Crazy

“Baby girl, please tell me you have something.” Morgan pleaded, pressing his forehead into his hands.

“Worry not my love, I do. I took the drawing that you gave the sketch artist and combined it with some of the blurry shots we got from our mystery lady around the club, using the sketch to sort of fill in the blanks.”

“And?” He asked, putting her on speaker so that the rest of the team could hear. It’d been almost three days now since Spencer went missing and they knew that time wasn’t their friend in a case like this.

“Well I ran her through all the facial recognition programs and found out that she is our girl the other three men left with. But other than that, she doesn’t exist.”

“Shit.” Morgan muttered, Spencer was at the mercy of a psycho and they didn’t even know who she was.

“But, fear not, I ran some aging software on the image and I got a hit. Her name is Annabelle Richie, she’s twenty-five and when she was Fifteen her father went missing, never to be seen again. She only went to school through fifth grade because the teachers started questioning her about the bruises she kept getting.”

“Fifteen...” Hotch said quietly “Garcia, who took her in after her father went missing?”

“Umm...” They could hear Garcia’s fingers clicking away on the keyboard. “Her step mother Maggie Smith, thirty-three.”

“She young enough to be her sister.” J.J. muttered.

“Was anyone arrested for the father’s disappearance?” Rossi asked.

“No, they looked at Maggie for a while, but she said she and Annie had gone to the park, Annie backed her up.”

“What else do you got for me?” Morgan pressed.

“That’s all I have right now, but I’ll keep digging.” She promised. Garcia’s end went dead as the team sat there.

“So, is it possible that the step-mother is using Annie as a decoy?”

“No.” Morgan said simply. “The way she walked right up to Reid? She knew what she was doing; I doubt the step-mother’s involved at all.” Hotch sighed as he pulled out his phone, looking at the photo Garcia had sent him of Maggie Smith. She looked completely harmless. Morgan was right, there was no way she was involved. “I’m thinking that the ten year anniversary of her father going missing, probably murdered by her, is what the stressor was.” Morgan continued.

“Well, let’s see if the sheriff knows anything.” Hotch said, not wanting the team to jump to any conclusions. He looked again at the photo of Maggie, and then scrolled down to the photo of fifteen year old Annie. She was stunning, even then. Spencer would have been drawn in like a moth to the flame. But there was something in her eyes, like she was hiding something from the world, that made Hotch wonder if this case wasn’t as simple as it appeared to be. He sighed, tucking his phone back into his pocket as he made his way over to the Sheriff.

“Spencer.” He said quietly. “You better stay alive.”



Spencer’s eyes slowly slipped open to see Annie sitting in front of him, checking some of his deeper cuts. He hissed in pain when she pressed a cotton ball to one particularly deep one. Her eyes flew up to his.

“Spencer.” She whispered. “I thought you might not wake up.” He had to admit from the amount of pain he was in he kind of wished he hadn’t. But Annie’s warm eyes made it all worth it as they looked over him with concern.

“Where’s Maggie?” He asked, not wanting a repeat of the nightmare he’d remembered before blacking out.

“She’s at the store.” Annie answered. “But she won’t hurt you anymore until these have started to heal.” Spencer swallowed nervously as Annie went back to work, pressing the cotton ball to his skin. “I’m so sorry.” She whispered.

“It’s fine, you have to clean them or they’ll get infected.”

“I’m not talking about that.” Annie said, looking back up at him. “I’m sorry I ever even came near you, you being here like this, it’s all my fault.”

“Annie.” Spencer said, she didn’t look at him. “Annie.” She looked away from the floor and into his soft brown eyes. “None of this is your fault, it’s hers, do you understand me?”

“But I’m the one who-”

“Because she forced you to. You don’t owe her anything. If you help me get us out of here I can let you see that. I can show you that everything isn't like this.” She just shook her head.

“This is all I’ve ever known.” She whispered. “What if it’s all I ever know?”

“There’s a beautiful world outside of this place.” He said. “Where people care about each other, they don’t ever hurt each other like this. This isn’t normal.”

“It is to me.” She whispered. It was true; to Annie someone smacking you was their way of trying to make you see sense because they loved you. She was just a stupid girl who was always being punished because she couldn’t do anything right, why couldn’t Spencer understand that? “Maggie loves me, I just can’t do anything right, that’s all.”

“Maggie does not love you.” Spencer said. “You don’t treat someone you love like she treats you.”

“How else would you treat them?” She asked with wide eyes. Spencer swallowed nervously before leaning forward, pressing his lips softly to Annie’s. She tasted like copper, which he instantly realized was blood; Maggie must have hit her. As he pulled back she just looked at him in shock.

“That’s how you treat someone you love.” He whispered. Both their heart started beating rapidly as they looked at each other. “And if you help me get us out of here I promise I’ll spend the rest of my life making sure you know what real love is like.” He couldn’t believe the words that were coming out of his mouth as he looked at her, this poor, beautiful girl. But he knew he meant every single one of them. Annie’s eyes teared up.

“Spencer...” She whispered. She pressed let her gaze fall to the carpet, realizing what she was about to do. Finally she looked back up, locking her eyes with his. “Okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Even though he tasted like blood and dirt, she couldn’t help herself from leaning towards Spencer and pressing their lips back together. He kissed her back desperately, both of them knowing that they could be caught by Maggie at any moment. But neither one of them could think about anything except how good the other one’s lips felt. Finally Annie pulled back. “So, what are we going to do?”



Morgan all but ripped his phone out of his pocket as it started ringing. “Talk to me Garcia.”

“I think I might have found out where Spencer is.”

“HOTCH!” Morgan hollered, ushering for the rest of the team to come in. He quickly put Garcia on speaker. “Tell us where he is baby girl.”

“Well, when Andrew Richie, Annie’s dad, went missing, Annie got everything. Which is probably the biggest reason Maggie fought endlessly to get custody from Annie’s grandparents, both of whom are now deceased.”

“And?”

“Well it turns out that Mr. Richie was actually loaded from an injury claim against the construction company he worked for. He has two houses and a cabin.”

“Which house would you be able to hide a person in for two weeks?” Hotch asked.

“That’s just it, all of them are isolated enough that you would never hear someone...” Garcia stopped, thinking of Spencer screaming out in agony. “You know.” She finally choked out.

“Where are they?” Morgan pressed.

“I’m sending the addresses to your phones... now.”

“Alright, Rossi and I will take the first house, J.J., you and the sheriff get the second, Morgan, I’m leaving you with the cabin. And everyone be careful, this is a very dangerous unsub we’re dealing with.” Hotch said. They all raced out to the cars. As Morgan slid in next to the SWAT captain he looked back at the sniper.

“Now listen to me.” Morgan said. “I don’t care what protocol you have to follow, but you get on top of the cabin, and if you get a clean shot, take it.”

“But-” Morgan didn’t have time for but. If this psycho tried to use Spencer as a human shield... He was not going to risk his friend getting shot.

“If you get the shot, take it, do you understand me?” He growled. The sniper nodded.

“Understood.”