Title: The Escapee

Author: Freewrite

Summary: Betrayal can come from any direction, a friend, a family member, a lover, a trusted team mate. It didn't take Ian Doyle long to work out who his betrayer was and convincing Jeremy Wolff to turn on his team was easy. He didn't plan on Emily Prentiss being unbreakable and having the BAU to back her up.

Disclaimer: I don't know any Criminal Minds characters and am not making any money off them.

AN: An AU of the Doyle Arc. Set in season 2 and goes AU from "The Big Game", Reid doesn't get grabbed by Hankel so his kidnap/addiction arc never happens.

I started the bare bones of this story back while I was working on "An Unexpected Life" I've put it away, and pulled it out again so many times I've lost count. At one point I even scrapped massive chunks of it and re-wrote it. I've been cycling between this story, a Stargate/Sanctuary crossover I started back in 2013 and really want to finish and a CM/Harry Potter crossover, then I started binging out on Xena so she and Gabrielle took over my brain for a while. On top of that I've had nowhere near the writing time I did a year ago because of a multi-phase year long project at work.

***WARNING***

This story contains explicit physical and mental torture. Please close now if you do not wish to read. Any flames I receive for this aspect of the story with be used as fuel for my muse!

PART 1

Gideon found the package on the windscreen of his car as he left for work the Monday after the team got back from Georgia. Glancing around he saw nothing out of the ordinary.

Tobias Hankel had left a bloody trail in his wake that the team spent 4 long and draining day's chasing. It had only been by sheer luck that JJ and Reid had escaped him in the fields outside his house. None of them wanted to think about what would have happened had he got his hands on one of them.

Hotch had given them all a 3 day weekend to decompress so when the jet landed at close to midnight the Thursday after Superbowl everyone went their separate ways.

Morgan and Reid were heading straight to Dulles to try and get on the next flights to Chicago and Las Vegas, JJ hadn't decided on whether to head to Pennsylvania or not, Garcia had a gaming marathon, Hotch was planning to hibernate with Jack and Haley, he was heading to his cabin and Prentiss... when asked what she was planning to do she'd shrugged and said sleep.

For a moment he thought he saw a flicker of deceit in her eyes but decided it didn't matter, if she didn't want to share what she did in her off time that was fine with him.

Emily had only been with the team two months, she was smart, had a fairly broad skill set and seemed to have a talent for moulding herself into whatever the person in front of her needed at that moment. At the same time there was a deep empathy that oozed from every part of her.

There was no way she came from a desk job in Chicago. Occasionally Gideon thought of calling her out... but several cases in he no longer cared where she came from. Emily Prentiss was an asset to the BAU and had proved she could hold her own both in the field and around the table.

Sliding the package into his bag Gideon drove the 30 minutes to Quantico.

The bullpen was just starting to come to life as he wandered his way through. Reid was at his desk and the light in Hotch's office was on. If everyone stuck to their habits JJ and Prentiss would be in soon and Morgan would slip in at the last possible moment.

Sitting behind his desk Gideon looked at the plain white package, it was small and thin, bubble wrap protecting whatever was inside. The front had his last name scrawled messily on it, there was no postage or return address.

Definitely hand delivered... pulling his letter opener out of the pen holder he slid the blunt blade into the side and split the edge. Tipping the envelope a plain DVD in an unlabelled case clattered down.

Frowning at the lack of further information Gideon didn't even think about it before he pulled a pair of latex gloves on and then opened the case, turned on his computer and loaded the disk.

After a few moments of his computer clicking and whirring a video opened up and started playing.

A face filled the screen, sunken cheeks, angry blue eyes and several day's worth of stubble adorned the mans face.

"Tell Clyde Easter that if he wants his whore back alive he needs to find Louise Jones and send her home."

The man lifted his right wrist to show a tattoo before stepping back revealing the rest of the room.

Concrete walls and floor, a low backed chair and solid wooden table in the background and in the middle of the screen stood a woman. Dark brown hair brushing halfway between neck and shoulder blades, hands shackled behind her back, dressed only in panties and a tank top, shivering and holding herself tense.

He couldn't see her face yet.

The man walked up to the woman who seemed to be alert but not shying away from him until he raised a hand to run a finger down her spine. The man laughed when she jumped violently at the touch twisting away from it just enough for her face to come into view.

Gideon's stomach clenched and heart raced as he saw the unmistakable features of Emily Prentiss.

Smacking the stop button Gideon ejected the disk and ran out of his office and into Hotch's. He didn't look at the empty desk across from Reid...

Not bothering to knock he slammed the door closed behind him before putting the disk into Hotch's computer.

"This was on my car this morning."

He hit pause when Emily's face came into view.

Hotch reached out, picked up his phone and dialled her cell, when it went straight to voicemail he dialed her home number. When it rang out he was up and out of his chair, striding towards the door. Out in the bullpen JJ and Garcia we're chatting to Reid. There was no sign of Emily or Morgan.

"Has anyone heard from Prentiss since Thursday?"

At their negative response he took a deep breath.

"Something's happened to her… JJ call Morgan, tell him to meet you at her place and check it out. Garcia and Reid my office."

"Hotch?" JJ questioned as she went to Emily's desk to get her spare house key.

"Gideon received a video..." He didn't want to say any more... he already knew they wouldn't find her.

In his office Hotch didn't let Garcia or Reid see anything beyond the man's face or the tattoo.

"You two, find out who this is, find Clyde Easter, Louise Jones and what connection they have to Prentiss."

Once they were alone again Hotch looked at Gideon.

"I need to brief Strauss…" Hotch grimaced as he picked up his phone and called the section chief to brief her. Gideon didn't need to hear it all to know it was an unpleasant conversation.

"Now we need to watch all the way through..."

"I know..." Gideon's hand hovered over the play button "The rest of the team... we keep this from them as long as possible."

Hotch nodded his agreement as Gideon pressed play.

After watching her flinch away from the first touch the man stepped away and waited nearly 20 seconds before approaching her again. This time he ran a finger down her sternum smiling as she flinched again, he stepped back and waited nearly a minute. The only sound was their breathing and his light footsteps.

The third touch wasn't gentle, the slap to her backside eliciting a gasp.

"She can't see him..." Gideon murmured as the man waited directly in front of an unresponsive Emily.

"Or hear him..." Hotch agreed, neither of them knowing how Emily's captor had managed to restrict her sight and hearing without visible equipment or damage.

For the next ten minutes the touches ranged from gentle strokes to rough grabs, hard slaps and once a back hand to the face. The time in between each varying keeping her off balance.

"She's not panicking either, she's tense and scared but she's controlled."

Hotch wanted to look away as the man seemed to have tired of the game, pulled her back to his chest and turned so they were facing the camera. One hand held her flush against him while the other came up to cup her breast, lightly massaging it. Gideon was surprised when she relaxed into the touch which softened the man's grip on her giving Emily enough leeway to throw her head back into his face, bloodying his nose.

Pulling her body away from him she stood still and waited for him to retaliate.

"Did you really think I wouldn't recognise your hands or your stench? Come on Ian... you may as well kill me now cause I'll never give you what you want." Emily Prentiss called out, her voice trembling, Gideon couldn't tell if it was from fear or the cold. A part of him hoped it was fear, the cold would kill her quicker than fearfulness.

Hotch's hand shot out to his desk phone as Gideon hit pause.

"We've got a first name... Ian… let Morgan and JJ know." Hotch didn't let Garcia ask any questions before he hung up the phone and Gideon hit play again.

"Put her in the chair" The man... Ian... growled as he pinched his nose to stem the blood flow.

Two more men appeared from behind the camera, and grab Emily by the biceps dragging her backwards into the chair. Her hands were released long enough to be shackled to the table top. Turning to face the camera Ian gestured for whoever was controlling it to move close to Emily.

The camera was moved to behind so Emily's back was to it… the screen went blank for a moment and when the picture came back the light was slightly different… Emily's back was bare, her tank having been pulled up and over her head and her hair pushed aside. The width and breadth of her back had the same pattern as Ian's wrist drawn on it.

"I'll start nice and easy shall I?" he twirled a scalpel in his fingers and placed it against Emily's skin pushing through the top few layers of pale skin. Bright red blood immediately welled out and started to run down the pale back. Emily barely flinched, her breathing didn't speed up… in fact she seemed to relax even more… Gideon suspected she was letting herself drift away to a place only she could get to, he hoped so and he hoped she could stay there long enough to be rescued.

Whoever trained Emily Prentiss had done a damn good job.

"I told you the whore has no feelings Liam!" Ian crowed as he finished the first leaf without Emily making a sound.

Gideon hit pause and rubbed a hand over his face.

"That's the second time he's called her a whore… she knows his name and he's made sure he can be identified."

Hotch nodded and looked down at the notes he had taken without thinking about it. "And I think we can both agree she was never riding a desk in the midwest."

A gentle knock at the door interrupted before Gideon could answer.

"Sir's…" Garcia poked her head in with her eyes closed not wanting to see what was happening to Emily.

"Come in Garcia, it's paused and turned away."

"So Ian is Ian Doyle former Provisional IRA, former weapons dealer who was arrested by the Italian Police and handed over to Interpol a year ago. I can try and see where he went from there but it would take… something that someone might be a little unhappy about." She paused waiting for them to respond.

"Let's hold off on that for now" Hotch instructed.

"Ok… Louise Jones was Doyles housekeeper. No arrests, she dropped off the grid with her four year old son Declan after Doyle was arrested. I haven't been able to find her yet, I've sent what little I've been able to find to you. Finally Clyde Easter works for SIS… that's all I've got unless once again I do a little something…"

"Anything connecting them to Prentiss?" Gideon looked over the file on Doyle she handed over.

"Not officially…" the tech analyst hedged and continued when both men raised their eyebrows "There's something hinkey about Emily's file. It's too… smooth."

"Smooth like Prentiss never did anything wrong or smooth like it was fabricated?" Gideon watched carefully as Garcia's hands fluttered slightly and her eyes darted stressfully around the room. Both he and Hotch gone through the file with a fine tooth comb and come to the same conclusion. There was nothing specific in there that would raise red flags, it matched exactly what Emily told them but it didn't quite match the woman they were slowly getting to know.

"It's only been a couple of months but… Emily's not the type to sit down and shut up if you get my meaning. I mean the woman makes Sir sound like an insult, surely one of her supervisors would have noticed this before now."

"Thanks Garcia, keep looking for Louise Jones."

Once the tech was out of the room Gideon looked at Hotch and they nodded to each other in agreement to continue.

Pressing play again a second voice came through the speaker.

"She's drifting Ian… if you want to hear her scream you need to break it first…"

"We keep this up long enough she won't be able to hold it and she'll scream anyway"

'No she won't' Gideon thought 'she's too calm… too centered… she's been here before she knows what to expect.'

The second leaf of the clover was completed when Morgan's call came through.

"Hotch man, Prentiss isn't here. The alarm was off and we found an empty syringe in the kitchen and pictures of Prentiss with the word whore written on them strewn everywhere. I've called in the techs to go over the place. Finally there was a guy banging on her door when we got here… claims to be an old friend visiting from London."

"What's his name?"

"Sean McAlister, has an Interpol ID that looks legit"

"Tell him Prentiss was last seen by us Thursday night, we've received a video with demands, then show him the picture of the Unsub."

Hotch and Gideon listened carefully as the information was passed on.

"FUCK!"

"He's calling someone" Morgan murmured before putting his phone on speaker. Muted but understandable

"We're too late, Liam must have snatched her just before Doyle escaped, how the fuck did they know where to find her… Meet me in Quantico and I'll brief them… Fuck classified… it was my case and I'm reading them in… what do you mean Jeremy is missing too… who saw him last… you tell Tsia to get her arse on a plane now…"

The could hear a heaving breath over the line but not much more for several seconds after the phone call ended.

"I need to talk to your bosses."

"JJ" Hotch called through the phone "Bring Agent McAlister back to Quantico, Morgan wait for the crime techs, we'll keep you updated"

Hotch hung up the phone and blew out a breath his eyes trailing back to the frozen video, reaching over Gideon and pressing play.

"Look at her right thumb." Gideon pointed out after several minutes of the only noise coming from the video.

It took a moment for Hotch to see it. The movement was too small to be considered a tap, it was more like Emily was pushing it into the table. After several seconds of watching he realised it was in time with a pulse. Maybe even her own resting heart rate.

"A way to keep her focus off the pain."

"Drop her conscious mind into another place, drift off somewhere she can't be reached… that no one knows about. A garden or a beach, maybe even a mountain side. Somewhere she's safe." Gideon thought back to some of the techniques he'd heard agents were trained with should they be compromised.

"The question is can she stay there long enough to be rescued?" Hotch flashed back to Hankles bathroom.

'I guess… I compartmentalise better than most'

The video flickered in and out skipping time so it was only a matter of 30 second or so before the entirety of Emily's back was a blood covered mess. Doyle hadn't just sliced into her skin but cut a centimeter wide furrow.

The thumb tap was slightly faster and a little more erratic but still going…wherever Emily had gone she was still there.

"Salt the wound…" Ian snarled as whoever was holding the camera moved around so Emily's face was filling the screen.

Another man appeared with a jug full of cloudy water. Gideon could only assume it was heavily salted. Standing he slowly tipped the water over her.

Emily screamed as the screen went black.

END PART 1