I don't usually do this, but I owe it to some of my loyal reviewers: My Christmas story and this one will be completed around Thanksgiving. Heir will be worked on through to Christmas. The re-aged story will be updated next year at the latest.

I am a manic person. I chase stories and write until I run out of ideas. I will finish them. I promise.

Reid saves himself from a vicious torturer after three years in captivity. Now, he has to learn how to live in a changed world.

His Own Hero

Cameron Gage didn't like this stretch of road. He only traveled it once or twice a year. West Virginia in general didn't have the best infrastructure, which was bad news for his wheels as a truck driver. Still the pay was good, so it was worth going down this desolate stretch of highway every once and a while.

There was something on the road up ahead. It looked like a man waving a white sheet. As he got closer, he saw the man's face was bloody and bruised.

Gage stopped the truck and dialed channel nineteen.

"I've got a wounded man on the side of the road," Gage said.

"Roger that. We'll get someone to your location stat," the dispatcher said.

"I'm going to check on him," he said and got out.

The man looked tired and bone-thin. The blue plaid shirt, didn't fit him, and it looked like the jeans he was wearing he tied around himself using rope. He was wearing no shoes. His hair was long and caked in blood.

"I've called for help," he said to the man. "I'm Cameron."

"I'm Spencer," he said hoarsely. "Can I use your phone while we wait?"

"Sure," he said pulling it out.

"What year is it?" he asked.

"Two thousand twenty-three."

The man didn't say anything, but there were tears in his eyes.

Gage handed him the cellphone.

"You look stunning Emily," J.J. said.

"Are sure I should be wearing white at my age?" she asked.

Lewis laughed.

"You're about to walk down the aisle and now you decide you want a color change?"

J.J. also laughed.

"The truth is Emily Andre would say you looked stunning even if you wore a literal potato sack down the aisle."

Prentiss sighed.

"I know, I just still can't believe it," Prentiss said. "I'm getting married!"

There was a knock on the door. Elizabeth Prentiss appeared.

"You're going to be late for your own wedding honey," she said.

Her phone rang.

"Ignore it," she said. "David is waiting and so is everyone else."

"I'll answer it," J.J. said and picked up her phone.

"Girls," Elizabeth said with a sigh.

"Who is this?" J.J. said and put it on speakerphone.

"J.J. is that you?" a hoarse voice said.

"Who is this? How'd you get this number?" J.J. asked urgently.

"Jenifer, it's me, Spencer."

J.J. burst into tears.

"Say something that only you would know," she said breathlessly. "We've been pranked before."

"The final score of the Red Skins game we went to ten to thirteen. The first time I ever heard you swear was when the kicker missed a field goal and I gasped and you laughed."

"Where are you?" Prentiss asked urgently. "We'll be on the next plane to get you I promise."

"West Virginia," he said. "The nearest town is called Green Bank."

"We're coming for you Spencer," Prentiss said. "I promise."

Prentiss ended the call with Elizabeth staring at her.

"You're really going to call off your wedding to see one friend?"

"Yes," she said, and marched past her.

The music began when she entered the chapel. She approached Rossi and whispered into his ear: "Reid's alive in West Virginia."

"Let's bring him home," he said.

Prentiss marched down the aisle quickly. Andre seemed to sense something was off.

"What's wrong?" he asked as the music faded.

"Ladies and gentlemen, this wedding needs to be put on hold," she said. "Spencer Reid is alive West Virginia. I need to go to him. I still love Andre, but Spencer has been missing for three years and he needs his family. Our love can wait."

Prentiss marched back down the aisle and went into the changing area. Lewis and J.J. were already in the process of changing.

"Help me get out of this thing," she said.

They had a friend who needed them.