There's still people alerting my story (or me but I'll talk about that later), especially new are supersoccersarah, Miss R. Hood and giderasia1 (I thought you were already here :D); just for that little chapter~ You're awesome, seriously *heart*

Here you are!

They had to wait until morning, four more hours, until they would be shoveled out of the Benetts' house.

Chris was brooding in the bedroom, slowly realizing he had no chance to get out of this. He was just as guilty as his now dead ex-wife, Max, had been.

Prentiss was watching Haley and Mike, talking to them, guarding over their sleep, getting a call from Hotch from time to time until her battery was empty.

Morgan had put on the lights in the basement and upstairs, put a blanket over Max' body, so he hadn't had to look at her anymore, walked around uneasily, not sure what to do with himself, watched Reid sleeping and waking up on the couch, calmed him down from his nightmares and was just overall there for him.

He almost got a heart attack, when he saw him coughing up the blood.

"Reid, what the hell is that?", he asked, almost shouting the question in beginning, lingering panic. Reid frowned, eyes almost shut, avoiding eye contact with the agent.

"Blood... I guess." He lay back down without anymore explanation. "How should I know... It's not so much..." He coughed a little more, drawing up the blanket up to his neck, already drifting of into a dream.

Knocking sounds on the wall. Rhythmic. Morgan looked up, shouting. Voices. Then a ray of light. They were finally found.

The reunion was as emotional as it could get and confusing and too short when Prentiss, Reid and Morgan, who had to be forced to, were taken to hospital to have an overall check.

Turned out all of them had mild concussions thanks to the unsubs.

Prentiss sat in hospital with a sprained ankle, bruises all over and more importantly the doctors had found traces of a moderate dose of paralyzers, which luckily wouldn't have long-term effects.

Morgan had to be taken care of mostly because of a severe wound on his head that he hadn't even noticed in the end. He got a patch on it that he hated cause it just looked ridiculous, so he refused to take of his hoodie for the next days. They also treated a deep cut on his lip and on his eyebrow and minor injuries from fighting.

Reid was the only one not to be awake when he got sent in - his cold had turned into pneumonia in a few days cause he didn't treat it, but medication promised good success against the infection, his fever had been lowed down and the coughing decreased. When Morgan told the hospital staff about the blood, he had to go through several physicals, barely awake, but in the end the doctor concluded, that there was no serious reason - the coughing all the time and no treatment to spare his lungs had led to tiny cuts in the mucosal which made themselves noticeable in the tissues. The cut on his hand had to be sewed and he had some big bruises on his back and other injuries pretty much everywhere, but he didn't know much of what happened to him in the hospital, cause he just slept through for almost three days.

Finally he woke up wearily to find a letter next to his bed and - déjà-vu! - Morgan smiling while eating his jell-o.

A week later

It was still snowing and Reid still didn't like it. He had spent the last days at home, ignoring the weather, reading books he had already read a hundred times, drinking coffee, sleeping a lot, writing letters to his mum and watching his favorite movies. Sometimes someone from the team came over to look for him, but he was okay now. Next Monday he could come to work again.

Actually he could have even come to the BAU this day, regarding how he felt, but Hotch had insisted on a break this long and wanted to hear no complaints.

He was reading a letter when a message came in on his mobile. He smiled. Answered.

"Indian food sounds good. See you."

He thought for a moment, wondering if he was becoming too personally attached, but then he decided to keep a nice memory and put Haley's letter back into the cupboard before getting ready.

Hello, Mr., no Dr. Reid (Agent Morgan told me!)

I hope you can read this letter soon.

You sleep a lot. Everytime I tried to visit you, you still didn't wake up. This is the last time I can come over, cause me and my parents will go to my grandma for some time. We're gonna have holidays.

It makes me a little sad that I can't talk to you. And I have so many things to tell you, so I write you this.

Don't think strange things about this, no matter how awkward it sounds while reading!

I'm sure you never planned that you landed in this room with me, but it just happened and it happened in time. Yes, it was perfect timing.

I've been alone in there for days, you probably know best. I was so, so scared, like never before. I played their game to survive. I had to play my role. And I rarely got food or water. In the end I slept a lot. I could do nothing. I was really close to break. I wanted to give up.

And you got thrown in here. To be honest, you looked really weak and scared. You slept and it didn't look like you were dreaming about nice things. I never expected to find that FBI badge on you.

But you totally deserve it.

It was like you were like me. I don't want you to have to remember it, but... You were like me, on your own, afraid, sick, but you never gave up, while I was about to. You even could make us escape! (Though I still didn't get the trick with the lock...) You fought the cold. You fought the dark. You saved us all. In time. Who knew what would have happened if we would have just stayed there for the rest of the night? If you and Morgan would have never went down the stairs?

You did it. And it may seem useless, cause these words come from me, a little girl who doesn't know anything, but in my eyes, you are a hero for overcoming the things you're afraid of and that's the bravest thing someone can do.

Thank you so much.

Haley

Thanks, guys. That's it. :)

Just wow.

I had such a great time writing this story and now it's over. It's been a journey. The first multi-chapter fic to ever be finished by me, and it's even CM and, to be honest, it was tough, it was really difficult at times, but I did it and I wanna thank you for joining me :)

All the little mails I got through all this time, I still have saved them in my folders :D It's just overwhelming to see, that you like it. And I just imagine this stuff in my head, I'm watching a movie in my fantasy and I like it so much, that I try to form it into words, enjoyable chapters, so you can see it, too. It's just great.

Especially the author alerts/faves make me squeak, cause, you know, it's like you put faith in me that I'm capable of creating other, good stories and I hope to not fail your expectations!

My next plot bunny isn't grown up yet, but it's even more Reid-centric and involves a burning apartment, getting shot and other mysterious stuff~ Hopefully see you then :)

Love, Lexa