𝓶𝓪𝓻𝓪 𝓳𝓪𝓷𝓮 ➢ 𝓼. 𝓻𝓮𝓲𝓭

𝒻𝑜𝓇𝓉𝓎-𝓈𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃

Hotch hung up the phone and let out a sigh, watching the team gather around him. "Paul Fox escaped custody half an hour ago."

"What?" Morgan asked. "How the hell did that happen?"

"What if he comes here?" Emily asked.

"She's safe." Hotch quickly said.

"What's taking them so long?" Reid snapped. "I need to see her."

"You need to calm down."

Hotch and JJ stepped out while Morgan made Reid follow him to get some coffee. 

Mara was in and out of consciousness, she tried to remember what happened but she was out of it. She remembered Reid being there, he was there. Where was he now? She tried to move but she couldn't. The lights were so bright the only thing she would do was close her eyes and drift off into darkness.

Memories were flashing through her head: Shawn bursting into the room where she was being held hostage and pretending to save her only to take that away.

"You know, for someone who studies behavior, you're kind of stupid."

"What?" Mara gasped, tugging against the restraints. "Get me out of here, Shawn."

"Why would I do that?" he chuckled. "When I'm the one that got you here in the first place."

Mara's threw her head back against the gurney, going over how she got there. Paul Fox was at the door when she opened it, but he wasn't who took her. "You were already there."

"I was there for half an hour, waiting for him to show up," he chuckled, slipping his hands underneath her shirt. "I waited for the perfect moment."

"No, no, I trusted you!"

Shawn laughed as she let out a soft sob. "No, you didn't. You trusted no one but your stupid team. Your precious little Spencer Reid."

She shot up, fighting against the chains. "You better not touch him."

"Oh, Mara," he smiled, leaning over the gurney and meeting her eyes. "We were never going to harm your team. We knew you'd fall on your knees for us."

They sat there for hours and Reid was in and out of his head, wondering what he would say to her when she woke up. Would he tell her that he loved her? More than friends? That he's never loved anyone more?

Mara only continued in and out, remembering random parts of the last hours of her life.

"Don't touch her," Paul Fox growled behind Shawn. "We agreed on that."

"Oh, come on, old man," Shawn smirked, pushing up her hospital gown up. "Lighten up."

As Shawn went to move his fingers over her thighs, a gunshot rang through the building, Shawn falling over and onto the ground, dead. 

Mara let out a choked sob and begged him to let her go but she knew that wasn't going to happen. "What an asshole, right?"

"What do you want from me?"

"You're the only victim to survive and the last," he replied. "After I'm done with you, I'm done killing."

"You're a psychopath, you can never stop killing."

"You're underestimating my self control," he chuckled before moving her hair back from her face. "After I'm done, I'm giving myself over to your team."

"Why?"

He shrugged and smirked. "You'll see."

JJ came out the doors after checking with the nurses about Mara, tears filling her eyes. Everyone stood up, Reid's knees wobbling because he knew. He knew.

"She never made it off the table." JJ said.

"No," Reid said, trying to push past JJ. "She can't be dead."

"She couldn't fight about the high dosage of ketamine," JJ said. "She didn't suffer."

"No, no," Reid shook his head. "I didn't get to say goodbye. I didn't get to tell her I loved her too."

"She knows, Spence." JJ said, embracing the boy.

Reid sobbed into her shoulder as Morgan resisted the urge to punch a hole in the wall. "We did everything right! We were smarter than him, we found her, she was alive!"

"Sometimes we do everything right and still lose." Hotch replied.

"Don't give me that shit, Hotch," Morgan shook his head. "We beat him. But he still won."

"We'll find him," Hotch replied. "We're not going to stop until we find him, okay?"

JJ met Hotch's eyes as she hugged Reid. She only sighed and hugged him tighter.

Suddenly, Reid pushed her back and nearly ran outside, in extreme need of fresh air. He couldn't believe it was happening. He lost her. Again.

He collapsed against the wall of the hospital and buried his face in his hands, sobbing.