AN: Penultimate chapter! Things are getting ugly, violent scenes and hard language, you're warned. Oh, and thanks to the lovely Criminal-Minds-superfan for her lovely reviews!


"Love will find a way through paths where wolves are fear to prey" - Lord Byron.

Chapter 11: Rough Love

When Spencer awoke, with the sun entering through the window, he felt better than he had felt in his life. The headache was gone in its entirety, for the first time in years, and his body was relaxed, his mind in calm. He opened his eyes with a smile and looked at his side, looking for Berenice, but she wasn't there. Reid stood up and stretched until his back creaked. The images of the previous night invaded his senses, kisses, caresses, skin to skin. He could remember every second, and he was glad to know that he won't ever forget it. At first, he was nervous; Berenice seemed to rule the situation with her dominating personality and her deft fingers moving through his clothes, like if she was anxious to be closer. That sensation was enough to encourage him and everything was easier once he relaxed. She smiled widely in the moment he started pulling out her sweatshirt, and letting go a surprised "Dr. Reid!" she giggled before crushing her mouth against his. Everything had been quiet and gentle, taking their time to know each other in a different way, and they were glad to discover how they could connect. The last memory he treasured was the feeling of her hair between his fingers as she fell asleep against his body, her breath slowing as she fell into a deep dream. He had been awake some minutes more, but not long after he followed her, closing his eyes with a smile. Although he would have liked to stay in bed until noon, he got up and dressed. He ran his fingers through his hair a few times and left the room.

"Berenice?" He asked, coming out the room and looking toward the kitchen. JJ was there with Morgan; the two smiled and raised their eyebrows.

"A funny night, Reid, wasn't it?" Morgan said, chuckling. Reid blushed; he hadn't even thought that JJ would realize that he hadn't gone to sleep to the guest room.

"Uh... have you seen Berenice?"

JJ denied with her head.

"I've been awake for a couple of hours, and I haven't seen her around here."

Reid swallowed, a bad feeling ran through his body. Suddenly he remembered her habit of going out to smoke in the morning. Maybe she was there. Reid went to the bedroom again, going straight to the window. A few steps away, he stood frozen. Stuck to the window, there was a piece of paper.

Reid left the room like a whirlwind, JJ and Morgan frowned. The boy was frantic, wide-eyed, trembling hands.

"Hey, kid, what's wrong?" Morgan asked, getting off the stool and approaching Reid. He had tears starting to form in his eyes.

"He took her." Reid said in a small voice, and handed Morgan a crumpled paper. Morgan read the words of the note with growing anxiety: She has always been mine, Spencer.


"Ok, let's review what happened." Rossi said. Reid was sitting on the couch with his head between his hands, a tea slowly cooling on the table.

"I... I woke up at ten." Reid said. "And she wasn't there. Last night we slept together." He admitted, and nobody seemed very surprised, not even Hotch. "I thought she would be having breakfast, but JJ told me that she hadn't left the room. Then I remembered that the day before yesterday I discovered that she smokes a cigarette in the fire escape every morning. The staircase is just outside her window, but it's impossible to reach it from the street, or that's what I thought, so I didn't worry about it. When I went to the window, I saw the note. On the platform of the fire escape, was her pack of cigarettes, and her lighter."

"All right." Hotchner said, and JJ rubbed Reid's back with a loving hand. "We can say that she has disappeared in a period ranging from..."

"Seven." JJ said. "She often wakes up around seven."

"All right, from seven to ten o'clock."

"Three hours..." Reid whined. "In three hours they may have gone too far..."

"No, Reid, hey." Morgan said, kneeling in front of him and putting two hands on his shoulders. "The Unsub has no ways of transport, and he hadn't time to get one. Garcia is watching for any theft, any announcement. They have to be in Seattle."

Reid nodded, swallowing. Hotchner took out his cell phone, calling the police chief of Seattle.

"Issue a search of Berenice Baker. B-E-R-E-N-I-C-E-B-A-K-E-R. Woman, 23, 5'7, white, black hair with red streaks. Do we know what is she wearing?" Hotchner said, looking at Reid.

"Hummm…" He said, trying to think clearly. "She wears a dark blue Nike sweatshirt, her pajama pants... still in the room. Probably she got her underwear and the sweatshirt on, and went out."

Hotchner nodded.

"She wears a dark blue sweatshirt." He said to the phone. "Ok. Thank you."

Reid rubbed his face vigorously.

"Her cell phone..." he whispered.

"What?" Prentiss said. Reid looked up.

"Her cell phone. She took it. Surely she was listening to music."

Morgan pulled out his phone and dialed quickly.

"Baby girl, Nissy took her mobile with her."

"Oh, God." Garcia said, sniffling. Reid knew she was crying. "I... I'll look through the name, or the number, I'm gonna…"

Morgan sighed, scratching his chin.

"Penelope, relax. You can do this. Just focus." Morgan said.

Garcia moaned from the other line. "I'm trying. But this is not a simple case, she is Berenice, and… I got it!" Garcia exclaimed. "But I can't locate it... she should be somewhere without coverage, or she got it turned off."

Reid returned to bury his head in his hands, a violent tremor going through him. God knew that he would be doing to her... but with the next word of Garcia, Reid looked up, swallowing.

"Wait..."


Berenice blinked a few times, the light bothered her. She moaned, her head hurt like hell. She looked around with blurred vision, trying to locate. Terror gripped her.
Darkness. That was the first word that came to her mind. She was somewhere dark, her eyes flickered to get used to it, she didn't see anything anyway. She remembered waking up next to Spencer, she remembered the night before and how good it had felt that morning when she woke up in his arms. She also remembered leaving to the fire escape while listening Harden my Heart, from Quaterflash, the song that she had listened with Reid that night that seemed so distant. And then darkness.

Berenice ran her fingers over her crown, in the place where it hurt and she wasn't surprised to find it wet. She could smell the blood, and her heart raced, swallowing. She sat up with a groan.

"Oh, you're awake." Said a deep voice that left her paralyzed. "You hit your head pretty hard when we got here. You are okay, right?"

Berenice took a deep breath as she turned her face toward the source of the voice, only to find a man sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall, in the dark. He was smoking a cigarette, and with each puff his eyes lit up, bright blue. He was smiling. Berenice bit her lip, trying to drown out the list of insults and curses that haunted her mind. Reid's words came to his memory, this man loved her. He had longed to have her with him for months, trying her to notice him without success. She stretched her neck and a sharp pain mad her move her hand to the hurt place on her skin, though she couldn't locate the wound. She cleared her throat, and her voice was hoarse when she said:

"I'm fine. Very well. Just a little sleepy." She said, her mind was still blurry and she found out her tongue was numb, her jaw didn't seem to work as it used to.

He smiled broadly. "Don't worry about that. It's because the morphine. You'll be just fine in an hour or so." In a way, he was attractive, if not because he was fucking insane, of course. He approached her and touched her face; she blinked, trying to keep the tears at bay. "I've wanted so much to be alone with you, Berenice." He laughed. "Oh, Berenice. You have such a beautiful name. I'm so angry that they shorten it... Nissy!" He said with a grimace, looking suddenly indignant. "How they dare to change such a beautiful name…"

She cleared her throat.

"I feel the same." She said, smiling faintly. "What's your name?"

His face changed, and a tremor ran through her. Was she supposed to know his name? Was he going to be mad at her? Her body relaxed a little when she saw that he was smiling again.

"I'm Ian." He said. "I thought you knew my name."

She shook her head.

"N-no, I on-only knew your face." Berenice lied. "It's great to have a name to match it."

He smiled and bowed his head toward her, kissing her softly. Berenice, unavoidably, pursed her lips, and felt how tears began to sting in her eyes. He seemed not to notice her reluctance, and when he moved away from her, he was smiling.

"It's great to be here." He whispered, running his hands through her hair.

"Ye-yes, it's great." She smiled. "And tell me, Ian... whe-where is 'here'?"

He smiled again, but he shook his head.

"That doesn't matter; tomorrow we'll go out from here, far away. I thought..." He paused to add mystery. "Louisiana. What do you think?"

Berenice could feel her heart pounding in her throat.

"Oh, great!" she said shakily. "In there is always hot… and I've always wanted to see the Mississippi."

He laughed and gently ran one hand up her thigh; she could tell he was very happy with how events were unfolding.

"You know, Ian..." she said, clearing her dry throat. "The truth is that I am a little hungry."

He frowned.

"But I have nothing to eat here." The psychopath replied. She pouted, looking down.

"Oh, well..." she said. "It's okay. It doesn't mind."

Ian moved his eyes all over her face and then sighed, standing up.

"I'll get you something to eat, ok? You can sleep a bit more if you want."

She smiled widely, and thought she should look like a shark, showing all her teeth.

"Oh, thank you very much." He said. "You're a swe-sweetie."

He smiled and pulled out a set of keys to open the door, sunlight filtered into the cavity and Berenice was blinded. Upon his leaving, she heard the keys closing the door.

A violent sob ran through her as she stood on all fours and began to move around. This was the moment she had feared the most, and the first night she had falling asleep feeling relaxed, she woke up to this. The floor was composed of dirt, and when she got to the wall, she saw that it had several strange cavities, very deep. While she walking in the dark, shuffling, she stepped on something hard, which brightened. Berenice almost screamed of relief. It was her phone.


"What is it, Garcia?" Reid said, approaching Morgan's phone.

"It's just... the phone company indicates that she's making an emergency call."

"Can we hear it?" Hotchner said.

"Give me a sec." Garcia said.

"Sure." JJ said. "Cell phones can call emergency number even if they have no coverage."

Reid sighed.

"Clever girl."

"There." Garcia said, Berenice's trembling voice flowed from the speaker. It was obvious that she was crying.

"Berenice Baker, yes. The police is looking for me; the FBI is looking for me. You have to contact Dr. Spencer Reid, you hear me? R-E-I-D. He just told me tomorrow he wanna move to Louisiana with me!"

"Can you recognize something around you?" The teleoperator said.

"It's very dark... I... but I'm not underground. He has some keys, the doors are made of stone, but the floor is dirt..."

"That man has hurt you?"

"No! Would you listen to me, for God's sake? In the center of the room there's something like an altar, on the walls there are... there are very deep holes... there are no windows, I can't hear anything from outside, it's like a..."

A muffled voice could be heard from the background.

"Berenice, what are you...? Is that a phone?" The voice sounded angry. "Who are you calling?"

"I'm... nobody, I was..."

"Ma'am?" the teleoperator said.

"You lied to me? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"I- I don't..."

There was a loud noise and a sharp cry and several calls from the teleoperator, and then, silence.

"Garcia, you got anything?" Hotchner said. Penelope was sobbing from the other line.

"No... I haven't had time... but I've narrowed the search range... I send you a map."

Reid looked at the search radius decreased by Garcia on his phone, his hands were shaking. He couldn't even want to imagine what that man was doing to Berenice. Without realizing it, he was muttering under his breath:

"Dirt floor... walls with holes… she's not underground…"

"Where can she be?" Morgan said, pulling out a paper map and marking the area with a pen. "None of this is far away from here..."

Reid went over the map with his eyes, with the same song in his mind: 'Dirt floor... walls with holes… she's not underground… Dirt floor... walls with holes… she's not underground…' Suddenly, something in his brain lit up.

"What if they are in a crypt?" He said. "In the cemetery."

All of them looked up from the map and, without another word, ran out to the street.