I truly never learned what the words 'I miss you' were until I reached for my friend's hand and it wasn't there.-Unknown
Rachel was getting ready to spend the day with the BAU girls. It was a warm day, and the girls had decided to go on a shopping spree. Jet was going to be with Spencer who was going out with Morgan and Clooney.
The day was going girls had gone and got some lunch, and was now in a shop. JJ and Gracia were going through the clothing rack while Rachel and Emily sat down and watched, as they had already picked out what they wanted.
Unknowing to them, a man was following Rachel and had even been doing for the last week and half, watching Rachel's smiled as he remembered the small interaction he had with Rebecca a few days ago. Seeing Rachel look so relaxed caused him to a thrill and he forgot that he was supposed to be hating Rachel. To him, Rachel was like an expensive object, an object that was extremely valuable but was extremely dangerous. An object that belonged to smile, however, was soon wiped off at the mention of Spencer's name.
Spency, the man scoffed. The man knew who Spencer was and he hated Spencer. After following Rachel, the man knew that the two friends spent a lot of time together and this angered the man.
How dare Spency spend time with such an angel, the man thought. The man was so angered that he didn't notice Rachel approaching him.
"Sir are you okay?" Rachel asked. "You look a little pale."
The man gave a weak smile. He loved hearing Rachel's voice as it was smooth and silky. "I'm okay Miss. Thank you for asking. My name is Nicolas."
"Nice to meet Nicolas,I'm Rachel." But before she could say anything else, Emily called for Rachel. "I have to go, see you around." And Rachel left.
Nicolas smiled and watched Rachel walk back towards Emily and made eye contact with Emily.
Emily who had been watching the exchange didn't like the way Nicolas was behaviourist around Rachel. She found the man creepy and wanted to get Rachel away from him as soon as possible.
Nicolas watched the two women and his smile was yet again wiped off when he saw Emily put an arm around Rachel's shoulder guiding her away from Nicolas's view. What made it worse is that Rachel was laughing at something that Emily had just said.
In an instant, Nicolas remembered why he hated Rachel and he was even more determined to finish the mission he started.
Two days later, Rachel was waiting for the plumber to come. The night before, Rachel noticed that her tap kept dripping and had called in the plumber. She was due at work in the next hour, but Rachel thought she would still be on time.
As she waited, Rachel called Hannah and told her about the situation,, which Hannah was fine with. She then received a text from Spencer telling her that he was taking her to a restaurant and she needed to dress up. Rachel smiled and sent a quick okay.
When she finished sending the text, she heard a knock at the door.
"The plumber." The voice said.
Rachel recognised the voice but couldn't place where he heard the voice from. Trying to get to the door, Jet began to bark furiously and blocked the way to the door.
At first Rachel thought he was scared and found it cute. But the cuteness soon became annoying as Jet wouldn't let Rachel get to the door. Sighing, Rachel moved Jet to his play pen.
"Jet I don't know what's got into you, but you need to stop." Rachel said, frowning at Jet.
Jet let off another series of barking as he watched Rachel go to the door. Seconds after opening the door, Rachel felt weak and sleepy and fell to the floor. Her vision became hazy as the person at the door stood next to her watching Rachel.
Despite Rachel knowing better,her eyes began to slowly close and she felt her body being lifted.
Jet stopped barking the minute he saw that his owner was on the floor,however began to bark again when he noticed Rachel being lifted and carried out of the apartment.
Within a matter of seconds, Rachel was gone.
An hour later, Rebecca was on her break. As she made herself a coffee, she checked her phone and noticed that Rachel's shift started half an hour ago but Rebecca was yet to see her friend.
Caleb, one of the nurses that worked closely with Rachel entered the break room.
"Hey Caleb have you seen Rachel?" Rebecca asked.
"No, she hasn't turned up to work yet." Caleb said. "Why?"
"She was due to start her shift half an hour ago." Rebecca said, now worried for her friend. "Rachel's never late ever."
"Have you tried calling her? " Caleb asked as he got a cup.
"Yes and it just rang out." Rebecca said, starting to panic.
Seeing this Caleb turned and gave Rebecca a hug. "I heard Hannah speaking to her about an hour ago. Go speak to Hannah."
Rebecca nodded and left the room. When she reached Hannah's office, she quickly opened the door.
"Dr Churchman, have you heard of knocking?" Hannah asked with her glasses on the bridge of her nose.
"Sorry Hannah, but have you heard from Rachel?"
"Yes she said she was having a plumber over and that she would be here when her shift starts. Is she not here?" Hanna asked brows frowning.
"No she hasn't arrived. And I've tried calling her but she hasn't picked up." Rebbeca said frantically.
"Okay I'm going to call her." Hannah said.
After a few minutes Hannah put the phone down with slight panic written all over her face.
"Her phone went to voicemail." Hannah said she paled slightly.
"I'm going to call Spencer." Rebecca said.
Spencer picked up.
"Hey Rebecca what's wrong?"
"Have you heard from Rachel in the last half an hour?"
"No,why?"
"Shit. Um… Rachel was supposed to be here about half an hour ago after having an appointment with the plumber. But she hasn't turned up to work and when we tried to call her, she hasn't answered."
Spencer, who was relaxing in his chair, suddenly sat up. It was such a quick motion that it caught the eyes of Morgan.
"Okay Rebecca. Calm down. I'm going to go and ask my friend to track Rachel's phone. I'll call you back." Spencer said as calmly as he could and hung up.
"Hey Reid, what's going on?" Morgan asked.
"That was Rachel's friend. Rachel didn't turn up to work and she's not picking up her phone. I was going to get Gracia to track Rachel's phone."
"Was going to ask me to do what?" Gracia asked as she strolled in.
It was only then did Spencer notice that everyone was surrounding Morgan and his desk.
"Track Rachel's phone. She didn't turn up to work." Morgan filled in.
"Sure thing," Gracia said as she got on of her laptops out.
"Is she normally late?" Emily asked.
"No. She's never later. She is extremely punctual. And if Rachel is going to be late for some strange reason, then she will call to let you know." Spencer rambled on.
"Um… So I tracked Rachel's phone and according to her phone, she's at home." Gracia said looking up from her laptop.
Spencer looked confused. "Rachel never forgets her phone. So she's at home… Then why doesn't she answer her phone?"
"That doesn't make sense." Morgan said. "Something not adding up."
There was silence for a few seconds, before Hotch took over.
"Reid and Morgan, go to Rachel's apartment and see if they can find her." Hotch said. "We won't do anything till you guys call."
Everyone nodded.
Morgan drove to Rachel's apartment and he could tell that Spencer was worried.
"Kid don't worry. I'm sure she's fine and just hasn't answered her phone." Morgan said, having eyes on the road.
"Yeah, I hope so."
"You really like her don't you?" Morgan asked.
"Yeah I do. She helped me a lot recently." Spencer said as he fiddled with his fingers. "When I first met her, she wasn't in the best frame of mind."
"Really?"
"Yeah. But she's getting better now, and I like to think I'm one of the reasons why she's happier." Spencer sighed.
When they finally reached Rachel's apartment complex, they took the stairs to Rachel's floor.
The moment, they reached the floor, they heard a dog barking.
"Isn't that Jet?" Morgan whispered.
"Yeah…" Spencer said.
Both agents pulled their guns out in case they needed to shoot.
"Wait a minute, is Rachel's door open?" Morgan asked.
Panic rushed through Spencer. "Yes and she never leaves her door open either."
Morgan began to pick up speed and soon both of them were running to Rachel's door.
Entering the apartment, Spencer began calling for Rachel and consoled Jet while Morgan inspected around.
Morgan walked towards the kitchen counter and took a deep breath.
"Reid come here." Morgan said, fear in his voice.
"What's wrong?" Spencer said as he came close.
"We have a problem." Morgan said looking down at a piece of paper.
Spencer looked down at the piece of paper that had hand written text.
Everyone must pay for the sins they have done. Payday will come for everyone, but for this pretty girl, her payday has come sooner than she thought.
Spencer looked up. "I think we need to call Hotch."
Within ten minutes, the whole of the BAU apart from Gracia were in Rachel's apartment. The local police had come to investigate. A detective walks up to Hotch.
"Agent Hotchner, I'm Detective Martin Lopez, this isn't the first case we've had this month. Three weeks ago a woman was found missing for about 48hours and found dead. A note was also found in her apartment. Two weeks before, the same thing happened."
"So this would be the third missing person?" Hotch asked.
"Yeah. You guys can have the case, but I want to paged. If that's possible." Detective Lopez said.
"Thank you. Can you send all your information to the BAU office please and as soon as possible."
The detective nodded and walked away.
"Hotch I found Rachel's phone, it was by her bedside." Emily said holding Rachel's phone that was now in an evidence bag.
"So atleast we know Rachel doesn't know," Hotch sighed. "How's Spencer?"
"JJ's with him now. He's in Rachel's room trying to see if anything was out of place. By the way he's talking, it sounds like he was here often." Emily said.
"We need to find Rachel alive for his sake." Hotch said quietly. "I don't think he can take another loss."
Emily looked down. "We will find Rachel."
Hotch nodded "Has someone called Rachel's mother?"
"I asked Gracia to check that out, she came short. Rachel's an orphan." Morgan said walking up to the pair.
"Wait what?" Emily said. "So the woman that came with Rachel isn't Rachel's mother. So who was she?"
"Hannah is Rachel's boss." Spencer said as he walked out of Rachel's bedroom. "She was more comfortable calling Hannah her mother than introducing her as her boss."
Emily nodded. "Have you told Hannah then?"
"No, I can't tell Hannah over the phone. I'll need to be there." Spencer whispered.
The team could tell that the disappearance of Rachel was affecting Spencer. JJ looked at Hotch.
"Reid a word." Hotch said and Spencer followed him.
"Yes Hotch."
"Spencer I need you to tell me now if you can't handle this case. This case hits home in many ways. I need you to be able to function." Hotch said gently.
"I'm fine Hotch. I just want to find the prick that's taken Rachel. I want to find her alive." Spencer said in a small voice.
Hotch sighed, knowing that feeling. He remembered when Haley and Jack were in danger and wanting to help so badly.
"Fine, you can continue working on the case. But the minute I think you can't handle it anymore, I'm taking you off the case." Hotch said and patted Spencer on the shoulder. "JJ, I want you and Morgan to go to the hospital with Spencer."
The two agents nodded and left with Spencer.