UNDER REVISION Silence in the Scars (A Criminal Minds Story)

Chapter 15: No Happy Endings

A note to the reader: Thank you for all the lovely motivation you guys have given me and thanks for sticking with this faithless little writer. Seriously, you guys are awesome and I know I am terrible at updating this but thanks so much still reading this.

Warning: Swear words, a fair amount of them. Oh and blood.

"Reid!" Hotch yelled desperately into the phone but the connection was already dead. A gun shot sounded, loud and harsh in the peaceful looking meadow. JJ turned pale and looked like she was about to be sick, Prentiss closed her eyes and breathed through her nose, and Morgan clenched the wheel tighter in his fists.

"Oh my god," Prentiss murmured as the black SUV skidded to halt and the agents spilled out. Behind them, the police were also exiting their vehicles and forming a perimeter around the rickety old cabin. Sheriff Jones stalked over to them. She was dressed in full sheriff uniform and, besides the bandage around her head, looked the perfect picture of health.

"Sheriff Jones," Hotch said noticing the women. "Shouldn't you be resting?"

"I can rest when I'm dead Agent Hotchner," she replied briskly.

"She told me to call her with any updates." Deputy Jonathan Riley looked sheepishly at his feet.

"What's happened?" Jones asked. She could tell just by looking at these agents that something really bad had happened. A grim weariness had settled into the lines of their faces, ageing them by ten years.

"We spoke to the female UNSUB, Zoe," Hotch began.

"That's a good thing isn't it?"

"Then there was a gun shot." Jones understood, they thought their agent was dead. Hotch's phone started ringing.

~

The gun shot was loud, nearly deafening Reid who looked down at his own body, half expecting to see blood leaking out of his abdomen. Reid had shouted when the gun had been fired and he glanced around for Tyler. Tyler lay on the floor next to the chair Reid was tied in. He was clenching his stomach and breathing hard, occasionally a small whimper slipped past the young man's lips. Zoe stood there, holding the smoking gun. The expression on her face was one of supreme indifference, she didn't care that she had just shot one of her friends.

"He's going to die unless he gets medical attention," Reid said, trying to appeal to whatever small sense of decency she might have.

"Then let him," Zoe said contemptuously. "He was weak, he couldn't even help you escape properly." The sound of sirens reached Reid's ears and to him they sounded like the grandest symphony on Earth. A moment later the red and blue police lights flashed through the window. Reid felt his heart lift, the team had found him. For a moment he forgot about Zoe and her gun and Tyler bleeding to death on the cabin floor, one though ran through his head, lifting his heart. They had found him.

"Dammit!" Zoe cursed loudly. Reid was brought back rather abruptly to the current situation. He was still tied to the chair, Zoe still had the gun, and, for the moment, Tyler wasn't going to be much help. Zoe turned to Tyler who was still clutching his abdomen, trying to slow the bleeding.

"This is all your fault!" She screamed at him.

"Fuck you!" Tyler coughed back. He groaned as he shifted himself so he was leaning the agent's chair. Tyler turned his head to look at Zoe. She looked positively demented, her face was contorted in such a twisted mask of hatred and rage that she looked like she was ready to rip both his and the agents throats out with her own teeth.