Same as the first chapter, flashbacks here aren't in order.

Thanks for reading!

Words: 5,137

Spencer is nothing short of panicking. He's never wished that he chose to drive to work more than he did in this moment. He'd just been leaving work when he got the call. He'd answered while lifting his messenger bag over his shoulder. Morgan had been talking to Emily, he remembers because he'd furrowed his brows at something the older man had said but before he could question him, his phone had gone off. He looked at the caller ID and answered as he normally does. But he hadn't received a response.

Spencer had stepped away from the others and called out to Thea through the phone. This time he did hear something but all it succeeded in doing was make his heart drop. Thea was crying, he could hear her clearly then.

"Where are you?" He'd asked. "Are you home?" The barley there whispered answer was all he needed before he was rushing from the building.

Now he's on her street, moving as quickly as he can towards her apartment. He jogs up the stairs while pulling out the key so it's ready when he arrives. His hands are shaking when he slides it into the lock. They don't stop when he pushes the door open and rushes in.

"Thea?" He calls out but he spots her before she would even have time to respond. "Hey, hey," Moving quickly, Spencer falls onto the floor beside Thea and hovers his hands over her shoulders. "T-talk to me, please, what's wrong?"

Sniffing, more tears fall down Thea's face and she slowly lifts her fists towards Spencer before opening it. Spencer schools his expression quickly and gently reaches out to take the small bag of white powder from her. He slides it into his pocket and takes her hand into his own.

"I-I di-didn't-" Thea hiccups and shakes her head, her expression suddenly desperate.

"I know," Spencer assures her. "I know. It's okay, you're okay," Lowering himself further, Spencer rests his back against the wall beside Thea and lets her lean into him. "Thank you for calling me," He whispers while one of his hands runs through her hair and the other holds her to him.

Spencer continues to mumble comforting words into her ear while Thea cries quietly into his shirt.

"How is there nothing?" Bracing her hands against the conference room table, JJ bites her lip and looks up at the others.

"It's like she just vanished," Emily adds. There was no sign of a break-in at Thea's apartment. No sign of a struggle. Not a thing out of place. Her co-workers haven't seen or heard from her since Saturday and neither has anyone else. She's disappeared without a trace. She hates that she's thought the same thing Morgan voiced early, but it's a strong possibility.

Everyone's eyes drift to Reid but the young man isn't paying them any mind. He's staring at the very little information they have pinned to the board while mumbling under his breath.

"I'm going to check in with Garcia," Excusing herself, Emily walks from the room and towards Penelope's office. "Find anything?" She asks even though she knows that the other woman would've told them if she had as soon as she had.

"Uh, no," Garcia mumbles disheartenedly. "Well, nothing good, nothing helpful."

"Tell me," Pulling up a chair, Emily places a hand on Garcia's shoulder in a comforting matter. The woman takes a moment and pushes up her glasses before lifting her fingers to her keyboard.

"Thea, or Theodosia Walker, used to be Alys Hughes," Taking a deep breath, Penelope nods to herself. "Daughter of Merrick and Regina Hughes. Uh...there's a lot," She whispers to her friend and moves her eyes away from her screens to look at her. Emily opens her mouth but instead purses her lips before nodding for Garcia to continue.

"Well, when Thea was born there were complications...complications that are most commonly seen in mothers who have been using..." Garcia trails off.

"Regina was doing drugs while pregnant?"

"It looks that way, yeah," Penelope nods sadly. "And that's not all. Throughout the years, the medical records stack up. Broken bones, dislocated joints...all with classic domestic abuse excuses."

"Thea and Regina?"

"Just Thea."

"Was it ever investigated?" Emily asks while a map of this young woman's past starts to grow in her mind.

"One day when Thea was fourteen, she collapsed in the middle of class. An ambulance was called when they couldn't rouse the girl. She was rushed to the hospital where they found signs of malnutrition and...there were traces of heroin in her system."

"At fourteen?" Emily shouldn't be surprised, she's seen worse things.

"Yeah. She was signed out AMA by her mother the same day. CPS was called but her parents just claimed the girl was acting out, you know, normal teenager stuff," Garcia almost sounds desperate, as if could make it the truth. That Thea had just been being a teenager rather than...rather than the other options.

"Nothing about this is normal," Emily shakes her head. "Was that the only time CPS was involved?"

"Well, I found a police report for another occasion but it was buried."

"Buried?" Emily questions, her tone confused.

"Yeah," Garcia nods in confirmation. "And when something is buried, I dig. Metaphorically, of course. When Merrick Hughes was being investigated, it was suspected that he had connections inside the local police department."

"That would make sense," Either that or their just the most incompetent cops. The former is more likely. She's seen it before.

"That's not all. They suspected him of not only distributing drugs but making them as well. They could never prove it but the...recipe was something they'd never seen before. They never found out where it was coming from, who designed this super drug."

"Poor girl never had a chance," The muttered words were meant only for herself but Garcia hears and winces in agreement.

"That police report?" She begins again, her voice oddly quiet. "I mean, it was buried deep. But you know me, I'm like a bulldozer for this kind of stuff-"

"Garcia,"

"It was Thea. Or Alys. She...she was found wandering the streets one night when she was fifteen, really out of it. A cop picked her up, he...in the report, he said that she...she told him that it was her father...He gave her the drugs." Closing her eyes, Emily feels the air slowly leaking from her lungs before forcing it back in. "L-like he...?"

"If Merrick was experimenting with a new drug formula, it is possible that he...used Thea to test them," Emily says it gently for Garcia's sake but the woman's eyes still widen in shock.

"He used his own daughter as a test subject?" She cries and Emily gives a mournful nod. They sit in silence for a moment before Emily breaks it.

"Did you find anything else? Any other people from Thea's past or anyone she knows now?"

"No, nothings, she-" Breaking off, Penelope glances at her friend before continuing. "She left everything and everyone behind when she changed her name as far as I can tell. When she first moved here...it's like she didn't really exist until a little over a year ago. She must've paid for everything in cash, didn't make any connections with anyone..."

"She was on the run, terrified of being found," Emily observes in an understanding voice. "Just keep looking, okay? I'm going to check on the others." The dark-haired agent pushes herself to her feet but stops short when a hand grabs her wrist.

"How is Spencer?" Penelope asks in a soft voice.

"He's..." Trailing off, Emily sighs and looks towards the door. She doesn't know how to answer that question. The wide, worried look in Garcia's eyes shows how they all feel. None of them have ever seen Spencer act the way he's acting now. "Not good," Emily decides to be truthful. "The sooner we find Thea, the better."

Spencer's worried.

Thea has missed two meetings. She hasn't missed one since she started coming, he knows for sure. She hasn't answered his phone calls, only sent a text to let him know that she's okay. He doesn't believe her.

His worry fuels his legs as he jogs up Thea's apartment stairs. The last thing he wants to do is overstep he'd rather do that than let Thea do something...something that she'll regret.

Everything had been fine. She'd been doing good, going to meetings, talking to him about things. She started looking for jobs last week. He thinks back to the moment she started acting distant...They had lunch Saturday, talking a lot. Spencer thinks back on that entire day and recalls everything Thea said and did. He falters when he remembers. A shift in Thea's body language after he...she'd asked what he did for work. He had told her easily. An FBI agent. She had seemed to close off a bit after that, Spencer hadn't read into it at the time but...it was after that day that she started shutting him out.

Shaking his head, Spencer reaches her door and knocks. He waits a moment for a response but doesn't receive one. "Thea?" He calls out through the wood. "Thea, it's me, Spencer. You there?" Still no answer. "Just let me know that you're okay. I'm worried. Please-" Cutting himself off, Spencer clears his throat when his voice gets caught. "Thea?"

After a long moment of waiting. Or what feels like a long moment, the sound of the lock clicking sounds through the silent hall. Spencer stands straight and his heart flips.

"Hi," He greets her when she opens the door, his eyes scanning her for injuries or signs of relapse.

"Hi," Thea mumbles in return. "I'm okay, you don't need to be worried." She assures him.

"Well I am," Thea sighs sadly and looks down before opening the door and stepping aside. Spencer takes the silent invitation to enter and turns to Thea when she closes the door. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Thea shrugs and Spencer raises his eyebrows in disbelief. Sighing, Thea looks towards the kitchen. "You want some coffee?"

"Yeah," Spencer mumbles, following behind Thea into the kitchen. He watches her start the machine and grab two mugs from the cabinet. She's doing little things, grabbing the sugar, the cream, and spoons. Busying her hands so she doesn't fidget. "Thea-"

"I'm sorry," They speak at nearly the same time. Spencer furrows his brows but she continues before he can question her. "I know I've been...distant. I was ignoring you," The admission catches Spencer by surprise. He can't say it doesn't hurt. "It's not because of something you did, not really."

"Then why?"

Biting the inside of her cheek, Thea turns to check the coffee. "I don't-..." Hesitating, Thea turns so she can lean back against the counter. "I don't-I don't have the best experiences with cops," Spencer merely offers a nod of understanding and a motion for her to continue. "I know federal agents aren't the same, not really. I just, I got scared."

"I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Please, don't be sorry," Thea shakes her head and moves to the seat beside him. "It's not your fault, you've been nothing but kind to me. You've given me no reason to doubt your character. I just..."

"I get it," In a way. He's seen many things in his life, he can connect the dots here. "You don't need to explain."

"Yeah," Thea nods softly. "But I want to."

The sound of his phone ringing pulls Derek's attention away from the evidence board. JJ looks up as he answers it, his usual colorful greeting to Penelope much more dull today. The blonde would have taken up residence in the conference room but she needed all of her resources this time. She wasn't taking any chances.

"I think I found something," Garcia's voice, less subdued than earlier sounds out across the small room.

"What?"

"Well, it didn't seem like much at first but I kept digging, as I do," Arms folded across his chest, Spencer lifts one hand to the mouth as he listens. "I've looked into everything I know to and beyond. And in that beyond I found that over the past six months there has been a spike in missing persons and OD's. Meaning those who were reported missing showed up anywhere between a week to months later. All..." She hesitates, well aware of the youngest team member listening in. "Dead. All found in an ally close to where they live. All overdosed. All except one."

"Who, Garcia?" Prentiss prompts quickly.

"One Jesse Thompson. He was never reported missing but he was found four months ago by a garbage man. He was unconscious, nearly dead, overdosed like the others. He claimed that he'd been kidnapped and drugged. But there was no proof. The cops closed the case, said it was just an excuse for a man who relapsed."

"So what, you think someone is targeting these people?"

"Well...it is a pretty big spike and you know how I feel about coincidences."

"Thea's been clean," Spencer reminds them, voice firm.

"So were all the people reported missing," Garcia informs him gently.

"Where is Thompson now?" Hotch questions.

"Not far, I've already sent you his address."

"Thanks, baby girl," Morgan says before hanging up and sliding his phone back into his pocket.

"Morgan, you and Prentiss go talk to Jesse Thompson," Aaron tells them and Spencer shakes his head.

"Hotch-"

"No, Reid," The older man shuts him down. "You're staying here." Though he can tell he wants to fight more, Derek sees his friends deflate. He reaches up a hand and squeezes his shoulder in passing.

"Do you really think someone is going around, kidnapping former drug addicts and making them OD?" The sound of the car door slamming shut sounds immediately after Prentiss's question.

"I'll tell you what I do believe," Morgan stops short of the building door and looks down at Emily. "I believe Reid. And if he says something happened to Thea, then something happened."

Nodding once, Emily turns her eyes to scan the buzzer with names. "It's sixteen but there's no name listed."

"If you were kidnapped and the guy was never caught, would you advertise where you lived?" Derek asked rhetorically without lifting an arm to hit the buzzer. Emily nods in agreement and looks around. She wouldn't answer her door either if someone she didn't know rang her doorbell. "We could ring someone else."

"Or maybe..." Trailing off, Emily reaches forward and grabs the doorknob. When she pulls, it opens. She looks at Morgan over her shoulder with raised eyebrows.

"That works too," It isn't the best part of town. All the more reason for the locks on the doors to work.

Climbing the stairs together, Emily and Derek search for apartment sixteen. When they find it, they knock before calling out to identify themselves. After a moment, a muffled voice comes from the other side of the door, calling to see their badges. Both agents comply and hold them up to the peephole.

Soon after, the door opens just enough to resist against the chain lock. "Let me see," The man says again and Morgan holds his out. The man takes it and he lets him.

"Are you Jesse Thompson?" He questions while the man runs his eyes over his credentials.

"Why do you want to know?"

"We want to talk to you about the police report you made a few months ago. You claimed to have been kidnapped," Emily tells the man who scoffs in response. He all but shoves Morgan's badge back into his hands.

"It happened," The man insists. "Ain't no one believe me though. I'm nothing but a junky to you people. Less than a person."

"No," Derek shakes his head. "We believe you," He assures Jesse. "And we don't think you're the only one. Please, can we ask you some questions?"

Looking between them, Jesse masks his surprise behind suspicion. He shifts on his feet, his eyes darting between them before he eventually nods. He closes the door so he can unlatch the chain before allowing them entry. "Sorry for the mess," He apologizes while picking up a few pieces of garbage. He gestures for the couch and takes a seat in the chair across from the two agents. "You guys really believe me?"

"Yes," Prentiss nods along with Morgan, watching the man slump in relief.

"Oh, man, you don't know how amazing that is to hear," He huffs, eyes glassy. "No one-no one believed me. I was clean, I told them, I was clean. I-I wasn't about to do that to myself again. I had gotten a job, I was turning my life around, you know? I have a little girl, she's four. I want to be a good father to her-" When Jesse's voice breaks, he buries his face in his hands.

"Mr. Thompson, we know how hard this must be for you," Derek says gently. "We think the person who took you recently took someone else. We're trying to find her. Anything you can remember could help us do that."

"Yeah, yeah," Jesse nods his head but doesn't lift it. He sniffs and wipes his nose on his sleeve first. "Yeah. What do you want to know?"

"Whatever you can remember," Prentiss speaks, sitting forward a little more in her seat. "About being taken, where you were taken. Who took you, did you see their face?"

"It's-it's blurry," Jesse gestures towards his head. "I was...on my way home from work. I washed dishes at this hole-in-the-wall restaurant downtown. It wasn't much but it was a start. I was walking, I was alone and I think someone hit me on the head. I just remember waking up, I was cold, I was so cold," As if feeling it now, Jesse shivers. "He took my clothes, I was chained to the wall..." Swallowing, Jesse runs his hands over his messy hair. "And there-...there were the drugs. Heroin, I knew what it was. Just sitting there, within reach," When Jesse's eyes glaze over, the mean clearly transported into his memories, Emily shares a wary glance with Morgan.

"But I didn't take it, I didn't," Jesse suddenly sits up and shakes his head. "I wanted to," The admission falls from his tongue and a tear follows on his cheek. "I wanted to but I didn't. I kept thinking of my little girl. Sasha is her name. I kept thinking of her, I'd see her face and I held out. Until he came."

"The man who took you?"

"He was the only one I saw," Jesse nods with another sniff. "He wore a mask. A-a-a gas mask, but it was the same guy every time."

"Is there anything you can tell us about him? A tattoo maybe."

"No, his skin was covered. He wore some kind of blue suit, gloves," Furrowing his brows, Jesse holds up a finger. "H-he walked with a limp."

"A limp?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Jesse nods, confident. "His-his left leg, I think."

"Good," Emily nods. "How about his voice?"

"He...he didn't talk, not at first," That faraway look once again washes over the man's eyes. "Deep voice but funny."

"Funny?"

"Yeah, he spoke funny."

"Like an accent?"

"Maybe," With a frustrated noise, Jesse rubs his eyes harshly. "I don't know, it's fuzzy."

"What did he say to you?"

"Just..." Shrugging, Thompson wrings his hands together. "Nothin' I ain't heard before. Said I was...a waste of space. Worse than garbage. The usual, then..."

"Then what?" Morgan prompts gently.

"I wouldn't take the drugs so...so he made me," Shaking his head, Jesse shivers. "He's the one who put that needle in my arm. Then he..." For the first time since greeting them, Jesse meets the agent's eyes. "Do you have any idea what it's like? Withdrawal. It feels like you're on fire but your veins are ice, your bones are glass. The pain...it's unimaginable. He made me go through that until...until I took it myself. I couldn't-I tried but it hurt. So I took it, I had to stop the pain, but-but I took too much, I must have. The next thing I know, I'm waking up in the hospital and they're telling me I overdosed. I tried to tell them what happened but no one believed me."

There isn't much more Jesse can tell them. Morgan and Prentiss leave the man with a way to contact them if he remembers anything else. He pleads with them to find this man, to prove that he wasn't lying. The agents walk out of the building with heavier shoulders than when they entered.

It's dark. And cold. The cement under Thea's bare legs sucks all the heat out of her shivering body. She can barely feel her toes anymore. She wishes she could say the same about the shackle around her ankle. The chain attached to the wall rattles when she shifts.

There's a small, electric lantern in the far corner. To far for the young woman to reach but close enough that the light just reaches her. It's dim, she can't see the ceiling. But that's not what he wants her to see.

With her arms wrapped around her torso, nothing but a thin tank top to cover her skin, Thea stares down at the drugs within arms reach. With a stifled sob, Thea squeezes her eyes shut and lets her head fall onto the wall behind her.

There's no apparent connection between all of the victims. Some of them have a few things in common like visiting the same rehab. But most of them were at different times and that only accounts for some of them. That on top of not knowing which of these people were victims of this unsub or just regular overdoses.

Penelope relays this information to the rest of the team.

"If it's not rehab, what else is it?" JJ thinks aloud. "Did Thea ever go to rehab or anything like that?"

"No," Spencer shakes his head in response. "Just meetings."

"And they're all anonymous."

"What if he was there?" Morgan theorizes. "Reid, do you remember seeing anyone that seemed off? Maybe walked with a limp."

"Everyone there is off," Spencer grumbles. He means nothing by it, but it's the truth. They wouldn't be there otherwise. But when the young genius stops to think for a moment, a face springs to mind. "A month ago," Everyone perks up, all eyes turning to him. "There was a man, I'd never seen him before. But I didn't think anything of it, new faces show up at meetings all the time." It wasn't a group he and Thea regularly went to anyway. "He walked with a limp, he didn't talk. It's not abnormal but..."

"But what, Reid?"

"Thea, she wanted to leave early. She got tense halfway through the meeting, said she didn't feel well."

"If this was the man and he targeted her, she could've felt that," Emily nods. "Felt him staring at her or maybe she just saw it."

"She didn't say anything," Spencer mumbles for all to hear but to himself.

"She probably didn't want you to worry," JJ suggest softly.

"Could you I.D this man, Reid?"

"Yeah," Spencer nods to his boss's question.

"Good." Not thirty minutes later, they have a sketch of the suspect. Penelope runs it through the system immediately to look for a match. And she finds one.

"Lionel Jankins," Garcia presents, now sitting at the round table with the rest of the team. Her laptop sits in front of her, the screen mirrored onto the tv behind her. "He works in IT. Mostly for Johnston Memorial Hospital."

"Anything that shows signs of narcotic abuse?"

"No," Garcia shakes her head. "Nothing. He's kind of a recluse."

"A hospital would be a good place to get your hands on drugs. Has anything been reported missing lately?"

"No, nothing."

"Jesse Thompson was given street-grade heroin. You don't get that at a hospital," Morgan voices with a look around at the others.

"Thea had to go to the hospital four weeks ago," Spencer suddenly says. "She cut her hand open, it needed stitches. I took her. Johnston Memorial Hospital."

"Okay, but how does that connect? If she just cut her hand..."

"It would be in her file that she denied narcotics. They wanted to give her pain medication but she refused."

"IT could get access to hospital files," Garcia informs them. "Whether they're supposed to or not. If this guy knows what he's doing, he could get into them and cover his tracks. No one would ever know."

"The other victims?" Morgan leaves the question open and Penelope types a moment before looking up.

"They're all in Johnston Memorial Hospital's system. They'd all been there at some point."

"Where does Jankins live?"

"He has an apartment downtown."

"He couldn't keep people there," Prentiss shakes her head. "Jesse Thompson said he was kept in a cold, concrete room. Like a basement. He wasn't gagged, he screamed. People would've heard him."

"There's no other property in his name," Garcia informs them regretfully. But not a second later, she's typing once more. "But his mother...there's property in her name. But she died seven months ago. It's secluded and has a basement."

"That has to be it," Spencer is already climbing to his feet. He's thankful that the others are quick to follow.

"The death of his mother could be what set him off." Not caring about the reason why, Spencer is the first to rush out of the room.

"No, please," The plea comes with a whimpered cry. Thea tries to fight the man off but she can't even lift her arms. They feel like lead, her entire body is racked with shivers. The shakes just serve to cause the young woman more pain.

"Please, I don't want it," But the man doesn't listen. He continues as if he can't hear Thea's helpless pleas. He's tied the big rubber band around her upper arm. He carefully taps all the air out of the syringe before inserting it into the crook of Thea's elbow.

A sob escapes the girl as the man removes the tourniquet from her arm and stands back to his full height. He towers over her, watching closely through his mask as Thea's eyes roll back. He huffs before turning to leave. The heavy door clanks loudly when he closes it. The lock clicks shut ominously.

It's a long drive. Morgan can see Spencer's leg bouncing the whole time. He has no doubt that the young man is counting down the seconds in his head. Hotch almost didn't let him come but Derek knows, either way, Spencer would be there. There's nothing anyone could do to keep him away.

Derek feels another pang shoot through his heart. It's clear that Spencer loves this girl. But he never told anyone about her. Why? Did he think that they would judge her? For her past, because she was an addict? Morgan doesn't think Spencer has looked him in the eye once since he mentioned Thea possibly relapsing. He regrets it but they had to think about any possibility. Now he knows how wrong he was. Because if anything Spencer has said about Thea is true, she loves him just as much as he loves her.

If Thea isn't okay, Morgan doesn't know if Spencer ever will be again.

When they arrive, Morgan thinks he's going to have to hold Spencer back. But the younger man stops himself from rushing inside.

Hotch quickly splits them into teams and they take up their post at all entrances. Morgan looks to Rossi and the man nods once before they breach. Immediately, the building is cold. Much colder than the outside. Morgan keeps his gun up, his flashlight on to provide the light he needs to see.

He and Rossi clear the first room before making their way to the next. Rossi grabs the nob and, after getting into place, Morgan nods for him to open it. There's nothing on the other side except stairs.

Distant shouting across the building reaches both agents' ears. Morgan stops but keeps his gun and eyes up.

"We've got Jankins," Prentiss's voice sounds through his coms. "He's definitely our guy, Thea has to be here somewhere."

"We've got some stairs," Rossi relays the information to the rest of the team. "Going down now." When the older agent taps Morgan's shoulder, he continues down.

"Rossi," He says with a nod towards the only other door at the bottom of the stairs. There's an old padlock holding it shut. Morgan looks around the floor for anything to get it open. He sees an old pipe and, sure that Rossi has his back, holsters his gun.

Sliding the metal between the loop of the lock, Morgan yanks it down two times before it snaps and pops open. With his hand on his gun, he opens the door.

Guarded stance dropping, Morgan surges forward and falls to the floor beside the unconscious girl. He carefully pushes her hair away from her face and glances back at Rossi. The man is already radioing for an ambulance.

"Thea?" Morgan prompts gently. It's her, he'd seen her I.D photo before. Though she looks worse for wear. He assesses her condition quickly. A gash on her forehead. Needle marks on her arm, cuts, and bruises all over her exposed skin. She wears nothing but a tank top and her underwear. The shackle around her ankle has rubbed her skin raw. Sitting back, he removes his jacket before lying it over her.

Softly, Morgan runs his thumbs over the girl's cheeks. "Come on, sweetheart," He mumbles to her but she remains unresponsive. Sweet coats her skin. She has a fever and she shakes as if she's freezing, even in her unconscious state. He can feel her heart racing beneath his hands. "We need something to get this chain off."

"They're bringing bolt cutters," Rossi assures him. Right after, the sound of rushed footsteps reach their ears. Not a second later, Spencer appears.

Moving back, Morgan lets the younger man take his place. He watches Spencer gently take Thea's face into his hands before his eyes roam down her body. He sees the same damage Morgan had and his teeth clench in anger. He turns his gaze back to Thea's face.

"You're okay," He whispers to her. "You're going to be okay now. I'm here." Deeming it safe to do so, the young man lifts Thea's torso and leans her against his own chest.

"The medics are here," Morgan tells Spencer when they arrive. They get Thea out of the chain and get her loaded into the ambulance. Through all of it, Spencer never once leaves her side.

'-'