Penelope had been keeping tabs on each member of the team, making sure the communication was there the whole time. When the team went silent, Penelope started to panic.
"Guys?" She spoke, trying to reach any of them.
"Guys?" Spencer called out, seeing the panic on her face.
"Don't go to voice mail. Don't go to voice mail. Don't go to voice mail." She breathed as she dialled Emily's number.
"This is SSA Emily Prentiss. I can't take your call right now, so..." Penelope ended the call just as the elevator door opened, revealing Matt Simmons.
"Hey, I came as soon as I could. What's wrong?" Matt asked, confused.
"They're gone. They're all gone." Penelope cried as she held up her laptop, showing that each and every BAU member was offline, each signal lost.
"I'll drive." Matt nodded.
"I'm coming too." Spencer insisted.
"No, Spencer. You're not reinstated yet. You coming with us would be against every single FBI rule!" Penelope rejected him.
"Penelope, Cassidy - my fiancée - is somewhere out there, possibly injured! I'm going with you!" Spencer demanded.
"Penelope is right, Spencer. You have to stay here. We will go and see what's happened. As soon as we know what's going on, we'll call you." Matt insisted, he and Penelope getting into the elevator while Spencer just stood still.
As Penelope and Matt drove to the last known location of the team, Penelope was on the phone with someone.
"Correct. Penelope Grace Garcia, Technical Analyst, badge number 0019er-0. I am with International Response Team Special Agent Matt Simmons." Penelope explained.
"Yeah. I know, but SSA Spencer Reid hasn't been reinstated yet, so..." She was interrupted.
"Oh, my god, I know this is protocol, but you need to stop asking me questions and send backup to the coordinates I just gave you right now, please...and medical. Send lots of medical." She begged as she and Matt pulled up to the accident site. She hung up, both her and Matt rushing out of the car.
"No, no!" Penelope panic.
"Okay. Come on. I got you. I got you." She rushed over to Rossi, helping him up off the ground.
"Jag-off ambushed us, didn't even see him coming." Rossi scoffed.
"All right. We got to get you off that leg, okay?" Matt insisted.
"No, no. I'm fine. I'm fine. I'll flag down the cavalry. You go check on the team." Rossi insisted.
"Yes, the team, the team, the team." Penelope nodded, running over to Derek, Tara, JJ and Cassidy.
Tara and JJ were on the ground, slowly standing up, Derek was stumbling around, and Cassidy was leaning against one of the SUVs.
"What can I do?" Penelope held into Cassidy while Matt rushed to Tara, JJ and Derek.
"I can't see." Cassidy complained.
"What can I do? How can I help?" Penelope asked, watching as Cassidy revealed her face.
"I can't see. Ugh!" She groaned. Penelope looked at Cassidy's face. Half of it was mostly covered in blood from the cut on her scalp from the collision.
"Wait. All right. I see it, okay? I see it. You got some broken glass in your scalp, Cassidy, okay?" Matt walked over to Cassidy as Penelope walked over to JJ.
"W- Where's S- Spencer?" Cassidy asked, trying to breathe.
"I will call him and tell him to go to the hospital. You need to go and get help from the E.M.T.'s that just arrived." Matt insisted, helping Cassidy to the nearest ambulance. He watched as she was put into the back and taken to the hospital. Matt grabbed his phone and got Spencer's number from Penelope.
"Spencer, Cassidy's alive and she's on the way to the hospital with a minor injury." Matt informed Spencer, who thanked him for making sure Cassidy was okay before the call ended.
"JJ, can you tell me where you're hurt?" Penelope asked as she held onto JJ. Matt got Derek and Tara to nearby ambulances.
"Um, I think I'm going into shock." She admitted.
"Okay. All right. I got you. JJ, we're gonna warm you up, all right?" Penelope nodded, helping JJ to the last ambulance.
"Listen. You're gonna want to go to sleep. We can't let you do that. You got to stay with us, okay? Stay with us." One E.M.T. insisted as JJ was helped up into the ambulance. Penelope watched as the last ambulance took JJ away.
Rossi, Derek, Tara, Cassidy and JJ were all being taken to the hospital, all of them with varying injuries.
"Over here!" Matt called Penelope over, drawing her attention to the spikes strips on the ground.
"Those spike strips took out our two SUVs. Then the truck blindsided them." Penelope exhaled.
"We have 6 agents that are...where's Emily?" Penelope asked, realising that all of her friends, except Emily, had been accounted for. That made her panic, not knowing where Emily was.
———
(Unknown Location)
Emily opened her eyes, seeing man in a nurse's uniform standing beside her.
"Where am I?" She breathed, confused.
"You were in a car crash, a bad one." The man exhaled.
"Oh, my god, what happened?" She asked, confused.
"Your SUV sustained the brunt of the impact. Specifically, you sustained it. Do you remember?" The man asked, looking at her. She closed her eyes briefly before opening them again.
"No. I...wait. Yeah. My team." Emily attempted to get up, but the man stopped her.
"Take- Take it easy, Agent Prentiss. Got you stable, but you got to stay put." The man shook his head.
"Where am I? This isn't a hospital. I've been in enough hospitals. I know how they sound, how they smell, so where the hell am I?" She looked around, confused. It seemed as if she was surrounded by a plastic wall.
"You're being taken care of. We both are." The man smiled.
"Wait. What...what does that mean? I don't understand you." She questioned him.
"Yeah. She's conscious." The man nodded, watching as the man left.
"Well, hello, Emily." Her face dropped. She'd recognise his voice anywhere.
"Son of a bitch." She growled, seeing Peter Lewis walk up to the bed.
"It's nice to meet you, too, finally." He smiled.
"Did you grab all of us? Huh? Are we all here?" She questioned him.
"JJ! CASSIDY! DEREK!" She called out for her team, but she didn't hear any response, worrying her. She winced in pain.
"No. It's just you. Your team is fine by the way." Scratch smiled, nodding.
"I will make sure you fry for this." She hissed at him, angry.
"Will you?" He asked, earning a look of confusion from Emily.
"Well, maybe you should take a look at yourself first." He insisted, pulling back the white sheet covering the lower half of her body. Her face dropped when she saw that one of her arms was in a sling. But what shocked her the most was seeing metal frames around both her legs, metal pins and screws stuck inside her legs.
"Because from where I'm standing, you won't be doing much of anything...for the rest of your life." He explained, seeing the panic and fear on her face as she tried to remain calm and breathe.
———
(The Hosptial)
Cassidy sat on top of a hospital bed, a bandage on her head that half covered the side of her forehead and half covered her scalp. She stared down at her engagement ring. Why did she have to be injured 2 weeks before her wedding day? She let a few tears slip, before hearing footsteps.
"Hey." She heard his voice. She looked up, quickly wiping the tears from her cheeks.
"Spencer." Cassidy breathed, holding an ice-pack to her head.
"You okay?" He asked, his left hand gently grazing over the bandage.
"I'm...okay...I think." She tried to smile and pretend like she was okay, but she couldn't. She let more tears slip, Spencer looking at her confused.
"Whoa, whoa. What's wrong?" Spencer asked, sitting down beside her.
"Apart from the fact that I have stitches in my head from being ambushed by Scratch? Nothing's wrong." She chuckled, trying to calm down.
"Why did I have to get injured 2 weeks before our wedding? There is no way that my head will heal before I have to walk down the aisle and say 'I do'." Cassidy exhaled.
"Cassidy, when we say 'I do', we are going to be surrounded by all of our friends and family. They all know that injuries are part of our job description. If you're worried about people judging you because you have a scar on your head, don't be. I would marry you right here, right now, if it meant that I would be able to call you my wife." Spencer smiled at Cassidy, placing a sweet kiss on her lips.
As Cassidy and Spencer pulled away from their sweet moment, they both turned their attention to the door, seeing Derek, watching as he exhaled. He had a bandage on his cheek and a bandage on his arm.
"Rossi's refusing treatment until he speaks to both of us." Derek walked into the room, grabbing Spencer's attention. Cassidy smiled as she let Spencer follow Derek.
Spencer and Derek walked into Rossi's hospital room.
"What's going on?" Spencer asked, confused.
"Shut up and listen." Rossi shook his head.
"All right." Derek rolled his eyes.
"First, you, go through my pants pockets and find my keys." He pointed to Derek, who did what he was told by Rossi.
"Second, you, you're back on the team." He pointed to Spencer, who widened his eyes, confused.
"Not sure I should be. Has the director approved that?" Spencer denied Rossi's demand.
"I'm making the calls now. I'll take the heat. You're back on the team." Rossi insisted.
"I got them." Derek spoke, holding up Rossi's keys.
"There's a little one there to a file cabinet in my office. You following me?" Rossi asked, Derek and Spencer nodding.
"Yeah. Following you." Spencer spoke.
"Inside, there's Chicago Bears season tickets. When you get them, you call Matt Simmons. I promised him those tickets." Rossi groaned, trying to move.
"They must have given him something in the ambulance to make him loopy. I'll get the doctor. We'll get him into surgery." Spencer exhaled, going to leave the room, but Rossi stopped him.
"Just shut up and listen. Now, Emily is missing. JJ, Tara and Cassidy are hurt. As for you two ass clowns, you'll do me the courtesy of following my orders." Rossi shook his head, looking at Derek and Spencer with a stern face.
"Your orders aren't making sense." Derek shook his head, confused.
"Follow my orders, and then I'll go into surgery." Rossi exhaled, leaning back onto the pillow that rested at the top of the bed.
"This has got nothing to do with season tickets." Derek rolled his eyes as he and Spencer left the hospital room.
"Ass clown?" Spencer muttered, earning a small chuckle from Derek.
———
(Accident Site)
Penelope and Matt stood at the accident site. The spike strip on the ground and Penelope tried to figure out how it was activated.
"So Scratch hacked my phone tonight using something called a man in the middle attack. That means he's on a specific radio frequency." Penelope explained, holding a tablet in her hands.
"And you're thinking he's using the same radio frequency to activate these spikes." Matt asked, Penelope nodding.
"Well, he is a man of habit. Maybe we can use that habit to locate him and figure out...this is how I profile." Penelope started moving her finger along the screen, Matt watching as the spike strip moved.
"Oh, oh, oh. Hold. Freeze. Freeze. You just hit it." Matt stopped her from touching her screen. He bent down and stayed a safe distance from the spikes.
"Hold on. All right. Back it up." Matt asked, Penelope moved her finger along the screen. Both her and Matt watched as the spike strip retracted to the side of the road.
"Booyah." Penelope smiled.
"Now we got the frequency. We just have to figure out where he's broadcasting it from." Matt exhaled as he stood up.
"Okay. That is easier said than done. Radio signals work on a pre-set range. We'll walk or drive in and out of proximity to it." Penelope exhaled, shaking her head.
"And he could be bouncing it off multiple buildings." Matt added.
"Yeah. That's also true. Okay. The least I could do is make sure Scratch doesn't ambush us again, so the next time he goes live, I'll set up some sort of signal, like..." Penelope spoke, looking down at her tablet. She watched as an alarm went off. She turned it off.
"We need to help Emily, so...let's get to work." Penelope insisted.
———
(Unknown Location)
Scratch watched as Emily muttered to herself while he clipped his finger nails.
"Taking a little mindfulness break? Trying to control your breathing? That's smart. It'll keep you sane...and I need you sane." Scratch smiled, impressed with Emily's control.
"Oh, how rude. Excuse me." Scratch apologised as he wiped the nail clippings off the bed that she was laying on.
"Look. I'm only alive because you want something. So what do you want?" She asked.
"Information that only you have." Scratch explained.
"What are you waiting for, then? Dose me with your drugs, the ones that make me see whatever delusion you suggest, and I'll tell you what you want." Emily rolled her eyes, wincing from the pain in her arm and legs.
"Hmm, I would love nothing more than that. Unfortunately, in your current physical condition, the Sevoflurane and Scopolamine would send you into a stroke." He glared at her.
"I guess we're at a stalemate, then." She tried to stay calm, but it was hard.
"No. I still have drugs that can make you talk, just different drugs. This is morphine. This is what is making your life very liveable right now. Without this...your body will be on fire, and then you really will tell me everything I want, no delusion necessary." Scratch explained as he held up a needle full of morphine.
———
(At The BAU Office)
After getting very weird instructions from Rossi, Derek and Spencer walked into the BAU bullpen. Spencer stopped, trying to calm himself down.
"I can't arrest him." Spencer spoke up, confusing Derek.
"What?" Derek asked.
"Scratch. The second I see his face, I am going to kill him. I tried to tell Rossi not to put me back on the team. You heard me." Spencer explained, staring at Derek with hatred in his eyes.
"Yeah. I did." Derek nodded, watching as Spencer winced, his right hand going up to his eye, almost rubbing it.
"What's wrong with me?" Spencer whispered.
"My guess is, it's been going on since prison, but you haven't had time to notice. Every time you get stressed, you go into tunnel vision. That's why you're rubbing your palm into your eye." Derek explained.
"Yeah." Spencer nodded.
"What does that sound like, kid?" Derek asked.
"Sounds like PTSD." Spencer exhaled.
"PTSS. That's what they're calling it now, post-traumatic stress syndrome, because it's not a disorder. It's an injury." Derek shook his head.
"Well, what do I do? I mean, we're in crisis mode. I don't have time to process my emotional state." Spencer shrugged his shoulders.
"That's exactly when you make time, right? You ask for help. There's no shame in that." Derek smiled.
"Rossi's office." Spencer looked up at Rossi's office, seeing a figure inside.
"Yeah. I'll handle that." Derek reassured Spencer.
"No. There's someone in Rossi's office." Spencer shook his head, making his way up the stairs, toward the office.
Opening the door, Spencer and Derek saw Matt and Penelope. She gestured for them not to speak, and for the two men to hand her their phones. She opened Rossi's cigar case and lifted the top layer out as she grabbed Derek and Spencer's phones. Putting them inside with hers and Matt's phones, she put the cigars back on top and shut the case, Spencer and Derek looking at her in confusion.
"Okay. Now that we are secure, I got that for Rossi last year. Not only is it a cigar case, but it's also a Faraday case. It blocks all radio and cell signals. I think Scratch might be listening in on us with our cell phones, even when they're off." Penelope pointed to the case.
"That explains why Rossi was so cagey in the hospital. All right. Let's find these tickets." Derek nodded, looking around Rossi's office before finding the file cabinet that Rossi was talking about. Opening it up, he looked at Penelope and Matt in confusion.
"What is this?" He asked, looking down at the dozens of files on Scratch.
"That is the entire investigation into Scratch. Hotch kept all his records off site, updating Prentiss and Rossi through hard copies." Matt explained.
"If it's off the cloud, Scratch can't hack it. Have you guys read it?" Spencer asked.
"No. Prentiss ordered it compartmentalized, eyes-only clearance, but she also felt there should be at least one failsafe who wasn't part of the BAU who knew about it just in case of emergency. That's why Garcia called me." Matt admitted.
"All right. Let's dig in. I mean, this may be our only chance at stopping this bastard." Derek insisted as he reached down and started grabbing the files, handing them to Spencer, Penelope and Matt.