A/H: Hello again, everyone!

A shout-out to ahowell1993, tannerose5, Hippiechic81, Amy, Kelly, Skylar, and Martha for reviewing Chapter 9!

Sorry for the wait! I've been having writer's block and life's been keeping me busy, but I hope you're ready for the chapters ahead!

New ideas and constructive criticism are always appreciated, but please do enjoy!

"Hey, Reid," Alvez greeted him as he stepped into the bullpen.

"Hey." Reid greeted him back as he saw Luke.

"How are you feeling?" Luke attempts to start a conversation with him. "Are you alright?"

"I'm decent."

"How's Anastasia?"

"Good."

"I heard that she's been diagnosed with Asperger's."

"Based on the questions I answered, yeah. To help her get adjusted before she starts school in a couple of years, I'm getting her started with a certificated autism specialist in occupational therapy as soon as possible."

"Oh. That's good. Better soon than late, right?"

"That's what Garcia said." Reid sensed Luke wanted to talk to him about something. "Say it."

"What?"

"I know you really want to talk to me about Élise."

"Reid…"

"I know it's been months now since she disappeared. I know the chances of finding her alive could be slim-to-none. I know there hasn't been a body yet. But I'm not going to stop until I find her, and I know she's alive, otherwise, this Unsub would have wanted me to know she was dead already."

Stunned by his surprised rant, Alvez just said, "I just wanted to say that we're not stopping to find her, too."

"I hope so. And is there anything else?"

"Not at the moment."

"Okay. If you need me, I'll be catching up on some paperwork."

"Aren't we all?"

As Alvez headed over to his desk, Reid went into the other room next to Penelope's. Unlocking the room with a key and flicking the lights on, folding tables and chairs were the only furniture pieces and the walls were covered with maps, pictures, and notes regarding Élise; papers covered one of the tables. This vacant room once belonged to a retired agent and Reid began to use this space as his foxhole; whenever he was free from his paperwork, on his breaks; until he went home with Anastasia, he spent all his free time here. The only other person who knew about this was Penelope, who was also helping him with everything technical; computers, camera footage, and surveillance, etc.

Reid kept Anastasia occupied whenever he felt like he needed a break, and other fun toys Garcia spoiled her back in her office whenever he had to be on a case. Spencer grabbed more coffee before getting right back to work. Penelope walked into the room with her,

"Hey, Reid."

"Hey, Garcia. Anastasia." He loudly yawned.

"How many cups have you had since this morning?"

"This is my fourth one."

"Reid. Come on," Garcia pulled Reid away from the board and everything else. She knew he'd been staring at it for hours; the dark circles around his eyes were more visible than usual and they were bloodshot. "You need to rest for a bit. At least have something to eat; I have some leftover veggie stir-fry rice. I can reheat again for you…"

Shaking his head, "No. I'm not stopping. I'll eat when I get home."

"Reid…please," Garcia felt the tears come, but held them back, "I know you want to find Élise; we all want to, but please. At least let's take a little break. For your baby girl."

Perhaps he could use a break. He could hear his stomach growl. And he was sure Garcia and possibly Anastasia could hear it, too. Sighing heavily, "Alright." After walking out of the room together with Anastasia and locked it behind them, heading down the hall,

Prentiss calls them, "Reid. Garcia. We have a case. We need to get going right now."

Looking at each other, "Go. I'll watch Anastasia."

"I love you and be good for Garcia." Reid gives Anastasia a kiss on the head before departing with Prentiss. "What happened? What do we know?"

"Deadly home invasion homicide: mother, father, four children—two boys and two girls—and the grandfather. The grandmother barely survived; she was repeatedly beaten and raped. You, Luke, Simmons, and JJ talk to her. Tara, Rossi and I will check out the scene."

"Will do."

"Ma'am, I know this is difficult," JJ compassionately said to her. "But please, can you tell us what happened?"

She closed her eyes tightly, despite knowing the chances of reliving those last moments. "H-he…he…he took away my family." She starts crying. "My grandchildren. He made my husband kill himself. He killed them one by one. He..."

"It's okay, ma'am," Tara said. "Take your time. Now, could you describe him?"

"He had…these eyes. Those eyes. They were cold. And I can never forget them. Tallish. Maybe at around six-foot-even. Thin. White. Brown hair," She took another moment. "He did horrible things to me. To us. He basically tortured us. Especially that young woman."

"A woman?"

This changed everything.

"Was she his accomplice?" Tara asked.

"Not even close."

"Could you describe her?" Alvez asked.

"Oh. Uh," She took a moment to concentrate. "Dark skin. Petite. Glasses. Short hair."

Reid started to do his 'Reid-mode' thing; giving all these thoughts to race around his head. Dark skin. Petite. Glasses. Short hair. His eyes widen when he started to think; going into his messenger bag. He pulled out a folder, rapidly opens it and pulls out a picture.

"Was this her?"

He pulled out a picture of Élise.

Her breathing soon began shallow, shuts her eyes again, whimpering.

"Was this her, ma'am?"

She was trying to not think about what happened to her family, but it all began too overwhelming her. Soon, the monitors shrieked, and the doctors hurried over to her side.

"What happened?"

"Ma'am, can you hear us?"

"I'm going to need you all step out of the room. Ma'am, please breathe in slowly. And exhale."

As the agents, especially Reid, walked out of the room, "Reid, before you get any ideas…"

"It's her."

"We don't know for her."

"She saw her."

"Spencer…"

Tara excused her to take a call, presumably from JJ, Rossi, and Prentiss, who were at the latest crime scene.

"I saw what she did with her finger. S-sh-she was trying to her finger to point at the picture."

"Reid, she was hardly stable. Not to mention traumatized."

"I know she saw Élise." Before Reid could continue.

"Agents."

One of the doctors came out.

"Did you get anything from her?"

"All she could say saw, 'Her. Her. Her,'" Soon, the doctor noticed the picture of Élise Reid had. "Was she 'the her?''"

Tara hung up her phone and injected herself into the conversation. "That was Prentiss. Crime lab just got the results from the urine stains and blood from the strands of hairs found at the scene."

"And…?"

She took a heavy sigh, "It was Élise's. And her hair strands showed signs of drug use."

While Luke and Simmons took a moment to absorb this, Reid just threw the folder he had in his hands against the window before storming off, but not before slamming his fist into the wall and growled. While Tara picked up the files,

"I'll go talk to him." Alvez offered. Soon, Alvez finds Reid as a vending machine, which doesn't seem to be working. Reid kicks it out of frustration and paused to simmer down for a moment.

And for Luke to take a moment to approach him.

"Hey."

"Yeah, hey."

"Were you planning to get a snack?"

"No."

Luke pressed his lips together. "Okay."

"It's not okay!" Reid shouted at him before taking the moment to calm himself down. "I'm sorry. Sorry, Luke."

"It's okay, Reid."

"No, it's not. No way in hell it is not okay," Shaking his head, fuming, "Luke, I'm telling you. The yoctosecond I learn who the unsub is, the yoctosecond I see his face, I'm going to kill him. And this time around, not you, not Prentiss, not anyone, is going to stop me."

As I said, sorry for the wait! I've been having writer's block and life's been keeping me busy, but I hope you're ready for the chapters ahead!