Everything Has Changed

Warnings: kidnapping, angst

Summary: Your life hangs in the balance when it takes a dangerous turn. People are after the Princess of Yacleira, and they'll do whatever possible to make sure they get what they want. Ben is called down to America to help out in any way that he can. After all, you're still his Princess and he still has a duty to uphold.

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Spencer walks into work the next day with his head hung low and a frown on his face. He didn't even stop to get coffee which is shocking since he always has a craving for the sugary substance. Penelope and Derek walk out of the break room together and see how sad Spencer looks.

"Hey, you didn't come back yesterday. How did it go?" she asks.

"She denied it all. I don't know if I can be with someone who isn't truthful."

Penelope must have told Derek what happened because of what Derek says next.

"All you do is talk about this girl, man. I know how much you like her."

Spencer can only shrug.

"Maybe there is a reason why she's being so cagey. Maybe she's scared of something."

Spencer feels bad for not giving you time to explain yourself. It just came as a shock when he found out the girl he really likes isn't the girl he likes at all. You're someone different from a world he knows nothing about. He isn't stupid. He saw the look of panic on your face when he showed you the articles. You're scared but he mistook it as being guilty. Maybe you were but he shouldn't have reacted that way.

"I'll go back to her place later and talk to her. Right now, we have a case."

Spencer forces you to the back of his mind so he can focus on his job. You don't know what happened after you fell asleep in Don's car but you have a feeling of dread that something isn't right. You open your eyes and roll your head to the right since you're still kind of out of it. The first thing you notice is a woman sitting behind a computer typing furiously. She hasn't noticed you yet so you scan the rest of the room in curiosity.

There is a younger man with a boy-band haircut standing over a collection of knives. He grabs one of them and twirls the blade in his hands as if he's trying to get used to the weight of it. Sitting on the couch to the left are two men relaxing–one of them has his arms draped over the back of the couch and the other has his right leg crossed over his left. You blink furiously to get your vision to focus because you recognize one of the men sitting on the couch.

"Jacob?"

All three men and the woman look in your direction when they hear your name.

"Ah, look who's awake," Jacob grins.

"What is going on?"

Panic sets in and you look down to see yourself tied to a chair in the middle of the room. You yank on your restraints but whoever tied you down did a good job in making sure you won't go anywhere.

"Struggling is only going to make it worse."

"What is going on?" you ask again, this time more sternly. It doesn't take a genius to realize you've been kidnapped. Where is Don? The last thing you remember is being in a car with Don. Yes, you were escaping. Oh, Spencer, I messed up. "Please, whatever you think I have, I don't so you may as well just let me go."

The front door into the house opens and you see someone you trusted walk in. Don heaves a black duffel bag onto the coffee table and points to the man who has his leg crossed over the other. He doesn't say a word as he grabs the bag and opens it. Don hasn't taken his eyes off you the whole time, not even as he approaches you. He grabs the armrests of your chair and leans down closer to you, and you crane your neck back to put some distance between you two.

"Don?"

"You're going to make us a pretty penny." He sees the look in your eyes. "God, you're so trusting sometimes. You didn't even bother checking to make sure I was Don."

"What?" you whisper.

"My name is James and your mother and father would pay a great amount of money to get their daughter back, the Princess of Yacleira."

You look around the room and see pictures of you as a barista and as a princess all over their wall. How could you not see James for who he really was? Mr. Boy-Band looks at you from the kitchen with a slight grin as he continues to twirl the knife in his hands.

"Are you going to hurt me?" you ask, looking at him with unshed tears in your eyes.

"Not if you behave. I'm not one for torture but Ryder is," you look at Mr. Boy-Band who slams the sharp end of the knife into a cutting board, "and he won't be gentle about it. Jacob and Kellen," you look at the two men on the couch, "thrive on psychological torture. Macy," you look at the woman behind the computer, "will go after the ones you love. You have no power here."

"You won't get away with this," you glare.

"Oh, princess, we've been getting away with it before you stepped foot in this country." He takes out a small digital camera from his pocket and aims it at you. "Say cheese, princess."

He takes your picture knowing how scared and vulnerable you look. Please don't hurt Spencer. Anyone but him. When Spencer got his lunch break, he headed over to your house to try and salvage whatever was left of your relationship. He tried calling you before he left but it wasn't a surprise that you didn't answer. He knocks on your door and waits but after five minutes of waiting, he frowns.

"Who are you?"

Spencer turns to see an older muscular man standing on the sidewalk in front of your house.

"Spencer Reid. Who are you?" Spencer asks.

"My name is Benjamin and I'm trying to find Don Stockwell."

"Yeah, he lives here with a young girl. I'm trying to get ahold of her but she isn't answering. No one is answering the door which is a little concerning."

"What do you mean?"

"I found out something about her and I didn't take it well. That was yesterday, and I was coming over here to apologize but she isn't answering."

Benjamin steps up to the door and takes out a key that he uses to get inside. Benjamin goes into protective mode and searches the place from top to bottom while Spencer stays by the front door, unsure of what to do. He doesn't want to snoop but he also doesn't want to leave. Ben seems like he knows Don well enough to do this, and Spencer has too many questions to want to leave right now.

"Where did they go?" Ben asks.

"I don't know." Ben approaches the basement door that is locked with a padlock. He takes out small bolt cutters and removes the padlock by force. "Do you always keep bolt cutters on you?"

"Stay up here."

Benjamin walks down the stairs into the basement, glad that Spencer can at least follow directions. The basement is like any other with boxes and other junk piled up in different corners. However, there is a large ice chest by the far wall that's plugged in. He walks over to it and opens the top, his heart dropping at the sight of his good friend stuffed inside with a bullet hole in his head. Don is dead and from the looks of it, he's been dead for a while, possibly before you came to America. He closes the ice chest and walks back upstairs where Spencer is still waiting.

"What's wrong?"

"What makes you think something is wrong?"

"I'm an FBI profiler. Don't lie to me."

"I can't talk about it," Ben sighs.

Ben moves around Spencer to leave the apartment but Spencer's words stop him.

"Does this have something to do with Yacleira?"

"What did you say?"

"I know Y/N is a princess. Of Yacleira, right?"

"How do you know that?"

"Like I said, I'm in the FBI."

Ben decides to take this leap of faith and trust Spencer because help from him is better than no help at all. He and Spencer walk to the kitchen table and sit down so they can talk.

"My name is Benjamin and I am the sole bodyguard of Princess Y/N."

"Bodyguard? You let her leave Yacleira alone?"

"Listen, kid, she was miserable over there. She is at that age where she needs to marry, and her parents arranged for her to marry Prince Henry of Vosharia. You should have seen the tears in her eyes every time she had to do something wedding-related. I saved her from something far worse, trust me."

Spencer didn't know this ran so deep.

"What happened next?"

"I had this friend, Don Stockwell. We used to be in the Navy together. I got in contact with him and he offered to look after her, to give her a normal life. I needed to be as far away from this as possible but I thought she'd be safe here."

"You said had. Don's alive, isn't he?"

"No. His body is downstairs in the basement stuffed into an ice chest. Whoever she's been staying with isn't Don."

"I shouldn't have left yesterday," Spencer sighs in guilt.

"How do you know her?"

"We met in the coffee shop. She worked there. She's amazing and I fell for her immediately."

"Do you love her?"

"I don't know," Spencer mumbles. "I shouldn't have left yesterday."

"It wasn't your fault. It's mine. I'm the one who let her go without checking to make sure Don was okay."

"Does her parents know?"

"That I was involved? No. They sent me here because of a photo of you two leaving a restaurant."

"Yeah," Spencer sighs. "I didn't know why she was panicking all night. I thought she was nervous."

"I need to know who she is staying with. Can you help me with that?"

"Yeah." Spencer checks the time on his watch. "I gotta head back anyway."

"What are you going to do about the dead body in the basement?"

"I'll call it in."

Spencer does on his way back to the BAU with Benjamin following closely behind. JJ hasn't presented a new case so Spencer hopes they can focus on this one until you're back in your own bed safe and sound. Her own bed back in Yacleira where she belongs. Spencer casts his eyes down as he tries not to think of what you two will mean after they find you. He gathers everyone in the briefing room and explains what is going on.

"So, she's really royalty?" Penelope asks.

"Yes, and she is the only heir to the throne, so I'd like to find her sooner rather than later."

"Prentiss, take JJ with you to the Coffee Shop and ask around about her. Someone might have seen something," Hotch says, and both women leave. "Garcia, I need everything you can on Don Stockwell."

"Don is dead inside the house. He most likely died before she even stepped foot into this country."

"I know, but something in his history might tell us something about the man she's been staying with."

"You've met him, right?" Ben asks Spencer who nods. "Is there anything you can tell me about him?"

"He has a huge scar running across his face. His hair covered some of it but I noticed it."

"Fuck," Benjamin curses. "Pardon my French."

"Do you know this man?" Rossi asks.

"Yeah, I'm the one who gave him the damn scar. His name is James Volkov and he's been after the princess for quite some time now, even in Yacleira. He attempted to overthrow the throne a couple of years ago, but the farthest he got was the front door. She never even saw him or knew he was after her. Her mother and father forbid me to mention it to her."

"Let's see what kind of dirty stuff James has in his closet," Penelope says, typing on her laptop. "Not much is known about him except he was born in raised in Russia. Went to prison in Russia. Fled Russia. He's been hiding in the States on and off for the past ten years."

"Yeah, he owes a lot of people money and he thinks by overthrowing the Richmonds, he'll get the money to finally be free. He knows damn well if he steps foot in Russia, he'd get arrested no matter how much money he has."

"Can you track him?" Hotch asks Penelope.

"That's easier said than done. He's only ever used burner phones, he used a car he paid for with cash, rented monthly with Don's name, and avoided all cameras that I can see. I only have him in view of a camera when he went to see Y/N at the Coffee Shop, and their house isn't in the way of any cameras."

"What about her phone? She must have had it with her when she went missing, right?"

"If he was desperate enough, he might still have it with him," Rossi says.

Penelope types into her laptop and pulls up the signal from your phone.

"It's pinging off three cell towers. It's going to take a hot minute to track it."

Ben takes out his phone and calls Kylen to report his findings. He doesn't have to wait long knowing Kylen is eager for some news.

"We got something here. James Volkov–"

"That bastard?"

"What is it, Kylen?" Benjamin hears Calliope on the other side, her voice faint.

"He fled to America and posed as someone Y/N trusted. He's been taking care of her but kidnapped her. We're trying to locate both of them right now."

Kylen covers the phone with his hand and relays the news to the King and Queen. Even with the speaker covered, Benjamin can hear Calliope cry for her daughter. Benjamin waits five seconds, then ten, then twenty. Something is happening over there or else Kylen would have torn Benjamin a new one for sending her here. It won't take a genius to figure out his involvement.

"What is it?" Ben asks.

"We got something. An email."

"An email?" Hotch and Rossi look at Ben who then places Kylen on speakerphone. "What did the email say?"

"A ransom note for Y/N's safety, demanding one hundred million American dollars."

"How do we know they actually have her?"

"It's better for you if you see for yourself." Kylen sends over the email that Benjamin looks over. His blood runs cold when he sees a picture of you tied and gagged with tears running down your cheeks. "If they don't comply in twenty-four hours, they'll remove a limb for each hour past it."

"Kylen–"

"The King and Queen are heading down there right now to deal with this directly. You better have a good story as to why Don Stockwell was supposed to be the person she was to meet, and why you two were Navy buddies."

Kylen hangs up without waiting to hear what Benjamin says. He taps the end of his phone on the table in thought and Penelope's laptop pings.

"I got her phone's last known location." Penelope puts the map on the big screen so everyone can see it. "It's at a gas station on the edge of town."

"I'm not surprised he ditched it," Ben grumbles.

JJ and Emily come back from the Coffee Shop with a notepad in Em's hands.

"So, there is nothing on James or Don, but we did get someone that visited her a few times during her employment. They didn't get the name of the man, but the manager, Cindy, was able to provide a description. We looked back on the cameras and we told her to send it to you," JJ says to Pen.

Penelope pulls up the cameras and clicks into the video file that was sent over to her. As clear as day, the man who visited you is on camera. Benjamin shakes his head, having not recognized the man.

"I don't know who that is. I've never seen him before."

"Should I release this to the press?" JJ asks.

"Wouldn't that pressure them to hurt Y/N?" Benjamin asks.

He might not have been with you for a few months, but he is still your bodyguard. He still cares for you.

"He might be right," Rossi says.

"No, not yet. Not until we have more information," Hotch says to her.

Ben resumes tapping his phone on the table. He should have never let you leave Yacleira. At the very least, he should have checked to make sure Don was doing okay. He wanted to give you as normal life as possible which meant cutting you off from Yacleira and its people as much as he could. On the other hand, Spencer feels guilty for leaving you yesterday. He should have given you a chance to explain.

Maybe then your life wouldn't be hanging in the balance.