A Bullet to the Head

"The Truth is a beautiful thing and a terrible thing and therefore should be treated with caution." -J.K. Rowling

She looked so tiny. And pale, she was so pale. But if she was troubled, or aware of how tiny and pale she was, it wasn't apparent on her peaceful face. Rylee had been sleep for close to ten hours now and Spencer had been by her side the entire time. She hadn't woken up yet, and Spencer was partially thankful for that. If she kept sleeping, maybe he wouldn't have to tell her that the man who had kidnapped her was still out there and that the team had absolutely no leads.

A nurse knocked gently before stepping through the open door to check on Rylee. She was gripping her worn out elephant with one arm while the other rested limply at her side with an IV pushing fluids into her system.

"How is she?"

"Just sleeping." The nurse answered with a kind smile, "She'll wake up when she's ready to."

Spencer nodded as the nurse finished her tasks with Rylee and went calmly onto the next patient. When she was gone, Spencer laid a hand over his sisters and sighed, "Please, Rylee, if you can hear me, keep sleeping. And please, please don't dream."

Rylee shifted a little against her pillow.

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"Tell me we got something." Morgan said, running a hand over his head, "People don't disappear."

"That's all this guys done for years, Morgan."

Hotch stood in front of one of the whiteboards, staring at Spencer's handwriting.

Xolani had completely vanished off the map after they had taken Rylee back. But they could trust that he wouldn't stop, he was far too deep in his delusions. There were three paths that Xolani could take, the first would be to go after Rylee. The second would be to take yet another girl. The third was to have a complete psychological break down because he had once again been 'left' as he may see it, by the girl of his dreams.

"We've got guards on Rylee's room, right?" Prentiss asked, glancing up from the file was reading.

"Just a uniform cop and Spencer."

"Send another uniform over." Hotch said suddenly, "I want two on her door until we catch Xolani." he turned to face his team, "JJ make sure the media and police from all the surrounding counties have his picture and information, keep it circulating. He's gonna show his face somewhere."

JJ nodded and turned, leaving the room to follow her orders, with her phone already at her ear.

"What do we do now, Hotch?" Morgan asked, standing up.

"We wait." Hotch answered before turning to Prentiss, "Any word from Spencer?"

"Not for a while."

Hotch grabbed his jacket, "I'm going to see if Rylee found something we haven't seen yet, you two stay here and see what you can find, anything we might have missed. And keep an eye on patrols, if he's looking for Rylee or another girl, he's around here. If not, we'll know soon enough."

Morgan nodded, "Be careful, Hotch." he said before turning back to his files, Prentiss doing the same.

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Rylee had screamed and lashed out when she woke up. Spencer had received a scratch to the side of his face as he had tried to calm her while yelling for the nurse. Her nails drew blood across his cheek, but he was able to hold her still and slightly bring her back to reality before the nurses got there. It took them a few seconds to inject another dose of the drug that put her to sleep, but she fell asleep looking at Spencer with confused eyes and holding his hand.

The nurse then strapped Rylee's arms to the bed and checked the cuts on Spencer's face before leaving the room, telling him that the doctor would come in to check on her soon. Spencer rubbed the back of her captive hand with his thumb and watched her almost fitful sleep.

"Rylee, you're not with him any more." he whispered, leaning closer, "You're safe, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you. I promise. Please, Rylee. You're okay..." He wasn't sure why he was speaking to her, knowing she probably couldn't hear him, but he thought that maybe she could and maybe it was making him feel a little bit better to.

"How is she?" a strong voice from behind him asked.

"She woke up about fifteen minutes ago." Spencer sighed, "It, uh, didn't go so well."

"Are those from her?" he asked, motioning to the three long red lines down his cheeks.

"Yeah... they have the braces on her wrists now."

"Probably from her good as much as yours."

Spencer nodded, "Have you found anything?"

Hotch shook his head, "I'm afraid not. Did she say anything?"

"She hasn't been awake long enough to say anything." Spencer looked up at his boss, "What's the plan?"

Hotch sighed a little and took a seat on the other side of Rylee's bed, "We wait."

Spencer sighed and rubbed his eyes, the machines in Rylee's room beeping in the background.