History

Chapter Two

As Spencer pulled into his normal parking spot at the BAU, he turned the car off and turned to Julie. For the first time, she seemed truly frightened, her eyes wide and her breathing increased ever so slightly.

"Are you…" Spencer trailed off, trying to find the right word to use. "…okay?"

Julie looked at him, feigning a small smile. "Yes." She said it so softly that Spencer knew it had to be a lie.

"I'll be with you the entire time. There isn't anything to be worried about." Spencer tried to console her. "You're safe now."

Julie nodded slowly, taking a deep breath. "Okay." She turned to Spencer, fixating her green eyes onto his brown ones. "I trust you."

Spencer offered her a small smile to show his gratitude before getting out of the car and leading her inside of the building.

Once inside, everything seemed to pass by in a blur. The entire team was waiting for Spencer and Julie, all of them anxious – and some of them skeptical – as to how she could have possibly been a survivor of the Day kidnappings ten years prior. However, it didn't take long before her story was confirmed; police found the cabin just where Julie had said it would be, no more than two miles east of the road where she had stumbled upon to Spencer's car, and, sure enough, inside they found the dead body of the man whom Julie claimed to be her captor.

Immediately, Julie was being led away by JJ to be asked questions, and Spencer felt almost a responsibility to stay with her. After all, he had been the one who had found her, accidentally or not. That had to count for something, and, if anything, he knew that she trusted him, which, after ten years in captivity, was no small feat. However, before he could run to catch up with JJ and Julie, he felt a hand clap around his shoulders.

"My man," Morgan called out, his ever-present grin on his face. "Look at you saving the day! Way to go, Pretty Boy. I didn't know you had it in ya." He snickered.

"Thanks, Morgan." Spencer said, ignoring – or perhaps, simply not detecting – the sarcasm in his friend's voice. "But I really don't think I necessarily saved the day. I almost ran her over, actually."

"Oh, Reid," Morgan rolled his eyes at the younger man and ruffled up his hair, much to Spencer's disdain. "Rule number one of being a hero is not trying to convince everyone else that you're not actually a hero."

Morgan began to walk away, and Spencer turned to look at him, his facial expression one of obvious confusion. "But, that's because I'm not actually a…" Morgan was already out of earshot. "…hero." Spencer mumbled to himself. He shrugged and turned to walk over to his desk, but before he could, Hotch called over to him.

"Hey, Reid, we need you."

Spencer bobbed across the room to his superior. "What for?" Spencer looked around, then asked another question, "Is Julie okay?"

"That's what we need your help with." Hotch explained, beginning to walk down the hall with Spencer following by his side. "You found her. Kidnapping victims tend to form close bonds with the people who they view to be their 'saviors'. In this case, that's you. She trusts you. She's not going to be as comfortable around any other member of this team – certainly not a male in a position of authority – and even with JJ, she'll be skeptical, unless you're there to tell her that it's alright." Hotch stopped in front of one of the doors along the hallway. "She's in there."

"A-Are you sure she really wants to talk to me? That's not really one of my strengths…" Spencer looked at Hotch, then over to the door, skeptically.

"I'm positive." Hotch responded. "She said it herself."

Spencer sighed reluctantly, but nodded in agreement to Hotch anyway, and made his way into the room where Julie and JJ sat.

Julie sat facing the door, and, upon realizing that it was Spencer who was entering the room, visibly relaxed into her chair. "Dr. Reid!" She practically exclaimed. "I'm glad you're back."

JJ smiled softly at Spencer, signaling that it was fine with her for him to do the talking.

"Yeah, I'm here Julie, don't worry. I didn't mean to get separated from you. I'm sorry."

"No, no, it's fine." She laughed nervously to herself, picking at one of her fingers. "I don't know why I'm so scared all of a sudden. The worst is over. I should feel safe now, if anything." She brushed some of her hair out of her face and behind her ear. "I'm just being stupid."

"Actually, Julie," Spencer spoke up. "How you're feeling is completely natural and expected. After kidnapped victims spend long periods of time with their captors, they tend to forget, per se, what it truly is like to live amongst a community in the outside world. The begin to lose a sense of their individuality, and feel as though apart from their captors, they can't possibly amount to anything, as their entire sense of identity is wrapped up in their lifestyle as a victim. Such was the case with Jackie Askins and Jaycee Dugard, who felt as though they were incapable of forming relationships and connections outside of the ones that they shared with their captives over all of those years that they were held hostage. In fact—"

JJ cut Spencer off from his rant, trying to spare Julie from his longwinded explanation. "What Dr. Reid, is trying to say is—"

However, Julie cut JJ off as well. "I know what he was trying to say, Ms. Jareau." She turned back to Spencer, genuine interest on her face, and began to complete his train of thought for him. "Even in the case of Elizabeth Smart, who was only 14 years old at the time of her abduction, she was made to feel so incredibly worthless by her captors that she never attempted to escape out of fear of how the outside world would view her. Stockholm Syndrome; the condition of trusting and even growing fond of one's captors." Julie shrugged slightly. "It's a fascinating concept, especially utilized in popular literature; even the fairy tale Beauty and Beast hints at it."

JJ raised both of her eyebrows, looking at Julie almost disbelievingly, and she slowly turned to look over at Spencer, whom, on the other hand, couldn't help but be slightly impressed.

"You really were serious about all of those books, weren't you?" He said to Julie, with a small smile. She returned the gesture.

"Yeah, I was. There were always new books in that house; he constantly replaced them for me. He was always buying me new ones, about absolutely anything I could have dreamt of." She looked down at her hands again, deep in thought.

"Julie," JJ caught the girl's attention again. "It's okay if some of this is hard for you, or if you aren't quite sure how to feel about it all just yet. It's a lot to process, all at once. But would you feel alright with trying to tell us about it?"

Julie looked over at Spencer, who nodded assuredly at her. Julie let out a long breath, and, in turn, nodded to JJ as well.

"Good." JJ gave her a little smile. "Just tell us whatever you feel comfortable saying. Start from the beginning, in 2004."

After a brief pause, Julie began, looking at Spencer as she told her story. "Jenna and I both went to bed like any other night. It was early in the morning – 2 or 3 a.m. – when I woke up, and I could tell something wasn't right, but I didn't know what it was right away. Then I felt a presence next to me and…" Julie exhaled. "He had his hand over his mouth, and he told me that if I didn't do what he said, he'd kill my sister. Next thing I do, we were both bound and in the trunk of his car."

"And he took you to the cabin from there?" JJ inquired.

Julie nodded. "He put us in separate rooms. He—" Julie trailed off, hesitating.

"It's okay. Take your name." Spencer added softly. Julie looked up at him thankfully.

She sighed, then began again with more strength than before. "He flipped a coin. It landed on "Tales", which I suppose meant that Jenna would be…" Julie swallowed hard. "…she would be the one who died first." Julie ran a hand through her long hair and shook her head slightly. "It could have just as easily been me, you know." She looked down at her hands, still shaking her head. "But…but something went wrong. After he…killed…her, he came up for me." She closed her eyes. "Covered in blood, but his eyes…they were darting around, like he'd gone mad. And he was pale as a ghost." She opened her eyes again to look up at Spencer. "Something wasn't right. Something…had happened. He saw something he wasn't expecting or…I don't know. Something didn't go as he wanted it to." Julie shrugged slightly. "I don't know what it was, but it made him sick. He couldn't even look at me for a while; every time he tried to come in and get me, he…he just…" Julie let out a deep breath. "He just couldn't bring himself to do it. He couldn't bring himself to kill me, too."

There was a bit of a silence before Julie spoke up again. "He couldn't kill me, but he couldn't just let me go, either. I knew what he looked like, and I knew where the cabin was. I had to stay his captive, whether he wanted me to be or not. And so, for ten years, that's what I was." For the first time, Julie's eyes began to glisten over with the threat of tears. "Ten years." She repeated, mostly to herself.

After a few moments, she composed herself, wiping at the few tears that had managed to escape. "I'm so sorry." She said softly, almost embarrassed, looking down at the ground. Spencer, somehow moved by her display of emotion, walked over to the couch where she was sitting, and crouched down next to her on the ground. "You're doing more than fine. Don't apologize." He tried to reassure her. She looked up at him, and attempted a little smile.

"Do you want to take a break?" Spencer offered. Immediately, Julie shook her head. "No. I can get through this." She said softly. "But thank you, Dr. Reid."

Julie moved over slightly on the sofa, and signaled for Spencer to get up and sit next to her. He did so, and in the process, she grabbed his hand with hers. He looked down at it, surprised, but made no effort to retract.

"He never laid a finger on me after that first night, not really." Julie went on. "He kept me clothed, he fed me and gave me books, as you know. I even had a cat at one point that he let me keep." She gave a small, empty laugh. "But that wasn't until I'd been there for quite some time. It took a while until he trusted me enough to take the restraints off of me. He knew I wouldn't run. Where would I go? My sister was dead, my mother had been dead for years, and then when he told me of my father dying a few months later…" She sighed. "What was the point? I'd been gone for so long by the time he began to give me more freedom, what was the purpose of trying to run away by that point? After a while, I could do almost anything I wanted in that house, and I still never thought of running. Until this morning." She sighed, trying to process everything that happened in the past few hours alone. "I think he wanted me to kill him. He just made it so damn easy for me." After a bit of a pause, she laughed that same, empty laugh again. "You know, I never even knew his name. He wouldn't tell me." She shook her head in disbelief. "Can you believe that? Ten years with a man and I never even knew his name."

Before Spencer could even process what was happening, suddenly Julie had buried her head into his chest, her arms clutched tightly around his thin waist, her body shaking with sobs. He looked up at JJ in shock, and she met his gaze, her eyes filled with pity for the girl on his lap. Spencer looked back down at Julie, still unsure as to what exactly he was supposed to do; he normally was not the person in which victims sought out comfort. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her, his one hand stroking her back beneath her long, blonde waves of hair, as he rocked gently back and forth, trying to convince her quietly that everything was going to be alright.

To Be Continued

A/N: I hope you all like this so far! Review please.