A/H: Hello again, everyone!

Shout-out to ahowell1993, Hippiechic81, Betty and Kelly for reviewing Chapter 8, favoring, and following! As well as all of you for viewing and reading! I do appreciate it!

Please, do enjoy my story and please review; new ideas and constructive criticism are always appreciated.

"Time to confess, Spencer Reid," Hankel said before beating the sole of his foot with a piece of wood. Reid cried out in pain. "Confess."

"I…I don't have anything to confess."

Reid cried out in pain again.

"Scream for me."

He was so in shocked from watching Élise's torture, he didn't even notice that the team didn't notice he was also watching.

"Confess!"

"I haven't done anything."

"Ahh!"

"Tobias, help me."

"Ahh!"

"Oh!" Reid snapped himself out of his nightmare; attempting to calm himself down as he gasped for air but not before realizing he almost fell off the sofa. He had his hand over his heart and ran his fingers through his hair. He was trying to get over what he had just witness Élise was going through; not that it was easy. Reid couldn't even imagine what Élise must be going through. Come to think of it, this had reminded him of Tobias Hankel from over a decade ago. He could still feel and think about the chills and thoughts he had with Hankel.

He had to stop the continuing thoughts and memories when he felt something tucking on him.

It was just Anastasia.

"Oh! Uh…hey, princess. I'm sorry if I scared you." Reid gently put his hand on her cheek and runs his fingers through her hair, although at times, she didn't like it. He soon starts rubbing his eyes, "Daddy just shut his eyes for a few minutes. What's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?"

Anastasia held a book in her little hands, avoiding eye contact as she kept her head to the ground, "Oh. You want me to read to you?" She nodded her head. Smiling sadly at her as he lifted her chin to face him, "Of course, I'll read to you. Come here. Let me help you up, up, princess." Picking her up and placing her on his lap.

Perhaps a good book with his beloved Anastasia would be a good way to take his mind off Élise; at least for a short while.

"You want me to read you this book?" She nodded her head again, but against his chest. "Now, what kind of book do we have here? Aw! Proust. What a wonderfully beautiful choice you'd picked." He had such fondly and lovely memories of his mother reading Proust to him as a child. There would be absolutely no doubt she will have fondly and lovely memories of him reading to her. Holding Anastasia close to him with her head still on his chest, his arm wrapped around her, and the blanket covering them both,

"The smell of the madeleine unleashing the flood of memory. For a long time, I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had to put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say, 'I'm going to sleep.'"

"Good morning, boss lady," Garcia greeted Prentiss as she came off the elevator. "Oh, my goodness. You look like crap."

"It's been over two weeks and we still have no leads on Élise's disappearance; I definitely feel like crap. But more importantly, how's Reid handling it?"

"He's frustrated we can't find anything. He feels like he can't find something that could give us something. But at least he's taking care of his little baby girl, right?" Garcia stopped walking for a moment. "I'm scared."

"Of what?"

"I'm scared for Reid. Don't you think he's been through enough?"

"Of course."

"So, what do you think will happen if we can't find Élise? Or worse?"

"Garcia…"

"No, Em. We all saw Élise in that video; the fear in her eyes, the horror in her screams. She was being recorded. In her own home! And us, possibly. Just the thought of that makes me sick! And scared! I mean, who's going to take care of Anastasia? Since prison, Reid has hardly been able to trust people besides us, but then Élise came and…"

"Garcia," Prentiss stopped her for a moment. "Garcia. Just because we don't have any leads doesn't mean we can't find her. I mean, we've found others with less, if not, none. If we can do that, we can find her. We will find her."

"I know, and I keep telling myself that. But still…you know I can't help but worry about the ones I love."

"That's one of the many things we all love about you."

"Aw." Garcia engaged Prentiss in a quick hug before rushing to greet Reid, "Good morning, world's most intelligent man."

"Morning, Garcia," Reid greeted her after taking a sip of coffee.

"And good morning to you, too, angel." Anastasia was more focused on her breakfast of sliced fruits and granola. And she even had her noise canceling headphones. Garcia seemed a bit confused by this.

"Sorry, Garcia." Reid started whispering. "You'll have to excuse her."

"No, it's okay. At least she's adapting."

"Yeah. I'm…planning to take Anastasia to a specialist when she's eighteen months since I've been noticing she's showing the signs of Asperger's, autism."

"Oh. Well, that's good. Soon than later, right?"

"Yeah," Garcia could sense something up with Reid. "Do we have a case?"

"Uh, no. Just catching up on some leftover paperwork. While I try to make the office eco-friendlier with technology."

"Oh. That's good. Before you do that, can you watch Anastasia for a few minutes, please? I got something to do."

"Of course."

"Thank you."

He takes a walk down the hall and comes across a familiar sound. Turning his head, he sees three agents hanging around, not doing much except talking. Getting a closer look, he actually sees something familiar to him; he could even swear that what one of them was holding,

It sure looked a lot like…

Élise's cell phone!

When Élise updated her new cell phone, she explains to him it was a Samsung Galaxy. And she used a purple carbon fiber brushed case. He knew, in his heart, that it was her phone.

Now, he just needed to prove it.

Using his own cell phone to call Garcia,

"Speak, man of wonder."

"Hey, Garcia. Could you try calling Élise's cell phone?"

"O…kay? But why?"

"I just want to see that it's on."

"This could be a long shot, but I'll give it a whirl." Garcia seemed unsure about this, but anything to help find Élise. After giving Garcia time, he immediately recognized the ringtone: Élise also explained to him that she set her ringtone to be the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers Wrist Communicator.

"Uh, Reid?"

"Yeah."

"It's on. And I know where it is."

"Same here." He hung up on her before she got the chance to say anything else before coolly walking up to them and greeted him. "Hey."

"Hey." One of them awkwardly answered him.

"That's an interesting phone you got there."

"Yeah. I grabbed my sister's phone by accident."

"That's your sister's phone?"

"Yeah."

Reid observed every microexpression of his behavior: from his face to the tone of his voice; he even noticed his fingers and how he was using them to control himself. Immediately…

He knew he was lying. He was so convinced he was lying that he called her number again. He watched his reaction before shily asking him,

"Aren't you going to get that?"

"Yeah, I mean I could, but I can tell you it's just an…" Reid didn't let him finish his sentence when he snatched the phone out of his hand before walking back into the bullpen.

"Hey!" Causing them to follow Reid. "What the hell…?"

"Unless you want to be arrested for obstruction of justice in relations to the disappearance of Dr. Élise Bastien," Reid pulled off a signature Aaron Hotchner stare to intimidate him into backing off, "I suggested you step back from me. Now!"

Taking a couple steps back, "I don't know what you're going to find, man…."

"That's Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid to you, man." He said as he was trying to take Élise's phone from its case. Soon, most of the team and Hotch noticed Reid and what was going on.

"Reid?"

"Spence?" JJ unsurely asked him. "What's going on?"

She, along with everyone else, did not want Reid to go too far.

Finally pulling the phone out of its case, he immediately recognized something. He once noticed Élise customized the back of her phone with her initials, É.G.B.

And the initials were in white.

And this phone definitely had the white initials.

He knew it. He really knew it.

"Reid?" Garcia saw what was going on as she carried Anastasia in her arms. The team all see Reid tapping his fingers on his desk. The team all knew Reid would tap his fingers for several reasons.

And one of the reasons why was not a good one.

And he pulled a serious look on his face when he looked at the team. "This is Élise's phone." He turns to look at, "What's your name?"

"I don't see how that's really…"

"Tell me your name now." Reid began to have venom in the tone of his voice.

"It's Drake Wendel."

Grabbing the phone and shows it to him in front of his face, "Well…Drake Wendel. Where did you get this phone?"

Shrugging his shoulders, "I just found it outside."

Reid cocked his head at odd angles, raised his eyebrow, "You just found it outside?"

"Yeah."

Reid doubtfully shook his head. He just found it outside? He didn't even notice Garcia handing something to him in his hand.

"Uh, Reid? These are the last location pings from Élise's phone."

After taking a second to see what Garcia had just given him, "Okay. I'm going to ask you this one more time," This time, Reid slyly moves his jacket to shows off his revolver in his holster to Drake. "Where did you find this phone?"

"I told you, I just found it outside."

"Oh, you just found it outside…" Finally having enough of this nonsense, he grabbed the lapels of his jacket and physically slams him against his desk. While this may not have shocked JJ—she's seen him like this before—this shocked the team. Luckily, Garcia covered Anastasia from seeing her father act this way. "Listen here, you. If you know where Dr. Élise Bastien is, I suggest you tell me now."

"I'm telling you, man…"

Without warning and before Reid could do anything else, Élise's cell phone rings.

The caller ID showed that it was an unknown caller.

Prentiss picks it up and puts it on speaker,

"Hello?" Reid answered, still holding Drake by the lapels against the wall.

They hung up. "The hell was that?"

"Hey, guys," Garcia got everyone else's attention, "I got an email on my phone."

"And?"

"It's an address."

"To where?"

Garcia gets another quick email. This time, her eyes went wide, and her mouth opened. In a shocking tone of voice, "Élise."

Reid calmly releases Drake, but orders another agent, "Have him taken into one of the interrogation rooms and make sure no one talks to him when I get back." Before leaving with the rest of the team, "Garcia."

"Sent."

Reid plants a kiss on Anastasia's head and forehead. "I'll be back, okay? And be a good girl for Garcia. I love you."

After getting all strapped up in their FBI vests, making sure their weapons were filled with bullets to their maximum capacity and Garcia sending the coordinates; on their way to the location,

"Alright," Prentiss said as she got off the phone, "SWAT is meeting us at the location; they'll be there soon, and Cruz wants to be kept posted in case of anything."

"Garcia," Simmons asked. "Is there anything else you got on the location?"

"Yup. From I know is that there are lots of acres of land."

"I don't like this, you guys," JJ sensed something was not right. "I just think that we're going exactly where the Unsub wants us to go."

"Like we're going into a trap again."

They all knew how that turned out.

Reid remained silent the entire drive. He figured he needed every little bit of energy to take down whoever had the nerve to abduct and torture Élise.

Finally stopping at their location as they got out of their vehicles, there really was all these remote acres of land, but what stood out was the large Gothic Victorian chateau.

"Looks like nobody's been here for a while." Prentiss ordered SWAT into her vest, "Check every inch of the property."

JJ still couldn't get this feeling out of her head. "I don't know. I just…something's just not right."

"But still, let's keep it tight and most of all, stay alert, no matter what. This could possibly be an ambush." Said Rossi.

Just after entering the house, the team, especially Reid, saw what they did not expect to see,

"Whoa!"

"Oh!"

"No! NO!" Reid cried out.

Élise hanging by the ropes under the grand staircase by the high chandelier in the center of the foyer.

"No! No-no-no-no! NO!" Reid soon found himself frantically running up the staircase; the team following him. "Élise!"

"No!"

"Élise!"

"Élise!"

"Be careful," Prentiss said as they were trying to pull Élise's body up and release her ties. "Easy. Easy." After finally get her lifeless body over the rails and gently laying her down,

"Élise." Reid's voice started to crack, signaling he was about to cry in front of the team, which wasn't the first time. "Élise. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, Élise. I'm sorry that I…"

As Reid caressed her face, he noticed something on the side of her face; it was a flap. He starts gently peeling at it and said,

"This…this is a mask," Reid said.

"What?"

More of the mask came off, "This is not Élise. This is someone else."

"What?"

"Who...? What?"

"Why would…?"

Reid noticed something slipping out of the jacket, and this looked like the same jacket Élise wore before her disappearance. It was a piece of paper.

"What does it say?"

"Gambit. Notation is needed in this. And don't forget. Watch yourself. Zealousness can be deadly. Game time. Unless you want to quit. Zeitnot."

"What the hell that does even mean?"

Reid felt a chill going down his spine. "This is 'zugzwang' spelled backward," Thinking there could be something else, he looked at the other side, "You'll never find her…Dr. Spencer Reid."

The high-pitched and amplified sound woke Élise up. At least it was not the loud shrieking she had to encounter several times now. And the chain bounds were gone. But it didn't help her eardrums as much. Before she could think about the sudden disappearing headache and nausea, she noticed she was under some blanket.

Naked.

She didn't even have her underwear on.

And they were nowhere to be found from where she was.

Before she could now think about this, the door slammed open,

"Hello, Élise."

Élise pressed herself against the wall, frantically shaking her head, her eyes widened, mind numb to what was in store for her,

"No! Stay you! Stay away from me! No! No, no, no, no NO!"

A/H: Sorry for the cliffhanger(s)!