Chapter Text
Garcia came in holding a bag and a cup of coffee. Her smile faded as she stepped further into the bullpen, a realization hitting her.
“What's wrong, babygirl?”
“I- well today's Reid's birthday so I bought him these but… I forgot he's not here” tears pooled in her eyes. The comment made JJ teary eyed too, she gave Garcia a long hug in an attempt to cheer them both up.
“We'll find him soon”
“We said that when it was the first week after he was kidnapped. The month is almost over now and we're nowhere closer to solving it. Now Reid's going to have to spend his birthday in an icky place getting hurt by an icky man.” The pooled tears happily fell down her unhappy face.
“And we'll make it up to him by giving him a late birthday” JJ tried to stay optimistic, someone had to. Emily usually was their optimist but at the moment she wasn't sure how to live up to the role. Realistically things weren't looking very good. JJ wasn't faring any better than Garcia but at least comforting her was a distraction for her own fear.
“What if he misses Halloween? He loves Halloween, it's like Christmas for him”
“Then we'll celebrate a late Halloween too and watch a bunch of scary movies”
Despite how she felt, Garcia grimaced slightly. “Not too scary though, right?” JJ laughed wetly, she was crying involuntarily now too and wiped at her eyes.
“Yeah, not too scary, we learnt our lesson from last time”
Rossi and Hotch watched the interaction from afar. The elder agent could tell something was bothering him and finally pressed now that the others were distracted and were unlikely to overhear.
“Do you think we're getting the kid back soon?”
“...I don't know,” there was a moment of silence that Rossi knew not to interrupt. He knew Hotch long enough to know he just needed a minute to compose his thoughts. “Strauss wants to take us off the case. She thinks we're too emotionally involved.”
“The teams not going to like that” Rossi said matter-of-factly,
“Neither do I”
“He'll be okay, Aaron”
“He'll live,” Hotch agreed, “he always manages to. But living isn't the same as being okay”
Rossi was inclined to agree but didn't reply. Anything he could say wouldn't comfort his friend.
The air was melancholic throughout the office. It had been ever since they realized Reid had been kidnapped. The feeling was slowly replacing the space air filled. If they didn't find Reid soon, if they didn't act fast, then at least one of them would suffocate. They were all at risk.
They worked around the sadness that rushed in through every available space. The thickness of it made it hard to move, like a spaceship being flooded. As improbable as that analogy was, it was the best to describe how losing Reid felt. It was already hard to move in zero gravity, but now add the water surrounding them. Or maybe water would be easy to move through in outer space, Emily didn't know. She was sure Reid would, or at least would have a very good educated guess. Maybe molasses was a better description.
It was like moving through molasses in zero gravity.
They needed to find Reid before it was too late.
They knew Reid couldn't be dead. The unsub for each of his six victims had sent the police department two videos of each victim. The first happened early on to the kidnapping, Reid had described the context as ‘breaking them in,’ making them submissive and sad and malleable. There wasn't a set amount of days from the kidnapping to the tape, each victim had been different. Rossi had concluded that it was because they all ‘broke’ at different times. They had different mental states, one could handle more emotional damage than the other so it took the unsub longer to break them in.
The second tape was the one they were dreading. It's the one that meant their oxygen tanks were empty. It meant they would have to succumb to the lack of air or wait for someone to save them. It was the one where the unsub filmed the death of his victims.
A clean shot in the middle of their head. They had watched as the life drained from the victims bodies. They had seen it daily when they had to shoot an unsub but it was different when they knew it was an innocent person.
As much as Hotch didn't want them off the case, he didn't want to think about the possibility they get sent that second tape. Seeing Reid die would damage them all. It was the only thing that made him even consider Strauss' decision a good one.
They had gotten the first video after the second week. He had been kidnapped on Oct 1st, the tape was sent early morning on the 15th. The angle was ominous, stalkerish, Reid likely didn't know the camera was there.
"My team will find me,” he said defiantly.
Defiance. Something all of the others had burning in them too at first, he always broke it out of them. His newest pet would be the same.
No, not the same. Tony expected better, more.
"Your team is dead. I killed them"
Reid didn’t reply right away. He was trying to call his bluff.
It would fit his profile if it was just a lie. How would he manage to kill six FBI agents? He was gone for a long time though, he would leave Reid strapped to electricity or in a freezer for those hours he was gone. Sometimes it would just be the dark, but to someone scared of it, it became mind numbing torture.
The point was that the unsub, Tony he found his name to be, had plenty of time if he wanted to build a bomb or something. He couldn’t imagine them dying though. Not at the hands of him, not at the hands of another unsub, not ever.
They couldn’t be dead. He just wanted to break him.
He was undecided on if he believed him or not when the unsub continued to speak.
"Thank me,”
"What?” The demand snapped him out of his thoughts.
"Thank me for killing your team. Say you're glad it happened, thank me!"
“No,”
Defiance.
“Thank me, now,”
Reid didn’t dignify him with a reply. Suddenly he found the unsub a lot closer, undoing his chains and yanking him along. Reid was startled as he stumbled to follow with the force he was being pulled. His legs were weak, when he was tied in the dark or electrocuted he was forced to stand, the only time he got to sit was when he was thrown in the walk-in freezer. Coincidentally enough, that was the one area he tried to stand in, his clothes would get stuck to the floor and walls of the freezer and standing up would continue to let his blood flow and keep him warmer. It was probably intentional.
He managed to get pulled to their location that was only a few feet away. There was a sink full of water.
“I still want you to thank me”
“I’m not going to,” he mumbled.
Tony gripped the back of his neck and forced his head under the cold water. Reid thrashed at first but realized it was futile early on. He was just running out of breath quicker. Tony wasn’t letting him up.
He was pulled up around the time his chest started to ache painfully.
“Say it”
He didn’t. He got drowned again, for longer this time.
His lungs felt like they were going to collapse even in those brief moments of air. It was probably possible for his lungs to give up considering the long-term trauma to them from anthrax. He had to give in, he couldn’t take any more. His body was still tingling from the electroshock session he had ten minutes ago.
He got drowned once before, his tears mixed with the water he was being suffocated by. The droplets of the tap water couldn’t be told apart from his tears.
“Thank you for killing them" he sobbed. The unsub shook him like he was about to drown him again, Reid scrambled to fix the sentence, "thank you for killing my team”
It ended there. The unsub had to have cut stuff like him turning off the camera.
The video had been the last time they saw Reid and the last time the unsub contacted them. The police had gotten two recordings for each murders. One at the start where the unsub started to break the victims’ mental state and the second one being the one where they died. The unsub knew the FBI was handling the case, the video was sent to them specifically rather than the police station.
They got their second video on the 28th, Reid’s birthday. It was practically a month that had gone by with no leads or developments. the only thing developing was Reid's trauma and the number of days he was kidnapped.
They all apprehensively filled the conference room.
"Anyone who needs to leave, can. There's nothing wrong with that and no one will hold it against you. Just because it's Reid doesn't mean you need to feel obligated " Hotch knew how bad this could be on their mental states. He himself was scared to watch it, he couldn’t imagine how Garcia was feeling.
No one left.
“I want to watch. I need to know what happened.. but.. but if something happens to Reid, if he’s not alive, then I quit. I’m sorry”
Morgan knew her plans to do that, they had talked about it at some point. He felt selfish for wanting to convince her to stay but that was only because he couldn’t actually imagine losing Reid. He knew felt similarly.
Hotch started the tape.
Reid was on the floor. His lips were blue and his face was pale. He was shaking but from what couldn’t be identified easily. He was on the floor, the angle was odd and uncentered but the unsub was still in it. A gun was steadily pressed against his head.
It was already different from the others. The unsub was never seen actually killing the other victims, he was never in frame and the victims were always right in the center of the screen. Reid looked like he had been tortured with something else right before this, which was also unusual. The others had been cleaned up and dressed.
"Ask me to kill you" the unsub instructed. Reid was kneeled on the floor with his hands on his thighs, it was a universal submissive position they found other victims in from other cases. The unsub squatted to be at his height and leveled a gun at his head. Reid briefly closed his eyes bracing for the unexpected impact.
"Please kill me," he complied monotonously. He knew the case as well as the team did, he knew the second video was always the last. He knew that whoever picked up the case after his team (because they died) would see him die. "Please, please kill me, please" he was crying, not out of fear of death. It was more the opposite. He was genuinely begging, it was no longer just to please Tony.
"No, you're too fun, baby. I can't get rid of you yet"
"Please kill me"
"No can do," he said sing-songy,
The gun was still pointed at him tauntingly. Reid swiftly took hold of it enough to press down on the trigger. The gun didn't budge positions which was fine with him, it was in the perfect kill spot anyways. He wasn't trying to attack the unsub. The first round had been empty, in fear of the gun being taken away he frantically continued to press.
Ckick. Click. Click. Click.
Ckick. Click. Click. Click.
They were all empty.
Reid started to sob. His cries mixed with joyous laughter.
Garcia cried too from the other side of the screen.
He wanted to die, he was willing to kill himself. The unsub was laughing about it.
Reid’s mouth moved like he was about to say something, ‘why’ was Emily’s guess, but the recording cut off there.
It was silent for a few seconds. No one was sure what to say, they were all relieved that Reid was still alive but at the same time it was becoming a bittersweet feeling. Reid didn’t want to be alive anymore, he was losing hope. JJ didn’t blame him. It had been practically a month. If she was kidnapped and told they died and she was still kidnapped with no signs of help for a month, she would lose hope too.
“This was different from the others. He’s looking for Reid’s validation by making him thank him and ask him to kill him. There’s something about Reid that makes him care about what he thinks but it has to fill his fantasy so he has to force Reid to do it.” It had been Rossi who got them back on track, Hotch internally thanked him.
“We have to think of this like a regular case, we have to pretend we don’t know Reid. He’s just another victim. How does he fit into the victimology compared to the others?” Hotch hoped to get them on track without letting their emotions get in the way. He had been doing a good job at letting Struass keep them but depending on the track the case took, he didn’t know if that was going to be for the best anymore. Luckily, the others took this as a chance to focus and help find Reid.
“He doesn’t. We did background checks on all of them, they were all bad people. Rapists, hit and runners, robbers, as far as I know Reid isn’t any of that” Morgan was frustrated, he tried not to take it out on any of them but the feeling of not being able to do anything was becoming too much. After seeing Reid like that the feeling of hopelessness increased just as much as the motivation to find him did.
“Maybe that’s the point. He’s different but still attracts the unsub. It’s why he hasn’t been killed yet. He fits the unsubs taste too perfectly to kill so soon. The others were bad people but no one knew,” Rossi said,
“Yeah, I had to put in work to find all their dirty secrets. The unsub probably didn’t know that about them at the time but y'know, you can tell someone's bad when you spend time with them. He probably realized how bad they were and killed them.” Garcia agreed, her voice was shaky.
“That explains why he suddenly did research on them, he was tired of false hope. It was just bad luck that all the people he kidnapped were bad. It’s why Reid’s files were hacked before he was taken” Emily said,
“So where does this leave us exactly?” JJ hated to have to say but she couldn’t see how this got them far into solving the case.
“With a decent profile, order a press conference” Hotch told her.
“Can I please die?”
“But then who would I play with?” Tony said childishly, “if you left me then I’d have to find someone who’s as good as you, and where would I do that? No one can be as good as you or make the sweetest nosies you do. I would have to find someone who could be a good replacement. Do you think your mom would? She’s related to you and that might be the closest I can get if you were gone. Las Vegas sanitarium, isn’t that right?” Reid froze, he finally met his eyes, the unsub cooed happily when he noticed the reaction.
“Please leave her alone” he begged desperately. Tony made him say it again before shrugging it off claiming he wouldn’t. Reid took little solace in his word.
“Good boy, sit there and look pretty for me”
He left. Reid had free mobility now that Tony knew he was weak enough to not be able to do anything. He was in the freezer again, the numbing cold did little to numb his pain. He sat limply against the wall, the way the cold soaked through his clothes had become normal to him by now. He was worried he had pneumonia, maybe that explained the chest pain.
Cold. Cold. Cold.
He hadn’t written to his mother since the month started, he wondered how she was faring. She never wrote him abc but sometimes she would call. He wondered if she was worried or forgot about him.
Cold. Cold. Cold.
He wondered if the teams’ families had already had funerals. Surely they did. Their pictures were probably up on the wall of the fallen. He wondered if his was.
Cold. Cold. Cold.
He didn’t have anyone else to miss him really. Blake and Ethan probably didn’t know, probably would never unless his kidnapping was on the news. He wondered if he’d still have a job if he ever managed to go back. Not that it mattered, he’d probably quit without his team being there.
Not that it mattered..
He’d probably never make it out anyways.
They were worried about releasing the profile. It was a riks. It always was. There was never any telling if the unsub would act out or go into hiding because of it. It was a risk they weren’t sure they wanted to take with Reid’s life being on the line but it was their only hope. It ended up being the right choice. They had a few calls about suspects, the town wasn’t known for their criminals so having multiple suspects was more beneficial than one would suspect. They had released some of the audio to the first video, just the parts where the unsub spoke.
Someone had recognized the voice.
Her neighbor fit the profile. They almost didn’t consider him because he worked multiple high paying jobs, he wouldn’t have time to deal with a kidnapped FBI agent but the other points in his life worked with the case. He lived alone and in a large house. The house had construction for reasons the girl who phoned the tip didn’t know, but it was possible it was for extra rooms.
More rooms meant more places to hide their friend. From that Garcia did a deep dive into Tony’s information. At first it seemed unlikely it was him, he gave to charity, worked long hours, had a terminal illness that would usually make people incapable of moving much. Reid was light for his age and height but he should be heavy enough that a terminally ill man couldn’t carry him.
Garcia found disturbing images on his phone, there were text messages being sent to a number that no longer had an owner. His fiance had died, he seemed unable to accept that because he texted her as if she was responding. They talked about murders, his fiance was fascinated with them. It was less of the act of killing, she preferred to just watch. He ‘joked’ about being willing to do it for her. Recently they seemed to have a one-sided falling out. They couldn’t see whatever Tony was imagining the replies of, but his texts became distanced and withdrawn, he was pulling away from her.
He was breaking up with his ghost fiance because he had ‘found someone better who understood him’ and that ‘he wasn’t an abusing bitch’ like her.
“It explains his hatred for people who did something wrong” JJ said, a bit disgruntled that she was reading a breakup with a dead person and serial killer.
Reid had become the object of his affection for the mere fact that he treated him right. For the mere fact he wasn’t a terrible person, more like. Tony’s view on ‘right’ was as twisted as his views on killing those who did wrong. He was looking for a way out of his abusive relationship, the only way he could think to do that was if his love was somewhere else. And or kill his fiance. They weren't sure if he was behind her death or if it was just the stressor.
Thankfully they already had the location because the women who called had left the neighbors address. Unfortunately, it was an hour away.
“It's work hours. If he's not sacrificing his jobs to spend time with Reid then he should be at one of them. So at least he's not currently with Spence” JJ hoped she was making sense and not just being optimistic.
They couldn't waste time going to each job location. Even if Tony wasn't home, Reid would be there.
Reid just had to hold out.
The unsub didn't need to be there to harm Reid. Unbeknownst to the team, the only times he was tortured was when he was away and didn't trust Reid on his own. It was messing with his mind the fact that he longed for Tony, his kidnapper, to come back. It wasn't in dtom Stockholm way, he just didn't want it to hurt anymore.
He'd rather be delusionally cherished than pained.
He'd rather be dead than kidnapped though.
And sometimes one thing outweighed the other.
“FBI!”
Their suspicions had been correct, Tony wasn't home. They searched each room, anywhere that could've been a secret room or hidden spot, everything was cleared. Morgan had gone down to the basement.
“Guys!” His voice was loud and fearful enough that everyone heard it and rushed down.
Morgan was trying to pry a freezer door open, doing his best not to slip on the blood pooling out from beneath it.
When they got down there, Hotch helped him pull until it finally opened.
Reid greeted them.
His body did.
Sitting curled, limply on the floor. Icicle bloodied with red handprints and from its use as a weapon. Reid wasn't conscious, if he was he likely wouldn't have feeling with how blue his lips were and how much blood was on the floor.
Since they had already stepped in the blood, Hotch and Morgan hoisted Reid up and out of the freezer. They placed him back down on the floor a few feet away, orders to get something to dry him, to stop the bleeding, and to call and wait for the ambulance were shouted.
Based on the position they found Reid (the body) in, it seemed like he did it to himself. Multiple stab wounds to his abdominal, his hand was stained red and the icicle had fallen from his loose grasp. Reid had showed signs of suicidal behavior on the tape..
Rossi was calling the ambulance and waiting for them upstairs so he could guide them through the maze of what was the basement. Hotch and Morgan stayed applying pressure on the worst wounds and when JJ and Emily came back, JJ tried to warm him up and wake him up and Emily gave them towels while also trying to stop any bleeding. JJ used blankets she found around and started rubbing them against uninjured parts of him. (Uninjured was used lightly, she rubbed it on parts that weren't bleeding. Everywhere looked injured. Deep colors of purples and greens on his extra pale skin. Some were burns from electricity, others were just from impact).
“Reid stay with us, wake up, c'mon, you're safe now” JJ tried to wake him up. She spared a second to check his pulse just to make sure it was there. It was, but faint, he wouldn't be waking up without medical help.
The ambulance came fairly soon. They took over the positions Hotch and Morgan were reluctant to give up.