Author's note: Hello everyone that has stuck with the story so far! Thank you all for the reviews, they make me so happy! The action is finally picking up in this chapter, so I really hope I wrote it well considering it will be continuing for the next few chapter as well.
(I don't own criminal minds or any of it's characters, just Makaia and the unsub)
Have fun!
Hotch pulled the SUV over, shocked for a moment, eyes widening at his youngest agent's terrified voice and turning rigid with fear as he called out and no response came. The sound of glass shattering repeated itself in the unit chief's head, making him feel sick to his stomach. After he got over the initial shock, Hotch shook his head slightly and ripped the phone away from his ear, selecting Garcia's contact from his speed dial list with ten times the force he should have applied to the touch screen.
"How may I be of servi-"
"Find the location of Reid's cell phone. Now." Hotch pulled back out on the road and turned his lights and siren on so he could double speed limits. "Text me the coordinates, the rest of the team too. Send an ambulance."
"Sir?" the voice that was confident and happy a moment ago had lost all of its sparkly enthusiasm, but Hotch could still hear typing in the background. "What happened? Is Reid okay? Well obviously not if I'm sending an ambulance; what happened?"
"Someone cut his brake line. Please tell me you have the coordinates." Hotch's typically stoic voice was getting slightly breathless as he remembered the crunch of metal against who knows what.
"Sent." The tears that hadn't fallen yet were apparent in the tech analyst's high voice. "And the ambulance is on its way. What else can I do?"
"Call Rossi. Tell him to meet me there. I'll tell Morgan. Thank you, Garcia."
"Call me as soon as anything happens." The line clicked and Hotch quickly set up the SUV's GPS before calling Morgan.
"What's up, Hotch?" Morgan chuckled at something JJ had said.
"Garcia sent you a location. Go."
The two agent immediately recognised the fear in their boss's voice. "Hotch?" JJ said, becoming scared. "What happened?"
"Somebody cut Reid's brakes. He crashed. Get there now." With that the call ended and Morgan tripled speed limits, lights flashing, sirens blaring, anger showing prominently through his rigid posture as he raced to the sight where his best friend was… or wasn't.
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"Hey." A soft, unfamiliar, female voice floated into Reid's head as he grasped at consciousness, not quite reaching it. "Can you hear me?" the voice was soothing, concerned and… young. Definitely young. "Come on, please wake up." Reid tried, he really did, but couldn't quite get his eyes open. He latched onto the voice in order to keep his mind semiconscious, but the pain in his head and back made the will to wake up lessen. "Please. Doctor Reid. Please." How did this girl know his name? Curiosity drove his eyelids halfway open, a groan escaping his lips as he turned his head towards the voice. "Oh thank god." The relieved sigh came from a teenage girl who was sitting about five feet from the agent's head.
Reid sat up sluggishly, feeling the ache in his back more with movement. He quickly took in his surroundings as he leaned back against the wall; he was in a dark, cold, concrete room with no furniture or windows. It was about twenty feet by twenty feet and there was a lone lightbulb hanging from a chain on the ceiling in the center of the room. The light was grimy and dim, not allowing much light at all as he looked to the young girl in front of him. "How…" his throat was painfully dry. "How did you know my name?" he asked, trying to place her. She had medium length blonde hair that just passed her shoulders, pronounced cheekbones, a small nose, full lips and intelligent grey-blue eyes. She wasn't tall, maybe five foot four, and had a thin frame with gangly long limbs like Reid. He notices the cuff on her left ankle, then realized that he had one too. He hadn't noticed the chains rattling as he sat up, but now saw that there was about ten feet of chain link attached to the cuff with the other end attaching to the wall.
"You gave a profiling presentation to my class sixth months ago. January twenty sixth." She said, shrinking back on herself as if she was embarrassed. "I wanted to speak with you afterwards, but my professor was talking and then you got called away on a case."
"You were there?" Reid's head was spinning, but he could tell this girl was not a college student. "That was a second year criminology course." suddenly, the realization hit him. "How old are you? When did you graduate high school?"
The girl looked at him, confused, but answered with little hesitation. "I'm fifteen now. I graduated when I was thirteen."
"IQ?"
"One eighty three."
"How many words can you read in a minute?"
"Roughly eighteen thousand."
"Eidetic memory?"
"Yes."
"What mental illness does your mother or father have?"
"Okay, what was my tell for that?"
"My mother is a paranoid schizophrenic. Which parent is it and what is it?"
The girl's eyes widened slightly. "My mother is also a paranoid schizophrenic. Seriously, I know you're a profiler, but how did you do that?"
Reid sighed, not liking this situation at all. "I'm here on a case, this case. This is the unsub we're after."
Seeing Reid's scared expression, the girl felt a fresh wave of fear settle in her stomach. "What's the case?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"He takes what people value most. Before us, there were two girls who valued their looks more than anything, so he mutilated their faces in order to take their beauty away." Spencer took a breath, not liking where his thoughts were travelling. "He's going to try to make us lose our minds. With histories of paranoid schizophrenia, that won't be the hardest thing to do." Reid watched as the girl took a shaky breath and decided to stop talking about the case. "What's your name?" he asked gently, trying to be comforting.
"Makaia." Her spirits seemed to lift slightly as she said the name, "Makaia Alcina. Seaward and strong minded." She mumbled and the left corner of her mouth twitched up. She seemed to find comfort in the name. Spencer knew he would if his name were so beautiful. Looking up to see the agent staring at her in wonder, she blushed and looked down. "Sorry." She barely whispered. "I just-"
"You have nothing to be sorry for." Spencer cocked his head at Makaia. "I like memorizing lists. Any list. Even my friends' grocery lists." Both of them smirked slightly at that comment, not able to fully smile due to the circumstances.
"Names are my favorite." Her voice was reminiscent as she thought. "They hold so much power and describe the owner subconsciously. That doesn't make much sense but-"
"No it makes perfect sense. Although I am not a red head, as my surname would suggest. I'm not sure how to interpret that portion. Although, Spencer means bearer of provisions if I'm not mistaken, and I do coffee runs for my team quite often, so I suppose that means something."
"Well, I'm sure your mother didn't name you Spencer in order to sentence you to a lifetime of coffee runs."
"Yeah probably not." Spencer smirked again, but something that Makaia said earlier popped back into his still throbbing head. "You said you were at my profiling presentation in January?"
"Yes." Makaia looked confused at the sudden topic change.
"That was in Virginia. What are you doing in Pasadena if you go to school on the opposite side of the country?"
"Oh… that." Makaia stared down at her hands, her cheeks flushing again. "It's kind of a long story…"
"Well, I'm not planning on going anywhere." Reid gestured to the cuff around his ankle. "So I say go for it."
"Okay." Makaia took a deep breath as if sorting out her thoughts. "When I was ten, my mom started getting really bad. She would lash out at people, insisting the government was watching her. I'm sure you know about the delusions; hers were… violent. She was convinced I was a spy and chased me out of the house with a mallet. I ran to my neighbour's house and told her what happened, I was scared and I had no choice. I didn't blame her, I knew she was sick, but Ms. Clyde called the police and told them what happened. Mom got committed and I got put in foster care. FAFSA pays for my classes wherever I go and I get into every school I apply to, so when I bounce around to different cities and states, my files just have to be transferred and I'm set. I was only in Virginia for three months before I got removed from the house I was in there."
"Where was your dad?" Reid had an idea, but wanted to confirm it.
"He walked out fifteen months before." She mumbled. "Said he couldn't handle it anymore and just left. The police couldn't find him anywhere, hence, foster care."
"My father walked out on my mother and me too." Reid tried to pour as much empathy and understanding into his voice as possible. "I was ten at the time. I had to commit my mother when I was eighteen because I couldn't give her the help she needed. However, I was a legal adult and able to live on my own."
"I wish. I want to just live in residence. Move back to Virginia and take the rest of my classes there, but FAFSA doesn't cover living costs… I'd have to pay them back and I can't do that until I have a full time job. With interest rates and late payment fees... well, you know."
"I get it. If you don't mind my asking, how many different families have you been with?"
"Thirteen in five years."
"Why?" spencer was shocked at the high number.
"Because the majority of people in the system just need somebody to hurt and take their anger out on while they get paid to do it." There was a slight edge of anger in her voice. "Luckily, I have an array of decent social workers and got moved faster than most do."
"They don't sound decent of they kept putting you in abusive homes."
"Well, they have other kids too. Plus, they had to take care of my school transfers and were able to have the unfit families removed from the system and charged. Also, they just found me a wonderful family here in Pasadena. I've been here five months, two weeks and six days and haven't had one unpleasant incident."
"My childhood was a walk in the park compared to yours. I was able to live in residence. It's great that you've finally found a good family. Do you ever get to visit your mother?"
"She's in Nevada. I haven't been back there since was eleven."
"You're from Nevada?"
"Vegas."
"Is your mother at Bennington?"
"How did you know?"
"Mine is too." Reid's lip twitched up briefly. "As soon as we get out of here, I'm going straight there. You are welcome to join me if your foster family will allow it. I'm sure they would like to come along as well." Spencer though about his mother and wondered whether or not his team had contacted her yet. He assumed not; they wouldn't want to worry her until the found him alive or he turned up dead.
"I would love that. However, there is no guarantee that we're getting out of here, and you know that, doctor Reid." The already frightened mood turned to terrified with Makaia's statement.
"You saw my presentation. My team is the best at what they do." Reid wasn't quite sure if he believed himself, but if the prisoners gave up hope of rescue, they almost definitely wouldn't keep fighting to survive.
"But they're a man and the equivalent of two brains down." She pointed out.
"Makaia, look at me." She obliged. "Don't give up hope. That's what gets you killed. I believe in my team. They found me once, they can do it again."
Suddenly a door slammed open across the room. "Aw, what an inspiring speech." The same voice that Reid had heard before he was rendered unconscious after his crash sent shivers down his spine yet again.
Hope you enjoyed! Please review! Au revoir!