Hi! Thanks to all those who reviewed the first chapter! They definitely encourage me to write and I love getting them, however brief.

Warnings for this chapter: Mentions of physical and sexual abuse.


JJ and Garcia sat at Spencer's bedside. They filled the room with brightly colored bouquets and stuffed animals, Get Well cards and boxes of chocolates, trying to bring some happiness and comfort in to an otherwise horrific situation.

Spencer still hadn't shown then any signs he was alive, remaining completely motionless while the nurses came in twice a day; pushing needles in, pulling tubes out, draining bags and redressing his wounds. His head was wrapped in bandages, but the matted hair that fell down past his shoulders had been neatly trimmed by Garcia on the second night. On the third, JJ has carefully shaved his face and cleaned the dirt out the corners of his eyes, ears and nose.

On the morning of the fifth day, Garcia sat knitting Spencer a purple scarf, while JJ read to him from his favourite book. All the years Spencer had been missing, Rossi had made sure his rent was paid, and the apartment was kept in good condition. On one of her many visits to Spencer's, JJ had sat on his bed and found herself poking through his night stand drawers, desperately looking for something to show her he'd once been there, searching for something tangible to hold on to. She had found a very worn copy of Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales', and as she opened the book, she found it had been annotated by a very young Spencer. He must have seen his mother's lecture notes, and wanted to make his own. She followed the arrows, read the chicken-scrawl inscriptions over and over, and traced the doodles with her fingers. She'd held on to the book ever since. She told herself that taking his things wasn't any indication that she believed he wouldn't ever need them again.

It was only on the eighth day that Morgan went to see Spencer. He'd wanted to go in on day one, but when he found JJ hunched over the trash can, and she'd told him what state Spencer was in, he hovered outside the door and couldn't bring himself to go inside. The day they'd found Spencer, it had all been a blur. He remembered the blood, and the dirt, and strangely, how much younger Spencer looked. But he couldn't remember seeing the true extend of his injuries. He'd spent the morning on the phone to the CSI's and apparently, there had been 23 bodies stacked up in the basement, too. He couldn't even remember seeing them.

As Morgan walked into Spencer's room with Hotch and Prentiss and saw what had become of his friend, he made sure to control his anger. He stuck his hands into his jacket pocket and clenched them around the material closest to his skin. What Morgan did notice, was that Spencer's blindfolds and whatever had been stuck inside his ears had been removed. The man - the boy - was pale as hell. Gaunt. Sick. Morgan dug his fingernails in deep to stop himself from tearing the wall apart.

He sat down next to Garcia and watched Spencer for a moment. His mouth is slightly open, and Morgan couldn't help but see that his teeth were in good condition. Without thinking, he pointed it out.

"Well I guess we should be thankful to this 'Z' for letting him brush his teeth then!" JJ said sarcastically. Immediately, she was livid. "He's had 112 seizures since Wednesday, Derek. This morning his urine bag was full of blood." She looked to Hotch, but her tone didn't change. "How the hell are we going to catch this guy?"

"Strauss has another team working the case." Hotch replied. "Skeletal remains of 23 people have been recovered from inside the farmhouse. They think they'll most likely find the 17 missings among them."

"But why keep Reid in a box?" Prentiss pressed. She'd spent the first two days crying with JJ and Garcia, but she was all business now. Reid needed her head in this. "All the other victims were thrown into piles".

"They clearly didn't matter as much to the Unsub."

"So what's he doing? Tryin' to send a message to law enforcement? A big 'Look What I Can Do?"

"It seems excessive. To keep someone for that long? I don't know, Morgan. Killing him -"

"STOP!"

They all fell silent and turned to look at Garcia. Her purple scarf lay crumpled on the ground and she had stood up from the chair, hands on hips.

"This is not the BAU, this is a hospital!" She cried, "You don't get to talk like that in here! Reid is recovering, and you don't know if he can hear you, so you don't get to talk like that in front of him!"


After Garcia's little outburst, Morgan and Prentiss went back to work. Spencer was being well looked after, and they refused to wait around and give some other team the satisfaction of nailing this 'Z' to the wall.

They stood in the Crime Scene Unit wearing heavy toxic masks, examining the box Spencer had been held in. It was home-made, but sturdy. Painted black, and just long enough and deep enough to fit Spencer in. The bottom was lined with blue tarpaulin, covered in blood and excrement and rotting at the centre. Morgan imagined Spencer's skin stuck to the bottom of his prison, and wondered how the kid had avoided serious infection. He thought back to Reid's teeth.

This 'Z' must have taken him out occasionally. But why? What was he doing with him?

Morgan pretended he didn't already know the answer.

The box was almost empty, save for a broken watch and a leather jacket that to Morgan, looked oddly familiar. Prentiss lifted the items and sealed them into an evidence bag.

"His head was up this end." Morgan said, and stuck his finger through a small hole. "This must have been where the feeding tube went."

"EMT's just ripped them out, we can't be sure." Prentiss added. She pulled at the bottom of the box, and it slid towards her.

"Slide out the bottom, replace the mat." Morgan said.

Prentiss sighed and shook her head.

"Just like cleaning a hamster cage."


It takes two weeks of constant bedside vigil; of Chaucer, home-made stuffed rabbits and one-sided conversations, before Spencer finally opens his eyes.

Garcia was away a coffee run, and JJ was dozing in the chair when a noise made her jump. Having a four year old, she was conditioned to take notice of phantom sounds in the night.

Sitting up, JJ's eyes immediately went to Spencer. He was awake, and staring up at the ceiling with tears in his eyes. At first, she thought she was dreaming - the doctor didn't expect him to wake up for another week - but even so, she frantically pressed the 'call' button, and leant over Spencer.

"Spencer. Spence? It's JJ..."

He reacted immediately, desperately trying to push away the blankets and pull tubes from his face with his withered hands. Disoriented and weak, JJ was easily able to restrain him until the nurse rushed in.

JJ watched as the nurse took over, standing over Spencer and holding him tightly around the shoulders.

"Mr. Reid, you're in a hospital!"

He repeated the same words over and over, and didn't seem to notice how scared and confused Spencer was. Spencer has just come out of a coma, they had no idea how long it had been since he had seen or heard anything, the last thing he needed was a man twice his size shaking him about and screaming in his face. When the nurse finally let go, Spencer stared at him for a long time, completely frozen. JJ wondered if he thought he was coming face-to-face with his captor for the first time, and she pushed the nurse out of the way, hoping to replace Spencer's terror with a friendly face.

JJ offered him a smile, but she wasn't sure what to say to him. "Hey Spencer, you were locked in a box for four years, physically and sexually abused and now you have a brain injury - but it's all gonna be okay!" He wasn't anywhere near 'okay', and he probably wouldn't be for a very long time. And she refused to lie to him.

"Spence.." She started, but she didn't have to continue. She watched his eyes close as he fell back to sleep.


Please leave a review :)