Disclaimer: see my profile

"How are you holding up, Reid," Elle asked as they drove toward Lily's apartment in DC. Reid turned back to look at Elle. He had been staring out the window, lost in his thoughts for the last hour and a half.

"I am holding on by my fingernails, Elle. I hope we can find something in her apartment to help us find her."

The head of the forensic team greeted them as they entered Lily's apartment. They pulled up to the complex's business office and saw that the CSIs were still there as well as the local police. They were escorted to the elevator and quietly rode to the 5th floor.

"Detective," said the escorting officer. "These are Special Agent Elle Greenaway and Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid."

"Ah yes, Dr. Reid, your supervisor, and I spoke on the phone. He explained your connection to the investigation of Ms. St John's kidnapping. We finished here, but let me show you what we have found."

Elle's phone rang, and she stepped away to take the call.

"As you can see, Dr. Reid, the place is clean and tidy, with no sign of struggle or forced entry. However, we did find a couple of strange items."

Reid looked curiously at the Detective, "Strange in what way, Detective?"

"First, we found a hair that doesn't appear to match what we found in Ms. St John's hairbrush."

"May I see it," asked Spencer.

"Of course," said the Detective, holding the evidence bag to Reid.

Spencer looked at it and saw immediately that the Detective had a point. The strand of hair in the evidence bag was not Lily's hair.

He said, "You're right; this is not her hair. Lily's hair is short, dark blond, and straight. The hair you found isn't blond. It appears to be red and much longer than Lily's hair. May I ask where you found it?"

"That's the other strange thing; when my team got here, they found a note taped to the inside of the front door, addressed to you. I am afraid we had to open it."

"You were doing your jobs," Reid said with a shrug.

"We found the hair inside the envelope with a note."

"May I see the note now?"

"Of course, it has been processed for prints."

Reid carefully opened the envelope, and the note fell out.

Dear Dr. Reid,

I am so glad you have made it this far so quickly. You're one step closer to finding your beloved Lily. When you search for something, you must sometimes go back before you can go forward. Here is a clue for you.

The letter was unsigned and typed on plain paper that Reid had no doubt would be next to impossible to trace down, but the labs would have their go at finding something useful.

Elle came back and said, "That was Garcia. The tape is real."

Spencer said, "I have no doubt of that now, look," he handed her the envelope and moved off down the hallway to her bedroom. He stood in the doorway for a moment, remembering the first time he had been there.

Flashback

Reid pointed the remote at the TV to silence it and looked down at the young woman asleep with her head on his chest.

"Lily… Wake up, sweetheart," he whispered, rubbing her arm gently.

Her eyes snapped open, and she looked at him with a smile.

"I wasn't asleep, baby, just resting my eyes."

"Oh right… resting your eyes," Reid rolled his eyes. "The couch is still vibrating from the power of your snores."

Lily grabbed a throw pillow and proceeded to beat Reid about the head.

Laughing so hard he could hardly breathe, he raised his hands in surrender, "Uncle!" he cried.

"I can't believe I fell asleep at my favorite part. The jet lag must be worse than I thought."

"Yeah, well, I never thought I would find a black and white movie about musicians in drag quite so funny, but it was."

"I knew you would like it. Thanks for indulging me. I know you probably wanted to go out tonight-"

"Shush," Reid said, putting a finger to her lips, "I only want to spend time with you, but I have got to go, or I will fall asleep, and that isn't the smartest thing to do while you are driving."

Lily put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him. His arms came around her waist, and the kiss grew more passionate as her mouth opened, and his tongue moved across her front teeth and then touched her tongue. She moaned and fisted her hands in his hair. Abruptly she broke off the kiss and pushed away.

"I am sorry, Spencer. I didn't mean to do that."

He raised a trembling hand to her face and touched it with such tenderness that she nearly cried; still, he said nothing. His eyes asked her a burning question, and she said, "Are you sure, sweetheart?" His only answer was to take her hand and lead her into her bedroom.

End Flashback

Reid opened his eyes and realized he needed to go in there again, this time to invade her privacy. He sat down at the table her laptop was on and booted it up. There were books everywhere, everything from C S Lewis, to Edgar Allen Poe, to Sherlock Holmes. She also had many books on photography and rolls of unused film scattered everywhere. She didn't use a digital camera; she told Spencer, "Digital is for armatures."

He could see the security on her laptop was not extensive, and he had no problem getting into her email. The password was Spencer's middle name.

Oh honey, if I can guess it, so could anyone who knows you.

She had kept all of his emails to her, and it made him smile. Then he frowned. If someone had hacked into her laptop, they would know everything there is to know about her relationship with him. She also had an online diary and had spared no detail about him and how she felt about him.

He was surprised that she had loved and accepted him from the beginning. Even before she knew who he was, they didn't matter to her with all his intelligence and unique gifts. She had understood his reluctance with close contact.

Elle came into the room and sat down on the unmade bed. "Hey," she said. "Have you found anything?"

"Nothing that will help us, except that if the Unsub hacked her computer, it would explain how he knows about me and our relationship," Reid told her, looking more upset than when they had arrived.

Elle said, "it could be more basic than that. He could have been stalking both of you for months."

Reid nodded and said, "I suppose we could both be right. I must talk to Garcia and have her run down my old cases."

"Why?" Elle inquired.

"Because of the note he left. We must have met in the past, and something happened to trigger this obsession." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number.

"Goddess of the information superhighway, how will you worship me today?" Garcia's perky voice sounded in his ear.

"Hey, this is Reid; I need to do a run on all my old cases."

The playful tone went out of Garcia's voice. "You want what," she squeaked. "Spencer, that will take days. Have you lost your mind?"

"You didn't let me finish," Reid said. "I have specific parameters for you. I want you to check for DNA matches to the results we will get shortly from the labs in DC and cross-check it with any witnesses, law enforcement, or perps with red hair that we haven't apprehended."

"Ok, my friend, anything for you," Garcia said and hung up.

Reid turned to Elle and said, "So what are your thoughts?"

"Pinning down the profile on the Unsub is very difficult. I have a question about Lily, though?"

"What is it," Reid asked.

Elle said, "everything I see backs up what you told us about her. Would she have gone willingly, or would the Unsub have to ambush her somehow?"

"I have been thinking about that too, but I would like to hold off on answering your question until we get back to Quantico and get the results of the DNA and Garcia's search."

"Ok, Reid, let's get back to the office."

As they pulled into the parking lot, Spencer's cell rang one hour later. He got out of the car and spoke to someone walking quickly into the building. His stride lengthened as he put his cell back in his front pants pocket. Elle was hurrying to catch up to him.

"Reid, what is it? What happened?"

Ignoring her, he went to his desk and opened a door, pulling out of his perfectly ordered, closed case files a thick manila file folder. He looked at Elle with a mixture of triumph and fear so huge she almost quailed before him. He said, "Let's go into the conference room."

"Morgan, would you please ask Hotch, Gideon, and JJ to join us in the round table room? I need to talk to everyone."

Because of the look on his face and Elle's confused shoulders shrug, Morgan went to get the rest of the team. Reid turned and walked into the conference room, where he began to pace up and down rapidly.

Elle said, "Whoa, Reid, what's wrong-" she was interrupted by Hotch and the others coming into the room and sitting down. They all looked at Spencer, who was still pacing up and down, muttering.

Gideon said, "What is it? Reid?"

Reid looked at them and said, "We have been looking in the wrong place. The Unsub is a woman."