AN: So, not really sure what to make of this chapter... I don't love it, but I also didn't see another way to do this.

well... at least it didn't take months to update this time...

Chapter 9

Reid wasn't the same person he used to be. It was hard to like him now. They all agreed on that: Reid had changed for the worst.

Not his appearance, not at all! He had grown muscular and wasn't that skinny boy anymore. The wild hair was cut shorter and tamed by some hair products and he had a beard. Not that long santa-like beard. But a nicely trimmed beard and it looked amazing on him.

But his character… He still had those moments where they could see the former Reid. The rambling and smiling and those big eyes who displayed every emotion. But mostly he was this distant dude who kept rationalizing the behavior of the man who kidnapped him. He kept trying to push them away and be on his own.

And he had succeeded.

The profilers knew that Reid was heavily manipulated by Johnny, making him paranoid and feeling like he couldn't trust anyone to get close to him –except for Johnny himself.

So they all understood the struggle Reid was going through and that's why they decided it'd be the best if they gave him some space. Garcia was tracking his phone at all times, so they knew if he tried to run.

But no one expected Reid to become the crazy, drug dependent and sleep deprived man with an emotional breakdown.

No one would ever think Reid would have one, except he did. Today.

*Earlier that day*

Nobody wanted to leave Birmingham yet, since Reid was still here. They had already called Strauss and she said they had a week, one week, to get Reid so far he'd come back with them. But if they didn't succeed, they'd have to come back without him.

There were only 3 days left from that week. They had already decided they'd talk to Reid tomorrow about going home with them. They hadn't seen nor spoken to him since their last encounter, 3 days ago.

They were just filling in the remaining paper work about the case. Johnny had been their UNSUB and every living victim had been taken care of.

Most of them were just addicted and food deprived, so they'd be nearly as good as new after they'd leave the hospital after a few weeks. They would physically be healthy again once they gained enough weight. Then they would have to fight the remaining withdrawal and that's it. Their mental health, on the other hand, would be a completely different story. They would need therapy. A lot.

But then there were those who were physically fine. Perfect weight, great muscles and they looked great in general. Except for some old bruising's, scars and broken bones they'd gained from being used by sadistic monsters for sex and torture.
But their mental health was fairly the same with all of them: they were paranoid to the point where they no longer trusted people with things. They were convinced that Johnny had been the only person they could build on, the only person they would ever trust, the only person they needed. They all claimed to be Johnny's best friend and they all had pleasant stories of Johnny, they claimed that he didn't ruin their life's: he'd saved them. Johnny was the savior and rescuer. He was God in their eyes. One or two had been suicidal when they heard that they'd never see Johnny again. A few have sunken into a deep depression and refused to talk and eat. Others would feel sad but keep on living and attend therapy.

It was fairly obvious Reid was one of those people with good physical health, but his mental state of health was… well, like crap.

Morgan had just been thinking about that when his attention was directed on something else, or rather: someone else.

The man who walked into the police department was looking utterly and immensely terrified, shaken up and just generally as if he had seen a ghost.

Morgan was startled when the man started to scream.

"WHERE IS HE?" The moment Morgan heard this he jumped to his feet to go to him. He knew this person. Looking around, he saw that the rest of the team and even some police offers had gathered around the crazy man.

But after one look the whole BAU unit knew; that crazy man was Reid.

"WHERE IS HE? WHERE THE HELL IS JOHNNY?" Reid screamed and cried loudly. Tears were falling down his face and he was pulling at his short hair. The profilers noticed the blood that was very slowly dripping from underneath his sleeves.

Hotch walked a few steps closer to Reid, while motioning to the other people around him to go back a few meters. Everyone complied, feeling very uncomfortable with this man standing in their department. They'd rather have someone else fix this for them.

"Reid? You remember Johnny, right?" Hotch said in the soothing voice he used if his kid was upset.

Reid blinked a few times, causing some tears to fall and clear his blurry vision. He nodded heavily. "Yes… Johnny. Where is he?" he asked, still panicky but not screaming anymore.

"He's in jail, Spencer." Hotch hoped that using his first name would calm him down a bit, but the statement he just made was not calming him down in the least.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO! Johnny is NOT IN PRISON. He does NOT belong there. You need to get him out. You need to bring him to ME." Reid was agitated, to say at the least. He was not pleased with his savior and friend being in jail.

"We can't do that, you know that." Hotch said calmly, looking Reid in the eyes.

Behind Hotch, the team was watching in utter suspense. Neither one of them wanted to believe that this was Reid. That this was their sweet, caring, selfless, genius baby boy Reid. The smart and young man that had had such a big part in catching killers and has been a huge part of their life's, until he disappeared. No. Not disappeared; taken away from them.

J.J.'s eyes were slowly filling with tears, while Morgan stood completely frozen in shock. Prentiss was speechless and felt sad that someone had corrupted their dear friend so much. Garcia was silently crying and watching this going on in horror, while Rossi was calling for help in a different room.

Every single one of them knew that people would do crazy things when they felt there was no other way. But every single one of them was shocked when Reid pulled a knife out from under his sleeve. The knife had some blood on it, from where Reid had accidently cut himself while keeping the knife hidden.

Reid was not thinking clearly. He'd gone onto the streets in search for some drugs, but not one drug could give him the effect he wanted: to forget.

So he started to use a few of them, mixing them together while it was streaming through his veins.

Mixing different kind of drugs is dangerous, but so was the man who used them.

He pointed the knife at Hotch, silently telling him to get Johnny. Hotch looked at the knife and was thinking furiously on how to fix this. He knew that Reid was under the influence of something, but he didn't know what or how dangerous it made him.

Reid felt his voice crack and his words got stuck in his throat. He stopped speaking and looked like he wanted to die. Hotch knew this kind of behavior, he'd seen it with UNSUBS before.

Fight or Flight, but if nothing worked they'd try to commit suicide. Not because they wanted to die, but because they saw no other solution to their temporary problems.

A gambling problem, in debt, facing jail time, losing their home or some close friend or family member. Everybody reacts differently to those kind of things; one starts killing, the other falls into a deep depression, the other just sees it as his lowest point and knows he can fix it.

The other commits suicide.

So when Reid looked at Hotch with pleading eyes that screamed 'sorry', he knew. He ran up to Reid just as he was about to slash his wrists.

Unfortunately, he was too late.

Blood was falling on the floor and Hotch immediately took off his suit jacket, wrapping it around his wrists while Reid just looked at him. He screamed for help and the others came rushing towards them.

When Rossi came back he saw Reid laying in blood with the team screaming orders.

He had called 911 before, saying he'd needed someone to sedate Reid.

Luckily for him the ambulance was already on his way. Just not to sedate him, but to save a life.

So when the ambulance was there within minutes, the team was very surprised they were here so quickly.

The paramedics rushed over, not saying a word about the different kind of job they had to do now. They started working quickly and heaved an unconscious Reid onto a stretcher and into the ambulance.

It all went so quickly, none of them really knew what had happened. Well, they knew, but didn't register it completely. It had to sink in.

Morgan hopped into the ambulance with them and they drove to the hospital with blaring sirens. The team following while doing exactly the same.