Chapter Eight

Somewhere Else
JJ

They had been concerned when they got the note after breakfast on day eight. They had no way of knowing what more the Unsub wanted. "What do you want?" Spencer had asked.

No reply.

But nothing changed, the power stayed on, the small stove kept pumping out a pleasant heat, eventually they settled back down. Another note came after dinner. This time JJ asked and got no reply.

On day nine the notes came after every meal. Spencer said he thought the handwriting was growing progressively more frustrated.


No, no. NO!

"No!" JJ sat bolt upright in bed, screaming.

"Shhh," once again Spencer pulled her back down into him. "Tell me."

"Henry," she managed to gasp out, still shaking. "The Unsub took Henry. He was taking Declan and Jack and he pulled Henry away and said that was what he wanted."

"Shhh, Henry's not here. He's safe with Will. Go back to sleep."

On day ten, as the stacked their dinner plates in the drawer JJ looked over at Spencer. "Think we'll get another note?"

"Probably, but it's not going to help unless he gets more specific."

Appease the Unsub, she knew, and try to learn from his behavior. Profile him, it was how to survive. But so far they didn't have much to go on simply from the lack of contact. All they knew was that he provided them with excellent food, which he expected them to eat. Simple enough, but now… sure enough, the drawer pulled into the wall, there was the tinkle of the plates being removed, and then the drawer came back. Give me what I want. "We can't give you what you want!" She cried out in frustration.

"JJ!" Spencer was sitting over on the bed, his back against the wall. He clearly did not want her antagonizing the Unsub. And he was probably right,

With a frustrated sound she went and dropped down next to him. "I just don't know what to do, Spence. I'm worried about Henry and I don't know why the team hasn't found us yet, and I just…."

"I know." He put his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in. It wasn't the first time, over the days locked in, sharing a bed, a small space, they had become more physically comfortable with each other. Hell, she felt far more comfortable cuddling with Spencer than she ever had with Will. Now it seemed like the most natural thing to rest her head against his chest and listen to his heart's strong and steady beat.

A moment later that beat jumped as the door to the bathroom slid shut on its own. They could hear a latch click closed. Spencer immediately got up and tried it. "I didn't even know he could do that." He admitted.

"Yeah, we're never closing it all the way again. What is he doing?"

Spencer looked like he was going to answer when the small sink turned into the wall and was locked there. He looked at that, at the bathroom, and back at her. "No water." He pointed out.

"Why not just shut the water off like last time?" She asked.

JJ and Spencer both jumped again when the drawer whapped open. She slid off the bed and went over to look. "Water," she said, holding up the two liter-sized bottles of a common brand. "I think they're still sealed. And envelopes." She took both and went to sit on the bed, handing one bottle and the one labeled "Spencer" over when he joined her. There was something small and hard in hers. She ripped open one end, checked for a note, and not finding one poured the object out into her hand. It was a pill, maybe the size of an aspirin tablet, a cheery yellow with a smiley face imprinted on one side. "Does he…expect me to take this?" There was no way she was going to take a strange pill, not a chance.

"I don't know." He looked disturbed, she thought, and like the gears in his head were going a hundred miles an hour. "But that explains the toilet and sink, he doesn't want you sneaking off to flush it and saying you took it."

"What is it?"

"I don't know."

She looked down at the envelope still in his hand. "What's in yours?"

He looked down himself and then opened it. As he sat there looking at the contents she saw his eyes start to twitch back and forth, the first sign of his mind making one of those amazing leaps, where all of a sudden he connected every oddball thread of a case into one cohesive narrative that made total sense. But rather than speak he lifted his head and looked around the room. "Where's my wallet?"

"Um, in your bag, I think." It was a small room; they had been forced to be tidy to give them any floor space. As she watched him he went to his bag, rooted until he found his wallet and then upended it onto the floor. Cash and coins, cards, receipts, a spare key or two, all the usual debris of a man's wallet fell out. But he was clearly missing something. He crouched down, sorted through all of it, practically turned the wallet inside out, and then sorted through it again. "Spence, what is it?"

When he looked up and met her eyes he had clearly made the genius leap, that wonderful moment when it all came together for him and made magic. But he also looked scared, very scared. "JJ, I know what he wants."

Oh, she thought. Oh. "What?"

He reached into the envelope he had been given, and pulled out what was there. It was a pack of blue pills, four of them, still sealed in the factory package.

"What are they?" She asked.

He turned it to show her the back.

The label clearly read Viagra.

Oh boy.