Rosemary and Spencer followed behind Morgan as they slowly approached the scene laid out before them in the damp room.
A singular, long metal table stood on it's own with an open laptop resting on top, the screen facing the opposite direction of the trio. Beside it was the very camera that had been watching Rosemary's every move days ago, connected to the device by a short chord.
"Oh my god," Rosemary choked out, finally noting the details of the laptop. "That's- that's my laptop."
Spencer and Morgan exchanged a look before the former faced Rosemary.
"You're sure that's your laptop?" he asked her quietly.
"Yes," she whispered, her eyes wide. "That was missing from my apartment, how.. how did it get here?"
Spencer shook his head, multiple theories popping up in his own head that he didn't want to worry her with at that moment.
"I'm going to look on it," Morgan warned the young woman. "I just need to check out what's going on here, don't worry."
How could she not worry? That was her laptop, sitting in her personal hell as if to taunt her. She didn't know how it had been retrieved in the first place from her home, but the sinking feeling in her stomach only made her recall the last person who had spare keys to her apartment had been her father... the very person who had been missing for nearly two days now. In her mind, this was only further proof that someone had taken him and had been framing him from the beginning.
The agent began speaking through his comm to the other group, relaying the scene to them.
"Reid, take a look at this," Morgan murmured from the other side of the table, his eyes fixated on the screen as he watched in grim fascination.
As Spencer walked over to look at the screen, Rosemary passed them up, her eyes glued to the damp patch near the wall where she had woken up. She stopped right in front of the spot, unaware of the increased rate of her breathing and pumping heart. The golden face flashed before her eyes again and she quickly covered them with her hand, her leg throbbing under her clothes. Screams suddenly came out of nowhere and she covered her ears then, opening her mouth and saying things she couldn't make out through her muffled hearing. She could feel tears leaking past her eyes and the more she tried to avoid thinking about everything that scared her, the more it rose up to the surface and forced her to watch behind shut eyelids.
She whirled around and forced her eyes open, catching a look at the footage playing on the laptop where the sound had evidently come from. She saw his figure and she began to cry, shaking her head while still covering her ears. He grabbed at someone else on the screen and she dropped to the floor, sobbing and shaking her head continuously.
"Shut it off, Morgan!" Spencer ordered in a panicked voice, prompting the other agent to shut the laptop hastily and both turned to approach Rosemary, who was having some sort of traumatic fit on the floor. Spencer was feeling scared himself, and his own tendencies told him to refrain from going near or making contact. But he pushed the discomfort away to break his habit and come forward, kneeling and placing his hands over hers.
"Rosemary- Rosemary, look at me!" he demanded in a soft, harried tone, his hands shaking on hers. "Rosemary, it's Spencer, look!"
Her eyes were clenched shut so hard he wasn't sure he could ever get her to open them, but she ceased her panicked speaking and quit writhing, her hands still over her ears. The creases on her face from screwing it up in pain and shutting her eyes tight suddenly smoothed out and she breathed- still at an unhealthy pace, but it was slowing.
"What's my middle name, Rosemary?" Spencer asked, trying to help her fixate on something else, anything else. "Rosemary, talk to me."
Rosemary's lips quivered before she parted them, whispering in a teary voice, "W-Walter. Your middle name is Walter."
"Good, that's good, Rosemary. Please, open your eyes for me."
Morgan watched in silence, his thick eyebrows furrowed in a slight, concerned frown as he watched Spencer attempt to calm the brunette.
"I can't," she insisted, her chest beginning to heave up and down again.
"Yes, you can," Reid told her firmly, worrying that she would return to a panicked state if he didn't convince her fast enough.
"I don't want to see him," she admitted, her voice shaky again as more tears leaked out from under her eyelids.
"You won't see him, you'll only see me," Spencer convinced her, his fingers curling more securely around her hands. "I'm right here. Look."
She swallowed and took a few more precarious breaths before allowing her eyes to open, wide pupils quickly constricting as she adjusted to the dim lighting in the room. She searched his face until brown hues found focused hazel ones, and Rosemary was able to let out a deep, reassured breath. She could feel his shaking hands covering hers and realized he had never allowed himself to touch her before- she had figured it was perhaps a neurodivergent habit, something he preferred to avoid. But he had overcome it for her- just to help Rosemary release herself from this traumatic episode.
"I'm okay," she whispered, trying to convince herself more than anyone else. She began to pull her hands away from her ears and immediately he broke contact, bringing his hands close to his body again.
"I'm sorry, I should have thought before we played the videos while you were in here," he began to ramble, the guilt and effects of the tense situation making him talk far too fast and excessively. "I should have known that being in this place would trigger the stimulation of your amygdala and, as a result, cause a traumatic episode-"
"Reid, it's okay, man," Morgan interrupted, coming over and placing a hand on the agent's shoulder. "She's fine now."
Reid's lips locked shut and he lowered his bashful eyes.
"You stopped it," Rosemary reminded him, still looking a bit pained though she wanted to reassure him. "That's all that matters."
Spencer slowly stood back up and Morgan stepped in to help Rosemary get back on her feet as well.
"We're going to have to take both the camera and laptop in so Penelope can pull everything important off here," Morgan decided as he walked back over to the table, picking up the items. As he did so, however, a sudden alarm began blasting and Rosemary jolted, all three looking around the large room as the alarm repeated the same painful frequency loud and clear. Eerie red lights took over and Rosemary and Reid spoke suddenly at the same time.
"The door!"
Morgan looked up from the devices and saw the metal door was quickly shutting on them, about to close them in the room. Spencer grabbed Rosemary's arm and ran, Morgan trailing behind them as he held onto the laptop and camera. The pair ducked under the door and made it out into the corridor, turning around to make sure Morgan had made it out. He suddenly rolled out from the under the shaking metal, clutching the items to his chest protectively, just before the door made contact with the hard floor.
"Go!" he ordered the pair, who quickly began running back the way they'd come, the only lights to lead them out being the red emergency hues that had come on all over the warehouse.
"Are you guys okay?" Reid spoke into his comm, waiting for the other agents to confirm in his earpiece. He seemed to hear a response that satisfied them, telling Morgan as they bolted down the corridors, "They're right behind us. But they have no idea what triggered the alarms."
"Yeah, well we can worry about that once we're out of here," Morgan grunted.
Rosemary's leg was killing her, but she couldn't stop, not when she feared worse than the alarms going off. Soon they all broke out of the warehouse, back into bright daylight, and they were able to slow to a stop and take a breather.
Hotch, Blake, and J.J. emerged next and stopped by the group, everyone out of breath and wondering what had happened as the alarms echoed out into the lot.
"That son of a bitch," Morgan suddenly said in a breathy voice, looking at something above.
"What?" Blake questioned, hand on her stomach as her chest heaved.
"He was watching us the whole time," Morgan replied through clenched teeth, pointing at the warehouse. Everyone turned and caught sight of the camera on corner of the the warehouse brick walls, which had a bright red light on.
Before they could do anything else, the camera suddenly twitched, as if short-circuiting within, and then the light flashed off and the camera faced downward, as if dead.
"Let's get out of here, now!" Hotch ordered, pointing everyone back towards the parked SUVs.
Despite being out of breath, everyone jogged back over to the black vehicles to hop in and speed far away from the warehouse.