Chapter 1: Waiting

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal minds or any of the characters, and make no money with these stories. Please excuse any spelling mistake, as English is not my mother language…

"Do you remember the first time you came into my office?" Hotch's voice resonated abnormally loud in the empty space. "You surely looked terrified when I sent you away…" The man chuckled to himself before falling back into silence. He had barely managed to get a smile off his coworker's face.

"You were a terrifying person…" She muttered a few minutes after that, as though just realizing that he had addressed to her. "It takes a lot of patience and little ego to put up with you…" She added, smiling to herself to make the comment less negative.

When the metallic sound came from the distance, the brunette's head shot upwards in expectation. Aaron Hotchner took the opportunity to take a good look at her. Emily's face was emaciated and pale, the only color coming from the multiple cuts and bruises she had suffered, and the mascara stains on her cheeks. All her make-up was gone, and she looked a little older than normally. Maybe it was the look of fear in her eyes that had made her gain a few years, Hotch thought to himself, now directing his gaze to the door. But apart from blows in the distance, indicating that the unsub was still around, they saw nothing. The door stayed sealed, as it had been for the past twelve hours.

When it was evident that the man would not come back just now, Emily turned her gaze to her superior, trying to utter a weak smile of relief. If possible, Hotch looked even worse than herself. He had been beaten repeatedly and slammed hard around the room.

"How are you feeling?" She asked without thinking, as her eyes lingered on the bruised lip of Aaron Hotchner.

"I'll live."

Emily frowned at his answer. Whenever she had imagined being in that situation, she would never have thought that Aaron Hotchner would be the one keeping the hope high, while she would give up. And yet, the man still thought they would get out of this warehouse alive. As if reading her thoughts, Hotch leaned forward a little, wincing at the pain in his ribs, and said with a posed tone: "They will find us, Emily."

She nodded without saying anything. Her voice was so sore from the repeated shouting. When the man had burst into the room and begun to punch Aaron Hotchner over and over, Emily had stopped breathing all at once. Then the anger had kicked in, making her fight the ropes tying her wrists with full strength and curse at the unsub. It had taken all in all five minutes, which seemed short considering the damage on Hotch's body.

"How is your arm?"

Somewhere in the battle between the two males, Hotch had heard his right arm snap and had cried out in pain at the realization that it was broken. Worse than that, the unsub had not made a single move to untie at least the broken arm, which made every gesture painful for Aaron.

"Bad." He answered, dead-serious. Emily frowned again and closed her eyes, leaning her head against the cool concrete wall.

"How long have we been here, Hotch?"

"I would guess, about a day. It's probably night already…"

Emily suddenly felt light-headed and she had to take in a deep breath to remain conscious. She had not eaten anything in almost two days. She now bitterly regretted that the day previous to their abduction had been so busy that they had not even taken a lunch break. Emily, like all her coworkers, had fed mostly on coffee.

"Stay with me, Emily." Her eyes shot open to meet Hotch's concerned gaze. It was indeed becoming difficult for her to stay awake and alert.

"Hotch, can I ask you a personal question?"

He seemed to hesitate, but didn't break the eye contact.

"I suppose you can, under these particular circumstances…" He shot her a falsely angry look, hoping she would not leak this information to the other team mates. Aaron Hotchner had to remain the distant and imperturbable boss to them.

"Why did you change the plan of action at the last minute?"

Emily's mind drifted back to last night, when Hotch, Derek, Reid and herself had undergone a thorough search of the unsub's farm. They had split up in two teams to cover more ground, as usual. Everything had gone as planned, Morgan partnering with Emily while Reid stayed with Hotch, until the unit chief had called the team to a halt, just when they were about to part. He had insisted for Emily and Reid to switch places, without so much as an explanation.

She snapped back to reality when she realized that a minute had passed without getting an answer from Hotch. He was looking into the distance, his mind lost somewhere outside of this warehouse.

"Hotch?"

"This guy had a thing for brunettes…" His voice trailed off, as he was not quite sure how to phrase it. Emily's tired voice cut in.

"You were worried about me?"

"I was." He said it more naturally than expected. Confessing in such desperate circumstances was far easier than talk when one was sober and physically fine.

"And you thought Derek could not protect me? Or I can't protect myself?"

"Prentiss…" His voice was dangerously back to his normal, bossy tone, and Emily glared at him, although the exhaustion and pain made it difficult to be as convincing as usual.

"Hotch, since we're not even sure to get out of here, can we go by our first names?"

Hotch sighed, locking with his agent's gaze and trying to seem less panicked than he was feeling inside.

"Emily, it was a stupid decision. It just… came out. I wanted to keep an eye on you."

"And that you will."

Both agents jumped in surprise as the estranged voice echoed through the almost empty room. They had not even noticed that the unsub had been standing behind the door, listening to their conversation. Emily held her breath when the door creaked open to reveal the gigantic man who had abducted them. She couldn't tear her eyes away from him, although all her attention was focused on Hotch. She wouldn't bear to see this prick take out his anger on Hotch again.

"We won't beg you, if that's what you're waiting for." Hotch said with a cold voice, hoping his calm would throw the man off balance. "You can kill me but I don't fear you." By experience, Aaron Hotchner knew that showing any weakness was often enough to antagonize the unsub and bring him to kill. He wouldn't give him this satisfaction, and neither would Emily.

"Still think your team of geniuses is going to find you?" The man snorted. Hotch did not answer but looked him straight in the eyes, forcing himself to register every detail of the unsub's face and body language. They would need the detail afterwards – if there was an afterwards.

Hotch's look went from determination to panic when the unsub changed his direction and turned to Emily. The brunette was holding his gaze, throwing flames at him with her eyes. She would have beaten the man into a bloody pulp if it hadn't been for the ropes tying her hands over her head. The unsub kneed down and reached out to caress Emily's cheek, but the woman shrugged away.

"Keep your hands off her…" Hotch hissed, wincing as he tried to loosen the knot around his wrists and hurting his arm in the process.

"True, I have a thing for brunettes…" The man ignored Hotch and talked softly to Emily, grabbing her neck so that she couldn't get away from him again.

"Get away from her! I swear I'll kill you if you don't get away immediately!" Hotch's rising voice was betraying the panic overwhelming him. He seemed to have forgotten his own advice. Hotch's level of panic doubled when the unsub took out a knife that neither of the agents had noticed until then. Emily gasped at the sight, and turned her head away from him.

"Come here, pretty one…" When the unsub put his hands on Emily's waist to pull her away from the wall, her survival instinct kicked in and she began fighting with all she had. Her feet, her elbows, her head… Of course, the knife pressed against her throat kept her from doing too much damage to her assaulter. In the background, she could vaguely hear Hotch's angry – almost desperate – voice. It reminded her of the day Haley died. When Aaron had shared his last conversation with his wife, his voice had a similar edge of panic and sadness as now. In her head, Emily screamed to him to look away, as she lost the battle against the man who was tugging at her trousers.