Strongest Of Us All

Chapter 2: Contact

No one spoke for a moment.

Hotch broke the silence, handing the bags that contained Reid's gun and credentials to Garcia and told her to take them to evidence and to get the blood tested. She hesitated but after seeing the look on her unit chiefs face, she quickly left.

Morgan slowly picked up the sealed envelope and look at Hotch, who nodded his approval. Everyone else stayed completely silent.

He opened it and first took out the note: "How long do you think it will take him to fully break? Long enough, I hope. Are you angry yet, Agent Morgan?" -BF

Grimacing and setting the letter aside, he peered back into the envelope and noticed 3 polaroids tucked in the corner. He pulled them out while everyone else passed around the note, silently reading it to themselves.

Morgan turned the pictures right side up and horrified, he immediately dropped them like they were burning his hands. He took a step back, placing a hand over his mouth to keep himself from being sick, and he sunk down into his desk chair, elbows on his knees.

Seeing his reaction, Hotched glanced down at the photographs of his youngest agent, the rest of the group looking over his shoulders, shocked.

The first picture showed Reid sitting in a wooden chair, a gag in his mouth preventing him from speaking. His eyes are foggy and he looks disoriented. A man kneels in front of him, gripping his chin hard enough to leave a hand shaped bruise.

The second picture is from a different angle and shows the man, angrier now, slamming his fist into Reid's stomach. Pain is evident on Reid's face and his eyes are screwed shut as if he's trying to protect himself from the assault.

The third picture, by far the worst, shows a different man with rolled up sleeves. Reid is on the ground now and the man has his hands wrapped around Reid's neck. Reid has his hands up trying to get the man off of his throat, he looks terrified. There are developing bruises and blood covering portions of his face and the collar of the dress shirt he is wearing is stained red. His eyes are wide and bloodshot, hair messy, leaving the agents to wonder how much time passed between these pictures.

In all three pictures, the men wore black ski masks, so only their eyes were visible.

For a moment, no one huddled around the desk could bring themselves to say or do anything. A mere hour ago that had innocently assumed that their youngest had simply slept in or missed his ride. To have an active reminder of their naïveness in front of them, it was daunting.

Morgan jumped up from his chair as Garcia made her way back over to them, stopping her from seeing the pictures by leading her back to Reid's desk and made her sit in his chair. "Baby girl, i-i don't think that Reid wants you seeing any of that "

She looked confused and was about to ask him what he meant when the sound of J.J throwing up in the trash can at Reid's desk distracted them. "Oh honey!" Garcia exclaimed and ran over to her friend to help her sit up. Tears were streaming down J.J's face and Morgan gave a reassuring squeeze of the shoulder before turning to look at Hotch.

The unit chief was still staring at the last picture, trying to understand why bad people seemed to follow Reid wherever he went. The kid, as the team commonly called him, never did a thing in his life to intentionally hurt anyone. And yet, it seemed everyone he'd ever met had it out to get him. His thoughts were interrupted by Morgan.

"Hotch? What do we do?"

Hotch took a deep breath and looked over at his team, who were all expectantly looking at him. He starts giving orders.

"Emily go down to forensics. Let me know ASAP about the blood. Rossi, take J.J and go to Reid's apartment.  Comb through the place for anything Morgan and I might've missed. Morgan and Garcia, I need you to pull any files on cases from the last five years that include unsubs or family members that might have some kind of vendetta against Reid or you, Morgan, since the letter was addressed to you."

As soon as he finished talking, everyone dispersed. A couple of minutes later, as Garcia and Morgan started to bring files into the round table room, Hotch texted the group: everyone meet back in my office by 10.

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Aaron Hotchner's Office, Tuesday 10am

Hotch, Garcia, and Morgan sat in disappointment around Hotch's desk, waiting for the others to return. They hadn't fpund aything of relevance to the case. At one point, they'd had a couple of leads, but Garcia confirmed that all 3 suspects were dead.

Rossi and J.J showed up minites before Emily did and they all settled in to the office. "Any luck with Reid's apartment?" Garcia asked hopefully. Rossi shook his head' "There's nothing else out of place except for the blood stain that you guys found before. Whoever did this, they're organized."

"Speaking of blood," Emily cut in, "The ME confirmed that the blood in the apartment and the blood on Reid's credentials are both Reid's type, AB+"

Hotch nodded solemnly and no said anything. Finally, he spoke up again, "For now all we can do is find out who there me are. Everyone come to the round table room and prepare yourselves - it's going to be a long day."

Everyone walked away towards the other room except for Morgan, he just sat in his chair staring at his hands crossed in front of him. Hotch stood next to him for a moment, "He's going to be okay, Morgan." Morgan looked up quickly, like he didn't even realize Hotch was standing right there. He tried to put on a confident face but Hotch could see right through it, Morgan was terrified.

"I know", he confirmed. Then he walked out the door, closely followed by Hotch, who closed the door behind them both