Fisher King

Stephie

"I can't imagine what two weeks away from this place is gonna feel like," Elle throws a file down as we all finish up our final day at work before our vacation time begins. Spencer's been acting weird, I told him we should go somewhere and he kind of just blew me off. Later he confessed he's going back to Las Vegas, where he grew up, to visit his mom.

"I am not answering my cell phone." Derek holds his coffee in the air and Spencer walks into the room rather fast, like he's in a rush.

"Oh, there he is. Pretty-boy." Derek stands up and walks towards Spencers desk, which is next to mine. He pauses in between the words pretty boy and it makes me giggle.

"Last chance, I can get my man to swing you a hotel room for practically nothing, even you might get a little lovin out there." Derek teases him and I feel my body tense, Spencer shoots his eyes at me briefly and I just stare at the group in front of me.

Please don't notice.

"I have to go, I'm going home." Spencer practically talks to the ground as he grabs his bag and leaves the office, Elle and Derek both look at me.

"How I'd be if I were going home for two weeks," I shrug and Derek shakes his head.

"You know that's not what I was gonna ask, what is going on with you two?" He looks to Elle. "Did you see the way he looked at Stephie when I mentioned he just might get a little lovin?" Elle nods her head with a grin on her face.

"There is nothing going on Derek," I chuckle and he points at me with a smirk on his face.

"You dirty dog. I knew it."

I point back at him. "Me a dirty dog?" I scoff and glare at Derek.

"Whore, whore, whore. I chant three times in the mirror." I widen my eyes at Derek, then at Elle. "Then he appears behind me, Derek Morgan." Derek smacks the back of head lightly and tells me to mind my business.

"That was a good one," Elle is about in tears with how hard she is laughing.

"336 hours with my family, Hailey has a list of chores of for me to complete about a mile long and my biggest decision is which one I'm gonna do first." Hotch is super super smiley when he comes out of his office.

"I'll be lost in a vain in the woods for the next two weeks, do not call me for anything. Have a great time you all deserve a break!" Gideon is rushing out behind Hotch. Elle, Derek, and I look at each other and giggle like a bunch of kids.

"Seriously, don't- don't call." Gideon says again as he races out the office doors.

"Well that's my que," I stand up and grab my bag telling Elle and Derek to have a good time in Jamaica.

I walk out the doors calmly but basically race out once body can see me, Spencer's car is still sitting in the parking lot, we may not be spending our time off together, like at all, but he's still taking me home. His flight isn't for another 5 hours.

"Hi pretty boy," I mimic Derek from when he was teasing Spencer just ten minutes ago. I say it a little differently though, when I say it Spencer goes red.

"I wish you'd let me go with you." I sigh and Spencer forces a smile, he's acting werid.

"It'll be boring, plus aren't you using this time to go through your room and redo it?" I nod my head when he talks. I really do need to get that done, and these two weeks are going to be my time to go through everything and redecorate.

"When are you leaving for the airport?" I ask as we pull onto my street, Spencer looks at the clock in his car.

"About an hour, i'm heading to the airport right now." He gestures to the bags in the bag of the car.

I hum in response to let him know that I heard him. I am sort of bummed we won't see each other for two weeks but I get it.

"Call me when you land?" I get out of the car and walk over to Spencer's side, leaning into the window.

"I will," He smiles up at me and I lean in further for a kiss. When we pull apart I just stare at him.

"Call me everyday?" I slowly raise my shoulders and he laughs at me.

"I'll call when I can." He rolls his window up and doesn't pull out of the driveway until I'm inside my apartment. How sweet.

I stare at my bedroom door from my front door and sigh, this is the last thing I want to do, but it needs done. I tie back my hair and walk into the bedroom. I trash the place while going through all my clothes and when I look at my phone about five hours had passed and I had a missed call from Spencer. I'm calling it quits, I'll sleep on the couch. I grab my phone tell myself I'll call him back once I reach the couch.

I walk out to the living room and reach for the remote, turning on some random show to play in the background while I fall asleep. I pick up my phone right as I'm about to call Spencer back I hear a knock at my door. Who could be knocking at this time?

I sit up from the couch and walks to the door, peaking out the small window to see if anyone was there. I can't really tell but I open the door anyway. There's a small package sitting on my doorstep and I pick it up, carrying it inside.

"Hello new picture frame," I smile and set it on my counter top to open it. Weird time for it get delivered but oh well. However, there is no picture frame. The box is practically empty, just a piece of paper.

I pick it up and unfold it, unsure of what's going on.

SAVE HER.

That's what the note reads.

"What the fuck.." I mumble to myself and put there note back inside the box, I go back to my front door and lock it. I debate calling someone but I opt for not bothering anyone, it's vacation. It's probably nothing anyway.

My phone starts to ring, it's JJ.

"Hello?" I question and she sounds panicked.

"Hey, you need to get down here right now. Someone sent Gideon a head."

"What?" I shout in shock and reach for my keys across the table. "JJ, was the head male or female?" I ask staring at the box one last time.

"I don't know, what does it matter?" She must be walking around the office because she's breathing heavy.

"I just got a strange letter, I'll bring it in." I say before hanging up, I grab the letter out of the box and slip my shoes on before rushing out the door.

"Gideon, someone sent you a head?" I shout when I see Gideon walking into the office a few steps in front of me, he turns around quickly and waits for me to catch up.

"From Jamaica." He says as we begin to speed walk into the office.

"Wait what? Morgan and Elle are in Jamaica right now." I say and he pauses, JJ walks up to us.

"Speaking of, there was a murder, body with no head and Elle was just arrested for it. Hotch is heading down there, he should be there soon if not now." JJ explains and I look at Gideon with widen eyes as JJ rushes off behind us.

"Wait so Elle got arrested for murder, you got a head? Gideon, I got a letter." I pull the letter from my pocket and hand it to Gideon. He reads it aloud.

"What the hell is this?" He sighs and hands the letter back to me before rushing off. I feel like I'm spinning around in circles as I try to find my desk. I sit down and put the letter in front of me. Save her. Who is her? Her as in me? Her as in Elle?

"JJ?" I question as I watch her rush by holding a plaque of some sort, maybe a display box?

"I just a got a strange package.." She shows me the butterfly that's in a display case and I stand up and follow her to Gideons office. We knock on the door and wait for him to tell us to come in.

"Hey, um, I just got a really strange delivery." JJ says stepping closer to Gideon's desk and showing him the frame

"Strange as a head in the middle of the night?" Gideon doesn't even look up until JJ hands him the frame.

"That's a pale clouded yellow butterfly, they're indigenous to Europe." I didn't know JJ had some facts up her sleeve, she sounded like Spencer for a minute.

"She has been searched for yet never found." Gideon reads the words printed across the frame aloud for us to hear. He motions for my letter and I hand it over, he sets the frame in his desk and puts the letter beside it before pulling out his own envelope , it also says save her across it.

"What the hell is going on here?" He shakes his head and looks back down at everything. Looks like vacation is over.

Elle, Derek, and Hotch arrive back to the BAU hours later. I can only imagine how exhausted Elle and Morgan are. I guess Elle had been in an interrogation room all night long. Hotch tells us he received a call last night before Morgan called him, Gideon then tells us the head that got sent to his cabin matched the body that was in Jamaica. "We need to regroup." Hotch says as we all fill each other in on what we've missed.

"So, clearly we have a psychopath who has intent on drawing us into his game." Hotch points out the obvious as we gather at the round table.

"Playing with us," Gideon adds and Elle paces back and forth suggesting we return the favor. We should definitely call Spencer right? Why has nobody thought that up?

"He kept telling us repeatedly to save "her" what "her"?" Derek puts his hands together and leans against them.

"The items he sent must be some kind of clues, right?" I point out and Hotch tells me to get them on the board.

"I got a Nellie Fox baseball card from 1963 and a head in a box." Gideon says and I write it down on the board at the front of the room.

"I got a rare butterfly in a shadow box," JJ shrugs

"And repeated messages to save her." Hotch adds.

Elle keeps pacing around the room, "I got the decapitated body and a nice visit to the Jamaican police headquarters."

"Reid called from Nevada, he's on the way back here with a skeleton key and note he got too," Gideon says and as I write I turn to him.

"Reid called?" I scrunch my eyebrows in confusion, why did he not say this earlier?

"The guy who called me said the youngest one holds the key," Hotch interrupts and that's when I get even more confused.

"That's Reid," Elle points out and I shake my head

"No, I'm younger than Reid," I continued to write and Gideon nods.

"That's true, so why does Reid have the key?" He looks to Hotch.

Gideon and JJ both admit their gifts were personal to them, the baseball card, the butterfly. Everything else that was received held no significance with anyone else though.

"How did he know where we were? Our addresses?" I lean against the wall as Penelope walks in.

"He got that from the bureau computers, your locations are always in there so they can find you if they need you. I checked the log, the hacker was definitely in there. There's a lot of information in those databases." Penelope is not her normal happy go lucky self, I don't blame her. I still can't believe she got hacked in the first place.

Penelope admits that she knows how the hacker got in after Hotch questions her for a moment, she was playing an online game with the bureaus internet and somehow the hacker got through it and onto the computers.

"The hacker, his name is Giles, Frank Giles, he lives in Arlington, Virginia. Four miles from here." She hands Hotch some papers.

"Did she say Giles?" I look at Derek because that was a name that came up earlier, we all rush out to the cars and are swarming the apartment complex minutes later.

"Door!" I shout once we bust through the front door and are met with another one Derek and I go on either side and Elle comes up behind me.

"Frank Giles! FBI!" Derek shouts and we get no answer. We push the door open and are met with a sight we didn't expect to see.

"You gotta be kidding me," Elle says putting her gun away. Frank Giles is dead, a sword slicing right through his body.

"Hotch, Gideon. I think you're gonna want to see this.." Derek stares at the body as do I.

"Well this guy likes to write things in blood on walls." Elle says as we start to investigate the room.

"Here they quest doth truly begin," I read after listening to Elle trying to pronounce it.

"Why start phrasing things like this now?" Elle complains and Hotch steps closer now too.

"All the other messages were in modern English." He points out and I roll my eyes.

"I think there's a deeper meaning, let me think about this for a minute," I step back and lean onto the wall trying to figure out, if Spencer was here he'd have it cracked by now. My brain doesn't work as fast as his does though.

"Learn of what should next be done, leave the blade til the hour be none." Hotch reads aloud as everyone gathers around the sword. That's it.

"Midnight is 00:00 hours, would that be none?" Derek asks but Hotch tells him it can't be that because it wouldn't cast a shadow.

"3 PM." I say walking towards the blade and everyone looks at me, then they look behind me.

"I was about to say that," Spencer appears behind me and I give him a soft smile before turning back towards the team.

"Garcia, told me where to find you." He claims and Gideon repeats 3 PM waiting for someone to explain it.

"It's medieval," I say and then turn to Spencer because I'm sure he has something to add to that.

"The days use to be broken into hourly intervals. The canonical hours of the breviary. Prime 6 AM, terce 9 AM, sext 12 noon, none 3 PM, and vespers 6 PM." I was right.

"Reid, do not ever go away again." Elle points to him and I see him smile a little bit, he's so cute.

"Okay guys but it's 4:35 PM, what do we do? Leave the blade in until 3 PM tomorrow?" Derek questions and Spencer looks to the window.

"Not if we can block that window out," He turns towards the forensics girl and asks if she had spotlights in her car.

Minutes later Spencer is holding a flashlight to the sword and I'm following a shadow around the room.

"Okay now what?" I stare at Spencer and Hotch tells me to tap on the wall. So I do, I tap until it sounds hollow.

"Feels like the wallpapers been replaced," I turn to look at everyone.

"Tear it open," Hotch orders and I look around the room. Derek hands me his pocket knife and I rip into the wallpaper and start to pull it apart.

"There's a box," I reach for it after Hotch tells me to take it out, it looks very old.

"Wait," Spencer calls out and I pause to look at him. "Are we sure that's safe?" He looks to Hotch and Gideon.

"What you think it's bomb? You think he'd be playing this game just to blow us up?" Hotch's tone is stern, annoyed almost, then Derek says if the unsub wanted to blow us up he would have already done it, I pull the box out.

"It's locked," Derek says after I set down the box on a small table.

"The youngest holds the key," Gideon looks to me and Spencer.

"I'm not the youngest, but I have the key?" Spencer takes the key out of his pocket and walks over to the box, unlocking it.

"Creepy," I say when the music starts to play. We find a CD and a lock of hair behind the lid of the box and take it back to the BAU.

The video is creepy, it's a man with a raspy voice talking to us, explain how things work, then it shows a young girl trapped behind bars.

"The one rule is, only the members of your team may participate in the quest. Jason Gideon, Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, Spencer Reid, Stepheni Foster, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia. A quest must be completed in the proper way or it isn't a quest is it? That's it, one simple rule. Now, you will be receiving and item soon that will hold the final clue you'll need to finish the quest. You will find you will also need a book, which has inspired many adventure like mine. Believe me when I tell you I'm truly hope to see you all soon. It will mean a successful end to this adventure, for all of us." The video cuts out and ends, he doesn't speak with good grammar at all. It frustrates me.

"What do we do now?" Spencer sighs and Hotch tells us the lock of hair we found in the box is getting analyzed, hopefully we'll be able to figure out who the girl is.

"Let's get the clues up on the board, maybe we'll find something." Hotch orders and Gideon and I start to set up.

"Wait, we're gonna play this guys game?" Elle sounds pissed, I mean we're all pissed off here.

"Do we have a choice?" Spencer glares at her and Gideon suddenly leaves the room, Hotch tells us to keep working as he exits behind.

I sit down next to Spencer and put my head down. Underneath the table, his hand grabs my knee and squeezes it lightly. I sit up then move my arm down so my hand can grab his. Don't change expression.Hotch comes back in with a file and throws it on the table.

"He came to my door, gave this to Haley." Then he leaves again. I turn to look at Spencer, the unsub went right up to Haley?

"He went to Hotchs door?" Elle makes a face of disgust and I then I remember how I got my box.

"I think he came to my door too, the package was left on my doorstep. Nobody was in sight, I feel like if he would have sent someone else to do it i would have gotten some delivery guy like Gideon did." I say letting go of Spencer's hand and moving my hair to one side of my body.

Spencer takes the package and opens it, pulling out a big paper with numbers all over it. He hands it up on the board.

"My eyes are so heavy, I can barely see it." Elle rubs her eyes and backs away.

"I think it's a coded message if some sort," Spencer says half sitting, half leaning, on the table.

"Really genius?" I scoff and he makes a face at me like he's not in the mood for jokes. Good thing I'm not joking.

"The unsub said we needed a book didn't he?" Spencer asks and Derek answers repeating what the unsub said in the video earlier.

"It's a book code, each set of these numbers represents a particular word. For instance page 118c line 30, word 3. We need to figure out what the words are and fill in the blanks." Spencer backs up after getting close to the board.

"Yeah, but from what book?" I ask now being the only one still sitting in a chair.

"I don't know." Spencer continues to stare at the board.

JJ comes in say the hair belongs to Rebecca Bryant, a girl who's been missing for two years.

"Guys, how are we suppose to figure out which book this code is copied out of?" Derek hands me the picture of Rebecca and I sigh setting it down on the table.

"I have no idea," Spencer shakes his head and JJ picks the photo back up and hands it with the rest of the papers we have.

"He said we have everything needed to complete the quest.." Spencer is now standing up there alone as Derek, Elle, JJ, and I sit at the table and stare at the board.

"The answers gotta be up there somewhere." I say and Gideon comes in telling JJ to get some reporters up here asap before leaving the room again.

"For what?" She asks and he walks back in.

"Just say we need help on a new case." He leaves the room again and JJ exits too. Elle is almost passed out in her chair.

"How's it going in here?" Hotch asks as he walks in on Spencer staring at the butterfly once again.

"the answer to what book we need has to be in here." Spencer says and I shake my head.

"We sure as hell can't see it!" I shoot him a sarcastic smile and throw a paper down.

"Yet," Spencer glances up at me momentarily.

Hotch goes over to Elle who's sleeping on the sofa. "I'm sending you home, you need to get some rest." Hotch says shaking her and she tells him no.

"Elle, seriously we're not any closer than we were before. Get out of here, go home." Derek nods to her and I do the same.

"It's an order, let's go." Hotch says walking her out of the room.

"Guys I don't think I can do this much longer." I lean back in my chair and Spencer stands up. The sun should be coming up soon.

"Reid, how many books do you think are published in a year?" Hotch asks and Spencer answers with "thousands," we actually are going to be here forever.

"Great, all we have to do is find one." I groan, even if we can find the book we have to find the exact copy.

"Ever would it be night but always clear day to any man's sight." Spencer repeats the music box poem again.

"Spence," I lift my head up not even relaxing what I just called him in front of Derek and Hotch. "I can't listen to that poem anymore please."

"No, there's something familiar about it, I think I've heard it somewhere before."

"I thought you had a photographic memory?" Derek pipes up and I chuckle knowing Spencer is going to correct him.

"Eidetic memory, and that's primarily related to things I read. Like I said, this is something I think i've heard." He corrects Derek and Hotch looks at him weird

"And that leaves us?" Hotch leans back and Derek shakes his hand in his hands.

"Nowhere, that's where it leaves us." Derek complains, his head shaking in defeat. Gideon steps in after he speaks and I stand up.

"Who needs a refill?" I pick up my cup and Spencer hands me his, so does Derek. Great three cups to carry. I walk out of the room and head towards the coffee station. Everyone is getting plain black coffee and I'll bring sugar packets. I know Spencer likes sugar, not really sure how Derek likes his coffee.

I awkwardly carry the three cups back to the room and my fingers starts to cramp up."Where did everyone go?" I look at Spencer when I get back to the room and he's in there alone.

"Gideon sent Morgan somewhere and then he and Hotch left, told me if anyone could figure it out it would be us. JJ just came in and said Rebecca Bryant was adopted, she used to be a Garner?" He reaches for one of the coffee cups and I set the other two down on the table. I then sit on the edge closest to the board and grab Spencer's hand, pulling him towards me.

"I wish everything could pause for two seconds," He mumbles rubbing his temples, I nod in agreement with him. He looks stressed out. Like loosing years off his life stressed.

"This is impossible." He turns around and faces the board, picking up a marker. He's gotta be thinking of something.

"Well you picked up a marker, what is it genius?" I sip my coffee and looks at me mumbling things under his breath.

"Year, every year..." He points to one of the bags of evidence and I spin around on the table.

"The baseball card," I say picking it up and handing it to him.

"1963." He runs out of the room and I laugh watching him go down the hall, he looks ridiculous. He comes running back seconds later. I sh

"The book has to be published in 1963? Maybe?" He sets the card down and writes the year in the board.

"We need to speak to Garcia." I say standing up from the table and walking out of the room, Spencer following close behind me. When we reach her little office she's going on and on about the hacker and how she's going to get them.

"Sir Kneighf." Penelope grits and Spencer spells it out as if we can't read, he says it's just an odd spelling.

"Do you guys need something?" Penelope asks us and Spencer looks at me.

"Is there a database which lists all the books published in a specific year?" I ask and Penelope sort of shakes her head.

"Individual publishers have a list but I don't think there's anything like a master one." I sigh at her words

"Can you type something into a search engine for me?" Spencer asks and Penelope looks up at him.

"Never would it be night.." He starts to repay that poem again as she types, I can't help but roll my eyes, the amount of times i've heard this.

"Okay that's from a poke the parliament of-." Penelope tries to explains but Spencer cuts her off by shouting.

"Fowls! Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," He talks a million miles per millisecond. "Chaucer, my—my mom use to read that. It's widely considered as the first valentines poem." He looks to me and then walks away from the computers.

"Your mom read you valentines poems? Hello therapy." Penelope tilts her head and Spencer starts to mumble to himself. I can't help but giggle.

"K genius, let it out." I put my hand on his shoulder, I feel like I can hear the whining of his IQ.

"There was a contemporary British author named Fowles, John Fowles, will you type that into.." He points to the computer screen and Penelope starts to type it out.

"The collector, 1963." I point at the screen and Spencer and I look at each other.

"Baseball cards, skeleton keys, music boxes. These are things that are collected." He beams and Penelope pulls up the book cover.

"Spence," I whisper and he looks at the screen, the cover of the book Collector is a lock of hair, a pale yellow butterfly, and a skeleton key.

We rush out of the room and run I to Hotch and Gideon on the way back.

"We know what the book is, the collector by John Fowles," Spencer says to them and Hotch nods in approval.

"Agent Gideon, there's a call for you on line two, says it's extremely urgent." A woman comes out through the door next to us and Gideon asks for a name.

"Well, he calls himself the fisher king?" She looks at us and Spencer takes the note pad from her.

"This could be the unsub guys," He says and I look over his shoulder, the paper just has the name "Fisher King" written on it. For once my brain is working at Spencer Reid speed.

Anagram.

Sir Kneighf. Fisher King.

We explain the importance to Hotch and Gideon and then we head to the phone. The man on the other side of the line sounds just like the guy from the tape. He begins to talk about following the rules.

"Agent Greenaway did not have to die like that." I freeze and look to Spencer as the call ends.

"Gideon lets go." Hotch stands up then Gideon and he rush out of the building, Hotch dialing the agent who was suppose to be with Elle as they walk.

"Let me grab my laptop," Penelope says and Spencer and I head back to the room without her.

"This is too much for a vacation," I mumble sitting down at the table. Spencer comes up behind me and kisses the top of my head.

"I know, but we're gonna catch this guy Steph," He puts his hands on my shoulders and then quickly jumps away when we hear footsteps coming towards the door.

"Elle was shot, Hotch and Gideon are at the hospital with her now." Penelope says and I feel a put in my stomach as she entered the room with that information.

"Any word on how she's doing?" I fold my arms and she shakes her head no, Spencer reaches for a phone on the table and then dials a number. He then points to the board, i stand up and begin to take papers off.

"Mrs. Valez, i'm gonna read you a set of three numbers. The first is gonna be a page number, the second a line number on that page, and the this will be a word number in that line. Do you understand me?" Spencer asks and the woman on the phone answers yes. I pick up a marker and wait for Spencer's que.

"Alright, the first page is 222, line 23, word 16, what is that word?" He asks.

"The" Valez answers and I write it down. Oh we are so cracking this thing. After about twenty minutes we finally crack the message.

"The path to the end began at his start to find her first calm her long broken heart she sits in a window with secrets from her knight is it aventure that keeps him out of her sight." I read aloud stepping back to see the whole thing, Spencer steps closer and begins to mumble to himself again.

"Is it a puzzle?" Penelope turns to me and I shrug my shoulders.

"Riddle maybe?" I suggest, and Spencer starts to freak out.

"It's never night in Las Vegas." He says and I shoot him a puzzled look and he frantically reaches for the phone.

"I need to be connected to the field office closet to Las Vegas, Nevada immediately." Spencer says and Penelope and I look at each other, both of us equally confused.

"Hi, this is Dr. Spencer Reid, with the behavioral analysis unit at Quantico. Look, I need my mother picked up and brought to Virginia in protective custody as soon as possible." Spencer keeps stuttering over his words and I turn to look at Penelope. Why does his mom need to be here right now? What did he just put together?

"We're searching for an unsub who shot one of our agents today and I think he might know my mother, and i believe she may be in danger." He pauses and there's a moment of silence.

"She's at," He pauses again and it's making me nervous. "She's at the Bennington Sanitarium in Las Vegas, her name is Diana Reid, she's uh, a patient there.." His voice trails off.

Wow okay, I wasn't expecting that, my initial thought was a worker there. Patient? Didn't see that coming. Penelope and I look at each other and then wait for Spencer to get off the phone.

Penelope leaves the room and now it's just Spencer and I alone. I'm unsure if I should say something or pretend I wasn't listening.

"I should go wait for her," Spencer looks to the door and nod.

"You don't have to say anything, if you think you should you don't." I rub the back of his arm and then follow him out of the room and to our desks.

"I forgot she used to always read me this poem. It's funny, huh?" Spencer says flopping into his chair and i tilt my head towards him in slight confusion.

"Funny?" I repeat and he nods.

"I should have realized this sooner, nobody knows things like the fact that JJ collects butterflies except for me." He pauses and looks up at me, why does he know that? Chill out Stephie, now is not the time.

"People tell me their secrets all the time, think it's cause they know I don't have anyone to betray them to..except my mother. I-I tell her pretty much everything." He smiles at me and I smile back at him, sitting on the edge of his desk. It use to bother him but I don't think he minds it anymore.

"I don't think anyone would mind," I tell him, I mean really who would Spencer's mom tell?

"Do you know that I wrote her a letter every day?" He looks back down and I smile again.

"So that's what you do when you're at your desk at home, that's sweet Spence."

"It depends on why I write her, I write her letters so I won't feel so guilty about not visiting her." Silence falls quickly between us, I thought he just went to go see her?

"Did you know that schizophrenia is genetically passed?" Spencer looks up at me with his lips pressed in a forced fake smile. My body freezes. His mom is schizophrenic?

"Spencer.." I don't even know what to say, what do you say when the guy you're secretly dating tells you his mother is schizophrenic and that it's genetic passed down?

"It's fine, it's, it's just a fact.." He picks up his half full cup of coffee and stares at the clock. I walk over to my desk and sit down next to him. It's just a waiting game until Diana gets here.

Hours pass by until I notice Spencer by the coffee station, for the third time since sitting here. I walk over to him and he smiles briefly.

"Care to share?" I hold out my cup and he fills it for me, I thank him with a smile.

"That's why you're so skinny you know? Too much coffee."  A woman walks in with two agents behind her, Spencer's mom.

"Thanks a lot guys, I've got her." Spencer says to the two agents behind his mom and they leave the room. Spencer walks over to his mom and I stay put, not being able to hear the conversation drives me insane. Despite my urges to walk over and introduce myself, I stay put and drink my coffee. His mom looks pissed.

"Steph?" Spencer turns to me and I pretend like I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, he nods for me to follow along so I do, it feels awkward as we walk up the room again.

"This is where you work?" Diana looks around the room and Spencer shuts the door behind us.

"This is where we meet, uh, my desk you can see it," He points out the window. "It's right in the bullpen area."

"Tables round," Diana says and I scrunch my eyebrows, Spencer keeps messing with his hands.

"Just like I wrote you in my letters." She sounds very unenthusiastic. I wonder what it was like to raise a child genius, especially Spencer.

They continue to talk and I stop listening until Spencer's yells at Diana for taking evidence off the board. Yikes.

"Mom the unsub," Spencer changes his words. "The bad guy we're looking for knows things about my colleagues personal lives. Things that only you would know. Do you write about them in your journals?" Spencer asks and Diana looks around the room, she looks at me.

"My journals are none of the governments business!" Diana shouts and Spencer turns his head and then looks back his mother.

"I'm not the government mom," Spencer says calmly but Diana points out this does look like a government office, I mean she's not wrong.

"Mom, do you write about my colleagues personal lives?" Spencer asks again and Diana covers her face.

"Why did you bring me here Spencer?" She looks freaked out now, scared. Somehow Spencer is able to talk his mom into watching the tale to see if the man sounds familiar, i'm not really sure how he did it but he did.

"You do know him?" Spencer shuts the tale off as soon as we see his mother's expression.

"I'm sure it's, Randal Garner.." Diana looks up at her son.

"Randal Garner?" I look at spencer too and repeat his mom.

"He's a very emotionally disturbed man, he was with me at the hospital." Just like on que Penelope walks in saying she go to the bottom of the IP, the Fisher King is Randal Garner. When she says this I stand up from the chair and look at Spencer.

"That's Rebecca Bryant's biological father," I look at Penelope and Spencer pulls out his phone to call Hotch.

"He's on his way," He says sliding the phone back into his pocket.

"I can't believe she's real." Diana clings to her bag like she's been doing this whole time.

"What do you mean?" I look up at her and she shakes her head.

"Whenever he talked about Rebecca he never said she was his daughter. He said all his children died in the fire. He spoke of a Rebecca, more in the abstract, I really thought she was a metaphor not an actual human being, and ideal." Diana explains, I see where Spencer gets it from now.

"A grail, he thinks he's the fisher king." Spencer says as Derek and JJ enter the room.

"Randal Garner, our unsub." I look to them and Diana begins to talk again.

"He believes you're all modern day knights of the round table." Diana points at all of us and I try my best not to laugh at how she stares at Derek in particular. He points to her and looks at Soencer

"Uh, Derek Morgan, this is my mother Diana Reid." Spencer walks around and goes in between them.

"That's your mother?" Derek looks at her and then at Spencer.

"Ma'am it's a..it's a pleasure to meet you." Derek sounds unsure of what he should see, reasonably so. Hotch walks in and wastes no timing asking how close we are to finding this son of a bitch.

We catch Hotch up on everything we know, Diana pulls a letter out of her bag and interrupts us, Spencer tries to stop her but she swats at him. It's a picture of a house, with an address attached.

"Shiloh? That's only 10 miles from here." I say looking to Hotch.

"Okay. Let's go," He orders and I take the card from Diana and hang it up on the board.

"Heads up guys, it's open." Hotch says swinging the metal gates open, Derek follows in after then me, then Spencer. We storm through the house looking for anything we can find.

"Hotch," Derek pauses at I look around him at the table to see Elle's badge and gun. Derek picks it up and hands it to Hotch."Guys listen up. He wants us to know we're in the right place, so keep your eyes open."

We continue to move, slowly going through everyone room in the house, Spencer and I split up from the group and head towards the stairs.

"Did you see that?" I whisper when I watch a shadow creep by. Spencer nods his head and slowly walks up the stairs. I speak into my talkie letting everyone know someone is upstairs. Derek comes around the corner seconds later and asks where.

"We saw a shadow," I point up and Derek goes in front of us, calling out for Randal Garner. We all rush upstairs split across a hallway, a door sitting half open at the end.

Spencer leans out and then looks to Derek and I. "He's in there,"

"Alight, cover me. I'm gonna go in." Derek begins to move but Spencer stops him.

"Mr. Garner, my name is Spencer Reid. You were in the hospital with my mother." He begins to talk and I widen my eyes at him.

"Spencer!" I whisper shout at him, why the hell is being stupid? Hotch walks up behind Derek and I as Spencer continues to talk to this guy.

"All we wanna do is help Rebecca. Isn't that what you want too? That's why you sent us the puzzles? That's why you said you hoped you'd be seeing us soon?" Spencer questions Garner and then looks to the three of us standing across from him.

"Ask the question." Garner says from the room and I look at Hotch who's looking at Derek, who's looking at me.

"There is no magical question Mr Garner.." Spencer's voice trails off and he looks at us again.

"He believes if I ask him the right question it will heal all his wounds." Hotch stares right into Spencer soul asking him if he knows the question.

" I know what he wants. I'm gonna move to where he can see me." Spencer gestures to the door way and we all widen our eyes at him.

"Reid!" Hotch whisper shouts and I shake my head, he's gotta be loosing his damn mind.

"No, Reid!" Derek stares at him at Spencer tells the swat to fall back. Derek switches sides and continue to call out for Spencer, Spencer hands me his gun and I stare at him like he's stupid.

"Stay calm Mr. Garner," Spencer slowly approaches the door and anxiety fills up my body.

"Ask the question, Sir Percival." Garner demands again.

" I told you I'm not Percival. My name is Dr. Spencer Reid from the FBI. you were in the hospital with my mother, Diana?" Spencer questions him and he starts to get angry.

"If you want the grail you must ask,"

"She's not a grail! She's your daughter, her name is Rebecca." Spencer interrupts him.

"My daughters died in a fire, and my son, and my wife." He sounds distressed now, he's getting emotional.

"Rebecca lived." Spencer corrects him again and I look at Derek, he doesn't take his eyes off of the door though.

"No, your mother explained it all to me." Garner says and Spencer shakes his head, almost at the door now.

"My mother is a paranoid schizophrenic who'd forget to eat if she wasn't properly medicated and supervised." Derek turns his head at me and so does Hotch, I pretend I didn't know this and act surprised too.

"She made me realize none of it was real, i didn't loose Rebecca. she—she never existed in the first place." Spencer is at the door now, telling Garner Rebecca does exist and to at we're here to help her, he opens the door to the room and then I watch as his body stiffens.

"Uh, Hotch, Morgan, Steph, I think it would be better if you all waited down stairs.." Spencer says calmly, Hotch whispers what and I shake my head trying to see what Spencer sees, but it's no use.

"Go ahead and talk Reid, but we're not going anywhere." Derek says after Spencer claims that he and Mr. Garner are going to talk. We can no longer hear their conversation.

"He needs to get out of there," I mumble to Hotch.

"Run!" Spencer tells jumping out of the room as a blast takes off.

"He had a bomb?" I shout as Derek pats fire off of Spencer's leg. Hotch helps him up as we all rush out of the house, that's now on fire thanks to Dr. Dynamite.

"I told you to go downstairs!" Spencer shouts as me and Derek hound on him for not telling us about the bomb.

"Well, you didn't say bomb you left that part out!" Derek yells and Spencer starts telling us to stop as he freezes in place.

"What the hell do you mean stop? The house is on fire!" I look at him like he's fucking insane, because he is. Whatever smartness he had, it's long gone. After yelling at Spencer and Spencer mumbles to himself he declares that Rebecca is in the basement now we're all rushing down to the basement while the house catches on fire from top to bottom.

Spencer was right though because when we get to the basement, we met with the site of Rebecca Bryant chained up in a prison like cell.

"The key, the key, the youngest one holds the key. Tell me you have the key?" Derek snaps at Spencer and he starts digging in his pocket. Spencer pulls out the skeleton key and unlocks Rebecca's chains. We all run out of the house right before it's too late. Sometimes I wonder why I'm still working this job.

"Elle's out of surgery, she's going to be okay." JJ says when we all walk back into the BAU. There's a group sigh of relief. The group separates after a tan k you from Hotch and Penelope saying we couldn't have done it without Mrs. Reid.

"Look at you champ," I mess with his hair and Spencer smiles at me.

"I should go talk to my mom," He points to the room up the steps and I nod.

"I'll wait here." I smile and within 15 minutes Spencer returns to our desks.

"I'm going to ride home with her in the jet," Spencer picks his bag up and I nod my head, he grabs my hands and places what feels like keys in them. "Don't, don't crash my car." I look down at the keys and grin at him.

"No promises." I tease and he shakes his head.

"I'll see you tomorrow Steph," He places a quick kiss on my forehead. Today wasn't the day, but I know we slipped enough to get confronted about it sometime in the future.

"Bye," I bite the edge of my lip and smile at him. I  think maybe his key chain for his car needs updated?

————————-AN: 7800+ words 😨 Insane.

Anyway, happy Spence and Steph are ending very soon 😣 soak it up while it lasts!