Chapter Fourteen

Countdown: Day One

(A Few Days Later)

"Emily will you make sure next weeks shipments are taped and stickered with the shipment slip? We need them to reach the Detroit store by Wednesday." I spoke going through paper work at the customer service desk.

"We double checked them yesterday, so they are all ready to go." Emily spoke from beside me. "The UPS guys will be here after 2pm to pick up the boxes"

I nodded my head and turned back towards my paper work, just as my cellphone buzzed from beside me. Looking over quickly, I saw that it was a text from Spencer. A smile spread across my face and I moved forward to quickly reply. Ever since we'd spent the night together and made love for the first time, we'd seem to have grown closer. Once I'd replied to the message, I looked up to see Emily smirking towards me.

"What?" I asked

"You get this look on your face every time you get a phone call, or a message, from Spencer." She spoke "And to say I'm a little jealous would be an understatement. But it's so cute."

I blushed lightly "Just...I feel like a fifteen year old girl again with my first love."

"And I love that. It's about time that you got some happiness in your life."

With that statement she turned and grabbed the books from the counter before moving back towards the shelves to reshelf them. I looked over the store and sighed softly as I saw that we weren't exactly dead, but no busy either. I saw the new hire, Milo greeting customers, and was happy to see that he was fitting in nicely. He must've noticed I was looking towards him, because he turned around and smiled towards me, before turning his attention back towards the customer beside him.

After a pause, I walked towards the cafe and grabbed a coffee before going into my office. I closed the door behind me and cut off the noise from below. Walking towards my desk, I took a seat and went through the rest of the shipment paperwork from this week, as I drank from my coffee. I don't really notice how long I'd been there, till Milo knocked on my office door and smiled towards me.

"Shops all closed up. We're ready when you are."

I sat up straight in my chair and looked around towards my clock, seeing in fact that it was eight o'clock "Wow, um...time slipped past me." I stood up from the counter "Drawers are all counted?"

Milo nodded his head "Emily just finished it up. She's double checking the receiving room."

I smile "Thank you. You guys are doing so well."

Milo laughed lightly and blushed "No problem, Shai. Just doing my job."

Quickly I grabbed my purse and things before locking up my office. I followed Milo down the steps to the second floor and made sure the doors were locked, before heading towards the receiving room to get Emily. I don't know how I knew, but the moment I saw that the lights were off in the receiving room, I knew that Emily wasn't here. I stopped and turned towards Milo, with a confused look on my face.

"I-I thought you said Emily was in receiving?" I asked

Milo shrugged "She was...I-I don't know where she would've went."

I could feel my heart stop and my blood run cold as I stared towards Milo. He walked towards me, and then I knew in that moment, everything seemed to connect. Everything was dropped in my hand as I tried to turn away, but it only took seconds for him to come up behind me. Milo's arm wrapped around my waist and pulled me forward as I fought against his hold, but the panic that overtook my body seemed to make it almost impossible. The only thing I registered before my mind went black was the desperate cry for Spencer that passed my lips, and then unconsciousness overtook me.

FBI: BAU Offices

Spencer's P.O.V

"Let's think about what we do know about this," Derek spoke as we stared towards the board, photos of the last three crime scenes staring back at me. "We know that he targets brunettes with blue eyes younger than thirty - but older than twenty-five."

"Keep the victims for three days, during those three days he beats , rapes and then murders the victims" Emily continued "When the bodies are found, the digitization of the the victim being the killers is displayed. He doesn't stray, stay direct with his targets."

I leant back against the chair I was sitting in, and rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to relieve the pressure that seemed to be building up and causing my headache to worsen. We'd been going the three cases for days now and so far there hasn't been a new missing persons. We knew it was only to happen within the next 24 hours, the three day waiting period between kills clocking down quickly.

"We've looked at her ex, but he hasn't move from New York since we interviewed him. Moved on it seems. WIfe, kids - seemed even concerned that Mitchell is in trouble."

I sighed heavily "We keep going in the same exact circle guys. We know his victim profile and we know why he goes after him but we just don't have the...who. We don't know who this son of a bitch is"

"Reid," Hotch spoe, a stern look directed towards me "I told you that we were going to keep working in this till we found out who he was."

"I just feel like he's three steps ahead of us," I looked towards the clock to see it was beyond nine at night and knew Shai would be off work "Is it ok if I step out for a second? Need to make a phone call."

"Why don't we all take a break? Be back in five minutes?"

The entire team rose up from the table sitting in the conference room before heading in separate directions. I stood from my chair and walked towards the hallway and pulled out my phone and dialled Shai's number before rising it towards my ear. It rang through to the voicemail. No answer. I looked towards the phone in confusion, before calling again. Same result. Next I dialled for Mitchells in case she was still in the store. But it rang without a pick up. I stared down at my phone in confusion.

"Everything ok, kid?" Derek asked as he and Emily walked beside me, back towards the conference room.

"Shailene isn't answering her phone. She always answers when I call her,"

"Well…did you cal the store?" Emily asked, and I replied with a nod "Wanna drive by and make sure she's ok? Could be busy."

"T….They're closed." I dialed her number again, only to be greeted by her voicemail.

"Let's just go and see, Spencer" Emily spoke "Derek and I will go with you. Hotch will understand,"

"Y-Yeah," I nodded my head and followed Derek and Emily out of the building.

~ {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} ~

Derek pulled into the parking lot and stopped right outside the door. I looked up over the bookstore to see that it was dark inside, not a sign of lighting coming from any window. Already I was beginning to panic. Derek, Emily and myself go out of the car and walked towards the front door, but when Emily moved to open the door, it opened without ease.

"That's weird. She wouldn't have closed the store without locking the front door."

"Maybe she's still inside." Emily spoke, and looked around and pointed down the street "Her car is still here. Come on."

Derek walked behind me, as I walked behind Emily. All the lights were off, and I reached along the wall and grabbed along the wall till I reached the light switch and turned it on. My heart dropped as I saw the state of the store. Shailene's purse was thrown across the store, the contents spread out across the floor. The chairs in front of the Customer Service desk were moved out of place as if in a force.

I followed behind Derek, and Emily, as they drew out their guns. I tried to keep my head clear before moving towards the steps and up towards her office. From below Derek and Emily did a sweep downstairs. Grabbing onto the handle of the office door, I pressed to open it, but it wouldn't budge.

"Anything up there?" Derek shouted from the basement.

I looked down over the railing "No…I-...Her office is locked meaning she was heading out for the night and closing up shop." as I talked I rushed back down the stairs "But somewhere between her locking up her office, and going towards the receiving room she was attacked."

"Reid, we don't know -"

"We don't know what? Emily? That my girlfriend's stalker might actually have her? That's she's missing?" I interrupted her "What do you need to see in order for you to make up the conclusion that my girlfriend is gone?!"

Derek stepped forward and pressed a hand to my shoulder "Reid. Calm down."

"Calm down? Are you serious?" I was becoming more and more upset.

"Yes! Calm down!" He shouted back towards me "Now. We need to calm down and think this clearly. Who was she closing with?"

I took a few deep breaths "Emily and the new hire, Milo."

"Alright now," He turned towards Emily "Call the team, get everyone down here. Now Reid." Derek turned back towards me "You're going to take a seat in that cafe. You're going to continue calling Shai, after you call Emily and see if maybe Shai's with her."

~ {}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{}{} ~

"That back door was left open, forced open, and there were signs of a struggle" Aaron sighed heavily as he grouped with his team, minus Spencer. Spencer was left in the cafe area, looking out the window, and clutching to his phone tightly waiting for a reply from Shailene but it wasn't happening. "We treat this now as a missing persons."

JJ looked over her shoulder towards Reid "How do we tell him?"

Hotch looked down towards the floor "Unfortunately, Reid cannot be on this case now. Officially. Derek, I want you and Rossi to go to her apartment. See if there was anything left behind by the unsub. See if there are any clues that maybe were left there." Derek and Rossi left quickly as Hotch turned towards the next team member "JJ, get in contact with the family, see if there is anyone else they could think would have a connection to this. We need to to know of all the relationships that Ms. Mitchel had in the past."

As everyone broke off, Emily and Hotch were the only team members left. They both look towards each other before looking towards Spencer. She sighed heavily before taking the short walk towards her friend. She grabbed the chair across from him, catching his attention, before sitting beside him.

"How are you holding up?" Emily spoke softly

Spencer looked down towards her hands, before looking up towards Emily "Helpless."

"I'm so sorry, Spencer."

He nodded his head "I...I know I'm not supposed to get personal. But….how can I not? The only thing going through my head right now is what he could be possibly doing to her."

Emily reached across and grabbing his hand "You can't think like that. The moment you do, the moment the emotions overtake your thinking and that won't help her."

He looked towards Emily, the helplessness coming from his dark eye "What am I supposed to do? I promised her that I wouldn't let this guy ever even touch her and look what happened"

Spencer hung his head down before the tears began to rise up. Emily moved forward and hugged him tightly, letting him let out his emotions. She rubbed his back and held him. The only thing going through Spencer's mind was that they had to find her before the three days were up, or else he wouldn't see her alive again.

AN: DON'T KILL ME! I'M SORRY! THIS HAD TO HAPPEN! Did any of you think it could POSSIBLY be Milo. I tried dropping a small hint a few chapters back, and was surprised no one got it. Didn't get a lot of feedback from the last chapter, so I'm going to guess the love scene didn't go over too well? It will most likely be the only one for this story, since the "M" rating is for the scenes coming up for violence. I wanted to be safe (so this story doesn't get deleted) and bumped up the rating.

All of your kind words are so more appreciated. These are my favourite reviews for all of the stories that I have written for the past seven years on this site. There weren't any questions posted with the last chapter (seeing as I didn't get many reviews) so no "Review Questions" this week.

Much Love

Charlie