense of calm that he himself was definitely not feeling.
Just then, Rossi interrupted. "Penelope..." He didn't have the heart to tell her, so he spun the laptop around. The connection had been lost and Reid was no longer on the screen.
Garcia let out a sad gasp, before filling the team in. "Reid's laptop died. We no longer have eyes on him."
Hotch's voice was soft as he spoke, with much less authority than it usually carried. "Penelope, I need you to focus. We can still figure out where he is. There's still hope."
Garcia tried desperately to believe that, as she sat back down at her computer and started working again. She had to figure out what she had gotten wrong, and she had to do it fast. Her friend's life depended on it.
Reid sat in the chair staring ahead at the black screen that had held the faces of his friends just minutes ago. He finally let his tears fall, the ones he had been holding back since he first saw the team on the computer screen; tears he had been holding in since before he had been stabbed by Dr. Malcolm. That seemed like so long ago now.
The team had his location wrong - he knew that without a doubt. Otherwise they would have been here already. He knew that was why Garcia had walked away to take that phone call.
Reid was truly all alone now.