CHAPTER SIX

Spencer came home to find Elle sitting Indian style on their bed. Her posture foreboding. Something was wrong. "Elle?"

"Hey. You're home," she replied softly. Her tone made Spencer break out in goose bumps, and not the good kind like she usually did.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Dread had blossomed when he realized that Elle was purposefully not looking at him.

"What the hell are we doing?" She asked in the same quiet tone.

"Concerning what?" Spencer asked carefully.

"Us. What were we thinking? How could we possibly delude ourselves into believing this could work?" Her voice cracked even though she was barely speaking above a whisper, Spencer heard her across the room.

"Elle, what are you dancing around? Just come out and say it." Spencer steadied himself to take whatever she could lash out with.

"I'm leaving. I have too. Even if we manage to juggle this, it would be sneaking around in the dark. Neither one of us wants that. Its not fair." Elle finally looked at him, and she looked him square in the eye.

Spencer met her coffee browns in a toe-to-toe show down. "No."

Elle looked shocked. Spencer didn't sound angry, he didn't sound as distraught as she was feeling, he didn't even raise his voice. It was almost like a toddler telling his mother he wasn't going to bed yet. If the situation were different, it would have been funny.

"What?" Elle asked baffled.

"You heard me well and clear Princess." Now his expression changed. He looked… 'Peeved.' Elle decided.

"Spencer, I can't stay." She tried to reason.

"Well you're gonna, so deal with it." Spencer stated as if it ended the discussion.

"That's not how these things work. When one of us wants out, the other doesn't get a say. Look, I know you don't like this, but its best for the both of us."

"I understand that you're not used to dealing with mad scientist, but I'm telling you here and now how it goes. You don't get to dump me because you just figured out that I'm a federal agent. Period." Spencer had gotten louder and louder. He was almost yelling.

Elle gave it back. "What happens then Spencer? What happens when one of us gets hurt on the job, or cornered on duty?"

"I trust you completely to shoot the uncut and carry me to safety. The question is- Do you trust me?" Spencer's gaze tore into her like a lion. This was her man, this was where she belonged.

She got up and closed the distance between them. Placing her hands on his face, closed distance again. When they parted, "I trust you."

&

Ell slammed her cell phone shut and tore out of the office. She had made it nearly to the door before Garcia had finished filling in Hotch, Gideon and Morgan and realized she was gone.

"Elle! Wait! You're not supposed to leave!" Garcia shouted from her office door. "Gideon-"

"To hell with Gideon! I'm going to find my husband." She yelled back over her shoulder. She didn't see the junior agents share shocked looks as she charged out of the building.

"Crap!" Garcia turned and ran back to the phone. The tech was not looking forward to being the messenger about this. The guys were not going to be thrilled about Elle walking out. At least everybody knows where she was going.

&

Hotch, Morgan and Gideon leaped out of the car and pulled their guns in what seemed to be one fluid movement. Yells of "Reid!" Burst through the autumn air.

The sound of gunning tires on gravel drew them to the back of the truck stop. Morgan turned the corner first, just in time to see a flash of Reid. His hands were behind his back, most likely bound and he was kicking frantically at the window in the back seat of the red SUV and at the middle aged man hunched over the wheel to avoid his captive's attempts at freedom.

Derrick Morgan turned on his heel and took off for the federal SUV parked less than twenty yards away. "He's got Reid!" Was clipped to his supervisors. They followed wordlessly.

The three agents piled into the car and sped in the direction they saw the unsub heading. They followed the dust through the heavily wooded area. They came out at a small clearing where they encountered an old two-story house. There was no SUV. There was no sign of the direction they went. No sign of Reid.

"Get agents down here. I want the whole place torn apart. If there's so much as a speck of dust that could lead to our unsub and Reid, I want it processed." Hotch growled into his cell phone.

Gideon and Morgan had been checking around the outside of the house and garage. They both knew it was pointless. They were gone.

&

Spencer had been angry before. He was beyond that now. The profiler in him said to stop raising hell and cooperate before he pissed his pet psycho off. If the unsub was willing to get violent with him, chances were it wouldn't take much to push him into killing someone.

The man in him however would not be compliant. "What the hell do you want!" He shouted.

"Shh, shh. Its okay Spencer. They won't find us. I've made plans incase something like this happened."

'Well fuck me.' Spencer thought. 'Time to go profiler. I'm gonna have to play this guy.' He settled back into the seat. Watching out the window. He was going to need to know the way once he managed to get loose again.