Family isn't Always Blood (A Criminal Minds fanfic)

Chapter 18: Capture

Reid's POV:
I clench my teeth and hold my breath, trying to not scream out in pain. "Toughen up!" He yells and forces the blade into my stomach again. He turns to the girl and starts slashing her with the knife, "No! Stop!" I plead. "Shut up!" He says and punches me in the face, "I'll be back" he warns and leaves the room. I reach my hands up and touch my stomach; blood is oozing out. I apply pressure to it and cry out, the pain is too much to handle. I start to feel faint but he comes back. He starts cutting the girl again. "No! Stop!" I yell, "Stop, you're going to kill her! Stop!"

"Stop!" "Reid, Reid!" I wake up with a start. Garcia is standing over me, waking me up, "Are you okay?" she asks, "Yeah, sorry, bad dream" I say, "You wanna talk about it?" "Not really" I reply and stand up, "I'm just going to the bathroom" I say and leave the room.
I lock myself in the men's bathroom and look in the mirror; my eyes have dark rings under them and my hair is all over the place. My vision blurs, I blink and rub my eyes, hoping to get rid of the foggy eyesight that normally accompanies tiredness. I sigh and walk back to Garcia's office. "Hey, are you sure you're okay?" she asks, "Yeah, I'm fine, thanks Garcia" I say, "Alright then" she says and dials a number into the phone, "I have to call the rest of the team" she tells me, answering the question I was about to ask.
"Babygirl, please tell me you have something" Morgan says when he answers the phone, "Well you asked me to find out if any of the tattoo artists worked on any of the victims and I found one person who worked on all of them. His name is Daniel Howard. He's 32, he's been in the tattoo industry for 8 years, his wife filed for divorce a month ago, one week before the killings started" "Is there anything to suggest a reason for the divorce?" Hotch asks, "Let me see... Oh, actually his wife was admitted to the hospital several times; once with a broken jaw, twice for broken noses and one time she had to get stitches above her right eye" "Wow, that's a lot, sounds like abuse" Emily says, "Yeah and get this: in the doctor's report it's noted that the doctor tried to check her heart beat but she refused to lift up her shirt, she became extremely defensive and insisted that she was fine before leaving the hospital" "So her face wasn't the only thing he beat up, okay, thanks Garcia" Hotch says, "Do you have an address?" "Yep, I'm sending it to you now" "Thanks Baby" Morgan says and they hang up.

Rossi's POV:
We put our vests on and head out. I get in the car with Hotch and Prentiss, Morgan and JJ get in a separate car. "Em?" Hotch asks, "Yeah, I'm fine" she answers, "Hotch, I'll drive, you get it the back with Emily" I offer, "Okay, thanks Dave" he says and joins Emily in the back seat. We leave the parking lot and head towards Daniel Howard's house, Morgan and JJ take a left turn hand head towards the tattoo parlour where he works. The phone rings so Hotch answers it and puts it on speaker, "Hey Garcia, what have you got?" He asks, "So Howard doesn't have a car registered under his name but his mother died 2 years ago and her car registration was recently renewed, so either she's come back from the dead or someone else renewed it" Garcia says, "That's great Garcia, anymore?" "Yes, his car is a small American made, navy blue and I'm sending you his licence plate" "Okay, thanks Garcia" Hotch says and hangs up. I look into the back seat through the rear view mirror; Emily's head is resting on Hotch's shoulder and Hotch has a hand on Emily's stomach, I smile. "Dave" Hotch says, Emily sits up and I look back at the road; a navy blue car is speeding ahead of us. I speed up and follow the car, Hotch checks the number plate on his phone ad confirms it's the unsub. I put the lights and sirens on and chase him. We speed down the highway, swerving through the traffic. The unsub takes one of the exits, so I follow him. He turns right and speeds off down road. We pursue him through streets and around passing cars until we make it to an intersection, he runs through the red light and slams on the brakes, but not quick enough. The car crashes into a semitrailer, making the car behind the truck hit the back of it. We get out of the car and run over, I walk around to the front of the car and inspect the damage: there's no way someone could've lived through that. Emily walks over to the car that hit the back of the truck, "Ma'am, are you okay?" I hear her ask, "My-my son is in the back seat" she says frantically. I pull out my phone and call 911, "911 what's your emergency?" "Hello, my name is David Rossi I'm with the FBI, there's been a car accident on the Swanson/Kingston intersection in McAlester" "Okay the ambulance is on their way, can you tell me what vehicles were involved?" "Yes, there's 2 small cars and a semitrailer" "Okay, help will be there soon" she says and I hang up. I look over to see Emily helping the woman out of her car, "My son" she mutters, I run over and help the woman so that Emily can get the boy out of the car. "Are you hurt anywhere?" I ask, "No, I don't think so" she says, "Okay, the ambulance is on their way" she looks up at me, "Thank you" she says, I smile and look back to see how Emily is doing. I tell the woman to wait where she is so I can help Emily. "Em" "He's stuck, Rossi you've gotta help him, he's stuck!" she says, "I will" I say and peer through the window at the boy; he's unconcious. I try to pride the door open but it's jammed, I turn around to see if there's anything I can use to open the door but there's nothing. I glimpse over at Emily, she's got her hands on her stomach and appears to be holding her breath. I turn back to the door and pull at it with all the strength in my body, eventually the whole door comes off and I stumble backwards. The ambulance arrives and they rush over, I step back and let them do their job. "Hey, Emily, he'll be okay" I tell her, she nods and looks away. "He just came out of nowhere, I tried to stop but I was to close" I turn to see the truck driver talking to Aaron, "It's okay, it's not your fault" Hotch reassures him, "Now the paramedics are just going to check to make sure you have no injuries that you haven't realised" he says and leads the driver over to the ambulance. He walks over to us and raises his eyebrows, "Yeah, I know what you mean" I say, responding to the look of shock on his face. He looks at Emily and I do too; she's picking her fingernails. "Em, what's wrong?" he asks, "That boy, he can't die, he just can't" she almost cries, "I know" Hotch says, pulling her into a hug, "I know".
We hear a thump coming from the back of the unsub's car, we all walk over to the car and Hotch points to the trunk, I aim my gun while Hotch pops the trunk. I look down and realise its Skylar Berkley. She has tape over her mouth and her hands are tied together with rope. Prentiss rushes forward and pulls the tape off then unties her hands. Skylar looks around is fear, "It's okay, we're from the FBI" Emily says, Skylar relaxes and we help her out of the car.