A/N: Hello readers! If you are just now clicking on this story - it's the second part in a series I'm working on currently, and you can read the first part here - fanfiction s/9622414/1/The-Last-Victim
If you are back for more Zoe/Reid goodness, thanks so much for continuing this with me! I hope you enjoy what I have so far, more fluff, romance, and loveeee to come. Please review and let me know if you like where the story is going. Rating may change as story goes on, but I will warn you before hand! Also, pictures of Zoe's apartment can be found on my profile, where there will also very soon be links to fanart of Reid and Zoe! Thanks for reading!
"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own." - Robert A. Heinlein
3 weeks later
Zoe Martin stretched out on her new bed, rubbing her eyes. She blinked up at the strange ceiling, not yet familiar. She grinned, thinking of the night before. She rolled over, checking the time on her phone. It was only 6 in the morning. What on earth had woken her up?
She sat up, tucking the sheet around her. She climbed out of her bed, wiggling her toes on the carpet that covered the hardwood floor. She carefully crept towards the double doors that led into the rest of the apartment, and opened them quietly.
In the living room, Spencer was searching for something. He wore a checkered shirt and a thin tie, and a pair of boxers. She giggled, leaning against the door frame and watching him.
"Pants?" he asked, looking slightly bewildered. She laughed, and turned back into her bedroom. She scanned the room, and saw them, hanging over the television in the corner. She returned to the living room and tossed them to him. "Thank you." he said, hopping to put them on. "I'm really sorry, it's just, there's a string of abductions in Texas and they're was just another one last night, and we have to fly out in like an hour, and we haven't even had a chance to go over the case, really." he said quickly.
Zoe grinned at him, watching as he checked and double checked he had everything in his bag. Finally, he turned to her and smiled.
"I'll see you soon," he said, and was gone. Zoe walked towards the door, leaning against the back of the couch. Less than a minute later, the door reopened.
"I knew you'd remember." she said to Reid.
He reached for her face carefully, kissing her gently. "Thank you for last night." he whispered.
"Thank you." she said, smiling up at him. "Now go catch some bad guys."
With a final kiss, he was gone for good.
On the plane, Spencer was having trouble concentrating. His mind reeled from flashes of images from the night before - Zoe's lips on his neck, his hands dwindling across her skin, the sweet laugh and her careful words that sent chills down his spine as he thought about it.
"Reid. Reid!" a voice pulled him from his daydream. He looked up, surprised to see the entire team watching him, perplexed. Hotch looked irritated.
"I'm sorry, I sort of got distracted. What did you say?"
"You're on victimology." Hotch repeated, and Reid nodded, looking back down at the file. He felt someone's eyes on him, and glanced up at JJ, who was watching him with an arched brow. She gave him a knowing, and slightly scolding, look.
"We've got 5 missing children, all boys of the same age, same race, same hair color. None of them have turned up, and right now, we're acting as if they're all still alive."
"Were they all taken from schools? Or playgrounds, is the site of abduction varying?" Morgan asked.
"It varies. The first two boys were taken from playgrounds, one from a grocery store, another from the front yard of his daycare, the last, and most recent, from his home, in the middle of the night."
"He's escalating."
"What if it's not a he?" JJ asked.
"Well, images of the first two boys have just popped up on child porn sites, so we'll be working with the local PD as well as The Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Garcia is working on pinpointing the location of the images. JJ and I will meet with the families, Morgan, I want you and Reid at the abduction sites, Emily and Rossi can start a preliminary profile with what the PD has."
After she got another two hours of sleep, Zoe awoke again. Her bed still smelled like Spencer, her sheets, her skin. She slipped on a tshirt and hurried to the kitchen, starting a pot of coffee. She bounced on her tiptoes, trying to wake herself up. The apartment was still looking unlived in, everything was new to her, foreign and strange. There hadn't been a lot to salvage from the fire, but she had saved some slightly charred family photographs, two paintings from Brazil, some small household items, like a mug Zoe loved, and a few books.
Starting over hadn't been so terrible, she got to pick out all new furniture, a shiny sleek new laptop, dishes and curtains. Not a day went by, though, where she remembered yet another thing she still needed to buy. As she slipped into the bathroom, she realized she still didn't have a toothbrush holder, and the small plastic cup had fallen over in the middle of the night.
She'd ended up buying one of the apartments from the list Spencer had given her. It was beautiful, airy, with hardwood floors and huge windows that looked out over the cityscape. She hadn't ever really felt something was just hers, but now she did.
She took a quick shower, and dressed in some of her new clothes. That was maybe, just maybe, her favorite part about the entire thing. She could finally retire her mom's ratty old hand-me-downs and thrift store pick ups, and afford something she looked pretty in. Since her job allowed her to be pretty casual, also since most of her work had been in field or in lab lately, she picked out a green blouse and a pair of slacks, and tied her hair up into a nice ponytail.
She poured a cup of coffee and settled down on the couch, pleased with the moment of peace. When she sat down though, her elbow hit something hard. She turned around, lifting a throw pillow, and founds Reid's laptop in the cushions. She laughed, knowing since he only ever used it for email, it probably wouldn't be a problem that he forgot it. She opened it up, to make sure it was powered off. The screen blinked on, and up popped Spencer's email. She was just about to close the window, when a notification popped up in the right hand corner.
3 unread IMs
'Don't snoop." she told herself internally. A snippet of one of the IMs had popped up as well, a preview to the message.
"Hey, it's Lila Archer, I'm sure you don't remember me but-"
She chewed on her lip, staring at the name. Why did it sound so familiar? Wasn't she a celebrity or something?
She set the laptop down, powering it off. She couldn't bring herself to read it, even though she wanted to. It was probably work related, and none of her business.
She drank her coffee slowly, keeping a wary eye on his computer.
