Disclaimer: Criminal minds does not belong to me! Thank you all so much for all your support – you're all fabu-loooooous! Haha!

Penelope Garcia felt like a massive failure. She was supposed to be the best at her job, work her magic fingers and everything would get sorted. But how did she miss something so big? She went through Cora's history, raked through everything; her school reports, card transactions, medical history, even ran her name through the FBI database and nothing alarming had come up.

She dabbed her eyes and JJ sent her a sympathetic look.

"It's not your fault Pen that this happened, and I'm sure Spence didn't mean to be so snappy with you" She said, rubbing her shoulder and Penelope shook her head. Spencer hadn't been too snappy with her, he just wanted to find out what was going on with his sister and that she understood, she just felt angry with herself that she hadn't found out earlier and avoided all this.

"It's just – I checked, and checked, and checked… maybe if I had checked harder none of this would've happened" She sniffled and Morgan wrapped his large arm around her shoulders.

"Baby girl stop blaming yourself…none of us knew" He comforted, "How about I'll buy you a hot chocolate and then we can put those tasty fingers to work eh?" He said, bumping her shoulder and Penelope chuckled– trust Morgan to cheer her up.

"Yeah, that sounds good" She said, giving her eyes one last wipe and walking away. Morgan shared an uneasy glance with Hotch, whose face was always void of emotion.

"This is something big Hotch, I can just tell" Morgan said quietly and Hotch bobbed his head in agreement.

"I know, and when we talk to Cora we'll let you and Garcia know" Hotch replied and Morgan took that as his que to leave, strutting off after Garcia, sharing a worried glance with the rest of his team members.

"I think we should check on Reid" Prentiss said worriedly, and JJ agreed with her.

"Yeah… he shouldn't be alone right now" She said, taking off after Prentiss, leaving the rest of the team to hurry after them. They made it to Cora's room not long after though Spencer didn't hear them coming which was strange, he was usually on high alert.

"Spence" JJ greeted, causing him to jump about a foot in the air. He was just watching Cora drift to sleep, figures, statistics and theories racing through his head. Most of his team was standing there, bar Morgan and Garcia, each with their own apologetic looks plastered on their faces.

"Hey guys" He said, standing up nervously, one eye still trained on his sister – she looked asleep but looks could be deceiving, he learnt – if he were to explain to his team this situation he didn't want Cora to hear them 'profiling' her, heck, he didn't want to profile her but he knew they had to if he were to sort this situation out.

"How's the kid doing?" Rossi asked, keeping a straight face and Reid valued that the most.

"Uh… good, I think, well… obviously not 'good' considering but…okay" He managed, running a hand down his face. She was alive anyway, that's what mattered, at least… to him. "Um… could we maybe talk outside?" He suggested and immediately Hotch, probably because he was the parent, gave a sharp nod.

"Yes, of course" And Spencer went to walk away but he felt a tug on his jumper and turned around. Cora's fingers were curled around his sleeve, although she was still fast asleep, a content sigh escaping her lips. Spencer bit his lip. He knew that 87.9% of teenagers didn't want to be left alone after a traumatic event but he didn't want to talk in front of her. So, as gently as he could, he grasped her fingers and untangled them from his jumper, placing them gingerly on the white covers. Cora didn't wake, and he took that as a good sign.

When he was outside her room with his team, his face turned serious once again.

"Has Garcia gone back to Quantico?" He demanded, wrapping his arms across his chest.

"Yeah, with Morgan" Prentiss replied and Spencer let out a breath. If anyone could find out what was going on it was Garcia – that women could do anything.

"Spence, I know this has got to be hard so if we can do anything…" JJ implored and Spencer smiled in thanks.

"Actually… maybe one thing" He said sheepishly and everyone raised their eyebrows.

"I just don't want to profile my sister… it would seem too… imposing" He said and Rossi nodded, agreeing with him.

"Of course, that's understandable… we'll wait here until she wakes up and is ready to talk" And Spencer felt tears of gratitude welling up in his eyes – there was no better family than his team.

"Thank-you" He said empathically, before turning around and walking back to Cora's room, missing the team's saddened looks in his direction.

"Her mother has more history than Hitler" Garcia mumbled, her fingers racing across the keyboard. Morgan leaned down, looking over her shoulder at the screens.

"Anything related to the case?" Morgan asked and Garcia stopped what she was doing, looking up to her hunk of beef in shock.

"It's not a case Derek" She said, becoming all emotional again, "She's not a victim and I know I haven't known her long but she's strong and is not going to die and-" But Morgan cut her off by spinning her around in her chair, placing his arms on her shoulders to calm her down.

"Baby girl it's okay, calm down" Derek pleaded, wiping her cheeks, "I know it's not a case; I'm sorry" And Penelope let out a sound of frustration.

"It's just so annoying sitting here, doing nothing – I just want to help" She said pitifully.

"You are helping Garcia, the sooner we find this guy the better and you're a big help to that" He said and Garcia let out a small smile. It was then her computers let out a small ding, letting her know they had found something. She spun around sharply, eyes wide, letting out a small gasp.

"Oh my god" Derek exclaimed… that was certainly unexpected.

When Cora managed to peel her eyes open her head felt foggy and…floaty? Ha… she felt weird and tingly and buzzed, a strange combination but it made her thoughts muddled up. With whatever brain space she had left she concluded they had dosed her up with morphine and judging by her crazy level… probably a lot.

"Hi" A soft voice said and she let out a giggle. Spencer, gangly innocent Spencer sat next to her with a puppy dog like look plastered on his face. Hahaha, she thought, did she just compare him to a dog?

"You okay?" He asked in concern and she waved him off, not even feeling the pain in her wrists – wow, that morphine was gooooooooood, way too good.

"M'fine" She said with a dopey smile, "But I think they gave me drugs" She whispered loudly, leaning closer to him, "That's illegal Spencie… you should arrest them" She concluded, looking up at him with wide, innocent eyes.

"It's morphine Cora…not drugs" He said in a comforting voice, standing up next to her.

"Actually" She said, poking him in the chest, blinking rapidly, "It's a form of neurotics which is categorised in the 'drug' category… do your research" She laughed, leaning back against the soft pillows, "ahhh I like this bed, but it's not my bed… where's my bed?" She asked, tilting her head to the side and at that, Spencer did laugh, feeling the tension disappearing from his body.

"You'll be in your bed in a few days Cora, I promise" He vowed, indistinctively rubbing circles on the back of her hand. Cora sighed, turning her head into the pillows and blowing a few strands of hair away from her face, muttering, 'I hope so' before she let out a soft snore. The moment was interrupted however with a sharp knock at the wooden door. Spencer turned around, his face immediately falling when he saw Hotch's expression – it was sombre, like usual, but knowing him for so long he could tell it was something more… something bad.

"Are you sure?" Spencer repeated for the millionth time, him and his team gathered around the speaker phone, having privacy in the 'family' room.

"I'm sorry sweetie" Garcia said sadly and Spencer felt everyone's eyes trained on him.

"I-I can't tell her that" Spencer stuttered, feeling his heart racing in his chest, "She shouldn't hear that about her mom" Spencer exclaimed, grabbing the chair's armrests.

"No-one should" JJ sighed, feeling incredibly sorry for the girl.

"And you're sure she didn't know about this?" Hotch asked, raising his eyebrows.

"I'm positive" Spencer snapped, the anger surging through his veins.

"It's okay Reid, just calm down" Prentiss advised, sending him a small smile. Spencer took a deep breath. If he just stayed calm then it would be fine, he just needed to stay calm.

"And her fingerprints were found at every scene?" He asked, just needing to know for sure before he told Cora anything. Oh god, this was going to devastate her.

"Yes, at all seven ones… so far" Garcia said, and Spencer could hear her fingers tapping the key board ruthlessly, "But of course she hadn't been in the system before so forensics couldn't get a hit" And Spencer groaned, digging the heels of his palms into his eyes. Why did things have to get so complicated?

"It's not your fault kid so stop looking so guilty" Morgan advised and Spencer glared at the phone.

"You can't see me so how do you know I feel guilty?" He demanded, narrowing his eyes.

"Because, believe it or not, I know you better than you think kid" Morgan said and Spencer furrowed his eyebrows, "I know you feel guilty about not finding out about her sooner, you feel bad about her mom and wished you could've stopped all the bad things that happened but… you couldn't" Morgan told him, his voice softer than usual.

"Yeah… this is all dad's fault" Spencer fumed, balling his fists, "All of this is his fault" And he heard Garcia's comforting voice on the other end of the cellphone, trying to calm him down.

"Pumpkin chill…please, your little sis will need you right now" She said, sniffling, "You're all she has" And Spencer deflated. That was an awful lot of pressure and responsibility and at one time he probably would've cowered away from it, but now? Now he felt like he was up for the challenge, something that changed his whole outlook on life.

"Y-You're right… I'm sorry" He apologised, shaking his head making his long hair fall over his face, "I just… this is completely different than working a case you know? At least then I can separate myself but this is personal and I just… I don't think I can break her heart" He admitted, hanging his head.

"She has to know though Reid… you can't keep something like this from her, especially considering now we have to report it to the FBI – it was their case after all" Hotch said and Spencer just sighed. It was inevitable really but it seemed impossible.

"I just don't know how I can tell my sister her mother was a serial killer" Spencer admitted, voice caked in sadness when he heard a gasp behind him. Cora was standing there, looking pale and uneasy on her feet, wearing a white nightgown, hair a jumbled mess. Her bottom lip was quivering and tears began to pool in her bright blue eyes and Spencer's heart clenched painfully. Oh god… what had he done?

I really enjoyed writing this chapter and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I am so keen to hear what you thought so please review, it means the world! Oh how I love all those twists and turns, it keeps you lot on your toes! Peace out! Xx