A/N:I know I said I'd upload yeaterday, but I spent the entire weekend at my friend's house AKA away from my computer...

Here's the chapter, tell me how you like it! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own Leverage or Criminal Minds.

"Andrea Barnes?" Rossi repeated. "You're Andrea Barnes?"

"The one and only," Andrea smiled.

"Apparently not," Rossi muttered. "Do you mind if we came in?"

"I already told you, I did nothing wrong," Andrea said. "I run a legal business, pay my taxes and just trying to end the month. Those murders lately aren't good for business, you know."

"But you closed early yesterday," Prentiss noted.

"Is that illegal?"

"No," she quickly replied. "But, still… makes one wonder."

Andrea looked at the two of them. "I've done nothing illegal," she repeated.

"We know," Rossi said.

"So come in already before anybody sees the Feds on my door," she muttered, hurrying them inside. "We don't open for a couple of hours, so there's no rush for now but I'll need to start prepping the kitchen soon."

"Do you have employees?" Prentiss asked.

"A few," Andrea said. "Two sous-chefs and three waitresses, but usually there are only two other than me in a shift."

"What brought you to opening a restaurant?" Rossi asked.

"I…" Andrea hesitated for a moment before replying. "I'm not from here. Originally, I'm from Belgium, but I got into business with some bad folks over there. I got into some serious debts and had to start working at a restaurant they owned. Apparently, my paychecks involved money laundering."

"They used you," Prentiss said.

"And I didn't see half a Euro out of it," Andrea said bitterly. "Ended up with three years in jail and after I got out… who'd want to hire a criminal? I did some digging and found out that I was born in Illinois, moved here, fixed my accent and started scouting for jobs again. After a year or so, I bumped into an old friend who gave me money – clean, legal money – to start my own place."

"Is he the same person who was here last night?"

"How do you know I had somebody here last night?" Andrea questioned.

"Why else would you close early?" Rossi asked.

"Yeah, he was here last night," Andrea said. "I managed to save up enough to give him back the money he loaned me but he told me to keep it, and less than a month later he called to ask if he could have the place for a couple of hours. Of course I was gonna say 'yes'."

"Could you tell us this friend's name?" Prentiss asked.

"Not unless you tell me why you need it," Andrea said.

"He was supposed to have a date last night with Dr. Spencer Reid," Rossi said. "But Doctor Reid never showed up, did he?"

"So he got stood up," Andrea said. "Happens to everyone."

"Except that a man who introduced himself as Andre Barnes made sure to tell us Reid didn't show up," Rossi told her. "And as I know for sure that Reid had full intentions to arrive on time and well dressed, we were led to believe that he was taken by the same person who had murdered all of the other men lately."

"How do you know all of that?" Andrea asked, fear creeping into her voice. "How can you know Spencer intended to show up last night?"

"Because Dr. Spencer Reid is an FBI Agent in our unit," Prentiss said. "And we believe that the person who pretended to be you was the one who took him – and that he wanted us to know it."

"This is…" Andrea stood up, pacing back and forth nervously. "This is twisted. I… I gotta…"

"We're not asking you to do anything," Rossi said soothingly. "I'll describe to you the man I spoke with, and you'll see if you know who he is. He knows you well enough to know that your friends call you Barney, so you're more than simply acquainted. And…" He hesitated for a moment before adding, "You should probably call your friend."

"I will," Andrea said weakly as Prentiss headed outside to tell the team about the new involvement and Rossi went to the kitchen to fetch some water.

Eliot Spencer was in a secluded warehouse registered under one of his aliases, taking out all of his anger over the events of last night on the punching bag that was hung from the ceiling.

He really thought Spencer forgave him. He really thought he was given another chance. What an idiot he was.

He arrived to Nashville almost immediately after Spencer did, only taking a day to gather his things and inform Nate of his plans before heading out. Barney knew what he was in town for, and agreed to close her restaurant early for the two of them as soon as Spencer let him know what was going on.

He spent hours at the kitchen, slowly making the perfect meal for the two of them, only to have Spencer bail on him. It didn't seem like something Spencer would do, but Eliot supposed he did enough to earn it over the years.

It still sucked.

"Barney, I'm really not in the mood for another pity-talk," Eliot said as he answered the phone call that disturbed his practice.

"Good," Andrea's voice came through. "Because this isn't one."

"Why am I on speaker?" he asked. "And who else can hear me?"

"He knew he was on speaker just from the change in your voice?" the unknown person asked.

"It's a very distinctive change in her voice," Eliot muttered. "Who is it?"

"This is SSA David Rossi from the Behavioral Analysis Unit," the man said.

"BAU, eh?" Eliot asked. "What, Spencer is so busy that he can't come to the phone himself so he sent you?"

"Actually, Agent Reid was kidnapped."

Eliot paused, fear creeping onto him. "What?" he asked. "When?"

"Last night," Andrea replied, and her voice made it clear that she knew what he was thinking. "Don't beat yourself up over it, you couldn't know."

"Where are you at the moment?" Rossi asked.

"Home." That was, if you could call the abandoned warehouse he went to whenever he needed to clear his thoughts 'home'.

"And where is home?"

"A couple of states away," Eliot replied. "Have you got any leads?"

"We suspect that it's the same guy who kidnapped the other men around here," Rossi told him.

"Didn't you catch him?" Eliot asked, unable to keep the accusing tone out of his voice.

"We did, but we didn't catch his partner."

"Okay," Eliot said, still annoyed but somewhat understanding. "Why'd you call me?"

"They've got a description of the guy, but I suck with faces," Andrea said.

"It's a man in his early thirties, short brown hair, around 6'2"," Rossi said. "Does it ring a bell?"

"Actually, it does," Eliot said, surprised. "Barney, remember yesterday morning when we went to buy groceries and there was this guy? The one who said that he's sure that one night with him will 'cure' you?"

"Creepy Steve?" Andrea asked. "He's a bit weird, but he's harmless."

"Apparently not," Rossi muttered. "Thank you for your help, Mr.…?"

"You're welcome," Eliot replied, knowing it wasn't wise to tell a federal agent his name. Not only would it be bad for him, but it would get Andrea and Spencer in trouble, as well.

He hung the phone before Rossi could say anything further, and threw it aside as he looked back at the punching bag, kicking it so hard it flew off his hinges.

Dammit, Spence, he thought to himself. Couldn't anything ever be simple with you?

It felt like he was there for years. Logically, he knew that couldn't be true as he wasn't fed since he was taken and even though his stomach clenched with hunger, it still couldn't be more than a couple of hours, a day at most.

But in the dark room, tied to a chair as he was beaten up until he was close to unconsciousness only for his tormentor to take a break and give him time to recover, it still felt like years.

It didn't take him long to understand that whoever was holding him was working with Jacobs, and that he was the one who took the other victims. That didn't help him, though, as all of the victims were found dead forty eight hours after they were taken, and they have been dead for a couple of hours when found.

If he wasn't mistaken with his calculation of times – and in his current state, it was very likely that he was mistaken – he only had a couple of hours left for the team to find him.

That was, if the team found him. If the team even noticed he was missing. After all, they could just assume his date simply went on well enough for him not to return back to the hotel. They'd surely notice him missing when he didn't show up for the flight, right? He hoped they would.

Thoughts about the date brought him back to thinking about Eliot. When he got out of this place (He refused to say "If", not wanting to let what his tormentor said get to him) he was going to find him and tell him just how much he mattered to him. He started regretting not staying longer at the stable.

The door opened again, and the dark figure came in once more. Spencer closed his eyes, both against the blinding light and in order to prepare himself for what was coming.

The first punch was aimed at his abdomen, immediately knocking the air out of his lungs. The second one hit his already bruised face, and the third had broken a rib that had been previously cracked.

It went on like that for a while, just like the previous times. The first time, Spencer managed to remain calm and collected, but he soon broke and started weeping, begging the man to stop.

He never did.

Suddenly, the man stopped. For a moment, Spencer thought he might have actually listened to his begging, or that he decided to kill him and end with it, and then he heard it. Footsteps.

There were muffled talking, and the man might have understood what was being said but Spencer was in no state to comprehend anything other than the figure in front of him, which suddenly wasn't there anymore and instead put something cold against his throat.

The door opened wide and whoever came in opened the light, causing Spencer to be blinded. He shut down his eyes, not wanting to see the looks on their faces once they saw the state he was in as well as unable to keep them open.

"Steven Johnson!" Morgan's voice called out. "FBI!"

"Put the knife down, Johnson," Rossi's voice ordered, and suddenly the cold feeling against Spencer's throat made sense. "Nothing you do will make a difference any longer."

"I can rid the world of one more of them," the man – Johnson – said.

"And then I'll shoot you to make it even," Morgan said. "Put the knife down."

"Fine," Johnson said. "Hopefully, he'll die anyway. Just like he deserve."

The knife was away from Spencer's neck, falling to the floor and Spencer could hear Morgan reading Johnson his rights as Rossi came closer to him and untied him.

"We need a medic!" he called out, before turning back at Spencer, who managed to open his eyes a crack by then. "How bad is it?"

"Eli," Spencer muttered, the action making his chest throb. "I need… I need Eli…"

"I'll tell Barney to call him, but right now I need to know how bad is it, Reid," Rossi said. "Reid?"

"Cracked… rib…" Spencer somehow managed out. "Probably internal damage… in the abdomen… Everything hurts…"

"It's okay," Rossi told him, pushing Spencer's sweat-soaked hair to behind his ear so he could look at his face properly. "We're here now."

"Eli…" Spencer muttered. "Call Eli…"

Rossi's head turning around to call for a medic again was the last thing he saw before darkness consumed him.

Eliot was slowly losing it. It had been a month since Spencer missed their date, and other than a couple of text messages from Barney, he didn't get any update on the young agent's status.

The first text, only a couple of hours after the initial phone call, was short: They got him. As he requested, she kept him up to date with other short messages. He's in surgery because of internal bleeding. He's out of the danger zone. He's up.

Three days ago came the message he was waiting most for, and yet Eliot couldn't bring himself to act accordingly. He's dismissed.

After that, Eliot threw himself into a frenzy of jobs and training, not allowing himself a second more than his usual ninety minutes of sleep per day, and exhausting himself to the point where he would be too tired to think before he went to sleep.

He could see the odd looks Nate, Sophie, Parker and Hardison gave him, but he didn't care. They didn't understand how he felt. They didn't understand the guilt he felt after being mad at Spencer for hours, only to find out he nearly died.

He didn't even know how he would have felt if Spencer had died.

As they started working the David Job, Eliot started, for the first time since he could remember, worry about what would happen if he didn't get the chance to tell Spencer what he truly feels about him. The job went sideways, his pictures and aliases were sent to every law enforcement agency out there and Eliot at least thanked whatever made him think telling Agent Rossi his name was a bad idea.

The Leverage team parted ways. Eliot went back to the warehouse to care for his cracked ribs and his concussion. He didn't even think to check if there was anybody in there, as a very small number of people even knew about the existence of this place.

He surely didn't expect the person that was in the warehouse to slap him before he had a chance to comprehend the fact that he wasn't alone, and he certainly didn't expect that person to pull him into a hug immediately following said slap.

"I come to see you after spending a month in a hospital without any contact from you or a way to know you were still alive, let alone cared, and I have to see your Headquarters exploding?" Spencer asked. "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Instead of a reply, Eliot leaned back just enough to capture Spencer's lips with his own.