"Prentiss, how far out are you and Reid?" Hotch asked.

"Eleven minutes and twenty-three seconds," Reid answered immediately.

"That's too long. JJ, Morgan?"

"About the same, Hotch," Morgan shouted as he turned sharply.

"Double that," JJ said as the two of them came to a far too abrupt stop and weighing up the cars and their lack of movement in front of them. "There's been an accident just in front of us, its going to take a while to get around it."

"Dave?" Hotch tried.

"I don't have a car," Rossi reminded him. "Morgan and JJ dropped me off here."

"Are you still at the Records Office?" Reid asked.

"Yeah, haven't moved, kid."

"You're slightly closer than all of us. Nine minutes."

"Which is useless if our guy has his car and I don't."

"So, the kid and Prentiss will be there in eleven minutes-" Morgan began

"Well, less than that now thanks to this conversation."

"Not the time, Reid," Morgan said as a yelp came through their comms.

"Don't flick my ear!"

"It was either that or thump you," said Emily.

"Flicking my ear is fine."

JJ rolled her eyes as Morgan chuckled.

"Em, don't assault Reid and Spence, you agree that logically you and Emily are closer?"

"Yes, we are. I just said that!"

"We're on it," Emily added and JJ swore she could hear the other woman's eyes roll.

Several cars around them decided that this was the perfect moment to start blaring their horns.

"Do people really think that that is going to solve anything?" JJ asked with a wince.

"It's a similar thought pattern to pressing things more frequently in order to speed things up. Honking horns makes people feel like they have control over the situation," said Reid.

"Great, so that's all we're going to be hearing," she complained, slumping lower in her seat.

"By the way, I would like to not be left out of this," Rossi told them. "Don't abandon me at the Records Office please. I'm pretty sure these things come alive in the dark and, more importantly, they smell musty."

"Musty smells concern you more than alive files, Rossi?" Moragn asked, amused.

"I'm wearing an expensive leather jacket. Which absorbs smells. I do not want it to be smelling like old records that probably haven't been touched since the sixties. I can deal with mutant files just fine, if I had to."

"Don't set fire to any files, Dave," said Hotch.

"Only if they come alive," Rossi tried to reassure him.

"I am going to confiscate your lighter later."

"As long as it's not my engraved one."

"It doesn't even surprise me that you have multiple lighters," said Emily.

"Like you don't."

"Bet mine aren't as fancy as yours though."

"Whats your point?"

"Mine are for self-defense," she said with a sniff as if this should be obvious.

And just in case she ever got her old teenage craving for a cigarette but she did not want to be lectured by both JJ and Reid at the same time so she did not volunteer that information. Reid was already giving her a suspicious look.

"No setting anything or anyone on fire, Prentiss," Hotch instructed.

"Has he changed direction?" Emily asked in order to get the attention off her.

"No, you're still on track," Garica's voice came over the comms.

"I patched Garcia in," Hotch said needlessly.

Of course, it wasn't as simple as catching up with their guy. Of course it wasn't. Because he turned it into a high speed chase as soon as he saw Emily and Reid's car. Fantastic. You would think that she would find going at high speeds in a car while after an Unsub exhilarating but it was nowhere near as fun as the movies made it seem.

"He's turning left down Piggot Street," Emily said and there was a squeal as she did the same.

"We can head him off on Bowler Avenue," said JJ, checking their GPS.

"No, don't do that," Garcia told her. "Everyone is taking that as a detour thanks to the accident. Turn left on Premier street, and you should catch up with him."

"Where the hell is Premier Street? There's no street signs in this damn town."

"Over there! You just passed it!" JJ said in exasperation as she jabbed at the windshield. "You missed it!"

"I didn't know where it was!"

"I was trying to show you!"

"Way too late!"

"Because you weren't paying attention!"

"How can I pay attention when you're waving your arm around in front of me?"

"Don't be so dramatic."

"You would be dramatic to if you had to drive with no street signs!"

"Ah, my chocolate thunder," Garcia interrupted before the pair could come to blows while still, impressively, still being a part of this car chase. "This is why you have me. I am your eyes."

"Can I point out that I'm still being left out?" Rossi complained.

"Seriously, Rossi, we're in the middle of what's basically a high-speed chase, and you're complaining that you're being left out?" Morgan asked incredulously.

"That's exactly why I'm complaining."

"Sorry, we're too busy, you know, with the high speed chase."


The thing about high speed chases was that they tended to be over, fast. The guy running away tended to make mistakes and ended up slowing down either willingly or by causing an accident. Sure, sometimes the guy got away entirely but not very often. Reid could probably five exact percentages there.

This one was stopped by the Unsub losing control on some gravel, doing an impressive one-eighty into some scaffolding and somehow coming out of all of that without so much as a concussion. Which was good for them, for a change, meant he could be brought straight to interrogation.

"I'm still annoyed that I was left out," Rossi said as he walked behind the two-way glass.

"And if you were a part of ot you'd be complaining that we were trying to get you car sick." JJ said with an eye roll.

"Hey, I'm Italian, I like to complain."

"I don't think that's a thing..."