spencer reid

"what the hell happened? where is she, spencer?"

casey storms into the station, her face red with anger and tear stains down her cheeks. a stone faced adrian following in behind her, still in his dress blues, leading me to the conclusion that he must've just returned home. quite the warm welcome, finding out that your best friend had been taken by an obsessed stalker.

"casey. hey. calm down. this isn't going to help anyone." justin says, stepping in front of her and keeping her from stomping any further.

"i told you guys that he was obsessed with her. you knew it was him! yet you did nothing and now my best friend is gone!" she sobs, wriggling in justin's hold.

"casey please. you know how this works. we can't just bring him in. we needed proof." i sigh, shaking my head at the angry woman in front of me.

"well. she's gone. is that enough proof for you?" adrian scoffs, taking casey from justin's arms.

"we all want to bring jupiter home. and all of this anger isn't going to help her. right now, we need everyone working together." hotch explains.

adrian's eyes shift between me and hotch, then nods his head.

"whatever you need." he says, and i let out a breath that i hadn't realized i was holding.

"we're going to need some information on colin. any information you have at all would be great help. absolutely nothing is insignificant. ms. leland, corporal, if you'll please." rossi says, gesturing them towards the briefing room.

casey walks ahead of me, not taking the moment to look at me. i turn to follow the team into the room when somebody grabs my arm. i turn to see adrian staring me harshly in the eyes.

"if she dies, i'm killing you first. and i'll happily go to prison for that." he spits harshly, and i shake my head.

"she won't die. i can promise you that. jupiter is our family. none of us will let up until she's back home."

his eyes bear into mine and he sighs, nodding his head.

"her and casey are the only family i've got. i didn't mean what i said. i know you love her. but they're all i've got, man. my family is gone, her and casey are all i have now. y-you gotta bring her home." he pleads, his voice wavering slightly.

"i know, adrian. i know. don't worry, we're going to bring her home alive."

"reid! come on!" morgan yells out to me, waving us into the briefing room.

"let's go save our girl." adrian breathes out, retucking his hat under his arm and walking into the room.

"my girl." i mumble, before following into the room.

as soon as the door shuts, everyone takes a seat around the table, adrian wraps his arm around the poker faced girl and she leans her head on his shoulder.

"first things first, i want everyone in this room to know right now that i don't give a damn about protocol. but we make this arrest legally. we don't want to leave a single window of opportunity. we bring her home, and we lock him up. is that understood?" hotch says, eyeing the agents in the room.

we all mumble our agreements, and he nods at us.

"alright, morgan get garcia on the line. get her to track recent purchases, phone records, land under his name, anything at all." hotch points out and emily turns to casey and adrian.

morgan whips out his phone, dialing garcia and placing the phone onto the table.

"give me something to do here, baby." she sighs through the phone.

"we need you to look into colin hugh. recent credit card transactions, land titles, phone records. anything and everything."

"you got it. give me a second."

"thanks, babygirl."

the phone clicks and one of the officers opens the door, poking his head in.

"guys...you've got mail." he says, holding a small envelope in his hand.

i push myself off the wall, grabbing the envelope and ripping it open. taking out the small piece of binder paper and opening the note.

"nothing seems to be lasting, but that isn't your affair. we've got something permanent. i mean in the way we care. it's very clear our love is here to stay." i read out, scoffing as my jaw clenches.

"he's taunting us." jj says, grabbing the note from my hands.

"that was the song." casey mumbles quietly, her eyes darting back and forth as she begins to rack through the thoughts in her mind.

"what?" emily asks, taking the seat next to her and placing her hand gently on casey's arm.

"that was the song they sang for the final. the jazzy romance song that made him think she fell in love with him. it was...it was one of her favorites. the first song she ever got on record." she chuckles softly, more tears falling down her cheeks as she hastily attempts to wipe them away.

a faint smile graces my lips as i recall the first time i had ever gone through her record collection. i was astonished at the amount of classics she had collected. she had nearly thrown me out of her apartment when i touched the record with my dirty hands. i had left faint fingerprints over the grooves and she almost screamed, ripping the record out of my hands and wiping it clean. morgan quickly interrupts my memories with the sound of his phone ringing out.

"it's garcia. talk to me, babygirl."

"okay so it looks like he's the most average person on the universe. his mom died about a year ago and his dad has been m.i.a. since the birth. no siblings and from what i can tell, they weren't in touch with their extended family much after colin turned 16. there was nothing abnormal on the phone records. but i did catch something off in his bank records."

"what is it?" i ask, taking a seat in front of the phone on the table.

"umm...reid are you sure you want to-"

"i'm fine, garcia. just want to bring my fiancee home. help me do that." i sigh, leaning my elbows onto the table.

"right...so, four days days ago. hugh received a huge payment from the banks. by the looks of it, it's seeming like he sold what used to be his home and it looks like he most recently sold his car. then he cashed out about 3/4 of that and spent the rest. really went on a shopping spree with it. he spent a total of about a little over a thousand dollars at different women's clothing stores. then he bought a um...an engagement ring."

i clench my jaw tightly, rubbing the edge of my jaw as i scoff. i push away from the table i was leaning on and hotch leans in towards the phone morgan had placed on the table.

"look into properties and cars recently purchased in cash within a 100 mile radius. it won't be easy considering cash is virtually untraceable. if you could somehow get the serial numbers from the bills given to him by the bank then you could track them that way. but without a warrant i'm not sure if-"

"screw the rules. i've done far more illegal things in the past and i'll do them again for her." she spits out, the keys clacking in the background before the call ends.

"guys, look at this. there's a postal date on this envelope...he sent this out before my brother even called you." julien says as he looks over the envelope.

i stand up from the chair, bringing my hand to my mouth and biting on the edges of my fingers. my brows furrowed as i came to the realization that he left these breadcrumbs on purpose. jupiter was always meant to figure this out. we were meant to come here.

"he was killing those girls on purpose. he knew we'd come here. he knew we'd be called in. he knew jupiter would figure out things that would lead us right to him. he created his own profile...and we brought her right where he wanted her."