Who Am I? - Criminal Minds

Chapter Five

Hotch looks around at his teammates and their exhausted postures. It has been exactly one day since Reid's abduction, and a full twenty-four hours since any of them had gotten any sleep.

JJ looked the worst of them all. Her hair was ruffled, her shoulders slouched, and her eyes red and puffy. Emily had asked her if she had been crying, but JJ had said she wasn't.

She shouldn't be feeling so guilty, she wasn't even anywhere near him this time. She was with us. She's as much to blame as we are, Emily thinks after glancing over to her.

"Okay, I know it'll be hard, but you all need sleep. At least try to get a few hours of rest," Hotch says after setting down some files.

"Hotch, I am not going to rest," Morgan says aggressively.

"You haven't slept in over twenty-four hours, you-"

"I don't care. I'm not resting until we find Reid."

Hotch stares at the defiant agent. "That's an order." He doesn't like playing bad guy, but he knows he has to think about his team and their health.

Morgan clenches his jaw and stares at his boss before he gets up and walks upstairs without another word.

The rest of the team silently files upstairs to join him. There are only three bed rooms; one is the master bedroom, one is a children's room, and one is the guest bedroom.

JJ and Emily walk into the guest bedroom, but find Morgan sitting on the bed, his face in his hands. He either didn't hear them approaching, or doesn't care.

"Uh..." Emily starts.

Morgan looks up expectantly, waiting for her to continue.

"We hate to kick you out, but...there are two of us and one of you."

"I get it. Okay, consider me gone." Morgan gets up and walks out of the guest bedroom and into the children's.

Hotch and Rossi walk into the master bedroom. There is only one bed, and they don't know what to do about that.

They glance between each other and the single bed awkwardly until Hotch finally offers to sleep on the floor.

Morgan lay on a child-sized bed with his feet barely on, wide awake. Now that all the distractions of voices and human interaction are gone, it's only his frightening thoughts left to keep him company.

What if he's already dead?

~~~~~ . : . ~~~~~

Reid wakes up and immediately sees the face of none other than John Daley in the dim light of the sunrise. The unexpected silent greeting makes him jump. 

"You know you mumble in your sleep?" Daley asks him casually.

"I guess sometimes I might..." His head is still throbbing and he's still a bit drowsy, but it has subsided for the most part.

"You kept saying something about killing. Maybe little Spencer has a dark side after all," he smiles mischievously.

"I will never be anything like you," Reid spits.

"You say that like it's a bad thing." He mocks insult before continuing. "Anyways, I think it's about time we get down to business."

"You mean continue our talk?"

"Um, nah. I think it's time for the party games."

~~~~~ . : . ~~~~~

Morgan traces the patterns in the ceiling with his eyes for the millionth time. The light from the sunrise offers more light with each minute, but no one is moving yet. He imagines everyone else was sleeping, but he didn't get an ounce of sleep. He's exhausted, but doesn't dare sleep. If he does, then he'll feel as though he's giving up on Reid.

The whole night, images of the lifeless body of Reid bleeding on cold concrete, his eyes glazed over and staring right at him.

Morgan can't sit still any longer. He gets up and slowly walks down the stairs, careful not to make any creaks that might wake his teammates up.

He sits down at the kitchen table and picks up the files from last night, looking through them yet again.

After looking through the files so much, he practically memorized the words, he sets them down and closes his eyes to think about it all without seeing it.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Morgan turns around to see JJ standing in the kitchen doorway, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed.

He sighs and shakes his head. "Of course not." He pauses before adding, "Why are you up?"

She sighs and sits down across from him. "I just keep imagining....what if this time...you know."

"I know...but for his benefit we shouldn't think like that," he tries to soothe her, but feels guilty because he had been having those thoughts all night. 

"I know, but I can't help it. This might be worse than last time. If I had stayed behind a-"

"Hey, don't do that to yourself. This isn't your fault.," Morgan softly says.

JJ looks down at the tabletop and gives a small nod.

"Well, we're up. Why don't we do something useful?" Morgan hands JJ half the files he had been looking at.

~~~~~ . : .  ~~~~~

"This game is called 'Scream'," Daley says as he pulls out a long metal rod from behind his back.

Reid gulps. "Wh-when does the game end?"

"When I decide to stop." He prods Reid in his left side, and immediately an intense pain shoots through his body, making him howl in pain.

When he takes it away from his body, Reid looks up at him and whimpers, "Why are you doing this?"

Daley shrugs and says, "Because I can," before prodding him again.

Reid shrieks again and tries to get as far away from the rod as possible, but the cuffs and ropes prevent him from moving. "Stop! Please!"

The pleas just make Daley tilt his head curiously.

He prods his stomach again and shocks him once more. 

"Hey, Spencer! That Tobias guy didn't know the fun he could've had, but me, I know exactly what to do."