Chapter 4: Paper Plane

Spencer waited in tense, worried, anticipation, pacing the length of his living room nervously, peering down at his cellphone now and then, making sure that it was still on, the volume was still such that it would ring.

Minutes passed like hours, and he came closer and closer to just calling Garcia, asking her to trace the call, and explaining later. Honestly… his instincts were still screaming at him to do just that, and getting louder the more time went by. Until, finally, after half an hour, his phone rang at last. He picked it up, the number was unknown. It could be her… He picked it up.

"H-hello…"

"Spencer…it's me…." She told him. "I'm at a pay phone about six blocks from my apartment…"

"Good…now I need you to look around you…is there anyone watching you a little too closely? Maybe someone you've seen other places but don't actually know?" he asked. He neglected to tell her that he was trying to determine if her stalker had followed her there. If the Unsub had, they might pick up of Maeve's anxiety, realize she was onto them and do something violent. "Just stay calm, and scan the area…" he told her.

Maeve stuck her head out of the phone booth and peered around the deserted street corner.

"Spencer, this place is deserted, there's no one here but me." She told him.

"Good…now I want you to stay where you are for an hour or so, if the stalker was nearby we want them to get bored and leave. When you go home…don't disconnect the landline…"

"Why not?" she asked. "I don't want that creep calling me…"

"I know Maeve, but listen…you have to be careful how you proceed with a stalker, if you reject their advances too strongly that will only enrage them and put you in a dangerous situation. You don't have to answer, you can let it go to the answering machine, in fact you should, but you shouldn't cut off completely the line of communication the stalker is trying to use…" he told her. He sighed deeply, reminding himself that for the moment at least, she was still safe, before continuing on… "Please, I know it's hard for you right now, and I know we haven't known each other for very long…but I'm trying to protect you…and without knowing where you are, all I can do is teach you what I know about suspects like this, to try and keep whoever this guy is from hurting you…"

Though Maeve tried to hold back so that Spencer wouldn't notice on the other end of the phone… she found herself beginning to cry.

"It…it's alright, I know…I know you're trying to help…and I know it's probably not a good idea to make this creep too angry, not while he can still get to me…" she paused, took a deep breath, and calmed herself down. "I just have one question…" she told him.

"What is it? He asked.

"What about us? What about our line of communication? The number you have is my office phone, which now gets re-routed to my cell. How long before the stalker gets those numbers too? What if he hacks my account? Goes through my phone records? Once he has that, he has my friends, my parents, you…"

"Calm down, the first thing you should do is change your cellphone number…get a new email address, making it harder for him to invade your life more than he already has… As for us, what do you want to do about it?" he asked. "I mean that's…completely up to you…"

He said it in a tone that told Maeve that he was every bit as scared of losing her as she was of him getting hurt.

"I…I don't think we should call each other any more for a while…but we can still stay in contact, through snail mail… I'll set up a PO box, then I'll send you a letter with that address along with a new cellphone number… from now on, at least for the time being, we write to each other, we do not call, unless it's time sensitive or an emergency? Agreed?"

"Agreed…"