It was futile for Delilah to even try to argue but it didn't mean it would stop her from trying. Marlene never showed up for her shift that morning and up until now, no one had realized that anything was wrong.

"There's no footage of her ever arriving for her shift," Penelope was on speaker for the whole team, including Delilah, to hear. "And neither of your Unsubs have been at the coffee shop since the one day Marlene talked about."

"So she was taken on her way to work," Rossi deduced and glanced at Delilah. "Is there a place she would've gone to before work?"

Delilah shook her head. "Her shift starts at 7 in the morning, there's not a lot of places here that are open that early."

"Is there anywhere she might have gone?" Hotch asked her again with a time implying for her to think about the answer carefully.

Delilah didn't have to. "I have lived here for six months, I've gotten to know the schedules pretty well. Nothing opens before 7, I swear."

"If they have her, they would need a private place to hold her," Emily guessed. "This town's kind of—"

"Nosy?" Delilah finished for her with a sour smile. "Yeah!"

"What are the spots that no one visits?" Spencer asked her. "The spots that everyone talks negatively about?"

Delilah shook her head. "I don't—there's just a, um, a foreclosure street. A full street of houses that no one wants to buy because it's in the bad part of the neighborhood. That's all I can think of, honestly."

"We'll start there," Hotch decided and was quick to split his team up. Just as Delilah opened her mouth to say something, he told her she was going directly to the hotel.

"I have to go see her!" Delilah had kicked and thrashed all the way to the hotel. Despite her petite figure, she had decent strength.

"You can't do that," JJ, bless her heart, had kept her patience despite the rocky drive to the hotel. Delilah was pacing back and forth in the living room. "It would be dangerous—"

"I know but believe me when I say that I know how to take care of myself. This whole Witness Protection thing—it was done for my family. If I disappeared, then they would come after me and not them."

A saddened expression marked JJ's face and before she knew it, she was asking a question that she shouldn't be. "When you say 'family', is that...does that mean a family of your own?" JJ knew that even though she had no family of her own, she couldn't imagine having to leave them behind.

Delilah stopped pacing to meet JJ's gaze. "No, no, nothing like that. I said I had nearly dated, right?"

JJ realized that and immediately felt even more unprofessional for ever asking the question. "I'm so sorry—"

Delilah waved her off. "It's fine, don't worry."

"Why don't you tell me about them? Your family," JJ suggested. It was a distraction tactic to keep Delilah from trying to storm out of the hotel altogether. "No names, nothing specific, just...talk about them."

Delilah turned her head at JJ, momentarily hesitant about the idea. "I...haven't really talked about them since I left. I mean...at first it was too hard being away from them so I kind of buried them deep in my mind."

"Of course," JJ nodded. It was a sensible thing to do in order to avoid unnecessary pain.

Delilah slowly came to the other side of the coffee table and sat down over her knees. "I, um, I had my Mom and my Dad and two brothers—well, I have a step-brother. I'm the baby of the family."

JJ smiled. "And the only girl?"

Delilah nodded and shared that same smile. "Yeah. Mom and Dad said there was no need for another girl—I'm the princess." She suddenly missed nagging her parents that it was flatout embarrassing when they used that nickname in public. She wasn't a five year old, after all.

"And you mentioned that you were from D.C?"

Delilah shrugged. "Well, I've lived there for most of my life but both of my parents are from Mexico. All my family's over there. I miss them, I miss my parents," she added in the last moment. "I miss my brothers too. However annoying they were—are—I really miss them."

Things fell silent after that. JJ wasn't sure to leave things as they were since Delilah had calmed after their small conversation. She didn't want to risk poking at the wrong thing and suddenly having to fight Delilah to stay in the room. Eventually, Delilah had grabbed her journal and taken to writing into it without making a peep.

She only looked up when JJ answered a call. While the blonde kept it relatively quiet, Delilah deduced that the search for Marlene hadn't led to anything. When JJ ended the call, she turned to face Delilah.

Delilah looked down at her journal. She was midway through the page. "Don't…" She left the journal on the table and quietly walked into her room.

JJ sighed but didn't make an attempt to coax Delilah out of the room. Once again, it was better this way to avoid confrontations. One hour later, she had back up arriving.

"All the spots were completely empty," Hotch was discussing with JJ while the other agents listened. "We need more information from her."

"I agree but I don't think you'll get anything out of her anymore," JJ made a gesture to locked door on the side. "She hasn't come out. The only reason I haven't checked in is because I know there's no way out of that room except through that door."

"Maybe there's another clue in the message they left," Spencer thought, though it was unclear if he was talking to himself or the others. He stood a bit to the side from the group and happened to notice Delilah's journal on the coffee table. "The message was left for Delilah, not for us. Everything has been about her from the beginning. Maybe there's something else."

"If that's the case then maybe you should try to get her out of there," Morgan's suggestion would've been more believable if he hadn't smirked towards the end.

Before anything, Spencer glared at Emily. She just had to say something about that and of course it had to be to Morgan. He would never hear the end of it. "I think that Emily made a phenomenal rapport with her," he said with a clear, tight smile. "Or JJ. You've had hours with her, I'm sure there was something you discussed."

JJ couldn't be more lost with the rejection. "It was just a tactic I used to avoid trouble," she reasoned, though a part of her did feel a bit guilty about it. "We talked about her family."

"Spencer, you got ideas?" Hotch asked the young man, his tone implying he was about to make a final decision no one would argue with.

And because the stakes were so high, Spencer wouldn't lie. He nodded. "The candy," he said quietly.

"What about it?" asked Rossi.

"They were tailored specifically to Delilah. They weren't random chocolate bars you buy at a regular store—they were her favorite and tied to her ethnic culture."

Hotch nodded, his decision made. "Get her out of there."

Spencer pursed his lips together. There was no arguing to be done. He turned on his feet and headed for the room, hearing the last bits of instructions Hotch was giving to the rest of the team. Emily would be staying in the room — she had built a nice rapport with Delilah — and the others would be returning to the precinct to gather up all the detectives at hand. They had to search for Marlene and fast.

"Delilah, we really need you to come out," Spencer knocked endlessly against her bedroom door. It had been at least an hour of this with no results.

"Why? It's not like you'll let me do anything," came Delilah's sour response.

Spencer exchanged looks with Emily right beside him. She bobbed her head. "She's not wrong," she said quietly.

"Thanks," Spencer sarcastically said before continuing with Delilah. "Above everything, this is your friend we're talking about. You've done everything you can to make sure that no one else gets hurt. If you stay in there, Marlene is in a lot more trouble. I doubt that's what you want."

There was silence for minutes, so many that Emily was about to try her had when the door suddenly opened. Delilah's straight face was something to fear if you were on the wrong end of it.

"Do you really think we have a chance at finding her?" she made the question with a hard tone.

"I think so," Spencer answered her and pulled out the chocolate marshmallow lollipop from his messenger bag and held it out to her. Emily eyed the strange sweet with a matching face, but Delilah smiled at it. She took it into her hand and turned it over.

"You think so?"

"I think there's another message that we didn't look at," Spencer told her and gestured for her to follow them back into the living room.

Delilah sighed but did follow. "What do you think it is?"

"I don't know but I do know that it's within the candy. They're yourfavorite sweets."

"I don't suppose you have the cotton candy—" Delilah stopped asking midway when Spencer pulled out the bright pink cotton candy from his bag as well. "Ah," she took it from him and looked from one to the other. "I'm curious to know what else you carry in there. Narnia, perhaps?"

Spencer took it with a small smile. If she was making statements like those then she was willing to keep helping.

"Okay," Delilah took in a deep breath before the second round of puzzles began. "These are my favorites…" she started with a simple review, something to encourage her. "Because I'm Dulce...I'm…" her eyes flickered to Emily for a moment, giving the agent no indication as to why, "I'm Dulce…"

"Think about where you would find these sweets," Spencer suggested. She had taking to pacing again, mumbling to herself about things that made no sense to him nor Emily. "Are they common?"

"Well yeah, cotton candy?" Delilah scoffed. "It's everywhere. Everyone loves it."

"What about the lollipop?" asked Emily. "I haven't seen those."

"Then you don't know what you're missing," Delilah said first and chuckled. "They're delicious. They're the things I always went to the dulcerias for—" she stopped walking suddenly.

There was the glint of realization that Spencer saw the last time. He couldn't get over it — it was an actual glint!

Delilah turned to the two agents with a growing smile on her face. "These things are sold primarily in Mexican grocery stores."

"Are there any nearby?" Spencer asked despite already knowing the answer. The beam on Delilah's face was answer enough.

"There's only 2 Mexican dulcerias in this neighborhood. They're the only ones who sell these things!"

"And you're sure there's only 2 of those stores?"

"Aha!"

"There you go! You figured it out!"

Delilah was absolutely beaming with happiness. "Oh my God, I did!" Spencer and Emily were just as happy as she was. In her moment, Delilah took Emily into a hug. "We can find Marlene with this!"

As happy as she was — and she really was — Spencer halted her when he became next on the hug list. "There's a lot of pathogens when a hug happens, handshakes too."

Delilah was dumbfounded and briefly glanced at Emily. The agent shrugged apologetically but Delilah didn't seem to mind. She was quick to offer an alternative. "Air high five!" she announced and laughed when Spencer awkwardly raised his hand. He did smile in the end, appreciating her easy demeanor about his "quirk".

"We should call Penelope to figure out which store is closed," Emily said, barely hiding her bemused smile.

"Oh no need!" Delilah surprised them both. "Turns out my neighbor here is family of the owner. I can just ask them!"

"Seriously?" Emily couldn't believe their luck.

"Mhm" Delilah nodded. "Your agents fell asleep midway and I sort of needed a favor from them. It won't take long, be right back!" She dashed out of the room without waiting for a response.

"Well at least we got somewhere," Emily set her hands on her hips. Of course seconds later, she swayed her head in Spencer's direction. "Nice work."

"Funny, I thought I was working with Emily, not Morgan," he huffed. It felt like Emily was working it more than Morgan by this point. "I cannot believe you went ahead and told Morgan!"

Emily couldn't even try to lie about it with her widened smile threatening to turn into a laugh. "I couldn't help it—"

"Yes, yes you could have," Spencer muttered. "Because now he won't let it go! And apparently, neither will you!"

Emily laughed. "It's just cute!"

"Please, stop." Spencer glanced at the door in hopes that Delilah would come back any moment to end this mess.

"I'm just saying that it's nice to see you get along with someone outside of the team."

"Oh, so you assume that I don't get along with anyone else?" He wouldn't admit that it was perhaps the situation. Why wasn't Delilah coming back already?

"I didn't. But you gotta admit…" Emily nudged Spencer on the side. When he looked at her, she was smirking. "She's kind of cute."

Spencer stared at her and said nothing. Emily assumed there would be at least some bickering but in the end, Spencer turned for the door. "Oh, Spencer!"

"Delilah's been gone for too long," he said. It wasn't an excuse either, she really had been gone for too long. Emily followed him out and the first thing they saw was Delilah's new cellphone on the carpeted floor.

"Oh no," Emily sighed. She picked up the phone and looked around. Delilah was long gone from their floor. "We can't track her if she doesn't have this!"

"Call Hotch and Penelope!" Spencer bolted for the elevator. "Delilah knew straightaway what candy store was open from the beginning! She has a head start!"

"Where are you going?" Emily called after him, already on her phone making the calls.

"Security cameras might tell us if she took a cab or something! At the very least in what direction she went!"

Delilah had left them without so much of a clue beforehand. How the hell had she managed to do that? She was so happy before — she'd fooled them. If the situation hadn't been so terrible, Spencer would've been slightly impressed. Only slightly.

A/N:

Yes, yes, Aitana is a sneaky girl and this won't be the last time she shows it ;)

P.S. As always, I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"

For the review:

bookish-rebel: They really could do with being bigger. I eat at least two of them in one go xD