Two High IQ's Make One Great Romance

My pupils dilated and I felt my forehead break out in a sweat. Spencer was taken by a murderous madman who had already killed 4 young men, all nearly around Spencer's age. This man was deranged and severely scarred from an event that happened when he was young, and god only knows what he was capable of. He had kidnapped Spencer, and I wanted to vomit.

"How... how did he get him?" I asked, starting to work on the computer. Derek attempted to hold back his anger as he spoke.

"We went to the scene of the last murder, once again, and he took him while Reid was out back looking at the pool. He left a note, telling us he would wait to be found."

"We can find him." My hands were flying on the keys, taking in all the information I could about the suspect. It took everything I had not to choke out a sob, but Derek was watching, and I needed to be strong.

"Take it easy little girl, Garcia's searching too. You need to stay calm and be patient."
I nodded and leaned back in the chair, fingers ready at the keyboard.

"Ok. What do we need?"

"As of right now we need you to get into the GPS system in the unsubs car, if he has one. It's a black SUV and should have headed south."

"Is that it?"

"That's it, for now. Garcia is doing most of the work, just stay calm."

"Derek...." I said, not wanting him to leave the screen.

"Yeah, kid?" He said, his face softening to take in my terrified expression.

"Keep me busy, take my mind off of it."

"I'm sorry girlie, there's nothing to be done right now. Hotch is out chasing this guy. And everyone else is still working to get his profile."
I was quiet, but still looking at Derek through the computer screen.

"He told me he always makes it out alive. Don't make him a liar. Please don't let him die." My hands flew to my face as tears started to pour out heavily.

"Piper.. Piper." Derek repeated my name until I looked at him. "He'll be fine. Reid always gets out of these situations, nothings going to happen. We'll make sure he's safe. We'll get your boy back to you."

"Thanks." I switched off the screen and turned to the computer directly in front of me. I tried to hold back tears, but it was nearly impossible. The salt behind my eyelids burned my eyes as I thought back to the last few words Spencer had spoken to me before he left. "You think Morgan's going to let anything happen to me? No one on this team would let anything happen to anyone else. Relax. I'll be back in a few days."

Even thinking of those words didn't calm my nerves. Spencer had been kidnapped, and the only thing I could do to save him was work on this computer that suddenly seemed so useless. All of my efforts were useless, there was no GPS system that I could find in the area that matched the description. So I sat, terrified, staring at the screen.
Should I continue searching for something? Some sort of clue as to where this man had taken Spencer? Or should I wait for more orders? Should I call Hotch? Would he be too busy?

All of these thoughts were racing in my head, but one stood out more than anything. It was too early for Spencer to be taken from me.

While I was dabbing my eyes from tears, my computer screen fizzled and went black.

"What? What is this?" I said to myself. Someone approached me from the door and walked to my side. I turned quickly to see Penelope's boyfriend Kevin, standing next to me. My attention was brought back to my screen. My hand raced to my phone to dial Penelope.

"Mine too." She said before I could even ask if she was having computer problems.

"Is it the unsub? Could he get into both of our computers?" I asked, frantic. Kevin was now working with me to attempt to get the computers in working order. Every few seconds a flash of gray and white would run across the screen, but then it would return to black.

"I doubt it. The kind of technology and knowledge of our systems that it would take to get into our computers is nearly impossible. It would take someone on the inside." I could hear her fingers flying just as quickly across the keyboard. The distress in her voice was almost as apparent as mine.

"Kevin's here. Should I just reboot the system? Would that wipe out the memory?"

"Don't, it won't help. Keep trying the codes I gave you in case of an emergency."

"Ok, but I--" My voice was cut off by a loud static noise followed by a vision in front of me.

"Penelope..." I started, shakily.

"Here too babe." She said, answering my thoughts.
In front of us was a black and white scene, with a chair barely visible in the background. The wall behind it was brick, and a small door was visible on the opposite side of the chair. The camera shook back and forth momentarily until it settled finally.

"Penelope...." I said, starting to get increasingly more scared. My tears were brimming to the surface again. Kevin took a seat next to me, not sure of his next move.

"I don't know.... I don't know..." Penelope repeated. Neither one of us knew what to do. I heard Emily's voice in the background.

"Is that...? What is that?"

"Call Hotch! Tell him!" I screamed into Penelope's ear. She didn't speak, only dialed his number. He was on conference between Penelope, Emily, and I.

"What is it?"

"Am empty room with a chair. Nothings there." I said. At this point I didn't even try to exit from the video, I needed to see what was going to happen next.

"Is it Reid?"

"No ones in the room. It's empty."

"Try to trace the connection." Hotch ordered, causing both Penelope and I to work to get the connection.

"He's traced through tens of proxies, it's going to take at least an hour."

"Twenty minutes." Hotch said before hanging up. I had managed to minimize the video and get control back over the computers, leaving the scene in front of me in the bottom corner, constantly watching to see it anything changed while surveying the computer for some sort of information.

The scene changed, causing both Penelope and I to go stiff. I heard the silence from her end of the phone. A man dress in all black with his face covered shoved a person into the chair and handcuffed him to a metal bar on the wall behind him. It was Spencer. He was bleeding from his nose and had a bloody lip. I cried out quickly, but tried to retain myself.

"Breath, just breath." Penelope spoke to me. She tried to sound calm, for my sake, but her panic was not hidden well.

Spencer swayed back and forth for a little bit, not able to maintain his balance. His eyes were shut and I thought that he was probably not in his correct state of mind. It took everything I had in me not to run crying from the room. Kevin rubbed my shoulders comfortingly from behind me. I appreciated the gesture, but I couldn't handle being touched at the moment.

"He's going to kill him!" I shouted to Penelope. She remained silent, but dialed Hotch again.

"He's there. He's got him handcuffed to a wall. He doesn't look conscious."

"Keep working to break the codes. Do all you can to get more information. We're doing all we can here to profile this man, but there's still pieces missing." Hotch said, his voice never wavering.

"Hotch, please hurry. He doesn't look ok." My voice trembled.

"We're doing the best we can. Keep tracing the stream. If you get that, we'll be hundreds of steps ahead." Hotch hung up, obviously trying to get back to work.

The murderer came back into focus and I saw him wavering over Spencer, holding something large in his hands. The reception was fuzzy but I saw him poking Spencer with it, causing him to wake from his dream-like state and look up at the man.

"You don't scare me." He said with his head held high. The man hit him on the side of the head. My hand flew to my mouth as I held back the vomit quickly rising.
He walked away again to some area behind the camera.

"Why is he doing this?"

"I don't know baby. I don't know. Keep working. The quicker we get to him, the quicker we'll get Reid back to us."

I took Penelope's advice and started working harder than I ever had before. In a matter of minutes I was close to getting the area from which the feed was coming. I tapped my foot, waiting for the final seconds to load.
The screen went black again.

"Penelope!" I screamed in anger, hoping her screen had not done the same.

"It's ok, mines still working. Get the computer working again and then see what you can do from there. This guy is smart, he knows our systems, so we've got to try and work around him. We've got to work backwards. I know this is a lot, but clear your mind. Focus." She spoke so calmly, I wondered what was really going through her mind. Spencer had told me that he'd been kidnapped before, but to what extent? I never really knew.

How was I supposed to go about clearing my mind? Spencer, the person who meant the most to me since I'd come to Virginia, was about to lose his life due to some madman who knew nothing of the value of the human life.

I pulled everything I had remembered from dancing about how to clear my mind and focus.

"Hey Kevin, can you leave me alone for like two minutes? Come back after that?" I asked with a cracking voice.

Kevin looked at me from under his glasses with a confused expression. "Uh, yeah. Need anything?"

"No." I shook my head. He walked slowly towards the door and closed it quietly behind him. I rolled back in my chair to the middle of the room where I slipped off my shoes and stood. I bent over, stretching my legs and breathing deeply.

I stood up and stretched my arms towards the ceiling. My breathe was even and slow, letting the oxygen fill my lungs completely before exhaling. I remained standing for the next minute or two, just breathing, nothing on my mind. Once Kevin knocked on the door, I plopped down in my seat and rolled back towards my computer, leaving my shoes in the middle of the room. It was now up and running again, with the video in the bottom left hand corner. I couldn't bring myself to look at it.

"I brought you a bottle of water." Kevin handed it to me with cautious hands.

"Thanks." I grabbed it hungrily and took a few long gulps. It helped with my nerves.
I thought back to what Penelope had told me moments ago. We had to try to work around him, work backwards. I took a deep another few deep breaths and began working.

Penelope rang me moments later.

"You're on the right track. If we keep at this pace, it won't take any time at all. Can you handle it?" She asked. Her voice was on the verge of cracking.

"I think. Can you?"

"I hope. For Reid's sake, I hope so. Morgan is currently MIA, he's relatively certain he knows how to get answers out of someone close to the unsub."

"Ok."
We worked wordlessly for the next few minutes, both understanding how critical our work was now.

"I think I've got it." I said as an address popped up in front of me, revealing where the video feed was coming from. I dialed Derek immediately.

"112 Pearl Street. It's an area packed with factory warehouses."

"I'm two blocks away." He hung up. Penelope was silent, I wondered if she was still on the line.

"No!" She screamed. I jumped from my seat and was immediately reminded that Spencer was still on video in the corner of my screen. I saw the man dressed in back, pacing back and forth behind Spencer, who's head was slumped down. The room was so dim; it was difficult to see just where the man was walking.

His fist rose, lifting the blunt object above his head and preparing to come down with it towards Spencer's head. I quickly covered my eyes with my hands. There was no sound, but I felt the prick of tears coming to my eyes again. My stomach felt like it was collapsing in itself. I then heard a sudden blast, and I couldn't bare to open my eyes.

"FBI! Put the weapon down!" I heard Derek's voice yell from the computer. My fingers opened and I managed to peak at the screen, seeing the FBI surrounding the man. I sighed, knowing the most difficult part was over. Spencer was still slumped to the side, but I could see him attempt to regain some consciousness after hearing Derek's voice.

The police wrestled with the man, eventually having to shoot him after he attempted to crash the object over Spencer's head again. It the longest 10 seconds of my life, from start to finish, but I knew Spencer was alive now, so I managed a huge sigh of relief.

Penelope was speechless on the other line. We were silent as Derek untied Spencer and managed to get him to his feet. We couldn't hear the words spoken between them, but I assumed Derek was trying to get some sense back into Spencer. They walked out together, and the room was left with men assessing the scene.

"Is he..." I started.

"He'll be fine. Don't worry." Penelope said. "I know. I'm still worried too."

"I need to uh... go get some coffee." I said. Penelope sighed from her end.

"Why don't you just go home for the rest of the day? The case is done, if they need anything else, I'm here. You didn't need all this on your third week on the job. Hotch will understand if you go home."

I hesitated but then thought of the offer. "Are you sure he won't mind? I.. I feel like I should talk to Spencer." I said.

"I wouldn't bother if I was you, you won't be able to speak to him at least until he leaves the hospital. Just go home."

"Should I call Hotch, or the Director?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll take care of it."

I wanted to hug Penelope right then, I wished we weren't hours apart. My stomach relaxed when I thought about the comfort of my apartment.

"Thank you Penelope. Keep me updated if anything happens."

"Will do. Sleep well my dear." she clicked the phone off. Kevin had emptied the room shortly after Spencer left the screen, leaving me alone in my fragile state. I shut down all of the computers and for the first time noticed how cold and white my hands were. I took a small mirror out of my purse and looked at my face to see how flushed I was.

"Ugh.. what a fucking day." I cursed to myself. I barely ever swore.

I left the office, getting some stares from surrounding people. I shook my head to get a clear mind before turning my car on to drive home.

I walked in my door and headed straight for the bathroom where I started running a hot bath. I enjoyed the feeling of relaxation and I could finally somewhat come to terms with what had just happened. Spencer was almost killed, and I watched the entire thing on video. I wasn't sure how that was going to effect me later on, but I was sure it was.

I fell asleep that night, thinking of Spencer, and hoping he was ok.