Seeing him back at the roundtable was a sight I didn't realize I missed so much. The rest of the team was filling him in on everything else going on, discussing another house that Lindsey was working out of.  He had a tight grip on my hand the entire time. Spencer had always been touch starved. Ever since we started dating, he would always try and keep as much contact with me as possible. I knew that it was gonna be damn near impossible to spilt him from me any time soon.

When the team started to disperse, Emily stopped us and closed the door. "I need you two to take Brent and head over to his house. See if there's anything you can spot in your mom's room."

"But I'm not reinstated."

"You are a family member of the resident." He nodded as she went off with the rest of the team.

Spencer went to stand in front of the door, but stopped and didn't open it. Right then, I realized how deep his trauma was. He still thought he couldn't open doors himself. I knew I'd have my work cut out for me, but I would gladly keep reassuring him everyday that he was safe and no longer in that prison. I reached my hand up and ran it across his back.

"Sweetie, it's open."

"Right." He quickly snapped out of it and opened the door. As we made our way to get my dad, his hand went right back into mine. And we couldn't go without Delilah having to give her dad one more big hug.

In the car, everyone was pretty quiet.  I could tell Spencer's thoughts were running a mile a minute. If I was in his place, I know I would be overthinking too. I'm sure he had the weight of the world on his shoulders right now.

When we pulled up to the house, I flashed my badge and they let us all in. Spencer started to look around the room, halting once he noticed the scrapbook. "What is it, Spence?"

"This photo was on a different page." He picked up the photo and flipped it over. Written in red was 'XX-XY', the chromosomes for a man and a women. "What do you think it means?"

"Probably to let us know Lindsey and Scratch are working together."

Once we dropped my dad back off at the office, we got a video from Emily. It was what they found at the house they stormed. What we weren't expecting was who the video would be from.

It was none other that Cat Adams. An unsub that forced Spencer to tell everyone about his mother's alzheimer's. He wanted to tell them on his own terms, but she just had to get into his head and make him miserable.

In the video, she talked about how her and Lindsey were impersonating Scratch and that Spencer would have to go see her if he wanted his mom back. Once it finished, he put his head in his hands and started to breathe heavily. I quickly pulled him into an empty room and locked the door. He slid down the wall as his legs gave out from under him.

I sat next to him, letting him know that I was still here if he needed me. After a moment, he reached out for me and pulled my into a hug. I tried my best to continue to comfort him until we were interrupted by a text from Emily. She was letting us know that we needed to head to the jet soon.

He looked up at me with worry in his eyes. I knew I had to give him one hell of a pep talk in order to get him off of this floor.

"Spence, I know that there is nothing I could say or do that would take away the pain you're going through right now. You shouldn't have to do this, but sadly, we have to. Trust me, if I could, I would send you home right now and not have you worry about a thing besides what you and your daughter are going to talk about tonight. But you're doing this for your mom, and I know that's your top priority. Just know I'm gonna be right there with you and that you have one of your biggest cheerleaders in the other room if you need her. Just know that it's gonna be okay and I'll be there for you if things start getting rough."

He gave me a smile and placed a short, but sweet kiss on my lips. "Thank you. I love you."

"Love you, too. Now let's go get your mom back."

We got up and made our way to the jet. He was still anxious, but I could tell that what I said helped. Once we landed, I could tell being back in a prison made him more on-edge. The grim atmosphere and the metal bars was something he thought he just escaped and now he has to endure them yet again for a little while longer.

In other terms, this fucking sucked.

We made our way outside of the interrogation room and saw her waiting on the other side of the glass. She had a smug look on her face, like she had no clue just how seriously she messed up.

Spencer had his eyes closed, trying to calm himself down as much as he could. I grabbed his hand and he looked over at me.

"I'll be right here the whole time, okay?"

He nodded and we made our way into the room. Her face lit up when she saw him walk into the room, a devious smile flashed in our direction.

"Spencie!"

"Where's my mother? What did you and Lindsey-"

"Nope. That's not how this works. You don't get to walk in here and talk to me like I'm a criminal, because I'm not."

I knew that it was going to take a lot of restraint on my part to stop myself from hurting her. She may act all high and mighty and that she's done nothing wrong, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

She kicked out the chair across from her as a way of asking him to sit. I could already tell he was pissed. His shoulders were tense and he was looking at her with a hint of anger in his eyes.

"So, how was prison?"

"Awful. But unlike you, I didn't deserve to be there."

"What did you do to keep yourself sane?" she smirked.

"I did laundry, played chess, read."

"And that's what, 3-4 hours? What about the other 20? You need to go somewhere, up there," she gestured to her head, "to keep yourself sane."

She leaned forward and reached her hand out. "No touching," I heard myself say sternly, stopping her in her tracks. She just rolled her eyes at me and then focused her attention back on Spencer.

"I want you to close your eyes and lean back in your chair." He let out a sigh and did what she asked, slouching back in the cold metal chair. "Now when you open your eyes, I want you to look at me like I'm the first women in three months."

I had no clue what she was getting at, but I knew that Spencer would play along in order to get his mother home safe and sound. He opened his eyes and he looked a little calmer. "You're here!" Cat exclaimed. I assumed that she had some fantasy going on in her head where they were in a nicer setting and looked more presentable.

"Hello, Cat."

"I'm glad you're here."

"There is nowhere else I'd rather be."

Now if she really knew Spencer like I did, she'd know that's bullshit. I'm sure he wants nothing more right now than to be at home in our bed and reading Delilah to sleep. He doesn't want to be here, in this cold and desolate prison, with a crazy psychopath. 

"Is it the same game as last time? I answer all of your questions truthfully?"

She shook her head. "This one's different. We're gonna find out exactly what kind of man you are. You are going to have to share a secret, but I know what that secret is. You can ask me as many questions as you want to figure it out, but you can only have one guess as to what the secret is."

"If I get it right?"

"I'll call our friend Lindsey and she'll let your mom go unharmed. But if you're wrong..." Cat made a gun with her fingers and put them in her mouth. She then imitated shooting herself. It was pretty gruesome to think about.

"But before we start, you need to send the old 'ball and chain' outside."

I didn't want to leave him alone in there with her, no way. He looked back at me sympathetically. "It's okay," he said in a soft tone. In order for this to work, I knew that I had to do what she said. It's not like I wouldn't be in the building, I'd be on the other side of the glass, listening the entire time. I nodded at him and walked outside.

Cat gave me a wave as I walked out. I desperately wanted to respond with a rude hand-gesture, but now wasn't the time. 

Once I was out of the room, they started to prepare for their game. Cat took the watch on his wrist. That watch was a Christmas present I got him one year and I really hated seeing her dirty hands all over it. 

"Can I get a hint as to what the secret is?"

As she was waiting for the second hand to come around to start their four hours, she looked back up at him.

"It's a secret you're never going to admit to."

I went to start my own timer, wanting to be on top of this situation as much as I possibly could. I just hoped these four hours would go by quickly and we could get this done easily. For Spencer and Diana's sake, I just hoped this wouldn't get too messy. But I was pretty powerless in that moment. All I could do was hope. Hope for a good outcome and hope that I'll be able to bring him some peace."

"Go!"

Two updates in one day, hell yeah! I also made the title of this chapter a Saw reference if anyone noticed. I've recently been marathoning them. The movies are so shitty that they're enjoyable. But we've finally met Cat Adams! Yay!