3 years ago:

Brennan held Spencer's hand under the table on the plane as they listened to JJ present the case to the team. Four triple homicides in a small town all within a few nights of each other. Local law enforcement should have called them sooner.

"It's late. When we land we'll go straight to our hotel and get some sleep. We'll do more good on a good night's rest." Hotch told the team as JJ stopped talking.

"On that note, Spencer and I have something to announce."

The team looked at the couple expectantly.

"So, Spencer asked me to marry him," Brennan said as she glanced at her fiancé. "And I told him yes."

She looked back at the team as she heard a chorus of congratulations. Reid lifted her hand and kissed the back of it, smiling at her.

"When will the wedding be?"

"Wedding?" Brennan asked looking at JJ. "No wedding."

"No wedding?"

"No wedding," Reid confirmed. "Though it'll probably be a while before we go up to the court house. We want to try living together first because statistics show that people who live together before getting married are less likely to divorce than those that wait.

"I'm sure they know the statistics. How long before we land?" Brennan asked yawning.

"About twenty minutes," Hotch answered her.

Brennan nodded as she started to flip through the file in front of her. She kept looking at the pictures of the victims, not even noticing that the plane was landed and stopped.

"Bren?"

Brennan looked at Spencer as he said her name. "What?"

"We're here," he said gesturing to the rest of the team leaving the plane.

"Of course," Brennan said as she got up and followed Spencer off of the plane.

Spencer watched her in the car as they drove to the hotel and up to their hotel room. He knew she had a habit of getting emotionally involved in cases, especially ones that involved children.

He watched as she pulled off her shirt, her light red hair contrasting against the paleness of her skin, blending into the bright red bra she wore. He could stare at her all day. He never thought that someone like her would ever love him, hell, want to marry him. Her pants slid down her legs and he smiled slightly at her mismatched purple panties. They had been together for two years but every time he saw her, it was like the first time all over again.

Spencer walked forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, kissing her shoulder before resting his chin on it. "What are you thinking about?"

Brennan kissed his cheek. "These people let 12 people get killed, 9 of which maybe could have been saved if they had only called us sooner rather than letting their ego take control. 5 children who barely had a chance to live. It just makes me mad."

"Statistically, most triple homicides…"

"I don't want to hear statistics, Spence," Brennan said as she pulled away from him and turned to face him. "They should have called."

"Yeah, they should have," Spencer agreed. "You haven't been sleeping again."

Brennan bit her lip before she went and dropped onto the hotel room bed. "The dreams are back."

"The ones about your mother." It wasn't a question.

"It's been 25 years, Spence. They're never going to catch him."

Spencer sat beside her on the bed. "They will catch him or we will, Bren. Rossi has never stopped looking for the man that killed your mother."

Brennan looked at her best friend and fiance. "My father might be looking for him, but it's only because he's the one that ultimately reunited us."

Brennan was seven when her mother was murdered while she was sleeping in the next room. She woke up and went to wake her mother because it was her birthday and found her mother's body. She had been raped and murdered. Brennan never heard a sound and never forgave herself for not waking up and saving her mother.

She went into foster care for two years and when she was nine, she thought that she had found a family that was going to keep her. That was until her social worker had somehow found him. David Rossi, her father. Her mother had never told him about her and as soon as he knew, he took her in and raised her how it all should have been. She ultimately followed in his footsteps and became an agent of the BAU.

"I love you," Spencer said to combat her long moment of silence.

Brennan looked at him and smiled. "I love you too." She leaned forward and kissed him. At Spencer's slight moan, she deepened the kiss and pushed him onto his back, moving over his body.

"We're supposed to be resting," Spencer said breaking away from her and looking up at her with raised eyebrows. "You know we can solve cases better when we've had a good nights sleep."

Brennan kissed him again, her hands going to his shirt and unbuttoning it, pulling it open as she ran her hands along his chest. "Sleep is overrated, Spence."

"Highly," Spencer said in agreement as he flipped them over, his lips finding hers again.

"Hey, Spence?"

Spencer looked up at JJ as she spoke. "What? I'm sorry."

JJ watched the man for a second. "We're going to find her you know. Find her and bring her home."

Spencer glanced over at Rossi, who was sitting at the back of the plane looking through the pages of texts that Garcia had managed to pull from the phone company. He looked back at JJ, a perplexed look on his face. "Five years, Jayje. We were together for five years. Why did she feel like she couldn't bring this up to me? Bring it up to us? We're her family."

JJ moved so that she could sit beside him. "We're her family and she was trying to protect us the best way that she knew how. Her mother was killed and she couldn't protect her, so she felt that this was the way to protect us."

"This guy knows things about her. About us. Those messages have private things about our life together that no one else could know."

"He's been following her. Something about her surviving his shooting has made him similar to a stalker. He has to know what she's doing at all times. She's known for months that he has been watching her for a while."

Spencer shook his head. "None of this makes sense, Jayje. The things he said a lot of it happened before her original shooting. There's a comment in there about how our court house wedding ended up being an actual wedding in the park. How would he know that? Only you guys and my mom were invited."

JJ pursed her lips as she heard the pilot tell them to buckle up for landing. "So what do you think is going on?"

"I don't know. It's all very weird." He looked out the window of the plane, his mind going over the messages on those papers.

"She always asked about you. Whenever we talked she always wanted to know how you were doing. She does love you, Spence." JJ looked down at the ring still on his finger. "I really hope that when we find her, you guys can work this out."

"If we find her alive."

"We will." JJ said as the plane landed on the tarmac.

Emily, Spencer, and JJ walked up to the reservation desk of the hotel, both of them pulling out their badges and showing them to the clerk. Morgan and Rossi had gone to where Brennan used to work to see if she had been in contact with her old partner.

"FBI agents Prentiss, Reid, and Jareau. We're looking for a woman who has been renting a room here."

"Name?" The clerk asked looking at the badges.

"Brennan Rossi."

The clerk hit a few keys on her computer before shaking her head. "I don't have a Brennan Rossi in the system. Maybe she was staying at a different hotel?"

"No, it was definitely this hotel," Emily said with a frown. "Can you check the last couple of days and see if maybe she already checked out?"

The clerk looked back at her computer and started searching the name for the past couple of days. She shook her head and looked back at Emily. "There's no Rossi in my system at all."

"Reid," Spencer said from beside Emily. "Try Brennan Reid."

The clerk hit a few keys on her keyboard and looked back at them. "I have a Reid in room 314." She made a keycard and gave it to them. "Her check out isn't scheduled for another week."

"Thank you," Emily said as she took the card from the clerk and the three of them headed up to her room on the third floor. "How does she afford something like this on our salary?"

"Brennan and I saved a lot," Spencer said as they stopped outside of her door. "Plus she has family money from her mother and Rossi. She's not usually this extravagant though."

Emily looked away from him and opened the door to the room. She walked inside first, "Brennan?"

"Bren?" Spencer said from behind her as him and JJ followed her into the hotel room.

"She's not here," Emily said after a quick search of the room. "None of her stuff is here, but the clerk said she hasn't checked out yet."

Spencer walked to the bed and picked up the bear that was placed neatly between the pillows. "She didn't take her stuff voluntarily."

"You know that from a teddy bear?"

Spencer moistened his lips before he turned to face the women in the room. "This was our daughter's bear. She wouldn't leave this behind unless she was forced to or someone else packed up her stuff and left this behind as a message to us."

"J.A.R?"

"Her initials. Her name was Jennifer Alexis Reid," Spencer shook his head. "What if they're not even still in Seattle or Washington? What if we never find her?"

"We will," Emily said as she moved forward and pulled him into a hug. "Come on lets see if Morgan and Dave have found anything."

Spencer nodded as he allowed JJ to steer him out of the room. It was clear to him that Rutledge was trying to send a message. The only question was what was the message.