DESENSITIZED//CRIMINAL MINDS

1.09 | 'combust?'

"THIS IS FROM one of the security cameras inside the train." jj told the team, minus elle who had been away interviewing a serial killer on death row in texas. "five hostages in a car stopped on the tracks." she explained. "we have one security guard dead from initial gunfire."

reid furrowed his eyebrows. "is this going on right now?" he asked.

"yeah," jj answered. "in west texas."

"why'd they ask for us?" morgan asked.

hotch looked down at his file. "they didn't." he told them. "they asked for agent hayes."

sierra's eyes widened. "me?" she squeaked.

hotch nodded. "because of a particular psychological aspect of the hostage taker, which you're especially equipped to handle."

sierra slowly nodded. "but, you guys are coming too, right?" she asked, her anxious eyes searching around the room.

"of course." hotch answered. "i knew you'd get too nervous on your own."

before sierra could thank him, reid spoke up. "could you back the footage up a few frames?" he asked. jj nodded, rewinding a few frames as reid slowly moved closer to the screen. "tardive dyskinesia." he said.

"once more for those of us without an encyclopedic memory?" morgan asked.

"severe facial ticks." sierra answered, also moving closer to the screen. "the kind that develop after years of taking antipsychotic medication."

reid cracked a small smile. "couldn't have said it better myself."

"so this guy's a psychotic?" morgan asked.

"a psychotic with hostages." hotch added.

jj sighed. "and two guns."

gideon entered the room, sipping a cup of coffee. "hostage situation on a train?" he asked.

"yeah." jj answered. "in texas."

gideon's eyes laced with concern. "a train in texas?" he asked, looking at the screen. "my god," he started. "elle."

the agents shared a confused glance, but upon closer inspection, noticed that their friend elle greenaway was one of those hostages.

and they had to save her.
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"LOCAL AUTHORITIES HAVE the train surrounded." jj explained, squished in the car between sierra and gideon. "bureau hostage rescue team snipers are in position, but they're hesitant to take action until negotiations is exhausted." she said. "the feed from the train's two video cameras are being routed to monitors on a mobile command center that the local bureau office brought in."

"we need to know who on that train is gonna be a help and who's gonna be a problem." hotch spoke up from the driver's seat.

morgan nodded, pulling out his cell phone. "all right. let me get garcia to work some magic on those video feeds." he said from the passenger seat.

as morgan called their angel of a technical analyst, spencer turned to sierra, who was squished next to him and jj. "comfortable?" he asked.