Sorry about the delay, just gone back to school - and everything is really hectic. I have a sort of proper plot now, so I should update quicker this time.

Hope you enjoy.


Waking up at the shrill ring of his phone, he answered it before it managed to wake his Rosie, speaking in a hushed tone to JJ, who had called him in about a development in the case they had started only the previous morning, which he managed to pass off as merely sleep-filled.

"'Pensa?" A quiet voice broke the new silence of the room, as he hung up and tried to get quickly dressed in the almost dark – though the devil red letters of the clock glared at him accusingly – 6:24, far too early for any reasonable person to be up.

"Go back to sleep Rosie, it's too early to get up." Spencer told her, stroking her hair off of her face as he did so.

"Kay," she replied, her voice still quiet, as she rolled onto her side facing away from him, her soon steady breathing telling him she had fallen asleep again.

Pressing a kiss onto her forehead, as he left a flask of boiling hot black coffee and a quickly scrawled note telling her where he was going, as if she didn't know already.

He looked in on at his still sleeping daughter in the next room as struggled to put on his socks, a smile gracing his face almost unbidden, as he watched her just breathe.


Arriving in Quantico all of about fifteen minutes later, he was happy to note he was not the last one in, although it was only Emily who arrived after him.

It wasn't a particularly difficult case, not that it made much difference in finding the Unsub, a man had been kidnapping hard-working brunette women in their early forties, then, over the course of a day or two, shooting each one of her joints, and leaving her to slowly bleed out.


For four hours they had run into dead end after dead end, each member stressed as they knew the Unsub had a new victim who had a matter of hours to live if they did not find out where she was, which they couldn't do without the name of the Unsub.

"I've got a name," an almost-shout from Emily drew their attention. "Randy Gorrows, forty nine years old, his wife left him with their daughter exactly two weeks ago."

"That's only two days before the first kidnapping."

"And would you like to guess what Mrs Gorrows looks like?" Emily asked rhetorically, pulling up a picture of brunette woman in her early forties.

"Find him Garcia," Hotch ordered, to which she only nodded in response, already concentrating on her computers.


"Police patrol car has him in their sights," Morgan called up to Hotch, and they all immediate headed out to the cars.


The six of them were in two SUVs, and all except the drivers, being Hotch and Morgan, had already strapped their bullet proof vests on, expecting Gorrows to try and shoot his way out of the situation.

"Don't let him out of your sight," Spencer heard Hotch command over the radio to the police car that had spotted their suspect.


They must have thought he was stupid – those two idiot cops in that big white car that had been following him for almost a mile, quickening his pace only slightly, he came across a small alleyway lined with only a few non-descript shops, and almost too narrow for a car to easily follow down.

Then he saw it.

His way out.

It was called "Betty's Coffee Shop", and the outside seemed almost bland, decorated an almost beige colour.

But that didn't matter, not really.

Walking into the inconspicuous coffee shop, he noticed that there were only about seven people in there – not including him – the twenty-something year old girl who was serving the customers, a teenaged couple completely wrapped up in each other, two business style men sat on opposite ends of the small shop – occasionally glaring at each other, and a red headed pair who appeared to be mother and young daughter talking and laughing with each other about something he couldn't hear. There was a nice atmosphere, a normal atmosphere about the place. Well, that was about to change.

Pulling out the small silver piece of metal from his pocket that he had killed four women with, he hesitated for only a moment, before firing two shots into the ceiling.

Someone screamed and then everything fell silent.


That morning.


The first thing Rosie noticed that morning was that her Spencer was no longer asleep next to her, though there was a still warm flask of black coffee, and a note from him in his usual large sprawling writing.

Rubbing sleep from her eyes, and taking a large gulp of her coffee to wake herself up, she glanced at the large red letters that stated very clearly that it was just before seven in the morning. Picking up her husband's note, she read it twice through then placed it lovingly in the box within her bedside table where at least a couple of hundred of similar notes she had cumulated over the years lived.

Pulling herself out of the warm duvet covers she turned to look at the doorway, almost shrieking when she noticed a figure blocking the lower part. She let out a breath. "Lissa? You scared me." When the small girl didn't move, Rosie widened her arms and beckoned her young daughter.

"I don't feel very well mummy," she mumbled into her mother's side after finally reaching it.

Pressing the back of her hand to Lissa's forehead, she noted that it was, in fact, very warm, not life threatening, but not suitable for going to school. "Oh, come here baby," she muttered into her daughter's hair as she pulled her into a hug. "Even if you're not going to school today, you still need to get dressed, as I need to go shopping. Can you come with me?"

Rosie felt rather than saw the little girl's nod, but she pushed her away anyway, "Off you go then, get dressed and then come downstairs." As she retreated out of her mother's bedroom, Rosie called after her daughter, "And if you're going to throw up, please try and do it in the toilet or the bin, not the sink."

A non-committal grunt came from the hallway, and Rosie assumed that that meant that her daughter understood.


Just over five hours had passed since then, putting the time at just after twelve, and Rosie had been dragging Lissa around shop after shop for almost three and a half hours, and, unsurprisingly, the nine year olds feet were starting to drag, she had less energy than usual but three hours of shopping would have tired her out anyway.

Rosie began looking around for somewhere new to eat that was relatively healthy but wouldn't have her spending a small fortune.

She was just about to give up and take them to McDonald's just around the corner when she spotted a small shop was called "Betty's Coffee Shop", which appeared to serve a large selection of sandwiches and drinks that would suit the appetite and re-awaken both the small girl and her mother, who was actually equally tired after a couple hours of shopping, that would have exhausted her even without Lissa.

They had just received their food, a tuna mayonnaise sandwich and milk for Lissa, and a Coronation Chicken sandwich with a large black coffee for Rosie.

When Rosie's attention was temporarily snatched by a slight commotion outside, Lissa took the opportunity to try some of her mother's drink, spluttering almost immediately and gulping down a couple of large mouthfuls of her milk, as Rosie began to laugh at her, even while wiping away the dregs of coffee from the corner's of Lissa's mouth.


Two gun shots rattled the room, and Lissa screamed involuntarily, jumping towards her mother, before everything went silent.


Thank you for reading, please review,
Mia