"Reid?" Morgan asked as he placed a hand on Reid's shoulder and gently squeezed it. He sat up with a start and sucked in a deep breath.
"What's the time?" he said as he stood up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He blinked twice and ran both hands through his hair.
"8:30, why?" Morgan replied but Reid didn't answer. He grabbed his phone off the desk and checked it- still nothing.
"Is Hotch in yet?" he said, already walking towards his office.
Morgan jogged after him "Yeah, he got in a few minutes ago. Reid what's this about?" he asked and stopped at the steps as Reid carried onto Hotch's office.
"I can't talk right now but I'll tell you later" he called behind him as he pulled open Hotch's door without knocking.
"Reid?" Hotch said as he glanced up from his paperwork. There was a simple white coffee mug in his hand that he had been drinking from which he put down onto his solid wood desk.
"Hotch, something's happened to Emily" he said. He'd usually have called her Prentiss to look more professional but his mind was in too much of a mess to think about hiding their relationship.
"What do you mean" he said very seriously as he stood up and glanced out of the window to where Emily's empty desk sat.
She didn't come home last night and she isn't returning my calls" he said so fast that the words started to trip over each other.
Hotch raised an eyebrow and looked seriously at Reid. "Home?"
Reid's face dropped as he realized what he'd said. "Um, we live together… as friends" he said in a bad attempt to somehow hide what was obvious to Hotch now.
"Reid. If Prentiss is missing you aren't going to help her by lying to me" he said in his stern voice that he rarely had to use on Reid.
"Right, sir" Reid said, ran his hand through his hair and sighed. He stole a look out the window and saw Emily's desk, just how it had been when he fell asleep.
"How long have you been together" Hotch said as he followed Reid's line of vision to the desk.
"We had our two year anniversary in September" he said, his voice barely above a whisper.
"Two years, Spencer?" Hotch said and raised his eyebrows even further.
"Yes, sir" embarrassment obvious in his voice. His eyes were glued to the floor and for a moment he forgot why he was there.
Hotch turned round and separated two of the blind pieces to get a better look outside the window. "How do you know she's missing?" he finally said with a sigh, he was beating himself up for not noticing their relationship earlier.
"She said she was going home before she left but when I got back she wasn't there. I've left 3 voicemails on her phone and still nothing" he said and offered the phone to him to prove his case.
"She isn't due in for another 25 minutes, Reid. How do you know she didn't check into a hotel to get some work done in private?"
"Because she's been acting strange for the past two months. She's been getting phone calls that she's passing off as telemarketers and disappearing for a hours without saying anything about it when she gets back" he said, desperation clear in his voice.
"How do you know they weren't telemarketers? How do you know she didn't just need some space?" He asked. The truth was, Hotch wanted to dismiss this. Not because he didn't care about Emily but because he didn't want her missing.
"With all due respect sir, I've been romantically involved with her for two years, living with her for almost that long. I think I know when she's in trouble and she needs our help" he pleaded with Hotch.
Hotch sucked a deep breath in and steadied himself against a wall, he knew Reid was right. "Leave another message on her phone and check back in at home, she might have come back. I'll get the team together" Reid nodded, pushed his phone into his pocket and jogged out of the office. He left his messenger bag behind and took the stairs down to his car.
"Emily it's me. Listen, I've told Hotch about us. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to but I did. He's getting the team together… I think they're going to start working out you're last movements… bank transactions, credit cards, the usual stuff. I'm going to check to see if you're home then I'll be back in the office… please, Emily. Just call me… or Hotch, or anyone. I just need to know you're ok" he said then hung up. He shouldn't be talking on the phone while driving but he didn't care. There was still congestion from the rush hour but he was soon outside the apartment.
As he unlocked the door and turned on the lights he saw nothing had changed, even the coffee cups were still on the table. "Emily!" he called out into the apartment but only silence answered. He dashed round and checked every room, just to make sure she hadn't fallen into a deep sleep but he knew he wouldn't find anything.
He flicked his phone up and called out as he turned the lights off again and relocked the door, this time to Hotch.
"Did you find her?" he quickly asked down the line.
"No, nothing's been moved, the bed hasn't been slept in. the door was locked and the lights were all off too, it doesn't look like anyone has been there since I was" Reid replied. He was already in his car and speeding through the streets.
"Garcia is running the usual checks but the team haven't been briefed yet, I thought you might want to be there" He said, his voice getting quieter as he spoke.
"Ok, I'll be there in a few minutes" he said into the phone as he directed himself through the traffic.
"I'll see you then" Hotch replied and hung up. Reid pushed the phone back into his pocket. He put his foot down and drove just below the speed limit. The traffic had eased and the drive was relatively quick, once he got into the building he took the elevator back up then jogged into the briefing room.
He stopped as soon as he got in the door, he knew the team would all be in there but it still hit him like a brick wall once he saw everyone's faces. They were all looking confused, they had probably been waiting a long time without being briefed and it was unusual for Emily or Reid to be late.
"Hey, Reid. Have you seen Emily?" Seaver said from where she was sitting. Reid paused for a moment then quickly shook his head and sat next to Morgan and an empty seat that was waiting for Emily. Morgan looked at him and gave him a questioning look but Reid didn't look up, he didn't feel ready to deal with this.
Hotch came in almost as soon as Reid had sat down and sat down at the top of the round table and looked at the empty chair. "Prentiss is missing" he said with a sigh, he didn't want to say what he had to; he just wanted to work on the case they had been for the past weeks.
"What?" Morgan said and sat up, he glanced at Reid for a second but his eyes were mostly trained on Hotch.
"She hasn't been seen since last night and there's reason to believe she may be in danger" Hotch replied sullenly.
"Who was the last to see her?" Morgan asked as soon as Hotch had finished his sentence. Hotch closed his eyes for a second longer than a blink then pointed to Reid and sighed heavily.
"I saw her last night at 11:15 when we left here. She said she was going back to her apartment but she never did" he said, his voice struggling to keep its composure on the second sentence.
"And how do you know that?" Morgan asked as he turned to Reid.
"We, um" he cleared his throat slightly and glanced up at the team, all eyes were trained on him. He thought about lying and saying he went round to give her something and she was missing but He remembered what Hotch had told him about helping her. "We live together" he said, his voice straining as he pushed it above a whisper.
There was a long pause, Morgan sat back in his chair, Seaver looked round to gage other people's reactions; she'd only been there a few months and still wasn't sure of everyone's relationships.
"Garcia is running routine checks on all her credit cards and bank accounts but in the mean time I suggest you all get back to work on the case in hand. Prentiss's disappearance is being thought of as suspicious but she isn't being filled as a missing person until the 24 hour mark. If any of you think you might know something I encourage you to see me in my office after" Hotch said then walked out of the room.
Everyone sat round in stunned silence; most people were looking down at the table or around the room to distract themselves from what they'd just heard. Rossi was the first to get up and make his way back to his office, Morgan and Seaver quickly got up after him and left Reid to think through what he'd just heard. Why weren't they filing her as a missing person now? He knew that, under the circumstances, Hotch could so why wouldn't he?
He quickly got up and walked to Hotch's office, not bothering to knock he barged in for the second time that day.
"Reid? Why aren't you at your desk?" Hotch said as he turned to see him, he was obviously annoyed by Reid's intrusion.
"You know why, Hotch" Reid said through gritted teeth so he wouldn't shout or cry.
"You can't help her by doing this, Reid. You know that" he said sternly.
"And I can't help her pretending this isn't happening. Please, Hotch. I can't just sit around and wait for you to decide she's in trouble when I already know that" he said, his voice pleading with Hotch.
"Reid, stop it. You don't know she's in trouble, you think you know. I've been very lenient with you today but if you want to stay here you're going to need to get some work done"
"Hotch, she's in danger and I need you to listen to me before something bad happens to her!" he yelled as he let go of all control.
"Reid" he paused for a moment and let Reid calm down before continuing. "I want you to go help Morgan with the list of names" he said with a sigh.
"Hotch, ple-" Reid began but Hotch cut him off.
"I'd like to remind you that I could very easily suspend you for engaging in a romantic relationship with one of your colleagues without informing your team leader" he said, Reid took a step back and sucked in a breath like he'd just had an electric shock and looked at Hotch like he didn't know him. "However, under the circumstances I'll refrain from doing so. I'd also like to remind you that if you still think it would be a good idea to not tell the team the full extent of your relationship with Prentiss you are very mistaken" Hotch said and sat down in his chair.
Reid took another step back and took deep breaths; he couldn't believe what Hotch was saying. He felt his eyes well up but he wouldn't let the tears fall, he just turned and quickly walked out of Hotch's office and towards Morgan.