A/N: Hey look! I have another chapter for you! And free virtual cookies. :D Please review! I hope to update again soon! Thanks so much for all the review and to DaisyDay for being my BETA!

BRTxoxo


The color was drained from his face. This wasn't happening. This couldn't happen. Why was fate suddenly thrusting so many of these disastrous happenings on him? He didn't think his psyche could handle much more of this.

First his sister was taken by cancer, and then Taryn was diagnosed, then murdered, Kat was abducted by the killer-the unsub that had an preternatural infatuation with her-and then Reid, Spencer Reid, the young genius FBI agent, the one he'd become rather fond of, that had been the most eager and avid listener since he was reintroduced to Kate, was also abducted.

At that moment, Daniel Pierce was sitting on the sofa in his empty office, his face in his hands. Natalie was unnaturally silent. Mrs. Lovett however, was not.

"You have to remember dearest, Mister T took more lives than just the one that he wanted to take."

"Yes, I know," he snapped harshly. "And that's plainly obvious with this 'Sweeny Todd' as well."

Mrs. Lovett rested her wrists on her hips. "Yes, love, but my Mister T didn't take hostages. What does that tell you about your Mister Todd? Why did he take your trumpet, eh?"

"What makes you think I would know?"

"Because you know the mind better than anyone I know." The aberration of his mind sat down next to him and looked at him earnestly. "Think about it. Your Mister Todd has a very sickening fascination with the dear little pet, and killed in order to get 'er."

"Yes, you've summed that up quite nicely. What am I supposed to do with it now?" The neuropsychiatrist professor stood up and roughly raked his fingers through his already disheveled hair as he began to pace furiously in front of the couch. "He has a mental condition, finding himself to be 'in love' with Katrina because she holds a higher position in life. He thinks that when she looks at him she's begging him to take her away, telling him that she loves him." His hands gestured wildly. A thought struck him. "Why are you even here? It's not as if you can really help me solve a case that I'm not working on."

"I'm not here to induce muse and inspiration into your mind, love. I'm just here to let you know that you aren't the only one that's been drowned in the backlash of one Mister Sweeny Todd."

With a large sigh, he sat back down again and buried his face in his hands. He could feel tears of anger and hurt welling up behind his eyelids but he would be damned if he let them spill.

That was how Kate found him, Lewicki having told her that he hadn't left the office room since he'd relayed the new to him hours prior after his last lecture. At first she just sat there next to him, unsure of what to do. Their breathing became synced, the only noise in the still quite of the darkening room. Slowly her small hand had found its way to his back, burning from the warmth that radiated from his body. His hands had eventually revealed his eyes above his finger tips, red from unshed tears, staring ahead of him at some nondescript point on the wall. It was her softly murmured "I'm so sorry, Daniel," that landed them where they were now.

Sitting on the floor of Doctor Daniel Pierce's school office, in the deepening night, with her small arms wrapped around his broad shoulders, and his trembling hands gripping her soft shoulders as he continued to fight back the wetness in his clenched eyes.

. . .

"You thought she was dead?" Spencer's voice rang out through the hollow basement.

Katrina pulled her knees closer to her chest. "We heard about the accident that killed my aunt and uncle. We hadn't heard anything about her or her stepfather. We assumed the worst and lived with it as best we could. It hurt… she can't be alive, is she?" her wet brown eyes held his gaze somewhat waveringly.

"She's been with the BAU for years. She never mentioned her family, so we didn't know until recently that you two were… related…" his voice was air, a bit far away as he thought about his team. A small part of him felt bad for the man that took him, knowing that he would not be in very good shape should they ever get a hold of him. The feeling was immediately extinguished as his eyes roamed over Katrina's thin and pale form, obviously malnourished and abused.

Bruises-ranging from new and forming to old and healing speckled her light skin. A few scratches and scabs peeked out at him, and her eyes looked dull and sunken from lack of sleep. Her hair was the brightest part of her. The fur on her ears and tail looked un-groomed and clumped.

"Aren't you a bit young to be in the FBI? I mean, you can't be that much older than me, but I thought that it took a higher age to get into the Bureau. Even Penelope… I mean, I knew she was smart but I never thought that it would get her into that line of work."

Spencer hesitated. "I'm… well, I'm a genius, as you could call it."

"How?" Her head tilted to the side, her ears cocked at different angles.

Spencer had to tell himself that he did not, under any circumstances, find the look to be utterly adorable. "I have an eidetic memory, I can read twenty thousand words per minute, and I have an IQ of one hundred eighty seven. I usually don't think that intelligence can be accurately quantified but it's easier to just tell people that I'm a genius. Most don't understand what I tell them."

"You can remember every word that you've ever read."

His brown eyes widened slightly and he shifted uncomfortably, wincing from the pain in his wrist.

"My mother taught us at home for school. My sister and I learned more than we would have in a public school, and my Uncle Daniel would visit us often. I listened to him while he talked about neuroscience and the brain. After he was diagnosed with schizophrenia, I started to study the brain. I remember listening avidly to him while he used to talk to me about what he learned in college, at the university. It fascinated me. I know what an eidetic memory is." She was avoiding his gaze, picking at her nails. "I know how hard it must be for you, knowing things and remembering things that most people twice your age don't. After learning about and trying to fully understand schizophrenia for my Uncle, I've learned to understand more things, or at least try to." That's when she looked up to him, with something akin to hope or pleading in her eyes. "Will you tell me a story?"

His mind blanked. She wanted to hear a story?

"I've been captive for almost an entire month with no one to keep me company except for Sweeny Todd. He has this fascination with me and listening to my voice. I've stopped talking completely to him, and when he gets very angry with me he hits me because I won't talk. This is the first time I've actually talked in about two weeks. I have nothing to do all day, nothing to read. Except…" here it was her turn to hesitate. She bit her bottom lip gently, having an inner discussion with herself on whether or not she should tell this FBI Agent about the journal. After about a minute she took a deep breath and her eyes flicked to his. "Except for this." Her hand slid under her pillow and pulled out the brightly colored journal and pen. "I found this the second day I was here, wedged between the radiator and a box. I've written in it every day, as small as I can, recording everything that happens."

"You don't think you'll be found?"

"I don't think I'll be found for a while. I'm not sure how long I'll be able to survive if he doesn't give me the foods that contain the nutrients I need. I can't tell him, because he won't listen to anything but my voice." A small smile lifted the corners of her mouth for only a second. "I'm afraid of dying you know. Of falling asleep and never waking up again. But I feel like I will soon."

Strangely enough, that made Spencer's anger spike, and he nearly scared himself-he very rarely ever got very angry. "You won't die." The conviction and emotion behind his words shocked Katrina from her dismal attitude. "I won't let you die. Somehow we are going to get through this and you will get out of here. My team… they'll find us. I know they will. They will do anything they can, even if it's not within their rights, to find us, to find you." He cleared his throat awkwardly, and rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

The handcuff dug into his wrist painfully.

Katrina smiled lightly at him, and her muscles relaxed a tiny bit.

After a few moments of a not quite awkward but not quite comfortable silence, Spencer asked, "What story do you want to hear?"