GHOSTS

GHOSTS CH. 16

Ghosts
Chapter Sixteen

Hotch was worried. He had sent J.J. to Reid's place over an hour ago and she hadn't checked in with him, not once. He could almost bet that everything was fine and that she was just too angry to call him back or answer. As immature as that sounded, it was a reasonable assumption. So, Hotch took up pacing the briefing room as a way to pass the time. From the door, to the plasma TV, around to the row of white boards, once around the table, then back to the door. When he looked up, Dave was standing there.

"She hasn't called in yet?"

Hotch shook his head, "maybe she just doesn't want to speak with me."

"Other times, maybe. But now? When it has everything to do with Reid's safety? She wouldn't run that risk."

"I thought so too, but it shouldn't be taking her this long." Hotch looked at his quiet phone, he had, had a death grip on it since she left.

Dave pulled out his own phone and tried to call her, giving Hotch a positive look. But when he just her voicemail, his smile dropped, "this isn't like her Aaron."

Hotch nodded and they both walked quickly to Garcia's lair. He punched in the code and she jumped right out of her chair, "Hotch!"

"Garcia, I need you to locate where J.J. is, right now."

Penelope shook off the shock and turned back to her screens. Hands moving at the speed of light. She wasn't sure why they didn't just call her but now wasn't the time for stupid questions. J.J.'s signal came up right where it should have been, at Reid's place.

"Sir, it says she is still at Reid's place," she pointed to the little red J.J. dot.

Hotch took a deep breath, "then why isn't she answering our calls?"

Penelope started to answer but then the J.J. dot just disappeared, "sir, I just lost her signal."

"What do you mean?" Rossi asked, totally at a loss to what he was seeing on her computers.

"I mean, her cell phone, something must be wrong with it. Maybe it died or something."

Hotch shook his head, "no, she wouldn't just let it die. Something is wrong. We need to go there now. Come on Dave."

With their sirens on, it only took them 10 minutes to get to Reid's apartment. When they pulled up, 6 cop cars, 2 ambulances and a bomb squad truck was outside. Also, the entire building was on fire. The window that would lead to Reid's bedroom was blown out, it looked like a bomb had gone off.

Hotch and Dave exited the SUV, badges already out as they ran to the front. Officers were helping people out of the building, some walking out while others were on stretchers. The officer stopped them two stops short of the door. While they waited, they scanned the crowd looking for long blonde hair, but saw nothing.

"Sorry, but you can't go up there."

Hotch flashed his badge, "we have an agent inside," Hotch barked at him, trying to side step him.

"Then we will find them but the fourth floor is unsafe. We had a bomb go off inside."

When the officer looked away, Dave nodded at Hotch and he went around. Leaving Dave with the screaming officer. He shoved past civilians, past bomb squad and took the flour flights of stairs to Reid's floor. Smoke filled his lungs and clouded his vision. It only worsened when he walked down the hallway, seeing Reid's door splintered to pieces and the surrounding doors knocked down.

What little he could make out was a flash of leg hidden under the doors. He moved as quickly as he could, through smoke, eyes burning. He moved the door and there she was. Face bloodied, hair still blonde but tinted black. One of her legs was bent at an odd angle, it had to be broken.